diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:07:21 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-14 20:07:21 -0700 |
| commit | 10d923c4b685573eb28ed101ff6be8de10e6a277 (patch) | |
| tree | 3959a84ebafa8011404ca2528840e29213b88e06 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37171-0.txt | 4191 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 37171-h/37171-h.htm | 4294 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171-8.txt | 4581 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 99859 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 102283 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171-h/37171-h.htm | 4701 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171.txt | 4581 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/37171.zip | bin | 0 -> 99828 bytes |
11 files changed, 22364 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/37171-0.txt b/37171-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5655d64 --- /dev/null +++ b/37171-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4191 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37171 *** + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + +A Romance of Real Life. + +IN TWO VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT + CHAPTER II. HARLEY STREET + CHAPTER III. BEFORE THE BLOW + CHAPTER IV. LOST + CHAPTER V. THE STONE GARDEN + CHAPTER VI. THE SEARCH + CHAPTER VII. WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART + CHAPTER VIII. THE PROCESSION + CHAPTER IX. AMONG FRIENDS + CHAPTER X. A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO + CHAPTER XI. THE BANK-NOTES + CHAPTER XII. A BENEVOLENT STRANGER + CHAPTER XIII. BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS + CHAPTER XIV. THE FALSE SCENT + CHAPTER XV. "LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD" + CHAPTER XVI. TAKING THE SEALS OFF + CHAPTER XVII. THE FAIRY'S WAND + CHAPTER XVIII. FOUND + CHAPTER XIX. L'ENVOI + + + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT. + + +Notwithstanding the baronet's polite invitation, and although Mr. Long +did not return, as expected, upon the ensuing morning, I felt no +inclination to exchange my solitude for the society of Mr. Gilmore at +bowls. I was, indeed, rather curious to see the bowling-green, which I +had heard from my tutor was one of the very finest in England, fenced in +by wondrous walls of yew; but, to arrive there, it was necessary to pass +close to the Hall, and, consequently, to run great risk of meeting Sir +Massingberd, my repugnance to whom had returned with tenfold strength +since the preceding day. My reason, it is true, could suggest no +possible harm from my having enclosed his letter to Marmaduke, but still +an indefinable dread of what I had done oppressed me. I could not +imagine in what manner I could have been outwitted; but a certain +malignant exultation in Sir Massingberd's face when he was taking his +leave, haunted my memory, and rendered hateful the idea of meeting it +again. Moreover, the companionship of Gilmore, the butler, was not +attractive. He bore a very bad character with the villagers, among whom +he was said to emulate in a humble manner the vices of his lord and +master; he had been his companion and confidential servant for a great +number of years, and it was not to be wondered at, even supposing that +he commenced that servitude as an honest man, that his principles +should have been sapped by the communication. + +Those who had known Richard Gilmore best and longest, however, averred +that his nature had not been the least impaired by this companionship, +inasmuch as it had been always as bad as bad could be. I never saw his +pale secretive face, with the thin lips tightly closed, as if to prevent +the escape of one truant word, without reflecting what a repository of +dark and wicked deeds that keeper of Sir Massingberd's conscience needs +must be. Such men usually hold such masters in their own hands; for they +know too much about them, and it is that species of knowledge which, +above all others, is power. But it was not so in this case; the +antecedents of Gilmore's master were probably as evil as those of any +person who has ever kept a valet, but there was this peculiarity about +the baronet--that he cared little or nothing whether people knew them or +not. When a thoroughly unprincipled man has arrived at the stage of +being entirely indifferent to what his fellow-creatures think of him, he +has touched his zenith; he is as much a hero to his _valet-de-chambre_ +as to anybody else. It was Gilmore's nature to be reticent; but, for all +Sir Massingberd cared, he might have ascended the steps at the +stone-cross at Crittenden upon market-day, and held forth upon the +subject of his master's peccadillos. Sir Massingberd stood no more in +fear of him than of any other man; otherwise, he would scarcely have +used such frightful language to him as he did whenever the spirit-case +had not been properly replenished, or he happened to mislay the key of +his own cigar-chest. It was no delicate tending that the lord of +Fairburn Hall required; no accurate arrangement of evening garments ere +he returned from shooting; no slippers placed in front of the fire. As +he was attired in the morning, so he remained throughout the day, and, +if it were the poaching season, throughout the night also. He never was +ill, and only very rarely was he so overcome with liquor as to require +any assistance in retiring. The putting Sir Massingberd to bed must have +been a bad quarter of an hour for Mr. Gilmore. I have mentioned that +when I paid my only visit to the Hall, the front-door bell was answered +by the butler with very commendable swiftness, under the impression that +it was his master; and, indeed, it was rumoured that, on more than one +occasion, the baronet had felled his faithful domestic like an ox, for +dilatoriness. Wonder was sometimes expressed that Mr. Gilmore, who was +supposed, as the phrase goes, to have feathered his nest very agreeably +during his master's prosperous days, should cleave to him in his present +poverty--the mere sentiment of attachment being deemed scarcely strong +enough to retain his gratuitous services; but the reply commonly made to +this was, I have no doubt, correct--namely, that, however matters might +seem, Mr. Richard Gilmore, we might be well assured, knew his own +business best, and on which side his bread was buttered. + +Sagacious, however, as this gentleman doubtless was, I did not fancy him +as a companion to play bowls with; and, instead of going in the +direction of the bowling-green, I took my way to Fairburn Chase. I had +not set foot within it for more than a year, and the season was much +further advanced then when I had last been there. The stillness which +pervaded it in summertime was now broken by the flutter of the falling +leaf and the plash of the chestnuts on the moist and sodden ground; the +autumn rains had long set in; there was that "drip, drip, drip" in the +woods which so mournfully reminds us that the summer, with all its life +and warmth, has passed away; and the dank earth was sighing from beneath +its load of tangled leaves, which, "hanging so light and hanging so +high," but lately danced in the sunny air. The presentiment of evil +which overshadowed me was deepened by the melancholy of Nature. I moved +slowly through the drippling fern towards the heronry; from the little +island suddenly flew forth, not the stately birds who ordinarily reigned +there, but a pair of ravens. I knew that such had taken up their +residence in the old church tower, for I had seen them flying in and out +of its narrow ivied window-slits; but their appearance in the present +locality was most unexpected. I was far from being superstitious, but I +would rather have seen any other birds just then. A few steps further +brought me to that bend in the stream which had been such a favourite +haunt of mine before I had dreamed there so unpleasantly. The lime-trees +stood ragged and bare, and weeping silently, deprived of their summer +bee-music; the sparkling sand, wherein I had seen the mysterious +footprints, was dark and damp; a few steps further brought me to the +stepping-stones, by which that unknown visitant must have crossed over, +if she were indeed of mortal mould; the wood upon the other side was no +longer impenetrable to sight; and through its skeleton arms I could see +some building of considerable size at no great distance. I knew where +such of the keepers and gardeners as lived upon the estate resided, and +it puzzled me to imagine to what purpose this cottage was assigned. + +While I hesitated as to whether I should cross the turbid and swollen +current, whose waters almost entirely covered the stepping-stones, a +laugh prolonged and shrill burst forth from the very direction in which +I was looking. It was the same mocking cry, never to be forgotten, which +I had heard at that very spot some fifteen months before. Anywhere else, +I should have recognized it; but in that place it was impossible to +doubt its identity. Knife-like, it clove the humid and unwilling air; +and, before the sound had ceased, a short, sharp shriek succeeded +it--the cry of a smitten human creature. In a moment I had crossed the +stream, and was forcing my way through the wood. As I drew nearer, I +perceived the edifice before me was of stone, and with a slated roof, +instead of being built with clay, and thatched, as were the rest of Sir +Massingberd's cottages. There was no attempt at ornamentation, but the +place was unusually substantial for its size, the door being studded +with nails, while the window upon either side of it was protected by +iron bars. + +I was just emerging from the fringe of the wood, when another sound +smote on my ear, which caused me to pause at once, and remain where the +trunk of an elm tree intervened between me and the cottage; it was +merely the bark of a dog, but it checked my philanthropic enthusiasm +upon the instant. There was no mistaking that wheezy note, telling of +canine infirmity, and days prolonged far beyond the ordinary span of +dogs. Besides there was but one dog permitted to be at large in Fairburn +Chase. It was the execrable Grimjaw. I could see him from my place of +concealment turning his almost sightless eyes in my direction as he sat +at the cottage door. Immediately afterwards, it opened, and out came +Richard Gilmore; he looked about him suspiciously, but having convinced +himself that there was nobody in the neighbourhood, he administered a +kick to Grimjaw's ribs, reproached him in strong language for having +made a causeless disturbance, and turning the key, and pocketing it, +walked away by a footpath that doubtless led, although by no means +directly, to the Hall. He had a dog-whip in his hand when I first saw +him, which I thought was an odd thing for a butler to carry, and he +seemed to think so, too, for he put it in a side-pocket before he +started, and buttoned it up. Grimjaw, gathering his stiffened limbs +together, slowly followed him, not without turning his grey head ever +and anon towards my covert, but without venturing again to express his +suspicions. I waited until the charming pair were out of sight, ere I +advanced to the cottage. + +The door of course, was fast; so, approaching the right-hand window, I +cautiously looked in through its iron bars; there was no casement +whatever, therefore all the objects which the room contained were as +clear to me as though I were in it. I beheld a sitting-room, the +furniture of which was costly, and had been evidently intended for a +much larger apartment, but which in variety was scanty enough. At a +mahogany table, which retained little more of polish than if it had just +been sawn from its trunk in Honduras, sat an ancient female, with her +back towards me, supporting her chin on both hands; a cold chicken in a +metal dish was before her, but neither a plate nor knife and fork; she +was muttering something in a low tone to herself, which, if it was a +grace, must have been a very long one. Her hair was scanty, and white as +snow, but hung down almost to the ground; she was miserably thin; and +her clothes, although they had once been of rich material, were ragged +and old. + +I had made no noise, as I thought, in my approach; and the day was so +dull and dark that she could scarcely have perceived my presence by any +shadow of my eavesdropping self; but no sooner had I set my eyes on her +than she began to speak, without looking round, imagining, doubtless, +that I was Gilmore. "So you are there again, peeping and prying, are +you, wicked thief," cried she. "Don't you know that a real lady should +take her meals in peace without being interrupted, especially after she +has been beaten? Think of that, you cur. Why, where's your whip?" She +uttered these last words with a yell of scorn; and turning suddenly, +with one arm raised as if to ward a blow, she met my unexpected face, +and I saw hers. So remarkable was her appearance, that although it was +she, not I, who was taken by surprise, I think I was the more astounded +of the two. Her countenance was that of an old woman, so wrinkled, or +rather shrivelled up, that the furrows might have represented the +passage of a century of time; yet the teeth were as white and regular as +in a young beauty, and the black beaded eyes had a force and fire in +them unquenched by age. In her thin puckered ears hung a pair of +monstrous gilded ornaments, and round her skinny neck was a necklace +such as a stage queen would wear; yet she had naked feet. + +"Oh, it is you, is it?" observed she, with a grave distinctness, in +strong contrast to her late excited and mocking tones. "If I had known +that you were coming, young gentleman, I would have put on my bracelets. +The family jewels are not all gone to the pawnbroker's, as is generally +believed. Besides, you should never insult people because they are poor, +or mad; one would not be either one or the other, you know, if one could +help it." + +"Heaven forbid, madam, that I should offer you any insult," said I, +touched by the evident misfortune of this poor creature. "I merely ran +hither because I heard the cry, as I thought, of some one in distress." + +"Ah, that was the dog, sir," replied the old woman cheerfully; "the +butler was correcting his dog, and it howled a little. Of course it +could not have been me--certainly not; Sir Massingberd is so excessively +anxious that I should have everything that is good for me; he said that +with his own lips. And what a handsome mouth he has, except when he +looks at _you_." + +"Why at me?" cried I. "He has no cause to dislike me, has he!" + +"No cause!" cried the old woman, coming closer to the bars, and lowering +her voice to a confidential whisper. "Oh no--not if you were dead. I +never wished you worse than myself; no, not when my poor baby died, and +I could not weep. I feel that now; if I could only weep, as in the good +old times with my husband! There was plenty of good weeping +then--plenty." + +"But why should you wish me dead, madam, who have never done you any +harm?" + +"No harm? What not to have taken the title from my boy? No harm, when +but for you, he would have been the heir to house and land! Why, look +you, if it had not been for something, I would have driven Gilmore's +knife into you that day when you were sleeping under the limes. That was +the very place where I used to meet my love--let me see, how many years +ago?" + +The eager eyes for one instant ceased to glitter; some fragment of a +memory of the past claimed the restless brain; then once more she +rambled on. "One, two, three, four--he never struck me more than four +times; that's true, I swear." + +"And what was the something that prevented you from killing me when I +was asleep by the heron's island?" inquired I. + +"What was it?" replied the old woman sadly. "Did you not cry, 'Mother, +mother,' in your sleep, to make me think of my boy? I wept at that; just +one tear. He might have been such another as yourself--with the +same--Why, what's the matter with your forehead? What have you done +with your horseshoe? Every Heath wears one of them; then why not you, +young Marmaduke?" + +"My name is not Heath," said I; "you are taking me for somebody else." + +"Dear me--dear me, what a mistake! The fact is, that living in a house +affects one's sight. Now, let me guess. If you are not Marmaduke Heath, +you must be...--What a dark skin you have, and what kind eyes!" She +looked suspiciously round the room, and laying her finger on her lip, +observed beneath her breath: "You are not Stanley Carew, are you? They +told me he was hung, but I know better than that. I have seen him since +a hundred times. To be hung for nothing must be a terrible thing; but +how much worse to be hung for love!" + +"I am not Stanley Carew," said I; "I am Peter Meredith, who lives with +Mr. Long at the Rectory." + +"I never happen to have heard your name before, sir," replied the old +woman, mincingly; "perhaps you have never heard mine. Permit me to +introduce myself. Don't suppose that our people don't know good manners, +I am Sinnamenta--Lady Heath." + +"Madam," said I, deeply moved, "I apprehended as much. If I can do you +any service, be sure that the will shall not be wanting. Pray, tell me +what shall I do?" + +"Well," returned the poor creature, quickly, "Marmaduke Heath should be +killed at once, that is all important. We have been thinking of nothing +else, my husband and I. But perhaps you have done it already." (How I +shrank from that random shaft.) "If so, I have no further desire except +to get out. If I could only be once more in the greenwood, my hair would +reassume its natural colour. That is why Mr. Gilmore is so careful to +keep me thus locked up. If my husband only saw me with my black hair +again--it reached to the ground, sir--matters would be very different. I +think I have already observed that it is not customary to watch a lady +while she is partaking of refreshment." + +With that, she once more seated herself at the table, with her back to +me; and judging thereby that my presence was distasteful to her, and +having no notion of how I could possibly give her any aid, I withdrew +from the sad scene. I had not, however, gone many steps, when she called +me back again through the iron bars. + +"Mr. Meredith," said she, "you arrived somewhat unexpectedly. It is to +that circumstance alone, I beg to repeat, that you must attribute the +absence of bracelets. My very best regards to all your family. +Sinnamenta, you know--Lady Heath." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HARLEY STREET. + + +While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in +rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable +by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the +course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it +is fabled to do. During each of my visits there, I had perceived its +silent increase even more clearly than those between whom it was growing +up into the perfect flower, leaf by leaf, and bud by bud; they had +tended it together--Marmaduke and Lucy--until it was well nigh in +blossom, and yet they had not said to one another, and perhaps not even +to themselves, "Why, this is surely Love." Mr. Gerard had watched it, +not displeased, for he had found the young man all that my heart had +foretold that he would; Mr. Clint had seen it, and won by the strong +sense, as much as by the beauty of the gentle girl, forgot the +revolutionary stock of which she came. This, thought he, is the wife for +Marmaduke Heath; tender, but yet determined; dutiful, but indisposed to +submit to unauthorized dictation; as fearless as kind. In her, once +wedded to this young man, so morbid, so sensitive, so yielding, Sir +Massingberd would find, if it should be necessary, not only a foe, +resolute herself, but as firm as steel for him whom she had dowered with +her love. What Marmaduke's nature wanted, hers would supply. The keen +lawyer foresaw for that unhappy family, whose interests he and his had +had in keeping so many scores of years, a future such as had never been +promised before. It was an admission painful to me enough at that time, +but which I could not conceal from myself, that the real obstacle which +prevented the open recognition of attachment between these two young +people was Marmaduke himself. No girl more modest or less forward than +Lucy Gerard ever breathed, but I knew--ah, how well I knew!--that a word +from him would have brought the love-light to her eyes, which now lay +waiting but for it in the careful keeping of her maiden heart. But that +word had not been spoken. Perfect love, Marmaduke did not yet feel, for +he had not quite cast out fear. How can a man offer heart and hand to a +woman whom he does not feel certain that he can protect? It is for this +reason that marriage among slaves must for ever be a mockery. There +was, of course, no danger to Lucy Gerard in her marrying with Marmaduke, +although his uncle should storm "No" a thousand times; but the young man +felt that he was unworthy of her, while he entertained any terror of +him. It was wearing away; it was weakening day by day, through genial +influences, and the absence of all things which reminded him of Fairburn +and its master, but it was not dead yet. If by these words, I lead any +of my readers to suppose that Marmaduke Heath had the least resemblance +to that thing which is called a Coward, I have done my friend a grievous +wrong. Let me do away with the possibility of this most mistaken notion, +at once and for ever, by the recital of an event which, although it does +not come within the scope of the present narrative, nearly concerns one +of its most important characters. + +After the peace in 1815, there were more officers--English and +French--killed in single combat in Paris than in any one of the most +bloody battles of the late war. This desire to exterminate individual +Englishmen extended over the whole of France. A certain gentleman of my +acquaintance, then a very young man, chanced to be passing through a +town in Normandy, where an assemblage was collected outside the office +of the mayor. This arose from the very uncommon circumstance that that +functionary had been appealed to by a post-captain in the English navy +to punish a bullying Frenchman, who had striven to fasten a quarrel upon +him, although entirely unprovoked on his part. Now-a-days, the captain +would have been held to have behaved rightly enough, perhaps, but in +those fire-eating times an honest man's life was at the mercy of every +worthless ruffian who chose to run an equal risk with him from powder +and bullet. The decision, wonderful to relate, was given by the mayor +against his compatriot, and the crowd were correspondingly enraged. My +friend, whose nationality was apparent, was hustled and ill-treated, and +one person, well-dressed, and evidently of good position, knocked his +hat off, observing at the same time: "You will complain of me to the +mayor for that." + +"Certainly not," returned the young Englishman quietly, picking his hat +up, all broken and muddy, from the trampled ground: "I shall treat you +very differently." + +"You will fight, will you? Come--I challenge you. Let us fight to-morrow +morning," exclaimed the bully, who was, as it turned out, a notorious +provincial duellist. + +"Not to-morrow, but now," rejoined my friend; "I have no time to wait +here, for I must be in Paris on Tuesday." + +"Then it will be in Père la Chaise," responded the other brutally. + +There was no difficulty in procuring seconds, which were even more +plentiful in those parts than principals, and the whole party +immediately left the town for a wood outside its suburbs. The choice of +weapons of course lay with the Englishman. + +"Which do you prefer," asked the Frenchman who acted as his friend upon +the occasion--"the pistol or the sword?" + +"I have never fired a pistol in my life," replied the Englishman, "nor +handled a sword." + +"Heavens!" cried his second, "what a barbarous education, what a +stupendous ignorance! You are as good as dead, I fear. I know not which +to recommend you. It is, however, at least sooner over with the +pistol." + +"The pistol be it then," said the Englishman coolly. "I elect that only +one shall be loaded; and that we fire within four paces of one another. +We shall then have an equal chance." + +The duellist turned pale as the death that threatened him, but he did +not venture to make any objection. It was manifest no other proposal +would have been fair. The seconds went apart, and placed powder and ball +in one weapon, powder only in the other. The combatants drew lots for +choice. The Frenchman won. The pistols were lying on a log of wood; he +advanced towards them, took one up in his hand, and retired with it, +then once more came back, and exchanged it for the other. He fancied +that the weapon was lighter than it should have been if it had a ball +within it. My friend's second objected strongly to this course; he +called it even unfair and shameful; he protested that the pistol taken +first ought to be retained. But the young Englishman, who was leaning +carelessly against a tree, exclaimed, "Let the gentleman have which he +likes. Whether he is right or not will be decided in a few seconds." So +the combatants were placed opposite to one another, and advanced to +within four paces. They raised their weapons; the word was given to +fire, and the Frenchman fell, pierced through the heart. + +"His blood is upon his own head," exclaimed the other solemnly. "He was +brave enough to have been a better man." Then perceiving that his help +could be of no avail to his late antagonist, he lifted his battered hat +to the Frenchman that remained alive, and returning to his carriage, +immediately resumed his journey. + +It is not possible, without putting some very strained and unusual +meaning on the word, to call the hero of such an adventure a coward; yet +the man who acted thus was Marmaduke Heath. + +The above relation is but a clumsy method of proving him courageous, I +am well aware; but I really know not otherwise how to make him appear +so, slave, as it is seen he was, to terrors which must seem almost +imaginary. It is said that no man, however fearless, quite gets over his +awe of his schoolmaster. An exaggeration of this sentiment probably +possessed this unfortunate young man; added to which was the fact that +Sir Massingberd was his uncle, a family tie which was doubtless not +without its influence, notwithstanding Marmaduke's evil opinion of his +own race. I suspect, too, he entertained a morbid notion that his own +life and that of his relative were somehow bound up together in one; +and on the few occasions when I ever saw him moved to wrath, a +similarity--mental as well as physical--between him and his uncle became +apparent, which actually inspired him with a sort of awe and hatred of +_himself_. A noble mind more injured and misshapen by ill-training it +was impossible to imagine. For the last few months, however, as I have +said, it had been growing aright, and gaining strength and vigour. No +home--even Mr. Clint and my tutor felt that--could possibly be better +adapted for him than his present one; the society of Mr. Gerard, a man +independent almost to audacity, and despising the haughty and the strong +with a supreme contempt, was the very tonic he needed. Rarely, however, +was his uncle's name mentioned in his presence: at first, Mr. Gerard had +purposely spoken of Sir Massingberd lightly and jestingly, but it was +found that the subject had better be altogether avoided. It is ill to +jest upon earthquakes with one who, having but just recovered from +certain shocks of a volcanic nature, is not without apprehensions of +more to come. This anticipation turned out to be but too well grounded. +A day or two after my discovery of the baronet's poor gipsy-wife at +Fairburn, whose existence was well known, I found, to both the rector +and Mr. Clint, and of course to Marmaduke himself, the postman carried +misfortune from me to Harley Street, although I was myself as +unconscious of the fact as he. Marmaduke did not come in to luncheon +from his study, as usual, and Mr. Gerard was sent with a gay message to +him by Lucy, to bid him do so. He was not wanted, he was to be assured, +upon his own account at all, but she was dying to hear news of Peter, +whose handwriting she had perceived upon the letter that had been sent +in to him that morning. Mr. Gerard found the poor lad with his eyes +riveted upon an autograph that was not mine, and upon words that I would +rather have cut off my hand than knowingly have sent him: + + +"Nephew Marmaduke,--I am told, whether falsely or not, it does not +matter now, that you have not seen the letter which I previously sent to +you. I think you can scarcely have done so, or you would not have dared +to disobey my orders therein contained, but would have returned to +Fairburn long ago. At all events, you will read _this_ with your own +eyes, and beware how you hesitate to comply with it. _Return hither, +sir, at once._ It is idle to suppose that I wish you harm, as those you +are with would fain persuade you; but it is far worse than idle to +attempt to cross my will. Come back to Fairburn, and I will behave +towards you as though you had not acted in your late undutiful manner. +Delay to do so, and be sure that you will still have to return, but +under very different circumstances. Marmaduke Heath, you should know me +well by this time. When I say 'Come,' it is bad for the person to whom I +speak to reply, 'I will not come.' I give you twenty-four hours to +arrive here after the receipt of this letter; when these have elapsed +without my seeing you, I shall consider your absence to be equivalent to +a contumacious refusal. Then war will begin between us; and the strife +will be unequal, Nephew Marmaduke; although you had fifty men at your +back like lawyer Clint and this man Gerard, they could not keep you +from my arm. It will reach you wheresoever you are, at the time you +least suspect it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. +However well it may seem to be with you, it will not be well. When you +think yourself safest, you will be most in danger. There is indeed but +one place of safety for you: come you home. + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH." + + + +The wily baronet had fooled me, and doubtless, when I rose to light the +taper, had substituted the above letter for that which he had persuaded +me to enclose to his unhappy nephew. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BEFORE THE BLOW. + + +As yet in ignorance of the mischief which I had unwittingly done to my +dearest friend, I could not but wonder why I received no news from +Harley Street. I had confessed to Mr. Long what Sir Massingberd had +persuaded me to do, and although he had thought me wrong to have acted +without consulting him in the matter, he anticipated no evil +consequences. He rather sought to laugh me out of my own forebodings and +presentiments. Still there was this somewhat suspicious corroboration of +them, that the newborn courtesies of our formidable neighbour had +suddenly ceased, as though the end for which they had been used was +already attained. The baronet's manner towards us was as surly as ever, +and even a trifle more so, as if to recompense himself for his previous +constrained politeness. To myself, his manner was precisely that of a +man who does not attempt to conceal his contempt for one whom he has +duped. Since Marmaduke's departure, there had gone forth various +decrees, injunctions, and what not, from the Court of Chancery, obtained +doubtless through Mr. Clint, on behalf of the heir-presumptive, against +certain practices of Sir Massingberd connected with the estate. Formerly +he had done what he chose, not only with "his own," but with what was +not his own in the eye of the law. But Marmaduke's reversionary rights +were now strictly protected. Not a tree in the park could fell beneath +the axe, but the noise thereof reached the Chancellor's ears, and +brought down reproof, and even threats, upon the incensed baronet. His +hesitation to institute proceedings for the recovery of his ward, had +given confidence to his opponents; and Mr. Gerard was not one to suffer +the least wrong to be committed with impunity; it was out of his pocket +that the expenses came for the edicts necessary to enforce compliance, +and I have heard him say that he never remembered to have spent any +money with greater personal satisfaction. + +This "thinning the timber" (as Sir Massingberd euphoniously termed +cutting down the most ornamental trees, in his excusatory despatches), +having been put a stop to, the squire took to selling the family plate. +A quantity of ancient silver, with the astonished Griffins upon it, was +transferred from the custody of Gilmore to that of certain transmuters +of metal in town, and came back again to Fairburn Hall in the shape of +gold pieces. But even the melting-pot was compelled to disclose its +secrets; and the squire received such a severe reprimand upon the text +of heirlooms, as made him writhe with passion, and which put an end to +any friendly connection that might have before existed between himself +and John, Lord Eldon, at once and for ever. I think it must have been +immediately after the receipt of that very communication, that Sir +Massingberd came over to the rectory upon the following errand. Mr. Long +and myself were at our "Tacitus" in the study one evening, when the +baronet was announced, and I rose to leave the room. "Stay where you +are, young gentleman," said he roughly; "what I have to say will, it is +like enough, soon be no secret to anybody. Mr. Long, I must tell you at +once that money I must have. The way in which my property is meddled +with by the lawyer in London, set on to do it by friends of yours, too, +is beyond all bearing. I declare to you, that I--Sir Massingberd Heath, +the nominal owner of twenty thousand acres, and of a rent-toll of half +as many thousand pounds--have not five guineas in my pocket at this +moment, nor do I know how to raise them. Now, am I a man, think you, to +sit down with my hands before me, and submit to such a state of things +as this?" + +"Really, Sir Massingberd, I cannot say," returned my tutor; "I cannot +see how I can help you in anyway." + +"Yes, you _can_ help me, sir. You have influence with those +persons--curse them!--who have taken it in hand to do me these +injuries, who have interfered between uncle and nephew, between guardian +and ward. Now, I have made up my mind what I will do, and I am come here +to let you know it. You pretend to entertain some regard towards your +late pupil, Marmaduke." + +"The regard is genuine, Sir Massingberd. I wish others entertained the +like, who are more nearly connected with him than by the bond of pupil +and tutor." + +"Pray put me out of the question," returned the baronet coolly. "What I +have to say concerns others, not myself. You like this lad, and wish him +well; you hope for him an unclouded future; you trust that the character +of the family will be redeemed in his virtuous hands, and that the +remembrance of what it has been will not cleave to him, but will +gradually die out." + +"That is my earnest desire," replied Mr. Long, gravely. + +"I am glad to hear it," continued the other; "and I suppose Mr. Clint +cherishes some similar notion; and this man Gerard--this rebel, this +hypocrite----" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, interrupting him, "you have bidden me +stay here; but I shall not remain to listen to slanders against Mr. +Harvey Gerard; he is no hypocrite, but a very honest and kind-hearted +man." + +"He has hoodwinked this young wise-acre already, you see," pursued the +baronet. "His object is evidently to secure the heir of Fairburn for his +daughter; I have not the least doubt the jade is making play with the +poor molly-coddle as fast as----" + +Mr. Long and myself both rose before the speaker could finish the +sentence. My tutor checked with his finger the wrathful words that were +at my lips, and observed with energy: "Sir Massingberd, be silent! +Under my roof, you shall not traduce that virtuous and excellent young +girl." + +I never saw Mr. Long so excited; I never admired him so much. The +baronet paused, as though hesitating whether it was worth while to +indulge himself in uttering insults; I am thankful to say he decided +that it was not. It would have been pollution to Lucy Gerard's name to +have heard it spoken by such lips. + +"Well, well," returned he, "I have nothing to say against the young +woman. It is probable, however, you will allow, that some attachment may +arise between herself and my nephew. You grant that, do you? Ah, I +thought so. In that case, Mr. Gerard would prefer the husband of his +daughter to be free from all stain. Good! There are three persons then, +at least, all interested in my nephew's good name. Now, listen: you know +something, parson, of the mode of life pursued by the Heaths from +generation to generation; you know something of the deeds that have been +committed at Fairburn Hall. What is known, however, is honourable and +harmless compared to what is _not_ known; the vices which you have +shuddered at are mere follies--the offspring of idleness and high +spirits--compared to those of which you have yet to hear." + +It is impossible to imagine a more repulsive spectacle than this man +presented, exulting not only in his own wickedness, but in that of his +forefathers. He took from his pocket a huge manuscript, and thus +proceeded:--"The records of the House of Heath are red with blood, and +black with crime. I hold them in my hand here, and they are very pretty +reading. Now, look you, I will leave them here for your perusal, +parson--they have at least this attraction about them, they are +_true_--and when you have made yourself master of the contents, perhaps +you can recommend to me a publisher." + +"Is it possible," cried my tutor, "that you can do this dreadful wrong +at once to ancestors and descendant? Have you no mercy even for kith and +kin? Do you dare to defy God and Man alike?" + +"I dare publish that pamphlet, unless I have money," quoth Sir +Massingberd scornfully, "and that is the sole question with which we +need now concern ourselves. A pretty welcome young Sir Marmaduke will +meet with when he comes into the country among all who know his family +history. As for me, my character is one which is not likely to suffer +from any disclosure." + +"Are all the murders done and attempted set down here, Sir Massingberd?" +inquired my tutor, taking up the pamphlet "The catalogue of crime is +truly frightful; but you do not seem to have brought the narrative down +to the most recent dates." + +"The most recent dates?" reiterated the baronet mechanically. + +"Yes, sir," responded my tutor, "the history is evidently incomplete. If +it should come out in its present form, it would need an appendix. I +would scarcely recommend you to run the risk of another person +publishing a continuation. You had better take it home, and reconsider +the matter." + +The baronet affected to receive this advice in earnest, and retired, +foiled and furious.[1] He never more set foot in the Rectory, save +twice; once when he called upon me, and persuaded me to forward that +hateful letter to Marmaduke, and again upon the occasion I am about to +describe. The errand he then came upon was of small consequence, but the +circumstance I shall never forget. After-events have made it one of the +most memorable in my life, for it was the last time, save one, that I +ever beheld Massingberd Heath. Little did I think what a mystery was +then impending--so frightful, so unexampled, that it now seems almost +strange that it did not visibly overshadow that giant form, that +ruthless face. If we could thus read the future of others, how fearful +would be many a meeting which is now so conventional and commonplace! It +is true that we should always part, both from friends and from enemies, +in some sort as though we were parting with them for the last time; but +how different a leave-taking would it be, if we were indeed assured +that they and we would meet no more upon this side the grave! How I +should have devoured that man with mine eyes, had I known that they +would not again behold him--save one awful Once--before we should both +stand together in the presence of God! What terrors, what anxieties, +what enigmas were about to be brought to us and to others by the +morrow's sun! Yet, at the time, with what little things we occupied +ourselves! It was in the morning that Sir Massingberd paid his visit--a +morning of early November, when the first sharp frost had just set in. +He came about money matters, as usual. We were surprised to see him, +because, as I have said, he had relapsed into his accustomed stern +unsociable habits, and had seemed to have given up all attempts to gain +any furtherance of his plans from Mr. Long. He had called he said, about +a matter that affected the parson himself, or he would not have +troubled him. Certain Methodists had offered him twenty pounds a year as +the ground-rent of a chapel to be built upon the outskirts of the Park, +and within view of the Rectory windows. For his part, he hated the +Methodists; and had no sort of wish to offend Mr. Long by granting their +prayer. Still, being grievously in want of money, he had come to say +that if Mr. Clint could not be induced to give him some pecuniary help, +the chapel must be built. + +My tutor, who had a very orthodox abhorrence of all dissent, and +especially when it threatened his own parish, was exceedingly disturbed +by this intelligence. + +"What!" cried he; "you preach to your nephew doctrines of Conservatism, +Sir Massingberd, and yet are induced for a wretched bribe to let a nest +of sectaries be built in the very avenue of your Park!" + +"It is terrible indeed," quoth the baronet drily; "but they might set it +up opposite my front door for an extra five-pound note. I announce their +offer solely on your account. They call on me to-morrow for my final +decision, and I cannot afford to say, 'No.' Now, you can do what you +please with Mr. Clint, and may surely represent to him that this is a +case where twenty pounds may be well expended. The matter will thus be +staved off for a year at least; and next year, you know, I may be in +better circumstances--or dead, which many persons would greatly prefer." + +"Certainly," returned my tutor gravely, "I will do my best with Mr. +Clint; but in the meantime, rather than let this chapel be built, I will +advance the money you mention at my own risk. I happen to have a +considerable sum in the house at present, which I intended to lodge with +the bank at Crittenden to-morrow. So you shall have the notes at once." + +"That is very fortunate," said the baronet, coolly; and Mr. Long counted +them out into his hand--twenty flimsey, but not yet ragged, one-pound +notes, for the imitation of the like of which half-a-dozen men were at +that time often strung up in front of the Old Bailey together. From +82961 to 82980 the numbers ran, which--albeit I am no great hand at +recollecting such things--I shall remember, from what followed, as long +as I live. I can see the grim Squire now, as he rolls them tightly up, +and places them in that huge, lapelled waistcoat-pocket; as he slaps it +with his mighty hand, as though he would defy the world to take them +from him, however unlawfully acquired; as he leaves the room with an +insolent nod, and clangs across the iron road with his nailed shoes. + +I watch him through the Rectory window, as, ere he puts the key in his +garden-door, he casts a chance look-up at the sky. He looks to see what +will happen on the morrow. Does he read nothing save Continuance of Fine +and Frosty Weather? Nothing. All is blue and clear as steel; not a cloud +to be seen the size of a man's hand from north to south, from east to +west. There is no warning to be read in the cold and smiling heaven; no +"_Mene, mene_," for this worse than Belshazzar on its broad cerulean +wall! + + +[1] Years afterwards I became possessed of the pamphlet in question, +which, having glanced at, I very carefully committed to the flames. I do +not doubt, however, that Sir Massingberd would have carried his threat +into execution, had not Mr. Long's menace shaken his purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOST. + + +The morning subsequent to Sir Massingberd's visit to the Rectory was +bright, but intensely cold. I was very particular about my shaving in +those days, and would not have dispensed with that manly exercise upon +any account; but I remember that the frost made it a difficult process. +In the course of the ceremony, Mrs. Myrtle, who was a very privileged +person, knocked softly at my door. A visit from her at such a time was +unusual, but not unprecedented. I said, "Pray, come in." My attire was +tolerably complete, and perhaps I was not indisposed to let people know +what tremendous difficulties were entailed upon a gentleman by the +possession of an obstinate beard. I was not prepared for her closing the +door behind her, sinking into the nearest chair, and fanning herself, as +though it had been midsummer, with her outspread fingers. I looked at +her with a face all soap-suds and astonishment. + +"My dear Mrs. Myrtle, what is the matter?" + +"Oh, don't ask me, Master Peter," cried she, although she had come for +no other purpose than to be cross-questioned. "Oh, pray, don't, for it's +more nor I can bear. Dearey me, if I ain't all of a twitter!" + +"Nothing the matter with your master," said I, "surely? I saw him out of +the window a little while ago on the lawn, talking to one of the +under-keepers of the Hall." + +"I dare say you did, sir," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, with one of those +aggravated shudders which are generally produced by the anticipation of +senna and salts. "No, master's all well, thank Heaven." + +"No bad news from Harley Street?" exclaimed I, laying down my razor in a +tremor. "I trust Miss...--I mean that Mr. Marmaduke is as he should be." + +"For all that I know to the contrary, he is, sir," returned the +housekeeper; "and likewise all _friends_" Mrs. Myrtle laid such an +accent upon "friends" that my mind naturally rushed to the opposite. + +"You don't mean to say," said I, "that anything has happened to Sir +Massingberd?" + +Mrs. Myrtle had no voice to speak, but she nodded a number of times in +compensation. + +"Is he DEAD?" asked I, very solemnly, for it was terrible to think of +sudden death in connection with that abandoned man. + +"Wus than dead, sir," returned the housekeeper; "many times wus than +dead; Heaven forgive me for saying so. Sir Massingberd is LOST." + +"Lost!" repeated I; "how? where?" + +"There is only One knows that, Master Peter; but the Squire is not at +the Hall, that's certain; he never returned there last night, after he +had gone his rounds in the preserves. He spoke with Bradford and two +more of the keepers, and bade them keep a good look-out as usual; but he +did not come to the watchers in the Home Plantation. He never got so +near the house as that; nobody saw him since midnight. Gilmore put out +his cigars and spirits as usual for him in his room; but they are +untouched. The front-door was not fastened on the inside; Sir +Massingberd never came in." + +Here I heard Mr. Long calling upon the stairs in a voice very different +from his customary cheerful tones, for Mrs. Myrtle. + +"Mercy me, I wonder whether there's anything new!" cried she, rising +with great alacrity. "As soon as I knows it, you shall know it, Master +Peter;" with which generous promise she hurried from the room. + +After this intelligence, shaving became an impossibility, and I hurried +down as soon as I could into the breakfast-room. My tutor was standing +at the window very thoughtful, and though he greeted me with his usual +hilarity, it struck me that it was a little forced. + +"Why, you are early this morning, Peter; and how profusely you have +illustrated yourself with cuts; it is sad to see one so young with such +a shaky hand. One would think you were one of the five-bottle-men, like +Sir--like Lord Stowell." + +He had been about to say "Sir Massingberd," I knew, and would on +ordinary occasions not have hesitated to do so. + +"De perditis nil nisi bonum?" quoth I inquiringly. + +"Oh, so you have heard of this nine hours' wonder, have you?" returned +my tutor. "Because our neighbour has chosen to leave home for a little, +on some private business best known to himself, everybody will have it +that he is Lost." + +"But it does seem very extraordinary too," said I, "does it not? He has +never done so before, has he?" + +"Not in all the years he has lived in Fairburn," returned my tutor +musingly. + +"And he made no preparations, I suppose, for departure, did he? Took no +clothes with him?" + +"Nothing, nothing," interrupted Mr. Long, pacing the room to and fro, +with his hand to his forehead. "But he had money, you know; he was eager +to get that money yesterday." + +"Then he would probably have hired a vehicle," urged I; "Sir Massingberd +is not the man to use his own legs, beyond the limit, that is, of his +own lands. You have heard him say that he would never be seen on the +road without four horses." + +Mr. Long continued his walk without reply, but I thought I perceived +that he was not unwilling to have the subject discussed. He seemed to be +eager to take as light a view of the matter as possible, although like +one who contends against his own more sombre convictions. I, on the +contrary, had that leaning towards the gloomy and mysterious not +uncommon with young persons, and both imagined the worst, and +endeavoured to picture it. + +"He went out after the poachers did he not?" said I. + +"Yes, as usual," replied my tutor; "he has done it before, scores of +times." + +"The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last," returned I. +"I should not be surprised if the wretched man has been murdered by some +of those against whom he waged such unceasing war." + +"Then if so, he must have been shot, Peter," returned the rector +hastily: "without firearms, it would have been hard to dispose of the +gigantic baronet, armed as he doubtless was with his life-preserver. Now +no gun has been heard to go off by any one, although it was thought that +Sir Massingberd expected some raid to be made last night, by the +gipsies or others; at all events, he seemed more alert than usual, +Oliver tells me." + +The gipsies! My heart sank within me, as I thought of Rachel Liversedge +consumed with the wrongs of her "little sister;" and of the young man, +relative of that unhappy Carew whose life had been sworn away through +the Squire's machinations. I had seen nothing of them since my memorable +interview, but it was like enough that the tribe were yet in the +neighbourhood. True, they had waited so long for vengeance, that it was +not probable they should have set about it at this time; but if Sir +Massingberd had really come across them alone, while they were +committing a depredation, violence might easily enough have ensued; and +if violence, murder. I was very glad that Mrs. Myrtle came in at this +juncture with the eggs and buttered toast, and concealed my +embarrassment. + +"No news, sir," said she lugubriously, as she placed the delicacies upon +the table. "The last words were, 'Nothing has been heard of him.'" The +housekeeper had established a system of communication by help of her +kitchen-maid and the stable-lad at the Hall, whereby she received +bulletins, every quarter of an hour or so, with respect to Sir +Massingberd's mysterious disappearance. + +"Well, no news is good news, you know," responded Mr. Long gaily. "We +should always look upon the bright side of things, Mrs. Myrtle." + +"Yes, sir; but when a thing ain't got a bright side," remarked the +housekeeper, shaking her head. "Why, it's dreadful now he's Lost; and it +would be dreadful even if, after all, he was al----" + +"Hush, hush, Mrs. Myrtle; you don't know but you may be speaking of a +poor soul that is gone to his account. Sir Massingberd is doubtless a +bad man; but let us not call it dreadful if he should be permitted to +return among us, and have some time yet, it may be, to repent in." + +"Then you think he's dead and gone, do you, sir? Well, that's what I +think, and that's what Patty thinks too, and she's a very reasonable +girl. 'Them ravens,' says she to me, 'didn't come to that church-tower +for nothing;' and though, of course, I told her to hold her tongue, and +not talk folly like that, there was a good deal in what she said. Why, +we have not had ravens here since Sir Wentworth came to his awful end in +London; there was a mystery about that too, wasn't there, sir? +Lawk-a-mercy! Mr. Meredith, you gave me quite a turn." + +I had only said "Look there!" and pointed to the window, through which +Gilmore and the head-keeper were seen approaching the Rectory, and +engaged in close conversation. + +"I'll go with Patty, and let them in," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, unconsciously +betraying that she was unequal to opening the door alone, in such an +emergency. It is probable that, when it was opened, the incomers and she +had a great deal to talk about, for they were not ushered into the +breakfast-room for many minutes, and after the very moderate meal which +sufficed us both upon the occasion had long been finished. The butler +and Oliver Bradford were by no means good friends, and it must have been +something portentous indeed which brought them to the Rectory together. +It was, in fact, their very rivalry which had produced the double +visit. Each conceived himself to be the superior minister of the absent +potentate, and called upon, by that position, to act in his master's +behalf, and give notice to neighbouring powers, such as the parson, of +the event that had paralyzed affairs at the Hall. It seemed only natural +(as he himself subsequently expressed it) to Oliver Bradford, who had +been servant, man and boy, to the Heath family for nearly sixty years, +that he should be the spokesman on an occasion such as this, and +sleeking his scanty white hairs over his forehead with the palm of his +hand, and passing the back of it across his mouth, he commenced as +follows:-- + +"Muster Long, I make bold to come over here, having been upon the +property going on for three-score years and ten----" + +"As out-door servant," interrupted Mr. Gilmore, severely; "but not as +confidential in any way. Mr. Long, this old man here insisted upon +accompanying me in the performance of my duty, and I have humoured him." + +"You've what?" cried the ancient keeper; "you've humoured _me_, you oily +knave, have you? No, no, you never did that to Oliver Bradford. It +wasn't worth your while. I come here about my master's business as a +matter of right. Are a few years of truckling, and helping the devil's +hand, and feathering your own nest pretty comfortably, to be weighed +against a lifetime of honest service? Let Mr. Long here decide." + +"Look here, men," quoth my tutor, "it is no use quarrelling about +precedence. You are both in the same service, and owe the same duty to +your master. I know what has happened in a general way, and require no +long story from either of you. But you have doubtless each of you some +information concerning this matter peculiar to your own positions, and I +will ask you to communicate it in time. Twelve hours have not elapsed +since your master's disappearance, a very short time surely to set it +down so decidedly to some fatal accident." + +"He was as regular in his rounds as clockwork," interposed the old +keeper, shaking his head; "he would never have left the Home Spinney +unvisited last night, if life had been in him." + +"And if he had meant to leave Fairburn of his own head," added the +butler, "he would have come back for his brandy before he started; for +all his hearty look, Sir Massingberd could not get on long without that; +and he would not have taken Grimjaw out with him neither." + +"Oh, the dog was with him, was it?" said my tutor, musing. + +"It was not in the house, sir," replied Gilmore, "after Sir Massingberd +had left. I went to make the fire in his sitting-room, and I noticed +that the creature was neither on the hearthrug, nor under the sofa, as +is usually the case. I don't know when I have known the dog go out with +him o' nights before. When I went to open the front door as usual this +morning, there was Grimjaw, nigh frozen to death." + +"Your master had made no sort of preparation, so far as you know, for +his own departure anywhere?" + +"None whatever. I set out his cigars for him, and I noticed that he had +only put two in his case, a sure sign that he meant to return soon. He +had no greatcoat, although it was bitter cold." + +"Was he armed in any way?" + +"No, sir; that is to say, he had his life-preserver, of course, but no +gun or pistol." + +"Had he any sum of money, or valuables of any kind about him, Gilmore?" + +"I don't think that is at all likely," replied the butler, grinning. "We +haven't seen money at the Hall this many a day. As for valuables, Sir +Massingberd had his big gold chain on, with a silver watch at the end of +it, borrowed from me years ago, and my property." + +It was remarkable how this ordinarily cautious and discreet person was +changed in manner, as though he was well assured that he would never +more have a master over him. Both Mr. Long and myself observed this. + +"What time was your master usually accustomed to return home from his +rounds in the preserves?" + +"I did not sit up for him in general," returned Gilmore; "but when I +have chanced to be awake, and to hear him come in, it was never later +than three o'clock. His ordinary time was about half-past twelve, but it +depended on what time he started. He left the Hall last night at about +ten, and should, therefore, have returned a little after midnight. I +never set eyes on him since nine o'clock, when he was in his own +sitting-room reading." + +"And when did _you_ see him last, Bradford?" + +"When did I see Sir Massingberd Heath?" replied the old keeper, who had +been chafing with impatience through his rival's evidence--"well, I +see'd him last nine hours ago, at nearly twelve o'clock at night. I was +on watch in the Old Plantation, and he came upon me sudden, as usual, +with his long quick stride." + +"Was there anything at all irregular about his manner or appearance; +anything in the least degree different from what you always saw upon +these occasions?" + +"Nothing, whatever, sir. Look you, I knew my master well," [He had +already begun to talk of him in the past tense!] "I could tell at a +glance when he was put out more than usual, or when he had anything out +of ordinary in hand; he never swore, saving your reverence's presence, +what you may call _freely_ then. He might have knocked one down, likely +enough, if you gave him the least cross, but he was not flush of his +oaths. Now I never heard him in a better fettle in that respect than he +was last night. He cussed the lad Jem Meyrick, who had come up to me +away from Davit's Copse for a light to his pipe; and he cussed me too, +for giving it him, up hill and down dale, and in particular he cussed +Grimjaw for being so old and slow that he couldn't keep up with him. +Sir Massingberd never waited for him, of course; but after he'd been +with us a few minutes, the old dog came up puffin' and wheezin'; and +when the Squire left us, it followed him as well as it could, but with +the distance getting greater between them at every step. I watched them, +for the moon made it almost as light as day, going straight for the +Wolsey Oak, which was the direct way for the Home Spinney; and that was +where Sir Massingberd meant to go last night, although he never got +there, or leastways the watcher never saw him. + +"Have you any reason to believe, keeper, that there were poachers in any +part of the preserves last night?" + +"No, sir," replied Oliver, positively. "On the contrary, I knows there +wasn't, although Sir Massingberd was as suspicious of them as usual, or +more so. Why, with Jack Larrup and Dick Swivel both in jail, and all +the Larchers sent out of the parish, and Squat and Burchall at sea, +where was they to come from?" + +"Sir Massingberd must have had many enemies?" mused my tutor. + +"Ay, indeed, sir," replied old Oliver, pursing his lips; "he held his +own with the strong hand; so strong, however, as no man would contend +against him. If Sir Massingberd has been killed, Mr Long, it was not in +fair fight; he was too much feared for that." + +"There has been a gang of gipsies about the place this long time, has +there not?" quoth my tutor. + +"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of +Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're +feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, +although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more +have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would +attack a hawk, that's certain." + +My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation +with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and +inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, +and when. + +"You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this +afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have +chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry +having been made after him?" + +"That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis. + +"I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, +sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years." + +"In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the +responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very +good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, +to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, +must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary +up at the Hall." + +The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "_Very_ well, sir," +but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We +must go together." + +"I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, +when the two had left the room. + +"No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about +collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain." + +Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I +meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't +you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by +for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle--a +sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any +further, just at present. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STONE GARDEN. + + +When Mr. Long took his departure with Gilmore, he did not ask me to +accompany him, and assist in an undertaking which was likely to be +somewhat laborious. Perhaps he wished if the baronet did chance to +return in a fury, that he alone should bear the brunt of it. Perhaps he +thought there might be things at the Hall I had better not see, or +perhaps he wished to observe the butler's behaviour at leisure. I think, +however, he could scarcely have expected me to stay at home with my +books, while such doings as he had directed were on the point of taking +place. Euripides was doubtless in his day a sensation dramatist, but +the atrocities of Medea could not enchain me, with so much dreadful +mystery afoot in my immediate neighbourhood. Her departure through the +air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, was indeed a striking +circumstance; but how much more wonderful was the disappearance of Sir +Massingberd, who had departed no man knew how! + +The news had spread like wildfire through the village. Numbers of +country folk were hanging about the great gates of the avenue, drinking +in the impromptu information of the lodge-keeper; but they did not +venture to enter upon the forbidden ground. The universal belief among +them was, I found, that their puissant lord would soon reveal himself. +Doubting Castle, it was true, was for the present without its master; +but it was too much to expect that he would not return to it. The whole +community resembled prisoners in that fortress, who, although +temporarily relieved of the tyrant's presence, had little hope but that +he was only gone forth upon a ramble, and would presently return with +renewed zest for human flesh. The general consternation, however, was +extreme, and such as would probably not have been excited by the sudden +and unexplained removal of a far better man. The rumour had already got +abroad that there was to be an immediate search in the park, and that +Oliver Bradford had been empowered to select such persons as he thought +fit to assist in the same. There were innumerable volunteers for this +undertaking, principally on account of the excessive attraction of the +work itself, which promised some ghastly revelation; and secondarily, +for the mere sake of getting into Fairburn Chase at all--a demesne as +totally unknown to the majority of those present as the Libyan Desert. +The elders indeed remembered the time when a public footpath ran right +through the Chase, "close by the Heronry, and away under the Wolsey Oak, +and so through Davit's Copse, into the high road to Crittenden," said +one, "whereby a mile and a half was wont to be saved." "Ay, or two +mile," quoth another; "and Lawyer Moth always said as though the path +was ours by right, until Sir Massingberd got his son made a king's clerk +in London, which shut his mouth up and the path at the same time." + +"Ay," said a third, mysteriously, "and it ain't too late to try the +matter again, in case the property has got _into other hands_." + +This remark brought back at once the immediate cause of their assembling +together, and I began to be made the victim of cross-examination. To +avoid being compelled to give my own opinion (which I had already begun +to think a slander) upon the matter in hand, I took my leave as quietly +as could be, and escaped, whither they dared not follow me, through the +griffin-guarded gates. All within was, as usual, silent and deserted. A +few leaves were still left to flutter down in eddies from the trees, or +hop and rustle on the frosty ground, but their scarcity looked more +mournful than utter bareness would have done. It was now the saddest +time of all the year; the bleak east wind went wailing overhead; and +underneath, the soil was black with frost. Instead of pursuing the +avenue to the frontdoor of the Hall, where, as it seemed, I was not +wanted, I took a foot-track to the left, which I knew led to that +bowling-green whither I had been previously invited by Sir Massingberd, +although I had not taken advantage of his rare courtesy. If he did now +appear, no matter in what state of mental irritation, he could scarcely +quarrel with me for doing the very thing he had asked me to do. Had I +known, however, the character of the place in which I found myself, I +should have reserved my visit for a less eerie and mysterious occasion. + +The time of year, it is true, had no unfavourable influence upon the +scene that presented itself, for all was clothed in garments of thickest +green. Vast walls of yew shut in on every side a lawn of perfect +smoothness; everything proclaimed itself to belong to that portion of +the Hall property which was "kept up" by subsidy from without. The +quaint oak-seats, though old, were in good repair; the yew hedges +clipped to a marvel. Still nothing could exceed the sombre and funereal +aspect of the spot. It seemed impossible that such a sober game as +bowls could ever have been played there, or jest and laughter broken +that awful stillness. The southern yew-screen was in a crescent form, at +the ends of which were openings unseen from within the enclosed space. +Passing through one of these, I came upon what was called the Stone +Garden. It took its name from four stone terraces, from the highest of +which I knew that there must be a very extensive view. This space was +likewise covered with yew trees, clipped and cut in every conceivable +form, after the vile taste of the seventeenth century. There was +something weird in the aspect of those towering Kings and Queens--easily +recognizable, however, for what they were intended--and of those maids +of honour, with their gigantic ruffs and farthingales. One was almost +tempted to imagine that they had been human once, and been turned into +yew trees for their sins. The whole area was black with them; and a +sense of positive oppression, notwithstanding the eager air which caught +me sharply whenever I lost the shelter of one of these ungainly forms, +led me on to the top terrace, where one could breathe freely, and have +something else than yews to look upon. + +Truly, from thence the scene was wide and fair. I stood at that +extremity of the pleasure-grounds most remote from the Hall, and with my +back to it. Before me lay a solitary tract of wooded park, thickly +interspersed with planted knolls and coppices. Immediately beneath me +was the thicket called the Home Spinney, the favourite haunt of hare and +pheasant, and the spot in all the Chase most cherished by Sir +Massingberd. He would have resented a burglary, I do believe, with less +of fury than any trespass upon that sacred ground. Beyond the Spinney, +and standing by itself, far removed from any other tree, was the famous +Wolsey Oak. Why called so, I have not the least idea, for it had the +reputation of being a vast deal older than the days of the famous +Cardinal. Many a summer had it seen-- + + "When the monk was fat, + And issuing shorn and sleek, + Would twist his girdle tight, and pat + The girls upon the cheek; + Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's Pence, + And numbered bead and shrift, + Bluff Harry broke into the spence, + And turned the cowls adrift." + +Yet still was it said to be as whole and sound as a bell. It was +calculated to measure over fourteen yards in circumference, and that for +many feet from its base; while its height, although it had lost some of +its upper branches, still far exceeded that of any other of its +compeers. Beyond this tree, but at another great interval, was the wood +known as the Old Plantation, where Oliver Bradford had last seen his +master alive. I was looking down, then, upon the very route which Sir +Massingberd had been seen to commence, but which he had never ended. It +was to the Home Spinney he had been apparently bound, when +something--none knew what--had changed his purpose. He would probably +have passed through it, and come up by that winding path yonder to the +spot where I now stood; it was the nearest way home for him. Perhaps he +had done so, although it was unlikely, since the watcher had not seen +him. Perhaps those very yews behind me had concealed his murderers. Shut +in by those unechoing walls of living green, no cry for aid would have +been heard, even if Sir Massingberd had been the man to call for it; he +would most certainly have never asked for mercy. But hark! what was +that sound that froze the current of my blood, and set my heart beating +and fluttering like the wings of a prisoned bird against its cage? Was +it a strangled cry for "Help!" repeated once, twice, thrice, or was it +the wintry wind clanging and grinding the naked branches of the Spinney? +A voice had terrified me in Fairburn Chase once before, which had turned +out to be no mere fancy; but there was this horror about the present +sound, that I seemed to dimly recognize it. It was the voice of Sir +Massingberd Heath, with an awful change in it, as if a powerful hand +were tightening upon his throat. It seemed, as I have said, to come from +the direction of the copse beneath, and yet I determined to descend into +it, rather than thread again the mazes of those melancholy yews. The +idea of my assistance being really required never entered into my +thoughts; what I wanted was to escape from this solitude, peopled only +with unearthly cries, and regain the companionship of my +fellow-creatures. How I regretted having left the society of those +honest folk outside the gates! To remain where I was, was impossible; I +should have gone mad. Fortunately, the Spinney was well-nigh leafless, +and a bright but wintry sun penetrated it completely. I fled over its +withered and frosted leaves, looking neither to left nor right, till I +leaped the deep ditch that formed its southern boundary, and found +myself in the open; then I stopped indeed quite short, for, before me, +not ten paces from the Spinney, from which he must have just emerged, +lay the body of Grimjaw. It was still warm, but lifeless. There were no +marks of violence about him; the struggle to extricate himself from the +ditch, it is probable, had cost the wretched creature his little +remaining vitality, weakened as he must have doubtless been by his +previous night's lodging on the cold stone steps. But how had he come +thither, who never moved anywhere out of doors, except with Sir +Massingberd or Gilmore? and whither, led perhaps by some mysterious +instinct, was he going when death had overtaken him--an easy task--and +glazed that solitary eye, which had witnessed so much which was still a +mystery to man? + +Was it possible that he had perished in endeavouring to obey his +master's cry for aid? that terrible "Help! help!" which rang in my ears +a while ago, as I stood in the Stone Garden, and which rings, through +half a century, in them now? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE SEARCH. + + +Shrinking away from the body of the unhappy Grimjaw, and fleeing from +the solitary spot in which it lay, I ran down towards the Heronry, +where, in the distance, I could now perceive a number of persons +assembled upon the lake-side. Below and above it, the stream flowed on +as usual; but the larger area of water which contained the island, was +frozen over with a thin coating of ice. This was being broken by men +armed with long and heavy poles, after which the work of dragging the +water was commenced. The scene was as desolate as the occupation was +ghastly and depressing. Perched upon stony slabs of their now leafless +home, the huge birds watched the proceedings with grave and serious air: +at first, they imagined, I think, that the thing was done for their own +behoof, and to the end that they might supply themselves with fish as +usual; but the appearance of the grappling-irons disabused them of this +idea. Now one, and now another, unable to restrain their curiosity, +would rise slowly and warily into the air, and making a circuit over our +heads, return to their old position to reflect, with head aside, upon +what they had seen. The presence as spectators of these gigantic +creatures, certainly increased the weird and awful character of the +employment in which we were engaged, and struck quite a terror into the +village folk, who were unaccustomed to see them in such close proximity. +Still the work was not gone about by any means in reverent and solemn +silence. If any man wishes his neighbours to speak their mind about him +thoroughly and unreservedly, I should say, judging from what I heard on +that occasion, Let him disappear, and be dragged for. It is not so +certain he is dead, that any delicacy need be exercised in telling the +severest truths about him; nor yet is there sufficient chance of his +reappearance to make folks reticent through fear. Only when the drags +halted a little, meeting with some hidden obstruction, all tongues were +silent, and pale faces clustered about the toilers, expecting that the +dreadful thing they sought was about to be brought to land. + +"I thought we had him then," said one of the men, after an occasion of +this sort; "but it was only a piece of stone." + +"It might have been his _heart_, for all that," muttered another, +cynically; and a murmur of "Ay, that's true," went round them all. + +"Has anybody been about the Home Spinney this morning?" inquired I of +Oliver Bradford, who had just given up his place at the ropes to a fresh +man. + +"No, sir, nor last night either, as it turns out. It will be bad for +somebody if Sir Massingberd does return, and finds out that the watcher +who ought to have been there was wiled away elsewhere by what he thought +was poachers holloing to one another--some owl's cry, as I should judge. +And to-day, I doubt if a creature has been near the place, for none of +my men seem to fancy going there alone." + +"And who _was_ the watcher there last night, Oliver?" + +"Well, sir, we must not make mischief; he was a young chap new at the +business, a sort of grand-nevvy of mine by the wife's side. He'll do +better next time, will young Dick Westlock. He was over-eager, that's +all. And when you hear a cry in these woods, unless you are thoroughly +accustomed to them, it may lead you a pretty dance: it takes a practised +ear to tell rightly where it comes from." + +"You should know me better, Bradford," returned I, "than to suppose I +would bring a lad to harm by mentioning such a matter; but I should like +to ask him a question or two, if you will point him out." + +"There he is then, sir," answered Oliver, pointing to a good-looking, +honest lad enough, but one who perhaps would scarcely have been +considered sufficiently old for so trustworthy a part as sentinel of the +home preserves, had he not been grand-nephew to the head keeper. + +"Why, Dick," said I, "your uncle telly me that you took an owl for a +poacher last night, and followed his voice all over the Chase." + +"It wasn't no owl," sir, quoth Dick, stoutly; "it were the voice of a +man, whosoever it was." + +"Don't thee be a fool," exclaimed his uncle, roughly. "I tell thee it +was a bird, and called like this;" and the keeper gave a very excellent +imitation of the cry of an owl. + +This was not greatly unlike the sound which had so recently affrighted +my own ears; but then owls rarely cry in the daytime. + +"Dick," cried I, "never mind your uncle; listen to me. If you thought it +was a human voice, what do you think it said?" + +"Well, I can't rightly say as it said anything; it seemed to me to be a +sort of wobbling in the throat; and I thought it might be a sound among +some poaching fellars, made with a bird-call, or the like of that." + +"Supposing it said any word at all, Dick, what word was it most like?" + +Mr. Richard Westlock looked as nonplused and embarrassed as though I had +propounded to him some extremely complicated riddle. + +"Was it anything like 'Hel--p, hel--p?'" said I, imitating as well as I +could those terrible tones. + +"Bless my body," quoth Mr. Richard, slapping his legs with his hands, in +admiration of my sagacity, "if them ain't the very words as it _did_ +say!" + +"What think you of that, Oliver Bradford?" inquired I, gravely. + +"As the bell tinks, so the fool thinks," responded the head keeper, +sententiously. "If you had asked Dick whether the word wasn't +'Jerusalem,' he would have said, 'Ay, that was the very word.'" + +"Still," urged I, "since there may be something more than fancy in the +thing, and the voice, if it was one, could not have come from under +water, let the Park woods be thoroughly searched at once. There are men +enough outside the gates to do that, without suspending the work that is +going on here, and why should we lose time?" + +The head keeper sulkily muttered something about not wanting a caddel of +people poking their noses into every part of Fairburn Chase; then with +earnest distinctness, as though the thought had only just struck him, +"Besides, Mr. Meredith, let me tell you that they may get to know more +than is good for them." + +At these words, I cast an involuntary glance at the plantation within a +few hundred feet of us, in the recesses of which dwelt Sinnamenta, Lady +Heath. + +"_You_ may know, sir," continued the keeper, translating my thought, +"but everybody don't know, and it's much better that they shouldn't." + +Certainly the objection was a grave one, and I was glad enough to +perceive Mr. Long coming down from the Hall towards us, an authority by +whom the question could be decided. + +"You had better ask him yourself, Oliver," said I; for as my tutor had +never spoken to me of the existence of the unfortunate maniac, I did not +like to address him upon the subject. Bradford therefore went forward to +meet him; and after they had had some talk together, Mr. Long beckoned +me to him. + +"I think with you, Peter," said he, "that in any case, we should lose no +time in searching the Chase. If we do not discover what we seek, we can +scarcely fail to find some trace of a struggle, if struggle there has +been, between such a man as Sir Massingberd and whoever may have +assailed him. If he has been murdered, it is, of course, just possible +that the assassins threw the body into the water, although not here, +since the ice would scarcely have formed over it like this; otherwise, +they could not have removed it without leaving some visible trace. Do +you, Bradford, and a couple of your own men, examine that plantation +yonder thoroughly, so that it need not be searched again; and in the +meantime I will go and fetch more help." + +I have taken part in my time in many a "quest" for game, both large and +little: I have sought on foot in the rook-crannies of the north for the +hill-fox; I have penetrated the tangled jungles of Hindustan for tiger; +I have stood alone, gun in hand, on the skirts of a tropical forest, not +knowing what bird or beast the beaters within might chance at any moment +to drive forth; but I have never experienced such excitement as that +which I felt when, one of forty men, I walked from end to end of +Fairburn Chase in search of its lost master. + +In one long line, and at the distance of about twenty yards from one +another, we plodded on slowly and steadily; and with eyes that left no +bush unexamined. This work, which in summer would have been toil indeed, +was rendered comparatively easy by the bareness of the season; the +frost, too, made the swamps in the hollows safe to the tread, and the +tangled underwood brittle before us. Many a sunken spot we found hidden +in brake and brier, and scarcely known to the keepers themselves, such +as might easily have held, and we could not but think how fitly, the +Thing we feared to find, and sometimes, when one man called to his +neighbours, the whole line would halt, and each could scarcely restrain +himself from running in, and seeing with his own eyes what trace of the +missing man it was which had provoked the exclamation. We began at the +outskirts of the Park, and worked towards the Hall, so that the Home +Spinney, which was the likeliest spot of all, since he had been last +seen going in that direction, was reserved for the end. As the men +approached it, the excitement increased; they almost ran over the large +open space in which stood the Wolsey Oak, extending its gnarled and +naked arms aloft, as if in horror; but when they searched the coppice +itself, and found the body of Grimjaw, stiffened into stone since I last +saw it, many of them were not so eager to push on. I had omitted to tell +them of the wretched animal's death, and the effect of the sight upon +them was really considerable. + +That "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," is in +nothing more true than in the emotion produced by the sufferings or +decease of animals upon gentle folks and upon labouring persons. Greater +familiarity with such spectacles, and perhaps, too, a larger experience +of hardship and sorrow among his own fellow-creatures--which naturally +tends to weaken his sense of pity for mere animals--prevents the peasant +from being moved at all by some sights at which his superiors would be +really shocked: a dead horse lying in the road is, to the stonebreaker, +a dead horse, and nothing more; whereas, to him who goes by on wheels, +unless he is a veterinary surgeon, the sight is positively distressing. +I am sure that the spectacle of half a dozen ordinary dead dogs would +not have affected Oliver Bradford, for instance, in the least, while if +they had been "lurchers," and given to poaching practices, such a +funereal scene would have afforded him unmixed satisfaction. But when he +saw Grimjaw lying dead, and frozen, he shook his head very gravely, and +bade us mark his words, "That that ere dog didn't die for nothing, but +for a sign. That he would never have died, not he, if his master and +constant companion had still had breath in him, and more than that, we +should find, we might take his word for it, that that there body, and +that of Sir Massingberd Heath, were not very far from one another." + +There were murmurs of hushed and awe-struck adhesion to these remarks, +but not a dissentient voice in all the company, and in a frame of mind +which would now undoubtedly be called "sensational," and not in a broken +line of march, as heretofore, but almost shoulder to shoulder, we +entered the Home Spinney. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART. + + +If this true narrative of mine should chance to find its channel of +publication in a hebdomadal periodical, and the end of the last chapter +coincide with the end of the week, I am afraid I shall have unduly +aroused the expectation of my readers, and kept them upon tenter-hooks +during that period upon false pretences, or rather what may seem to be +so. They will doubtless have promised themselves some ghastly spectacle +(and I give them my honour that if they will only have patience they +shall have it) to be presented in the very next page or two. It may +disappoint them temporarily, to hear that though we searched the +coppice, tree by tree, and left not one heap of leaves unstirred by our +feet, that we found nothing, nothing. And yet I will venture to say, +that if we had come upon that sight which all were so prepared for, the +stiffened limbs of murdered Sir Massingberd, with his cruel face set for +ever in death, and his hard eyes scowling up at the sky, it would +scarcely have filled us with greater awe. It would have been a terrible +sight, doubtless, but with every minute the terror would have faded, +until at last it might have even melted into pity. He could at least +have hurt no man more, being dead. But now that he was only Lost--still +Lost--we looked at one another with dumb surprise, and over our own +shoulders with misgivings. He was not above ground in all Fairburn +Chase, that was certain; nor under water, for the dragging-parties had +discovered no more than we. Any idea of suicide was quite out of the +question; Sir Massingberd Heath was the last man to leave life before he +was summoned, even if he really felt, as he averred, that there was no +sort of risk in doing so. Wicked men have a tolerably high opinion of +this world, notwithstanding their low views of the people that inhabit +it; and the French philosopher who put an end to his not invaluable +existence upon the ground that he had had enough of everything, was an +exceptional case. + +At the same time, the probabilities were immensely against the baronet's +having voluntarily undertaken any expedition, considering the +circumstances under which he must have set out--on foot, fatigued, and +at so late an hour. If secrecy had been his object, it would have been +far more easily secured by his departure at a less extraordinary time. +In the meanwhile, day after day passed by without any tidings, and the +mystery of his disappearance deepened and spread. Mr. Long was rather +reserved upon the matter at first, professing to entertain little doubt +that the wilful Squire would presently return, malicious and grim as +ever; but as time went on, he began to grow uneasy, and seemed to find +relief in conversing upon the subject, and suggesting more or less +impossible contingencies. + +"Do you remember, Peter," said he one morning at breakfast-time, +"reading out to me, some months ago, an account of the murder of a +certain lieutenant of the coast-guard by smugglers on the east coast; +how he oppressed them and treated them with unnecessary cruelty for +many, many months, until at last they took him away out of his bed by +force, and carried him no man knew whither, and put him to death with +tortures?" + +"Yes," returned I, "perfectly well. They buried the poor wretch up to +his neck in the sea-sand, and bowled stones at his head." + +"Well, Peter, that frightful scene is constantly representing itself +whenever I shut my eyes; only the head is that of Sir Massingberd. You +cannot imagine how distressing it is to me now to go to bed, with the +expectation of this re-enacting itself before I can get to sleep." + +"Dear me, how dreadful!" returned I. "But does not the fact of your only +recognizing the victim, convince you of the unreality of the thing? If +you knew the faces of the smugglers, then indeed----" + +"I do know them, Peter," interrupted my tutor gravely; "that is the +worst of it; although it should, as you say, rather convince me of the +imaginary character of the scene, since the actors in it have long been +dead and gone, I believe. They are not smugglers, but gipsies. There is +on Carew in particular, one unhappy man, into whose history I need not +enter, but who once incurred the baronet's vengeance, and I am afraid it +is but too likely perished in consequence. It is a sad story of +deception on both sides; but it is certain that Sir Massingberd richly +earned the hatred of the wandering people. I have no right, of course, +to make any such charge, but Peter, I cannot help thinking that it is +they who have made away with the Squire. I casually inquired in the +village yesterday about the tribe that generally inhabit the fir-grove +on the Crittenden Road, and it seems they left the place by night, on or +about the very date of Sir Massingberd's disappearance." + +My heart grew cold and heavy as a stone at these words, delivered though +they were with vagueness, and without any threat of action to follow +them, for the suspicion which my tutor now suggested had long ago taken +firm root in my own mind. I would not, however, have given expression to +it upon any account, and my present wish was to do away with this notion +of the rector's as much as possible. I would not, perhaps, have assisted +in the escape of the Cingari from punishment, if punishment they +deserved, but neither would I have put out my hand to deliver them up. +The law had taken its wicked will of them often enough already, and in +connection with this very man. + +"Those who know these people best," said I, "such as Bradford and the +keepers, do not think it at all probable that they would have had the +courage to face Sir Massingberd. Even if they possessed it, what could +they have done but have slain him? and if slain, where have they put him +to?" + +"God alone knows," said my tutor solemnly; "but the man at the pike at +Crittenden says, I believe, that they had a covered cart with them, +which they have never been known to have before." + +I murmured something to the effect that the winter was coming on, and +that it was likely enough that they should have procured for themselves +some peripatetic shelter of that kind; but a nameless horror took hold +upon me, in spite of myself, when Mr. Long rejoined, that he should +think it his duty to have the gipsies followed, and a thorough +examination of their effects to be made. I had not another word to say. +I seemed already to see poor old Rachel Liversedge standing in the +felon's dock, avowing and glorying in her guilt, and defiant of the +sentence which would consign her and hers to the same fate that had +overtaken, with no such justice, Stanley Carew. Any hope of escape for +them, I knew, was out of the question. They had not the means for speedy +travel, while, in those days of superstition and intolerance, the +Cingari were an object of animadversion and alarm, whithersoever they +moved. That very day--acting upon information received concerning their +present whereabouts--Mr. Long set out on horseback, accompanied by the +parish constable, and Came up with the party whom he sought upon a +certain common within twenty miles of Fairburn. The tribe, of whom I had +only seen three grown-up members, were tolerably numerous, and the +constable evinced his fitness for being a peace-officer by counselling +the rector to do nothing rash, at least until reinforcements should +permit of his doing so with safety. The sight, however, of the covered +cart, placed, as it seemed, jealously in the very centre of the +encampment, was too much for Mr. Long, who, to do him justice, was as +bold as a lion, except where conventional "position," as in the case of +Sir Massingberd, made him indisposed for action. He turned his horse +straight for the desired object, in spite of the threatening looks of +several men, who were tinkering about an immense fire, and was only +stopped by the youngest of them starting up, and laying his hand +imperatively upon his bridle-rein. + +"Have you a warrant, Mr. Long," inquired the gipsy sternly, "that you +ride through our camp, when all the rest of the common is open to you, +and wish to pry into that poor place yonder, which is all we have of +house and home?" + +The rector had no sort of right for what he did, and was therefore +proportionally indignant. + +"Unhand my bridle, sirrah!" cried he. "What is your name, who seem to +know mine so well, and yet who knows me so little, that you can imagine +I am here in any other cause than that of Right and Justice?" + +"My name is Walter Carew," replied the gipsy, still retaining his hold. + +"Then that is warrant sufficient for what I do," cried my tutor +excitedly, and raising his riding-whip as he spoke. + +The swarthy face of the gipsy gleamed with passion, and his unoccupied +right hand sought his side, as if for a weapon. Mischief would +undoubtedly have ensued, but that at that moment the curtains of the +covered cart were parted by a skinny hand, and the voice of Rachel +Liversedge was heard bidding the young man let the bridle go, and not +spill parson's blood, which was as bad as wasting milk and water. Then +she added, with mock courtesy: "Pray, come hither, Mr. Long; our doors +are always open, and there can be no intrusion where there are only +females and sickness." + +"If that be all," returned my tutor in a softened tone, for though +somewhat arbitrary, as it would now be thought, towards his inferiors, +he was ever gentle to the sex; "if that indeed be all, I shall not +inflict my presence upon you long."[1] + +With those words, he threw himself from his horse, and climbed up into +the cart; it was rather a roomy one, but all that was in it was clearly +to be seen at the first glance. It was carpeted with rushes a foot +thick, from which Rachel Liversedge was busily engaged in weaving +chair-bottoms. Opposite to her sat another female, engaged with the same +articles, but constructing out of them crowns and necklaces, which, +though they did not very much resemble the ornaments for which they were +intended, appeared to afford her exquisite satisfaction. + +"Why don't you introduce me, Rachel?" exclaimed she testily, as Mr. Long +looked in. "Don't you see the gentleman is bowing? Sinnamenta--Lady +Heath." The secret of the gipsies' sudden removal, as well as of their +use of the vehicle which had excited his suspicions, was at once +apparent to the rector. + +"Is she better, happier in your custody?" inquired my tutor, in a +whisper, of the chair-maker. "God knows I would not disturb her, if she +be." + +"My little sister is not beaten now," observed Rachel bitterly; +"although, of course, we have not those luxuries with which her husband +has always surrounded her." + +"Only four times, Sister Rachel!" observed the afflicted one, in a tone +of remonstrance, "one, two, three, four," checking them off on her poor +fingers, covered with worthless gewgaws. "I don't consider Gilmore's +beatings anything, only Sir Massingberd's." + +"May God's curse have found him!" exclaimed Rachel Liversedge fervently; +"may He have avenged her wrongs upon him at last! Don't look at me, sir, +as though I were a witch wishing a good man ill. I wish I _were_ a +witch. How he should pine, and rave, and writhe, and suffer ten thousand +deaths in one!" + +She spoke with such hate and fury, that Mr. Long involuntarily cast once +more a suspicious glance around him, as though in reality she possessed +the means of vengeance which she so ardently desired. "Did you expect to +find him here?" continued she. "That was it, was it? I wish you had. I +would that I had his fleshless bones to show you. It is not _my_ fault +that I have them not, be sure. If there were any manliness left among my +people--but there is not; they are curs all--if any memory of the +persecuted and the murdered had dwelt within them, as with me, let alone +this work of his," she pointed to her unconscious sister, "for which, +had he done nought else, I would have torn his heart out;--he would not +have lived thus long by forty years. For aught we know, however, he +lives yet; only hearing he was gone, we went and took my little sister +from her wretchedness, and thus will keep her if you give us leave, you +Christian gentlemen. Where he may be, we know not; we only hope that in +some hateful spot--in hell, if such a place there be--he may be +suffering unimagined pains." + +The fervour and energy of her words, however reprehensible in a moral +point of view, were such as left no doubt in the mind of Mr. Long that +the gipsy woman spoke truth. Assuring her, therefore, that, so far as he +was concerned, she should not be molested in the custody of her +unfortunate sister, my tutor rode back to Fairburn, relieved from the +dread burden of his late suspicion, but more at his wit's end for an +elucidation of the disappearance of Sir Massingberd than ever. Right +glad was I to hear that his errand among my dusky friends had been +bootless; but by the next morning's post I had received bitter news +from Harley Street. A copy of that menacing epistle which I had so +unwittingly enclosed to Marmaduke from his uncle, reached me from Mr. +Gerard. His words were kind, and intended to be comforting. He knew, of +course, that I had been deceived; he well knew, and they all knew, he +said, that my hand was the last to do Marmaduke hurt, to do aught but +protect and uphold him. But I could see that some grievous harm had +occurred, nevertheless, through me, as Sir Massingberd's catspaw. It was +more apparent to me because there was not one accompanying word from my +dear friend himself, whom I knew too well to imagine capable of blaming +me. It was most apparent of all because of the postscript written in +Lucy's own hand--so fair, so clear, so brave, so like her own sweet +self, saying that I must not reproach myself because I had been +overreached by a base man. "Marmaduke will write soon," she said; "he +does not love you less because he is silent upon this matter, and must +be kept so for a little while." He was ill, then, thanks to my dull +wits; and out of pity she had written "Marmaduke." Ah me, would _I_ not +have been ill! Would _I_ not have welcomed kinship with a score of +wicked uncles for such pity! "He does not love you less because he is +silent;" was that a quotation culled from her own heart's whisperings? + +"A most unfortunate business," said Mr. Long reflectively, when he had +possessed himself of this intelligence. "That letter of Sir +Massingberd's will undo all the good of the last twelve months. With +what a devilish ingenuity for torment has he framed every phrase. '_'My +arm will reach you wheresoever you are; at the time you least expect +it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. However Well it +may seem to be with you, it will not be Well.'_ How thoroughly he knew +his nephew! This will make Marmaduke Heath a wretched man for life." + +"Not if Sir Massingberd be dead," said I, "and can be proved to be so." + +"That is true," responded my tutor, drily; then added, without, I think, +intending me to hear it, "But what will be worse than anything, is this +doubt as to whether he be dead or not." + +I felt convinced of this too, and bowed my head in sorrow and silence. +There was a long pause. Then my tutor suddenly started up, and +exclaimed, with animation, "Peter, will you go with me to London? I +certainly shall be doing more good there, just now, than here; and I +think that your presence will be welcome, nay, needful, in Harley +Street." + +"I shall be ready to start this very evening," returned I, thinking of +the mail which passed at night. + +"We will be off within an hour," replied my tutor; "I will order posters +from the inn at once. Too much time has been lost already; we should +have started when Sir Massingberd himself did." + +"Do you think he is gone to town, then, with any evil purpose?" inquired +I, aghast. + +"If he has gone at all, it is certain it is for no good," rejoined the +rector, gravely. "It is more than likely that this disappearance may be +nothing but a ruse to throw us off our guard. The cat that despaired of +attaining her end by other means, pretended to be dead." + + +[1] In those days, it was not thought incumbent upon ministers of the +Gospel to look after gipsy-folk, whose souls, in case they had any, were +not opined to be much worth saying. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PROCESSION. + + +At the time of which I write, a dweller in the midlands who wanted to go +to town, did not drive down to the nearest railway station, to be +transported from thence by the fiery dragon to his destination. Railways +had been long heard of, and indeed there was one within twenty miles of +Fairburn, which we should now call a tramway only, for engine it had +none. Locomotives were the subject of debate in scientific circles, and +of scorn among the rest of the community. A journey such as that my +tutor and myself were about to undertake, is scarcely to be understood +by readers of the present generation. Not only did it consume an amount +of time which would now suffice for six times the distance, but it was +surrounded by difficulties and dangers that have now no existence +whatever--"extinct Satans," as a writer calls them, who is now scarcely +held to be "modern," but who at that time had never written a line. The +coach for which Mr. Long had thought it advisable not to wait, had met +in its time with a thousand-and-one strange casualties, and the guard +was a very Scheherazade at relating them. The "Highflyer" had come to +dreadful grief in racing with an empty stomach, but many "outsides," +against its rival, the "Rapid," which traversed a portion of the same +road. It had often to open both its doors, to let the water through, in +crossing Crittenden Ford, by neglect of which precaution upon one +occasion, four "insides" had the misfortune to be suffocated. It had +been dug out of snow-drifts a hundred times, and now and then it had +_not_ been dug out, and the passengers had been frost-bitten. In winter +it was usual enough for them to spend a day or two perforce at some +country inn, because the roads were "not open." The "Highflyer" had once +been attacked by a tiger (out of a travelling caravan), which killed the +off-leader; but this was an exceptional adventure. It was attacked by +highwaymen at least once a year, but in this respect was considered +rather a fortunate coach. Only a few weeks previously, there had been +found by the reapers, in one of Farmer Arabel's wheat-fields, mail-bags +with letters containing many thousand pounds in drafts and bills, which +had been taken by gentlemen of the road from the custody of the guard of +the "Highflyer" in the early summer. These persons had gone into the +standing wheat to divide their booty, and left there what was to them +unavailable property, or too difficult to negotiate. + +In the two trips I had already taken to the metropolis, I had gone by +this curious conveyance, of which all Fairburn had something to say; but +I was now to journey even more gloriously still: so thoroughly had Mr. +Long got to be convinced that some immediate danger was imminent to +Marmaduke at the hands of his uncle, that he could not bear the least +unnecessary delay in giving him warning. We posted with four horses, and +generally at full gallop. I agree with the Great Lexicographer in +thinking that sensation very pleasurable indeed. The express-train, it +is true, goes five times as fast, but you do not feel that there is any +credit due to the steam-horse for that; you take it as a matter of +course, and would do so, no matter what exertions it should make for +you, short of bursting. But when you heard the ring of the sixteen hoofs +upon the iron road, and the sharp crack of the whips in the frosty air, +or leaned out of the window for a moment; and beheld the good steeds +smoking in your behalf, you said to yourself, or to your companion, if +you had one: "This is wonderful fine travelling." Perhaps you contrasted +such great speed with that attained by the Exeter flying-coaches in your +ancestors' time, and smiled with contemptuous pity at their five miles +an hour, stoppages excluded. + +The trees and hedges flew by you then, and gave an idea of the velocity, +such as the telegraph-posts, seen vanishing thin out of the window of a +railway-carriage, fail to convey; while, when you stopped for new +cattle, the hurry and bustle attendant on the order, "Horses on," helped +to strengthen the belief in your own fast travelling. Still, after the +first few hours, even the enjoyments of a post-chaise-and-four begin to +pall; and long before we had approached our destination, I was cramped, +and chilled, and tired enough. It was growing dark, too, so that there +was little to be seen without, and we had passed those dangerous parts +of the road where expectations of possible highwaymen had afforded me +some excitement. I was dozing dreamily, unconscious that the light of +London was flaring like a dusky dawn in front of us, and that we had +even already entered its then limits upon the north-east, when I was +roughly roused by the sudden stoppage of the carriage, accompanied by +wild cries, and a glare of lurid flame. Mr. Long had put down the +window, and was leaning out of it. There was a dense fog, and gas had +not yet been established in that part of London; but a vast assemblage +of people were streaming slowly past us, and many of them had torches in +their hands. They took no notice of us whatever, but yelled and shouted, +and every now and then cast glances behind them at some approaching +spectacle, which seemed to be about to overtake us. Presently, we beheld +this ourselves. First came a great number of constables, marching twenty +abreast, and clearing all before them with large staves; then a body of +the mounted patrol--a corps then but newly formed, and which, although +now well-nigh extinct, was destined in its time to do good service; then +more constables; then a vast quantity of horsemen, armed and unarmed, +and lastly this:--Extended on an inclined platform, built to a +considerable height upon an open cart, was the body of a dead man; it +was attired in blue trousers, and with a white and blue striped +waistcoat, but without a coat. On the left side of him was a huge +mallet, and on the right a ripping chisel. + +"Great Heaven! what is this?" inquired Mr. Long of one of the mounted +constables. + +"Oh, it's him, sir, sure enough; we've got him at last," returned the +officer. + +"Him? Who?" cried I, half stupefied with fatigue and horror. "Have they +found Sir Massingberd?" + +No, it was not Sir Massingberd. The face which was now being slowly +carried past us was wicked and stern enough, but it was not _his_ face. +The skin was black, the eyes were projecting; it was plain that the poor +wretch had been strangled. The excitement of those who caught sight of +it was hideous to witness; they cursed and hissed in hate and fury, and +battled to get near the cart, that they might spit upon the corpse +which it contained. The force of the advancing crowd was so tremendous +that we were compelled to move for some distance side by side with this +appalling sight, and presently immediately behind it; there we seemed to +fall in as a part of the procession, and were no doubt considered by the +majority of persons to officially belong to it. We were borne southwards +quite out of our proper direction, and were unable to prevent it, for it +was as much as the postillions could do to sit their horses, and avoid +being shouldered out of their saddles. Our progress was of course at a +foot's-pace only, and twice the procession halted, once opposite a +draper's, and once opposite a public-house, when the yells and hooting +of the crowd were terrible to hear. Not only were these two houses +closely shuttered up (as they well might be), but the shop-fronts +everywhere were closed, and the windows and the tops of the houses +crowded with spectators. By this time, we had got to know in what +dreadful proceedings we were thus taking an involuntary part. The body +in the cart was that of the murderer Williams, who had committed suicide +two days before, to escape, it was thought, not so much the scaffold, as +the execrations of his fellow-creatures. All London was filled with hate +of him, as before his capture it had been filled with fear; and the +government had caused this public exhibition of his corpse, to convince +the minds of the public that the wholesale assassin was really no longer +alive. The houses at which we had halted were those which had once been +inhabited by his unhappy victims, the Marrs and the Williamsons. +Subsequently, the corpse was conveyed to St. George's turn-pike, and +there interred with a stake thrust through the middle of it; but before +that frightful ceremony took place, the postillions had managed to +extricate us, and we had driven westward to our destination. Still, I +for my part had seen enough, and more than enough, to make that entry of +ours into London a thing impossible to forget; and I think it rendered, +by association, the mystery concerning which we had come up to Harley +Street, more menacing and sombre than before. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AMONG FRIENDS. + + +We found Marmaduke Heath in a less morbid state of mind than we had +expected. The die having been cast--the time given him by Sir +Massingberd for his return and so-called reconciliation with that worthy +having already elapsed without any action on the part of his uncle, the +effect of that "Captain Swing"-like epistle was slowly wearing off. No +one ever revived the matter in his presence, nor, as we have seen, was +he permitted even to write upon the subject. Still, he knew that I had +been lately communicated with concerning it--for at first the blow had +fallen on its object with such force and fulness that those about him +had really not liked to let me know the extent of the mischief I might +have committed--and he imagined that I had now come up in mere friendly +sorrow to cheer and comfort him. As he came out into the dark street on +that December evening to give me loving welcome, fresh from that awful +procession-scene, I positively looked with terror to left and right, +lest some cloaked figure, whom yet we both should recognize, might reach +forth an iron arm, and tear him away. It was I who was morbid and +unstrung, and not my friend; he strove, I knew, to appear to the best +advantage, in good humour and high spirits, in order that I might have +less to reproach myself with. + +"My dear old Peter" cried he, laughing, "how glad I am to see your +honest face. Have you brought me any verbal message from my charming +uncle, or are you only his deputy-postman? _How_ is he--_how_ is he?" + +I could see, in spite of his light way, that he was curious to have this +interrogation answered; but what was I to say? "I don't know whether +he's well or ill," returned I, carelessly, as I stepped into the hall. +"But how is Mr. Gerard and Miss----" + +"Here is 'Miss,'" returned a sweet voice, blithe as a bird's; "she is +excellently well, Peter, thank you. But what a white face _you_ have +got! If that is the gift of country air there is certainly no such cause +for regretting our absence from the Dovecot, about which Marmaduke is +always so solicitous." + +"'Marmaduke' to his face, now!" thought I. I could not prevent my heart +from sinking a little, in spite of the lifebuoy of friendship. But I +answered gallantly, "There is no air that can wither _your_ roses, Miss +Lucy, for the summer is never over where you are." + +"Bravo, Peter," quoth Mr. Gerard, set in the warm glow of the +dining-room, which gleamed forth from the open door behind him. "If he +is so complimentary in a thorough draught, what a mirror of courtesy +will he be when he gets thawed! Come in, my dear Mr. Long; come in to +the warm. No east wind ever brought people more good, than this which +brings you two to us. Lucy...--Ah, that's right; she has gone to order +the dinner to be rechaufféd. Now, do you travellers answer no man one +word, but go make yourselves comfortable--you have your old rooms, of +course--and then come down at once to food and fire. Marmaduke, my dear +boy, you keep me company here, please; otherwise, you will delay Peter, +with your gossip, I know." + +That was a sentence with a purpose in it. If, as Mr. Gerard at once +guessed, we had come up to town on business connected with Sir +Massingberd, it might be advisable that I should not be interrogated by +Marmaduke privately. For my part, I was greatly relieved by it, since I +had no desire to be the person to communicate bad tidings--for such I +knew he would consider them--to my friend a second time. My spirits had +risen somewhat with the warmth of our reception; it is not a little to +have honest friends, and welcome unmistakable in hand and voice and eye. +There is many a man who goes smoothly through the world by help of these +alone, and only at times sighs for the love that but one could have +given him, and which has been bestowed by her elsewhere. When I got +down into the dining-room, a minute or two before my tutor, I was +received by quite a chorus of kind voices--a very tumult of hospitable +greeting. + +"Warm your toes, Peter--warm your toes; you shall have a glass of sherry +worth drinking directly," cried Mr. Gerard, all in a breath. + +"Yes, Peter, you and I will have a glass together," exclaimed Marmaduke, +eagerly. + +"Stop for 'the particular'--stop for the green seal: it will be here in +a minute," entreated the host. + +"No, no," returned Marmaduke; "I must drink his health at once. Cowslip +wine, if I drank it with Peter, would be better to me than +Johannisberg." + +He had his hand upon her arm, as I entered the room; I was sure of that, +although she had gently but swiftly withdrawn it from his touch, as the +door opened. How happy she looked; how passing fair with that faint +flush! How handsome and bright-faced was dear Marmaduke! How placidly +content, like one who draws his happiness from that of others, was the +countenance of Harvey Gerard! A picture of domestic pleasure and content +indeed, and with three noble figures in it. It was impossible to doubt +that two lovers stood before me, and a father who had found a +prospective son-in-law, whom he could love as a son. This new +relationship had been only established within a very few days, and upon +that account, perhaps, it was the more patent. My mischance in the +matter of Sir Massingberd's letter, had been the immediate cause of +Marmaduke's declaration. She had compassionated him in his troubles, and +he had told her in what alone his hope of comfort lay. He had not been +sanguine of securing her--who could have been, with such a priceless +prize in view?--for not only had he a diffidence in his own powers of +pleasing, great and winning as they were, beyond those of any man I ever +knew, but he feared to find an obstacle to his wishes in her father. + +"Dear Mr. Gerard," he had said, with his usual frankness, "I have won +your daughter's heart, and love her better than all the world. Still, it +is you alone who have her hand to dispose of. She loves and respects you +as never yet was father loved and respected, and this only makes her +dearer to me. I feel as much bound in this matter by your decision--Oh, +sir, God grant your heart may turn towards me--as she does herself. I +dare not tell you what I think of you to your face. The very greatness +of my respect for you makes me fear your rejection of _me_. I am, in one +respect at least, a weak and morbid man, while your mind is vigorous +and strong upon all points. You are in armour of proof from head to +heel; whereas, there is a joint in my harness open to every blow. I am +afraid, sir, that you despise me." + +"I do not despise you, Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had replied, in his kind +grave voice. + +"Ah, sir, I know what you would say," returned the young man with +vehemence; "you pity me, and pity and contempt are twin-sisters. +Besides, I am a Heath; you do not wish that blood of yours should mix +with that of an evil and accursed race; and, moreover--though that, with +a man like you, has, I know, but little weight--I may live and die a +pauper." + +"My dear Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had answered, "I cannot conceal from you +that there are grave objections to your marriage with my daughter, and +more especially at present. We need not revert to the last matter you +have spoken of, for wealth is not what I should seek for in my +son-in-law; even if it were, your alliance would reasonably promise it, +and might be sought by many on that account. As for your being a Heath, +that you cannot help; and, with respect to 'blood,' there is more +rubbish spoken upon that subject by otherwise sensible folk than upon +all others put together. Bad example and evil training are sufficient to +account for the bad courses of any family without impeaching their +circulating fluids. If your uncle had not happened to be likewise your +guardian, in you, my dear young friend, I frankly tell you, I should see +no fault, or rather no misfortune; but, since he has unhappily had the +opportunity of weakening and intimidating----" + +"Sir, sir, pray spare me," broke in Marmaduke, passionately; "are you +going to say that I am a coward?" + +"Heaven forbid, my boy," replied Mr. Gerard, earnestly; "you are as +brave as I am, I do not doubt. If I thought you to be what you suggest, +I would not parley with you about my darling daughter for one moment. I +would say 'No' at once. My Lucy wooed by a poltroon!--no, that is not +possible. I do not say 'No' to _you_, Marmaduke." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir," exclaimed the young man, with emotion; +then added solemnly, "and I thank God." + +"What I do say, however," returned Mr. Gerard, "is 'Wait.' While your +uncle lives, I cannot, under existing circumstances, permit you to be my +Lucy's husband. At present, you are only boy and girl, and can well +afford to be patient." + +"And when we do marry," returned Marmaduke, gratefully, "you shall not +lose your daughter, sir, but rather gain a son. My home, if I ever have +one, shall be yours also. Pray, believe me when I say that you are my +second father, for you have given me a new life." + +It really seemed so to him who looked at the sparkling eyes and +heightened colour of the speaker, and listened to his tones, so rich +with hope and love. + +"There is certainly no one so civil as a would-be son-in-law," replied +Mr. Gerard, good-naturedly. "I wonder that old gentlemen in my position +ever permit them to marry at all." + +And thus it had been settled--as I saw that it had been--only a very +little while before our arrival in Harley Street. + + * * * * * + +"And what brings you good people up to town?" asked Mr. Gerard gaily, +"without sending a line in advance, which, even in mercy to the +housekeeper, you would surely have done, had not the business been +urgent? As to your travelling with four horses," added our host slily, +"I know so well the pride and ostentation of the clergy that I am not +the least astonished at your doing _that_, Mr. Rector." + +"Truly, sir, now that I find all safe and well," replied my tutor, "I +begin to think we might have travelled in a less magnificent way; but +the fact is, that I felt foolishly apprehensive and curious to tell you +our tidings. Sir Massingberd Heath has been Lost since Thursday +fortnight, November sixteenth." + +"Lost!" exclaimed Mr. Gerard, in amazement. + +"Lost!" echoed Lucy, compassionately. + +"Lost!" murmured Marmaduke, turning deadly pale. "That is terrible, +indeed." + +"Yes, poor wretched man," said Lucy, quickly; "terrible to think that +some judgment may have overtaken him in the midst of his +wickedness--unrepentant, revengeful, cruel." + +"That is truly what should move us most, Miss Gerard," observed my +tutor; "it is but too probable that he has been suddenly cut off, and +that by violence." Then he narrated all that had happened at Fairburn +since the night of Sir Massingberd's disappearance, uninterrupted save +once, when Mr. Gerard left the room for a few minutes, and returned with +another bottle of "the particular," which, it seemed, he would not even +suffer the butler to handle. Marmaduke sat silent and awe-struck, +drinking in every word, and now and then, when a sort of shudder passed +over him, I saw a little hand creep forth and slide into his, when he +would smile faintly, but not take his eyes off Mr. Long--no, not even +to reply to hers. + +"I think," added my tutor, when the narrative was quite concluded, "that +under these circumstances I was justified in coming up to town, Mr. +Gerard, since it is just possible that Sir Massingberd may, may----" + +"That he may not be dead," interrupted our host, gravely; "there is, of +course, that chance, and we must set to work at once to settle the +question." + +There was a violent ringing at the front-door bell. Mr. Long started up +with a "What's that?" Marmaduke's very lips grew white, and trembled. +For my part, I confess I congratulated myself that I was on that side of +the table which was furthest from any person who might enter the room. +Lucy alone maintained a calm demeanour, and looked towards her father +confidently. + +"That is Mr. Clint, I have no doubt," observed Mr. Gerard, quietly. "I +sent word to him an hour ago to come directly, and, if possible, to +bring Townshend with him. Whether Sir Massingberd be alive or not, we +shall soon discover, for the great Bow Street runner will be certain to +find either his body or his bones." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO. + + +Mr. Gerard had hardly finished speaking, when the butler announced Mr. +Clint and "another gentleman," for even among friends the famous Bow +Street officer, exercised his usual caution; and yet there was scarcely +a more public character than Townshend, or better known both to the +classes whom he protected, and to that against which he waged such +constant war. His personal appearance was itself sufficiently +remarkable. A short squab man, in a light wig, kerseymere breeches, and +a blue Quaker-cut coat, he was not, to look at, a very formidable +object. But he possessed the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a +fox. The ruffians who kept society in terror, themselves quailed before +_him_. They knew that he was hard to kill, and valued not his own life +one rush, when duty called upon him to hazard it; that he was faithful +as a watch-dog to the government which employed him, and hated by nature +a transgressor of the law, as a watch-dog hates a wolf. When Townshend +fairly settled himself down upon the track of an offender, the poor +wretch felt like the hare whose fleeing footsteps the stoat relentlessly +pursues; he might escape for the day, or even the morrow, but sooner or +later his untiring foe was certain to be up with him. In those early +days, when the telegraph could not overtake the murderer speeding for +his life, and set Justice upon her guard five hundred miles away, to +intercept him, and when the sun was not the slave of the Law, to +photograph the features of the doomed criminal, so that he can be +recognized as easily as Cain, thief-catching was a much more protracted +business than it is now; nevertheless, it was at least as certain. + +If the facilities for capture were not so great, neither were the +opportunities of escape for the offender so many and various. London was +not the labyrinth that it has since become, and if any criminal of note +forsook it for the provinces, his fate was almost certain. Travellers +did not then rush hither and thither, in throngs of a hundred strong, +impossible to be individually identified by the railway porter to whom +they surrender their tickets; but each man was entered in a way-bill, or +scanned with curiosity by innkeeper and post-boy, wherever his chaise +changed horses. When any considerable sum was sent by mail-coach, +whether by the government or by London bankers, to their provincial +agents, it was not unusual to employ Mr. Townshend as an escort. Nor was +it altogether unexampled for him to be sent for, as in the present +instance, to unravel some domestic mystery; although he was perhaps the +first police-officer who had been so employed, the father of all the +Fields and Pollakies of the present day. He was on intimate terms, +therefore, with many great people, and an especial favourite with the +court, his professional services being engaged at all drawing-rooms and +state occasions. This, combined with the natural assurance and sense of +power in the man, caused Mr. Townshend to hold his head pretty high, and +to treat with persons vastly superior in social station to himself upon +at least an equal footing. His easy nod, with which the great Bow +Street runner favoured us in Harley Street that evening, upon his first +introduction, was not very much unlike the salutation which Mr. Brummel, +at the same period, was wont to bestow upon British marquises and dukes. +Having taken his seat at the dessert-table, at the host's desire, he at +once began to compliment Mr. Gerard upon the contents of the bottle with +the yellow seal, and, in short, behaved himself in all respects as any +other guest would have done who was an intimate friend of the family, +and had dropped in after dinner upon his own invitation. No sooner, +however, did Mr. Clint introduce the subject which had called us up to +town, and Mr. Long begin to recapitulate the story of Sir Massingberd's +disappearance, than this singular person dropped at once all social +pretension, and showed himself the really great man he was. One glass of +wine was sufficient for him during the whole narration, and that he +seemed to sip mechanically, and rather as an assistance to thought, than +because he really enjoyed it, which, however there is no doubt he did. +He only interrupted my tutor twice or thrice, in order to make some +pertinent interrogation, and when all had been described (including a +slight sketch of Marmaduke's position), he sat for a little silent and +noiseless, tapping his wine-glass with his forefinger, and staring into +the fire. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, and what is your opinion?" inquired Mr. Gerard a +little impatiently. "Do you think that this Lost Sir Massingberd is +alive or dead?" + +"That is a question which a fool would answer at once, sir, but a wise +man would take some time to reply to," returned the Bow Street runner +coolly, "But one thing you may depend upon, that he will not be 'Lost' +long. I have blotted that word out of my dictionary. I know Sir +Massingberd Heath well, or, at least, I did know him, and that is a +great advantage to start with; he was not a man, I should think, to +change with age. Tall figure and strong; large piercing eyes; much +beard; a mouth that tells he likes to have his own way; and on his +forehead a mark as if the devil had kicked him." + +"That is excellent," cried Mr. Gerard; "you could not mistake him for +any other man in London." + +"He is _not_ in London, sir," observed the runner dogmatically. "If he +were mixing with the lot that he used to be amongst, I should surely +have heard of it; and if he is with people much beneath him in station, +I should have learned it still more certainly. As for that, however, he +is not one--if I remember him right--to hide himself, or work much +underground." + +"If you mean that he would not stoop to deception, Mr. Townshend," +remarked my tutor gravely, "I am afraid you are mistaken; the very money +which, as I have said, he obtained from me upon the day of his +disappearance, was dishonourably come by. His pretext of the Methodists +having bidden for a piece of ground upon which to build a chapel within +the Park, and almost opposite the Rectory, was, I have since discovered, +entirely false; and I cannot but fear that some judgment has overtaken +this unhappy man." + +Here, I am sorry to say, that Mr. Clint and Mr. Gerard looked at one +another in rather a comic manner, and the Bow Street runner helped +himself to a glass of the particular with an open chuckle. + +"Well, sir," responded that gentleman, "you see Judgments isn't much in +my way. When I catches a chap, he generally knows its judgment and +execution too; but barring that, I doubt whether there is much of a +special Providence for rascals--even when they rob a Church minister. +Not, of course, that I am saying Sir Massingberd Heath, baronet, is a +rascal, or anything like it; I never had anything to do with him in all +my life before this, and that's a good sign, look you. When I said he +was not a man to work underground, however, I did not mean that he would +not employ every ingenious device--and the one you mention was one of +the neatest I ever heard on--to procure money, but that he is of too +domineering and masterful a nature to lurk and spy about. The young +gentleman here need not be in much alarm, I think, of his relative's +turning up in Harley Street; notwithstanding which, he is a very +ticklish customer, no doubt, and one as I should not have been in the +least surprised to find myself under orders to fit with a pair of +bracelets, for such a thing, for instance, as murder." + +I think each of us started and looked at one another in hushed amazement +at this statement; and the wine-glass which Marmaduke was twisting +nervously in his fingers, rattled against the table in spite of his +efforts to remain calm. + +"I mean," observed Mr. Townshend, in explanation, "as the baronet, when +I knew him at least, was venomous, yet likewise hasty; and though +cunning enough, if his temper got the better of him, would do imprudent +things, I remember him well-nigh killing his jockey on the course at +Doncaster--it was the second year as ever the Leger was ran for--and +all for no fault of his, but just because he didn't win when his master +expected it. I remember how the crowd hissed the gentleman, and the ugly +look which he gave them in reply. There was no fuss made about the +matter afterwards; but Sir Massingberd had to supply a deal of Golden +Ointment to the poor lad's bruises: he was very free-handed with his +money at that time. I suppose, by the pace he was then going, that he +has not much left." + +"He has almost literally not a shilling," replied Mr. Long. "I am quite +certain that he had no ready-money in his possession besides the twenty +one-pound notes which he obtained from me upon that evening." + +"And no means of raising any?" inquired Mr. Townshend. + +"None whatever," replied my tutor positively. + +"That simplifies the business a good deal," remarked the Bow Street +runner, drawing out his pocket-book. "Now, I suppose you kept the +numbers of those notes?" + +"Yes, I did. Peter, did you not write them down for me?" + +"The notes ran from 82961 to 82980 inclusive," said I. + +"A very concise and sensible statement, young gentleman,"[1] remarked +the police-officer, approvingly; "I should like, however, to see the +figures in black and white." When these had been found among certain +memorandums of my tutor, Mr. Townshend copied them, and thus continued: +"Now, the first thing as has to be done, gentleman all--by which no +offence is meant to the young lady--is this: we must go to the Bank of +England, and find out if any of these here notes have been paid in since +November 16th. If they have been, one of two things is certain--Sir +Massingberd is spending them, or somebody else is spending them for him. +If the latter, it is probable that it is not with his consent; that is, +that he can't help it; that is, that he's dead as a ten-penny nail;" and +with that the speaker brought down his fist upon the mahogany, as though +he were hammering one in. + +"We shall leave the case, Mr. Townshend, entirely in your hands," +observed Mr. Gerard; "and please to look to me for any expenses you may +require." + +"Very good, sir," replied the runner, rising as if to take his leave; +"but since two or three heads are always better than one, in cases of +this sort, and the present company has their wits about them--which is +by no means the case with many as I have to do with--I should be glad of +a little assistance from yourselves." + +"Don't you think we ought to advertise the baronet as missing, and offer +a reward?" suggested Mr. Clint. + +"There will be no harm in that, of course," replied Mr. Townshend +carelessly; "although I can't say as I have much confidence in +advertisements; my own experience is, that parties who put them in +derive some satisfaction from reading them over to themselves, but the +advantage don't go much beyond that---except that it sometimes puts +people upon their guard as one wants to be off it. I have got a little +pressing business on hand to-morrow--in the forging line--and must now +be off; but if one or two of you will be at the Bank to-morrow +afternoon, at, let us say three o'clock, I shall be sure to be there to +meet you." + + +[1] Every lad in my position, not yet turned twenty-one, was a "young +gentleman" in these times; we were not so tenacious of our dignity as +the young men of to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE BANK-NOTES. + + +It was arranged, to my infinite joy, before retiring to rest that night, +that I was to make one of the Bank party. Marmaduke insisted on +accompanying us, being above measure curious about the matter, and eager +to know the worst (or the best) regarding it. Mr. Long had to return to +Fairburn for his Sunday's duty, and Mr. Clint could not spare the time +from his parchments; so Mr. Harvey Gerard and we two young men went +forth upon the trail together. As the paper-chase is the most glorious +pursuit undertaken by boys, as fox-hunting is the sport of sports for +men, so man-hunting is the avocation fitted for heroes. I know nothing +like it for interest and excitement--nothing. If I could only imbue my +readers with one-tenth of the absorbing concern with which we, the +subordinate actors in this drama of mystery, now began to be devoured, +they would be sorry indeed when this narrative comes to a conclusion. We +three were at the appointed spot some minutes before the hour which had +been agreed upon for meeting the Bow Street runner; but before the +chimes of the Old Exchange clock had ceased their "_Life let us +cherish_"--the tune which they always played on Fridays--the Bow Street +runner appeared. + +Passing through a great room within the Bank, in which, to my +unaccustomed eye, were displayed the riches of Croesus, and where the +golden showers seemed unceasingly to rain, we were conducted into a +private apartment, where sat some grey-headed official, uncommunicative, +calm, like one who has had his glut even of wealth, and to whom money, +whether in bullion or paper, was no longer any object. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, what can I do for you?" inquired he, sedately. "I +trust you are not come about any fresh wrongs against the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street. I never see your face but I think of an imitation +bank-note, and diminution of the stock in our cellar." + +"Thank you, sir," responded the runner, cheerfully; "I am afraid that I +shall have to see you in a day or two respecting a matter of that very +kind, but to-day I am come on a different business. A gentleman of high +rank has been missing for three weeks, or more; and his absence has +given the greatest anxiety to these, his friends. He was known to have +in his possession certain one-pound Bank of England notes, twenty in +all, of which the numbers are known. We wish to know whether they have +been paid in hither in the meantime, and if so, by whom." + +"Have you any order from the deputy-governor?" + +"Why, no, sir," responded the runner, insinuatingly. "I thought that +would not be necessary between you and me." + +"Well, well, I suppose you must have your own way, Townshend. You're a +dangerous man to cross." And the old gentleman wagged his head in a +blandly humorous manner, and made a little golden music with his bunch +of seals. "The numbers of the notes are here, are they? From 82961 to +80. Very good." Here he rang a silver bell, which presently produced an +official personage, something between a gentleman-usher and a +pew-opener. "You may show this party over the cancelled department, +James; and let Mr. Townshend investigate anything he pleases." + +With a not over-courteous nod, the old gentleman resumed his study of a +certain enormous volume, that looked, said Marmaduke, like the quarto +edition of Chaucer, but which, it is reasonable to conclude, was +something else. We were straightway conducted through several vast and +echoing chambers, into a spacious fire-proof vault, where the notes that +had been paid into the Bank awaited the periodical cremation. + +"A week later, and we might not have been in time," remarked the Bow +Street runner, "since every bank-note is burned within a month of its +having found its way home again. If Sir Massingberd has come to a +violent end, and been robbed of his money, we shall probably find it all +here, as those who despoiled him would be anxious to get the notes +changed at once." Our guide led the way to a certain department of the +chamber, with the same accuracy which a student would evince with +respect to a shelf in his own library, and took up in his hand a bundle +of one-pound notes; they were for the most part very dirty and greasy, +but he separated one from the other with a surprising ease and celerity, +reading out the numbers as he did so. "82900, 1, 2, 3--now we are +getting near it," observed the official. "Let us see, 951, is it not?" + +"82961," gasped I, "and the next nineteen." I could scarcely frame the +words, so great was my excitement. Marmaduke's eyes gleamed with anxiety +and impatience; and even Mr. Gerard held his breath, while the clerk +continued, in a dry, mechanical tone: + +"51, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wanting--7, 8, 9 all wanting. 82960---here you have +it; 61 wanting; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are none of them here. +Stop a bit. 82977--that's one, isn't it?" + +"Yes," cried I, "that's one. Pray, let me look at it." + +"Certainly not, sir," responded the official, severely. "With regard to +Mr. Townshend, I have my orders, but as respects him only." + +"Perfectly right," remarked the Bow Street runner, approvingly. "Then +please to give it to me, my man. Are there any more?" + +"Yes, there are--78, 79, 80." + +"Good. That is four in all, then." The detective took them up, and +showed them to me: of course, I could not identify them; but still I +felt some awe to think what hands--hands imbued with blood, +perchance--those notes might have passed through since I had seen Sir +Massingberd thrust them into his pocket. + +"I cannot carry these away with me, my good friend, I suppose?" inquired +Mr. Townshend, persuasively. + +"By no manner of means, Mr. Runner," replied the guardian of these +unctuous treasures, with dignity. "His Majesty himself would never be so +mad as to ask such a thing. A written order from the governor himself +would not permit you to do it." + +"Very good, sir; then we won't trouble the governor to write one," +returned the detective, dryly. "What I must know, however--permission or +no permission--is this: by whose hand were these sweet-smelling and +precious articles paid into the Bank of England?" + +It would have been amusing, under less anxious circumstances, to have +watched the demeanour of these two personages, each jealous of the +dignity of those by whom he was employed, and neither in the least +disposed to surrender one tittle of his delegated authority. + +"That information will, no doubt, be supplied to you," replied the +official, stiffly, "if it is thought right--and not otherwise. Follow +me, gentlemen, if you please, and I will direct you to the office where +such an application may be made." + +This we did; and I am bound to say, met with very great civility from +the superintendent of the department in question. In spite of the +admirable and systematic manner in which the huge establishment was +carried on, it was not easy, and in many cases would have been +impossible, to discover what individual had paid in any particular +note; but every pains and trouble were taken in our behalf, to effect +this. Out of the four notes, only one, No. 82979, could be identified as +having been received from any particular person--one Mr. Worrall, a +silk-merchant in the City. Having expressed our warmest thanks to the +authorities, we immediately called a coach, and started off to this +gentleman's warehouse. We were so fortunate as to find him in, although +he was just upon the point of setting forth to his private residence. +Upon an examination of his books, we discovered no record of the +bank-note about which we were concerned; still, he frankly owned to us +that such memoranda were not kept with excessive accuracy. "It is +possible yet that the people at the Bank may have been correct," +observed he. "You had better return there; and since the matter is one +of life and death, I do not mind confiding to you, that if that note +has passed through our hands at all, it will have the letter W, in red, +upon the back of it; it is very small, but still can be deciphered +without a magnifying-glass." + +"There was no mark," observed I, "upon any of the notes I saw." + +"There _was_ a mark," remarked the Bow Street runner, reflectively; and +I am pretty sure it was upon this very note.--"It is no wonder that you +did not see it, young gentleman, since your livelihood does not depend, +as mine does, upon keeping my eyes about me. The mark in question was +also almost obliterated by the red "Cancelled" which the Bank had placed +upon the note; but as far as I could make it out, it was the letter O." + +"That is the private mark of the Metropolitan Oil Company," exclaimed +Mr. Worrall, without hesitation. "Although, indeed, because I have told +my own secrets, I am not sure that I am justified in revealing those of +other people. Their offices are in the very next street to this." + +Off we started like hounds, who, after, a check, have once more struck +the scent. Business in the City had by this time greatly diminished, and +many of the shops were closed; but the Oil Company's emporium, as +behoved it, was lighted up from cellar to garret, to give assurance to +the world that what they sold could turn night, and even London fog, +into day. Notwithstanding the extreme luminosity of the premises, we +found the accounts of the establishment, however, rather opaque and +complicated; and although nothing could exceed the pains which the +clerks put themselves to upon our account, it was several hours before +No. 82979 could be identified, both as respected its incoming and +outgoing. Finally, however, we gleaned the certain information that the +note in question had been received only a day or two previously by the +Oil Company from a Mr. Vanderseld, the skipper of a foreign vessel, then +lying in the port of London, but which, he had informed them, was to +sail immediately. He had bought a small quantity of oil for his cabin +lamps, and taken it with him, but had ordered a large supply to be sent +to his address in Hamburg, and with this address we were made +acquainted. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend," quoth Mr. Harvey Gerard, as we rolled homewards +in a hackney-coach, after seven hours of this man-hunting, "what think +you that this news portends? Is the game still afoot, or is it only dead +game--quarry?" + +"I can speak with no sort of certainty yet," replied the Bow Street +runner; "but next to all the notes having been paid into the Bank on +the 17th or so--which, as I told you, would have almost indicated Sir +Massingberd's murder and robbery, without any doubt--I know of no worse +tidings than this, of their having come from Hamburg. There's a regular +agency abroad, and particularly in that town, for the sale of Bank of +England notes dishonestly come by. If a thief cannot get to the Bank +immediately, to turn his plunder into gold, he sends it across the +water; and then it comes back to us at home, through honest hands +enough. We must communicate, of course, with Vanderseld; but the +probability is that he will be unable to give us any information. These +sea-fellows take account of nothing except what concerns their own +trade. He may remember the quarter that the wind was blowing from upon +the day he had the note, to a nicety; but he won't have a notion, bless +you, as to who paid it him. No--it's the worst sign yet, to my mind, +that that 'ere note has come through foreign hands. But don't you be +down-hearted, my young gentleman," added the Bow Street runner, +addressing himself to Marmaduke, who looked very fagged and anxious; +"I'll find your respected uncle, mind you, let him be where he will; and +if he's dead, why, you shall see his corpse, though I have to dig it up +with my finger-nails." With which comforting statement we had, for that +evening, to be content. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A BENEVOLENT STRANGER. + + +Having written to Mr. Vanderseld of Hamburg, there was nothing, pending +the reception of his reply, for even Mr. Townshend to do beyond his +favourite occupation of keeping his eyes open. We advertised, however, +in the "Morning Chronicle" (a print that at that time was far from +looking forward, to death from want of circulation, and the having its +eyes closed by a penny piece), in the "Times," and in the "Sun," and +offered a reward of one hundred guineas for tidings of the missing +baronet; nor, in spite of the Bow Street Runner's depreciating remarks +upon this point, were our efforts in that direction wholly thrown away. +A full description of Sir Massingberd had appeared in the above +newspapers for ten successive days, and on the eleventh, the following +information came of it. We were all breakfasting in Harley Street, Mr. +Long having come up from Fairburn the previous day, when the butler +informed us that there was a man waiting in the hall, who wished to see +"H.G.," who had put a certain advertisement into the "Sun" newspaper. +"Show him in here at once, George," quoth Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands. +"How pleased I shall be if we learn what we wish to know, after all, +without any help from Bow Street. I beg you will take a chair, sir." +These last words were addressed to a very respectable-looking person, +whom the servant had ushered in, and who bowed to us in a very decorous +and unassuming fashion. He was attired in half-mourning, and carried a +little black leather bag and an umbrella--the latter a less common +companion in these days than a cane is now--as though he had just come +off a journey. + +"I have called, gentlemen," said he, "simply in consequence of seeing a +notice respecting the disappearance of a certain individual of whose +whereabouts I am in a position to inform you." + +"Is Sir Massingberd Heath alive, sir?" gasped Marmaduke. + +"Heaven be praised, he _is_, sir," responded the stranger, fervently. + +"Umph," ejaculated Mr. Gerard, with less piety. + +Mr. Long coughed behind his fingers, but otherwise kept a discreet +silence. + +"You know him, do you, sir?" inquired our host. + +"I know him well enough by sight, if, at least, your advertised +description of his personal appearance is accurate," resumed our +visitor. "His height, his beard, the curious indentation upon his +forehead, are all characteristic of the man whom I saw last night, and +whom I have seen every day for weeks. He is living under the name of +Daneton, at Nutgall, a village in Cambridgeshire, near which I reside. I +have not the slightest doubt whatever of his identity. As for knowing +him, except by sight, however, I cannot say that I do. Without meaning +offence, or wishing to hurt the feelings of relations, I may observe +that his mode of life is scarcely one to make acquaintance with him +advantageous. If I may speak without reserve upon the matter, I should +state that he drank considerably, to the extent, indeed, the landlord of +the inn has informed me, of, at least, a bottle and a half of French +brandy _per diem_." + +"That _must_ be my uncle," observed Marmaduke, naïvely. + +"He is so, sir, without a doubt," continued the stranger. "I do not seek +for any pecuniary reward; but having seen your advertisement, I thought +it my duty to come up hither, and relieve the feelings of anxious +relatives." + +Here the door opened, and Mr. Townshend walked in unannounced, as it was +his custom to do. Merely nodding to us all, as though he was an inmate +of the house, he sat down at the table with his back to the visitor, and +helped himself to a roll and butter. + +Mr. Gerard explained briefly the stranger's errand to the officer of +justice, and then observed, "Are we to understand, then, that you have +been so good as to come all the way from Nutgall hither, expressly to +give us this information?" + +"No, sir," responded the man with frankness; "I should deceive you if I +were to say that much. I have business in the City to-day, and arrived +so far by coach; I came on hither, merely a few miles beyond my mark; +that is all for which you are indebted to me." + +"That is a great deal," observed Mr. Long, warmly. "We take it very +kindly that you should have done so much." + +"I thought it only my duty, sir," replied the visitor, modestly. "The +trouble I do not take into account." + +"What a pity the gentleman did not think of writing by the post," +observed Mr. Townshend, still proceeding with his breakfast; "that would +have saved him this long expedition, and us many days of anxiety." + +"That is very true," returned the stranger; "but the fact is, one does +not always like to answer advertisements in that way. How did I know who +'H.G.' was? I thought also that a personal interview would be more +satisfactory. I am a poor man, but I did not grudge the chance of losing +an hour or two on an errand of charity." + +"You are very good," answered Marmaduke, gloomily. + +"And you must, please, permit us," added Mr. Long, taking out his purse, +"to at least reimburse you for that loss of time." + +"It seems to me," observed Mr. Townshend, speaking with his mouth full, +"that this gentleman is about to be rather hardly dealt by. It is true +that a guinea, or even half a one, may repay him for his lost time; but +if his intelligence respecting Sir Massingberd Heath turns out to be +such as he represents it, he will be entitled to the hundred guineas +reward." + +"I never thought of that," observed Mr. Long, returning his purse to his +pocket not without a blush. "I hope, sir, that you will acquit me of any +sordid design in what I proposed to do." + +"Most certainly, sir," returned the stranger, with animation; "and +indeed your views, as you just expressed them, are quite in accordance +with my own. I have no wish whatever for the reward in question; to have +done my duty is, I hope, a sufficient recompense for me. On the other +hand, I cannot well afford to lose these two or three hours which have +been expended in your service. A couple of guineas would quite repay me +for this, and even leave the obligation upon my side." + +There was a silence for a little, during which Mr. Long gazed +inquiringly at Mr. Gerard, and he, in his turn, looked towards Mr. +Townshend; then, as though the back of that gentleman's head had been +cognizant that counsel was demanded of it, the Bow Street runner spoke +as follows: + +"It would be nothing less than a fraud, in my opinion, if this good +gentleman's generosity is taken advantage of in the way he suggests. If +the management of this business is to be in my hands, I should say let +us behave with rectitude at least, if not with liberality. The hundred +guineas are fairly his, if he is correct in what he has told us; +whereas, if he is _not_ correct--since no mistake can have occurred in +the matter, by his own showing--why, this is merely an attempt to extort +money under false pretences." + +"Really, Mr. Townshend," cried my tutor, starting to his feet, "I think +your profession of thief-catching makes you very unscrupulous in your +imputations." + +For my own part, I felt excessively indignant too; and so, I think, +would Marmaduke have done, had he not been preoccupied with his own +thoughts. Lucy blushed, and cast down her eyes. Her father quietly +observed, "Mr. Townshend may have been somewhat plain-spoken, but what +he has said is common sense. If you will be good enough to leave your +address at Nutgall with us, sir, we shall communicate with you as soon +as we have convinced ourselves of the truth of your suspicions; and then +we shall not only have compensation but apologies to offer you." + +"Very good, sir," rejoined the visitor coolly. "My address is upon that +card. If I had known the sort of reception that awaited me here, I +should not perhaps have been so anxious to do my duty. Gentlemen, I +wish you good-day. I am sorry to have interrupted your repast." + +"Don't mention it, my good sir," observed the Bow Street runner, as he +disposed of his third slice of ham. "I have treated you as no stranger, +I assure you." + +To this sarcasm the visitor made no reply, but bowing to the rest of the +company, was about to withdraw with polite severity, when Mr. Long +stepped forward, and took him by the hand. "I believe you are a +kindly-hearted man," cried he, "who has been grievously wronged by those +whom you have attempted to benefit; but in any case, it cannot do you +any harm to have shaken hands with an honest man, and one who is a +humble minister of the gospel." + +I could have jumped up and shaken hands with the stranger also, but a +false shame prevented me. I thought that Townshend was only waiting for +the poor fellow to go to become contemptuously cynical upon those who +had shown any belief in him. The Bow Street runner, however, said never +a word, but proceeded with his interminable breakfast. + +Mr. Long was speechless with indignation. I saw Lucy Gerard cast an +approving glance at my excellent tutor, and then an imploring one +towards her father, who was biting his lips, as if to restrain his +laughter. + +At last, the rector broke silence. "I gather from what you have stated, +Mr. Townshend, that you will scarcely consider it worth while to go down +to Nutgall, or make any further inquiry into the circumstances of which +you have just heard." + +"It will certainly not be worth _my_ while," returned the Bow Street +runner curtly. + +"Then I shall go down into Cambridgeshire myself," observed my tutor. + +"Very good, sir. If time were less valuable to me, it would give me a +great deal of pleasure to accompany you." + +"My dear Peter," remarked my tutor, taking no notice of this wicked +banter, "what do you say to coming with me?" + +Even if I had been less disposed to do this than I was, I should still +have readily consented to be the rector's travelling companion, for to +refuse would have been to declare myself upon the enemy's side. + +Accordingly, we set off upon this amateur detective expedition that very +day; and on the following evening returned to Harley Street, having +possessed ourselves of this important information: That benevolence is +sometimes assumed for the base purpose of making a few shillings, and +that advertisements are occasionally taken advantage of to the confusion +of those who insert them. There was really a village called Nutgall; +that was the one fact that the respectable person in half-mourning had +brought along with his black leather bag and silk umbrella. There was +not a public-house in the place where Sir Massingberd could have +procured that bottle and a half of French brandy, had he been ever so +disposed to dissipation, or even where we ourselves could get bread and +cheese. + +I verily believe, at the time of his disenchantment, my revered tutor +would rather that the baronet had been really at Nutgall, and in the +humour and condition to wage implacable war against poor Marmaduke, than +have given such an opportunity of triumph to the man of Bow Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS. + + +It was the Runner's custom to call at Mr. Gerard's every evening, no +matter how often he might have been there during the day, in order to +report progress, or that there was none; and when his knock at the +front-door was heard, I perceived the rector wince upon his chair, like +one who has been roasted a little already, and expects to be before the +fire again immediately. Mr. Townshend, however, did not even so much as +allude to our Will-o'-the-Wisp pursuit, cautioned, perhaps, not to do so +by our host, or besought by his daughter, as I fancy. I do not think +that the gravity of the intelligence he brought with him would, of +itself, have blunted Mr. Townshend's appetite for acrimonious jesting, +which was insatiable; and, indeed, the issues of Death or Life, and of +Lost or Found, formed so much the ordinary business of his life, that +any discovery, no matter of what nature, disturbed him as little as +finding a gentleman with his head off disturbs the King of Dahomey. + +"Well, Mr. Long, I am glad to see you back again," said he; "you are the +very man I want. Does a farmer of the name of Arabel happen to reside in +or near your parish?" + +"He lives at Fairburn, within a stone's throw----" + +"You will never make a Bow Street runner," interrupted Mr. Townshend, +shaking his head. + +"Well, then," continued my tutor good-humouredly, "if accuracy is so +essential, I will say within half a mile and a few yards of my own +Rectory." + +"That is better, sir," returned the detective gravely. "And what sort of +a character do you consider this man to bear?" + +"Mr. Arabel is an honest man and a good churchman," replied the rector +positively; "and but for a little occasional excess----" + +"A drunkard, eh?" observed the Bow Street officer, briskly. + +"No, certainly not, Mr. Townshend. He takes too much liquor now and +then, I believe; but, I regret to say it, there are few more sober +persons in my parish than Richard Arabel." + +"Indeed," observed the other reflectively; "and yet he was the man who +paid No. 82979 to Mr. Vanderseld, who trades in grain. I have heard +from Hamburg, and have traced the note back again to Fairburn. I start +for that place this evening by post-chaise; and if you or Mr. Meredith +want a lift, I shall be happy to take one or both of you along with me." + +This intelligence astonished us all immensely, and my tutor and myself, +who knew the farmer, more than the rest. Such news would have been +itself sufficient to have taken the rector home at once; besides, he was +not only anxious, as usual, to get back to his own parish, but somewhat +grudged our long-continued absence and intellectual holiday. There did +not seem, too, to be any sort of necessity for my remaining longer with +Marmaduke, who had found, it was impossible to doubt, a companion far +more capable of upholding and encouraging him than I. The Bow Street +runner's offer was therefore accepted by both of us; and in a few hours +we took our seats in the same vehicle for Midshire. The chaise was as +roomy a one as could be procured, but still, as there was but one seat, +I had to assume the position of "bodkin" between my two companions. +Their conversation was at first entirely confined to the subject of our +expedition, namely, Farmer Arabel, concerning whom the detective +expressed his suspicions the more darkly, the more extravagantly he was +eulogized by Mr. Long. So vehement was their dispute, that I did not +like to interrupt it for a considerable period, during which I endured +great inconvenience from sitting upon a substance at once both sharp and +hard, contained in one of Mr. Townshend's pockets. If he had been a lady +of the present day, I should have known what it was, and perhaps have +modestly suffered on without remonstrance; but since he was not of the +softer sex, and certainly did not wear crinoline, I ventured to ask what +it was which inflicted such torture. + +"I beg your pardon, young gentleman," observed the Bow Street runner, +removing the article objected to; "you was only sitting upon a pair of +bracelets with which I may have perhaps to present Mr. Richard Arabel." + +"You don't mean to say that you carry handcuffs in your pocket!" +observed my tutor, with a shudder of disgust. + +"I mean to say I do, and should as soon think of moving about without +'em, as without my hat and breeches," returned the runner, with a +coolness that froze us both into a protracted silence. + +The rain fell heavily, as the night drew on, and dashed against the +streaming panes with fitful violence. The wind and wet poured in +together whenever the window was put down to pay the postboys. I pitied +the poor fellows, exposed to such weather, and was glad to see that Mr. +Townshend paid them liberally. "There are no persons who are more +open-handed travellers than your Bow Street runners," observed Mr. Long, +when I remarked to him upon this circumstance in the absence of our +friend, who had stepped out while we were changing horses somewhere, for +brandy and water; "and the reason of their generosity is this, that +other people have to pay for it." I had never heard my tutor utter so +severe a speech, and I gathered from it that his indignation against our +fellow-wayfarer was as poignant as ever; and yet within half an hour it +was fated that all his resentment should be neutralized by gratitude, +leaving a large margin of the latter sentiment over and above. + +The next stage was over a desolate, treeless heath, where the elements +had their own way against us more than ever, and our vehicle seemed +actually to shrink and shudder from the force of their onslaught. All of +a sudden, I was thrown forward against the opposite window by the +stoppage of the postchaise. At first I thought a horse had fallen; but +immediately afterwards the window next to Mr. Long was violently pushed +down from without, and a something black and small, which was a pistol, +was protruded into the carriage. + +"Your money or your life! Come, be quick, curse you, and don't keep +gentlemen waiting in the wet," said a rough voice. "Be quick, I say." A +volley of oaths accompanied this unpleasant request. + +"I have only a couple of guineas with me," cried Mr. Long, quietly, +"and you will not make it more by swearing." + +"That's a lie!" remarked the voice very uncivilly, "for you're a parson, +you are, and they've always money enough. Ain't he a parson, postboy? +Didn't you say so, when. I asked you who you'd got inside there? Come +here, won't yer?" + +At these words, one of the wretched postboys, shivering and dripping, +came forward to the window, and stammered out, "Really, gentlemen, I +couldn't help it; he swore as he'd blow out my brains, if I didn't tell; +so I told him as one was a clergyman, I believed, but the other two----" + +"My name is Townshend," interrupted the Bow Street runner, with great +distinctness. "If you had happened to know that, boy, and had informed +these gentlemen of the circumstance, I am sure they would never have +stopped us, unless, indeed, it was to inquire after my health." At the +same time he thrust his broad face out of the window into the light +thrown by a lantern carried by one of the robbers; for there were +several dim forms on horseback, as I could now perceive. If a +blunderbuss had been exhibited instead, it could not have caused +one-half of the panic which the sight of his features occasioned; each +robber turned his back at once, as though to prevent the recognition +being mutual, and spurred away into the darkness, leaving nothing but +the dismounted postboy to evidence that they were not mere phantoms of +the night. + +"Get to your saddle, and make you up for lost time," said the Runner +sternly; and when this mandate had been obeyed, and we were once more on +our way, he added, "That postboy sold us; I saw him whispering to a man +on horseback in the inn-yard while I was taking some drink in the +back-parlour; he was never asked any question when the chaise was +stopped. That was Jerry Atherton, too, who put his shooting-iron in at +that window; I should know his voice though a mob were shouting with +him. A man who wishes to do something of which the consequences are so +very serious, should not only wear crape, but keep his mouth shut." + +"We have to thank you very much, I am sure," said Mr. Long. "It was a +great providence for us that you were with us." + +"Very likely, sir," returned Mr. Townshend, grimly; "but not for Jerry, +nor yet for the postboy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE FALSE SCENT. + + +I am now drawing near the end of this strange eventful narrative, and my +readers will learn in a chapter or two what has in reality become of +Lost Sir Massingberd: whether he lies dead in Fairburn Chase, +notwithstanding that strict search of ours, or somewhere else, conveyed +by foemen's hands; or if, alive, he keeps in hiding nigh, for some evil +end, or has even left British soil for a time, to return, according to +his threat, on a day when he is least expected. If his real whereabouts +and true position have been guessed, then is he who hit upon it a wiser +man, not only than I was at that time (which might easily be), but +wiser than that genius of Bow Street, whose eye was reported to see +further into very millstones than any man alive of his time. He arrived +at Fairburn with his handcuffs and his suspicions, and would, I verily +believe, have made me his stalking-horse whereby to come down upon the +guileless Farmer Arabel, and extract what might be tantamount to a +confession. + +"You know him, Mr. Meredith," he had observed to me in his frankest +tone, as we walked out together after breakfast, on the morning after +our arrival; "and I look to you to make the matter easy. We will step +over to the farm at once, if you please, and have a glass of home-brewed +with the good man, when, I dare say, he will tell us what we want to +know, and exculpate himself at the same time." + +"Mr. Townshend," I replied, gravely, "I have been made a catspaw of +already, within a few weeks, and until the remembrance of that event has +worn off very considerably, I shall not act that part again." + +"Very good, sir," responded the Runner, cheerfully. "I only thought, +that being a well-wisher to the person in question, you might have made +the thing less unpleasant for him. If you went with me, introducing me +as a gentleman from London, anxious to see good farming, for +instance--that 'ud tickle him--I could bring the subject of the note +into conversation; then, if he explained to my satisfaction, as he will +doubtless be able to do, how he got possession of it, it will not be +necessary to inquire further. He need never know as a police-officer had +been down here with darbies in his pocket, upon the chance of having to +fit them on his wrists upon the charge of Wilful Murder." + +"There is certainly something in that," said I, musingly. + +"There is everything in it," returned Mr. Townshend, stepping carelessly +over the style, on the other side of which ran the pathway to Mr. +Arabel's residence. "The idea of this man's guilt being, as you say, +quite preposterous, it would only be a kindness on your part to spare +his feelings. That's a fine stout old fellow looking at those men at +work in yonder field, a sort of man that carries his years better than +one sees people do in London: I should say, now, that might be the +farmer himself." + +"Really," said I, stopping short, "I think you had better do this +business of yours alone, Mr. Townshend. I have eaten and drunk in Mr. +Arabel's house, and to be concerned in any such errand as this seems but +a poor return for his hospitality." + +"Ah, it _is_ him, is it? Very good, sir. Well, you may just please +yourself as to accompanying me now. When I have once set eyes on my man +it is not my habit to lose sight of him. Still, you might have made it +easier--for _him_, that is. It is no matter to me whether the thing is +done soft or hard." And the Bow Street runner stepped along as he spoke, +like a diligent man who sees his work cut out before him. + +After a moment's indecision, I followed upon Mr. Townshend's heels. + +"That's right, young gentleman," observed he, approvingly, but without +even turning his head. "Those is turnips, I suppose, and very good they +are with capers and a leg of mutton; as to wheat, I am not acquainted +with it, at least, so as to know it from oats and barley, unless when +it's in ear. Agriculture is one of them things to which I have not yet +given my attention; but I means to do so, and I have come here for +wrinkles concerning it, remember that, if you please." + +"Very well," said I, sheepishly, for I was obliged to confess to myself +that Mr. Townshend had got the better of me; and in a few more strides +we had got within earshot of the farmer. This was not indeed very near, +but Mr. Arabel had excellent lungs, and bade me welcome as soon as he +had recognized me. + +"Glad to see you, as likewise any friend of yours, Master Meredith. So +the rector is back, I hear; and the wise folks in London can tell no +more what has become of Sir Massingberd than we poor folks." + +"No, Mr. Arabel, they cannot; on the contrary," said I, determined that +there should be no hypocrisy upon my part at least, "here is one of +them, who is come down to Fairburn for information, and relies upon you +to give it to him too." + +"I should like to know when you saw Sir Massingberd last," observed the +Bow Street runner quietly, "and under what circumstances?" + +"That is soon told," returned the farmer simply; "but perhaps you would +rather step in out of the cold, and take a drop of something while you +hear it." + +"No, I thank you," said I, firmly, determined that the laws of +hospitality should not be thus infringed with my consent, "I must return +to the Rectory at once." + +"Then I will walk with you," observed the farmer civilly, "and tell you +all I know in a few words. The fact is, the squire and I had not been on +good terms for a length of time before his disappearance. He was a bad +landlord, and did not know how to behave to a tenant as would have done +his duty by him. He wanted his own rent paid to the day, and never had +to ask it from me, for that matter; but when he owed a little money +himself, it was dreadful hard to get it out of him. There happened to be +something due from him to me--it was a small matter, made up of little +things--corn for that horse he bought for Master Marmaduke, among +others, but the thing had been owing for a year or more. I had not +deducted it from the rent, and therefore he ought to have been the +readier to pay it; but he was not; and at last I cut up rough about it, +and went to the Hall myself on the 15th of last month, and then we +rather fell out together, the Squire and me." + +"You quarrelled, did you?" remarked Mr. Townshend, carelessly. + +"Well, yes, we did quarrel; leastways, _I_ did. Sir Massingberd always +quarrelled with whoever asked him for payment, so that was nothing. I +said that I would not leave the house without the money; but at last I +did leave upon his solemn promise to pay me the next day, that was the +very day of his disappearance, and he did pay me, with as many oaths as +one-pound notes into the bargain." + +"He paid you these on the 15th of November, then," observed the +detective. + +"On the 16th," replied the farmer. "I've got a memorandum of it in my +pocket-book; here it is, and the number of the notes 82977 to 80; there +was four in all." + +"And those notes you sent to your London agent along with more, and you +got some foreign stuff back from Hamburg in exchange for them." + +"And how the deuce come you to know that?" exclaimed the farmer in +extreme astonishment. + +"Well, it is my business to know a good many things," returned the Bow +Street runner, getting over the stile rather sulkily, for he was well +aware by this time that there would be no employment for his favourite +bracelets. + +"Well, that may be your friend's business," quoth Mr. Arabel, looking +after his retreating form, "but I'm gormed if he looks like it. I should +have said he was an individual in the same line as myself, only fatter, +and though I say it as shouldn't say it, a sight more foolish." + +"Nay," said I, "he is not a foolish man, Mr. Arabel, far from it; +although I think he has come down to Fairburn upon a fool's errand." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +"LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD." + + +I have said that I am approaching the conclusion of this my story, and +so in truth I am, so far as the readers thereof are concerned in it. +They will soon be put in possession of its secret, and close this +volume, not altogether without regret, as I hope. But for me, and those +who played their parts in this drama of mystery, months and years went +by without the least clue to its solution. Fairburn Hall remained +without a master, although not untenanted. The same servants occupied it +as before, and expected, although with less and less of certainty, that +the Squire would presently return and claim his own again. The +principal rooms, as was stated, had been locked up and sealed ever since +his disappearance, and the very neighbourhood of their doors had begun +to be avoided after dark. Noises were affirmed to have been heard in +them, both canine and human--doubtless the ghostly talk held between +Grimjaw and Sir Massingberd, who had now no longer any reason for +silence concerning that evil deed in which they had been concerned +together so long ago. The baronet's voice was also heard in the Park and +Chase, especially upon windy nights, cursing and threatening in a very +vehement and life-like manner, so that his preserves were almost as well +protected by the terror of his absence as they had been by that of his +presence. Reckless, indeed, must have been the poacher who wired hares +or slaughtered pheasants in the Home Spinney, where the dread Sir +Massingberd must have met with his end, or been spirited away, no man +knew how or whither. Had it not been for this superstitious awe, Oliver +Bradford would have found it difficult to guard his master's game, for +the old keeper, crippled with age and rheumatism, could no longer watch +o' nights himself, nor could he easily induce his subordinates to do so, +unless in pairs. They, too, had little liking to be alone in the Home +Spinney after dusk, nor near the Wolsey Oak, which of late years had had +certain portentous tenants in the shape of the two ravens, which were +for ever flying to and fro between it and their lodging in the church +tower. The old ancestral saying-- + + "Ill for Heaths when raven's croak + Bodeful comes from Wolsey's Oak"-- + +was remembered and repeated by the old folks of Fairburn to the rising +generation with many a solemn head-shake and significant pursing of the +lips. Yet, oddly enough, the general opinion, even of these ancient +gossips, was, that Sir Massingberd was yet alive. The misfortune +prophesied by the ravens was held to concern the family, or, in other +words, young Marmaduke, rather than his uncle. If the behaviour of these +intelligent birds proclaimed that the Squire was dead, they deserved +rather to be held as doves of good tidings than what they were. No; Sir +Massingberd was alive, and would turn up some day or other, wickeder +than ever. His return was as confidently looked for by many of his +vassals, as that of Barbarossa was wont to be. + +This was not, of course, the case with reasonable persons, like Mr. +Long, and, I may add, myself. When a twelvemonth had elapsed since his +disappearance, we both entreated Marmaduke to come down to Fairburn, and +take possession of what might fairly be considered his own. Mr. Gerard +and Mr. Clint were equally anxious that he should do this, but all +persuasion was unavailing. The most that could be extracted from him was +the promise that, when he came of age, a year and a half hence, he would +do as we pleased. It seemed to us, indeed, the height of improbability +that his uncle should still be in the land of the living; it seemed so +to the money-lenders, who showed themselves anxious to accommodate the +young man with enormous loans at a very trifling rate of interest; but +to the heir himself it by no means appeared so certain. There was +something characteristic, he thought, of his terrible uncle in this +mysterious withdrawal from human ken, with the fiendish object of +throwing everything out of gear for years, and thus striking terror by +his sudden reappearance. If he did reappear and found another--and that +one his hated nephew--in the enjoyment of his property, how diabolical +would be his wrath! There was often quite a sublimity of passion evinced +by the old baronet upon very slight occasions; but all such displays, +compared to what would happen in the case supposed, would have been but +as a cavalry inspection at the Curragh to the Balaklava charge. Such +were the thoughts, I am convinced, which actuated Marmaduke, although he +did not express them. He confined himself to stating that he did not +consider he had a right to take possession of Fairburn until the time he +mentioned had elapsed (nor, indeed, was he legally entitled to do so for +seven years), and I doubt if he would have given even that promise, had +he not felt sure that some revelation would be made in the meantime. + +But no such revelation _was_ made, and the day of Marmaduke Heath's +majority came round at last. Whether he would even then have put his +purpose of coming down to Fairburn into effect, had it depended solely +upon himself, I cannot say, but he had by that time other interests to +consult beside his own. Marmaduke Heath and Lucy Gerard were man and +wife; nor, if you had sought all England through, would you have chanced +upon a nobler-looking couple. At that period, although it was not so +afterwards, the dependence, the reliance, the looking up for comfort and +for counsel, so natural and so endearing in wedded life, were upon the +wrong side--upon Marmaduke's, not Lucy's. All that was done in respect +to his affairs was done by her; he only thought about doing them, and +resisted their being done until the very last, when, all other means +having failed, her sweet voice was called in by the councillors for his +good, and always succeeded. In one matter only had Marmaduke refused +even to listen to her--he had insisted upon raising a very large sum +upon his now excellent expectations, and settling it upon her before his +marriage. In vain he had been assured that such a settlement was +unnecessary, and the interest he would have to pay for the money +borrowed, absolutely thrown away. The young man had his way in this; and +on the day after the execution of the deed in question they were +married. I had determined within myself not to be present at that +wedding, in spite of a very pressing invitation, and although Mr. Long +himself attended it. + +"What, not go to see Marmaduke married?" cried my tutor, when I told him +of this intention. I call him still by that name, although he was at +this time merely my host, with whom I was stopping during one of my +Oxford vacations. "Why, Meredith, you astonish me beyond measure. I am +sure that neither of them will think I have rightly married them, unless +you are there to be bridegroom's man. Why, Lucy Gerard loves you, Peter, +almost as much as she does Marmaduke himself; while Mr. Gerard, between +you and me, would, I think, have preferred----" Then I broke down all of +a sudden, and laid my face between my hands upon the table, and sobbed +like a child. + +"Peter, Peter, my dear boy," exclaimed the Rector, laying his +fingers--ah, so pitifully--upon my head; "I had not dreamed of this. +Poor lad, poor lad, God comfort you and strengthen you; I feel for you +as though you were my very own son. What blind worms must we have been +not to have seen this before; or, rather, how bravely must you have +hidden it from us all! She doesn't know it, does she? I trust not. Then +let her never know it, Peter. I do not speak of others, for your +feelings deserve to be considered as much, and more, dear lad. But, oh, +think of hers. What bitterness will mingle with her cup of happiness +upon that day, when she feels that you are absent from such a cause--for +she will guess the cause at once, Peter." + +"I will be ill," groaned I. "Heaven knows that I shall feel ill enough, +and that shall be my excuse." + +"And do you think Marmaduke would marry, knowing that his best friend +lies ill and alone here? He would never do that. They would feel, I +hope, too, that if it were so, I should not have left you. No, Peter; +you have been very strong hitherto--be strong unto the end. Let her +never know that you have suffered and are suffering now for her sweet +sake." + +"I will do what you think is best, dear old friend," said I; "but please +to leave me by myself a little just now." + +And he did so; and I battled with my own heart and subdued it, and when +Marmaduke and Lucy were married I was present. + +"My dear Peter, your hand is as cold as a stone!" exclaimed the +bridegroom, when he wished me "Good-bye" that day. But Lucy said +nothing, save "Good-bye, Peter;" and even to that I could not reply. +They were very happy, those two, as indeed they deserved to be. Whatever +was wanting at that time in him, her good sense supplied; while in her, +neither then nor afterwards, was there anything wanting. She had +sympathized as much as lay in her power in the tastes and opinions of +her father; she had had a bringing-up which, in these days, would have +at least resulted in what is called a strong-minded woman, rather as +opposed to a gentle one. This could scarcely, indeed, have been the case +with Lucy, but her marriage with Marmaduke made it impossible. Her mind +had heretofore been, as it were, all orchard, bringing forth fine and +vigorous fruit; a portion of it now became a garden, producing flowers +dainty and rare. Her teacher being also her lover, it was no wonder that +her progress was rapid; and it is probable that the young student had +never found his studies so sweet as when communicating them to such a +pupil. From her father, she had learned philosophy; from her husband, +how to appreciate all that was beautiful in Nature and touching in +Song. As for her politics, Marmaduke was infinitely more solicitous to +imbue her with correct views respecting the poets, which, perhaps, was +fortunate enough. She would never have admitted, even to please him, +that her beloved, father was wrong, or even extreme in his views of +government; and, in truth, those opinions of hers--so enthusiastic, so +trustful, and founded upon the mistake of believing all her +fellow-creatures as guileless as herself--gave her conversation, an +added charm. To hear her talk of wrongs and rights, with heightened +colour and earnest eyes--no matter how elevated the rank of the person +addressed, nor how nearly connected with the very executive of whose +acts she was complaining--was enough to make a bishop exchange his mitre +for a white hat, and adopt the Thirty-nine Articles recommended by Mr. +Hone. + +"Judge Jeffreys himself could never have had the heart to condemn my +Lucy for a rebel," Mr. Harvey Gerard was wont to say; "although," he +would add, with a cynical twinkle in his eye, "I would not trust my Lord +Ellenborough." + +Mr. Long and myself were both in Harley Street upon the day when +Marmaduke came of age; and after dinner, Mr. Clint made a little speech, +not without connivance, I think, beforehand with others of the party. He +observed, that gratifying as was the occasion in question in all +respects, it was most satisfactory to himself, as concluding the period +which Marmaduke had assigned as the limit of his abstaining from taking +his rightful position in the world. He ventured to say this much upon +his own part, as having been connected with the Heath family for a +lengthened period; but he would also say for others--what he knew they +would be backward to say for themselves--that his young friend owed it +to them also not to delay the matter any longer. + +Marmaduke's face expressed more painful agitation than I had seen it +wear for months. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Clint," he returned; +"and, at all events, I will be as good as my word, which I passed to +Mrs. Heath," and he looked at his wife, as though he would have appealed +to her to release him from that promise. + +"Of course, I am right, sir," returned the lawyer quickly; "but you are +wrong and very uncivil not to give your wife her proper title. Lady +Heath, I beg to drink your very good health; Sir Marmaduke, here's to +your better manners;" and the lawyer emptied his glass, and filled it up +again, in case any other excuse should arise for the drinking of good +liquor. + +"Lady Heath's health; her husband's better manners," echoed laughingly +round the table. + +Marmaduke nerved himself by a strong effort, and replied to this toast +with feeling and eloquence. He promised to accede to the request made by +Mr. Clint, and to that end would return with us to Fairburn on the next +day but one to make his arrangements personally for coming to reside at +the Hall. As for his not having assumed the title, he protested, amidst +merriment, that he had not hitherto done so, solely out of deference to +the feelings of his father-in-law, whom he had once heard describe a +baronet as a something only not quite so bad as a lord. + +We were all delighted not only with the intentions Marmaduke thus +expressed, but with the cheerfulness and gaiety of his manner in +speaking of them; and when the rest had retired for the night, and my +old friend and I were in my room having that last chat by the midnight +fire which is perhaps the zenith of human converse, as the curtain +lecture is undoubtedly the nadir, I could not help congratulating him on +his change of spirits. "That you are a happy man, I know," said I; "you +would be ungrateful indeed if you were otherwise. But I cannot say how +pleased I am to find that the good Genius, who has so blessed you in +other respects, has exorcised this phantom fear of yours; that you no +longer dread that childish bugbear, Sir Massingberd." + +"Hush!" cried he, looking involuntarily over his shoulder; "do not +mention that name, Peter. I would gladly give up house and land this +moment, never to go back to Fairburn; I have a presentiment that evil +will come of it. She would absolve me from my promise even now--Heaven +bless her, as it must do, for she is of the angels!--but that there +will be another soon whose interests must be looked to as well as our +own. You will be godfather, dear Peter, will you not? Lucy and I both +wish it. 'Let it be Peter's godchild, Marmaduke,' she said to me only +yesterday, although I should not divulge these secrets to an old +bachelor like you." + +Of course, I promised readily enough, but long after he had bidden me +good-night, I sat over the paling embers, thinking, thinking; and when +every coal was charred, and the black bars cold that held them, I sat +thinking still. My hopes, for a few fleeting hours, long ago, had been +as bright and warm as they, and were now as dark--and dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +TAKING THE SEALS OFF. + + +Marmaduke Heath came down to Fairburn according to his promise, but it +cost him a great effort. With every stage his spirits seemed to fall and +fail; and when Mrs. Myrtle at last clasped him in her arms--for Master +Marmaduke was ever a great favourite of hers, and the fact of his having +grown up and got married weighed with her not a feather--his wan face +was paler than when she had seen it last, notwithstanding its three +years of happiness and freedom. It was Christmas-time; the Rectory was a +bower of ivy and holly-berries; and just within the threshold, the +locality which the good housekeeper had chosen for her embrace, hung a +huge bough of mistletoe, the finest that could be found in all the +Chase. In the spotless kitchen, so exquisitely clean that you might, as +the phrase goes, "have eaten your dinner off the floor," if it had not +happened to have been a sanded one, there were preparations for +sumptuous feasting; a delightful fragrance, suggestive of mince-pies +with plenty of citron, pervaded Mrs. Myrtle's private parlour, where the +divine mysteries of Apicius were being celebrated. The little larder, +cold and immaculate as a dead sucking-pig ready for the spit, was +victualled with noble meats as for a siege; while monstrous pasties and +plum-puddings, too many for the broad stone slabs, reposed upon the +Dutch tiles that formed its carpet. It was not intended that the +inhabitants of the Rectory should eat all the good things themselves; +but it was a custom of Mr. Long, aided and abetted by Mrs. Myrtle, to +keep open house for about a fortnight at this festive period, and to +entertain certain worthy persons, who were old and indigent, in the +sanded kitchen daily. Attempts to edify the poor in those days were not +made so often as they are at present, but it was held essential by all +good Christian country folk to keep Christmas as a feast, and to see +that others kept it. I suppose Fairburn Hall was the only house in the +county where that blessed time was ignored and taken no account of; Sir +Massingberd had never suffered the slightest honour to be paid to it; +and his worthy deputy and _locum-tenens_, Richard Gilmore, treated it +with the like contumely. + +The change from the bright little Rectory, with all its hospitable +preparations, to the gloomy grandeur of the masterless mansion, was +very striking, when we three crossed the road next morning, to take the +seals off, which Mr. Long had placed upon the principal rooms, and so, +as it were, to break the blockade caused by the baronet's disappearance. +The contrast began even with things without. Half one of the globes had +been sliced from its pedestal on one side of the great iron gates; and +in the very centre of the avenue, the grass grew long and rank. The +sun-dial was cracked and gaped in zigzag, an emblem of the uncertainty +that overhung the place. The heraldic beasts at the foot of the +entrance-steps were much more mutilated than when I had seen them last, +and had indeed only one stone fore-paw or claw between them. Disuse is +sister to Abuse, but still how comes it that mere absence should beget, +as it always does, such absolute Ruin? Had the Squire been at home the +last three years, the globe upon the pedestal would have been whole, the +dial flawless, the griffins with at least their larger limbs intact; and +yet no man was ever seen to work this mischief. When the great door +swung reluctantly back to admit the new possessor, he took my hand, and +bade me Welcome, but his tone was far from gay. Every glance he cast +around him evoked, I could see, some unpleasant association, and even, +perhaps, a vague terror. + +There is something uncanny in exploring any dwelling the rooms of which +have been locked up and unvisited for years--places that have been once +consecrated to humanity, but have afterwards been given up to Solitude +and slow decay. Memories of their ancient inmates seem to hang gloomily +about them, like the cobweb in their corners; they are eloquent of +desertion and of death. The shriek of the mouse, and the singing of the +blue fly in the pane, have perhaps alone been heard there in the +interim; but there seem to have been other and ghostlier noises, which +cease at our approach. Who knows what eerie deeds our sudden intrusion +may have interrupted! + + "What faces glimmered through the doors, + What footsteps trod the upper floors," + +ere we broke in! The peculiar circumstances under which our search was +made intensified these feelings in us three, and even Gilmore, who +accompanied us, was affected by them. + + "O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, + This place is _worse_ than haunted." + +The library was the first room we entered, which, even in the palmiest +days of Fairburn Hall had been a dreary room, because the least in use. +Except Marmaduke himself, no one ever sat there; the wicked books, which +were the only sort read and patronized by Sir Massingberd, were all in +the Squire's private sitting-room, and the gaps in the shelves that +lined the present apartment, revealed that the Heaths had laid in a +considerable stock of them. Old Sir Wentworth, a miser in his old age, +had been a dunce in his youth, and was once heard openly to regret that +circumstance from the fact, that he was unable to peruse the loose +continental literature which his ancestors had provided for his +delectation, free of expense. In the rare cases when the Oak Parlour had +not sufficient accommodation for the guests of the missing Squire, they +had been wont to adjourn to the present apartment, to smoke and lounge +through half the night; but it bore no trace of having been so used. +Every chair and sofa were in their appointed place, as though they had +grown up like trees through the dusty carpet. Upon the tables and +mantelpieces, the dust had settled inches thick. The grate was laid +ready for lighting; but over the coals and sticks hung a sort of mildew, +that looked as if it would have defied a pine-torch to set light to it. +These things we remarked gradually, one by one, for the butler had only +opened the shutters of one window, and the extent of the apartment was +prodigious. The shelves were filled almost entirely with quartos--books +were not hand-books in those days--rich with plates, and "meadows of +margin;" you could not have sent a child on an errand to bring one of +them; if he had managed to extricate a tome at all by painfully +loosening it at head and foot, it might have fallen out and brained +him. A fourth of the entire stock was composed of books of Catholic +theology. "Those," observed Mr. Long, "are the most valuable things in +the library. Sir Nicholas is supposed to have won his bride by paying +that costly tribute to her faith. The illuminations are most rare and +splendid. Why, what is this, Gilmore? I can't get this volume down. It +seems stuck to the others." + +The butler grinned maliciously. "I think you will find them all like +that, sir. There's nothing but the wood-backs left. The Squire disposed +of these books soon after Mr. Marmaduke left, and got this imitation +stuff put up instead." + +Mr. Long broke out into wrathful indignation, but the young heir kept +silence, only smiling bitterly. + +"Perhaps he was afraid that their heterodoxy might do his nephew harm," +remarked I, rather tickled, I confess, by this characteristic fraud. + +"No, sir," replied Gilmore, drily; "he merely observed, that, being +theological works, there was as much in them now as before." + +"Impious wretch!" exclaimed the Rector. "See, he has bartered the +Fathers of the Church for a set of empty backgammon boards, and lettered +them with their venerable names." + +"Here, however, is the Family Bible," said I; "he has not sold that." + +The spider had spun his web across the sacred volume, but it opened +readily enough at the only place, perhaps, into which its late owner had +ever looked--the huge yellow fly-leaf, upon which were inscribed the +names of the later generations of the Heaths; Sir Massingberd's birth in +his father's own handwriting, and Sir Wentworth's death in that of his +son's, and only too probably his murderer's. The autograph was bold and +flaring, quite different from the crabbed hand of the parent, is which +the names of Gilbert Heath and Marmaduke's mother were also written, as +likewise that of Marmaduke himself. There was a little space beneath the +last; and the young heir, looking over my shoulder, pointed to it, +significantly; doubtless, it had been hoped by the last possessor of the +volume that this might one day have been filled up by the date of his +nephew's, demise. + +We were about to leave the room, when Mr. Long suddenly exclaimed, "Nay, +let us try the secret way. You told me, I remember, that you did not +know of Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke. The spring lies in the index of +Josephus, a wooden volume, which perhaps put this notion of wholesale +'dumbies' into Sir Massingberd's head." This practical satire upon the +unpopularity of the Jewish historian was presently discovered, hidden +away upon one of those ground-floor shelves, which, if the enthusiastic +student investigates at all, it must be upon his knees. After a little +manipulation, the spring obeyed, and with a surly creak, as if in +protest, the whole compartment of shelves above moved slowly outward on +some hidden hinge, and disclosed the narrow stairs that ended in the +shepherdess of the state chamber. The steps were worm-eaten, and the +wall on both sides hung with moth-devoured and ragged tapestry. +Marmaduke shrank back, and gazed upon the aperture with abhorrence and +dismay. To what vile purposes might it not have been used, besides that +of attempting to overthrow a poor child's reason; nay, was it not +possible that what we had sought, yet feared to find for so long, might +be in this very place, where no eye could have looked or thought of +looking! Might it not have hidden there, and been imprisoned alive in +righteous retribution, by the very spring which had ministered to hate +and cruelty? "I went up here," said Mr. Long, divining the young man's +thoughts, "when I searched the house with Gilmore, and put on the seals. +I think we should climb Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke; as you will make the +Hall your home, it is well to leave no spot in it associated with any +unpleasantness, unfamiliar." So saying, the rector led the way, and we +all followed: there was some delay while he opened the door above, and +certainly it was not a cheerful position for us in the meantime, cooped +up in the darkness, with the arras touching us with its ghostly folds on +either side the narrow way; but I think that my tutor's advice was +good, and that his old pupil experienced a feeling of satisfaction when +the thing was done. Once more we stood together in that state bedroom +where Marmaduke had suffered such ghastly terrors when a boy. + +"Shall I ever forget those nights!" muttered he with a shudder. "Can +this room ever be otherwise than hateful to me! It was here, as I sat +weak and ill in that arm-chair, that my uncle struck me for losing----. +Stay, now I remember it all. Remove this skirting-board, Gilmore; take +the poker; do not spare the rotting wood. Ay, there it is." A yellow +something lay amid the dust and rubbish, which on inspection turned out +to be a gold pencil-case. "That was lent me by my uncle, a dozen years +ago," said Marmaduke musing, "and he chastised me for losing it. It had +rolled under yonder skirting-board, but I was too terrified at the time +to recollect the fact. I wish I could forget things now. Undo the other +shutters, Richard. Light, more light." + +And thus we let the blessed sunlight into all the shuttered rooms. It +glanced in galleries on knights in all their panoply, and smote the +steel upon their visors, as though the flame of battle once more darted +from their eyes; it made their tattered pennons blush again, and tipped +their rusted spears with sudden fire. It flashed upon the stern +ancestral faces on the wall, and through their dust evoked a look of +life. That winter sun had not the power to warm, however; all things +struck cold. The dark oak-pannels chilled us from their waveless depths; +the cumbrous organ, carved with fruit and flowers, kept frozen silence; +while in the chapel, Sir Nicholas in stone and mildew struck to our +marrow. His lady opposite, upon her knees in her "devout oratory," gave +us cold looks, as though we had interrupted her devotions. In vain the +painted windows, high and triple arched, cast down "warm gules" upon her +marble breast, and filled the sacred place with glorious hues. In vain +the gilded scroll, "Praie for hys Soule," appealed to us through dust +and damp, and his memorial pane blushed scarlet in its endeavour to +perpetuate his infamy. All things seemed cursed in that accursed house; +the hallowed places desecrated, and those where hospitality and good +fellowship were meant to reign, solitary and barren. There was one +apartment still which had been left by common consent to be visited last +of all--Sir Massingberd's oak parlour. There he might have been said to +have lived, for it was the only sitting-room he used from early +morning--and he was no great sleeper--until very late at night. There, +as we have seen, he had held his audiences, and dined, and sometimes +slept after any deep debauch. By all the household, except Gilmore, it +was held as a Bluebeard's chamber, and would not have been entered upon +any account, even had it not had the rector's seal upon it. It was here +that the lost baronet had passed his last hours within the house, and +thither he had intended to return--if he had meant to return at +all--before he retired for the night. The butler entered it first, and +let the light in; then Mr. Long, then I, then Marmaduke. Although I had +been there once before, I scarcely recognized the place, for upon that +occasion the squire himself had occupied it, and I had had no eyes +except for him. It was doubtless a comfortable room enough when the +fire was shining on its polished walls, and the red curtains snugly +drawn over the windows; but with that thin December light--for it was +afternoon by this time--creeping coldly in upon the three-year-old ashes +of the burnt-out fire, and on the panels, smeared with spots and stains, +it was very cheerless: + + "There was no sign of life, save one: + The subtle spider, that from overhead + Hung like a spy on human guilt and error, + Suddenly turned, and up its slender thread, + Ran with a nimble terror." + +This insect had woven its webs in every nook and cranny, in readiness +for the prey that rarely came, and the slanting pillars of motes and +light that streamed into the gloom seemed almost as palpable as they. A +door led up by three or four steps into Sir Massingberd's bedroom--a +bare unfurnished place, where skins of wild animals, instead of carpet, +were spread for a banquet to the moth. His shooting-boots stood up +still stiff and strong beside the empty grate, although they were white +with mildew, and his night-gear lay folded upon the rotting pillow, in +preparation for his rest. The sitting-room, however, bore the more +striking vestiges of its late proprietor. + +The huge arm-chair stood a little aside from the fender, where he had +pushed it back as he rose to leave the room; and the book which he had +been reading lay open with its face to the table, ready for him to +resume its perusal upon his return. A spirit-case with the stoppers in, +the couple of cigars which it had been Sir Massingberd's invariable +custom to smoke before going to bed, and a few fly-blown lumps of sugar, +were set out in hideous travesty of creature-comfort. The rector took up +the volume, and with one involuntary glance towards the fire-place, +tore the wrinkled and blue-spotted leaves to fragments. A scurrilous +French novel had engaged the last hours of the wretched old man, ere he +went forth--to his doom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE FAIRY'S WAND. + + +There are but few of us, I fear, who can say: "Though I should die +suddenly, and at the most unlooked-for time, there will be nothing left +behind me which I would have destroyed, even though I had had the +opportunity." Of course there are none who can boast that they are at +peace with all mankind; that they leave nothing unrepented of or +unatoned for; that their human affairs and social relations are exactly +where they would have wished them to be. But independent of these +matters, neglected by the very best of us, how eagerly must many a man +desire, between the warning and swift stroke of death, that he had had +but a little time--a little strength to set, not, indeed, his house in +order, but his desk and his note-book. What a cruel shock have many a +family received, after they have lost the Head whom they have worshipped +so many years, by discovering, where they looked for no such thing, +_after his death_, that he had all along (as will be thought) been even +such a one--_not_ as themselves, but worse--as they whom they had been +taught by his own self to look upon with contempt, or at least with +pity; as they who, by contrast with himself, were persons base and vile. +Is there no letter, reader, ragged and time-worn, perhaps, but still +legible, lying among that heap of correspondence you intend to winnow +some day--which it will be better to burn _now_? Is there no +half-forgotten gift, meant for your own eyes alone, when they were +brighter than at present, which it would be well to make an end of this +very day? Can you say: "Even though I do not return home to night, or +ever again, but am smashed by a railway locomotive, or driven over by a +'bus, or poisoned in a cab, yet there will be nothing of mine, nothing +when my friends take stock of my personal effects, of which I need be +ashamed." If so, thou art a good man indeed--or one of exceeding +prudence. Above all things, my friends, be good, for that is best; but +if not, at least be prudent. Let your memories be sullied with no stain, +at all events in the thoughts of those you leave at home. The actions of +the unjust blossom in their dust into flowers compared with which the +deadly nightshade is as the violet or the rose. The satirist tells us +that in a week, a month, a year at most, the memory of a dead man dies +even from the hearts of those he held most dear. This is not true; but +the satirist would have been severer yet, and have spoken truth as well, +had he said that the memory of a dead man, so far as his vice and +wickedness are concerned, dies not at all among his kin. It is spoken of +in whispers by the purest, and renders them less pure; it is made light +of by the vicious, but only to excuse their wrongful acts by a worse +example. "Wild as I may be, I am not so wild as the governor was in his +day," is a terrible legacy of comfort to leave behind one to one's son. + +It is possible that even Sir Massingberd Heath may at some far-back time +have deemed it necessary to lay to his soul some flattering unction of +this kind. There were Sir Wentworth and Sir Nicholas, and many a Heath +to extenuate his acts, if bad example might do it. But the time came to +him, and very early in life, when he had no longer this slender +justification, since he had outdone his worse progenitor in vice and +folly. Mr. Clint had known, Mr. Long had guessed--we all of us had +suspected more or less that the lost baronet's life had been evil beyond +that of an ordinary man; but the dumb revelations which were made +concerning it in the necessary examination of his papers, were simply +shocking. After destroying these, the next approach to cleansing +Fairburn Hall was to discharge all the indoor domestics. Mr. Richard +Gilmore resented this conduct towards a faithful servant of the family, +as he styled himself, very bitterly; but he departed with the rest, +laden, there is little doubt with a very considerable plunder. Presently +the upholsterers came down from town with a great following of +workpeople, and a caravan of waggons, bearing costly furniture; then a +host of servants, selected with as much care as was possible, replaced +the exiles; and when all was ready within and without--the waste places +of the grounds being reclaimed, and put upon the same footing with those +which hitherto had alone been "kept up"--Sir Marmaduke Heath and his +wife themselves took possession of Fairburn Hall. + +Art had already done much to change that sombre house into a comfortable +as well as splendid mansion; but the presence of its new mistress did +more than all to rescue it from the long tyranny of decay and gloom. +Beneath her smile, the shadows of the past could take no shape, but +vanished, thin and pale. She would allow them nowhere resting-place. +Where they had been wont to gather thickest to her husband's eyes, she +quelled them by her radiant presence, day and night. The Oak Parlour +and its adjoining bedroom; she formed into a double boudoir for her own +sweet self; and straightway all bat-winged, harpy-headed memories, the +brood of evil deeds, flew from it as the skirts of Night before the +dawn, and in their place an angel-throng came fluttering in, and made it +their abode. No stage-fairy, wand in hand, ever effected +transformation-scene more charming and complete. One fear, and one +alone, now agitated Marmaduke's heart, for the safety of his priceless +wife in her approaching trial. He would have gladly cancelled nature's +gracious promise, and lived childless all his days, rather than any risk +should befall Lucy. His friends, his servants, and the villagers, +brimful of hope that there should be an heir to Fairburn, flowed over in +earnest congratulations; but for his part, he felt apprehensive only. +His heart experienced no yearning for the child who might endanger the +mother. + +In accordance with her plan of ignoring all that had gone before of +shame and sorrow, and regenerating evil places with a baptism of joy, +Lady Heath had chosen the state chamber itself as her sleeping +apartment, and there in due time she safely brought forth a son. Upon +his knees, Marmaduke thanked Heaven for the blessing which was thus +vouchsafed to him, but above all, in that it had brought with it no +curse. Verily had the house of mourning become the house of feasting, +and the chamber of sorrow the chamber of mirth. + +The unconscious father had been sitting by the library fire, +endeavouring vainly to distract his mind from what was occurring +upstairs, and turning his eyes restlessly ever and anon towards the +door, when the voice of Dr. Sitwell suddenly broke the silence. + +"Sir Marmaduke, I congratulate you; you have a son and heir." + +"And my wife?" cried the husband impatiently. + +"She is as well as can possibly be expected, I do assure you." + +"You are very welcome," exclaimed the young baronet; "and would have +been so, although you had chosen to burst your way in with a torpedo. +But I confess you startled me a good deal." + +"I am afraid I did," returned the doctor, in a voice like a stream of +milk and honey, "although it was not my intention to do so. But the fact +is, I did not come in by the door at all. Her ladyship desired that I +should bring you the good news by way of Jacob's Ladder; and I may add, +that you may come back with me that way and see her yourself for just +one quarter of a minute." + +So even Jacob's Ladder was made a pleasant thoroughfare to Marmaduke, +and dearer from that hour than all staircases of wood or stone. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +FOUND. + + +Now, when Marmaduke junior, who was named also Peter, to mark the regard +which both its parents had for my poor self, became of the ripe age of +fourteen weeks or so, and the spring had so far advanced upon the summer +as to admit of open-air rejoicings, it was determined that the advent of +the heir of Fairburn should be celebrated with all due honour. This +would have been done before, for Lady Heath had soon recovered her +strength, and the child was reported to be a miracle of health and +plumpness, had it not been for the backwardness of the season. The Hall +had, of course, made merry upon the matter long ago, and if all the +poor in the place had not done so, it was from no want of materials in +the way of creature-comfort supplied by the young Squire. But what +Marmaduke had waited for was settled fine weather, in order that the +Chase might be filled by merrymakers, whose happiness should cleanse it +from all memories of woe and wrong. Much of these, it is true, had been +effaced already; a portion of the Park had been given up to the +villagers for cricket and other sports, a grant common enough now, but +one almost unexampled in those days, and the right of way which Sir +Massingberd had spent so many hundreds in opposing, had been voluntarily +surrendered. Oliver Bradford still retained his office, but being almost +bedridden, inspired less terror than of yore among evil-doers; this was +not so much to be regretted, however, since there was now little want, +and therefore few poachers in Fairburn, while the general popularity of +the young Squire lessened even those. I am afraid that if the new owner +had heard a gun discharged at night in the Home Spinney itself, it is +doubtful whether he would have laid down his book, or hesitated more +than usual in his vain attempt to checkmate his wife at chess, in order +to listen for the second barrel. The terror of the Lost Baronet had long +been fading from his old domain; and upon this occasion, when old and +young were all invited to make holiday in those once almost unknown +retreats of hare and deer, there was no urchin but was determined--by no +means single-handed, however--to explore them thoroughly. The very +Wolsey Oak which the ravens had made their quarters was not shunned, but +in the great space about it, races were run, and dances danced, and its +vast trunk was made the very headquarters of childish merriment. These +young folks did not affect the company of their elders, except when the +gongs gave signal from the various marquees that there was food afoot, +when they flocked to meet their parents at the heaped-up boards with a +dutiful celerity. The higher class of tenantry were upon the lawn, and +among them mixed with stately condescension a goodly number of the +county aristocracy. I remember that some of the latter introduced upon +this occasion the new dance called the quadrille, which had just arrived +from Paris at that time. It had come over in the bad company of the +waltz; but that lively measure was held to be too indecorous to be +imported to Fairburn under its new _régime_. Everybody, when out of +earshot of the host and hostess, was talking about the change that had +taken place in this respect. + +"How odd this all seems," quoth Squire Broadacres to his neighbour, Mr. +Flinthert, heir of the late lamented admiral. "None of _us_, I suppose, +have been at the Hall here for this quarter of a century." + +"Ay, that at least," quoth the other. "Of course, it is a great matter +to see people in the Heaths' position properly conducted as to morals. +But I doubt whether this young fellow may not go astray in another and +even a still more dangerous direction. They say his politics are, dear +me, shocking." + +"Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Broadacres. "It isn't in the Heath blood +to be radical. But his wife, she rules the roost, you see--and a +devilish pretty woman too; I could find it in my heart to forgive her +anything." + +"But that fellow, Harvey Gerard, her father--why, he's a downright +_sans-culotte_, sir." + +"The Gerards are bound to be, my dear sir," returned the jolly squire. +"All these things are a question of family; it's nothing but that. I am +told there is some French blood in him." + +"We want nothing of that sort down in Midshire," responded Mr. +Flinthert, shaking his head. + +"But we have got it, you see, my friend, and therefore we must make the +best of it. It was all very well to ignore Gerard while he was a +new-comer at the Dovecot, although, mind you, he was always a gentleman, +every inch of him, notwithstanding his queer opinions; but now that he +is become so nearly connected with Sir Marmaduke, and living at the Hall +half his time, why, the county must make up its mind to receive him." + +"I shall let him perceive, however, that it does so--so far at least as +I am concerned--upon sufferance, and, as it were--what is the word?--ay, +vicariously." + +"Very good," observed Mr. Broadacres, dryly. "I am not quite clear as to +your meaning; but if you intend to put Harvey Gerard down, I do not +think you will meet with any very triumphant success. Why, Sir +Massingberd here, who would have grappled with the devil, was tripped up +and thrown by this man with the greatest ease." + +"Nevertheless, I shall give him the cold shoulder," observed Mr. +Flinthert, stiffly; "although I shall studiously avoid being rude." + +"Faith, I would recommend your doing that, my friend," laughed the jolly +Squire. "If you turned your back upon Harvey Gerard instead of your +shoulder, my belief is that he'd kick you." + +"That he'd do what?" exclaimed Mr. Barnardistone Flinthert, late +high-sheriff and present magistrate and _custos rotulorum_ of Midshire. + +"That he'd take advantage of the opportunity, that's all," returned Mr. +Broadacres, quietly. "No, no, sir, with a man like Gerard, all good +Tories should keep on good terms. One can't hang him, you know, like a +radical tailor, and therefore it's quite worth while to make ourselves +appear to the best advantage. A stupid slight to a clever man has often +done more harm to the cause of good government than a whole regiment of +dragoons can remedy." + +"Oh curse his cleverness!" responded Mr. Flinthert, savagely. "I'm for +no such milk-and-water measures. I think it's the duty of somebody to +tell young Marmaduke----" + +"Well, say it _yourself_," interrupted Mr. Broadacres. + +"It's a positive duty, I say, that somebody should go to the baronet, +and tell him frankly that all this leniency to poaching fellows, and +liberty to the rabble, cannot but lead to harm. 'You're a young man,' he +should be told, 'and don't understand these things; but that is the +opinion of the county, and it behoves you to know it.'" + +"That would do more harm than good, Mr. Flinthert. You may depend upon +it that Marmaduke Heath thinks for himself in these matters, +notwithstanding that I dare say Gerard and his pretty daughter have had +some influence. The young fellow naturally goes exactly counter to all +that his uncle did before him. This holiday-making and mixture of high +and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Massingberd turn in his +grave." + +"Ay, if he _is_ in his grave," responded Mr. Flinthert, darkly. "But who +knows whether he may not turn up some day after all; tell me that." + +"I can't tell you that," responded Mr. Broadacres; "but I'll bet you ten +guineas to one that he never does." + +"Ay, but if he did!" replied the other, gloomily. "If he was to appear +this very day, for instance, what a scene it would be--what a revolution +for some people!" + +"Well, if he did, he'd find the property greatly improved--except that +that right of way has been reopened through the Park; all his thieving +servants dismissed; all his debts settled; and his mad gipsy wife amply +provided for, and well content, I am told, among her vagabond friends." + +Conversations somewhat similar to the above were being held all over the +lawn, for its denizens were not, like the lower classes, so bent upon +mere physical enjoyment as to be dead to the delights of scandal. But +when the great bell rang for their afternoon repast, which was to be +partaken of in one enormous tent, and at one gigantic table, the upper +part of which was reserved for the gentlefolks, such talk was hushed, of +course, and congratulations of host and hostess and the infant heir was +the only wear for every countenance. Not a word about the uncertainty of +Sir Marmaduke's tenure of Fairburn was whispered over the good cheer, or +a suggestion hazarded regarding the last proprietor's possible +reappearance. Far less, we may be certain, was any hint at such matters +let fall when the health of the future Sir Peter--two generations from +Somebody, and not to be associated with him upon any account--was +proposed by Mr. Broadacres, and drunk with a genuine enthusiasm that +brought the tears into his mother's eyes, who with many a fair county +dame graced the banquet as spectators. Then Mr. Long rose up and spoke +of Marmaduke as one whom he had known and loved from his youth up, and +the cheering rose tumultuous (but especially at the tenants' table, +because they knew him best), and was heard afar by the peasantry who +were dining likewise elsewhere, and who joined in it uproariously, +although they had already paid due honours to their lord; so that all +the Park was filled with clamour. To both these toasts, Sir Marmaduke, +aglow with happiness and excitement, the handsomest man by far in that +great company, with a grateful smile upon his student lips, gave +eloquent response. + +But when Lucy's health was proposed by Mr. Arabel, who dwelt, in homely +but fitting terms, upon her total lack of pride, her kindliness to all +that needed help, her beauty, which was sunshine to them all, then the +young Squire lost his self-command. He rose to speak with evident +embarrassment; he saw herself before him, watching him with eyes that +had plenty of pride for _him_ in them, and listening for his words as +though his tongue dropped jewels; he knew that he could not contradict +one word of praise that had been showered upon her, he could not +mitigate in modesty a single phrase of her eulogium, because it was all +true, and none but he knew how much more she was deserving of. "While he +stood there silent for a moment, but radiant with lips just parting for +his opening sentence, there was a commotion at the far end of the tent. +With that mysterious swiftness wherewith ill news pervades the minds of +men, all knew at once some terrible occurrence had taken place. Several +of the tenants rose, as if to intercept some person coming up towards +the upper table, but others cried, "Go on, it must be told." For an +instant, Lucy's glance flashed round to see that her child was safe in +its nurse's arms, then made her way swiftly and silently to her +husband's side. Before she reached it, before the man who bore the +tidings could get nearly so far, the whisper had gone round, "Sir +Massingberd is found." + +I shall never forget Marmaduke's face when he heard those words: his +colour fled, his eyes wandered timidly hither and thither, his lips +moved, but no sound came from them. At the touch of his wife's hand upon +his arm, however, a new life seemed to be instilled into him, and as a +village boy came forward bearing a rusty something in his hand, he +stretched his hand out for it, murmuring, "What is this? Why do you +bring this to me?" The boy was bashful, and gave no answer; but Farmer +Arabel stepped forward very gravely, and spoke as follows:-- + +"Why, Mr. Marmaduke, you see," he said, unconsciously reserving the +title for the man he had in his mind, "that is the life-preserver Sir +Massingberd always went about with in his woods at night; I know it by +the iron ring by which a leathern strap fastened it round his wrist. +Where did you find it, eh, boy?" + +"Well, sir, we was a-playing at Hide--me and Bill Jervis, and Harry +Jones, and a lot of us--and the Wolsey Oak was Home. So while it was the +other side's turn to hide, and we was waiting for them to cry "Whoop," +we began to knife the tree a bit, to pass the time; and digging away at +the bottom of the trunk, we made a hole, and presently came upon the +head of this thing here, and dragged it out. Then we made a bigger hole, +and please, sir, there was great big bones, and we couldn't pull them +through. Then we was frightened, and called to Jem Meyrick, the keeper, +as was in the booth close by; and he climbed up to the fork of the tree, +and cried out that the Wolsey Oak was hollow, and there was a skeleton +in it, standing up; and they do say as it's Sir Massingberd." + +While the boy was yet speaking, a knot of men came slowly up from the +direction of the Oak, bearing something among them, and followed at a +little distance by a vast crowd, all keeping an awful silence. When they +got near the opening of the tent, they set their ghastly burden down +upon the lawn; and we all went forth to look at it, including Marmaduke +himself, with a face as pale as ashes, and clutching Lucy by the hand, +as though he feared some power was about to tear her from him. I heard +her whisper to him, "This may not be Lost Sir Massingberd after all." + +Dr. Sitwell heard her also, and at once officiously replied: "Oh, but it +is, my lady; there has no man died in Fairburn for these thirty years, +except the late baronet, who could have owned those bones. I will pledge +my professional reputation that yonder man, when clothed in flesh and +blood, was six feet four. What a large skull, and what gigantic +thigh-bones!" + +"Ay," quoth Mr. Remnant, the general dealer, who was kneeling down +beside the skeleton and examining it with minuteness, as though it had +been offered to him for sale, "here is something hard and dry, with iron +nails upon it, which was once a shooting-shoe, one of a pair, or I am +much mistaken, which I sold to Sir Massingberd myself." + +"And, here," quoth Jem Meyrick, stepping forward, "is summat as I think +must have been the Squire's great gold chain, which I found at the +bottom of the trunk. The Wolsey Oak is quite hollow, Sir Marmaduke, +although none of us knew it. It is my belief that Sir Massingberd must +have climbed up into the fork to look about him, for he seemed to be +expecting poachers on that night, and that the rotten wood gave way +beneath him, and let him down feet foremost into the trunk." + +Without doubt, this was the true explanation of the matter. The skeleton +was found with the arms above the head, a position which had precluded +self-extrication, although it was evident that the wretched man had +made great efforts to escape from his living tomb, since what remained +of the shoe of the right foot was much turned up, and retained deep +marks of the pressure of the buckle. As I looked at these relics of +humanity, the gipsy's curse recurred to my mind with dreadful +distinctness: "_May he perish, inch by inch, within reach of the aid +that shall never come, ere the God of the poor take him into his hand_." + +It was a singular feature in the case, and one which was of course made +to point its moral among the villagers, that had Sir Massingberd not +closed the Park, and refused the right of way, he could scarcely have +thus miserably perished, since the footpath, as I have said, absolutely +skirted the tree in question; and people would have passed close by it +at all hours. It reminded me of the evil fate of James I. of Scotland, +who might have escaped his murderers in the Blackfriar's Abbey at Perth, +but for the simple fact that he had caused the mouth of a certain vault +to be bricked up, because his tennis-balls were wont to roll through it. +How long the wretched Squire had suffered before Death released him from +his fangs, it was impossible to guess, or whether that terrible cry +heard by Dick Westlock that same night, and by myself next morning, was +indeed from the throat of Sir Massingberd in his agony. + +We were the two persons who had been nearest to the Wolsey Oak between +the period of his entombment and the search instituted throughout the +Chase. He must have been dead before _that_, for the seekers passed +close beside the tree without the least suspicion of the ghastly Thing +it held; unless, indeed, he had heard our voices, but, choked by that +time: by the falling dry-rot, was unable to reply. No wonder the ravens +had sought the Wolsey Oaky and croaked forth Doom therefrom so long! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +L'ENVOI. + + +Weeks elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this +discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite +another man in body and mind. + +It was only by this change--when we saw him so strong and cheerful--that +we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had +so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him +to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in +Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the +wand of the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his +father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel +thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not +judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in +moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a +risk--ay, and what a selfish risk--he ran therein, let alone the +unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure! + +He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it +to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him roundly for the crime; observing, +however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred +Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all +bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but +the duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that +was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not +a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his +rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his +neighbours, sooner or later--although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very +late indeed. + +Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set +foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, +Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in +beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled +brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes. + +Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is +borne not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it +the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at +Fairburn lies my dear old tutor--far from the iron rails which enclose +the bones of the long-missing baronet. + +Sir Peter...--But why should I further speak of death, and make parade +of loss and change?--an old man like me should, having told his tale, be +silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to +constancy." + +The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of +that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great +space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast +bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the +Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had been cut down for forty +years and more. + +The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. +This may be true or not. My tale itself may be open to suspicion of +untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have +already been pronounced "improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics +of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the +author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such +clumsy hands as to seem fiction. + +Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young +days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a +picture sale attended by the _dilettanti_. A carking _connoisseur_ is +abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This +fellow," cries he, "has even had the audacity to attempt to paint a +fly! _That_ a fly, forsooth!" and he flips at it with contemptuous +fingers. + +The fly flew away. _It was a real one!_ + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, by James Payn + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37171 *** diff --git a/37171-h/37171-h.htm b/37171-h/37171-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e67e5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/37171-h/37171-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4294 @@ +<!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; +} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.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 37171 ***</div> + +<h1>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h1> + +<h3>A Romance of Real Life.</h3> + +<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h3> + +<h3>VOL. II.</h3> + +<h5>LONDON:</h5> + +<h5>SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,</h5> + +<h5>14, LUDGATE HILL.</h5> + +<h5>1864.</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<h4>CONTENTS.</h4> + +<p class="content"> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a> OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a> HARLEY STREET<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a> BEFORE THE BLOW<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a> LOST<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a> THE STONE GARDEN<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a> THE SEARCH<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a> WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a> THE PROCESSION<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a> AMONG FRIENDS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a> A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a> THE BANK-NOTES<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a> A BENEVOLENT STRANGER<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a> BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a> THE FALSE SCENT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a> "LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD"<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a> TAKING THE SEALS OFF<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a> THE FAIRY'S WAND<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a> FOUND<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a> L'ENVOI<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h3>OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT.</h3> + + +<p>Notwithstanding the baronet's polite invitation, and although Mr. Long +did not return, as expected, upon the ensuing morning, I felt no +inclination to exchange my solitude for the society of Mr. Gilmore at +bowls. I was, indeed, rather curious to see the bowling-green, which I +had heard from my tutor was one of the very finest in England, fenced in +by wondrous walls of yew; but, to arrive there, it was necessary to pass +close to the Hall, and, consequently, to run great risk of meeting Sir +Massingberd, my repugnance to whom had returned with tenfold strength +since the preceding day. My reason, it is true, could suggest no +possible harm from my having enclosed his letter to Marmaduke, but still +an indefinable dread of what I had done oppressed me. I could not +imagine in what manner I could have been outwitted; but a certain +malignant exultation in Sir Massingberd's face when he was taking his +leave, haunted my memory, and rendered hateful the idea of meeting it +again. Moreover, the companionship of Gilmore, the butler, was not +attractive. He bore a very bad character with the villagers, among whom +he was said to emulate in a humble manner the vices of his lord and +master; he had been his companion and confidential servant for a great +number of years, and it was not to be wondered at, even supposing that +he commenced that servitude as an honest man, that his principles +should have been sapped by the communication.</p> + +<p>Those who had known Richard Gilmore best and longest, however, averred +that his nature had not been the least impaired by this companionship, +inasmuch as it had been always as bad as bad could be. I never saw his +pale secretive face, with the thin lips tightly closed, as if to prevent +the escape of one truant word, without reflecting what a repository of +dark and wicked deeds that keeper of Sir Massingberd's conscience needs +must be. Such men usually hold such masters in their own hands; for they +know too much about them, and it is that species of knowledge which, +above all others, is power. But it was not so in this case; the +antecedents of Gilmore's master were probably as evil as those of any +person who has ever kept a valet, but there was this peculiarity about +the baronet—that he cared little or nothing whether people knew them or +not. When a thoroughly unprincipled man has arrived at the stage of +being entirely indifferent to what his fellow-creatures think of him, he +has touched his zenith; he is as much a hero to his <i>valet-de-chambre</i> +as to anybody else. It was Gilmore's nature to be reticent; but, for all +Sir Massingberd cared, he might have ascended the steps at the +stone-cross at Crittenden upon market-day, and held forth upon the +subject of his master's peccadillos. Sir Massingberd stood no more in +fear of him than of any other man; otherwise, he would scarcely have +used such frightful language to him as he did whenever the spirit-case +had not been properly replenished, or he happened to mislay the key of +his own cigar-chest. It was no delicate tending that the lord of +Fairburn Hall required; no accurate arrangement of evening garments ere +he returned from shooting; no slippers placed in front of the fire. As +he was attired in the morning, so he remained throughout the day, and, +if it were the poaching season, throughout the night also. He never was +ill, and only very rarely was he so overcome with liquor as to require +any assistance in retiring. The putting Sir Massingberd to bed must have +been a bad quarter of an hour for Mr. Gilmore. I have mentioned that +when I paid my only visit to the Hall, the front-door bell was answered +by the butler with very commendable swiftness, under the impression that +it was his master; and, indeed, it was rumoured that, on more than one +occasion, the baronet had felled his faithful domestic like an ox, for +dilatoriness. Wonder was sometimes expressed that Mr. Gilmore, who was +supposed, as the phrase goes, to have feathered his nest very agreeably +during his master's prosperous days, should cleave to him in his present +poverty—the mere sentiment of attachment being deemed scarcely strong +enough to retain his gratuitous services; but the reply commonly made to +this was, I have no doubt, correct—namely, that, however matters might +seem, Mr. Richard Gilmore, we might be well assured, knew his own +business best, and on which side his bread was buttered.</p> + +<p>Sagacious, however, as this gentleman doubtless was, I did not fancy him +as a companion to play bowls with; and, instead of going in the +direction of the bowling-green, I took my way to Fairburn Chase. I had +not set foot within it for more than a year, and the season was much +further advanced then when I had last been there. The stillness which +pervaded it in summertime was now broken by the flutter of the falling +leaf and the plash of the chestnuts on the moist and sodden ground; the +autumn rains had long set in; there was that "drip, drip, drip" in the +woods which so mournfully reminds us that the summer, with all its life +and warmth, has passed away; and the dank earth was sighing from beneath +its load of tangled leaves, which, "hanging so light and hanging so +high," but lately danced in the sunny air. The presentiment of evil +which overshadowed me was deepened by the melancholy of Nature. I moved +slowly through the drippling fern towards the heronry; from the little +island suddenly flew forth, not the stately birds who ordinarily reigned +there, but a pair of ravens. I knew that such had taken up their +residence in the old church tower, for I had seen them flying in and out +of its narrow ivied window-slits; but their appearance in the present +locality was most unexpected. I was far from being superstitious, but I +would rather have seen any other birds just then. A few steps further +brought me to that bend in the stream which had been such a favourite +haunt of mine before I had dreamed there so unpleasantly. The lime-trees +stood ragged and bare, and weeping silently, deprived of their summer +bee-music; the sparkling sand, wherein I had seen the mysterious +footprints, was dark and damp; a few steps further brought me to the +stepping-stones, by which that unknown visitant must have crossed over, +if she were indeed of mortal mould; the wood upon the other side was no +longer impenetrable to sight; and through its skeleton arms I could see +some building of considerable size at no great distance. I knew where +such of the keepers and gardeners as lived upon the estate resided, and +it puzzled me to imagine to what purpose this cottage was assigned.</p> + +<p>While I hesitated as to whether I should cross the turbid and swollen +current, whose waters almost entirely covered the stepping-stones, a +laugh prolonged and shrill burst forth from the very direction in which +I was looking. It was the same mocking cry, never to be forgotten, which +I had heard at that very spot some fifteen months before. Anywhere else, +I should have recognized it; but in that place it was impossible to +doubt its identity. Knife-like, it clove the humid and unwilling air; +and, before the sound had ceased, a short, sharp shriek succeeded +it—the cry of a smitten human creature. In a moment I had crossed the +stream, and was forcing my way through the wood. As I drew nearer, I +perceived the edifice before me was of stone, and with a slated roof, +instead of being built with clay, and thatched, as were the rest of Sir +Massingberd's cottages. There was no attempt at ornamentation, but the +place was unusually substantial for its size, the door being studded +with nails, while the window upon either side of it was protected by +iron bars.</p> + +<p>I was just emerging from the fringe of the wood, when another sound +smote on my ear, which caused me to pause at once, and remain where the +trunk of an elm tree intervened between me and the cottage; it was +merely the bark of a dog, but it checked my philanthropic enthusiasm +upon the instant. There was no mistaking that wheezy note, telling of +canine infirmity, and days prolonged far beyond the ordinary span of +dogs. Besides there was but one dog permitted to be at large in Fairburn +Chase. It was the execrable Grimjaw. I could see him from my place of +concealment turning his almost sightless eyes in my direction as he sat +at the cottage door. Immediately afterwards, it opened, and out came +Richard Gilmore; he looked about him suspiciously, but having convinced +himself that there was nobody in the neighbourhood, he administered a +kick to Grimjaw's ribs, reproached him in strong language for having +made a causeless disturbance, and turning the key, and pocketing it, +walked away by a footpath that doubtless led, although by no means +directly, to the Hall. He had a dog-whip in his hand when I first saw +him, which I thought was an odd thing for a butler to carry, and he +seemed to think so, too, for he put it in a side-pocket before he +started, and buttoned it up. Grimjaw, gathering his stiffened limbs +together, slowly followed him, not without turning his grey head ever +and anon towards my covert, but without venturing again to express his +suspicions. I waited until the charming pair were out of sight, ere I +advanced to the cottage.</p> + +<p>The door of course, was fast; so, approaching the right-hand window, I +cautiously looked in through its iron bars; there was no casement +whatever, therefore all the objects which the room contained were as +clear to me as though I were in it. I beheld a sitting-room, the +furniture of which was costly, and had been evidently intended for a +much larger apartment, but which in variety was scanty enough. At a +mahogany table, which retained little more of polish than if it had just +been sawn from its trunk in Honduras, sat an ancient female, with her +back towards me, supporting her chin on both hands; a cold chicken in a +metal dish was before her, but neither a plate nor knife and fork; she +was muttering something in a low tone to herself, which, if it was a +grace, must have been a very long one. Her hair was scanty, and white as +snow, but hung down almost to the ground; she was miserably thin; and +her clothes, although they had once been of rich material, were ragged +and old.</p> + +<p>I had made no noise, as I thought, in my approach; and the day was so +dull and dark that she could scarcely have perceived my presence by any +shadow of my eavesdropping self; but no sooner had I set my eyes on her +than she began to speak, without looking round, imagining, doubtless, +that I was Gilmore. "So you are there again, peeping and prying, are +you, wicked thief," cried she. "Don't you know that a real lady should +take her meals in peace without being interrupted, especially after she +has been beaten? Think of that, you cur. Why, where's your whip?" She +uttered these last words with a yell of scorn; and turning suddenly, +with one arm raised as if to ward a blow, she met my unexpected face, +and I saw hers. So remarkable was her appearance, that although it was +she, not I, who was taken by surprise, I think I was the more astounded +of the two. Her countenance was that of an old woman, so wrinkled, or +rather shrivelled up, that the furrows might have represented the +passage of a century of time; yet the teeth were as white and regular as +in a young beauty, and the black beaded eyes had a force and fire in +them unquenched by age. In her thin puckered ears hung a pair of +monstrous gilded ornaments, and round her skinny neck was a necklace +such as a stage queen would wear; yet she had naked feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is you, is it?" observed she, with a grave distinctness, in +strong contrast to her late excited and mocking tones. "If I had known +that you were coming, young gentleman, I would have put on my bracelets. +The family jewels are not all gone to the pawnbroker's, as is generally +believed. Besides, you should never insult people because they are poor, +or mad; one would not be either one or the other, you know, if one could +help it."</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, madam, that I should offer you any insult," said I, +touched by the evident misfortune of this poor creature. "I merely ran +hither because I heard the cry, as I thought, of some one in distress."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that was the dog, sir," replied the old woman cheerfully; "the +butler was correcting his dog, and it howled a little. Of course it +could not have been me—certainly not; Sir Massingberd is so excessively +anxious that I should have everything that is good for me; he said that +with his own lips. And what a handsome mouth he has, except when he +looks at <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Why at me?" cried I. "He has no cause to dislike me, has he!"</p> + +<p>"No cause!" cried the old woman, coming closer to the bars, and lowering +her voice to a confidential whisper. "Oh no—not if you were dead. I +never wished you worse than myself; no, not when my poor baby died, and +I could not weep. I feel that now; if I could only weep, as in the good +old times with my husband! There was plenty of good weeping +then—plenty."</p> + +<p>"But why should you wish me dead, madam, who have never done you any +harm?"</p> + +<p>"No harm? What not to have taken the title from my boy? No harm, when +but for you, he would have been the heir to house and land! Why, look +you, if it had not been for something, I would have driven Gilmore's +knife into you that day when you were sleeping under the limes. That was +the very place where I used to meet my love—let me see, how many years +ago?"</p> + +<p>The eager eyes for one instant ceased to glitter; some fragment of a +memory of the past claimed the restless brain; then once more she +rambled on. "One, two, three, four—he never struck me more than four +times; that's true, I swear."</p> + +<p>"And what was the something that prevented you from killing me when I +was asleep by the heron's island?" inquired I.</p> + +<p>"What was it?" replied the old woman sadly. "Did you not cry, 'Mother, +mother,' in your sleep, to make me think of my boy? I wept at that; just +one tear. He might have been such another as yourself—with the +same—Why, what's the matter with your forehead? What have you done +with your horseshoe? Every Heath wears one of them; then why not you, +young Marmaduke?"</p> + +<p>"My name is not Heath," said I; "you are taking me for somebody else."</p> + +<p>"Dear me—dear me, what a mistake! The fact is, that living in a house +affects one's sight. Now, let me guess. If you are not Marmaduke Heath, +you must be...—What a dark skin you have, and what kind eyes!" She +looked suspiciously round the room, and laying her finger on her lip, +observed beneath her breath: "You are not Stanley Carew, are you? They +told me he was hung, but I know better than that. I have seen him since +a hundred times. To be hung for nothing must be a terrible thing; but +how much worse to be hung for love!"</p> + +<p>"I am not Stanley Carew," said I; "I am Peter Meredith, who lives with +Mr. Long at the Rectory."</p> + +<p>"I never happen to have heard your name before, sir," replied the old +woman, mincingly; "perhaps you have never heard mine. Permit me to +introduce myself. Don't suppose that our people don't know good manners, +I am Sinnamenta—Lady Heath."</p> + +<p>"Madam," said I, deeply moved, "I apprehended as much. If I can do you +any service, be sure that the will shall not be wanting. Pray, tell me +what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>"Well," returned the poor creature, quickly, "Marmaduke Heath should be +killed at once, that is all important. We have been thinking of nothing +else, my husband and I. But perhaps you have done it already." (How I +shrank from that random shaft.) "If so, I have no further desire except +to get out. If I could only be once more in the greenwood, my hair would +reassume its natural colour. That is why Mr. Gilmore is so careful to +keep me thus locked up. If my husband only saw me with my black hair +again—it reached to the ground, sir—matters would be very different. I +think I have already observed that it is not customary to watch a lady +while she is partaking of refreshment."</p> + +<p>With that, she once more seated herself at the table, with her back to +me; and judging thereby that my presence was distasteful to her, and +having no notion of how I could possibly give her any aid, I withdrew +from the sad scene. I had not, however, gone many steps, when she called +me back again through the iron bars.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Meredith," said she, "you arrived somewhat unexpectedly. It is to +that circumstance alone, I beg to repeat, that you must attribute the +absence of bracelets. My very best regards to all your family. +Sinnamenta, you know—Lady Heath."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h3>HARLEY STREET.</h3> + + +<p>While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in +rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable +by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the +course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it +is fabled to do. During each of my visits there, I had perceived its +silent increase even more clearly than those between whom it was growing +up into the perfect flower, leaf by leaf, and bud by bud; they had +tended it together—Marmaduke and Lucy—until it was well nigh in +blossom, and yet they had not said to one another, and perhaps not even +to themselves, "Why, this is surely Love." Mr. Gerard had watched it, +not displeased, for he had found the young man all that my heart had +foretold that he would; Mr. Clint had seen it, and won by the strong +sense, as much as by the beauty of the gentle girl, forgot the +revolutionary stock of which she came. This, thought he, is the wife for +Marmaduke Heath; tender, but yet determined; dutiful, but indisposed to +submit to unauthorized dictation; as fearless as kind. In her, once +wedded to this young man, so morbid, so sensitive, so yielding, Sir +Massingberd would find, if it should be necessary, not only a foe, +resolute herself, but as firm as steel for him whom she had dowered with +her love. What Marmaduke's nature wanted, hers would supply. The keen +lawyer foresaw for that unhappy family, whose interests he and his had +had in keeping so many scores of years, a future such as had never been +promised before. It was an admission painful to me enough at that time, +but which I could not conceal from myself, that the real obstacle which +prevented the open recognition of attachment between these two young +people was Marmaduke himself. No girl more modest or less forward than +Lucy Gerard ever breathed, but I knew—ah, how well I knew!—that a word +from him would have brought the love-light to her eyes, which now lay +waiting but for it in the careful keeping of her maiden heart. But that +word had not been spoken. Perfect love, Marmaduke did not yet feel, for +he had not quite cast out fear. How can a man offer heart and hand to a +woman whom he does not feel certain that he can protect? It is for this +reason that marriage among slaves must for ever be a mockery. There +was, of course, no danger to Lucy Gerard in her marrying with Marmaduke, +although his uncle should storm "No" a thousand times; but the young man +felt that he was unworthy of her, while he entertained any terror of +him. It was wearing away; it was weakening day by day, through genial +influences, and the absence of all things which reminded him of Fairburn +and its master, but it was not dead yet. If by these words, I lead any +of my readers to suppose that Marmaduke Heath had the least resemblance +to that thing which is called a Coward, I have done my friend a grievous +wrong. Let me do away with the possibility of this most mistaken notion, +at once and for ever, by the recital of an event which, although it does +not come within the scope of the present narrative, nearly concerns one +of its most important characters.</p> + +<p>After the peace in 1815, there were more officers—English and +French—killed in single combat in Paris than in any one of the most +bloody battles of the late war. This desire to exterminate individual +Englishmen extended over the whole of France. A certain gentleman of my +acquaintance, then a very young man, chanced to be passing through a +town in Normandy, where an assemblage was collected outside the office +of the mayor. This arose from the very uncommon circumstance that that +functionary had been appealed to by a post-captain in the English navy +to punish a bullying Frenchman, who had striven to fasten a quarrel upon +him, although entirely unprovoked on his part. Now-a-days, the captain +would have been held to have behaved rightly enough, perhaps, but in +those fire-eating times an honest man's life was at the mercy of every +worthless ruffian who chose to run an equal risk with him from powder +and bullet. The decision, wonderful to relate, was given by the mayor +against his compatriot, and the crowd were correspondingly enraged. My +friend, whose nationality was apparent, was hustled and ill-treated, and +one person, well-dressed, and evidently of good position, knocked his +hat off, observing at the same time: "You will complain of me to the +mayor for that."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," returned the young Englishman quietly, picking his hat +up, all broken and muddy, from the trampled ground: "I shall treat you +very differently."</p> + +<p>"You will fight, will you? Come—I challenge you. Let us fight to-morrow +morning," exclaimed the bully, who was, as it turned out, a notorious +provincial duellist.</p> + +<p>"Not to-morrow, but now," rejoined my friend; "I have no time to wait +here, for I must be in Paris on Tuesday."</p> + +<p>"Then it will be in Père la Chaise," responded the other brutally.</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in procuring seconds, which were even more +plentiful in those parts than principals, and the whole party +immediately left the town for a wood outside its suburbs. The choice of +weapons of course lay with the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"Which do you prefer," asked the Frenchman who acted as his friend upon +the occasion—"the pistol or the sword?"</p> + +<p>"I have never fired a pistol in my life," replied the Englishman, "nor +handled a sword."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" cried his second, "what a barbarous education, what a +stupendous ignorance! You are as good as dead, I fear. I know not which +to recommend you. It is, however, at least sooner over with the +pistol."</p> + +<p>"The pistol be it then," said the Englishman coolly. "I elect that only +one shall be loaded; and that we fire within four paces of one another. +We shall then have an equal chance."</p> + +<p>The duellist turned pale as the death that threatened him, but he did +not venture to make any objection. It was manifest no other proposal +would have been fair. The seconds went apart, and placed powder and ball +in one weapon, powder only in the other. The combatants drew lots for +choice. The Frenchman won. The pistols were lying on a log of wood; he +advanced towards them, took one up in his hand, and retired with it, +then once more came back, and exchanged it for the other. He fancied +that the weapon was lighter than it should have been if it had a ball +within it. My friend's second objected strongly to this course; he +called it even unfair and shameful; he protested that the pistol taken +first ought to be retained. But the young Englishman, who was leaning +carelessly against a tree, exclaimed, "Let the gentleman have which he +likes. Whether he is right or not will be decided in a few seconds." So +the combatants were placed opposite to one another, and advanced to +within four paces. They raised their weapons; the word was given to +fire, and the Frenchman fell, pierced through the heart.</p> + +<p>"His blood is upon his own head," exclaimed the other solemnly. "He was +brave enough to have been a better man." Then perceiving that his help +could be of no avail to his late antagonist, he lifted his battered hat +to the Frenchman that remained alive, and returning to his carriage, +immediately resumed his journey.</p> + +<p>It is not possible, without putting some very strained and unusual +meaning on the word, to call the hero of such an adventure a coward; yet +the man who acted thus was Marmaduke Heath.</p> + +<p>The above relation is but a clumsy method of proving him courageous, I +am well aware; but I really know not otherwise how to make him appear +so, slave, as it is seen he was, to terrors which must seem almost +imaginary. It is said that no man, however fearless, quite gets over his +awe of his schoolmaster. An exaggeration of this sentiment probably +possessed this unfortunate young man; added to which was the fact that +Sir Massingberd was his uncle, a family tie which was doubtless not +without its influence, notwithstanding Marmaduke's evil opinion of his +own race. I suspect, too, he entertained a morbid notion that his own +life and that of his relative were somehow bound up together in one; +and on the few occasions when I ever saw him moved to wrath, a +similarity—mental as well as physical—between him and his uncle became +apparent, which actually inspired him with a sort of awe and hatred of +<i>himself</i>. A noble mind more injured and misshapen by ill-training it +was impossible to imagine. For the last few months, however, as I have +said, it had been growing aright, and gaining strength and vigour. No +home—even Mr. Clint and my tutor felt that—could possibly be better +adapted for him than his present one; the society of Mr. Gerard, a man +independent almost to audacity, and despising the haughty and the strong +with a supreme contempt, was the very tonic he needed. Rarely, however, +was his uncle's name mentioned in his presence: at first, Mr. Gerard had +purposely spoken of Sir Massingberd lightly and jestingly, but it was +found that the subject had better be altogether avoided. It is ill to +jest upon earthquakes with one who, having but just recovered from +certain shocks of a volcanic nature, is not without apprehensions of +more to come. This anticipation turned out to be but too well grounded. +A day or two after my discovery of the baronet's poor gipsy-wife at +Fairburn, whose existence was well known, I found, to both the rector +and Mr. Clint, and of course to Marmaduke himself, the postman carried +misfortune from me to Harley Street, although I was myself as +unconscious of the fact as he. Marmaduke did not come in to luncheon +from his study, as usual, and Mr. Gerard was sent with a gay message to +him by Lucy, to bid him do so. He was not wanted, he was to be assured, +upon his own account at all, but she was dying to hear news of Peter, +whose handwriting she had perceived upon the letter that had been sent +in to him that morning. Mr. Gerard found the poor lad with his eyes +riveted upon an autograph that was not mine, and upon words that I would +rather have cut off my hand than knowingly have sent him:</p> + + +<p>"Nephew Marmaduke,—I am told, whether falsely or not, it does not +matter now, that you have not seen the letter which I previously sent to +you. I think you can scarcely have done so, or you would not have dared +to disobey my orders therein contained, but would have returned to +Fairburn long ago. At all events, you will read <i>this</i> with your own +eyes, and beware how you hesitate to comply with it. <i>Return hither, +sir, at once.</i> It is idle to suppose that I wish you harm, as those you +are with would fain persuade you; but it is far worse than idle to +attempt to cross my will. Come back to Fairburn, and I will behave +towards you as though you had not acted in your late undutiful manner. +Delay to do so, and be sure that you will still have to return, but +under very different circumstances. Marmaduke Heath, you should know me +well by this time. When I say 'Come,' it is bad for the person to whom I +speak to reply, 'I will not come.' I give you twenty-four hours to +arrive here after the receipt of this letter; when these have elapsed +without my seeing you, I shall consider your absence to be equivalent to +a contumacious refusal. Then war will begin between us; and the strife +will be unequal, Nephew Marmaduke; although you had fifty men at your +back like lawyer Clint and this man Gerard, they could not keep you +from my arm. It will reach you wheresoever you are, at the time you +least suspect it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. +However well it may seem to be with you, it will not be well. When you +think yourself safest, you will be most in danger. There is indeed but +one place of safety for you: come you home.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">"MASSINGBERD HEATH."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<p>The wily baronet had fooled me, and doubtless, when I rose to light the +taper, had substituted the above letter for that which he had persuaded +me to enclose to his unhappy nephew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h3>BEFORE THE BLOW.</h3> + + +<p>As yet in ignorance of the mischief which I had unwittingly done to my +dearest friend, I could not but wonder why I received no news from +Harley Street. I had confessed to Mr. Long what Sir Massingberd had +persuaded me to do, and although he had thought me wrong to have acted +without consulting him in the matter, he anticipated no evil +consequences. He rather sought to laugh me out of my own forebodings and +presentiments. Still there was this somewhat suspicious corroboration of +them, that the newborn courtesies of our formidable neighbour had +suddenly ceased, as though the end for which they had been used was +already attained. The baronet's manner towards us was as surly as ever, +and even a trifle more so, as if to recompense himself for his previous +constrained politeness. To myself, his manner was precisely that of a +man who does not attempt to conceal his contempt for one whom he has +duped. Since Marmaduke's departure, there had gone forth various +decrees, injunctions, and what not, from the Court of Chancery, obtained +doubtless through Mr. Clint, on behalf of the heir-presumptive, against +certain practices of Sir Massingberd connected with the estate. Formerly +he had done what he chose, not only with "his own," but with what was +not his own in the eye of the law. But Marmaduke's reversionary rights +were now strictly protected. Not a tree in the park could fell beneath +the axe, but the noise thereof reached the Chancellor's ears, and +brought down reproof, and even threats, upon the incensed baronet. His +hesitation to institute proceedings for the recovery of his ward, had +given confidence to his opponents; and Mr. Gerard was not one to suffer +the least wrong to be committed with impunity; it was out of his pocket +that the expenses came for the edicts necessary to enforce compliance, +and I have heard him say that he never remembered to have spent any +money with greater personal satisfaction.</p> + +<p>This "thinning the timber" (as Sir Massingberd euphoniously termed +cutting down the most ornamental trees, in his excusatory despatches), +having been put a stop to, the squire took to selling the family plate. +A quantity of ancient silver, with the astonished Griffins upon it, was +transferred from the custody of Gilmore to that of certain transmuters +of metal in town, and came back again to Fairburn Hall in the shape of +gold pieces. But even the melting-pot was compelled to disclose its +secrets; and the squire received such a severe reprimand upon the text +of heirlooms, as made him writhe with passion, and which put an end to +any friendly connection that might have before existed between himself +and John, Lord Eldon, at once and for ever. I think it must have been +immediately after the receipt of that very communication, that Sir +Massingberd came over to the rectory upon the following errand. Mr. Long +and myself were at our "Tacitus" in the study one evening, when the +baronet was announced, and I rose to leave the room. "Stay where you +are, young gentleman," said he roughly; "what I have to say will, it is +like enough, soon be no secret to anybody. Mr. Long, I must tell you at +once that money I must have. The way in which my property is meddled +with by the lawyer in London, set on to do it by friends of yours, too, +is beyond all bearing. I declare to you, that I—Sir Massingberd Heath, +the nominal owner of twenty thousand acres, and of a rent-toll of half +as many thousand pounds—have not five guineas in my pocket at this +moment, nor do I know how to raise them. Now, am I a man, think you, to +sit down with my hands before me, and submit to such a state of things +as this?"</p> + +<p>"Really, Sir Massingberd, I cannot say," returned my tutor; "I cannot +see how I can help you in anyway."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you <i>can</i> help me, sir. You have influence with those +persons—curse them!—who have taken it in hand to do me these +injuries, who have interfered between uncle and nephew, between guardian +and ward. Now, I have made up my mind what I will do, and I am come here +to let you know it. You pretend to entertain some regard towards your +late pupil, Marmaduke."</p> + +<p>"The regard is genuine, Sir Massingberd. I wish others entertained the +like, who are more nearly connected with him than by the bond of pupil +and tutor."</p> + +<p>"Pray put me out of the question," returned the baronet coolly. "What I +have to say concerns others, not myself. You like this lad, and wish him +well; you hope for him an unclouded future; you trust that the character +of the family will be redeemed in his virtuous hands, and that the +remembrance of what it has been will not cleave to him, but will +gradually die out."</p> + +<p>"That is my earnest desire," replied Mr. Long, gravely.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it," continued the other; "and I suppose Mr. Clint +cherishes some similar notion; and this man Gerard—this rebel, this +hypocrite——"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, interrupting him, "you have bidden me +stay here; but I shall not remain to listen to slanders against Mr. +Harvey Gerard; he is no hypocrite, but a very honest and kind-hearted +man."</p> + +<p>"He has hoodwinked this young wise-acre already, you see," pursued the +baronet. "His object is evidently to secure the heir of Fairburn for his +daughter; I have not the least doubt the jade is making play with the +poor molly-coddle as fast as——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Long and myself both rose before the speaker could finish the +sentence. My tutor checked with his finger the wrathful words that were +at my lips, and observed with energy: "Sir Massingberd, be silent! +Under my roof, you shall not traduce that virtuous and excellent young +girl."</p> + +<p>I never saw Mr. Long so excited; I never admired him so much. The +baronet paused, as though hesitating whether it was worth while to +indulge himself in uttering insults; I am thankful to say he decided +that it was not. It would have been pollution to Lucy Gerard's name to +have heard it spoken by such lips.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," returned he, "I have nothing to say against the young +woman. It is probable, however, you will allow, that some attachment may +arise between herself and my nephew. You grant that, do you? Ah, I +thought so. In that case, Mr. Gerard would prefer the husband of his +daughter to be free from all stain. Good! There are three persons then, +at least, all interested in my nephew's good name. Now, listen: you know +something, parson, of the mode of life pursued by the Heaths from +generation to generation; you know something of the deeds that have been +committed at Fairburn Hall. What is known, however, is honourable and +harmless compared to what is <i>not</i> known; the vices which you have +shuddered at are mere follies—the offspring of idleness and high +spirits—compared to those of which you have yet to hear."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to imagine a more repulsive spectacle than this man +presented, exulting not only in his own wickedness, but in that of his +forefathers. He took from his pocket a huge manuscript, and thus +proceeded:—"The records of the House of Heath are red with blood, and +black with crime. I hold them in my hand here, and they are very pretty +reading. Now, look you, I will leave them here for your perusal, +parson—they have at least this attraction about them, they are +<i>true</i>—and when you have made yourself master of the contents, perhaps +you can recommend to me a publisher."</p> + +<p>"Is it possible," cried my tutor, "that you can do this dreadful wrong +at once to ancestors and descendant? Have you no mercy even for kith and +kin? Do you dare to defy God and Man alike?"</p> + +<p>"I dare publish that pamphlet, unless I have money," quoth Sir +Massingberd scornfully, "and that is the sole question with which we +need now concern ourselves. A pretty welcome young Sir Marmaduke will +meet with when he comes into the country among all who know his family +history. As for me, my character is one which is not likely to suffer +from any disclosure."</p> + +<p>"Are all the murders done and attempted set down here, Sir Massingberd?" +inquired my tutor, taking up the pamphlet "The catalogue of crime is +truly frightful; but you do not seem to have brought the narrative down +to the most recent dates."</p> + +<p>"The most recent dates?" reiterated the baronet mechanically.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," responded my tutor, "the history is evidently incomplete. If +it should come out in its present form, it would need an appendix. I +would scarcely recommend you to run the risk of another person +publishing a continuation. You had better take it home, and reconsider +the matter."</p> + +<p>The baronet affected to receive this advice in earnest, and retired, +foiled and furious.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> He never more set foot in the Rectory, save +twice; once when he called upon me, and persuaded me to forward that +hateful letter to Marmaduke, and again upon the occasion I am about to +describe. The errand he then came upon was of small consequence, but the +circumstance I shall never forget. After-events have made it one of the +most memorable in my life, for it was the last time, save one, that I +ever beheld Massingberd Heath. Little did I think what a mystery was +then impending—so frightful, so unexampled, that it now seems almost +strange that it did not visibly overshadow that giant form, that +ruthless face. If we could thus read the future of others, how fearful +would be many a meeting which is now so conventional and commonplace! It +is true that we should always part, both from friends and from enemies, +in some sort as though we were parting with them for the last time; but +how different a leave-taking would it be, if we were indeed assured +that they and we would meet no more upon this side the grave! How I +should have devoured that man with mine eyes, had I known that they +would not again behold him—save one awful Once—before we should both +stand together in the presence of God! What terrors, what anxieties, +what enigmas were about to be brought to us and to others by the +morrow's sun! Yet, at the time, with what little things we occupied +ourselves! It was in the morning that Sir Massingberd paid his visit—a +morning of early November, when the first sharp frost had just set in. +He came about money matters, as usual. We were surprised to see him, +because, as I have said, he had relapsed into his accustomed stern +unsociable habits, and had seemed to have given up all attempts to gain +any furtherance of his plans from Mr. Long. He had called he said, about +a matter that affected the parson himself, or he would not have +troubled him. Certain Methodists had offered him twenty pounds a year as +the ground-rent of a chapel to be built upon the outskirts of the Park, +and within view of the Rectory windows. For his part, he hated the +Methodists; and had no sort of wish to offend Mr. Long by granting their +prayer. Still, being grievously in want of money, he had come to say +that if Mr. Clint could not be induced to give him some pecuniary help, +the chapel must be built.</p> + +<p>My tutor, who had a very orthodox abhorrence of all dissent, and +especially when it threatened his own parish, was exceedingly disturbed +by this intelligence.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried he; "you preach to your nephew doctrines of Conservatism, +Sir Massingberd, and yet are induced for a wretched bribe to let a nest +of sectaries be built in the very avenue of your Park!"</p> + +<p>"It is terrible indeed," quoth the baronet drily; "but they might set it +up opposite my front door for an extra five-pound note. I announce their +offer solely on your account. They call on me to-morrow for my final +decision, and I cannot afford to say, 'No.' Now, you can do what you +please with Mr. Clint, and may surely represent to him that this is a +case where twenty pounds may be well expended. The matter will thus be +staved off for a year at least; and next year, you know, I may be in +better circumstances—or dead, which many persons would greatly prefer."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," returned my tutor gravely, "I will do my best with Mr. +Clint; but in the meantime, rather than let this chapel be built, I will +advance the money you mention at my own risk. I happen to have a +considerable sum in the house at present, which I intended to lodge with +the bank at Crittenden to-morrow. So you shall have the notes at once."</p> + +<p>"That is very fortunate," said the baronet, coolly; and Mr. Long counted +them out into his hand—twenty flimsey, but not yet ragged, one-pound +notes, for the imitation of the like of which half-a-dozen men were at +that time often strung up in front of the Old Bailey together. From +82961 to 82980 the numbers ran, which—albeit I am no great hand at +recollecting such things—I shall remember, from what followed, as long +as I live. I can see the grim Squire now, as he rolls them tightly up, +and places them in that huge, lapelled waistcoat-pocket; as he slaps it +with his mighty hand, as though he would defy the world to take them +from him, however unlawfully acquired; as he leaves the room with an +insolent nod, and clangs across the iron road with his nailed shoes.</p> + +<p>I watch him through the Rectory window, as, ere he puts the key in his +garden-door, he casts a chance look-up at the sky. He looks to see what +will happen on the morrow. Does he read nothing save Continuance of Fine +and Frosty Weather? Nothing. All is blue and clear as steel; not a cloud +to be seen the size of a man's hand from north to south, from east to +west. There is no warning to be read in the cold and smiling heaven; no +"<i>Mene, mene</i>," for this worse than Belshazzar on its broad cerulean +wall!</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> Years afterwards I became possessed of the pamphlet in +question, which, having glanced at, I very carefully committed to the +flames. I do not doubt, however, that Sir Massingberd would have carried +his threat into execution, had not Mr. Long's menace shaken his +purpose.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h3>LOST.</h3> + + +<p>The morning subsequent to Sir Massingberd's visit to the Rectory was +bright, but intensely cold. I was very particular about my shaving in +those days, and would not have dispensed with that manly exercise upon +any account; but I remember that the frost made it a difficult process. +In the course of the ceremony, Mrs. Myrtle, who was a very privileged +person, knocked softly at my door. A visit from her at such a time was +unusual, but not unprecedented. I said, "Pray, come in." My attire was +tolerably complete, and perhaps I was not indisposed to let people know +what tremendous difficulties were entailed upon a gentleman by the +possession of an obstinate beard. I was not prepared for her closing the +door behind her, sinking into the nearest chair, and fanning herself, as +though it had been midsummer, with her outspread fingers. I looked at +her with a face all soap-suds and astonishment.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Myrtle, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't ask me, Master Peter," cried she, although she had come for +no other purpose than to be cross-questioned. "Oh, pray, don't, for it's +more nor I can bear. Dearey me, if I ain't all of a twitter!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing the matter with your master," said I, "surely? I saw him out of +the window a little while ago on the lawn, talking to one of the +under-keepers of the Hall."</p> + +<p>"I dare say you did, sir," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, with one of those +aggravated shudders which are generally produced by the anticipation of +senna and salts. "No, master's all well, thank Heaven."</p> + +<p>"No bad news from Harley Street?" exclaimed I, laying down my razor in a +tremor. "I trust Miss...—I mean that Mr. Marmaduke is as he should be."</p> + +<p>"For all that I know to the contrary, he is, sir," returned the +housekeeper; "and likewise all <i>friends</i>" Mrs. Myrtle laid such an +accent upon "friends" that my mind naturally rushed to the opposite.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say," said I, "that anything has happened to Sir +Massingberd?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Myrtle had no voice to speak, but she nodded a number of times in +compensation.</p> + +<p>"Is he DEAD?" asked I, very solemnly, for it was terrible to think of +sudden death in connection with that abandoned man.</p> + +<p>"Wus than dead, sir," returned the housekeeper; "many times wus than +dead; Heaven forgive me for saying so. Sir Massingberd is LOST."</p> + +<p>"Lost!" repeated I; "how? where?"</p> + +<p>"There is only One knows that, Master Peter; but the Squire is not at +the Hall, that's certain; he never returned there last night, after he +had gone his rounds in the preserves. He spoke with Bradford and two +more of the keepers, and bade them keep a good look-out as usual; but he +did not come to the watchers in the Home Plantation. He never got so +near the house as that; nobody saw him since midnight. Gilmore put out +his cigars and spirits as usual for him in his room; but they are +untouched. The front-door was not fastened on the inside; Sir +Massingberd never came in."</p> + +<p>Here I heard Mr. Long calling upon the stairs in a voice very different +from his customary cheerful tones, for Mrs. Myrtle.</p> + +<p>"Mercy me, I wonder whether there's anything new!" cried she, rising +with great alacrity. "As soon as I knows it, you shall know it, Master +Peter;" with which generous promise she hurried from the room.</p> + +<p>After this intelligence, shaving became an impossibility, and I hurried +down as soon as I could into the breakfast-room. My tutor was standing +at the window very thoughtful, and though he greeted me with his usual +hilarity, it struck me that it was a little forced.</p> + +<p>"Why, you are early this morning, Peter; and how profusely you have +illustrated yourself with cuts; it is sad to see one so young with such +a shaky hand. One would think you were one of the five-bottle-men, like +Sir—like Lord Stowell."</p> + +<p>He had been about to say "Sir Massingberd," I knew, and would on +ordinary occasions not have hesitated to do so.</p> + +<p>"De perditis nil nisi bonum?" quoth I inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, so you have heard of this nine hours' wonder, have you?" returned +my tutor. "Because our neighbour has chosen to leave home for a little, +on some private business best known to himself, everybody will have it +that he is Lost."</p> + +<p>"But it does seem very extraordinary too," said I, "does it not? He has +never done so before, has he?"</p> + +<p>"Not in all the years he has lived in Fairburn," returned my tutor +musingly.</p> + +<p>"And he made no preparations, I suppose, for departure, did he? Took no +clothes with him?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, nothing," interrupted Mr. Long, pacing the room to and fro, +with his hand to his forehead. "But he had money, you know; he was eager +to get that money yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Then he would probably have hired a vehicle," urged I; "Sir Massingberd +is not the man to use his own legs, beyond the limit, that is, of his +own lands. You have heard him say that he would never be seen on the +road without four horses."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long continued his walk without reply, but I thought I perceived +that he was not unwilling to have the subject discussed. He seemed to be +eager to take as light a view of the matter as possible, although like +one who contends against his own more sombre convictions. I, on the +contrary, had that leaning towards the gloomy and mysterious not +uncommon with young persons, and both imagined the worst, and +endeavoured to picture it.</p> + +<p>"He went out after the poachers did he not?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, as usual," replied my tutor; "he has done it before, scores of +times."</p> + +<p>"The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last," returned I. +"I should not be surprised if the wretched man has been murdered by some +of those against whom he waged such unceasing war."</p> + +<p>"Then if so, he must have been shot, Peter," returned the rector +hastily: "without firearms, it would have been hard to dispose of the +gigantic baronet, armed as he doubtless was with his life-preserver. Now +no gun has been heard to go off by any one, although it was thought that +Sir Massingberd expected some raid to be made last night, by the +gipsies or others; at all events, he seemed more alert than usual, +Oliver tells me."</p> + +<p>The gipsies! My heart sank within me, as I thought of Rachel Liversedge +consumed with the wrongs of her "little sister;" and of the young man, +relative of that unhappy Carew whose life had been sworn away through +the Squire's machinations. I had seen nothing of them since my memorable +interview, but it was like enough that the tribe were yet in the +neighbourhood. True, they had waited so long for vengeance, that it was +not probable they should have set about it at this time; but if Sir +Massingberd had really come across them alone, while they were +committing a depredation, violence might easily enough have ensued; and +if violence, murder. I was very glad that Mrs. Myrtle came in at this +juncture with the eggs and buttered toast, and concealed my +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"No news, sir," said she lugubriously, as she placed the delicacies upon +the table. "The last words were, 'Nothing has been heard of him.'" The +housekeeper had established a system of communication by help of her +kitchen-maid and the stable-lad at the Hall, whereby she received +bulletins, every quarter of an hour or so, with respect to Sir +Massingberd's mysterious disappearance.</p> + +<p>"Well, no news is good news, you know," responded Mr. Long gaily. "We +should always look upon the bright side of things, Mrs. Myrtle."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; but when a thing ain't got a bright side," remarked the +housekeeper, shaking her head. "Why, it's dreadful now he's Lost; and it +would be dreadful even if, after all, he was al——"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, Mrs. Myrtle; you don't know but you may be speaking of a +poor soul that is gone to his account. Sir Massingberd is doubtless a +bad man; but let us not call it dreadful if he should be permitted to +return among us, and have some time yet, it may be, to repent in."</p> + +<p>"Then you think he's dead and gone, do you, sir? Well, that's what I +think, and that's what Patty thinks too, and she's a very reasonable +girl. 'Them ravens,' says she to me, 'didn't come to that church-tower +for nothing;' and though, of course, I told her to hold her tongue, and +not talk folly like that, there was a good deal in what she said. Why, +we have not had ravens here since Sir Wentworth came to his awful end in +London; there was a mystery about that too, wasn't there, sir? +Lawk-a-mercy! Mr. Meredith, you gave me quite a turn."</p> + +<p>I had only said "Look there!" and pointed to the window, through which +Gilmore and the head-keeper were seen approaching the Rectory, and +engaged in close conversation.</p> + +<p>"I'll go with Patty, and let them in," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, unconsciously +betraying that she was unequal to opening the door alone, in such an +emergency. It is probable that, when it was opened, the incomers and she +had a great deal to talk about, for they were not ushered into the +breakfast-room for many minutes, and after the very moderate meal which +sufficed us both upon the occasion had long been finished. The butler +and Oliver Bradford were by no means good friends, and it must have been +something portentous indeed which brought them to the Rectory together. +It was, in fact, their very rivalry which had produced the double +visit. Each conceived himself to be the superior minister of the absent +potentate, and called upon, by that position, to act in his master's +behalf, and give notice to neighbouring powers, such as the parson, of +the event that had paralyzed affairs at the Hall. It seemed only natural +(as he himself subsequently expressed it) to Oliver Bradford, who had +been servant, man and boy, to the Heath family for nearly sixty years, +that he should be the spokesman on an occasion such as this, and +sleeking his scanty white hairs over his forehead with the palm of his +hand, and passing the back of it across his mouth, he commenced as +follows:—</p> + +<p>"Muster Long, I make bold to come over here, having been upon the +property going on for three-score years and ten——"</p> + +<p>"As out-door servant," interrupted Mr. Gilmore, severely; "but not as +confidential in any way. Mr. Long, this old man here insisted upon +accompanying me in the performance of my duty, and I have humoured him."</p> + +<p>"You've what?" cried the ancient keeper; "you've humoured <i>me</i>, you oily +knave, have you? No, no, you never did that to Oliver Bradford. It +wasn't worth your while. I come here about my master's business as a +matter of right. Are a few years of truckling, and helping the devil's +hand, and feathering your own nest pretty comfortably, to be weighed +against a lifetime of honest service? Let Mr. Long here decide."</p> + +<p>"Look here, men," quoth my tutor, "it is no use quarrelling about +precedence. You are both in the same service, and owe the same duty to +your master. I know what has happened in a general way, and require no +long story from either of you. But you have doubtless each of you some +information concerning this matter peculiar to your own positions, and I +will ask you to communicate it in time. Twelve hours have not elapsed +since your master's disappearance, a very short time surely to set it +down so decidedly to some fatal accident."</p> + +<p>"He was as regular in his rounds as clockwork," interposed the old +keeper, shaking his head; "he would never have left the Home Spinney +unvisited last night, if life had been in him."</p> + +<p>"And if he had meant to leave Fairburn of his own head," added the +butler, "he would have come back for his brandy before he started; for +all his hearty look, Sir Massingberd could not get on long without that; +and he would not have taken Grimjaw out with him neither."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the dog was with him, was it?" said my tutor, musing.</p> + +<p>"It was not in the house, sir," replied Gilmore, "after Sir Massingberd +had left. I went to make the fire in his sitting-room, and I noticed +that the creature was neither on the hearthrug, nor under the sofa, as +is usually the case. I don't know when I have known the dog go out with +him o' nights before. When I went to open the front door as usual this +morning, there was Grimjaw, nigh frozen to death."</p> + +<p>"Your master had made no sort of preparation, so far as you know, for +his own departure anywhere?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever. I set out his cigars for him, and I noticed that he had +only put two in his case, a sure sign that he meant to return soon. He +had no greatcoat, although it was bitter cold."</p> + +<p>"Was he armed in any way?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; that is to say, he had his life-preserver, of course, but no +gun or pistol."</p> + +<p>"Had he any sum of money, or valuables of any kind about him, Gilmore?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that is at all likely," replied the butler, grinning. "We +haven't seen money at the Hall this many a day. As for valuables, Sir +Massingberd had his big gold chain on, with a silver watch at the end of +it, borrowed from me years ago, and my property."</p> + +<p>It was remarkable how this ordinarily cautious and discreet person was +changed in manner, as though he was well assured that he would never +more have a master over him. Both Mr. Long and myself observed this.</p> + +<p>"What time was your master usually accustomed to return home from his +rounds in the preserves?"</p> + +<p>"I did not sit up for him in general," returned Gilmore; "but when I +have chanced to be awake, and to hear him come in, it was never later +than three o'clock. His ordinary time was about half-past twelve, but it +depended on what time he started. He left the Hall last night at about +ten, and should, therefore, have returned a little after midnight. I +never set eyes on him since nine o'clock, when he was in his own +sitting-room reading."</p> + +<p>"And when did <i>you</i> see him last, Bradford?"</p> + +<p>"When did I see Sir Massingberd Heath?" replied the old keeper, who had +been chafing with impatience through his rival's evidence—"well, I +see'd him last nine hours ago, at nearly twelve o'clock at night. I was +on watch in the Old Plantation, and he came upon me sudden, as usual, +with his long quick stride."</p> + +<p>"Was there anything at all irregular about his manner or appearance; +anything in the least degree different from what you always saw upon +these occasions?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, whatever, sir. Look you, I knew my master well," [He had +already begun to talk of him in the past tense!] "I could tell at a +glance when he was put out more than usual, or when he had anything out +of ordinary in hand; he never swore, saving your reverence's presence, +what you may call <i>freely</i> then. He might have knocked one down, likely +enough, if you gave him the least cross, but he was not flush of his +oaths. Now I never heard him in a better fettle in that respect than he +was last night. He cussed the lad Jem Meyrick, who had come up to me +away from Davit's Copse for a light to his pipe; and he cussed me too, +for giving it him, up hill and down dale, and in particular he cussed +Grimjaw for being so old and slow that he couldn't keep up with him. +Sir Massingberd never waited for him, of course; but after he'd been +with us a few minutes, the old dog came up puffin' and wheezin'; and +when the Squire left us, it followed him as well as it could, but with +the distance getting greater between them at every step. I watched them, +for the moon made it almost as light as day, going straight for the +Wolsey Oak, which was the direct way for the Home Spinney; and that was +where Sir Massingberd meant to go last night, although he never got +there, or leastways the watcher never saw him.</p> + +<p>"Have you any reason to believe, keeper, that there were poachers in any +part of the preserves last night?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Oliver, positively. "On the contrary, I knows there +wasn't, although Sir Massingberd was as suspicious of them as usual, or +more so. Why, with Jack Larrup and Dick Swivel both in jail, and all +the Larchers sent out of the parish, and Squat and Burchall at sea, +where was they to come from?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd must have had many enemies?" mused my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Ay, indeed, sir," replied old Oliver, pursing his lips; "he held his +own with the strong hand; so strong, however, as no man would contend +against him. If Sir Massingberd has been killed, Mr Long, it was not in +fair fight; he was too much feared for that."</p> + +<p>"There has been a gang of gipsies about the place this long time, has +there not?" quoth my tutor.</p> + +<p>"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of +Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're +feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, +although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more +have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would +attack a hawk, that's certain."</p> + +<p>My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation +with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and +inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, +and when.</p> + +<p>"You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this +afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have +chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry +having been made after him?"</p> + +<p>"That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis.</p> + +<p>"I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, +sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years."</p> + +<p>"In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the +responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very +good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, +to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, +must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary +up at the Hall."</p> + +<p>The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "<i>Very</i> well, sir," +but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We +must go together."</p> + +<p>"I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, +when the two had left the room.</p> + +<p>"No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about +collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain."</p> + +<p>Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I +meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't +you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by +for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle—a +sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any +further, just at present.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h3>THE STONE GARDEN.</h3> + + +<p>When Mr. Long took his departure with Gilmore, he did not ask me to +accompany him, and assist in an undertaking which was likely to be +somewhat laborious. Perhaps he wished if the baronet did chance to +return in a fury, that he alone should bear the brunt of it. Perhaps he +thought there might be things at the Hall I had better not see, or +perhaps he wished to observe the butler's behaviour at leisure. I think, +however, he could scarcely have expected me to stay at home with my +books, while such doings as he had directed were on the point of taking +place. Euripides was doubtless in his day a sensation dramatist, but +the atrocities of Medea could not enchain me, with so much dreadful +mystery afoot in my immediate neighbourhood. Her departure through the +air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, was indeed a striking +circumstance; but how much more wonderful was the disappearance of Sir +Massingberd, who had departed no man knew how!</p> + +<p>The news had spread like wildfire through the village. Numbers of +country folk were hanging about the great gates of the avenue, drinking +in the impromptu information of the lodge-keeper; but they did not +venture to enter upon the forbidden ground. The universal belief among +them was, I found, that their puissant lord would soon reveal himself. +Doubting Castle, it was true, was for the present without its master; +but it was too much to expect that he would not return to it. The whole +community resembled prisoners in that fortress, who, although +temporarily relieved of the tyrant's presence, had little hope but that +he was only gone forth upon a ramble, and would presently return with +renewed zest for human flesh. The general consternation, however, was +extreme, and such as would probably not have been excited by the sudden +and unexplained removal of a far better man. The rumour had already got +abroad that there was to be an immediate search in the park, and that +Oliver Bradford had been empowered to select such persons as he thought +fit to assist in the same. There were innumerable volunteers for this +undertaking, principally on account of the excessive attraction of the +work itself, which promised some ghastly revelation; and secondarily, +for the mere sake of getting into Fairburn Chase at all—a demesne as +totally unknown to the majority of those present as the Libyan Desert. +The elders indeed remembered the time when a public footpath ran right +through the Chase, "close by the Heronry, and away under the Wolsey Oak, +and so through Davit's Copse, into the high road to Crittenden," said +one, "whereby a mile and a half was wont to be saved." "Ay, or two +mile," quoth another; "and Lawyer Moth always said as though the path +was ours by right, until Sir Massingberd got his son made a king's clerk +in London, which shut his mouth up and the path at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said a third, mysteriously, "and it ain't too late to try the +matter again, in case the property has got <i>into other hands</i>."</p> + +<p>This remark brought back at once the immediate cause of their assembling +together, and I began to be made the victim of cross-examination. To +avoid being compelled to give my own opinion (which I had already begun +to think a slander) upon the matter in hand, I took my leave as quietly +as could be, and escaped, whither they dared not follow me, through the +griffin-guarded gates. All within was, as usual, silent and deserted. A +few leaves were still left to flutter down in eddies from the trees, or +hop and rustle on the frosty ground, but their scarcity looked more +mournful than utter bareness would have done. It was now the saddest +time of all the year; the bleak east wind went wailing overhead; and +underneath, the soil was black with frost. Instead of pursuing the +avenue to the frontdoor of the Hall, where, as it seemed, I was not +wanted, I took a foot-track to the left, which I knew led to that +bowling-green whither I had been previously invited by Sir Massingberd, +although I had not taken advantage of his rare courtesy. If he did now +appear, no matter in what state of mental irritation, he could scarcely +quarrel with me for doing the very thing he had asked me to do. Had I +known, however, the character of the place in which I found myself, I +should have reserved my visit for a less eerie and mysterious occasion.</p> + +<p>The time of year, it is true, had no unfavourable influence upon the +scene that presented itself, for all was clothed in garments of thickest +green. Vast walls of yew shut in on every side a lawn of perfect +smoothness; everything proclaimed itself to belong to that portion of +the Hall property which was "kept up" by subsidy from without. The +quaint oak-seats, though old, were in good repair; the yew hedges +clipped to a marvel. Still nothing could exceed the sombre and funereal +aspect of the spot. It seemed impossible that such a sober game as +bowls could ever have been played there, or jest and laughter broken +that awful stillness. The southern yew-screen was in a crescent form, at +the ends of which were openings unseen from within the enclosed space. +Passing through one of these, I came upon what was called the Stone +Garden. It took its name from four stone terraces, from the highest of +which I knew that there must be a very extensive view. This space was +likewise covered with yew trees, clipped and cut in every conceivable +form, after the vile taste of the seventeenth century. There was +something weird in the aspect of those towering Kings and Queens—easily +recognizable, however, for what they were intended—and of those maids +of honour, with their gigantic ruffs and farthingales. One was almost +tempted to imagine that they had been human once, and been turned into +yew trees for their sins. The whole area was black with them; and a +sense of positive oppression, notwithstanding the eager air which caught +me sharply whenever I lost the shelter of one of these ungainly forms, +led me on to the top terrace, where one could breathe freely, and have +something else than yews to look upon.</p> + +<p>Truly, from thence the scene was wide and fair. I stood at that +extremity of the pleasure-grounds most remote from the Hall, and with my +back to it. Before me lay a solitary tract of wooded park, thickly +interspersed with planted knolls and coppices. Immediately beneath me +was the thicket called the Home Spinney, the favourite haunt of hare and +pheasant, and the spot in all the Chase most cherished by Sir +Massingberd. He would have resented a burglary, I do believe, with less +of fury than any trespass upon that sacred ground. Beyond the Spinney, +and standing by itself, far removed from any other tree, was the famous +Wolsey Oak. Why called so, I have not the least idea, for it had the +reputation of being a vast deal older than the days of the famous +Cardinal. Many a summer had it seen—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"When the monk was fat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And issuing shorn and sleek,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Would twist his girdle tight, and pat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The girls upon the cheek;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's Pence,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And numbered bead and shrift,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bluff Harry broke into the spence,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And turned the cowls adrift."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Yet still was it said to be as whole and sound as a bell. It was +calculated to measure over fourteen yards in circumference, and that for +many feet from its base; while its height, although it had lost some of +its upper branches, still far exceeded that of any other of its +compeers. Beyond this tree, but at another great interval, was the wood +known as the Old Plantation, where Oliver Bradford had last seen his +master alive. I was looking down, then, upon the very route which Sir +Massingberd had been seen to commence, but which he had never ended. It +was to the Home Spinney he had been apparently bound, when +something—none knew what—had changed his purpose. He would probably +have passed through it, and come up by that winding path yonder to the +spot where I now stood; it was the nearest way home for him. Perhaps he +had done so, although it was unlikely, since the watcher had not seen +him. Perhaps those very yews behind me had concealed his murderers. Shut +in by those unechoing walls of living green, no cry for aid would have +been heard, even if Sir Massingberd had been the man to call for it; he +would most certainly have never asked for mercy. But hark! what was +that sound that froze the current of my blood, and set my heart beating +and fluttering like the wings of a prisoned bird against its cage? Was +it a strangled cry for "Help!" repeated once, twice, thrice, or was it +the wintry wind clanging and grinding the naked branches of the Spinney? +A voice had terrified me in Fairburn Chase once before, which had turned +out to be no mere fancy; but there was this horror about the present +sound, that I seemed to dimly recognize it. It was the voice of Sir +Massingberd Heath, with an awful change in it, as if a powerful hand +were tightening upon his throat. It seemed, as I have said, to come from +the direction of the copse beneath, and yet I determined to descend into +it, rather than thread again the mazes of those melancholy yews. The +idea of my assistance being really required never entered into my +thoughts; what I wanted was to escape from this solitude, peopled only +with unearthly cries, and regain the companionship of my +fellow-creatures. How I regretted having left the society of those +honest folk outside the gates! To remain where I was, was impossible; I +should have gone mad. Fortunately, the Spinney was well-nigh leafless, +and a bright but wintry sun penetrated it completely. I fled over its +withered and frosted leaves, looking neither to left nor right, till I +leaped the deep ditch that formed its southern boundary, and found +myself in the open; then I stopped indeed quite short, for, before me, +not ten paces from the Spinney, from which he must have just emerged, +lay the body of Grimjaw. It was still warm, but lifeless. There were no +marks of violence about him; the struggle to extricate himself from the +ditch, it is probable, had cost the wretched creature his little +remaining vitality, weakened as he must have doubtless been by his +previous night's lodging on the cold stone steps. But how had he come +thither, who never moved anywhere out of doors, except with Sir +Massingberd or Gilmore? and whither, led perhaps by some mysterious +instinct, was he going when death had overtaken him—an easy task—and +glazed that solitary eye, which had witnessed so much which was still a +mystery to man?</p> + +<p>Was it possible that he had perished in endeavouring to obey his +master's cry for aid? that terrible "Help! help!" which rang in my ears +a while ago, as I stood in the Stone Garden, and which rings, through +half a century, in them now?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h3>THE SEARCH.</h3> + + +<p>Shrinking away from the body of the unhappy Grimjaw, and fleeing from +the solitary spot in which it lay, I ran down towards the Heronry, +where, in the distance, I could now perceive a number of persons +assembled upon the lake-side. Below and above it, the stream flowed on +as usual; but the larger area of water which contained the island, was +frozen over with a thin coating of ice. This was being broken by men +armed with long and heavy poles, after which the work of dragging the +water was commenced. The scene was as desolate as the occupation was +ghastly and depressing. Perched upon stony slabs of their now leafless +home, the huge birds watched the proceedings with grave and serious air: +at first, they imagined, I think, that the thing was done for their own +behoof, and to the end that they might supply themselves with fish as +usual; but the appearance of the grappling-irons disabused them of this +idea. Now one, and now another, unable to restrain their curiosity, +would rise slowly and warily into the air, and making a circuit over our +heads, return to their old position to reflect, with head aside, upon +what they had seen. The presence as spectators of these gigantic +creatures, certainly increased the weird and awful character of the +employment in which we were engaged, and struck quite a terror into the +village folk, who were unaccustomed to see them in such close proximity. +Still the work was not gone about by any means in reverent and solemn +silence. If any man wishes his neighbours to speak their mind about him +thoroughly and unreservedly, I should say, judging from what I heard on +that occasion, Let him disappear, and be dragged for. It is not so +certain he is dead, that any delicacy need be exercised in telling the +severest truths about him; nor yet is there sufficient chance of his +reappearance to make folks reticent through fear. Only when the drags +halted a little, meeting with some hidden obstruction, all tongues were +silent, and pale faces clustered about the toilers, expecting that the +dreadful thing they sought was about to be brought to land.</p> + +<p>"I thought we had him then," said one of the men, after an occasion of +this sort; "but it was only a piece of stone."</p> + +<p>"It might have been his <i>heart</i>, for all that," muttered another, +cynically; and a murmur of "Ay, that's true," went round them all.</p> + +<p>"Has anybody been about the Home Spinney this morning?" inquired I of +Oliver Bradford, who had just given up his place at the ropes to a fresh +man.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, nor last night either, as it turns out. It will be bad for +somebody if Sir Massingberd does return, and finds out that the watcher +who ought to have been there was wiled away elsewhere by what he thought +was poachers holloing to one another—some owl's cry, as I should judge. +And to-day, I doubt if a creature has been near the place, for none of +my men seem to fancy going there alone."</p> + +<p>"And who <i>was</i> the watcher there last night, Oliver?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, we must not make mischief; he was a young chap new at the +business, a sort of grand-nevvy of mine by the wife's side. He'll do +better next time, will young Dick Westlock. He was over-eager, that's +all. And when you hear a cry in these woods, unless you are thoroughly +accustomed to them, it may lead you a pretty dance: it takes a practised +ear to tell rightly where it comes from."</p> + +<p>"You should know me better, Bradford," returned I, "than to suppose I +would bring a lad to harm by mentioning such a matter; but I should like +to ask him a question or two, if you will point him out."</p> + +<p>"There he is then, sir," answered Oliver, pointing to a good-looking, +honest lad enough, but one who perhaps would scarcely have been +considered sufficiently old for so trustworthy a part as sentinel of the +home preserves, had he not been grand-nephew to the head keeper.</p> + +<p>"Why, Dick," said I, "your uncle telly me that you took an owl for a +poacher last night, and followed his voice all over the Chase."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't no owl," sir, quoth Dick, stoutly; "it were the voice of a +man, whosoever it was."</p> + +<p>"Don't thee be a fool," exclaimed his uncle, roughly. "I tell thee it +was a bird, and called like this;" and the keeper gave a very excellent +imitation of the cry of an owl.</p> + +<p>This was not greatly unlike the sound which had so recently affrighted +my own ears; but then owls rarely cry in the daytime.</p> + +<p>"Dick," cried I, "never mind your uncle; listen to me. If you thought it +was a human voice, what do you think it said?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't rightly say as it said anything; it seemed to me to be a +sort of wobbling in the throat; and I thought it might be a sound among +some poaching fellars, made with a bird-call, or the like of that."</p> + +<p>"Supposing it said any word at all, Dick, what word was it most like?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Richard Westlock looked as nonplused and embarrassed as though I had +propounded to him some extremely complicated riddle.</p> + +<p>"Was it anything like 'Hel—p, hel—p?'" said I, imitating as well as I +could those terrible tones.</p> + +<p>"Bless my body," quoth Mr. Richard, slapping his legs with his hands, in +admiration of my sagacity, "if them ain't the very words as it <i>did</i> +say!"</p> + +<p>"What think you of that, Oliver Bradford?" inquired I, gravely.</p> + +<p>"As the bell tinks, so the fool thinks," responded the head keeper, +sententiously. "If you had asked Dick whether the word wasn't +'Jerusalem,' he would have said, 'Ay, that was the very word.'"</p> + +<p>"Still," urged I, "since there may be something more than fancy in the +thing, and the voice, if it was one, could not have come from under +water, let the Park woods be thoroughly searched at once. There are men +enough outside the gates to do that, without suspending the work that is +going on here, and why should we lose time?"</p> + +<p>The head keeper sulkily muttered something about not wanting a caddel of +people poking their noses into every part of Fairburn Chase; then with +earnest distinctness, as though the thought had only just struck him, +"Besides, Mr. Meredith, let me tell you that they may get to know more +than is good for them."</p> + +<p>At these words, I cast an involuntary glance at the plantation within a +few hundred feet of us, in the recesses of which dwelt Sinnamenta, Lady +Heath.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> may know, sir," continued the keeper, translating my thought, +"but everybody don't know, and it's much better that they shouldn't."</p> + +<p>Certainly the objection was a grave one, and I was glad enough to +perceive Mr. Long coming down from the Hall towards us, an authority by +whom the question could be decided.</p> + +<p>"You had better ask him yourself, Oliver," said I; for as my tutor had +never spoken to me of the existence of the unfortunate maniac, I did not +like to address him upon the subject. Bradford therefore went forward to +meet him; and after they had had some talk together, Mr. Long beckoned +me to him.</p> + +<p>"I think with you, Peter," said he, "that in any case, we should lose no +time in searching the Chase. If we do not discover what we seek, we can +scarcely fail to find some trace of a struggle, if struggle there has +been, between such a man as Sir Massingberd and whoever may have +assailed him. If he has been murdered, it is, of course, just possible +that the assassins threw the body into the water, although not here, +since the ice would scarcely have formed over it like this; otherwise, +they could not have removed it without leaving some visible trace. Do +you, Bradford, and a couple of your own men, examine that plantation +yonder thoroughly, so that it need not be searched again; and in the +meantime I will go and fetch more help."</p> + +<p>I have taken part in my time in many a "quest" for game, both large and +little: I have sought on foot in the rook-crannies of the north for the +hill-fox; I have penetrated the tangled jungles of Hindustan for tiger; +I have stood alone, gun in hand, on the skirts of a tropical forest, not +knowing what bird or beast the beaters within might chance at any moment +to drive forth; but I have never experienced such excitement as that +which I felt when, one of forty men, I walked from end to end of +Fairburn Chase in search of its lost master.</p> + +<p>In one long line, and at the distance of about twenty yards from one +another, we plodded on slowly and steadily; and with eyes that left no +bush unexamined. This work, which in summer would have been toil indeed, +was rendered comparatively easy by the bareness of the season; the +frost, too, made the swamps in the hollows safe to the tread, and the +tangled underwood brittle before us. Many a sunken spot we found hidden +in brake and brier, and scarcely known to the keepers themselves, such +as might easily have held, and we could not but think how fitly, the +Thing we feared to find, and sometimes, when one man called to his +neighbours, the whole line would halt, and each could scarcely restrain +himself from running in, and seeing with his own eyes what trace of the +missing man it was which had provoked the exclamation. We began at the +outskirts of the Park, and worked towards the Hall, so that the Home +Spinney, which was the likeliest spot of all, since he had been last +seen going in that direction, was reserved for the end. As the men +approached it, the excitement increased; they almost ran over the large +open space in which stood the Wolsey Oak, extending its gnarled and +naked arms aloft, as if in horror; but when they searched the coppice +itself, and found the body of Grimjaw, stiffened into stone since I last +saw it, many of them were not so eager to push on. I had omitted to tell +them of the wretched animal's death, and the effect of the sight upon +them was really considerable.</p> + +<p>That "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," is in +nothing more true than in the emotion produced by the sufferings or +decease of animals upon gentle folks and upon labouring persons. Greater +familiarity with such spectacles, and perhaps, too, a larger experience +of hardship and sorrow among his own fellow-creatures—which naturally +tends to weaken his sense of pity for mere animals—prevents the peasant +from being moved at all by some sights at which his superiors would be +really shocked: a dead horse lying in the road is, to the stonebreaker, +a dead horse, and nothing more; whereas, to him who goes by on wheels, +unless he is a veterinary surgeon, the sight is positively distressing. +I am sure that the spectacle of half a dozen ordinary dead dogs would +not have affected Oliver Bradford, for instance, in the least, while if +they had been "lurchers," and given to poaching practices, such a +funereal scene would have afforded him unmixed satisfaction. But when he +saw Grimjaw lying dead, and frozen, he shook his head very gravely, and +bade us mark his words, "That that ere dog didn't die for nothing, but +for a sign. That he would never have died, not he, if his master and +constant companion had still had breath in him, and more than that, we +should find, we might take his word for it, that that there body, and +that of Sir Massingberd Heath, were not very far from one another."</p> + +<p>There were murmurs of hushed and awe-struck adhesion to these remarks, +but not a dissentient voice in all the company, and in a frame of mind +which would now undoubtedly be called "sensational," and not in a broken +line of march, as heretofore, but almost shoulder to shoulder, we +entered the Home Spinney.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h3>WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART.</h3> + + +<p>If this true narrative of mine should chance to find its channel of +publication in a hebdomadal periodical, and the end of the last chapter +coincide with the end of the week, I am afraid I shall have unduly +aroused the expectation of my readers, and kept them upon tenter-hooks +during that period upon false pretences, or rather what may seem to be +so. They will doubtless have promised themselves some ghastly spectacle +(and I give them my honour that if they will only have patience they +shall have it) to be presented in the very next page or two. It may +disappoint them temporarily, to hear that though we searched the +coppice, tree by tree, and left not one heap of leaves unstirred by our +feet, that we found nothing, nothing. And yet I will venture to say, +that if we had come upon that sight which all were so prepared for, the +stiffened limbs of murdered Sir Massingberd, with his cruel face set for +ever in death, and his hard eyes scowling up at the sky, it would +scarcely have filled us with greater awe. It would have been a terrible +sight, doubtless, but with every minute the terror would have faded, +until at last it might have even melted into pity. He could at least +have hurt no man more, being dead. But now that he was only Lost—still +Lost—we looked at one another with dumb surprise, and over our own +shoulders with misgivings. He was not above ground in all Fairburn +Chase, that was certain; nor under water, for the dragging-parties had +discovered no more than we. Any idea of suicide was quite out of the +question; Sir Massingberd Heath was the last man to leave life before he +was summoned, even if he really felt, as he averred, that there was no +sort of risk in doing so. Wicked men have a tolerably high opinion of +this world, notwithstanding their low views of the people that inhabit +it; and the French philosopher who put an end to his not invaluable +existence upon the ground that he had had enough of everything, was an +exceptional case.</p> + +<p>At the same time, the probabilities were immensely against the baronet's +having voluntarily undertaken any expedition, considering the +circumstances under which he must have set out—on foot, fatigued, and +at so late an hour. If secrecy had been his object, it would have been +far more easily secured by his departure at a less extraordinary time. +In the meanwhile, day after day passed by without any tidings, and the +mystery of his disappearance deepened and spread. Mr. Long was rather +reserved upon the matter at first, professing to entertain little doubt +that the wilful Squire would presently return, malicious and grim as +ever; but as time went on, he began to grow uneasy, and seemed to find +relief in conversing upon the subject, and suggesting more or less +impossible contingencies.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Peter," said he one morning at breakfast-time, +"reading out to me, some months ago, an account of the murder of a +certain lieutenant of the coast-guard by smugglers on the east coast; +how he oppressed them and treated them with unnecessary cruelty for +many, many months, until at last they took him away out of his bed by +force, and carried him no man knew whither, and put him to death with +tortures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned I, "perfectly well. They buried the poor wretch up to +his neck in the sea-sand, and bowled stones at his head."</p> + +<p>"Well, Peter, that frightful scene is constantly representing itself +whenever I shut my eyes; only the head is that of Sir Massingberd. You +cannot imagine how distressing it is to me now to go to bed, with the +expectation of this re-enacting itself before I can get to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, how dreadful!" returned I. "But does not the fact of your only +recognizing the victim, convince you of the unreality of the thing? If +you knew the faces of the smugglers, then indeed——"</p> + +<p>"I do know them, Peter," interrupted my tutor gravely; "that is the +worst of it; although it should, as you say, rather convince me of the +imaginary character of the scene, since the actors in it have long been +dead and gone, I believe. They are not smugglers, but gipsies. There is +on Carew in particular, one unhappy man, into whose history I need not +enter, but who once incurred the baronet's vengeance, and I am afraid it +is but too likely perished in consequence. It is a sad story of +deception on both sides; but it is certain that Sir Massingberd richly +earned the hatred of the wandering people. I have no right, of course, +to make any such charge, but Peter, I cannot help thinking that it is +they who have made away with the Squire. I casually inquired in the +village yesterday about the tribe that generally inhabit the fir-grove +on the Crittenden Road, and it seems they left the place by night, on or +about the very date of Sir Massingberd's disappearance."</p> + +<p>My heart grew cold and heavy as a stone at these words, delivered though +they were with vagueness, and without any threat of action to follow +them, for the suspicion which my tutor now suggested had long ago taken +firm root in my own mind. I would not, however, have given expression to +it upon any account, and my present wish was to do away with this notion +of the rector's as much as possible. I would not, perhaps, have assisted +in the escape of the Cingari from punishment, if punishment they +deserved, but neither would I have put out my hand to deliver them up. +The law had taken its wicked will of them often enough already, and in +connection with this very man.</p> + +<p>"Those who know these people best," said I, "such as Bradford and the +keepers, do not think it at all probable that they would have had the +courage to face Sir Massingberd. Even if they possessed it, what could +they have done but have slain him? and if slain, where have they put him +to?"</p> + +<p>"God alone knows," said my tutor solemnly; "but the man at the pike at +Crittenden says, I believe, that they had a covered cart with them, +which they have never been known to have before."</p> + +<p>I murmured something to the effect that the winter was coming on, and +that it was likely enough that they should have procured for themselves +some peripatetic shelter of that kind; but a nameless horror took hold +upon me, in spite of myself, when Mr. Long rejoined, that he should +think it his duty to have the gipsies followed, and a thorough +examination of their effects to be made. I had not another word to say. +I seemed already to see poor old Rachel Liversedge standing in the +felon's dock, avowing and glorying in her guilt, and defiant of the +sentence which would consign her and hers to the same fate that had +overtaken, with no such justice, Stanley Carew. Any hope of escape for +them, I knew, was out of the question. They had not the means for speedy +travel, while, in those days of superstition and intolerance, the +Cingari were an object of animadversion and alarm, whithersoever they +moved. That very day—acting upon information received concerning their +present whereabouts—Mr. Long set out on horseback, accompanied by the +parish constable, and Came up with the party whom he sought upon a +certain common within twenty miles of Fairburn. The tribe, of whom I had +only seen three grown-up members, were tolerably numerous, and the +constable evinced his fitness for being a peace-officer by counselling +the rector to do nothing rash, at least until reinforcements should +permit of his doing so with safety. The sight, however, of the covered +cart, placed, as it seemed, jealously in the very centre of the +encampment, was too much for Mr. Long, who, to do him justice, was as +bold as a lion, except where conventional "position," as in the case of +Sir Massingberd, made him indisposed for action. He turned his horse +straight for the desired object, in spite of the threatening looks of +several men, who were tinkering about an immense fire, and was only +stopped by the youngest of them starting up, and laying his hand +imperatively upon his bridle-rein.</p> + +<p>"Have you a warrant, Mr. Long," inquired the gipsy sternly, "that you +ride through our camp, when all the rest of the common is open to you, +and wish to pry into that poor place yonder, which is all we have of +house and home?"</p> + +<p>The rector had no sort of right for what he did, and was therefore +proportionally indignant.</p> + +<p>"Unhand my bridle, sirrah!" cried he. "What is your name, who seem to +know mine so well, and yet who knows me so little, that you can imagine +I am here in any other cause than that of Right and Justice?"</p> + +<p>"My name is Walter Carew," replied the gipsy, still retaining his hold.</p> + +<p>"Then that is warrant sufficient for what I do," cried my tutor +excitedly, and raising his riding-whip as he spoke.</p> + +<p>The swarthy face of the gipsy gleamed with passion, and his unoccupied +right hand sought his side, as if for a weapon. Mischief would +undoubtedly have ensued, but that at that moment the curtains of the +covered cart were parted by a skinny hand, and the voice of Rachel +Liversedge was heard bidding the young man let the bridle go, and not +spill parson's blood, which was as bad as wasting milk and water. Then +she added, with mock courtesy: "Pray, come hither, Mr. Long; our doors +are always open, and there can be no intrusion where there are only +females and sickness."</p> + +<p>"If that be all," returned my tutor in a softened tone, for though +somewhat arbitrary, as it would now be thought, towards his inferiors, +he was ever gentle to the sex; "if that indeed be all, I shall not +inflict my presence upon you long."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>With those words, he threw himself from his horse, and climbed up into +the cart; it was rather a roomy one, but all that was in it was clearly +to be seen at the first glance. It was carpeted with rushes a foot +thick, from which Rachel Liversedge was busily engaged in weaving +chair-bottoms. Opposite to her sat another female, engaged with the same +articles, but constructing out of them crowns and necklaces, which, +though they did not very much resemble the ornaments for which they were +intended, appeared to afford her exquisite satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you introduce me, Rachel?" exclaimed she testily, as Mr. Long +looked in. "Don't you see the gentleman is bowing? Sinnamenta—Lady +Heath." The secret of the gipsies' sudden removal, as well as of their +use of the vehicle which had excited his suspicions, was at once +apparent to the rector.</p> + +<p>"Is she better, happier in your custody?" inquired my tutor, in a +whisper, of the chair-maker. "God knows I would not disturb her, if she +be."</p> + +<p>"My little sister is not beaten now," observed Rachel bitterly; +"although, of course, we have not those luxuries with which her husband +has always surrounded her."</p> + +<p>"Only four times, Sister Rachel!" observed the afflicted one, in a tone +of remonstrance, "one, two, three, four," checking them off on her poor +fingers, covered with worthless gewgaws. "I don't consider Gilmore's +beatings anything, only Sir Massingberd's."</p> + +<p>"May God's curse have found him!" exclaimed Rachel Liversedge fervently; +"may He have avenged her wrongs upon him at last! Don't look at me, sir, +as though I were a witch wishing a good man ill. I wish I <i>were</i> a +witch. How he should pine, and rave, and writhe, and suffer ten thousand +deaths in one!"</p> + +<p>She spoke with such hate and fury, that Mr. Long involuntarily cast once +more a suspicious glance around him, as though in reality she possessed +the means of vengeance which she so ardently desired. "Did you expect to +find him here?" continued she. "That was it, was it? I wish you had. I +would that I had his fleshless bones to show you. It is not <i>my</i> fault +that I have them not, be sure. If there were any manliness left among my +people—but there is not; they are curs all—if any memory of the +persecuted and the murdered had dwelt within them, as with me, let alone +this work of his," she pointed to her unconscious sister, "for which, +had he done nought else, I would have torn his heart out;—he would not +have lived thus long by forty years. For aught we know, however, he +lives yet; only hearing he was gone, we went and took my little sister +from her wretchedness, and thus will keep her if you give us leave, you +Christian gentlemen. Where he may be, we know not; we only hope that in +some hateful spot—in hell, if such a place there be—he may be +suffering unimagined pains."</p> + +<p>The fervour and energy of her words, however reprehensible in a moral +point of view, were such as left no doubt in the mind of Mr. Long that +the gipsy woman spoke truth. Assuring her, therefore, that, so far as he +was concerned, she should not be molested in the custody of her +unfortunate sister, my tutor rode back to Fairburn, relieved from the +dread burden of his late suspicion, but more at his wit's end for an +elucidation of the disappearance of Sir Massingberd than ever. Right +glad was I to hear that his errand among my dusky friends had been +bootless; but by the next morning's post I had received bitter news +from Harley Street. A copy of that menacing epistle which I had so +unwittingly enclosed to Marmaduke from his uncle, reached me from Mr. +Gerard. His words were kind, and intended to be comforting. He knew, of +course, that I had been deceived; he well knew, and they all knew, he +said, that my hand was the last to do Marmaduke hurt, to do aught but +protect and uphold him. But I could see that some grievous harm had +occurred, nevertheless, through me, as Sir Massingberd's catspaw. It was +more apparent to me because there was not one accompanying word from my +dear friend himself, whom I knew too well to imagine capable of blaming +me. It was most apparent of all because of the postscript written in +Lucy's own hand—so fair, so clear, so brave, so like her own sweet +self, saying that I must not reproach myself because I had been +overreached by a base man. "Marmaduke will write soon," she said; "he +does not love you less because he is silent upon this matter, and must +be kept so for a little while." He was ill, then, thanks to my dull +wits; and out of pity she had written "Marmaduke." Ah me, would <i>I</i> not +have been ill! Would <i>I</i> not have welcomed kinship with a score of +wicked uncles for such pity! "He does not love you less because he is +silent;" was that a quotation culled from her own heart's whisperings?</p> + +<p>"A most unfortunate business," said Mr. Long reflectively, when he had +possessed himself of this intelligence. "That letter of Sir +Massingberd's will undo all the good of the last twelve months. With +what a devilish ingenuity for torment has he framed every phrase. '<i>'My +arm will reach you wheresoever you are; at the time you least expect +it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. However Well it +may seem to be with you, it will not be Well.'</i> How thoroughly he knew +his nephew! This will make Marmaduke Heath a wretched man for life."</p> + +<p>"Not if Sir Massingberd be dead," said I, "and can be proved to be so."</p> + +<p>"That is true," responded my tutor, drily; then added, without, I think, +intending me to hear it, "But what will be worse than anything, is this +doubt as to whether he be dead or not."</p> + +<p>I felt convinced of this too, and bowed my head in sorrow and silence. +There was a long pause. Then my tutor suddenly started up, and +exclaimed, with animation, "Peter, will you go with me to London? I +certainly shall be doing more good there, just now, than here; and I +think that your presence will be welcome, nay, needful, in Harley +Street."</p> + +<p>"I shall be ready to start this very evening," returned I, thinking of +the mail which passed at night.</p> + +<p>"We will be off within an hour," replied my tutor; "I will order posters +from the inn at once. Too much time has been lost already; we should +have started when Sir Massingberd himself did."</p> + +<p>"Do you think he is gone to town, then, with any evil purpose?" inquired +I, aghast.</p> + +<p>"If he has gone at all, it is certain it is for no good," rejoined the +rector, gravely. "It is more than likely that this disappearance may be +nothing but a ruse to throw us off our guard. The cat that despaired of +attaining her end by other means, pretended to be dead."</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> In those days, it was not thought incumbent upon ministers +of the Gospel to look after gipsy-folk, whose souls, in case they had +any, were not opined to be much worth saying.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h3>THE PROCESSION.</h3> + + +<p>At the time of which I write, a dweller in the midlands who wanted to go +to town, did not drive down to the nearest railway station, to be +transported from thence by the fiery dragon to his destination. Railways +had been long heard of, and indeed there was one within twenty miles of +Fairburn, which we should now call a tramway only, for engine it had +none. Locomotives were the subject of debate in scientific circles, and +of scorn among the rest of the community. A journey such as that my +tutor and myself were about to undertake, is scarcely to be understood +by readers of the present generation. Not only did it consume an amount +of time which would now suffice for six times the distance, but it was +surrounded by difficulties and dangers that have now no existence +whatever—"extinct Satans," as a writer calls them, who is now scarcely +held to be "modern," but who at that time had never written a line. The +coach for which Mr. Long had thought it advisable not to wait, had met +in its time with a thousand-and-one strange casualties, and the guard +was a very Scheherazade at relating them. The "Highflyer" had come to +dreadful grief in racing with an empty stomach, but many "outsides," +against its rival, the "Rapid," which traversed a portion of the same +road. It had often to open both its doors, to let the water through, in +crossing Crittenden Ford, by neglect of which precaution upon one +occasion, four "insides" had the misfortune to be suffocated. It had +been dug out of snow-drifts a hundred times, and now and then it had +<i>not</i> been dug out, and the passengers had been frost-bitten. In winter +it was usual enough for them to spend a day or two perforce at some +country inn, because the roads were "not open." The "Highflyer" had once +been attacked by a tiger (out of a travelling caravan), which killed the +off-leader; but this was an exceptional adventure. It was attacked by +highwaymen at least once a year, but in this respect was considered +rather a fortunate coach. Only a few weeks previously, there had been +found by the reapers, in one of Farmer Arabel's wheat-fields, mail-bags +with letters containing many thousand pounds in drafts and bills, which +had been taken by gentlemen of the road from the custody of the guard of +the "Highflyer" in the early summer. These persons had gone into the +standing wheat to divide their booty, and left there what was to them +unavailable property, or too difficult to negotiate.</p> + +<p>In the two trips I had already taken to the metropolis, I had gone by +this curious conveyance, of which all Fairburn had something to say; but +I was now to journey even more gloriously still: so thoroughly had Mr. +Long got to be convinced that some immediate danger was imminent to +Marmaduke at the hands of his uncle, that he could not bear the least +unnecessary delay in giving him warning. We posted with four horses, and +generally at full gallop. I agree with the Great Lexicographer in +thinking that sensation very pleasurable indeed. The express-train, it +is true, goes five times as fast, but you do not feel that there is any +credit due to the steam-horse for that; you take it as a matter of +course, and would do so, no matter what exertions it should make for +you, short of bursting. But when you heard the ring of the sixteen hoofs +upon the iron road, and the sharp crack of the whips in the frosty air, +or leaned out of the window for a moment; and beheld the good steeds +smoking in your behalf, you said to yourself, or to your companion, if +you had one: "This is wonderful fine travelling." Perhaps you contrasted +such great speed with that attained by the Exeter flying-coaches in your +ancestors' time, and smiled with contemptuous pity at their five miles +an hour, stoppages excluded.</p> + +<p>The trees and hedges flew by you then, and gave an idea of the velocity, +such as the telegraph-posts, seen vanishing thin out of the window of a +railway-carriage, fail to convey; while, when you stopped for new +cattle, the hurry and bustle attendant on the order, "Horses on," helped +to strengthen the belief in your own fast travelling. Still, after the +first few hours, even the enjoyments of a post-chaise-and-four begin to +pall; and long before we had approached our destination, I was cramped, +and chilled, and tired enough. It was growing dark, too, so that there +was little to be seen without, and we had passed those dangerous parts +of the road where expectations of possible highwaymen had afforded me +some excitement. I was dozing dreamily, unconscious that the light of +London was flaring like a dusky dawn in front of us, and that we had +even already entered its then limits upon the north-east, when I was +roughly roused by the sudden stoppage of the carriage, accompanied by +wild cries, and a glare of lurid flame. Mr. Long had put down the +window, and was leaning out of it. There was a dense fog, and gas had +not yet been established in that part of London; but a vast assemblage +of people were streaming slowly past us, and many of them had torches in +their hands. They took no notice of us whatever, but yelled and shouted, +and every now and then cast glances behind them at some approaching +spectacle, which seemed to be about to overtake us. Presently, we beheld +this ourselves. First came a great number of constables, marching twenty +abreast, and clearing all before them with large staves; then a body of +the mounted patrol—a corps then but newly formed, and which, although +now well-nigh extinct, was destined in its time to do good service; then +more constables; then a vast quantity of horsemen, armed and unarmed, +and lastly this:—Extended on an inclined platform, built to a +considerable height upon an open cart, was the body of a dead man; it +was attired in blue trousers, and with a white and blue striped +waistcoat, but without a coat. On the left side of him was a huge +mallet, and on the right a ripping chisel.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven! what is this?" inquired Mr. Long of one of the mounted +constables.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's him, sir, sure enough; we've got him at last," returned the +officer.</p> + +<p>"Him? Who?" cried I, half stupefied with fatigue and horror. "Have they +found Sir Massingberd?"</p> + +<p>No, it was not Sir Massingberd. The face which was now being slowly +carried past us was wicked and stern enough, but it was not <i>his</i> face. +The skin was black, the eyes were projecting; it was plain that the poor +wretch had been strangled. The excitement of those who caught sight of +it was hideous to witness; they cursed and hissed in hate and fury, and +battled to get near the cart, that they might spit upon the corpse +which it contained. The force of the advancing crowd was so tremendous +that we were compelled to move for some distance side by side with this +appalling sight, and presently immediately behind it; there we seemed to +fall in as a part of the procession, and were no doubt considered by the +majority of persons to officially belong to it. We were borne southwards +quite out of our proper direction, and were unable to prevent it, for it +was as much as the postillions could do to sit their horses, and avoid +being shouldered out of their saddles. Our progress was of course at a +foot's-pace only, and twice the procession halted, once opposite a +draper's, and once opposite a public-house, when the yells and hooting +of the crowd were terrible to hear. Not only were these two houses +closely shuttered up (as they well might be), but the shop-fronts +everywhere were closed, and the windows and the tops of the houses +crowded with spectators. By this time, we had got to know in what +dreadful proceedings we were thus taking an involuntary part. The body +in the cart was that of the murderer Williams, who had committed suicide +two days before, to escape, it was thought, not so much the scaffold, as +the execrations of his fellow-creatures. All London was filled with hate +of him, as before his capture it had been filled with fear; and the +government had caused this public exhibition of his corpse, to convince +the minds of the public that the wholesale assassin was really no longer +alive. The houses at which we had halted were those which had once been +inhabited by his unhappy victims, the Marrs and the Williamsons. +Subsequently, the corpse was conveyed to St. George's turn-pike, and +there interred with a stake thrust through the middle of it; but before +that frightful ceremony took place, the postillions had managed to +extricate us, and we had driven westward to our destination. Still, I +for my part had seen enough, and more than enough, to make that entry of +ours into London a thing impossible to forget; and I think it rendered, +by association, the mystery concerning which we had come up to Harley +Street, more menacing and sombre than before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>AMONG FRIENDS.</h3> + + +<p>We found Marmaduke Heath in a less morbid state of mind than we had +expected. The die having been cast—the time given him by Sir +Massingberd for his return and so-called reconciliation with that worthy +having already elapsed without any action on the part of his uncle, the +effect of that "Captain Swing"-like epistle was slowly wearing off. No +one ever revived the matter in his presence, nor, as we have seen, was +he permitted even to write upon the subject. Still, he knew that I had +been lately communicated with concerning it—for at first the blow had +fallen on its object with such force and fulness that those about him +had really not liked to let me know the extent of the mischief I might +have committed—and he imagined that I had now come up in mere friendly +sorrow to cheer and comfort him. As he came out into the dark street on +that December evening to give me loving welcome, fresh from that awful +procession-scene, I positively looked with terror to left and right, +lest some cloaked figure, whom yet we both should recognize, might reach +forth an iron arm, and tear him away. It was I who was morbid and +unstrung, and not my friend; he strove, I knew, to appear to the best +advantage, in good humour and high spirits, in order that I might have +less to reproach myself with.</p> + +<p>"My dear old Peter" cried he, laughing, "how glad I am to see your +honest face. Have you brought me any verbal message from my charming +uncle, or are you only his deputy-postman? <i>How</i> is he—<i>how</i> is he?"</p> + +<p>I could see, in spite of his light way, that he was curious to have this +interrogation answered; but what was I to say? "I don't know whether +he's well or ill," returned I, carelessly, as I stepped into the hall. +"But how is Mr. Gerard and Miss——"</p> + +<p>"Here is 'Miss,'" returned a sweet voice, blithe as a bird's; "she is +excellently well, Peter, thank you. But what a white face <i>you</i> have +got! If that is the gift of country air there is certainly no such cause +for regretting our absence from the Dovecot, about which Marmaduke is +always so solicitous."</p> + +<p>"'Marmaduke' to his face, now!" thought I. I could not prevent my heart +from sinking a little, in spite of the lifebuoy of friendship. But I +answered gallantly, "There is no air that can wither <i>your</i> roses, Miss +Lucy, for the summer is never over where you are."</p> + +<p>"Bravo, Peter," quoth Mr. Gerard, set in the warm glow of the +dining-room, which gleamed forth from the open door behind him. "If he +is so complimentary in a thorough draught, what a mirror of courtesy +will he be when he gets thawed! Come in, my dear Mr. Long; come in to +the warm. No east wind ever brought people more good, than this which +brings you two to us. Lucy...—Ah, that's right; she has gone to order +the dinner to be rechaufféd. Now, do you travellers answer no man one +word, but go make yourselves comfortable—you have your old rooms, of +course—and then come down at once to food and fire. Marmaduke, my dear +boy, you keep me company here, please; otherwise, you will delay Peter, +with your gossip, I know."</p> + +<p>That was a sentence with a purpose in it. If, as Mr. Gerard at once +guessed, we had come up to town on business connected with Sir +Massingberd, it might be advisable that I should not be interrogated by +Marmaduke privately. For my part, I was greatly relieved by it, since I +had no desire to be the person to communicate bad tidings—for such I +knew he would consider them—to my friend a second time. My spirits had +risen somewhat with the warmth of our reception; it is not a little to +have honest friends, and welcome unmistakable in hand and voice and eye. +There is many a man who goes smoothly through the world by help of these +alone, and only at times sighs for the love that but one could have +given him, and which has been bestowed by her elsewhere. When I got +down into the dining-room, a minute or two before my tutor, I was +received by quite a chorus of kind voices—a very tumult of hospitable +greeting.</p> + +<p>"Warm your toes, Peter—warm your toes; you shall have a glass of sherry +worth drinking directly," cried Mr. Gerard, all in a breath.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Peter, you and I will have a glass together," exclaimed Marmaduke, +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Stop for 'the particular'—stop for the green seal: it will be here in +a minute," entreated the host.</p> + +<p>"No, no," returned Marmaduke; "I must drink his health at once. Cowslip +wine, if I drank it with Peter, would be better to me than +Johannisberg."</p> + +<p>He had his hand upon her arm, as I entered the room; I was sure of that, +although she had gently but swiftly withdrawn it from his touch, as the +door opened. How happy she looked; how passing fair with that faint +flush! How handsome and bright-faced was dear Marmaduke! How placidly +content, like one who draws his happiness from that of others, was the +countenance of Harvey Gerard! A picture of domestic pleasure and content +indeed, and with three noble figures in it. It was impossible to doubt +that two lovers stood before me, and a father who had found a +prospective son-in-law, whom he could love as a son. This new +relationship had been only established within a very few days, and upon +that account, perhaps, it was the more patent. My mischance in the +matter of Sir Massingberd's letter, had been the immediate cause of +Marmaduke's declaration. She had compassionated him in his troubles, and +he had told her in what alone his hope of comfort lay. He had not been +sanguine of securing her—who could have been, with such a priceless +prize in view?—for not only had he a diffidence in his own powers of +pleasing, great and winning as they were, beyond those of any man I ever +knew, but he feared to find an obstacle to his wishes in her father.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mr. Gerard," he had said, with his usual frankness, "I have won +your daughter's heart, and love her better than all the world. Still, it +is you alone who have her hand to dispose of. She loves and respects you +as never yet was father loved and respected, and this only makes her +dearer to me. I feel as much bound in this matter by your decision—Oh, +sir, God grant your heart may turn towards me—as she does herself. I +dare not tell you what I think of you to your face. The very greatness +of my respect for you makes me fear your rejection of <i>me</i>. I am, in one +respect at least, a weak and morbid man, while your mind is vigorous +and strong upon all points. You are in armour of proof from head to +heel; whereas, there is a joint in my harness open to every blow. I am +afraid, sir, that you despise me."</p> + +<p>"I do not despise you, Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had replied, in his kind +grave voice.</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, I know what you would say," returned the young man with +vehemence; "you pity me, and pity and contempt are twin-sisters. +Besides, I am a Heath; you do not wish that blood of yours should mix +with that of an evil and accursed race; and, moreover—though that, with +a man like you, has, I know, but little weight—I may live and die a +pauper."</p> + +<p>"My dear Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had answered, "I cannot conceal from you +that there are grave objections to your marriage with my daughter, and +more especially at present. We need not revert to the last matter you +have spoken of, for wealth is not what I should seek for in my +son-in-law; even if it were, your alliance would reasonably promise it, +and might be sought by many on that account. As for your being a Heath, +that you cannot help; and, with respect to 'blood,' there is more +rubbish spoken upon that subject by otherwise sensible folk than upon +all others put together. Bad example and evil training are sufficient to +account for the bad courses of any family without impeaching their +circulating fluids. If your uncle had not happened to be likewise your +guardian, in you, my dear young friend, I frankly tell you, I should see +no fault, or rather no misfortune; but, since he has unhappily had the +opportunity of weakening and intimidating——"</p> + +<p>"Sir, sir, pray spare me," broke in Marmaduke, passionately; "are you +going to say that I am a coward?"</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, my boy," replied Mr. Gerard, earnestly; "you are as +brave as I am, I do not doubt. If I thought you to be what you suggest, +I would not parley with you about my darling daughter for one moment. I +would say 'No' at once. My Lucy wooed by a poltroon!—no, that is not +possible. I do not say 'No' to <i>you</i>, Marmaduke."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir," exclaimed the young man, with emotion; +then added solemnly, "and I thank God."</p> + +<p>"What I do say, however," returned Mr. Gerard, "is 'Wait.' While your +uncle lives, I cannot, under existing circumstances, permit you to be my +Lucy's husband. At present, you are only boy and girl, and can well +afford to be patient."</p> + +<p>"And when we do marry," returned Marmaduke, gratefully, "you shall not +lose your daughter, sir, but rather gain a son. My home, if I ever have +one, shall be yours also. Pray, believe me when I say that you are my +second father, for you have given me a new life."</p> + +<p>It really seemed so to him who looked at the sparkling eyes and +heightened colour of the speaker, and listened to his tones, so rich +with hope and love.</p> + +<p>"There is certainly no one so civil as a would-be son-in-law," replied +Mr. Gerard, good-naturedly. "I wonder that old gentlemen in my position +ever permit them to marry at all."</p> + +<p>And thus it had been settled—as I saw that it had been—only a very +little while before our arrival in Harley Street.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"And what brings you good people up to town?" asked Mr. Gerard gaily, +"without sending a line in advance, which, even in mercy to the +housekeeper, you would surely have done, had not the business been +urgent? As to your travelling with four horses," added our host slily, +"I know so well the pride and ostentation of the clergy that I am not +the least astonished at your doing <i>that</i>, Mr. Rector."</p> + +<p>"Truly, sir, now that I find all safe and well," replied my tutor, "I +begin to think we might have travelled in a less magnificent way; but +the fact is, that I felt foolishly apprehensive and curious to tell you +our tidings. Sir Massingberd Heath has been Lost since Thursday +fortnight, November sixteenth."</p> + +<p>"Lost!" exclaimed Mr. Gerard, in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Lost!" echoed Lucy, compassionately.</p> + +<p>"Lost!" murmured Marmaduke, turning deadly pale. "That is terrible, +indeed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor wretched man," said Lucy, quickly; "terrible to think that +some judgment may have overtaken him in the midst of his +wickedness—unrepentant, revengeful, cruel."</p> + +<p>"That is truly what should move us most, Miss Gerard," observed my +tutor; "it is but too probable that he has been suddenly cut off, and +that by violence." Then he narrated all that had happened at Fairburn +since the night of Sir Massingberd's disappearance, uninterrupted save +once, when Mr. Gerard left the room for a few minutes, and returned with +another bottle of "the particular," which, it seemed, he would not even +suffer the butler to handle. Marmaduke sat silent and awe-struck, +drinking in every word, and now and then, when a sort of shudder passed +over him, I saw a little hand creep forth and slide into his, when he +would smile faintly, but not take his eyes off Mr. Long—no, not even +to reply to hers.</p> + +<p>"I think," added my tutor, when the narrative was quite concluded, "that +under these circumstances I was justified in coming up to town, Mr. +Gerard, since it is just possible that Sir Massingberd may, may——"</p> + +<p>"That he may not be dead," interrupted our host, gravely; "there is, of +course, that chance, and we must set to work at once to settle the +question."</p> + +<p>There was a violent ringing at the front-door bell. Mr. Long started up +with a "What's that?" Marmaduke's very lips grew white, and trembled. +For my part, I confess I congratulated myself that I was on that side of +the table which was furthest from any person who might enter the room. +Lucy alone maintained a calm demeanour, and looked towards her father +confidently.</p> + +<p>"That is Mr. Clint, I have no doubt," observed Mr. Gerard, quietly. "I +sent word to him an hour ago to come directly, and, if possible, to +bring Townshend with him. Whether Sir Massingberd be alive or not, we +shall soon discover, for the great Bow Street runner will be certain to +find either his body or his bones."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h3>A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Gerard had hardly finished speaking, when the butler announced Mr. +Clint and "another gentleman," for even among friends the famous Bow +Street officer, exercised his usual caution; and yet there was scarcely +a more public character than Townshend, or better known both to the +classes whom he protected, and to that against which he waged such +constant war. His personal appearance was itself sufficiently +remarkable. A short squab man, in a light wig, kerseymere breeches, and +a blue Quaker-cut coat, he was not, to look at, a very formidable +object. But he possessed the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a +fox. The ruffians who kept society in terror, themselves quailed before +<i>him</i>. They knew that he was hard to kill, and valued not his own life +one rush, when duty called upon him to hazard it; that he was faithful +as a watch-dog to the government which employed him, and hated by nature +a transgressor of the law, as a watch-dog hates a wolf. When Townshend +fairly settled himself down upon the track of an offender, the poor +wretch felt like the hare whose fleeing footsteps the stoat relentlessly +pursues; he might escape for the day, or even the morrow, but sooner or +later his untiring foe was certain to be up with him. In those early +days, when the telegraph could not overtake the murderer speeding for +his life, and set Justice upon her guard five hundred miles away, to +intercept him, and when the sun was not the slave of the Law, to +photograph the features of the doomed criminal, so that he can be +recognized as easily as Cain, thief-catching was a much more protracted +business than it is now; nevertheless, it was at least as certain.</p> + +<p>If the facilities for capture were not so great, neither were the +opportunities of escape for the offender so many and various. London was +not the labyrinth that it has since become, and if any criminal of note +forsook it for the provinces, his fate was almost certain. Travellers +did not then rush hither and thither, in throngs of a hundred strong, +impossible to be individually identified by the railway porter to whom +they surrender their tickets; but each man was entered in a way-bill, or +scanned with curiosity by innkeeper and post-boy, wherever his chaise +changed horses. When any considerable sum was sent by mail-coach, +whether by the government or by London bankers, to their provincial +agents, it was not unusual to employ Mr. Townshend as an escort. Nor was +it altogether unexampled for him to be sent for, as in the present +instance, to unravel some domestic mystery; although he was perhaps the +first police-officer who had been so employed, the father of all the +Fields and Pollakies of the present day. He was on intimate terms, +therefore, with many great people, and an especial favourite with the +court, his professional services being engaged at all drawing-rooms and +state occasions. This, combined with the natural assurance and sense of +power in the man, caused Mr. Townshend to hold his head pretty high, and +to treat with persons vastly superior in social station to himself upon +at least an equal footing. His easy nod, with which the great Bow +Street runner favoured us in Harley Street that evening, upon his first +introduction, was not very much unlike the salutation which Mr. Brummel, +at the same period, was wont to bestow upon British marquises and dukes. +Having taken his seat at the dessert-table, at the host's desire, he at +once began to compliment Mr. Gerard upon the contents of the bottle with +the yellow seal, and, in short, behaved himself in all respects as any +other guest would have done who was an intimate friend of the family, +and had dropped in after dinner upon his own invitation. No sooner, +however, did Mr. Clint introduce the subject which had called us up to +town, and Mr. Long begin to recapitulate the story of Sir Massingberd's +disappearance, than this singular person dropped at once all social +pretension, and showed himself the really great man he was. One glass of +wine was sufficient for him during the whole narration, and that he +seemed to sip mechanically, and rather as an assistance to thought, than +because he really enjoyed it, which, however there is no doubt he did. +He only interrupted my tutor twice or thrice, in order to make some +pertinent interrogation, and when all had been described (including a +slight sketch of Marmaduke's position), he sat for a little silent and +noiseless, tapping his wine-glass with his forefinger, and staring into +the fire.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend, and what is your opinion?" inquired Mr. Gerard a +little impatiently. "Do you think that this Lost Sir Massingberd is +alive or dead?"</p> + +<p>"That is a question which a fool would answer at once, sir, but a wise +man would take some time to reply to," returned the Bow Street runner +coolly, "But one thing you may depend upon, that he will not be 'Lost' +long. I have blotted that word out of my dictionary. I know Sir +Massingberd Heath well, or, at least, I did know him, and that is a +great advantage to start with; he was not a man, I should think, to +change with age. Tall figure and strong; large piercing eyes; much +beard; a mouth that tells he likes to have his own way; and on his +forehead a mark as if the devil had kicked him."</p> + +<p>"That is excellent," cried Mr. Gerard; "you could not mistake him for +any other man in London."</p> + +<p>"He is <i>not</i> in London, sir," observed the runner dogmatically. "If he +were mixing with the lot that he used to be amongst, I should surely +have heard of it; and if he is with people much beneath him in station, +I should have learned it still more certainly. As for that, however, he +is not one—if I remember him right—to hide himself, or work much +underground."</p> + +<p>"If you mean that he would not stoop to deception, Mr. Townshend," +remarked my tutor gravely, "I am afraid you are mistaken; the very money +which, as I have said, he obtained from me upon the day of his +disappearance, was dishonourably come by. His pretext of the Methodists +having bidden for a piece of ground upon which to build a chapel within +the Park, and almost opposite the Rectory, was, I have since discovered, +entirely false; and I cannot but fear that some judgment has overtaken +this unhappy man."</p> + +<p>Here, I am sorry to say, that Mr. Clint and Mr. Gerard looked at one +another in rather a comic manner, and the Bow Street runner helped +himself to a glass of the particular with an open chuckle.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," responded that gentleman, "you see Judgments isn't much in +my way. When I catches a chap, he generally knows its judgment and +execution too; but barring that, I doubt whether there is much of a +special Providence for rascals—even when they rob a Church minister. +Not, of course, that I am saying Sir Massingberd Heath, baronet, is a +rascal, or anything like it; I never had anything to do with him in all +my life before this, and that's a good sign, look you. When I said he +was not a man to work underground, however, I did not mean that he would +not employ every ingenious device—and the one you mention was one of +the neatest I ever heard on—to procure money, but that he is of too +domineering and masterful a nature to lurk and spy about. The young +gentleman here need not be in much alarm, I think, of his relative's +turning up in Harley Street; notwithstanding which, he is a very +ticklish customer, no doubt, and one as I should not have been in the +least surprised to find myself under orders to fit with a pair of +bracelets, for such a thing, for instance, as murder."</p> + +<p>I think each of us started and looked at one another in hushed amazement +at this statement; and the wine-glass which Marmaduke was twisting +nervously in his fingers, rattled against the table in spite of his +efforts to remain calm.</p> + +<p>"I mean," observed Mr. Townshend, in explanation, "as the baronet, when +I knew him at least, was venomous, yet likewise hasty; and though +cunning enough, if his temper got the better of him, would do imprudent +things, I remember him well-nigh killing his jockey on the course at +Doncaster—it was the second year as ever the Leger was ran for—and +all for no fault of his, but just because he didn't win when his master +expected it. I remember how the crowd hissed the gentleman, and the ugly +look which he gave them in reply. There was no fuss made about the +matter afterwards; but Sir Massingberd had to supply a deal of Golden +Ointment to the poor lad's bruises: he was very free-handed with his +money at that time. I suppose, by the pace he was then going, that he +has not much left."</p> + +<p>"He has almost literally not a shilling," replied Mr. Long. "I am quite +certain that he had no ready-money in his possession besides the twenty +one-pound notes which he obtained from me upon that evening."</p> + +<p>"And no means of raising any?" inquired Mr. Townshend.</p> + +<p>"None whatever," replied my tutor positively.</p> + +<p>"That simplifies the business a good deal," remarked the Bow Street +runner, drawing out his pocket-book. "Now, I suppose you kept the +numbers of those notes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did. Peter, did you not write them down for me?"</p> + +<p>"The notes ran from 82961 to 82980 inclusive," said I.</p> + +<p>"A very concise and sensible statement, young gentleman,"<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> remarked +the police-officer, approvingly; "I should like, however, to see the +figures in black and white." When these had been found among certain +memorandums of my tutor, Mr. Townshend copied them, and thus continued: +"Now, the first thing as has to be done, gentleman all—by which no +offence is meant to the young lady—is this: we must go to the Bank of +England, and find out if any of these here notes have been paid in since +November 16th. If they have been, one of two things is certain—Sir +Massingberd is spending them, or somebody else is spending them for him. +If the latter, it is probable that it is not with his consent; that is, +that he can't help it; that is, that he's dead as a ten-penny nail;" and +with that the speaker brought down his fist upon the mahogany, as though +he were hammering one in.</p> + +<p>"We shall leave the case, Mr. Townshend, entirely in your hands," +observed Mr. Gerard; "and please to look to me for any expenses you may +require."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," replied the runner, rising as if to take his leave; +"but since two or three heads are always better than one, in cases of +this sort, and the present company has their wits about them—which is +by no means the case with many as I have to do with—I should be glad of +a little assistance from yourselves."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think we ought to advertise the baronet as missing, and offer +a reward?" suggested Mr. Clint.</p> + +<p>"There will be no harm in that, of course," replied Mr. Townshend +carelessly; "although I can't say as I have much confidence in +advertisements; my own experience is, that parties who put them in +derive some satisfaction from reading them over to themselves, but the +advantage don't go much beyond that—-except that it sometimes puts +people upon their guard as one wants to be off it. I have got a little +pressing business on hand to-morrow—in the forging line—and must now +be off; but if one or two of you will be at the Bank to-morrow +afternoon, at, let us say three o'clock, I shall be sure to be there to +meet you."</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> Every lad in my position, not yet turned twenty-one, was a +"young gentleman" in these times; we were not so tenacious of our +dignity as the young men of to-day.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h3>THE BANK-NOTES.</h3> + + +<p>It was arranged, to my infinite joy, before retiring to rest that night, +that I was to make one of the Bank party. Marmaduke insisted on +accompanying us, being above measure curious about the matter, and eager +to know the worst (or the best) regarding it. Mr. Long had to return to +Fairburn for his Sunday's duty, and Mr. Clint could not spare the time +from his parchments; so Mr. Harvey Gerard and we two young men went +forth upon the trail together. As the paper-chase is the most glorious +pursuit undertaken by boys, as fox-hunting is the sport of sports for +men, so man-hunting is the avocation fitted for heroes. I know nothing +like it for interest and excitement—nothing. If I could only imbue my +readers with one-tenth of the absorbing concern with which we, the +subordinate actors in this drama of mystery, now began to be devoured, +they would be sorry indeed when this narrative comes to a conclusion. We +three were at the appointed spot some minutes before the hour which had +been agreed upon for meeting the Bow Street runner; but before the +chimes of the Old Exchange clock had ceased their "<i>Life let us +cherish</i>"—the tune which they always played on Fridays—the Bow Street +runner appeared.</p> + +<p>Passing through a great room within the Bank, in which, to my +unaccustomed eye, were displayed the riches of Croesus, and where the +golden showers seemed unceasingly to rain, we were conducted into a +private apartment, where sat some grey-headed official, uncommunicative, +calm, like one who has had his glut even of wealth, and to whom money, +whether in bullion or paper, was no longer any object.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend, what can I do for you?" inquired he, sedately. "I +trust you are not come about any fresh wrongs against the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street. I never see your face but I think of an imitation +bank-note, and diminution of the stock in our cellar."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," responded the runner, cheerfully; "I am afraid that I +shall have to see you in a day or two respecting a matter of that very +kind, but to-day I am come on a different business. A gentleman of high +rank has been missing for three weeks, or more; and his absence has +given the greatest anxiety to these, his friends. He was known to have +in his possession certain one-pound Bank of England notes, twenty in +all, of which the numbers are known. We wish to know whether they have +been paid in hither in the meantime, and if so, by whom."</p> + +<p>"Have you any order from the deputy-governor?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, sir," responded the runner, insinuatingly. "I thought that +would not be necessary between you and me."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, I suppose you must have your own way, Townshend. You're a +dangerous man to cross." And the old gentleman wagged his head in a +blandly humorous manner, and made a little golden music with his bunch +of seals. "The numbers of the notes are here, are they? From 82961 to +80. Very good." Here he rang a silver bell, which presently produced an +official personage, something between a gentleman-usher and a +pew-opener. "You may show this party over the cancelled department, +James; and let Mr. Townshend investigate anything he pleases."</p> + +<p>With a not over-courteous nod, the old gentleman resumed his study of a +certain enormous volume, that looked, said Marmaduke, like the quarto +edition of Chaucer, but which, it is reasonable to conclude, was +something else. We were straightway conducted through several vast and +echoing chambers, into a spacious fire-proof vault, where the notes that +had been paid into the Bank awaited the periodical cremation.</p> + +<p>"A week later, and we might not have been in time," remarked the Bow +Street runner, "since every bank-note is burned within a month of its +having found its way home again. If Sir Massingberd has come to a +violent end, and been robbed of his money, we shall probably find it all +here, as those who despoiled him would be anxious to get the notes +changed at once." Our guide led the way to a certain department of the +chamber, with the same accuracy which a student would evince with +respect to a shelf in his own library, and took up in his hand a bundle +of one-pound notes; they were for the most part very dirty and greasy, +but he separated one from the other with a surprising ease and celerity, +reading out the numbers as he did so. "82900, 1, 2, 3—now we are +getting near it," observed the official. "Let us see, 951, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"82961," gasped I, "and the next nineteen." I could scarcely frame the +words, so great was my excitement. Marmaduke's eyes gleamed with anxiety +and impatience; and even Mr. Gerard held his breath, while the clerk +continued, in a dry, mechanical tone:</p> + +<p>"51, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wanting—7, 8, 9 all wanting. 82960—-here you have +it; 61 wanting; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are none of them here. +Stop a bit. 82977—that's one, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," cried I, "that's one. Pray, let me look at it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir," responded the official, severely. "With regard to +Mr. Townshend, I have my orders, but as respects him only."</p> + +<p>"Perfectly right," remarked the Bow Street runner, approvingly. "Then +please to give it to me, my man. Are there any more?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there are—78, 79, 80."</p> + +<p>"Good. That is four in all, then." The detective took them up, and +showed them to me: of course, I could not identify them; but still I +felt some awe to think what hands—hands imbued with blood, +perchance—those notes might have passed through since I had seen Sir +Massingberd thrust them into his pocket.</p> + +<p>"I cannot carry these away with me, my good friend, I suppose?" inquired +Mr. Townshend, persuasively.</p> + +<p>"By no manner of means, Mr. Runner," replied the guardian of these +unctuous treasures, with dignity. "His Majesty himself would never be so +mad as to ask such a thing. A written order from the governor himself +would not permit you to do it."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir; then we won't trouble the governor to write one," +returned the detective, dryly. "What I must know, however—permission or +no permission—is this: by whose hand were these sweet-smelling and +precious articles paid into the Bank of England?"</p> + +<p>It would have been amusing, under less anxious circumstances, to have +watched the demeanour of these two personages, each jealous of the +dignity of those by whom he was employed, and neither in the least +disposed to surrender one tittle of his delegated authority.</p> + +<p>"That information will, no doubt, be supplied to you," replied the +official, stiffly, "if it is thought right—and not otherwise. Follow +me, gentlemen, if you please, and I will direct you to the office where +such an application may be made."</p> + +<p>This we did; and I am bound to say, met with very great civility from +the superintendent of the department in question. In spite of the +admirable and systematic manner in which the huge establishment was +carried on, it was not easy, and in many cases would have been +impossible, to discover what individual had paid in any particular +note; but every pains and trouble were taken in our behalf, to effect +this. Out of the four notes, only one, No. 82979, could be identified as +having been received from any particular person—one Mr. Worrall, a +silk-merchant in the City. Having expressed our warmest thanks to the +authorities, we immediately called a coach, and started off to this +gentleman's warehouse. We were so fortunate as to find him in, although +he was just upon the point of setting forth to his private residence. +Upon an examination of his books, we discovered no record of the +bank-note about which we were concerned; still, he frankly owned to us +that such memoranda were not kept with excessive accuracy. "It is +possible yet that the people at the Bank may have been correct," +observed he. "You had better return there; and since the matter is one +of life and death, I do not mind confiding to you, that if that note +has passed through our hands at all, it will have the letter W, in red, +upon the back of it; it is very small, but still can be deciphered +without a magnifying-glass."</p> + +<p>"There was no mark," observed I, "upon any of the notes I saw."</p> + +<p>"There <i>was</i> a mark," remarked the Bow Street runner, reflectively; and +I am pretty sure it was upon this very note.—"It is no wonder that you +did not see it, young gentleman, since your livelihood does not depend, +as mine does, upon keeping my eyes about me. The mark in question was +also almost obliterated by the red "Cancelled" which the Bank had placed +upon the note; but as far as I could make it out, it was the letter O."</p> + +<p>"That is the private mark of the Metropolitan Oil Company," exclaimed +Mr. Worrall, without hesitation. "Although, indeed, because I have told +my own secrets, I am not sure that I am justified in revealing those of +other people. Their offices are in the very next street to this."</p> + +<p>Off we started like hounds, who, after, a check, have once more struck +the scent. Business in the City had by this time greatly diminished, and +many of the shops were closed; but the Oil Company's emporium, as +behoved it, was lighted up from cellar to garret, to give assurance to +the world that what they sold could turn night, and even London fog, +into day. Notwithstanding the extreme luminosity of the premises, we +found the accounts of the establishment, however, rather opaque and +complicated; and although nothing could exceed the pains which the +clerks put themselves to upon our account, it was several hours before +No. 82979 could be identified, both as respected its incoming and +outgoing. Finally, however, we gleaned the certain information that the +note in question had been received only a day or two previously by the +Oil Company from a Mr. Vanderseld, the skipper of a foreign vessel, then +lying in the port of London, but which, he had informed them, was to +sail immediately. He had bought a small quantity of oil for his cabin +lamps, and taken it with him, but had ordered a large supply to be sent +to his address in Hamburg, and with this address we were made +acquainted.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend," quoth Mr. Harvey Gerard, as we rolled homewards +in a hackney-coach, after seven hours of this man-hunting, "what think +you that this news portends? Is the game still afoot, or is it only dead +game—quarry?"</p> + +<p>"I can speak with no sort of certainty yet," replied the Bow Street +runner; "but next to all the notes having been paid into the Bank on +the 17th or so—which, as I told you, would have almost indicated Sir +Massingberd's murder and robbery, without any doubt—I know of no worse +tidings than this, of their having come from Hamburg. There's a regular +agency abroad, and particularly in that town, for the sale of Bank of +England notes dishonestly come by. If a thief cannot get to the Bank +immediately, to turn his plunder into gold, he sends it across the +water; and then it comes back to us at home, through honest hands +enough. We must communicate, of course, with Vanderseld; but the +probability is that he will be unable to give us any information. These +sea-fellows take account of nothing except what concerns their own +trade. He may remember the quarter that the wind was blowing from upon +the day he had the note, to a nicety; but he won't have a notion, bless +you, as to who paid it him. No—it's the worst sign yet, to my mind, +that that 'ere note has come through foreign hands. But don't you be +down-hearted, my young gentleman," added the Bow Street runner, +addressing himself to Marmaduke, who looked very fagged and anxious; +"I'll find your respected uncle, mind you, let him be where he will; and +if he's dead, why, you shall see his corpse, though I have to dig it up +with my finger-nails." With which comforting statement we had, for that +evening, to be content.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>A BENEVOLENT STRANGER.</h3> + + +<p>Having written to Mr. Vanderseld of Hamburg, there was nothing, pending +the reception of his reply, for even Mr. Townshend to do beyond his +favourite occupation of keeping his eyes open. We advertised, however, +in the "Morning Chronicle" (a print that at that time was far from +looking forward, to death from want of circulation, and the having its +eyes closed by a penny piece), in the "Times," and in the "Sun," and +offered a reward of one hundred guineas for tidings of the missing +baronet; nor, in spite of the Bow Street Runner's depreciating remarks +upon this point, were our efforts in that direction wholly thrown away. +A full description of Sir Massingberd had appeared in the above +newspapers for ten successive days, and on the eleventh, the following +information came of it. We were all breakfasting in Harley Street, Mr. +Long having come up from Fairburn the previous day, when the butler +informed us that there was a man waiting in the hall, who wished to see +"H.G.," who had put a certain advertisement into the "Sun" newspaper. +"Show him in here at once, George," quoth Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands. +"How pleased I shall be if we learn what we wish to know, after all, +without any help from Bow Street. I beg you will take a chair, sir." +These last words were addressed to a very respectable-looking person, +whom the servant had ushered in, and who bowed to us in a very decorous +and unassuming fashion. He was attired in half-mourning, and carried a +little black leather bag and an umbrella—the latter a less common +companion in these days than a cane is now—as though he had just come +off a journey.</p> + +<p>"I have called, gentlemen," said he, "simply in consequence of seeing a +notice respecting the disappearance of a certain individual of whose +whereabouts I am in a position to inform you."</p> + +<p>"Is Sir Massingberd Heath alive, sir?" gasped Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"Heaven be praised, he <i>is</i>, sir," responded the stranger, fervently.</p> + +<p>"Umph," ejaculated Mr. Gerard, with less piety.</p> + +<p>Mr. Long coughed behind his fingers, but otherwise kept a discreet +silence.</p> + +<p>"You know him, do you, sir?" inquired our host.</p> + +<p>"I know him well enough by sight, if, at least, your advertised +description of his personal appearance is accurate," resumed our +visitor. "His height, his beard, the curious indentation upon his +forehead, are all characteristic of the man whom I saw last night, and +whom I have seen every day for weeks. He is living under the name of +Daneton, at Nutgall, a village in Cambridgeshire, near which I reside. I +have not the slightest doubt whatever of his identity. As for knowing +him, except by sight, however, I cannot say that I do. Without meaning +offence, or wishing to hurt the feelings of relations, I may observe +that his mode of life is scarcely one to make acquaintance with him +advantageous. If I may speak without reserve upon the matter, I should +state that he drank considerably, to the extent, indeed, the landlord of +the inn has informed me, of, at least, a bottle and a half of French +brandy <i>per diem</i>."</p> + +<p>"That <i>must</i> be my uncle," observed Marmaduke, naïvely.</p> + +<p>"He is so, sir, without a doubt," continued the stranger. "I do not seek +for any pecuniary reward; but having seen your advertisement, I thought +it my duty to come up hither, and relieve the feelings of anxious +relatives."</p> + +<p>Here the door opened, and Mr. Townshend walked in unannounced, as it was +his custom to do. Merely nodding to us all, as though he was an inmate +of the house, he sat down at the table with his back to the visitor, and +helped himself to a roll and butter.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard explained briefly the stranger's errand to the officer of +justice, and then observed, "Are we to understand, then, that you have +been so good as to come all the way from Nutgall hither, expressly to +give us this information?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," responded the man with frankness; "I should deceive you if I +were to say that much. I have business in the City to-day, and arrived +so far by coach; I came on hither, merely a few miles beyond my mark; +that is all for which you are indebted to me."</p> + +<p>"That is a great deal," observed Mr. Long, warmly. "We take it very +kindly that you should have done so much."</p> + +<p>"I thought it only my duty, sir," replied the visitor, modestly. "The +trouble I do not take into account."</p> + +<p>"What a pity the gentleman did not think of writing by the post," +observed Mr. Townshend, still proceeding with his breakfast; "that would +have saved him this long expedition, and us many days of anxiety."</p> + +<p>"That is very true," returned the stranger; "but the fact is, one does +not always like to answer advertisements in that way. How did I know who +'H.G.' was? I thought also that a personal interview would be more +satisfactory. I am a poor man, but I did not grudge the chance of losing +an hour or two on an errand of charity."</p> + +<p>"You are very good," answered Marmaduke, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"And you must, please, permit us," added Mr. Long, taking out his purse, +"to at least reimburse you for that loss of time."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," observed Mr. Townshend, speaking with his mouth full, +"that this gentleman is about to be rather hardly dealt by. It is true +that a guinea, or even half a one, may repay him for his lost time; but +if his intelligence respecting Sir Massingberd Heath turns out to be +such as he represents it, he will be entitled to the hundred guineas +reward."</p> + +<p>"I never thought of that," observed Mr. Long, returning his purse to his +pocket not without a blush. "I hope, sir, that you will acquit me of any +sordid design in what I proposed to do."</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, sir," returned the stranger, with animation; "and +indeed your views, as you just expressed them, are quite in accordance +with my own. I have no wish whatever for the reward in question; to have +done my duty is, I hope, a sufficient recompense for me. On the other +hand, I cannot well afford to lose these two or three hours which have +been expended in your service. A couple of guineas would quite repay me +for this, and even leave the obligation upon my side."</p> + +<p>There was a silence for a little, during which Mr. Long gazed +inquiringly at Mr. Gerard, and he, in his turn, looked towards Mr. +Townshend; then, as though the back of that gentleman's head had been +cognizant that counsel was demanded of it, the Bow Street runner spoke +as follows:</p> + +<p>"It would be nothing less than a fraud, in my opinion, if this good +gentleman's generosity is taken advantage of in the way he suggests. If +the management of this business is to be in my hands, I should say let +us behave with rectitude at least, if not with liberality. The hundred +guineas are fairly his, if he is correct in what he has told us; +whereas, if he is <i>not</i> correct—since no mistake can have occurred in +the matter, by his own showing—why, this is merely an attempt to extort +money under false pretences."</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Townshend," cried my tutor, starting to his feet, "I think +your profession of thief-catching makes you very unscrupulous in your +imputations."</p> + +<p>For my own part, I felt excessively indignant too; and so, I think, +would Marmaduke have done, had he not been preoccupied with his own +thoughts. Lucy blushed, and cast down her eyes. Her father quietly +observed, "Mr. Townshend may have been somewhat plain-spoken, but what +he has said is common sense. If you will be good enough to leave your +address at Nutgall with us, sir, we shall communicate with you as soon +as we have convinced ourselves of the truth of your suspicions; and then +we shall not only have compensation but apologies to offer you."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," rejoined the visitor coolly. "My address is upon that +card. If I had known the sort of reception that awaited me here, I +should not perhaps have been so anxious to do my duty. Gentlemen, I +wish you good-day. I am sorry to have interrupted your repast."</p> + +<p>"Don't mention it, my good sir," observed the Bow Street runner, as he +disposed of his third slice of ham. "I have treated you as no stranger, +I assure you."</p> + +<p>To this sarcasm the visitor made no reply, but bowing to the rest of the +company, was about to withdraw with polite severity, when Mr. Long +stepped forward, and took him by the hand. "I believe you are a +kindly-hearted man," cried he, "who has been grievously wronged by those +whom you have attempted to benefit; but in any case, it cannot do you +any harm to have shaken hands with an honest man, and one who is a +humble minister of the gospel."</p> + +<p>I could have jumped up and shaken hands with the stranger also, but a +false shame prevented me. I thought that Townshend was only waiting for +the poor fellow to go to become contemptuously cynical upon those who +had shown any belief in him. The Bow Street runner, however, said never +a word, but proceeded with his interminable breakfast.</p> + +<p>Mr. Long was speechless with indignation. I saw Lucy Gerard cast an +approving glance at my excellent tutor, and then an imploring one +towards her father, who was biting his lips, as if to restrain his +laughter.</p> + +<p>At last, the rector broke silence. "I gather from what you have stated, +Mr. Townshend, that you will scarcely consider it worth while to go down +to Nutgall, or make any further inquiry into the circumstances of which +you have just heard."</p> + +<p>"It will certainly not be worth <i>my</i> while," returned the Bow Street +runner curtly.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall go down into Cambridgeshire myself," observed my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir. If time were less valuable to me, it would give me a +great deal of pleasure to accompany you."</p> + +<p>"My dear Peter," remarked my tutor, taking no notice of this wicked +banter, "what do you say to coming with me?"</p> + +<p>Even if I had been less disposed to do this than I was, I should still +have readily consented to be the rector's travelling companion, for to +refuse would have been to declare myself upon the enemy's side.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, we set off upon this amateur detective expedition that very +day; and on the following evening returned to Harley Street, having +possessed ourselves of this important information: That benevolence is +sometimes assumed for the base purpose of making a few shillings, and +that advertisements are occasionally taken advantage of to the confusion +of those who insert them. There was really a village called Nutgall; +that was the one fact that the respectable person in half-mourning had +brought along with his black leather bag and silk umbrella. There was +not a public-house in the place where Sir Massingberd could have +procured that bottle and a half of French brandy, had he been ever so +disposed to dissipation, or even where we ourselves could get bread and +cheese.</p> + +<p>I verily believe, at the time of his disenchantment, my revered tutor +would rather that the baronet had been really at Nutgall, and in the +humour and condition to wage implacable war against poor Marmaduke, than +have given such an opportunity of triumph to the man of Bow Street.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<h3>BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS.</h3> + + +<p>It was the Runner's custom to call at Mr. Gerard's every evening, no +matter how often he might have been there during the day, in order to +report progress, or that there was none; and when his knock at the +front-door was heard, I perceived the rector wince upon his chair, like +one who has been roasted a little already, and expects to be before the +fire again immediately. Mr. Townshend, however, did not even so much as +allude to our Will-o'-the-Wisp pursuit, cautioned, perhaps, not to do so +by our host, or besought by his daughter, as I fancy. I do not think +that the gravity of the intelligence he brought with him would, of +itself, have blunted Mr. Townshend's appetite for acrimonious jesting, +which was insatiable; and, indeed, the issues of Death or Life, and of +Lost or Found, formed so much the ordinary business of his life, that +any discovery, no matter of what nature, disturbed him as little as +finding a gentleman with his head off disturbs the King of Dahomey.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Long, I am glad to see you back again," said he; "you are the +very man I want. Does a farmer of the name of Arabel happen to reside in +or near your parish?"</p> + +<p>"He lives at Fairburn, within a stone's throw——"</p> + +<p>"You will never make a Bow Street runner," interrupted Mr. Townshend, +shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," continued my tutor good-humouredly, "if accuracy is so +essential, I will say within half a mile and a few yards of my own +Rectory."</p> + +<p>"That is better, sir," returned the detective gravely. "And what sort of +a character do you consider this man to bear?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Arabel is an honest man and a good churchman," replied the rector +positively; "and but for a little occasional excess——"</p> + +<p>"A drunkard, eh?" observed the Bow Street officer, briskly.</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not, Mr. Townshend. He takes too much liquor now and +then, I believe; but, I regret to say it, there are few more sober +persons in my parish than Richard Arabel."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," observed the other reflectively; "and yet he was the man who +paid No. 82979 to Mr. Vanderseld, who trades in grain. I have heard +from Hamburg, and have traced the note back again to Fairburn. I start +for that place this evening by post-chaise; and if you or Mr. Meredith +want a lift, I shall be happy to take one or both of you along with me."</p> + +<p>This intelligence astonished us all immensely, and my tutor and myself, +who knew the farmer, more than the rest. Such news would have been +itself sufficient to have taken the rector home at once; besides, he was +not only anxious, as usual, to get back to his own parish, but somewhat +grudged our long-continued absence and intellectual holiday. There did +not seem, too, to be any sort of necessity for my remaining longer with +Marmaduke, who had found, it was impossible to doubt, a companion far +more capable of upholding and encouraging him than I. The Bow Street +runner's offer was therefore accepted by both of us; and in a few hours +we took our seats in the same vehicle for Midshire. The chaise was as +roomy a one as could be procured, but still, as there was but one seat, +I had to assume the position of "bodkin" between my two companions. +Their conversation was at first entirely confined to the subject of our +expedition, namely, Farmer Arabel, concerning whom the detective +expressed his suspicions the more darkly, the more extravagantly he was +eulogized by Mr. Long. So vehement was their dispute, that I did not +like to interrupt it for a considerable period, during which I endured +great inconvenience from sitting upon a substance at once both sharp and +hard, contained in one of Mr. Townshend's pockets. If he had been a lady +of the present day, I should have known what it was, and perhaps have +modestly suffered on without remonstrance; but since he was not of the +softer sex, and certainly did not wear crinoline, I ventured to ask what +it was which inflicted such torture.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, young gentleman," observed the Bow Street runner, +removing the article objected to; "you was only sitting upon a pair of +bracelets with which I may have perhaps to present Mr. Richard Arabel."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that you carry handcuffs in your pocket!" +observed my tutor, with a shudder of disgust.</p> + +<p>"I mean to say I do, and should as soon think of moving about without +'em, as without my hat and breeches," returned the runner, with a +coolness that froze us both into a protracted silence.</p> + +<p>The rain fell heavily, as the night drew on, and dashed against the +streaming panes with fitful violence. The wind and wet poured in +together whenever the window was put down to pay the postboys. I pitied +the poor fellows, exposed to such weather, and was glad to see that Mr. +Townshend paid them liberally. "There are no persons who are more +open-handed travellers than your Bow Street runners," observed Mr. Long, +when I remarked to him upon this circumstance in the absence of our +friend, who had stepped out while we were changing horses somewhere, for +brandy and water; "and the reason of their generosity is this, that +other people have to pay for it." I had never heard my tutor utter so +severe a speech, and I gathered from it that his indignation against our +fellow-wayfarer was as poignant as ever; and yet within half an hour it +was fated that all his resentment should be neutralized by gratitude, +leaving a large margin of the latter sentiment over and above.</p> + +<p>The next stage was over a desolate, treeless heath, where the elements +had their own way against us more than ever, and our vehicle seemed +actually to shrink and shudder from the force of their onslaught. All of +a sudden, I was thrown forward against the opposite window by the +stoppage of the postchaise. At first I thought a horse had fallen; but +immediately afterwards the window next to Mr. Long was violently pushed +down from without, and a something black and small, which was a pistol, +was protruded into the carriage.</p> + +<p>"Your money or your life! Come, be quick, curse you, and don't keep +gentlemen waiting in the wet," said a rough voice. "Be quick, I say." A +volley of oaths accompanied this unpleasant request.</p> + +<p>"I have only a couple of guineas with me," cried Mr. Long, quietly, +"and you will not make it more by swearing."</p> + +<p>"That's a lie!" remarked the voice very uncivilly, "for you're a parson, +you are, and they've always money enough. Ain't he a parson, postboy? +Didn't you say so, when. I asked you who you'd got inside there? Come +here, won't yer?"</p> + +<p>At these words, one of the wretched postboys, shivering and dripping, +came forward to the window, and stammered out, "Really, gentlemen, I +couldn't help it; he swore as he'd blow out my brains, if I didn't tell; +so I told him as one was a clergyman, I believed, but the other two——"</p> + +<p>"My name is Townshend," interrupted the Bow Street runner, with great +distinctness. "If you had happened to know that, boy, and had informed +these gentlemen of the circumstance, I am sure they would never have +stopped us, unless, indeed, it was to inquire after my health." At the +same time he thrust his broad face out of the window into the light +thrown by a lantern carried by one of the robbers; for there were +several dim forms on horseback, as I could now perceive. If a +blunderbuss had been exhibited instead, it could not have caused +one-half of the panic which the sight of his features occasioned; each +robber turned his back at once, as though to prevent the recognition +being mutual, and spurred away into the darkness, leaving nothing but +the dismounted postboy to evidence that they were not mere phantoms of +the night.</p> + +<p>"Get to your saddle, and make you up for lost time," said the Runner +sternly; and when this mandate had been obeyed, and we were once more on +our way, he added, "That postboy sold us; I saw him whispering to a man +on horseback in the inn-yard while I was taking some drink in the +back-parlour; he was never asked any question when the chaise was +stopped. That was Jerry Atherton, too, who put his shooting-iron in at +that window; I should know his voice though a mob were shouting with +him. A man who wishes to do something of which the consequences are so +very serious, should not only wear crape, but keep his mouth shut."</p> + +<p>"We have to thank you very much, I am sure," said Mr. Long. "It was a +great providence for us that you were with us."</p> + +<p>"Very likely, sir," returned Mr. Townshend, grimly; "but not for Jerry, +nor yet for the postboy."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<h3>THE FALSE SCENT.</h3> + + +<p>I am now drawing near the end of this strange eventful narrative, and my +readers will learn in a chapter or two what has in reality become of +Lost Sir Massingberd: whether he lies dead in Fairburn Chase, +notwithstanding that strict search of ours, or somewhere else, conveyed +by foemen's hands; or if, alive, he keeps in hiding nigh, for some evil +end, or has even left British soil for a time, to return, according to +his threat, on a day when he is least expected. If his real whereabouts +and true position have been guessed, then is he who hit upon it a wiser +man, not only than I was at that time (which might easily be), but +wiser than that genius of Bow Street, whose eye was reported to see +further into very millstones than any man alive of his time. He arrived +at Fairburn with his handcuffs and his suspicions, and would, I verily +believe, have made me his stalking-horse whereby to come down upon the +guileless Farmer Arabel, and extract what might be tantamount to a +confession.</p> + +<p>"You know him, Mr. Meredith," he had observed to me in his frankest +tone, as we walked out together after breakfast, on the morning after +our arrival; "and I look to you to make the matter easy. We will step +over to the farm at once, if you please, and have a glass of home-brewed +with the good man, when, I dare say, he will tell us what we want to +know, and exculpate himself at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Townshend," I replied, gravely, "I have been made a catspaw of +already, within a few weeks, and until the remembrance of that event has +worn off very considerably, I shall not act that part again."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," responded the Runner, cheerfully. "I only thought, +that being a well-wisher to the person in question, you might have made +the thing less unpleasant for him. If you went with me, introducing me +as a gentleman from London, anxious to see good farming, for +instance—that 'ud tickle him—I could bring the subject of the note +into conversation; then, if he explained to my satisfaction, as he will +doubtless be able to do, how he got possession of it, it will not be +necessary to inquire further. He need never know as a police-officer had +been down here with darbies in his pocket, upon the chance of having to +fit them on his wrists upon the charge of Wilful Murder."</p> + +<p>"There is certainly something in that," said I, musingly.</p> + +<p>"There is everything in it," returned Mr. Townshend, stepping carelessly +over the style, on the other side of which ran the pathway to Mr. +Arabel's residence. "The idea of this man's guilt being, as you say, +quite preposterous, it would only be a kindness on your part to spare +his feelings. That's a fine stout old fellow looking at those men at +work in yonder field, a sort of man that carries his years better than +one sees people do in London: I should say, now, that might be the +farmer himself."</p> + +<p>"Really," said I, stopping short, "I think you had better do this +business of yours alone, Mr. Townshend. I have eaten and drunk in Mr. +Arabel's house, and to be concerned in any such errand as this seems but +a poor return for his hospitality."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it <i>is</i> him, is it? Very good, sir. Well, you may just please +yourself as to accompanying me now. When I have once set eyes on my man +it is not my habit to lose sight of him. Still, you might have made it +easier—for <i>him</i>, that is. It is no matter to me whether the thing is +done soft or hard." And the Bow Street runner stepped along as he spoke, +like a diligent man who sees his work cut out before him.</p> + +<p>After a moment's indecision, I followed upon Mr. Townshend's heels.</p> + +<p>"That's right, young gentleman," observed he, approvingly, but without +even turning his head. "Those is turnips, I suppose, and very good they +are with capers and a leg of mutton; as to wheat, I am not acquainted +with it, at least, so as to know it from oats and barley, unless when +it's in ear. Agriculture is one of them things to which I have not yet +given my attention; but I means to do so, and I have come here for +wrinkles concerning it, remember that, if you please."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said I, sheepishly, for I was obliged to confess to myself +that Mr. Townshend had got the better of me; and in a few more strides +we had got within earshot of the farmer. This was not indeed very near, +but Mr. Arabel had excellent lungs, and bade me welcome as soon as he +had recognized me.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, as likewise any friend of yours, Master Meredith. So +the rector is back, I hear; and the wise folks in London can tell no +more what has become of Sir Massingberd than we poor folks."</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Arabel, they cannot; on the contrary," said I, determined that +there should be no hypocrisy upon my part at least, "here is one of +them, who is come down to Fairburn for information, and relies upon you +to give it to him too."</p> + +<p>"I should like to know when you saw Sir Massingberd last," observed the +Bow Street runner quietly, "and under what circumstances?"</p> + +<p>"That is soon told," returned the farmer simply; "but perhaps you would +rather step in out of the cold, and take a drop of something while you +hear it."</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," said I, firmly, determined that the laws of +hospitality should not be thus infringed with my consent, "I must return +to the Rectory at once."</p> + +<p>"Then I will walk with you," observed the farmer civilly, "and tell you +all I know in a few words. The fact is, the squire and I had not been on +good terms for a length of time before his disappearance. He was a bad +landlord, and did not know how to behave to a tenant as would have done +his duty by him. He wanted his own rent paid to the day, and never had +to ask it from me, for that matter; but when he owed a little money +himself, it was dreadful hard to get it out of him. There happened to be +something due from him to me—it was a small matter, made up of little +things—corn for that horse he bought for Master Marmaduke, among +others, but the thing had been owing for a year or more. I had not +deducted it from the rent, and therefore he ought to have been the +readier to pay it; but he was not; and at last I cut up rough about it, +and went to the Hall myself on the 15th of last month, and then we +rather fell out together, the Squire and me."</p> + +<p>"You quarrelled, did you?" remarked Mr. Townshend, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, we did quarrel; leastways, <i>I</i> did. Sir Massingberd always +quarrelled with whoever asked him for payment, so that was nothing. I +said that I would not leave the house without the money; but at last I +did leave upon his solemn promise to pay me the next day, that was the +very day of his disappearance, and he did pay me, with as many oaths as +one-pound notes into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"He paid you these on the 15th of November, then," observed the +detective.</p> + +<p>"On the 16th," replied the farmer. "I've got a memorandum of it in my +pocket-book; here it is, and the number of the notes 82977 to 80; there +was four in all."</p> + +<p>"And those notes you sent to your London agent along with more, and you +got some foreign stuff back from Hamburg in exchange for them."</p> + +<p>"And how the deuce come you to know that?" exclaimed the farmer in +extreme astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is my business to know a good many things," returned the Bow +Street runner, getting over the stile rather sulkily, for he was well +aware by this time that there would be no employment for his favourite +bracelets.</p> + +<p>"Well, that may be your friend's business," quoth Mr. Arabel, looking +after his retreating form, "but I'm gormed if he looks like it. I should +have said he was an individual in the same line as myself, only fatter, +and though I say it as shouldn't say it, a sight more foolish."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I, "he is not a foolish man, Mr. Arabel, far from it; +although I think he has come down to Fairburn upon a fool's errand."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<h3>"LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD."</h3> + + +<p>I have said that I am approaching the conclusion of this my story, and +so in truth I am, so far as the readers thereof are concerned in it. +They will soon be put in possession of its secret, and close this +volume, not altogether without regret, as I hope. But for me, and those +who played their parts in this drama of mystery, months and years went +by without the least clue to its solution. Fairburn Hall remained +without a master, although not untenanted. The same servants occupied it +as before, and expected, although with less and less of certainty, that +the Squire would presently return and claim his own again. The +principal rooms, as was stated, had been locked up and sealed ever since +his disappearance, and the very neighbourhood of their doors had begun +to be avoided after dark. Noises were affirmed to have been heard in +them, both canine and human—doubtless the ghostly talk held between +Grimjaw and Sir Massingberd, who had now no longer any reason for +silence concerning that evil deed in which they had been concerned +together so long ago. The baronet's voice was also heard in the Park and +Chase, especially upon windy nights, cursing and threatening in a very +vehement and life-like manner, so that his preserves were almost as well +protected by the terror of his absence as they had been by that of his +presence. Reckless, indeed, must have been the poacher who wired hares +or slaughtered pheasants in the Home Spinney, where the dread Sir +Massingberd must have met with his end, or been spirited away, no man +knew how or whither. Had it not been for this superstitious awe, Oliver +Bradford would have found it difficult to guard his master's game, for +the old keeper, crippled with age and rheumatism, could no longer watch +o' nights himself, nor could he easily induce his subordinates to do so, +unless in pairs. They, too, had little liking to be alone in the Home +Spinney after dusk, nor near the Wolsey Oak, which of late years had had +certain portentous tenants in the shape of the two ravens, which were +for ever flying to and fro between it and their lodging in the church +tower. The old ancestral saying—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ill for Heaths when raven's croak</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bodeful comes from Wolsey's Oak"—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>was remembered and repeated by the old folks of Fairburn to the rising +generation with many a solemn head-shake and significant pursing of the +lips. Yet, oddly enough, the general opinion, even of these ancient +gossips, was, that Sir Massingberd was yet alive. The misfortune +prophesied by the ravens was held to concern the family, or, in other +words, young Marmaduke, rather than his uncle. If the behaviour of these +intelligent birds proclaimed that the Squire was dead, they deserved +rather to be held as doves of good tidings than what they were. No; Sir +Massingberd was alive, and would turn up some day or other, wickeder +than ever. His return was as confidently looked for by many of his +vassals, as that of Barbarossa was wont to be.</p> + +<p>This was not, of course, the case with reasonable persons, like Mr. +Long, and, I may add, myself. When a twelvemonth had elapsed since his +disappearance, we both entreated Marmaduke to come down to Fairburn, and +take possession of what might fairly be considered his own. Mr. Gerard +and Mr. Clint were equally anxious that he should do this, but all +persuasion was unavailing. The most that could be extracted from him was +the promise that, when he came of age, a year and a half hence, he would +do as we pleased. It seemed to us, indeed, the height of improbability +that his uncle should still be in the land of the living; it seemed so +to the money-lenders, who showed themselves anxious to accommodate the +young man with enormous loans at a very trifling rate of interest; but +to the heir himself it by no means appeared so certain. There was +something characteristic, he thought, of his terrible uncle in this +mysterious withdrawal from human ken, with the fiendish object of +throwing everything out of gear for years, and thus striking terror by +his sudden reappearance. If he did reappear and found another—and that +one his hated nephew—in the enjoyment of his property, how diabolical +would be his wrath! There was often quite a sublimity of passion evinced +by the old baronet upon very slight occasions; but all such displays, +compared to what would happen in the case supposed, would have been but +as a cavalry inspection at the Curragh to the Balaklava charge. Such +were the thoughts, I am convinced, which actuated Marmaduke, although he +did not express them. He confined himself to stating that he did not +consider he had a right to take possession of Fairburn until the time he +mentioned had elapsed (nor, indeed, was he legally entitled to do so for +seven years), and I doubt if he would have given even that promise, had +he not felt sure that some revelation would be made in the meantime.</p> + +<p>But no such revelation <i>was</i> made, and the day of Marmaduke Heath's +majority came round at last. Whether he would even then have put his +purpose of coming down to Fairburn into effect, had it depended solely +upon himself, I cannot say, but he had by that time other interests to +consult beside his own. Marmaduke Heath and Lucy Gerard were man and +wife; nor, if you had sought all England through, would you have chanced +upon a nobler-looking couple. At that period, although it was not so +afterwards, the dependence, the reliance, the looking up for comfort and +for counsel, so natural and so endearing in wedded life, were upon the +wrong side—upon Marmaduke's, not Lucy's. All that was done in respect +to his affairs was done by her; he only thought about doing them, and +resisted their being done until the very last, when, all other means +having failed, her sweet voice was called in by the councillors for his +good, and always succeeded. In one matter only had Marmaduke refused +even to listen to her—he had insisted upon raising a very large sum +upon his now excellent expectations, and settling it upon her before his +marriage. In vain he had been assured that such a settlement was +unnecessary, and the interest he would have to pay for the money +borrowed, absolutely thrown away. The young man had his way in this; and +on the day after the execution of the deed in question they were +married. I had determined within myself not to be present at that +wedding, in spite of a very pressing invitation, and although Mr. Long +himself attended it.</p> + +<p>"What, not go to see Marmaduke married?" cried my tutor, when I told him +of this intention. I call him still by that name, although he was at +this time merely my host, with whom I was stopping during one of my +Oxford vacations. "Why, Meredith, you astonish me beyond measure. I am +sure that neither of them will think I have rightly married them, unless +you are there to be bridegroom's man. Why, Lucy Gerard loves you, Peter, +almost as much as she does Marmaduke himself; while Mr. Gerard, between +you and me, would, I think, have preferred——" Then I broke down all of +a sudden, and laid my face between my hands upon the table, and sobbed +like a child.</p> + +<p>"Peter, Peter, my dear boy," exclaimed the Rector, laying his +fingers—ah, so pitifully—upon my head; "I had not dreamed of this. +Poor lad, poor lad, God comfort you and strengthen you; I feel for you +as though you were my very own son. What blind worms must we have been +not to have seen this before; or, rather, how bravely must you have +hidden it from us all! She doesn't know it, does she? I trust not. Then +let her never know it, Peter. I do not speak of others, for your +feelings deserve to be considered as much, and more, dear lad. But, oh, +think of hers. What bitterness will mingle with her cup of happiness +upon that day, when she feels that you are absent from such a cause—for +she will guess the cause at once, Peter."</p> + +<p>"I will be ill," groaned I. "Heaven knows that I shall feel ill enough, +and that shall be my excuse."</p> + +<p>"And do you think Marmaduke would marry, knowing that his best friend +lies ill and alone here? He would never do that. They would feel, I +hope, too, that if it were so, I should not have left you. No, Peter; +you have been very strong hitherto—be strong unto the end. Let her +never know that you have suffered and are suffering now for her sweet +sake."</p> + +<p>"I will do what you think is best, dear old friend," said I; "but please +to leave me by myself a little just now."</p> + +<p>And he did so; and I battled with my own heart and subdued it, and when +Marmaduke and Lucy were married I was present.</p> + +<p>"My dear Peter, your hand is as cold as a stone!" exclaimed the +bridegroom, when he wished me "Good-bye" that day. But Lucy said +nothing, save "Good-bye, Peter;" and even to that I could not reply. +They were very happy, those two, as indeed they deserved to be. Whatever +was wanting at that time in him, her good sense supplied; while in her, +neither then nor afterwards, was there anything wanting. She had +sympathized as much as lay in her power in the tastes and opinions of +her father; she had had a bringing-up which, in these days, would have +at least resulted in what is called a strong-minded woman, rather as +opposed to a gentle one. This could scarcely, indeed, have been the case +with Lucy, but her marriage with Marmaduke made it impossible. Her mind +had heretofore been, as it were, all orchard, bringing forth fine and +vigorous fruit; a portion of it now became a garden, producing flowers +dainty and rare. Her teacher being also her lover, it was no wonder that +her progress was rapid; and it is probable that the young student had +never found his studies so sweet as when communicating them to such a +pupil. From her father, she had learned philosophy; from her husband, +how to appreciate all that was beautiful in Nature and touching in +Song. As for her politics, Marmaduke was infinitely more solicitous to +imbue her with correct views respecting the poets, which, perhaps, was +fortunate enough. She would never have admitted, even to please him, +that her beloved, father was wrong, or even extreme in his views of +government; and, in truth, those opinions of hers—so enthusiastic, so +trustful, and founded upon the mistake of believing all her +fellow-creatures as guileless as herself—gave her conversation, an +added charm. To hear her talk of wrongs and rights, with heightened +colour and earnest eyes—no matter how elevated the rank of the person +addressed, nor how nearly connected with the very executive of whose +acts she was complaining—was enough to make a bishop exchange his mitre +for a white hat, and adopt the Thirty-nine Articles recommended by Mr. +Hone.</p> + +<p>"Judge Jeffreys himself could never have had the heart to condemn my +Lucy for a rebel," Mr. Harvey Gerard was wont to say; "although," he +would add, with a cynical twinkle in his eye, "I would not trust my Lord +Ellenborough."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long and myself were both in Harley Street upon the day when +Marmaduke came of age; and after dinner, Mr. Clint made a little speech, +not without connivance, I think, beforehand with others of the party. He +observed, that gratifying as was the occasion in question in all +respects, it was most satisfactory to himself, as concluding the period +which Marmaduke had assigned as the limit of his abstaining from taking +his rightful position in the world. He ventured to say this much upon +his own part, as having been connected with the Heath family for a +lengthened period; but he would also say for others—what he knew they +would be backward to say for themselves—that his young friend owed it +to them also not to delay the matter any longer.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke's face expressed more painful agitation than I had seen it +wear for months. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Clint," he returned; +"and, at all events, I will be as good as my word, which I passed to +Mrs. Heath," and he looked at his wife, as though he would have appealed +to her to release him from that promise.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I am right, sir," returned the lawyer quickly; "but you are +wrong and very uncivil not to give your wife her proper title. Lady +Heath, I beg to drink your very good health; Sir Marmaduke, here's to +your better manners;" and the lawyer emptied his glass, and filled it up +again, in case any other excuse should arise for the drinking of good +liquor.</p> + +<p>"Lady Heath's health; her husband's better manners," echoed laughingly +round the table.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke nerved himself by a strong effort, and replied to this toast +with feeling and eloquence. He promised to accede to the request made by +Mr. Clint, and to that end would return with us to Fairburn on the next +day but one to make his arrangements personally for coming to reside at +the Hall. As for his not having assumed the title, he protested, amidst +merriment, that he had not hitherto done so, solely out of deference to +the feelings of his father-in-law, whom he had once heard describe a +baronet as a something only not quite so bad as a lord.</p> + +<p>We were all delighted not only with the intentions Marmaduke thus +expressed, but with the cheerfulness and gaiety of his manner in +speaking of them; and when the rest had retired for the night, and my +old friend and I were in my room having that last chat by the midnight +fire which is perhaps the zenith of human converse, as the curtain +lecture is undoubtedly the nadir, I could not help congratulating him on +his change of spirits. "That you are a happy man, I know," said I; "you +would be ungrateful indeed if you were otherwise. But I cannot say how +pleased I am to find that the good Genius, who has so blessed you in +other respects, has exorcised this phantom fear of yours; that you no +longer dread that childish bugbear, Sir Massingberd."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" cried he, looking involuntarily over his shoulder; "do not +mention that name, Peter. I would gladly give up house and land this +moment, never to go back to Fairburn; I have a presentiment that evil +will come of it. She would absolve me from my promise even now—Heaven +bless her, as it must do, for she is of the angels!—but that there +will be another soon whose interests must be looked to as well as our +own. You will be godfather, dear Peter, will you not? Lucy and I both +wish it. 'Let it be Peter's godchild, Marmaduke,' she said to me only +yesterday, although I should not divulge these secrets to an old +bachelor like you."</p> + +<p>Of course, I promised readily enough, but long after he had bidden me +good-night, I sat over the paling embers, thinking, thinking; and when +every coal was charred, and the black bars cold that held them, I sat +thinking still. My hopes, for a few fleeting hours, long ago, had been +as bright and warm as they, and were now as dark—and dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<h3>TAKING THE SEALS OFF.</h3> + + +<p>Marmaduke Heath came down to Fairburn according to his promise, but it +cost him a great effort. With every stage his spirits seemed to fall and +fail; and when Mrs. Myrtle at last clasped him in her arms—for Master +Marmaduke was ever a great favourite of hers, and the fact of his having +grown up and got married weighed with her not a feather—his wan face +was paler than when she had seen it last, notwithstanding its three +years of happiness and freedom. It was Christmas-time; the Rectory was a +bower of ivy and holly-berries; and just within the threshold, the +locality which the good housekeeper had chosen for her embrace, hung a +huge bough of mistletoe, the finest that could be found in all the +Chase. In the spotless kitchen, so exquisitely clean that you might, as +the phrase goes, "have eaten your dinner off the floor," if it had not +happened to have been a sanded one, there were preparations for +sumptuous feasting; a delightful fragrance, suggestive of mince-pies +with plenty of citron, pervaded Mrs. Myrtle's private parlour, where the +divine mysteries of Apicius were being celebrated. The little larder, +cold and immaculate as a dead sucking-pig ready for the spit, was +victualled with noble meats as for a siege; while monstrous pasties and +plum-puddings, too many for the broad stone slabs, reposed upon the +Dutch tiles that formed its carpet. It was not intended that the +inhabitants of the Rectory should eat all the good things themselves; +but it was a custom of Mr. Long, aided and abetted by Mrs. Myrtle, to +keep open house for about a fortnight at this festive period, and to +entertain certain worthy persons, who were old and indigent, in the +sanded kitchen daily. Attempts to edify the poor in those days were not +made so often as they are at present, but it was held essential by all +good Christian country folk to keep Christmas as a feast, and to see +that others kept it. I suppose Fairburn Hall was the only house in the +county where that blessed time was ignored and taken no account of; Sir +Massingberd had never suffered the slightest honour to be paid to it; +and his worthy deputy and <i>locum-tenens</i>, Richard Gilmore, treated it +with the like contumely.</p> + +<p>The change from the bright little Rectory, with all its hospitable +preparations, to the gloomy grandeur of the masterless mansion, was +very striking, when we three crossed the road next morning, to take the +seals off, which Mr. Long had placed upon the principal rooms, and so, +as it were, to break the blockade caused by the baronet's disappearance. +The contrast began even with things without. Half one of the globes had +been sliced from its pedestal on one side of the great iron gates; and +in the very centre of the avenue, the grass grew long and rank. The +sun-dial was cracked and gaped in zigzag, an emblem of the uncertainty +that overhung the place. The heraldic beasts at the foot of the +entrance-steps were much more mutilated than when I had seen them last, +and had indeed only one stone fore-paw or claw between them. Disuse is +sister to Abuse, but still how comes it that mere absence should beget, +as it always does, such absolute Ruin? Had the Squire been at home the +last three years, the globe upon the pedestal would have been whole, the +dial flawless, the griffins with at least their larger limbs intact; and +yet no man was ever seen to work this mischief. When the great door +swung reluctantly back to admit the new possessor, he took my hand, and +bade me Welcome, but his tone was far from gay. Every glance he cast +around him evoked, I could see, some unpleasant association, and even, +perhaps, a vague terror.</p> + +<p>There is something uncanny in exploring any dwelling the rooms of which +have been locked up and unvisited for years—places that have been once +consecrated to humanity, but have afterwards been given up to Solitude +and slow decay. Memories of their ancient inmates seem to hang gloomily +about them, like the cobweb in their corners; they are eloquent of +desertion and of death. The shriek of the mouse, and the singing of the +blue fly in the pane, have perhaps alone been heard there in the +interim; but there seem to have been other and ghostlier noises, which +cease at our approach. Who knows what eerie deeds our sudden intrusion +may have interrupted!</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"What faces glimmered through the doors,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What footsteps trod the upper floors,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>ere we broke in! The peculiar circumstances under which our search was +made intensified these feelings in us three, and even Gilmore, who +accompanied us, was affected by them.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And said, as plain as whisper in the ear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">This place is <i>worse</i> than haunted."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The library was the first room we entered, which, even in the palmiest +days of Fairburn Hall had been a dreary room, because the least in use. +Except Marmaduke himself, no one ever sat there; the wicked books, which +were the only sort read and patronized by Sir Massingberd, were all in +the Squire's private sitting-room, and the gaps in the shelves that +lined the present apartment, revealed that the Heaths had laid in a +considerable stock of them. Old Sir Wentworth, a miser in his old age, +had been a dunce in his youth, and was once heard openly to regret that +circumstance from the fact, that he was unable to peruse the loose +continental literature which his ancestors had provided for his +delectation, free of expense. In the rare cases when the Oak Parlour had +not sufficient accommodation for the guests of the missing Squire, they +had been wont to adjourn to the present apartment, to smoke and lounge +through half the night; but it bore no trace of having been so used. +Every chair and sofa were in their appointed place, as though they had +grown up like trees through the dusty carpet. Upon the tables and +mantelpieces, the dust had settled inches thick. The grate was laid +ready for lighting; but over the coals and sticks hung a sort of mildew, +that looked as if it would have defied a pine-torch to set light to it. +These things we remarked gradually, one by one, for the butler had only +opened the shutters of one window, and the extent of the apartment was +prodigious. The shelves were filled almost entirely with quartos—books +were not hand-books in those days—rich with plates, and "meadows of +margin;" you could not have sent a child on an errand to bring one of +them; if he had managed to extricate a tome at all by painfully +loosening it at head and foot, it might have fallen out and brained +him. A fourth of the entire stock was composed of books of Catholic +theology. "Those," observed Mr. Long, "are the most valuable things in +the library. Sir Nicholas is supposed to have won his bride by paying +that costly tribute to her faith. The illuminations are most rare and +splendid. Why, what is this, Gilmore? I can't get this volume down. It +seems stuck to the others."</p> + +<p>The butler grinned maliciously. "I think you will find them all like +that, sir. There's nothing but the wood-backs left. The Squire disposed +of these books soon after Mr. Marmaduke left, and got this imitation +stuff put up instead."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long broke out into wrathful indignation, but the young heir kept +silence, only smiling bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he was afraid that their heterodoxy might do his nephew harm," +remarked I, rather tickled, I confess, by this characteristic fraud.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Gilmore, drily; "he merely observed, that, being +theological works, there was as much in them now as before."</p> + +<p>"Impious wretch!" exclaimed the Rector. "See, he has bartered the +Fathers of the Church for a set of empty backgammon boards, and lettered +them with their venerable names."</p> + +<p>"Here, however, is the Family Bible," said I; "he has not sold that."</p> + +<p>The spider had spun his web across the sacred volume, but it opened +readily enough at the only place, perhaps, into which its late owner had +ever looked—the huge yellow fly-leaf, upon which were inscribed the +names of the later generations of the Heaths; Sir Massingberd's birth in +his father's own handwriting, and Sir Wentworth's death in that of his +son's, and only too probably his murderer's. The autograph was bold and +flaring, quite different from the crabbed hand of the parent, is which +the names of Gilbert Heath and Marmaduke's mother were also written, as +likewise that of Marmaduke himself. There was a little space beneath the +last; and the young heir, looking over my shoulder, pointed to it, +significantly; doubtless, it had been hoped by the last possessor of the +volume that this might one day have been filled up by the date of his +nephew's, demise.</p> + +<p>We were about to leave the room, when Mr. Long suddenly exclaimed, "Nay, +let us try the secret way. You told me, I remember, that you did not +know of Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke. The spring lies in the index of +Josephus, a wooden volume, which perhaps put this notion of wholesale +'dumbies' into Sir Massingberd's head." This practical satire upon the +unpopularity of the Jewish historian was presently discovered, hidden +away upon one of those ground-floor shelves, which, if the enthusiastic +student investigates at all, it must be upon his knees. After a little +manipulation, the spring obeyed, and with a surly creak, as if in +protest, the whole compartment of shelves above moved slowly outward on +some hidden hinge, and disclosed the narrow stairs that ended in the +shepherdess of the state chamber. The steps were worm-eaten, and the +wall on both sides hung with moth-devoured and ragged tapestry. +Marmaduke shrank back, and gazed upon the aperture with abhorrence and +dismay. To what vile purposes might it not have been used, besides that +of attempting to overthrow a poor child's reason; nay, was it not +possible that what we had sought, yet feared to find for so long, might +be in this very place, where no eye could have looked or thought of +looking! Might it not have hidden there, and been imprisoned alive in +righteous retribution, by the very spring which had ministered to hate +and cruelty? "I went up here," said Mr. Long, divining the young man's +thoughts, "when I searched the house with Gilmore, and put on the seals. +I think we should climb Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke; as you will make the +Hall your home, it is well to leave no spot in it associated with any +unpleasantness, unfamiliar." So saying, the rector led the way, and we +all followed: there was some delay while he opened the door above, and +certainly it was not a cheerful position for us in the meantime, cooped +up in the darkness, with the arras touching us with its ghostly folds on +either side the narrow way; but I think that my tutor's advice was +good, and that his old pupil experienced a feeling of satisfaction when +the thing was done. Once more we stood together in that state bedroom +where Marmaduke had suffered such ghastly terrors when a boy.</p> + +<p>"Shall I ever forget those nights!" muttered he with a shudder. "Can +this room ever be otherwise than hateful to me! It was here, as I sat +weak and ill in that arm-chair, that my uncle struck me for losing——. +Stay, now I remember it all. Remove this skirting-board, Gilmore; take +the poker; do not spare the rotting wood. Ay, there it is." A yellow +something lay amid the dust and rubbish, which on inspection turned out +to be a gold pencil-case. "That was lent me by my uncle, a dozen years +ago," said Marmaduke musing, "and he chastised me for losing it. It had +rolled under yonder skirting-board, but I was too terrified at the time +to recollect the fact. I wish I could forget things now. Undo the other +shutters, Richard. Light, more light."</p> + +<p>And thus we let the blessed sunlight into all the shuttered rooms. It +glanced in galleries on knights in all their panoply, and smote the +steel upon their visors, as though the flame of battle once more darted +from their eyes; it made their tattered pennons blush again, and tipped +their rusted spears with sudden fire. It flashed upon the stern +ancestral faces on the wall, and through their dust evoked a look of +life. That winter sun had not the power to warm, however; all things +struck cold. The dark oak-pannels chilled us from their waveless depths; +the cumbrous organ, carved with fruit and flowers, kept frozen silence; +while in the chapel, Sir Nicholas in stone and mildew struck to our +marrow. His lady opposite, upon her knees in her "devout oratory," gave +us cold looks, as though we had interrupted her devotions. In vain the +painted windows, high and triple arched, cast down "warm gules" upon her +marble breast, and filled the sacred place with glorious hues. In vain +the gilded scroll, "Praie for hys Soule," appealed to us through dust +and damp, and his memorial pane blushed scarlet in its endeavour to +perpetuate his infamy. All things seemed cursed in that accursed house; +the hallowed places desecrated, and those where hospitality and good +fellowship were meant to reign, solitary and barren. There was one +apartment still which had been left by common consent to be visited last +of all—Sir Massingberd's oak parlour. There he might have been said to +have lived, for it was the only sitting-room he used from early +morning—and he was no great sleeper—until very late at night. There, +as we have seen, he had held his audiences, and dined, and sometimes +slept after any deep debauch. By all the household, except Gilmore, it +was held as a Bluebeard's chamber, and would not have been entered upon +any account, even had it not had the rector's seal upon it. It was here +that the lost baronet had passed his last hours within the house, and +thither he had intended to return—if he had meant to return at +all—before he retired for the night. The butler entered it first, and +let the light in; then Mr. Long, then I, then Marmaduke. Although I had +been there once before, I scarcely recognized the place, for upon that +occasion the squire himself had occupied it, and I had had no eyes +except for him. It was doubtless a comfortable room enough when the +fire was shining on its polished walls, and the red curtains snugly +drawn over the windows; but with that thin December light—for it was +afternoon by this time—creeping coldly in upon the three-year-old ashes +of the burnt-out fire, and on the panels, smeared with spots and stains, +it was very cheerless:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"There was no sign of life, save one:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The subtle spider, that from overhead</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Hung like a spy on human guilt and error,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Suddenly turned, and up its slender thread,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Ran with a nimble terror."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This insect had woven its webs in every nook and cranny, in readiness +for the prey that rarely came, and the slanting pillars of motes and +light that streamed into the gloom seemed almost as palpable as they. A +door led up by three or four steps into Sir Massingberd's bedroom—a +bare unfurnished place, where skins of wild animals, instead of carpet, +were spread for a banquet to the moth. His shooting-boots stood up +still stiff and strong beside the empty grate, although they were white +with mildew, and his night-gear lay folded upon the rotting pillow, in +preparation for his rest. The sitting-room, however, bore the more +striking vestiges of its late proprietor.</p> + +<p>The huge arm-chair stood a little aside from the fender, where he had +pushed it back as he rose to leave the room; and the book which he had +been reading lay open with its face to the table, ready for him to +resume its perusal upon his return. A spirit-case with the stoppers in, +the couple of cigars which it had been Sir Massingberd's invariable +custom to smoke before going to bed, and a few fly-blown lumps of sugar, +were set out in hideous travesty of creature-comfort. The rector took up +the volume, and with one involuntary glance towards the fire-place, +tore the wrinkled and blue-spotted leaves to fragments. A scurrilous +French novel had engaged the last hours of the wretched old man, ere he +went forth—to his doom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<h3>THE FAIRY'S WAND.</h3> + + +<p>There are but few of us, I fear, who can say: "Though I should die +suddenly, and at the most unlooked-for time, there will be nothing left +behind me which I would have destroyed, even though I had had the +opportunity." Of course there are none who can boast that they are at +peace with all mankind; that they leave nothing unrepented of or +unatoned for; that their human affairs and social relations are exactly +where they would have wished them to be. But independent of these +matters, neglected by the very best of us, how eagerly must many a man +desire, between the warning and swift stroke of death, that he had had +but a little time—a little strength to set, not, indeed, his house in +order, but his desk and his note-book. What a cruel shock have many a +family received, after they have lost the Head whom they have worshipped +so many years, by discovering, where they looked for no such thing, +<i>after his death</i>, that he had all along (as will be thought) been even +such a one—<i>not</i> as themselves, but worse—as they whom they had been +taught by his own self to look upon with contempt, or at least with +pity; as they who, by contrast with himself, were persons base and vile. +Is there no letter, reader, ragged and time-worn, perhaps, but still +legible, lying among that heap of correspondence you intend to winnow +some day—which it will be better to burn <i>now</i>? Is there no +half-forgotten gift, meant for your own eyes alone, when they were +brighter than at present, which it would be well to make an end of this +very day? Can you say: "Even though I do not return home to night, or +ever again, but am smashed by a railway locomotive, or driven over by a +'bus, or poisoned in a cab, yet there will be nothing of mine, nothing +when my friends take stock of my personal effects, of which I need be +ashamed." If so, thou art a good man indeed—or one of exceeding +prudence. Above all things, my friends, be good, for that is best; but +if not, at least be prudent. Let your memories be sullied with no stain, +at all events in the thoughts of those you leave at home. The actions of +the unjust blossom in their dust into flowers compared with which the +deadly nightshade is as the violet or the rose. The satirist tells us +that in a week, a month, a year at most, the memory of a dead man dies +even from the hearts of those he held most dear. This is not true; but +the satirist would have been severer yet, and have spoken truth as well, +had he said that the memory of a dead man, so far as his vice and +wickedness are concerned, dies not at all among his kin. It is spoken of +in whispers by the purest, and renders them less pure; it is made light +of by the vicious, but only to excuse their wrongful acts by a worse +example. "Wild as I may be, I am not so wild as the governor was in his +day," is a terrible legacy of comfort to leave behind one to one's son.</p> + +<p>It is possible that even Sir Massingberd Heath may at some far-back time +have deemed it necessary to lay to his soul some flattering unction of +this kind. There were Sir Wentworth and Sir Nicholas, and many a Heath +to extenuate his acts, if bad example might do it. But the time came to +him, and very early in life, when he had no longer this slender +justification, since he had outdone his worse progenitor in vice and +folly. Mr. Clint had known, Mr. Long had guessed—we all of us had +suspected more or less that the lost baronet's life had been evil beyond +that of an ordinary man; but the dumb revelations which were made +concerning it in the necessary examination of his papers, were simply +shocking. After destroying these, the next approach to cleansing +Fairburn Hall was to discharge all the indoor domestics. Mr. Richard +Gilmore resented this conduct towards a faithful servant of the family, +as he styled himself, very bitterly; but he departed with the rest, +laden, there is little doubt with a very considerable plunder. Presently +the upholsterers came down from town with a great following of +workpeople, and a caravan of waggons, bearing costly furniture; then a +host of servants, selected with as much care as was possible, replaced +the exiles; and when all was ready within and without—the waste places +of the grounds being reclaimed, and put upon the same footing with those +which hitherto had alone been "kept up"—Sir Marmaduke Heath and his +wife themselves took possession of Fairburn Hall.</p> + +<p>Art had already done much to change that sombre house into a comfortable +as well as splendid mansion; but the presence of its new mistress did +more than all to rescue it from the long tyranny of decay and gloom. +Beneath her smile, the shadows of the past could take no shape, but +vanished, thin and pale. She would allow them nowhere resting-place. +Where they had been wont to gather thickest to her husband's eyes, she +quelled them by her radiant presence, day and night. The Oak Parlour +and its adjoining bedroom; she formed into a double boudoir for her own +sweet self; and straightway all bat-winged, harpy-headed memories, the +brood of evil deeds, flew from it as the skirts of Night before the +dawn, and in their place an angel-throng came fluttering in, and made it +their abode. No stage-fairy, wand in hand, ever effected +transformation-scene more charming and complete. One fear, and one +alone, now agitated Marmaduke's heart, for the safety of his priceless +wife in her approaching trial. He would have gladly cancelled nature's +gracious promise, and lived childless all his days, rather than any risk +should befall Lucy. His friends, his servants, and the villagers, +brimful of hope that there should be an heir to Fairburn, flowed over in +earnest congratulations; but for his part, he felt apprehensive only. +His heart experienced no yearning for the child who might endanger the +mother.</p> + +<p>In accordance with her plan of ignoring all that had gone before of +shame and sorrow, and regenerating evil places with a baptism of joy, +Lady Heath had chosen the state chamber itself as her sleeping +apartment, and there in due time she safely brought forth a son. Upon +his knees, Marmaduke thanked Heaven for the blessing which was thus +vouchsafed to him, but above all, in that it had brought with it no +curse. Verily had the house of mourning become the house of feasting, +and the chamber of sorrow the chamber of mirth.</p> + +<p>The unconscious father had been sitting by the library fire, +endeavouring vainly to distract his mind from what was occurring +upstairs, and turning his eyes restlessly ever and anon towards the +door, when the voice of Dr. Sitwell suddenly broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"Sir Marmaduke, I congratulate you; you have a son and heir."</p> + +<p>"And my wife?" cried the husband impatiently.</p> + +<p>"She is as well as can possibly be expected, I do assure you."</p> + +<p>"You are very welcome," exclaimed the young baronet; "and would have +been so, although you had chosen to burst your way in with a torpedo. +But I confess you startled me a good deal."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I did," returned the doctor, in a voice like a stream of +milk and honey, "although it was not my intention to do so. But the fact +is, I did not come in by the door at all. Her ladyship desired that I +should bring you the good news by way of Jacob's Ladder; and I may add, +that you may come back with me that way and see her yourself for just +one quarter of a minute."</p> + +<p>So even Jacob's Ladder was made a pleasant thoroughfare to Marmaduke, +and dearer from that hour than all staircases of wood or stone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<h3>FOUND.</h3> + + +<p>Now, when Marmaduke junior, who was named also Peter, to mark the regard +which both its parents had for my poor self, became of the ripe age of +fourteen weeks or so, and the spring had so far advanced upon the summer +as to admit of open-air rejoicings, it was determined that the advent of +the heir of Fairburn should be celebrated with all due honour. This +would have been done before, for Lady Heath had soon recovered her +strength, and the child was reported to be a miracle of health and +plumpness, had it not been for the backwardness of the season. The Hall +had, of course, made merry upon the matter long ago, and if all the +poor in the place had not done so, it was from no want of materials in +the way of creature-comfort supplied by the young Squire. But what +Marmaduke had waited for was settled fine weather, in order that the +Chase might be filled by merrymakers, whose happiness should cleanse it +from all memories of woe and wrong. Much of these, it is true, had been +effaced already; a portion of the Park had been given up to the +villagers for cricket and other sports, a grant common enough now, but +one almost unexampled in those days, and the right of way which Sir +Massingberd had spent so many hundreds in opposing, had been voluntarily +surrendered. Oliver Bradford still retained his office, but being almost +bedridden, inspired less terror than of yore among evil-doers; this was +not so much to be regretted, however, since there was now little want, +and therefore few poachers in Fairburn, while the general popularity of +the young Squire lessened even those. I am afraid that if the new owner +had heard a gun discharged at night in the Home Spinney itself, it is +doubtful whether he would have laid down his book, or hesitated more +than usual in his vain attempt to checkmate his wife at chess, in order +to listen for the second barrel. The terror of the Lost Baronet had long +been fading from his old domain; and upon this occasion, when old and +young were all invited to make holiday in those once almost unknown +retreats of hare and deer, there was no urchin but was determined—by no +means single-handed, however—to explore them thoroughly. The very +Wolsey Oak which the ravens had made their quarters was not shunned, but +in the great space about it, races were run, and dances danced, and its +vast trunk was made the very headquarters of childish merriment. These +young folks did not affect the company of their elders, except when the +gongs gave signal from the various marquees that there was food afoot, +when they flocked to meet their parents at the heaped-up boards with a +dutiful celerity. The higher class of tenantry were upon the lawn, and +among them mixed with stately condescension a goodly number of the +county aristocracy. I remember that some of the latter introduced upon +this occasion the new dance called the quadrille, which had just arrived +from Paris at that time. It had come over in the bad company of the +waltz; but that lively measure was held to be too indecorous to be +imported to Fairburn under its new <i>régime</i>. Everybody, when out of +earshot of the host and hostess, was talking about the change that had +taken place in this respect.</p> + +<p>"How odd this all seems," quoth Squire Broadacres to his neighbour, Mr. +Flinthert, heir of the late lamented admiral. "None of <i>us</i>, I suppose, +have been at the Hall here for this quarter of a century."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that at least," quoth the other. "Of course, it is a great matter +to see people in the Heaths' position properly conducted as to morals. +But I doubt whether this young fellow may not go astray in another and +even a still more dangerous direction. They say his politics are, dear +me, shocking."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Broadacres. "It isn't in the Heath blood +to be radical. But his wife, she rules the roost, you see—and a +devilish pretty woman too; I could find it in my heart to forgive her +anything."</p> + +<p>"But that fellow, Harvey Gerard, her father—why, he's a downright +<i>sans-culotte</i>, sir."</p> + +<p>"The Gerards are bound to be, my dear sir," returned the jolly squire. +"All these things are a question of family; it's nothing but that. I am +told there is some French blood in him."</p> + +<p>"We want nothing of that sort down in Midshire," responded Mr. +Flinthert, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"But we have got it, you see, my friend, and therefore we must make the +best of it. It was all very well to ignore Gerard while he was a +new-comer at the Dovecot, although, mind you, he was always a gentleman, +every inch of him, notwithstanding his queer opinions; but now that he +is become so nearly connected with Sir Marmaduke, and living at the Hall +half his time, why, the county must make up its mind to receive him."</p> + +<p>"I shall let him perceive, however, that it does so—so far at least as +I am concerned—upon sufferance, and, as it were—what is the word?—ay, +vicariously."</p> + +<p>"Very good," observed Mr. Broadacres, dryly. "I am not quite clear as to +your meaning; but if you intend to put Harvey Gerard down, I do not +think you will meet with any very triumphant success. Why, Sir +Massingberd here, who would have grappled with the devil, was tripped up +and thrown by this man with the greatest ease."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, I shall give him the cold shoulder," observed Mr. +Flinthert, stiffly; "although I shall studiously avoid being rude."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I would recommend your doing that, my friend," laughed the jolly +Squire. "If you turned your back upon Harvey Gerard instead of your +shoulder, my belief is that he'd kick you."</p> + +<p>"That he'd do what?" exclaimed Mr. Barnardistone Flinthert, late +high-sheriff and present magistrate and <i>custos rotulorum</i> of Midshire.</p> + +<p>"That he'd take advantage of the opportunity, that's all," returned Mr. +Broadacres, quietly. "No, no, sir, with a man like Gerard, all good +Tories should keep on good terms. One can't hang him, you know, like a +radical tailor, and therefore it's quite worth while to make ourselves +appear to the best advantage. A stupid slight to a clever man has often +done more harm to the cause of good government than a whole regiment of +dragoons can remedy."</p> + +<p>"Oh curse his cleverness!" responded Mr. Flinthert, savagely. "I'm for +no such milk-and-water measures. I think it's the duty of somebody to +tell young Marmaduke——"</p> + +<p>"Well, say it <i>yourself</i>," interrupted Mr. Broadacres.</p> + +<p>"It's a positive duty, I say, that somebody should go to the baronet, +and tell him frankly that all this leniency to poaching fellows, and +liberty to the rabble, cannot but lead to harm. 'You're a young man,' he +should be told, 'and don't understand these things; but that is the +opinion of the county, and it behoves you to know it.'"</p> + +<p>"That would do more harm than good, Mr. Flinthert. You may depend upon +it that Marmaduke Heath thinks for himself in these matters, +notwithstanding that I dare say Gerard and his pretty daughter have had +some influence. The young fellow naturally goes exactly counter to all +that his uncle did before him. This holiday-making and mixture of high +and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Massingberd turn in his +grave."</p> + +<p>"Ay, if he <i>is</i> in his grave," responded Mr. Flinthert, darkly. "But who +knows whether he may not turn up some day after all; tell me that."</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you that," responded Mr. Broadacres; "but I'll bet you ten +guineas to one that he never does."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but if he did!" replied the other, gloomily. "If he was to appear +this very day, for instance, what a scene it would be—what a revolution +for some people!"</p> + +<p>"Well, if he did, he'd find the property greatly improved—except that +that right of way has been reopened through the Park; all his thieving +servants dismissed; all his debts settled; and his mad gipsy wife amply +provided for, and well content, I am told, among her vagabond friends."</p> + +<p>Conversations somewhat similar to the above were being held all over the +lawn, for its denizens were not, like the lower classes, so bent upon +mere physical enjoyment as to be dead to the delights of scandal. But +when the great bell rang for their afternoon repast, which was to be +partaken of in one enormous tent, and at one gigantic table, the upper +part of which was reserved for the gentlefolks, such talk was hushed, of +course, and congratulations of host and hostess and the infant heir was +the only wear for every countenance. Not a word about the uncertainty of +Sir Marmaduke's tenure of Fairburn was whispered over the good cheer, or +a suggestion hazarded regarding the last proprietor's possible +reappearance. Far less, we may be certain, was any hint at such matters +let fall when the health of the future Sir Peter—two generations from +Somebody, and not to be associated with him upon any account—was +proposed by Mr. Broadacres, and drunk with a genuine enthusiasm that +brought the tears into his mother's eyes, who with many a fair county +dame graced the banquet as spectators. Then Mr. Long rose up and spoke +of Marmaduke as one whom he had known and loved from his youth up, and +the cheering rose tumultuous (but especially at the tenants' table, +because they knew him best), and was heard afar by the peasantry who +were dining likewise elsewhere, and who joined in it uproariously, +although they had already paid due honours to their lord; so that all +the Park was filled with clamour. To both these toasts, Sir Marmaduke, +aglow with happiness and excitement, the handsomest man by far in that +great company, with a grateful smile upon his student lips, gave +eloquent response.</p> + +<p>But when Lucy's health was proposed by Mr. Arabel, who dwelt, in homely +but fitting terms, upon her total lack of pride, her kindliness to all +that needed help, her beauty, which was sunshine to them all, then the +young Squire lost his self-command. He rose to speak with evident +embarrassment; he saw herself before him, watching him with eyes that +had plenty of pride for <i>him</i> in them, and listening for his words as +though his tongue dropped jewels; he knew that he could not contradict +one word of praise that had been showered upon her, he could not +mitigate in modesty a single phrase of her eulogium, because it was all +true, and none but he knew how much more she was deserving of. "While he +stood there silent for a moment, but radiant with lips just parting for +his opening sentence, there was a commotion at the far end of the tent. +With that mysterious swiftness wherewith ill news pervades the minds of +men, all knew at once some terrible occurrence had taken place. Several +of the tenants rose, as if to intercept some person coming up towards +the upper table, but others cried, "Go on, it must be told." For an +instant, Lucy's glance flashed round to see that her child was safe in +its nurse's arms, then made her way swiftly and silently to her +husband's side. Before she reached it, before the man who bore the +tidings could get nearly so far, the whisper had gone round, "Sir +Massingberd is found."</p> + +<p>I shall never forget Marmaduke's face when he heard those words: his +colour fled, his eyes wandered timidly hither and thither, his lips +moved, but no sound came from them. At the touch of his wife's hand upon +his arm, however, a new life seemed to be instilled into him, and as a +village boy came forward bearing a rusty something in his hand, he +stretched his hand out for it, murmuring, "What is this? Why do you +bring this to me?" The boy was bashful, and gave no answer; but Farmer +Arabel stepped forward very gravely, and spoke as follows:—</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Marmaduke, you see," he said, unconsciously reserving the +title for the man he had in his mind, "that is the life-preserver Sir +Massingberd always went about with in his woods at night; I know it by +the iron ring by which a leathern strap fastened it round his wrist. +Where did you find it, eh, boy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, we was a-playing at Hide—me and Bill Jervis, and Harry +Jones, and a lot of us—and the Wolsey Oak was Home. So while it was the +other side's turn to hide, and we was waiting for them to cry "Whoop," +we began to knife the tree a bit, to pass the time; and digging away at +the bottom of the trunk, we made a hole, and presently came upon the +head of this thing here, and dragged it out. Then we made a bigger hole, +and please, sir, there was great big bones, and we couldn't pull them +through. Then we was frightened, and called to Jem Meyrick, the keeper, +as was in the booth close by; and he climbed up to the fork of the tree, +and cried out that the Wolsey Oak was hollow, and there was a skeleton +in it, standing up; and they do say as it's Sir Massingberd."</p> + +<p>While the boy was yet speaking, a knot of men came slowly up from the +direction of the Oak, bearing something among them, and followed at a +little distance by a vast crowd, all keeping an awful silence. When they +got near the opening of the tent, they set their ghastly burden down +upon the lawn; and we all went forth to look at it, including Marmaduke +himself, with a face as pale as ashes, and clutching Lucy by the hand, +as though he feared some power was about to tear her from him. I heard +her whisper to him, "This may not be Lost Sir Massingberd after all."</p> + +<p>Dr. Sitwell heard her also, and at once officiously replied: "Oh, but it +is, my lady; there has no man died in Fairburn for these thirty years, +except the late baronet, who could have owned those bones. I will pledge +my professional reputation that yonder man, when clothed in flesh and +blood, was six feet four. What a large skull, and what gigantic +thigh-bones!"</p> + +<p>"Ay," quoth Mr. Remnant, the general dealer, who was kneeling down +beside the skeleton and examining it with minuteness, as though it had +been offered to him for sale, "here is something hard and dry, with iron +nails upon it, which was once a shooting-shoe, one of a pair, or I am +much mistaken, which I sold to Sir Massingberd myself."</p> + +<p>"And, here," quoth Jem Meyrick, stepping forward, "is summat as I think +must have been the Squire's great gold chain, which I found at the +bottom of the trunk. The Wolsey Oak is quite hollow, Sir Marmaduke, +although none of us knew it. It is my belief that Sir Massingberd must +have climbed up into the fork to look about him, for he seemed to be +expecting poachers on that night, and that the rotten wood gave way +beneath him, and let him down feet foremost into the trunk."</p> + +<p>Without doubt, this was the true explanation of the matter. The skeleton +was found with the arms above the head, a position which had precluded +self-extrication, although it was evident that the wretched man had +made great efforts to escape from his living tomb, since what remained +of the shoe of the right foot was much turned up, and retained deep +marks of the pressure of the buckle. As I looked at these relics of +humanity, the gipsy's curse recurred to my mind with dreadful +distinctness: "<i>May he perish, inch by inch, within reach of the aid +that shall never come, ere the God of the poor take him into his hand</i>."</p> + +<p>It was a singular feature in the case, and one which was of course made +to point its moral among the villagers, that had Sir Massingberd not +closed the Park, and refused the right of way, he could scarcely have +thus miserably perished, since the footpath, as I have said, absolutely +skirted the tree in question; and people would have passed close by it +at all hours. It reminded me of the evil fate of James I. of Scotland, +who might have escaped his murderers in the Blackfriar's Abbey at Perth, +but for the simple fact that he had caused the mouth of a certain vault +to be bricked up, because his tennis-balls were wont to roll through it. +How long the wretched Squire had suffered before Death released him from +his fangs, it was impossible to guess, or whether that terrible cry +heard by Dick Westlock that same night, and by myself next morning, was +indeed from the throat of Sir Massingberd in his agony.</p> + +<p>We were the two persons who had been nearest to the Wolsey Oak between +the period of his entombment and the search instituted throughout the +Chase. He must have been dead before <i>that</i>, for the seekers passed +close beside the tree without the least suspicion of the ghastly Thing +it held; unless, indeed, he had heard our voices, but, choked by that +time: by the falling dry-rot, was unable to reply. No wonder the ravens +had sought the Wolsey Oaky and croaked forth Doom therefrom so long!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<h3>L'ENVOI.</h3> + + +<p>Weeks elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this +discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite +another man in body and mind.</p> + +<p>It was only by this change—when we saw him so strong and cheerful—that +we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had +so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him +to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in +Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the +wand of the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his +father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel +thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not +judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in +moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a +risk—ay, and what a selfish risk—he ran therein, let alone the +unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure!</p> + +<p>He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it +to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him roundly for the crime; observing, +however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred +Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all +bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but +the duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that +was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not +a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his +rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his +neighbours, sooner or later—although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very +late indeed.</p> + +<p>Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set +foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, +Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in +beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled +brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes.</p> + +<p>Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is +borne not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it +the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at +Fairburn lies my dear old tutor—far from the iron rails which enclose +the bones of the long-missing baronet.</p> + +<p>Sir Peter...—But why should I further speak of death, and make parade +of loss and change?—an old man like me should, having told his tale, be +silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to +constancy."</p> + +<p>The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of +that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great +space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast +bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the +Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had been cut down for forty +years and more.</p> + +<p>The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. +This may be true or not. My tale itself may be open to suspicion of +untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have +already been pronounced "improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics +of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the +author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such +clumsy hands as to seem fiction.</p> + +<p>Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young +days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a +picture sale attended by the <i>dilettanti</i>. A carking <i>connoisseur</i> is +abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This +fellow," cries he, "has even had the audacity to attempt to paint a +fly! <i>That</i> a fly, forsooth!" and he flips at it with contemptuous +fingers.</p> + +<p>The fly flew away. <i>It was a real one!</i></p> + + +<p>THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 37171 ***</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..7e62fa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #37171 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37171) diff --git a/old/37171-8.txt b/old/37171-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58b3dea --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4581 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, 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. 2/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37171] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + + + + +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. II. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT + CHAPTER II. HARLEY STREET + CHAPTER III. BEFORE THE BLOW + CHAPTER IV. LOST + CHAPTER V. THE STONE GARDEN + CHAPTER VI. THE SEARCH + CHAPTER VII. WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART + CHAPTER VIII. THE PROCESSION + CHAPTER IX. AMONG FRIENDS + CHAPTER X. A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO + CHAPTER XI. THE BANK-NOTES + CHAPTER XII. A BENEVOLENT STRANGER + CHAPTER XIII. BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS + CHAPTER XIV. THE FALSE SCENT + CHAPTER XV. "LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD" + CHAPTER XVI. TAKING THE SEALS OFF + CHAPTER XVII. THE FAIRY'S WAND + CHAPTER XVIII. FOUND + CHAPTER XIX. L'ENVOI + + + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT. + + +Notwithstanding the baronet's polite invitation, and although Mr. Long +did not return, as expected, upon the ensuing morning, I felt no +inclination to exchange my solitude for the society of Mr. Gilmore at +bowls. I was, indeed, rather curious to see the bowling-green, which I +had heard from my tutor was one of the very finest in England, fenced in +by wondrous walls of yew; but, to arrive there, it was necessary to pass +close to the Hall, and, consequently, to run great risk of meeting Sir +Massingberd, my repugnance to whom had returned with tenfold strength +since the preceding day. My reason, it is true, could suggest no +possible harm from my having enclosed his letter to Marmaduke, but still +an indefinable dread of what I had done oppressed me. I could not +imagine in what manner I could have been outwitted; but a certain +malignant exultation in Sir Massingberd's face when he was taking his +leave, haunted my memory, and rendered hateful the idea of meeting it +again. Moreover, the companionship of Gilmore, the butler, was not +attractive. He bore a very bad character with the villagers, among whom +he was said to emulate in a humble manner the vices of his lord and +master; he had been his companion and confidential servant for a great +number of years, and it was not to be wondered at, even supposing that +he commenced that servitude as an honest man, that his principles +should have been sapped by the communication. + +Those who had known Richard Gilmore best and longest, however, averred +that his nature had not been the least impaired by this companionship, +inasmuch as it had been always as bad as bad could be. I never saw his +pale secretive face, with the thin lips tightly closed, as if to prevent +the escape of one truant word, without reflecting what a repository of +dark and wicked deeds that keeper of Sir Massingberd's conscience needs +must be. Such men usually hold such masters in their own hands; for they +know too much about them, and it is that species of knowledge which, +above all others, is power. But it was not so in this case; the +antecedents of Gilmore's master were probably as evil as those of any +person who has ever kept a valet, but there was this peculiarity about +the baronet--that he cared little or nothing whether people knew them or +not. When a thoroughly unprincipled man has arrived at the stage of +being entirely indifferent to what his fellow-creatures think of him, he +has touched his zenith; he is as much a hero to his _valet-de-chambre_ +as to anybody else. It was Gilmore's nature to be reticent; but, for all +Sir Massingberd cared, he might have ascended the steps at the +stone-cross at Crittenden upon market-day, and held forth upon the +subject of his master's peccadillos. Sir Massingberd stood no more in +fear of him than of any other man; otherwise, he would scarcely have +used such frightful language to him as he did whenever the spirit-case +had not been properly replenished, or he happened to mislay the key of +his own cigar-chest. It was no delicate tending that the lord of +Fairburn Hall required; no accurate arrangement of evening garments ere +he returned from shooting; no slippers placed in front of the fire. As +he was attired in the morning, so he remained throughout the day, and, +if it were the poaching season, throughout the night also. He never was +ill, and only very rarely was he so overcome with liquor as to require +any assistance in retiring. The putting Sir Massingberd to bed must have +been a bad quarter of an hour for Mr. Gilmore. I have mentioned that +when I paid my only visit to the Hall, the front-door bell was answered +by the butler with very commendable swiftness, under the impression that +it was his master; and, indeed, it was rumoured that, on more than one +occasion, the baronet had felled his faithful domestic like an ox, for +dilatoriness. Wonder was sometimes expressed that Mr. Gilmore, who was +supposed, as the phrase goes, to have feathered his nest very agreeably +during his master's prosperous days, should cleave to him in his present +poverty--the mere sentiment of attachment being deemed scarcely strong +enough to retain his gratuitous services; but the reply commonly made to +this was, I have no doubt, correct--namely, that, however matters might +seem, Mr. Richard Gilmore, we might be well assured, knew his own +business best, and on which side his bread was buttered. + +Sagacious, however, as this gentleman doubtless was, I did not fancy him +as a companion to play bowls with; and, instead of going in the +direction of the bowling-green, I took my way to Fairburn Chase. I had +not set foot within it for more than a year, and the season was much +further advanced then when I had last been there. The stillness which +pervaded it in summertime was now broken by the flutter of the falling +leaf and the plash of the chestnuts on the moist and sodden ground; the +autumn rains had long set in; there was that "drip, drip, drip" in the +woods which so mournfully reminds us that the summer, with all its life +and warmth, has passed away; and the dank earth was sighing from beneath +its load of tangled leaves, which, "hanging so light and hanging so +high," but lately danced in the sunny air. The presentiment of evil +which overshadowed me was deepened by the melancholy of Nature. I moved +slowly through the drippling fern towards the heronry; from the little +island suddenly flew forth, not the stately birds who ordinarily reigned +there, but a pair of ravens. I knew that such had taken up their +residence in the old church tower, for I had seen them flying in and out +of its narrow ivied window-slits; but their appearance in the present +locality was most unexpected. I was far from being superstitious, but I +would rather have seen any other birds just then. A few steps further +brought me to that bend in the stream which had been such a favourite +haunt of mine before I had dreamed there so unpleasantly. The lime-trees +stood ragged and bare, and weeping silently, deprived of their summer +bee-music; the sparkling sand, wherein I had seen the mysterious +footprints, was dark and damp; a few steps further brought me to the +stepping-stones, by which that unknown visitant must have crossed over, +if she were indeed of mortal mould; the wood upon the other side was no +longer impenetrable to sight; and through its skeleton arms I could see +some building of considerable size at no great distance. I knew where +such of the keepers and gardeners as lived upon the estate resided, and +it puzzled me to imagine to what purpose this cottage was assigned. + +While I hesitated as to whether I should cross the turbid and swollen +current, whose waters almost entirely covered the stepping-stones, a +laugh prolonged and shrill burst forth from the very direction in which +I was looking. It was the same mocking cry, never to be forgotten, which +I had heard at that very spot some fifteen months before. Anywhere else, +I should have recognized it; but in that place it was impossible to +doubt its identity. Knife-like, it clove the humid and unwilling air; +and, before the sound had ceased, a short, sharp shriek succeeded +it--the cry of a smitten human creature. In a moment I had crossed the +stream, and was forcing my way through the wood. As I drew nearer, I +perceived the edifice before me was of stone, and with a slated roof, +instead of being built with clay, and thatched, as were the rest of Sir +Massingberd's cottages. There was no attempt at ornamentation, but the +place was unusually substantial for its size, the door being studded +with nails, while the window upon either side of it was protected by +iron bars. + +I was just emerging from the fringe of the wood, when another sound +smote on my ear, which caused me to pause at once, and remain where the +trunk of an elm tree intervened between me and the cottage; it was +merely the bark of a dog, but it checked my philanthropic enthusiasm +upon the instant. There was no mistaking that wheezy note, telling of +canine infirmity, and days prolonged far beyond the ordinary span of +dogs. Besides there was but one dog permitted to be at large in Fairburn +Chase. It was the execrable Grimjaw. I could see him from my place of +concealment turning his almost sightless eyes in my direction as he sat +at the cottage door. Immediately afterwards, it opened, and out came +Richard Gilmore; he looked about him suspiciously, but having convinced +himself that there was nobody in the neighbourhood, he administered a +kick to Grimjaw's ribs, reproached him in strong language for having +made a causeless disturbance, and turning the key, and pocketing it, +walked away by a footpath that doubtless led, although by no means +directly, to the Hall. He had a dog-whip in his hand when I first saw +him, which I thought was an odd thing for a butler to carry, and he +seemed to think so, too, for he put it in a side-pocket before he +started, and buttoned it up. Grimjaw, gathering his stiffened limbs +together, slowly followed him, not without turning his grey head ever +and anon towards my covert, but without venturing again to express his +suspicions. I waited until the charming pair were out of sight, ere I +advanced to the cottage. + +The door of course, was fast; so, approaching the right-hand window, I +cautiously looked in through its iron bars; there was no casement +whatever, therefore all the objects which the room contained were as +clear to me as though I were in it. I beheld a sitting-room, the +furniture of which was costly, and had been evidently intended for a +much larger apartment, but which in variety was scanty enough. At a +mahogany table, which retained little more of polish than if it had just +been sawn from its trunk in Honduras, sat an ancient female, with her +back towards me, supporting her chin on both hands; a cold chicken in a +metal dish was before her, but neither a plate nor knife and fork; she +was muttering something in a low tone to herself, which, if it was a +grace, must have been a very long one. Her hair was scanty, and white as +snow, but hung down almost to the ground; she was miserably thin; and +her clothes, although they had once been of rich material, were ragged +and old. + +I had made no noise, as I thought, in my approach; and the day was so +dull and dark that she could scarcely have perceived my presence by any +shadow of my eavesdropping self; but no sooner had I set my eyes on her +than she began to speak, without looking round, imagining, doubtless, +that I was Gilmore. "So you are there again, peeping and prying, are +you, wicked thief," cried she. "Don't you know that a real lady should +take her meals in peace without being interrupted, especially after she +has been beaten? Think of that, you cur. Why, where's your whip?" She +uttered these last words with a yell of scorn; and turning suddenly, +with one arm raised as if to ward a blow, she met my unexpected face, +and I saw hers. So remarkable was her appearance, that although it was +she, not I, who was taken by surprise, I think I was the more astounded +of the two. Her countenance was that of an old woman, so wrinkled, or +rather shrivelled up, that the furrows might have represented the +passage of a century of time; yet the teeth were as white and regular as +in a young beauty, and the black beaded eyes had a force and fire in +them unquenched by age. In her thin puckered ears hung a pair of +monstrous gilded ornaments, and round her skinny neck was a necklace +such as a stage queen would wear; yet she had naked feet. + +"Oh, it is you, is it?" observed she, with a grave distinctness, in +strong contrast to her late excited and mocking tones. "If I had known +that you were coming, young gentleman, I would have put on my bracelets. +The family jewels are not all gone to the pawnbroker's, as is generally +believed. Besides, you should never insult people because they are poor, +or mad; one would not be either one or the other, you know, if one could +help it." + +"Heaven forbid, madam, that I should offer you any insult," said I, +touched by the evident misfortune of this poor creature. "I merely ran +hither because I heard the cry, as I thought, of some one in distress." + +"Ah, that was the dog, sir," replied the old woman cheerfully; "the +butler was correcting his dog, and it howled a little. Of course it +could not have been me--certainly not; Sir Massingberd is so excessively +anxious that I should have everything that is good for me; he said that +with his own lips. And what a handsome mouth he has, except when he +looks at _you_." + +"Why at me?" cried I. "He has no cause to dislike me, has he!" + +"No cause!" cried the old woman, coming closer to the bars, and lowering +her voice to a confidential whisper. "Oh no--not if you were dead. I +never wished you worse than myself; no, not when my poor baby died, and +I could not weep. I feel that now; if I could only weep, as in the good +old times with my husband! There was plenty of good weeping +then--plenty." + +"But why should you wish me dead, madam, who have never done you any +harm?" + +"No harm? What not to have taken the title from my boy? No harm, when +but for you, he would have been the heir to house and land! Why, look +you, if it had not been for something, I would have driven Gilmore's +knife into you that day when you were sleeping under the limes. That was +the very place where I used to meet my love--let me see, how many years +ago?" + +The eager eyes for one instant ceased to glitter; some fragment of a +memory of the past claimed the restless brain; then once more she +rambled on. "One, two, three, four--he never struck me more than four +times; that's true, I swear." + +"And what was the something that prevented you from killing me when I +was asleep by the heron's island?" inquired I. + +"What was it?" replied the old woman sadly. "Did you not cry, 'Mother, +mother,' in your sleep, to make me think of my boy? I wept at that; just +one tear. He might have been such another as yourself--with the +same--Why, what's the matter with your forehead? What have you done +with your horseshoe? Every Heath wears one of them; then why not you, +young Marmaduke?" + +"My name is not Heath," said I; "you are taking me for somebody else." + +"Dear me--dear me, what a mistake! The fact is, that living in a house +affects one's sight. Now, let me guess. If you are not Marmaduke Heath, +you must be...--What a dark skin you have, and what kind eyes!" She +looked suspiciously round the room, and laying her finger on her lip, +observed beneath her breath: "You are not Stanley Carew, are you? They +told me he was hung, but I know better than that. I have seen him since +a hundred times. To be hung for nothing must be a terrible thing; but +how much worse to be hung for love!" + +"I am not Stanley Carew," said I; "I am Peter Meredith, who lives with +Mr. Long at the Rectory." + +"I never happen to have heard your name before, sir," replied the old +woman, mincingly; "perhaps you have never heard mine. Permit me to +introduce myself. Don't suppose that our people don't know good manners, +I am Sinnamenta--Lady Heath." + +"Madam," said I, deeply moved, "I apprehended as much. If I can do you +any service, be sure that the will shall not be wanting. Pray, tell me +what shall I do?" + +"Well," returned the poor creature, quickly, "Marmaduke Heath should be +killed at once, that is all important. We have been thinking of nothing +else, my husband and I. But perhaps you have done it already." (How I +shrank from that random shaft.) "If so, I have no further desire except +to get out. If I could only be once more in the greenwood, my hair would +reassume its natural colour. That is why Mr. Gilmore is so careful to +keep me thus locked up. If my husband only saw me with my black hair +again--it reached to the ground, sir--matters would be very different. I +think I have already observed that it is not customary to watch a lady +while she is partaking of refreshment." + +With that, she once more seated herself at the table, with her back to +me; and judging thereby that my presence was distasteful to her, and +having no notion of how I could possibly give her any aid, I withdrew +from the sad scene. I had not, however, gone many steps, when she called +me back again through the iron bars. + +"Mr. Meredith," said she, "you arrived somewhat unexpectedly. It is to +that circumstance alone, I beg to repeat, that you must attribute the +absence of bracelets. My very best regards to all your family. +Sinnamenta, you know--Lady Heath." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HARLEY STREET. + + +While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in +rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable +by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the +course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it +is fabled to do. During each of my visits there, I had perceived its +silent increase even more clearly than those between whom it was growing +up into the perfect flower, leaf by leaf, and bud by bud; they had +tended it together--Marmaduke and Lucy--until it was well nigh in +blossom, and yet they had not said to one another, and perhaps not even +to themselves, "Why, this is surely Love." Mr. Gerard had watched it, +not displeased, for he had found the young man all that my heart had +foretold that he would; Mr. Clint had seen it, and won by the strong +sense, as much as by the beauty of the gentle girl, forgot the +revolutionary stock of which she came. This, thought he, is the wife for +Marmaduke Heath; tender, but yet determined; dutiful, but indisposed to +submit to unauthorized dictation; as fearless as kind. In her, once +wedded to this young man, so morbid, so sensitive, so yielding, Sir +Massingberd would find, if it should be necessary, not only a foe, +resolute herself, but as firm as steel for him whom she had dowered with +her love. What Marmaduke's nature wanted, hers would supply. The keen +lawyer foresaw for that unhappy family, whose interests he and his had +had in keeping so many scores of years, a future such as had never been +promised before. It was an admission painful to me enough at that time, +but which I could not conceal from myself, that the real obstacle which +prevented the open recognition of attachment between these two young +people was Marmaduke himself. No girl more modest or less forward than +Lucy Gerard ever breathed, but I knew--ah, how well I knew!--that a word +from him would have brought the love-light to her eyes, which now lay +waiting but for it in the careful keeping of her maiden heart. But that +word had not been spoken. Perfect love, Marmaduke did not yet feel, for +he had not quite cast out fear. How can a man offer heart and hand to a +woman whom he does not feel certain that he can protect? It is for this +reason that marriage among slaves must for ever be a mockery. There +was, of course, no danger to Lucy Gerard in her marrying with Marmaduke, +although his uncle should storm "No" a thousand times; but the young man +felt that he was unworthy of her, while he entertained any terror of +him. It was wearing away; it was weakening day by day, through genial +influences, and the absence of all things which reminded him of Fairburn +and its master, but it was not dead yet. If by these words, I lead any +of my readers to suppose that Marmaduke Heath had the least resemblance +to that thing which is called a Coward, I have done my friend a grievous +wrong. Let me do away with the possibility of this most mistaken notion, +at once and for ever, by the recital of an event which, although it does +not come within the scope of the present narrative, nearly concerns one +of its most important characters. + +After the peace in 1815, there were more officers--English and +French--killed in single combat in Paris than in any one of the most +bloody battles of the late war. This desire to exterminate individual +Englishmen extended over the whole of France. A certain gentleman of my +acquaintance, then a very young man, chanced to be passing through a +town in Normandy, where an assemblage was collected outside the office +of the mayor. This arose from the very uncommon circumstance that that +functionary had been appealed to by a post-captain in the English navy +to punish a bullying Frenchman, who had striven to fasten a quarrel upon +him, although entirely unprovoked on his part. Now-a-days, the captain +would have been held to have behaved rightly enough, perhaps, but in +those fire-eating times an honest man's life was at the mercy of every +worthless ruffian who chose to run an equal risk with him from powder +and bullet. The decision, wonderful to relate, was given by the mayor +against his compatriot, and the crowd were correspondingly enraged. My +friend, whose nationality was apparent, was hustled and ill-treated, and +one person, well-dressed, and evidently of good position, knocked his +hat off, observing at the same time: "You will complain of me to the +mayor for that." + +"Certainly not," returned the young Englishman quietly, picking his hat +up, all broken and muddy, from the trampled ground: "I shall treat you +very differently." + +"You will fight, will you? Come--I challenge you. Let us fight to-morrow +morning," exclaimed the bully, who was, as it turned out, a notorious +provincial duellist. + +"Not to-morrow, but now," rejoined my friend; "I have no time to wait +here, for I must be in Paris on Tuesday." + +"Then it will be in Père la Chaise," responded the other brutally. + +There was no difficulty in procuring seconds, which were even more +plentiful in those parts than principals, and the whole party +immediately left the town for a wood outside its suburbs. The choice of +weapons of course lay with the Englishman. + +"Which do you prefer," asked the Frenchman who acted as his friend upon +the occasion--"the pistol or the sword?" + +"I have never fired a pistol in my life," replied the Englishman, "nor +handled a sword." + +"Heavens!" cried his second, "what a barbarous education, what a +stupendous ignorance! You are as good as dead, I fear. I know not which +to recommend you. It is, however, at least sooner over with the +pistol." + +"The pistol be it then," said the Englishman coolly. "I elect that only +one shall be loaded; and that we fire within four paces of one another. +We shall then have an equal chance." + +The duellist turned pale as the death that threatened him, but he did +not venture to make any objection. It was manifest no other proposal +would have been fair. The seconds went apart, and placed powder and ball +in one weapon, powder only in the other. The combatants drew lots for +choice. The Frenchman won. The pistols were lying on a log of wood; he +advanced towards them, took one up in his hand, and retired with it, +then once more came back, and exchanged it for the other. He fancied +that the weapon was lighter than it should have been if it had a ball +within it. My friend's second objected strongly to this course; he +called it even unfair and shameful; he protested that the pistol taken +first ought to be retained. But the young Englishman, who was leaning +carelessly against a tree, exclaimed, "Let the gentleman have which he +likes. Whether he is right or not will be decided in a few seconds." So +the combatants were placed opposite to one another, and advanced to +within four paces. They raised their weapons; the word was given to +fire, and the Frenchman fell, pierced through the heart. + +"His blood is upon his own head," exclaimed the other solemnly. "He was +brave enough to have been a better man." Then perceiving that his help +could be of no avail to his late antagonist, he lifted his battered hat +to the Frenchman that remained alive, and returning to his carriage, +immediately resumed his journey. + +It is not possible, without putting some very strained and unusual +meaning on the word, to call the hero of such an adventure a coward; yet +the man who acted thus was Marmaduke Heath. + +The above relation is but a clumsy method of proving him courageous, I +am well aware; but I really know not otherwise how to make him appear +so, slave, as it is seen he was, to terrors which must seem almost +imaginary. It is said that no man, however fearless, quite gets over his +awe of his schoolmaster. An exaggeration of this sentiment probably +possessed this unfortunate young man; added to which was the fact that +Sir Massingberd was his uncle, a family tie which was doubtless not +without its influence, notwithstanding Marmaduke's evil opinion of his +own race. I suspect, too, he entertained a morbid notion that his own +life and that of his relative were somehow bound up together in one; +and on the few occasions when I ever saw him moved to wrath, a +similarity--mental as well as physical--between him and his uncle became +apparent, which actually inspired him with a sort of awe and hatred of +_himself_. A noble mind more injured and misshapen by ill-training it +was impossible to imagine. For the last few months, however, as I have +said, it had been growing aright, and gaining strength and vigour. No +home--even Mr. Clint and my tutor felt that--could possibly be better +adapted for him than his present one; the society of Mr. Gerard, a man +independent almost to audacity, and despising the haughty and the strong +with a supreme contempt, was the very tonic he needed. Rarely, however, +was his uncle's name mentioned in his presence: at first, Mr. Gerard had +purposely spoken of Sir Massingberd lightly and jestingly, but it was +found that the subject had better be altogether avoided. It is ill to +jest upon earthquakes with one who, having but just recovered from +certain shocks of a volcanic nature, is not without apprehensions of +more to come. This anticipation turned out to be but too well grounded. +A day or two after my discovery of the baronet's poor gipsy-wife at +Fairburn, whose existence was well known, I found, to both the rector +and Mr. Clint, and of course to Marmaduke himself, the postman carried +misfortune from me to Harley Street, although I was myself as +unconscious of the fact as he. Marmaduke did not come in to luncheon +from his study, as usual, and Mr. Gerard was sent with a gay message to +him by Lucy, to bid him do so. He was not wanted, he was to be assured, +upon his own account at all, but she was dying to hear news of Peter, +whose handwriting she had perceived upon the letter that had been sent +in to him that morning. Mr. Gerard found the poor lad with his eyes +riveted upon an autograph that was not mine, and upon words that I would +rather have cut off my hand than knowingly have sent him: + + +"Nephew Marmaduke,--I am told, whether falsely or not, it does not +matter now, that you have not seen the letter which I previously sent to +you. I think you can scarcely have done so, or you would not have dared +to disobey my orders therein contained, but would have returned to +Fairburn long ago. At all events, you will read _this_ with your own +eyes, and beware how you hesitate to comply with it. _Return hither, +sir, at once._ It is idle to suppose that I wish you harm, as those you +are with would fain persuade you; but it is far worse than idle to +attempt to cross my will. Come back to Fairburn, and I will behave +towards you as though you had not acted in your late undutiful manner. +Delay to do so, and be sure that you will still have to return, but +under very different circumstances. Marmaduke Heath, you should know me +well by this time. When I say 'Come,' it is bad for the person to whom I +speak to reply, 'I will not come.' I give you twenty-four hours to +arrive here after the receipt of this letter; when these have elapsed +without my seeing you, I shall consider your absence to be equivalent to +a contumacious refusal. Then war will begin between us; and the strife +will be unequal, Nephew Marmaduke; although you had fifty men at your +back like lawyer Clint and this man Gerard, they could not keep you +from my arm. It will reach you wheresoever you are, at the time you +least suspect it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. +However well it may seem to be with you, it will not be well. When you +think yourself safest, you will be most in danger. There is indeed but +one place of safety for you: come you home. + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH." + + + +The wily baronet had fooled me, and doubtless, when I rose to light the +taper, had substituted the above letter for that which he had persuaded +me to enclose to his unhappy nephew. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BEFORE THE BLOW. + + +As yet in ignorance of the mischief which I had unwittingly done to my +dearest friend, I could not but wonder why I received no news from +Harley Street. I had confessed to Mr. Long what Sir Massingberd had +persuaded me to do, and although he had thought me wrong to have acted +without consulting him in the matter, he anticipated no evil +consequences. He rather sought to laugh me out of my own forebodings and +presentiments. Still there was this somewhat suspicious corroboration of +them, that the newborn courtesies of our formidable neighbour had +suddenly ceased, as though the end for which they had been used was +already attained. The baronet's manner towards us was as surly as ever, +and even a trifle more so, as if to recompense himself for his previous +constrained politeness. To myself, his manner was precisely that of a +man who does not attempt to conceal his contempt for one whom he has +duped. Since Marmaduke's departure, there had gone forth various +decrees, injunctions, and what not, from the Court of Chancery, obtained +doubtless through Mr. Clint, on behalf of the heir-presumptive, against +certain practices of Sir Massingberd connected with the estate. Formerly +he had done what he chose, not only with "his own," but with what was +not his own in the eye of the law. But Marmaduke's reversionary rights +were now strictly protected. Not a tree in the park could fell beneath +the axe, but the noise thereof reached the Chancellor's ears, and +brought down reproof, and even threats, upon the incensed baronet. His +hesitation to institute proceedings for the recovery of his ward, had +given confidence to his opponents; and Mr. Gerard was not one to suffer +the least wrong to be committed with impunity; it was out of his pocket +that the expenses came for the edicts necessary to enforce compliance, +and I have heard him say that he never remembered to have spent any +money with greater personal satisfaction. + +This "thinning the timber" (as Sir Massingberd euphoniously termed +cutting down the most ornamental trees, in his excusatory despatches), +having been put a stop to, the squire took to selling the family plate. +A quantity of ancient silver, with the astonished Griffins upon it, was +transferred from the custody of Gilmore to that of certain transmuters +of metal in town, and came back again to Fairburn Hall in the shape of +gold pieces. But even the melting-pot was compelled to disclose its +secrets; and the squire received such a severe reprimand upon the text +of heirlooms, as made him writhe with passion, and which put an end to +any friendly connection that might have before existed between himself +and John, Lord Eldon, at once and for ever. I think it must have been +immediately after the receipt of that very communication, that Sir +Massingberd came over to the rectory upon the following errand. Mr. Long +and myself were at our "Tacitus" in the study one evening, when the +baronet was announced, and I rose to leave the room. "Stay where you +are, young gentleman," said he roughly; "what I have to say will, it is +like enough, soon be no secret to anybody. Mr. Long, I must tell you at +once that money I must have. The way in which my property is meddled +with by the lawyer in London, set on to do it by friends of yours, too, +is beyond all bearing. I declare to you, that I--Sir Massingberd Heath, +the nominal owner of twenty thousand acres, and of a rent-toll of half +as many thousand pounds--have not five guineas in my pocket at this +moment, nor do I know how to raise them. Now, am I a man, think you, to +sit down with my hands before me, and submit to such a state of things +as this?" + +"Really, Sir Massingberd, I cannot say," returned my tutor; "I cannot +see how I can help you in anyway." + +"Yes, you _can_ help me, sir. You have influence with those +persons--curse them!--who have taken it in hand to do me these +injuries, who have interfered between uncle and nephew, between guardian +and ward. Now, I have made up my mind what I will do, and I am come here +to let you know it. You pretend to entertain some regard towards your +late pupil, Marmaduke." + +"The regard is genuine, Sir Massingberd. I wish others entertained the +like, who are more nearly connected with him than by the bond of pupil +and tutor." + +"Pray put me out of the question," returned the baronet coolly. "What I +have to say concerns others, not myself. You like this lad, and wish him +well; you hope for him an unclouded future; you trust that the character +of the family will be redeemed in his virtuous hands, and that the +remembrance of what it has been will not cleave to him, but will +gradually die out." + +"That is my earnest desire," replied Mr. Long, gravely. + +"I am glad to hear it," continued the other; "and I suppose Mr. Clint +cherishes some similar notion; and this man Gerard--this rebel, this +hypocrite----" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, interrupting him, "you have bidden me +stay here; but I shall not remain to listen to slanders against Mr. +Harvey Gerard; he is no hypocrite, but a very honest and kind-hearted +man." + +"He has hoodwinked this young wise-acre already, you see," pursued the +baronet. "His object is evidently to secure the heir of Fairburn for his +daughter; I have not the least doubt the jade is making play with the +poor molly-coddle as fast as----" + +Mr. Long and myself both rose before the speaker could finish the +sentence. My tutor checked with his finger the wrathful words that were +at my lips, and observed with energy: "Sir Massingberd, be silent! +Under my roof, you shall not traduce that virtuous and excellent young +girl." + +I never saw Mr. Long so excited; I never admired him so much. The +baronet paused, as though hesitating whether it was worth while to +indulge himself in uttering insults; I am thankful to say he decided +that it was not. It would have been pollution to Lucy Gerard's name to +have heard it spoken by such lips. + +"Well, well," returned he, "I have nothing to say against the young +woman. It is probable, however, you will allow, that some attachment may +arise between herself and my nephew. You grant that, do you? Ah, I +thought so. In that case, Mr. Gerard would prefer the husband of his +daughter to be free from all stain. Good! There are three persons then, +at least, all interested in my nephew's good name. Now, listen: you know +something, parson, of the mode of life pursued by the Heaths from +generation to generation; you know something of the deeds that have been +committed at Fairburn Hall. What is known, however, is honourable and +harmless compared to what is _not_ known; the vices which you have +shuddered at are mere follies--the offspring of idleness and high +spirits--compared to those of which you have yet to hear." + +It is impossible to imagine a more repulsive spectacle than this man +presented, exulting not only in his own wickedness, but in that of his +forefathers. He took from his pocket a huge manuscript, and thus +proceeded:--"The records of the House of Heath are red with blood, and +black with crime. I hold them in my hand here, and they are very pretty +reading. Now, look you, I will leave them here for your perusal, +parson--they have at least this attraction about them, they are +_true_--and when you have made yourself master of the contents, perhaps +you can recommend to me a publisher." + +"Is it possible," cried my tutor, "that you can do this dreadful wrong +at once to ancestors and descendant? Have you no mercy even for kith and +kin? Do you dare to defy God and Man alike?" + +"I dare publish that pamphlet, unless I have money," quoth Sir +Massingberd scornfully, "and that is the sole question with which we +need now concern ourselves. A pretty welcome young Sir Marmaduke will +meet with when he comes into the country among all who know his family +history. As for me, my character is one which is not likely to suffer +from any disclosure." + +"Are all the murders done and attempted set down here, Sir Massingberd?" +inquired my tutor, taking up the pamphlet "The catalogue of crime is +truly frightful; but you do not seem to have brought the narrative down +to the most recent dates." + +"The most recent dates?" reiterated the baronet mechanically. + +"Yes, sir," responded my tutor, "the history is evidently incomplete. If +it should come out in its present form, it would need an appendix. I +would scarcely recommend you to run the risk of another person +publishing a continuation. You had better take it home, and reconsider +the matter." + +The baronet affected to receive this advice in earnest, and retired, +foiled and furious.[1] He never more set foot in the Rectory, save +twice; once when he called upon me, and persuaded me to forward that +hateful letter to Marmaduke, and again upon the occasion I am about to +describe. The errand he then came upon was of small consequence, but the +circumstance I shall never forget. After-events have made it one of the +most memorable in my life, for it was the last time, save one, that I +ever beheld Massingberd Heath. Little did I think what a mystery was +then impending--so frightful, so unexampled, that it now seems almost +strange that it did not visibly overshadow that giant form, that +ruthless face. If we could thus read the future of others, how fearful +would be many a meeting which is now so conventional and commonplace! It +is true that we should always part, both from friends and from enemies, +in some sort as though we were parting with them for the last time; but +how different a leave-taking would it be, if we were indeed assured +that they and we would meet no more upon this side the grave! How I +should have devoured that man with mine eyes, had I known that they +would not again behold him--save one awful Once--before we should both +stand together in the presence of God! What terrors, what anxieties, +what enigmas were about to be brought to us and to others by the +morrow's sun! Yet, at the time, with what little things we occupied +ourselves! It was in the morning that Sir Massingberd paid his visit--a +morning of early November, when the first sharp frost had just set in. +He came about money matters, as usual. We were surprised to see him, +because, as I have said, he had relapsed into his accustomed stern +unsociable habits, and had seemed to have given up all attempts to gain +any furtherance of his plans from Mr. Long. He had called he said, about +a matter that affected the parson himself, or he would not have +troubled him. Certain Methodists had offered him twenty pounds a year as +the ground-rent of a chapel to be built upon the outskirts of the Park, +and within view of the Rectory windows. For his part, he hated the +Methodists; and had no sort of wish to offend Mr. Long by granting their +prayer. Still, being grievously in want of money, he had come to say +that if Mr. Clint could not be induced to give him some pecuniary help, +the chapel must be built. + +My tutor, who had a very orthodox abhorrence of all dissent, and +especially when it threatened his own parish, was exceedingly disturbed +by this intelligence. + +"What!" cried he; "you preach to your nephew doctrines of Conservatism, +Sir Massingberd, and yet are induced for a wretched bribe to let a nest +of sectaries be built in the very avenue of your Park!" + +"It is terrible indeed," quoth the baronet drily; "but they might set it +up opposite my front door for an extra five-pound note. I announce their +offer solely on your account. They call on me to-morrow for my final +decision, and I cannot afford to say, 'No.' Now, you can do what you +please with Mr. Clint, and may surely represent to him that this is a +case where twenty pounds may be well expended. The matter will thus be +staved off for a year at least; and next year, you know, I may be in +better circumstances--or dead, which many persons would greatly prefer." + +"Certainly," returned my tutor gravely, "I will do my best with Mr. +Clint; but in the meantime, rather than let this chapel be built, I will +advance the money you mention at my own risk. I happen to have a +considerable sum in the house at present, which I intended to lodge with +the bank at Crittenden to-morrow. So you shall have the notes at once." + +"That is very fortunate," said the baronet, coolly; and Mr. Long counted +them out into his hand--twenty flimsey, but not yet ragged, one-pound +notes, for the imitation of the like of which half-a-dozen men were at +that time often strung up in front of the Old Bailey together. From +82961 to 82980 the numbers ran, which--albeit I am no great hand at +recollecting such things--I shall remember, from what followed, as long +as I live. I can see the grim Squire now, as he rolls them tightly up, +and places them in that huge, lapelled waistcoat-pocket; as he slaps it +with his mighty hand, as though he would defy the world to take them +from him, however unlawfully acquired; as he leaves the room with an +insolent nod, and clangs across the iron road with his nailed shoes. + +I watch him through the Rectory window, as, ere he puts the key in his +garden-door, he casts a chance look-up at the sky. He looks to see what +will happen on the morrow. Does he read nothing save Continuance of Fine +and Frosty Weather? Nothing. All is blue and clear as steel; not a cloud +to be seen the size of a man's hand from north to south, from east to +west. There is no warning to be read in the cold and smiling heaven; no +"_Mene, mene_," for this worse than Belshazzar on its broad cerulean +wall! + + +[1] Years afterwards I became possessed of the pamphlet in question, +which, having glanced at, I very carefully committed to the flames. I do +not doubt, however, that Sir Massingberd would have carried his threat +into execution, had not Mr. Long's menace shaken his purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOST. + + +The morning subsequent to Sir Massingberd's visit to the Rectory was +bright, but intensely cold. I was very particular about my shaving in +those days, and would not have dispensed with that manly exercise upon +any account; but I remember that the frost made it a difficult process. +In the course of the ceremony, Mrs. Myrtle, who was a very privileged +person, knocked softly at my door. A visit from her at such a time was +unusual, but not unprecedented. I said, "Pray, come in." My attire was +tolerably complete, and perhaps I was not indisposed to let people know +what tremendous difficulties were entailed upon a gentleman by the +possession of an obstinate beard. I was not prepared for her closing the +door behind her, sinking into the nearest chair, and fanning herself, as +though it had been midsummer, with her outspread fingers. I looked at +her with a face all soap-suds and astonishment. + +"My dear Mrs. Myrtle, what is the matter?" + +"Oh, don't ask me, Master Peter," cried she, although she had come for +no other purpose than to be cross-questioned. "Oh, pray, don't, for it's +more nor I can bear. Dearey me, if I ain't all of a twitter!" + +"Nothing the matter with your master," said I, "surely? I saw him out of +the window a little while ago on the lawn, talking to one of the +under-keepers of the Hall." + +"I dare say you did, sir," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, with one of those +aggravated shudders which are generally produced by the anticipation of +senna and salts. "No, master's all well, thank Heaven." + +"No bad news from Harley Street?" exclaimed I, laying down my razor in a +tremor. "I trust Miss...--I mean that Mr. Marmaduke is as he should be." + +"For all that I know to the contrary, he is, sir," returned the +housekeeper; "and likewise all _friends_" Mrs. Myrtle laid such an +accent upon "friends" that my mind naturally rushed to the opposite. + +"You don't mean to say," said I, "that anything has happened to Sir +Massingberd?" + +Mrs. Myrtle had no voice to speak, but she nodded a number of times in +compensation. + +"Is he DEAD?" asked I, very solemnly, for it was terrible to think of +sudden death in connection with that abandoned man. + +"Wus than dead, sir," returned the housekeeper; "many times wus than +dead; Heaven forgive me for saying so. Sir Massingberd is LOST." + +"Lost!" repeated I; "how? where?" + +"There is only One knows that, Master Peter; but the Squire is not at +the Hall, that's certain; he never returned there last night, after he +had gone his rounds in the preserves. He spoke with Bradford and two +more of the keepers, and bade them keep a good look-out as usual; but he +did not come to the watchers in the Home Plantation. He never got so +near the house as that; nobody saw him since midnight. Gilmore put out +his cigars and spirits as usual for him in his room; but they are +untouched. The front-door was not fastened on the inside; Sir +Massingberd never came in." + +Here I heard Mr. Long calling upon the stairs in a voice very different +from his customary cheerful tones, for Mrs. Myrtle. + +"Mercy me, I wonder whether there's anything new!" cried she, rising +with great alacrity. "As soon as I knows it, you shall know it, Master +Peter;" with which generous promise she hurried from the room. + +After this intelligence, shaving became an impossibility, and I hurried +down as soon as I could into the breakfast-room. My tutor was standing +at the window very thoughtful, and though he greeted me with his usual +hilarity, it struck me that it was a little forced. + +"Why, you are early this morning, Peter; and how profusely you have +illustrated yourself with cuts; it is sad to see one so young with such +a shaky hand. One would think you were one of the five-bottle-men, like +Sir--like Lord Stowell." + +He had been about to say "Sir Massingberd," I knew, and would on +ordinary occasions not have hesitated to do so. + +"De perditis nil nisi bonum?" quoth I inquiringly. + +"Oh, so you have heard of this nine hours' wonder, have you?" returned +my tutor. "Because our neighbour has chosen to leave home for a little, +on some private business best known to himself, everybody will have it +that he is Lost." + +"But it does seem very extraordinary too," said I, "does it not? He has +never done so before, has he?" + +"Not in all the years he has lived in Fairburn," returned my tutor +musingly. + +"And he made no preparations, I suppose, for departure, did he? Took no +clothes with him?" + +"Nothing, nothing," interrupted Mr. Long, pacing the room to and fro, +with his hand to his forehead. "But he had money, you know; he was eager +to get that money yesterday." + +"Then he would probably have hired a vehicle," urged I; "Sir Massingberd +is not the man to use his own legs, beyond the limit, that is, of his +own lands. You have heard him say that he would never be seen on the +road without four horses." + +Mr. Long continued his walk without reply, but I thought I perceived +that he was not unwilling to have the subject discussed. He seemed to be +eager to take as light a view of the matter as possible, although like +one who contends against his own more sombre convictions. I, on the +contrary, had that leaning towards the gloomy and mysterious not +uncommon with young persons, and both imagined the worst, and +endeavoured to picture it. + +"He went out after the poachers did he not?" said I. + +"Yes, as usual," replied my tutor; "he has done it before, scores of +times." + +"The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last," returned I. +"I should not be surprised if the wretched man has been murdered by some +of those against whom he waged such unceasing war." + +"Then if so, he must have been shot, Peter," returned the rector +hastily: "without firearms, it would have been hard to dispose of the +gigantic baronet, armed as he doubtless was with his life-preserver. Now +no gun has been heard to go off by any one, although it was thought that +Sir Massingberd expected some raid to be made last night, by the +gipsies or others; at all events, he seemed more alert than usual, +Oliver tells me." + +The gipsies! My heart sank within me, as I thought of Rachel Liversedge +consumed with the wrongs of her "little sister;" and of the young man, +relative of that unhappy Carew whose life had been sworn away through +the Squire's machinations. I had seen nothing of them since my memorable +interview, but it was like enough that the tribe were yet in the +neighbourhood. True, they had waited so long for vengeance, that it was +not probable they should have set about it at this time; but if Sir +Massingberd had really come across them alone, while they were +committing a depredation, violence might easily enough have ensued; and +if violence, murder. I was very glad that Mrs. Myrtle came in at this +juncture with the eggs and buttered toast, and concealed my +embarrassment. + +"No news, sir," said she lugubriously, as she placed the delicacies upon +the table. "The last words were, 'Nothing has been heard of him.'" The +housekeeper had established a system of communication by help of her +kitchen-maid and the stable-lad at the Hall, whereby she received +bulletins, every quarter of an hour or so, with respect to Sir +Massingberd's mysterious disappearance. + +"Well, no news is good news, you know," responded Mr. Long gaily. "We +should always look upon the bright side of things, Mrs. Myrtle." + +"Yes, sir; but when a thing ain't got a bright side," remarked the +housekeeper, shaking her head. "Why, it's dreadful now he's Lost; and it +would be dreadful even if, after all, he was al----" + +"Hush, hush, Mrs. Myrtle; you don't know but you may be speaking of a +poor soul that is gone to his account. Sir Massingberd is doubtless a +bad man; but let us not call it dreadful if he should be permitted to +return among us, and have some time yet, it may be, to repent in." + +"Then you think he's dead and gone, do you, sir? Well, that's what I +think, and that's what Patty thinks too, and she's a very reasonable +girl. 'Them ravens,' says she to me, 'didn't come to that church-tower +for nothing;' and though, of course, I told her to hold her tongue, and +not talk folly like that, there was a good deal in what she said. Why, +we have not had ravens here since Sir Wentworth came to his awful end in +London; there was a mystery about that too, wasn't there, sir? +Lawk-a-mercy! Mr. Meredith, you gave me quite a turn." + +I had only said "Look there!" and pointed to the window, through which +Gilmore and the head-keeper were seen approaching the Rectory, and +engaged in close conversation. + +"I'll go with Patty, and let them in," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, unconsciously +betraying that she was unequal to opening the door alone, in such an +emergency. It is probable that, when it was opened, the incomers and she +had a great deal to talk about, for they were not ushered into the +breakfast-room for many minutes, and after the very moderate meal which +sufficed us both upon the occasion had long been finished. The butler +and Oliver Bradford were by no means good friends, and it must have been +something portentous indeed which brought them to the Rectory together. +It was, in fact, their very rivalry which had produced the double +visit. Each conceived himself to be the superior minister of the absent +potentate, and called upon, by that position, to act in his master's +behalf, and give notice to neighbouring powers, such as the parson, of +the event that had paralyzed affairs at the Hall. It seemed only natural +(as he himself subsequently expressed it) to Oliver Bradford, who had +been servant, man and boy, to the Heath family for nearly sixty years, +that he should be the spokesman on an occasion such as this, and +sleeking his scanty white hairs over his forehead with the palm of his +hand, and passing the back of it across his mouth, he commenced as +follows:-- + +"Muster Long, I make bold to come over here, having been upon the +property going on for three-score years and ten----" + +"As out-door servant," interrupted Mr. Gilmore, severely; "but not as +confidential in any way. Mr. Long, this old man here insisted upon +accompanying me in the performance of my duty, and I have humoured him." + +"You've what?" cried the ancient keeper; "you've humoured _me_, you oily +knave, have you? No, no, you never did that to Oliver Bradford. It +wasn't worth your while. I come here about my master's business as a +matter of right. Are a few years of truckling, and helping the devil's +hand, and feathering your own nest pretty comfortably, to be weighed +against a lifetime of honest service? Let Mr. Long here decide." + +"Look here, men," quoth my tutor, "it is no use quarrelling about +precedence. You are both in the same service, and owe the same duty to +your master. I know what has happened in a general way, and require no +long story from either of you. But you have doubtless each of you some +information concerning this matter peculiar to your own positions, and I +will ask you to communicate it in time. Twelve hours have not elapsed +since your master's disappearance, a very short time surely to set it +down so decidedly to some fatal accident." + +"He was as regular in his rounds as clockwork," interposed the old +keeper, shaking his head; "he would never have left the Home Spinney +unvisited last night, if life had been in him." + +"And if he had meant to leave Fairburn of his own head," added the +butler, "he would have come back for his brandy before he started; for +all his hearty look, Sir Massingberd could not get on long without that; +and he would not have taken Grimjaw out with him neither." + +"Oh, the dog was with him, was it?" said my tutor, musing. + +"It was not in the house, sir," replied Gilmore, "after Sir Massingberd +had left. I went to make the fire in his sitting-room, and I noticed +that the creature was neither on the hearthrug, nor under the sofa, as +is usually the case. I don't know when I have known the dog go out with +him o' nights before. When I went to open the front door as usual this +morning, there was Grimjaw, nigh frozen to death." + +"Your master had made no sort of preparation, so far as you know, for +his own departure anywhere?" + +"None whatever. I set out his cigars for him, and I noticed that he had +only put two in his case, a sure sign that he meant to return soon. He +had no greatcoat, although it was bitter cold." + +"Was he armed in any way?" + +"No, sir; that is to say, he had his life-preserver, of course, but no +gun or pistol." + +"Had he any sum of money, or valuables of any kind about him, Gilmore?" + +"I don't think that is at all likely," replied the butler, grinning. "We +haven't seen money at the Hall this many a day. As for valuables, Sir +Massingberd had his big gold chain on, with a silver watch at the end of +it, borrowed from me years ago, and my property." + +It was remarkable how this ordinarily cautious and discreet person was +changed in manner, as though he was well assured that he would never +more have a master over him. Both Mr. Long and myself observed this. + +"What time was your master usually accustomed to return home from his +rounds in the preserves?" + +"I did not sit up for him in general," returned Gilmore; "but when I +have chanced to be awake, and to hear him come in, it was never later +than three o'clock. His ordinary time was about half-past twelve, but it +depended on what time he started. He left the Hall last night at about +ten, and should, therefore, have returned a little after midnight. I +never set eyes on him since nine o'clock, when he was in his own +sitting-room reading." + +"And when did _you_ see him last, Bradford?" + +"When did I see Sir Massingberd Heath?" replied the old keeper, who had +been chafing with impatience through his rival's evidence--"well, I +see'd him last nine hours ago, at nearly twelve o'clock at night. I was +on watch in the Old Plantation, and he came upon me sudden, as usual, +with his long quick stride." + +"Was there anything at all irregular about his manner or appearance; +anything in the least degree different from what you always saw upon +these occasions?" + +"Nothing, whatever, sir. Look you, I knew my master well," [He had +already begun to talk of him in the past tense!] "I could tell at a +glance when he was put out more than usual, or when he had anything out +of ordinary in hand; he never swore, saving your reverence's presence, +what you may call _freely_ then. He might have knocked one down, likely +enough, if you gave him the least cross, but he was not flush of his +oaths. Now I never heard him in a better fettle in that respect than he +was last night. He cussed the lad Jem Meyrick, who had come up to me +away from Davit's Copse for a light to his pipe; and he cussed me too, +for giving it him, up hill and down dale, and in particular he cussed +Grimjaw for being so old and slow that he couldn't keep up with him. +Sir Massingberd never waited for him, of course; but after he'd been +with us a few minutes, the old dog came up puffin' and wheezin'; and +when the Squire left us, it followed him as well as it could, but with +the distance getting greater between them at every step. I watched them, +for the moon made it almost as light as day, going straight for the +Wolsey Oak, which was the direct way for the Home Spinney; and that was +where Sir Massingberd meant to go last night, although he never got +there, or leastways the watcher never saw him. + +"Have you any reason to believe, keeper, that there were poachers in any +part of the preserves last night?" + +"No, sir," replied Oliver, positively. "On the contrary, I knows there +wasn't, although Sir Massingberd was as suspicious of them as usual, or +more so. Why, with Jack Larrup and Dick Swivel both in jail, and all +the Larchers sent out of the parish, and Squat and Burchall at sea, +where was they to come from?" + +"Sir Massingberd must have had many enemies?" mused my tutor. + +"Ay, indeed, sir," replied old Oliver, pursing his lips; "he held his +own with the strong hand; so strong, however, as no man would contend +against him. If Sir Massingberd has been killed, Mr Long, it was not in +fair fight; he was too much feared for that." + +"There has been a gang of gipsies about the place this long time, has +there not?" quoth my tutor. + +"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of +Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're +feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, +although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more +have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would +attack a hawk, that's certain." + +My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation +with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and +inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, +and when. + +"You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this +afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have +chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry +having been made after him?" + +"That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis. + +"I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, +sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years." + +"In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the +responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very +good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, +to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, +must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary +up at the Hall." + +The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "_Very_ well, sir," +but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We +must go together." + +"I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, +when the two had left the room. + +"No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about +collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain." + +Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I +meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't +you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by +for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle--a +sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any +further, just at present. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STONE GARDEN. + + +When Mr. Long took his departure with Gilmore, he did not ask me to +accompany him, and assist in an undertaking which was likely to be +somewhat laborious. Perhaps he wished if the baronet did chance to +return in a fury, that he alone should bear the brunt of it. Perhaps he +thought there might be things at the Hall I had better not see, or +perhaps he wished to observe the butler's behaviour at leisure. I think, +however, he could scarcely have expected me to stay at home with my +books, while such doings as he had directed were on the point of taking +place. Euripides was doubtless in his day a sensation dramatist, but +the atrocities of Medea could not enchain me, with so much dreadful +mystery afoot in my immediate neighbourhood. Her departure through the +air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, was indeed a striking +circumstance; but how much more wonderful was the disappearance of Sir +Massingberd, who had departed no man knew how! + +The news had spread like wildfire through the village. Numbers of +country folk were hanging about the great gates of the avenue, drinking +in the impromptu information of the lodge-keeper; but they did not +venture to enter upon the forbidden ground. The universal belief among +them was, I found, that their puissant lord would soon reveal himself. +Doubting Castle, it was true, was for the present without its master; +but it was too much to expect that he would not return to it. The whole +community resembled prisoners in that fortress, who, although +temporarily relieved of the tyrant's presence, had little hope but that +he was only gone forth upon a ramble, and would presently return with +renewed zest for human flesh. The general consternation, however, was +extreme, and such as would probably not have been excited by the sudden +and unexplained removal of a far better man. The rumour had already got +abroad that there was to be an immediate search in the park, and that +Oliver Bradford had been empowered to select such persons as he thought +fit to assist in the same. There were innumerable volunteers for this +undertaking, principally on account of the excessive attraction of the +work itself, which promised some ghastly revelation; and secondarily, +for the mere sake of getting into Fairburn Chase at all--a demesne as +totally unknown to the majority of those present as the Libyan Desert. +The elders indeed remembered the time when a public footpath ran right +through the Chase, "close by the Heronry, and away under the Wolsey Oak, +and so through Davit's Copse, into the high road to Crittenden," said +one, "whereby a mile and a half was wont to be saved." "Ay, or two +mile," quoth another; "and Lawyer Moth always said as though the path +was ours by right, until Sir Massingberd got his son made a king's clerk +in London, which shut his mouth up and the path at the same time." + +"Ay," said a third, mysteriously, "and it ain't too late to try the +matter again, in case the property has got _into other hands_." + +This remark brought back at once the immediate cause of their assembling +together, and I began to be made the victim of cross-examination. To +avoid being compelled to give my own opinion (which I had already begun +to think a slander) upon the matter in hand, I took my leave as quietly +as could be, and escaped, whither they dared not follow me, through the +griffin-guarded gates. All within was, as usual, silent and deserted. A +few leaves were still left to flutter down in eddies from the trees, or +hop and rustle on the frosty ground, but their scarcity looked more +mournful than utter bareness would have done. It was now the saddest +time of all the year; the bleak east wind went wailing overhead; and +underneath, the soil was black with frost. Instead of pursuing the +avenue to the frontdoor of the Hall, where, as it seemed, I was not +wanted, I took a foot-track to the left, which I knew led to that +bowling-green whither I had been previously invited by Sir Massingberd, +although I had not taken advantage of his rare courtesy. If he did now +appear, no matter in what state of mental irritation, he could scarcely +quarrel with me for doing the very thing he had asked me to do. Had I +known, however, the character of the place in which I found myself, I +should have reserved my visit for a less eerie and mysterious occasion. + +The time of year, it is true, had no unfavourable influence upon the +scene that presented itself, for all was clothed in garments of thickest +green. Vast walls of yew shut in on every side a lawn of perfect +smoothness; everything proclaimed itself to belong to that portion of +the Hall property which was "kept up" by subsidy from without. The +quaint oak-seats, though old, were in good repair; the yew hedges +clipped to a marvel. Still nothing could exceed the sombre and funereal +aspect of the spot. It seemed impossible that such a sober game as +bowls could ever have been played there, or jest and laughter broken +that awful stillness. The southern yew-screen was in a crescent form, at +the ends of which were openings unseen from within the enclosed space. +Passing through one of these, I came upon what was called the Stone +Garden. It took its name from four stone terraces, from the highest of +which I knew that there must be a very extensive view. This space was +likewise covered with yew trees, clipped and cut in every conceivable +form, after the vile taste of the seventeenth century. There was +something weird in the aspect of those towering Kings and Queens--easily +recognizable, however, for what they were intended--and of those maids +of honour, with their gigantic ruffs and farthingales. One was almost +tempted to imagine that they had been human once, and been turned into +yew trees for their sins. The whole area was black with them; and a +sense of positive oppression, notwithstanding the eager air which caught +me sharply whenever I lost the shelter of one of these ungainly forms, +led me on to the top terrace, where one could breathe freely, and have +something else than yews to look upon. + +Truly, from thence the scene was wide and fair. I stood at that +extremity of the pleasure-grounds most remote from the Hall, and with my +back to it. Before me lay a solitary tract of wooded park, thickly +interspersed with planted knolls and coppices. Immediately beneath me +was the thicket called the Home Spinney, the favourite haunt of hare and +pheasant, and the spot in all the Chase most cherished by Sir +Massingberd. He would have resented a burglary, I do believe, with less +of fury than any trespass upon that sacred ground. Beyond the Spinney, +and standing by itself, far removed from any other tree, was the famous +Wolsey Oak. Why called so, I have not the least idea, for it had the +reputation of being a vast deal older than the days of the famous +Cardinal. Many a summer had it seen-- + + "When the monk was fat, + And issuing shorn and sleek, + Would twist his girdle tight, and pat + The girls upon the cheek; + Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's Pence, + And numbered bead and shrift, + Bluff Harry broke into the spence, + And turned the cowls adrift." + +Yet still was it said to be as whole and sound as a bell. It was +calculated to measure over fourteen yards in circumference, and that for +many feet from its base; while its height, although it had lost some of +its upper branches, still far exceeded that of any other of its +compeers. Beyond this tree, but at another great interval, was the wood +known as the Old Plantation, where Oliver Bradford had last seen his +master alive. I was looking down, then, upon the very route which Sir +Massingberd had been seen to commence, but which he had never ended. It +was to the Home Spinney he had been apparently bound, when +something--none knew what--had changed his purpose. He would probably +have passed through it, and come up by that winding path yonder to the +spot where I now stood; it was the nearest way home for him. Perhaps he +had done so, although it was unlikely, since the watcher had not seen +him. Perhaps those very yews behind me had concealed his murderers. Shut +in by those unechoing walls of living green, no cry for aid would have +been heard, even if Sir Massingberd had been the man to call for it; he +would most certainly have never asked for mercy. But hark! what was +that sound that froze the current of my blood, and set my heart beating +and fluttering like the wings of a prisoned bird against its cage? Was +it a strangled cry for "Help!" repeated once, twice, thrice, or was it +the wintry wind clanging and grinding the naked branches of the Spinney? +A voice had terrified me in Fairburn Chase once before, which had turned +out to be no mere fancy; but there was this horror about the present +sound, that I seemed to dimly recognize it. It was the voice of Sir +Massingberd Heath, with an awful change in it, as if a powerful hand +were tightening upon his throat. It seemed, as I have said, to come from +the direction of the copse beneath, and yet I determined to descend into +it, rather than thread again the mazes of those melancholy yews. The +idea of my assistance being really required never entered into my +thoughts; what I wanted was to escape from this solitude, peopled only +with unearthly cries, and regain the companionship of my +fellow-creatures. How I regretted having left the society of those +honest folk outside the gates! To remain where I was, was impossible; I +should have gone mad. Fortunately, the Spinney was well-nigh leafless, +and a bright but wintry sun penetrated it completely. I fled over its +withered and frosted leaves, looking neither to left nor right, till I +leaped the deep ditch that formed its southern boundary, and found +myself in the open; then I stopped indeed quite short, for, before me, +not ten paces from the Spinney, from which he must have just emerged, +lay the body of Grimjaw. It was still warm, but lifeless. There were no +marks of violence about him; the struggle to extricate himself from the +ditch, it is probable, had cost the wretched creature his little +remaining vitality, weakened as he must have doubtless been by his +previous night's lodging on the cold stone steps. But how had he come +thither, who never moved anywhere out of doors, except with Sir +Massingberd or Gilmore? and whither, led perhaps by some mysterious +instinct, was he going when death had overtaken him--an easy task--and +glazed that solitary eye, which had witnessed so much which was still a +mystery to man? + +Was it possible that he had perished in endeavouring to obey his +master's cry for aid? that terrible "Help! help!" which rang in my ears +a while ago, as I stood in the Stone Garden, and which rings, through +half a century, in them now? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE SEARCH. + + +Shrinking away from the body of the unhappy Grimjaw, and fleeing from +the solitary spot in which it lay, I ran down towards the Heronry, +where, in the distance, I could now perceive a number of persons +assembled upon the lake-side. Below and above it, the stream flowed on +as usual; but the larger area of water which contained the island, was +frozen over with a thin coating of ice. This was being broken by men +armed with long and heavy poles, after which the work of dragging the +water was commenced. The scene was as desolate as the occupation was +ghastly and depressing. Perched upon stony slabs of their now leafless +home, the huge birds watched the proceedings with grave and serious air: +at first, they imagined, I think, that the thing was done for their own +behoof, and to the end that they might supply themselves with fish as +usual; but the appearance of the grappling-irons disabused them of this +idea. Now one, and now another, unable to restrain their curiosity, +would rise slowly and warily into the air, and making a circuit over our +heads, return to their old position to reflect, with head aside, upon +what they had seen. The presence as spectators of these gigantic +creatures, certainly increased the weird and awful character of the +employment in which we were engaged, and struck quite a terror into the +village folk, who were unaccustomed to see them in such close proximity. +Still the work was not gone about by any means in reverent and solemn +silence. If any man wishes his neighbours to speak their mind about him +thoroughly and unreservedly, I should say, judging from what I heard on +that occasion, Let him disappear, and be dragged for. It is not so +certain he is dead, that any delicacy need be exercised in telling the +severest truths about him; nor yet is there sufficient chance of his +reappearance to make folks reticent through fear. Only when the drags +halted a little, meeting with some hidden obstruction, all tongues were +silent, and pale faces clustered about the toilers, expecting that the +dreadful thing they sought was about to be brought to land. + +"I thought we had him then," said one of the men, after an occasion of +this sort; "but it was only a piece of stone." + +"It might have been his _heart_, for all that," muttered another, +cynically; and a murmur of "Ay, that's true," went round them all. + +"Has anybody been about the Home Spinney this morning?" inquired I of +Oliver Bradford, who had just given up his place at the ropes to a fresh +man. + +"No, sir, nor last night either, as it turns out. It will be bad for +somebody if Sir Massingberd does return, and finds out that the watcher +who ought to have been there was wiled away elsewhere by what he thought +was poachers holloing to one another--some owl's cry, as I should judge. +And to-day, I doubt if a creature has been near the place, for none of +my men seem to fancy going there alone." + +"And who _was_ the watcher there last night, Oliver?" + +"Well, sir, we must not make mischief; he was a young chap new at the +business, a sort of grand-nevvy of mine by the wife's side. He'll do +better next time, will young Dick Westlock. He was over-eager, that's +all. And when you hear a cry in these woods, unless you are thoroughly +accustomed to them, it may lead you a pretty dance: it takes a practised +ear to tell rightly where it comes from." + +"You should know me better, Bradford," returned I, "than to suppose I +would bring a lad to harm by mentioning such a matter; but I should like +to ask him a question or two, if you will point him out." + +"There he is then, sir," answered Oliver, pointing to a good-looking, +honest lad enough, but one who perhaps would scarcely have been +considered sufficiently old for so trustworthy a part as sentinel of the +home preserves, had he not been grand-nephew to the head keeper. + +"Why, Dick," said I, "your uncle telly me that you took an owl for a +poacher last night, and followed his voice all over the Chase." + +"It wasn't no owl," sir, quoth Dick, stoutly; "it were the voice of a +man, whosoever it was." + +"Don't thee be a fool," exclaimed his uncle, roughly. "I tell thee it +was a bird, and called like this;" and the keeper gave a very excellent +imitation of the cry of an owl. + +This was not greatly unlike the sound which had so recently affrighted +my own ears; but then owls rarely cry in the daytime. + +"Dick," cried I, "never mind your uncle; listen to me. If you thought it +was a human voice, what do you think it said?" + +"Well, I can't rightly say as it said anything; it seemed to me to be a +sort of wobbling in the throat; and I thought it might be a sound among +some poaching fellars, made with a bird-call, or the like of that." + +"Supposing it said any word at all, Dick, what word was it most like?" + +Mr. Richard Westlock looked as nonplused and embarrassed as though I had +propounded to him some extremely complicated riddle. + +"Was it anything like 'Hel--p, hel--p?'" said I, imitating as well as I +could those terrible tones. + +"Bless my body," quoth Mr. Richard, slapping his legs with his hands, in +admiration of my sagacity, "if them ain't the very words as it _did_ +say!" + +"What think you of that, Oliver Bradford?" inquired I, gravely. + +"As the bell tinks, so the fool thinks," responded the head keeper, +sententiously. "If you had asked Dick whether the word wasn't +'Jerusalem,' he would have said, 'Ay, that was the very word.'" + +"Still," urged I, "since there may be something more than fancy in the +thing, and the voice, if it was one, could not have come from under +water, let the Park woods be thoroughly searched at once. There are men +enough outside the gates to do that, without suspending the work that is +going on here, and why should we lose time?" + +The head keeper sulkily muttered something about not wanting a caddel of +people poking their noses into every part of Fairburn Chase; then with +earnest distinctness, as though the thought had only just struck him, +"Besides, Mr. Meredith, let me tell you that they may get to know more +than is good for them." + +At these words, I cast an involuntary glance at the plantation within a +few hundred feet of us, in the recesses of which dwelt Sinnamenta, Lady +Heath. + +"_You_ may know, sir," continued the keeper, translating my thought, +"but everybody don't know, and it's much better that they shouldn't." + +Certainly the objection was a grave one, and I was glad enough to +perceive Mr. Long coming down from the Hall towards us, an authority by +whom the question could be decided. + +"You had better ask him yourself, Oliver," said I; for as my tutor had +never spoken to me of the existence of the unfortunate maniac, I did not +like to address him upon the subject. Bradford therefore went forward to +meet him; and after they had had some talk together, Mr. Long beckoned +me to him. + +"I think with you, Peter," said he, "that in any case, we should lose no +time in searching the Chase. If we do not discover what we seek, we can +scarcely fail to find some trace of a struggle, if struggle there has +been, between such a man as Sir Massingberd and whoever may have +assailed him. If he has been murdered, it is, of course, just possible +that the assassins threw the body into the water, although not here, +since the ice would scarcely have formed over it like this; otherwise, +they could not have removed it without leaving some visible trace. Do +you, Bradford, and a couple of your own men, examine that plantation +yonder thoroughly, so that it need not be searched again; and in the +meantime I will go and fetch more help." + +I have taken part in my time in many a "quest" for game, both large and +little: I have sought on foot in the rook-crannies of the north for the +hill-fox; I have penetrated the tangled jungles of Hindustan for tiger; +I have stood alone, gun in hand, on the skirts of a tropical forest, not +knowing what bird or beast the beaters within might chance at any moment +to drive forth; but I have never experienced such excitement as that +which I felt when, one of forty men, I walked from end to end of +Fairburn Chase in search of its lost master. + +In one long line, and at the distance of about twenty yards from one +another, we plodded on slowly and steadily; and with eyes that left no +bush unexamined. This work, which in summer would have been toil indeed, +was rendered comparatively easy by the bareness of the season; the +frost, too, made the swamps in the hollows safe to the tread, and the +tangled underwood brittle before us. Many a sunken spot we found hidden +in brake and brier, and scarcely known to the keepers themselves, such +as might easily have held, and we could not but think how fitly, the +Thing we feared to find, and sometimes, when one man called to his +neighbours, the whole line would halt, and each could scarcely restrain +himself from running in, and seeing with his own eyes what trace of the +missing man it was which had provoked the exclamation. We began at the +outskirts of the Park, and worked towards the Hall, so that the Home +Spinney, which was the likeliest spot of all, since he had been last +seen going in that direction, was reserved for the end. As the men +approached it, the excitement increased; they almost ran over the large +open space in which stood the Wolsey Oak, extending its gnarled and +naked arms aloft, as if in horror; but when they searched the coppice +itself, and found the body of Grimjaw, stiffened into stone since I last +saw it, many of them were not so eager to push on. I had omitted to tell +them of the wretched animal's death, and the effect of the sight upon +them was really considerable. + +That "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," is in +nothing more true than in the emotion produced by the sufferings or +decease of animals upon gentle folks and upon labouring persons. Greater +familiarity with such spectacles, and perhaps, too, a larger experience +of hardship and sorrow among his own fellow-creatures--which naturally +tends to weaken his sense of pity for mere animals--prevents the peasant +from being moved at all by some sights at which his superiors would be +really shocked: a dead horse lying in the road is, to the stonebreaker, +a dead horse, and nothing more; whereas, to him who goes by on wheels, +unless he is a veterinary surgeon, the sight is positively distressing. +I am sure that the spectacle of half a dozen ordinary dead dogs would +not have affected Oliver Bradford, for instance, in the least, while if +they had been "lurchers," and given to poaching practices, such a +funereal scene would have afforded him unmixed satisfaction. But when he +saw Grimjaw lying dead, and frozen, he shook his head very gravely, and +bade us mark his words, "That that ere dog didn't die for nothing, but +for a sign. That he would never have died, not he, if his master and +constant companion had still had breath in him, and more than that, we +should find, we might take his word for it, that that there body, and +that of Sir Massingberd Heath, were not very far from one another." + +There were murmurs of hushed and awe-struck adhesion to these remarks, +but not a dissentient voice in all the company, and in a frame of mind +which would now undoubtedly be called "sensational," and not in a broken +line of march, as heretofore, but almost shoulder to shoulder, we +entered the Home Spinney. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART. + + +If this true narrative of mine should chance to find its channel of +publication in a hebdomadal periodical, and the end of the last chapter +coincide with the end of the week, I am afraid I shall have unduly +aroused the expectation of my readers, and kept them upon tenter-hooks +during that period upon false pretences, or rather what may seem to be +so. They will doubtless have promised themselves some ghastly spectacle +(and I give them my honour that if they will only have patience they +shall have it) to be presented in the very next page or two. It may +disappoint them temporarily, to hear that though we searched the +coppice, tree by tree, and left not one heap of leaves unstirred by our +feet, that we found nothing, nothing. And yet I will venture to say, +that if we had come upon that sight which all were so prepared for, the +stiffened limbs of murdered Sir Massingberd, with his cruel face set for +ever in death, and his hard eyes scowling up at the sky, it would +scarcely have filled us with greater awe. It would have been a terrible +sight, doubtless, but with every minute the terror would have faded, +until at last it might have even melted into pity. He could at least +have hurt no man more, being dead. But now that he was only Lost--still +Lost--we looked at one another with dumb surprise, and over our own +shoulders with misgivings. He was not above ground in all Fairburn +Chase, that was certain; nor under water, for the dragging-parties had +discovered no more than we. Any idea of suicide was quite out of the +question; Sir Massingberd Heath was the last man to leave life before he +was summoned, even if he really felt, as he averred, that there was no +sort of risk in doing so. Wicked men have a tolerably high opinion of +this world, notwithstanding their low views of the people that inhabit +it; and the French philosopher who put an end to his not invaluable +existence upon the ground that he had had enough of everything, was an +exceptional case. + +At the same time, the probabilities were immensely against the baronet's +having voluntarily undertaken any expedition, considering the +circumstances under which he must have set out--on foot, fatigued, and +at so late an hour. If secrecy had been his object, it would have been +far more easily secured by his departure at a less extraordinary time. +In the meanwhile, day after day passed by without any tidings, and the +mystery of his disappearance deepened and spread. Mr. Long was rather +reserved upon the matter at first, professing to entertain little doubt +that the wilful Squire would presently return, malicious and grim as +ever; but as time went on, he began to grow uneasy, and seemed to find +relief in conversing upon the subject, and suggesting more or less +impossible contingencies. + +"Do you remember, Peter," said he one morning at breakfast-time, +"reading out to me, some months ago, an account of the murder of a +certain lieutenant of the coast-guard by smugglers on the east coast; +how he oppressed them and treated them with unnecessary cruelty for +many, many months, until at last they took him away out of his bed by +force, and carried him no man knew whither, and put him to death with +tortures?" + +"Yes," returned I, "perfectly well. They buried the poor wretch up to +his neck in the sea-sand, and bowled stones at his head." + +"Well, Peter, that frightful scene is constantly representing itself +whenever I shut my eyes; only the head is that of Sir Massingberd. You +cannot imagine how distressing it is to me now to go to bed, with the +expectation of this re-enacting itself before I can get to sleep." + +"Dear me, how dreadful!" returned I. "But does not the fact of your only +recognizing the victim, convince you of the unreality of the thing? If +you knew the faces of the smugglers, then indeed----" + +"I do know them, Peter," interrupted my tutor gravely; "that is the +worst of it; although it should, as you say, rather convince me of the +imaginary character of the scene, since the actors in it have long been +dead and gone, I believe. They are not smugglers, but gipsies. There is +on Carew in particular, one unhappy man, into whose history I need not +enter, but who once incurred the baronet's vengeance, and I am afraid it +is but too likely perished in consequence. It is a sad story of +deception on both sides; but it is certain that Sir Massingberd richly +earned the hatred of the wandering people. I have no right, of course, +to make any such charge, but Peter, I cannot help thinking that it is +they who have made away with the Squire. I casually inquired in the +village yesterday about the tribe that generally inhabit the fir-grove +on the Crittenden Road, and it seems they left the place by night, on or +about the very date of Sir Massingberd's disappearance." + +My heart grew cold and heavy as a stone at these words, delivered though +they were with vagueness, and without any threat of action to follow +them, for the suspicion which my tutor now suggested had long ago taken +firm root in my own mind. I would not, however, have given expression to +it upon any account, and my present wish was to do away with this notion +of the rector's as much as possible. I would not, perhaps, have assisted +in the escape of the Cingari from punishment, if punishment they +deserved, but neither would I have put out my hand to deliver them up. +The law had taken its wicked will of them often enough already, and in +connection with this very man. + +"Those who know these people best," said I, "such as Bradford and the +keepers, do not think it at all probable that they would have had the +courage to face Sir Massingberd. Even if they possessed it, what could +they have done but have slain him? and if slain, where have they put him +to?" + +"God alone knows," said my tutor solemnly; "but the man at the pike at +Crittenden says, I believe, that they had a covered cart with them, +which they have never been known to have before." + +I murmured something to the effect that the winter was coming on, and +that it was likely enough that they should have procured for themselves +some peripatetic shelter of that kind; but a nameless horror took hold +upon me, in spite of myself, when Mr. Long rejoined, that he should +think it his duty to have the gipsies followed, and a thorough +examination of their effects to be made. I had not another word to say. +I seemed already to see poor old Rachel Liversedge standing in the +felon's dock, avowing and glorying in her guilt, and defiant of the +sentence which would consign her and hers to the same fate that had +overtaken, with no such justice, Stanley Carew. Any hope of escape for +them, I knew, was out of the question. They had not the means for speedy +travel, while, in those days of superstition and intolerance, the +Cingari were an object of animadversion and alarm, whithersoever they +moved. That very day--acting upon information received concerning their +present whereabouts--Mr. Long set out on horseback, accompanied by the +parish constable, and Came up with the party whom he sought upon a +certain common within twenty miles of Fairburn. The tribe, of whom I had +only seen three grown-up members, were tolerably numerous, and the +constable evinced his fitness for being a peace-officer by counselling +the rector to do nothing rash, at least until reinforcements should +permit of his doing so with safety. The sight, however, of the covered +cart, placed, as it seemed, jealously in the very centre of the +encampment, was too much for Mr. Long, who, to do him justice, was as +bold as a lion, except where conventional "position," as in the case of +Sir Massingberd, made him indisposed for action. He turned his horse +straight for the desired object, in spite of the threatening looks of +several men, who were tinkering about an immense fire, and was only +stopped by the youngest of them starting up, and laying his hand +imperatively upon his bridle-rein. + +"Have you a warrant, Mr. Long," inquired the gipsy sternly, "that you +ride through our camp, when all the rest of the common is open to you, +and wish to pry into that poor place yonder, which is all we have of +house and home?" + +The rector had no sort of right for what he did, and was therefore +proportionally indignant. + +"Unhand my bridle, sirrah!" cried he. "What is your name, who seem to +know mine so well, and yet who knows me so little, that you can imagine +I am here in any other cause than that of Right and Justice?" + +"My name is Walter Carew," replied the gipsy, still retaining his hold. + +"Then that is warrant sufficient for what I do," cried my tutor +excitedly, and raising his riding-whip as he spoke. + +The swarthy face of the gipsy gleamed with passion, and his unoccupied +right hand sought his side, as if for a weapon. Mischief would +undoubtedly have ensued, but that at that moment the curtains of the +covered cart were parted by a skinny hand, and the voice of Rachel +Liversedge was heard bidding the young man let the bridle go, and not +spill parson's blood, which was as bad as wasting milk and water. Then +she added, with mock courtesy: "Pray, come hither, Mr. Long; our doors +are always open, and there can be no intrusion where there are only +females and sickness." + +"If that be all," returned my tutor in a softened tone, for though +somewhat arbitrary, as it would now be thought, towards his inferiors, +he was ever gentle to the sex; "if that indeed be all, I shall not +inflict my presence upon you long."[1] + +With those words, he threw himself from his horse, and climbed up into +the cart; it was rather a roomy one, but all that was in it was clearly +to be seen at the first glance. It was carpeted with rushes a foot +thick, from which Rachel Liversedge was busily engaged in weaving +chair-bottoms. Opposite to her sat another female, engaged with the same +articles, but constructing out of them crowns and necklaces, which, +though they did not very much resemble the ornaments for which they were +intended, appeared to afford her exquisite satisfaction. + +"Why don't you introduce me, Rachel?" exclaimed she testily, as Mr. Long +looked in. "Don't you see the gentleman is bowing? Sinnamenta--Lady +Heath." The secret of the gipsies' sudden removal, as well as of their +use of the vehicle which had excited his suspicions, was at once +apparent to the rector. + +"Is she better, happier in your custody?" inquired my tutor, in a +whisper, of the chair-maker. "God knows I would not disturb her, if she +be." + +"My little sister is not beaten now," observed Rachel bitterly; +"although, of course, we have not those luxuries with which her husband +has always surrounded her." + +"Only four times, Sister Rachel!" observed the afflicted one, in a tone +of remonstrance, "one, two, three, four," checking them off on her poor +fingers, covered with worthless gewgaws. "I don't consider Gilmore's +beatings anything, only Sir Massingberd's." + +"May God's curse have found him!" exclaimed Rachel Liversedge fervently; +"may He have avenged her wrongs upon him at last! Don't look at me, sir, +as though I were a witch wishing a good man ill. I wish I _were_ a +witch. How he should pine, and rave, and writhe, and suffer ten thousand +deaths in one!" + +She spoke with such hate and fury, that Mr. Long involuntarily cast once +more a suspicious glance around him, as though in reality she possessed +the means of vengeance which she so ardently desired. "Did you expect to +find him here?" continued she. "That was it, was it? I wish you had. I +would that I had his fleshless bones to show you. It is not _my_ fault +that I have them not, be sure. If there were any manliness left among my +people--but there is not; they are curs all--if any memory of the +persecuted and the murdered had dwelt within them, as with me, let alone +this work of his," she pointed to her unconscious sister, "for which, +had he done nought else, I would have torn his heart out;--he would not +have lived thus long by forty years. For aught we know, however, he +lives yet; only hearing he was gone, we went and took my little sister +from her wretchedness, and thus will keep her if you give us leave, you +Christian gentlemen. Where he may be, we know not; we only hope that in +some hateful spot--in hell, if such a place there be--he may be +suffering unimagined pains." + +The fervour and energy of her words, however reprehensible in a moral +point of view, were such as left no doubt in the mind of Mr. Long that +the gipsy woman spoke truth. Assuring her, therefore, that, so far as he +was concerned, she should not be molested in the custody of her +unfortunate sister, my tutor rode back to Fairburn, relieved from the +dread burden of his late suspicion, but more at his wit's end for an +elucidation of the disappearance of Sir Massingberd than ever. Right +glad was I to hear that his errand among my dusky friends had been +bootless; but by the next morning's post I had received bitter news +from Harley Street. A copy of that menacing epistle which I had so +unwittingly enclosed to Marmaduke from his uncle, reached me from Mr. +Gerard. His words were kind, and intended to be comforting. He knew, of +course, that I had been deceived; he well knew, and they all knew, he +said, that my hand was the last to do Marmaduke hurt, to do aught but +protect and uphold him. But I could see that some grievous harm had +occurred, nevertheless, through me, as Sir Massingberd's catspaw. It was +more apparent to me because there was not one accompanying word from my +dear friend himself, whom I knew too well to imagine capable of blaming +me. It was most apparent of all because of the postscript written in +Lucy's own hand--so fair, so clear, so brave, so like her own sweet +self, saying that I must not reproach myself because I had been +overreached by a base man. "Marmaduke will write soon," she said; "he +does not love you less because he is silent upon this matter, and must +be kept so for a little while." He was ill, then, thanks to my dull +wits; and out of pity she had written "Marmaduke." Ah me, would _I_ not +have been ill! Would _I_ not have welcomed kinship with a score of +wicked uncles for such pity! "He does not love you less because he is +silent;" was that a quotation culled from her own heart's whisperings? + +"A most unfortunate business," said Mr. Long reflectively, when he had +possessed himself of this intelligence. "That letter of Sir +Massingberd's will undo all the good of the last twelve months. With +what a devilish ingenuity for torment has he framed every phrase. '_'My +arm will reach you wheresoever you are; at the time you least expect +it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. However Well it +may seem to be with you, it will not be Well.'_ How thoroughly he knew +his nephew! This will make Marmaduke Heath a wretched man for life." + +"Not if Sir Massingberd be dead," said I, "and can be proved to be so." + +"That is true," responded my tutor, drily; then added, without, I think, +intending me to hear it, "But what will be worse than anything, is this +doubt as to whether he be dead or not." + +I felt convinced of this too, and bowed my head in sorrow and silence. +There was a long pause. Then my tutor suddenly started up, and +exclaimed, with animation, "Peter, will you go with me to London? I +certainly shall be doing more good there, just now, than here; and I +think that your presence will be welcome, nay, needful, in Harley +Street." + +"I shall be ready to start this very evening," returned I, thinking of +the mail which passed at night. + +"We will be off within an hour," replied my tutor; "I will order posters +from the inn at once. Too much time has been lost already; we should +have started when Sir Massingberd himself did." + +"Do you think he is gone to town, then, with any evil purpose?" inquired +I, aghast. + +"If he has gone at all, it is certain it is for no good," rejoined the +rector, gravely. "It is more than likely that this disappearance may be +nothing but a ruse to throw us off our guard. The cat that despaired of +attaining her end by other means, pretended to be dead." + + +[1] In those days, it was not thought incumbent upon ministers of the +Gospel to look after gipsy-folk, whose souls, in case they had any, were +not opined to be much worth saying. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PROCESSION. + + +At the time of which I write, a dweller in the midlands who wanted to go +to town, did not drive down to the nearest railway station, to be +transported from thence by the fiery dragon to his destination. Railways +had been long heard of, and indeed there was one within twenty miles of +Fairburn, which we should now call a tramway only, for engine it had +none. Locomotives were the subject of debate in scientific circles, and +of scorn among the rest of the community. A journey such as that my +tutor and myself were about to undertake, is scarcely to be understood +by readers of the present generation. Not only did it consume an amount +of time which would now suffice for six times the distance, but it was +surrounded by difficulties and dangers that have now no existence +whatever--"extinct Satans," as a writer calls them, who is now scarcely +held to be "modern," but who at that time had never written a line. The +coach for which Mr. Long had thought it advisable not to wait, had met +in its time with a thousand-and-one strange casualties, and the guard +was a very Scheherazade at relating them. The "Highflyer" had come to +dreadful grief in racing with an empty stomach, but many "outsides," +against its rival, the "Rapid," which traversed a portion of the same +road. It had often to open both its doors, to let the water through, in +crossing Crittenden Ford, by neglect of which precaution upon one +occasion, four "insides" had the misfortune to be suffocated. It had +been dug out of snow-drifts a hundred times, and now and then it had +_not_ been dug out, and the passengers had been frost-bitten. In winter +it was usual enough for them to spend a day or two perforce at some +country inn, because the roads were "not open." The "Highflyer" had once +been attacked by a tiger (out of a travelling caravan), which killed the +off-leader; but this was an exceptional adventure. It was attacked by +highwaymen at least once a year, but in this respect was considered +rather a fortunate coach. Only a few weeks previously, there had been +found by the reapers, in one of Farmer Arabel's wheat-fields, mail-bags +with letters containing many thousand pounds in drafts and bills, which +had been taken by gentlemen of the road from the custody of the guard of +the "Highflyer" in the early summer. These persons had gone into the +standing wheat to divide their booty, and left there what was to them +unavailable property, or too difficult to negotiate. + +In the two trips I had already taken to the metropolis, I had gone by +this curious conveyance, of which all Fairburn had something to say; but +I was now to journey even more gloriously still: so thoroughly had Mr. +Long got to be convinced that some immediate danger was imminent to +Marmaduke at the hands of his uncle, that he could not bear the least +unnecessary delay in giving him warning. We posted with four horses, and +generally at full gallop. I agree with the Great Lexicographer in +thinking that sensation very pleasurable indeed. The express-train, it +is true, goes five times as fast, but you do not feel that there is any +credit due to the steam-horse for that; you take it as a matter of +course, and would do so, no matter what exertions it should make for +you, short of bursting. But when you heard the ring of the sixteen hoofs +upon the iron road, and the sharp crack of the whips in the frosty air, +or leaned out of the window for a moment; and beheld the good steeds +smoking in your behalf, you said to yourself, or to your companion, if +you had one: "This is wonderful fine travelling." Perhaps you contrasted +such great speed with that attained by the Exeter flying-coaches in your +ancestors' time, and smiled with contemptuous pity at their five miles +an hour, stoppages excluded. + +The trees and hedges flew by you then, and gave an idea of the velocity, +such as the telegraph-posts, seen vanishing thin out of the window of a +railway-carriage, fail to convey; while, when you stopped for new +cattle, the hurry and bustle attendant on the order, "Horses on," helped +to strengthen the belief in your own fast travelling. Still, after the +first few hours, even the enjoyments of a post-chaise-and-four begin to +pall; and long before we had approached our destination, I was cramped, +and chilled, and tired enough. It was growing dark, too, so that there +was little to be seen without, and we had passed those dangerous parts +of the road where expectations of possible highwaymen had afforded me +some excitement. I was dozing dreamily, unconscious that the light of +London was flaring like a dusky dawn in front of us, and that we had +even already entered its then limits upon the north-east, when I was +roughly roused by the sudden stoppage of the carriage, accompanied by +wild cries, and a glare of lurid flame. Mr. Long had put down the +window, and was leaning out of it. There was a dense fog, and gas had +not yet been established in that part of London; but a vast assemblage +of people were streaming slowly past us, and many of them had torches in +their hands. They took no notice of us whatever, but yelled and shouted, +and every now and then cast glances behind them at some approaching +spectacle, which seemed to be about to overtake us. Presently, we beheld +this ourselves. First came a great number of constables, marching twenty +abreast, and clearing all before them with large staves; then a body of +the mounted patrol--a corps then but newly formed, and which, although +now well-nigh extinct, was destined in its time to do good service; then +more constables; then a vast quantity of horsemen, armed and unarmed, +and lastly this:--Extended on an inclined platform, built to a +considerable height upon an open cart, was the body of a dead man; it +was attired in blue trousers, and with a white and blue striped +waistcoat, but without a coat. On the left side of him was a huge +mallet, and on the right a ripping chisel. + +"Great Heaven! what is this?" inquired Mr. Long of one of the mounted +constables. + +"Oh, it's him, sir, sure enough; we've got him at last," returned the +officer. + +"Him? Who?" cried I, half stupefied with fatigue and horror. "Have they +found Sir Massingberd?" + +No, it was not Sir Massingberd. The face which was now being slowly +carried past us was wicked and stern enough, but it was not _his_ face. +The skin was black, the eyes were projecting; it was plain that the poor +wretch had been strangled. The excitement of those who caught sight of +it was hideous to witness; they cursed and hissed in hate and fury, and +battled to get near the cart, that they might spit upon the corpse +which it contained. The force of the advancing crowd was so tremendous +that we were compelled to move for some distance side by side with this +appalling sight, and presently immediately behind it; there we seemed to +fall in as a part of the procession, and were no doubt considered by the +majority of persons to officially belong to it. We were borne southwards +quite out of our proper direction, and were unable to prevent it, for it +was as much as the postillions could do to sit their horses, and avoid +being shouldered out of their saddles. Our progress was of course at a +foot's-pace only, and twice the procession halted, once opposite a +draper's, and once opposite a public-house, when the yells and hooting +of the crowd were terrible to hear. Not only were these two houses +closely shuttered up (as they well might be), but the shop-fronts +everywhere were closed, and the windows and the tops of the houses +crowded with spectators. By this time, we had got to know in what +dreadful proceedings we were thus taking an involuntary part. The body +in the cart was that of the murderer Williams, who had committed suicide +two days before, to escape, it was thought, not so much the scaffold, as +the execrations of his fellow-creatures. All London was filled with hate +of him, as before his capture it had been filled with fear; and the +government had caused this public exhibition of his corpse, to convince +the minds of the public that the wholesale assassin was really no longer +alive. The houses at which we had halted were those which had once been +inhabited by his unhappy victims, the Marrs and the Williamsons. +Subsequently, the corpse was conveyed to St. George's turn-pike, and +there interred with a stake thrust through the middle of it; but before +that frightful ceremony took place, the postillions had managed to +extricate us, and we had driven westward to our destination. Still, I +for my part had seen enough, and more than enough, to make that entry of +ours into London a thing impossible to forget; and I think it rendered, +by association, the mystery concerning which we had come up to Harley +Street, more menacing and sombre than before. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AMONG FRIENDS. + + +We found Marmaduke Heath in a less morbid state of mind than we had +expected. The die having been cast--the time given him by Sir +Massingberd for his return and so-called reconciliation with that worthy +having already elapsed without any action on the part of his uncle, the +effect of that "Captain Swing"-like epistle was slowly wearing off. No +one ever revived the matter in his presence, nor, as we have seen, was +he permitted even to write upon the subject. Still, he knew that I had +been lately communicated with concerning it--for at first the blow had +fallen on its object with such force and fulness that those about him +had really not liked to let me know the extent of the mischief I might +have committed--and he imagined that I had now come up in mere friendly +sorrow to cheer and comfort him. As he came out into the dark street on +that December evening to give me loving welcome, fresh from that awful +procession-scene, I positively looked with terror to left and right, +lest some cloaked figure, whom yet we both should recognize, might reach +forth an iron arm, and tear him away. It was I who was morbid and +unstrung, and not my friend; he strove, I knew, to appear to the best +advantage, in good humour and high spirits, in order that I might have +less to reproach myself with. + +"My dear old Peter" cried he, laughing, "how glad I am to see your +honest face. Have you brought me any verbal message from my charming +uncle, or are you only his deputy-postman? _How_ is he--_how_ is he?" + +I could see, in spite of his light way, that he was curious to have this +interrogation answered; but what was I to say? "I don't know whether +he's well or ill," returned I, carelessly, as I stepped into the hall. +"But how is Mr. Gerard and Miss----" + +"Here is 'Miss,'" returned a sweet voice, blithe as a bird's; "she is +excellently well, Peter, thank you. But what a white face _you_ have +got! If that is the gift of country air there is certainly no such cause +for regretting our absence from the Dovecot, about which Marmaduke is +always so solicitous." + +"'Marmaduke' to his face, now!" thought I. I could not prevent my heart +from sinking a little, in spite of the lifebuoy of friendship. But I +answered gallantly, "There is no air that can wither _your_ roses, Miss +Lucy, for the summer is never over where you are." + +"Bravo, Peter," quoth Mr. Gerard, set in the warm glow of the +dining-room, which gleamed forth from the open door behind him. "If he +is so complimentary in a thorough draught, what a mirror of courtesy +will he be when he gets thawed! Come in, my dear Mr. Long; come in to +the warm. No east wind ever brought people more good, than this which +brings you two to us. Lucy...--Ah, that's right; she has gone to order +the dinner to be rechaufféd. Now, do you travellers answer no man one +word, but go make yourselves comfortable--you have your old rooms, of +course--and then come down at once to food and fire. Marmaduke, my dear +boy, you keep me company here, please; otherwise, you will delay Peter, +with your gossip, I know." + +That was a sentence with a purpose in it. If, as Mr. Gerard at once +guessed, we had come up to town on business connected with Sir +Massingberd, it might be advisable that I should not be interrogated by +Marmaduke privately. For my part, I was greatly relieved by it, since I +had no desire to be the person to communicate bad tidings--for such I +knew he would consider them--to my friend a second time. My spirits had +risen somewhat with the warmth of our reception; it is not a little to +have honest friends, and welcome unmistakable in hand and voice and eye. +There is many a man who goes smoothly through the world by help of these +alone, and only at times sighs for the love that but one could have +given him, and which has been bestowed by her elsewhere. When I got +down into the dining-room, a minute or two before my tutor, I was +received by quite a chorus of kind voices--a very tumult of hospitable +greeting. + +"Warm your toes, Peter--warm your toes; you shall have a glass of sherry +worth drinking directly," cried Mr. Gerard, all in a breath. + +"Yes, Peter, you and I will have a glass together," exclaimed Marmaduke, +eagerly. + +"Stop for 'the particular'--stop for the green seal: it will be here in +a minute," entreated the host. + +"No, no," returned Marmaduke; "I must drink his health at once. Cowslip +wine, if I drank it with Peter, would be better to me than +Johannisberg." + +He had his hand upon her arm, as I entered the room; I was sure of that, +although she had gently but swiftly withdrawn it from his touch, as the +door opened. How happy she looked; how passing fair with that faint +flush! How handsome and bright-faced was dear Marmaduke! How placidly +content, like one who draws his happiness from that of others, was the +countenance of Harvey Gerard! A picture of domestic pleasure and content +indeed, and with three noble figures in it. It was impossible to doubt +that two lovers stood before me, and a father who had found a +prospective son-in-law, whom he could love as a son. This new +relationship had been only established within a very few days, and upon +that account, perhaps, it was the more patent. My mischance in the +matter of Sir Massingberd's letter, had been the immediate cause of +Marmaduke's declaration. She had compassionated him in his troubles, and +he had told her in what alone his hope of comfort lay. He had not been +sanguine of securing her--who could have been, with such a priceless +prize in view?--for not only had he a diffidence in his own powers of +pleasing, great and winning as they were, beyond those of any man I ever +knew, but he feared to find an obstacle to his wishes in her father. + +"Dear Mr. Gerard," he had said, with his usual frankness, "I have won +your daughter's heart, and love her better than all the world. Still, it +is you alone who have her hand to dispose of. She loves and respects you +as never yet was father loved and respected, and this only makes her +dearer to me. I feel as much bound in this matter by your decision--Oh, +sir, God grant your heart may turn towards me--as she does herself. I +dare not tell you what I think of you to your face. The very greatness +of my respect for you makes me fear your rejection of _me_. I am, in one +respect at least, a weak and morbid man, while your mind is vigorous +and strong upon all points. You are in armour of proof from head to +heel; whereas, there is a joint in my harness open to every blow. I am +afraid, sir, that you despise me." + +"I do not despise you, Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had replied, in his kind +grave voice. + +"Ah, sir, I know what you would say," returned the young man with +vehemence; "you pity me, and pity and contempt are twin-sisters. +Besides, I am a Heath; you do not wish that blood of yours should mix +with that of an evil and accursed race; and, moreover--though that, with +a man like you, has, I know, but little weight--I may live and die a +pauper." + +"My dear Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had answered, "I cannot conceal from you +that there are grave objections to your marriage with my daughter, and +more especially at present. We need not revert to the last matter you +have spoken of, for wealth is not what I should seek for in my +son-in-law; even if it were, your alliance would reasonably promise it, +and might be sought by many on that account. As for your being a Heath, +that you cannot help; and, with respect to 'blood,' there is more +rubbish spoken upon that subject by otherwise sensible folk than upon +all others put together. Bad example and evil training are sufficient to +account for the bad courses of any family without impeaching their +circulating fluids. If your uncle had not happened to be likewise your +guardian, in you, my dear young friend, I frankly tell you, I should see +no fault, or rather no misfortune; but, since he has unhappily had the +opportunity of weakening and intimidating----" + +"Sir, sir, pray spare me," broke in Marmaduke, passionately; "are you +going to say that I am a coward?" + +"Heaven forbid, my boy," replied Mr. Gerard, earnestly; "you are as +brave as I am, I do not doubt. If I thought you to be what you suggest, +I would not parley with you about my darling daughter for one moment. I +would say 'No' at once. My Lucy wooed by a poltroon!--no, that is not +possible. I do not say 'No' to _you_, Marmaduke." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir," exclaimed the young man, with emotion; +then added solemnly, "and I thank God." + +"What I do say, however," returned Mr. Gerard, "is 'Wait.' While your +uncle lives, I cannot, under existing circumstances, permit you to be my +Lucy's husband. At present, you are only boy and girl, and can well +afford to be patient." + +"And when we do marry," returned Marmaduke, gratefully, "you shall not +lose your daughter, sir, but rather gain a son. My home, if I ever have +one, shall be yours also. Pray, believe me when I say that you are my +second father, for you have given me a new life." + +It really seemed so to him who looked at the sparkling eyes and +heightened colour of the speaker, and listened to his tones, so rich +with hope and love. + +"There is certainly no one so civil as a would-be son-in-law," replied +Mr. Gerard, good-naturedly. "I wonder that old gentlemen in my position +ever permit them to marry at all." + +And thus it had been settled--as I saw that it had been--only a very +little while before our arrival in Harley Street. + + * * * * * + +"And what brings you good people up to town?" asked Mr. Gerard gaily, +"without sending a line in advance, which, even in mercy to the +housekeeper, you would surely have done, had not the business been +urgent? As to your travelling with four horses," added our host slily, +"I know so well the pride and ostentation of the clergy that I am not +the least astonished at your doing _that_, Mr. Rector." + +"Truly, sir, now that I find all safe and well," replied my tutor, "I +begin to think we might have travelled in a less magnificent way; but +the fact is, that I felt foolishly apprehensive and curious to tell you +our tidings. Sir Massingberd Heath has been Lost since Thursday +fortnight, November sixteenth." + +"Lost!" exclaimed Mr. Gerard, in amazement. + +"Lost!" echoed Lucy, compassionately. + +"Lost!" murmured Marmaduke, turning deadly pale. "That is terrible, +indeed." + +"Yes, poor wretched man," said Lucy, quickly; "terrible to think that +some judgment may have overtaken him in the midst of his +wickedness--unrepentant, revengeful, cruel." + +"That is truly what should move us most, Miss Gerard," observed my +tutor; "it is but too probable that he has been suddenly cut off, and +that by violence." Then he narrated all that had happened at Fairburn +since the night of Sir Massingberd's disappearance, uninterrupted save +once, when Mr. Gerard left the room for a few minutes, and returned with +another bottle of "the particular," which, it seemed, he would not even +suffer the butler to handle. Marmaduke sat silent and awe-struck, +drinking in every word, and now and then, when a sort of shudder passed +over him, I saw a little hand creep forth and slide into his, when he +would smile faintly, but not take his eyes off Mr. Long--no, not even +to reply to hers. + +"I think," added my tutor, when the narrative was quite concluded, "that +under these circumstances I was justified in coming up to town, Mr. +Gerard, since it is just possible that Sir Massingberd may, may----" + +"That he may not be dead," interrupted our host, gravely; "there is, of +course, that chance, and we must set to work at once to settle the +question." + +There was a violent ringing at the front-door bell. Mr. Long started up +with a "What's that?" Marmaduke's very lips grew white, and trembled. +For my part, I confess I congratulated myself that I was on that side of +the table which was furthest from any person who might enter the room. +Lucy alone maintained a calm demeanour, and looked towards her father +confidently. + +"That is Mr. Clint, I have no doubt," observed Mr. Gerard, quietly. "I +sent word to him an hour ago to come directly, and, if possible, to +bring Townshend with him. Whether Sir Massingberd be alive or not, we +shall soon discover, for the great Bow Street runner will be certain to +find either his body or his bones." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO. + + +Mr. Gerard had hardly finished speaking, when the butler announced Mr. +Clint and "another gentleman," for even among friends the famous Bow +Street officer, exercised his usual caution; and yet there was scarcely +a more public character than Townshend, or better known both to the +classes whom he protected, and to that against which he waged such +constant war. His personal appearance was itself sufficiently +remarkable. A short squab man, in a light wig, kerseymere breeches, and +a blue Quaker-cut coat, he was not, to look at, a very formidable +object. But he possessed the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a +fox. The ruffians who kept society in terror, themselves quailed before +_him_. They knew that he was hard to kill, and valued not his own life +one rush, when duty called upon him to hazard it; that he was faithful +as a watch-dog to the government which employed him, and hated by nature +a transgressor of the law, as a watch-dog hates a wolf. When Townshend +fairly settled himself down upon the track of an offender, the poor +wretch felt like the hare whose fleeing footsteps the stoat relentlessly +pursues; he might escape for the day, or even the morrow, but sooner or +later his untiring foe was certain to be up with him. In those early +days, when the telegraph could not overtake the murderer speeding for +his life, and set Justice upon her guard five hundred miles away, to +intercept him, and when the sun was not the slave of the Law, to +photograph the features of the doomed criminal, so that he can be +recognized as easily as Cain, thief-catching was a much more protracted +business than it is now; nevertheless, it was at least as certain. + +If the facilities for capture were not so great, neither were the +opportunities of escape for the offender so many and various. London was +not the labyrinth that it has since become, and if any criminal of note +forsook it for the provinces, his fate was almost certain. Travellers +did not then rush hither and thither, in throngs of a hundred strong, +impossible to be individually identified by the railway porter to whom +they surrender their tickets; but each man was entered in a way-bill, or +scanned with curiosity by innkeeper and post-boy, wherever his chaise +changed horses. When any considerable sum was sent by mail-coach, +whether by the government or by London bankers, to their provincial +agents, it was not unusual to employ Mr. Townshend as an escort. Nor was +it altogether unexampled for him to be sent for, as in the present +instance, to unravel some domestic mystery; although he was perhaps the +first police-officer who had been so employed, the father of all the +Fields and Pollakies of the present day. He was on intimate terms, +therefore, with many great people, and an especial favourite with the +court, his professional services being engaged at all drawing-rooms and +state occasions. This, combined with the natural assurance and sense of +power in the man, caused Mr. Townshend to hold his head pretty high, and +to treat with persons vastly superior in social station to himself upon +at least an equal footing. His easy nod, with which the great Bow +Street runner favoured us in Harley Street that evening, upon his first +introduction, was not very much unlike the salutation which Mr. Brummel, +at the same period, was wont to bestow upon British marquises and dukes. +Having taken his seat at the dessert-table, at the host's desire, he at +once began to compliment Mr. Gerard upon the contents of the bottle with +the yellow seal, and, in short, behaved himself in all respects as any +other guest would have done who was an intimate friend of the family, +and had dropped in after dinner upon his own invitation. No sooner, +however, did Mr. Clint introduce the subject which had called us up to +town, and Mr. Long begin to recapitulate the story of Sir Massingberd's +disappearance, than this singular person dropped at once all social +pretension, and showed himself the really great man he was. One glass of +wine was sufficient for him during the whole narration, and that he +seemed to sip mechanically, and rather as an assistance to thought, than +because he really enjoyed it, which, however there is no doubt he did. +He only interrupted my tutor twice or thrice, in order to make some +pertinent interrogation, and when all had been described (including a +slight sketch of Marmaduke's position), he sat for a little silent and +noiseless, tapping his wine-glass with his forefinger, and staring into +the fire. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, and what is your opinion?" inquired Mr. Gerard a +little impatiently. "Do you think that this Lost Sir Massingberd is +alive or dead?" + +"That is a question which a fool would answer at once, sir, but a wise +man would take some time to reply to," returned the Bow Street runner +coolly, "But one thing you may depend upon, that he will not be 'Lost' +long. I have blotted that word out of my dictionary. I know Sir +Massingberd Heath well, or, at least, I did know him, and that is a +great advantage to start with; he was not a man, I should think, to +change with age. Tall figure and strong; large piercing eyes; much +beard; a mouth that tells he likes to have his own way; and on his +forehead a mark as if the devil had kicked him." + +"That is excellent," cried Mr. Gerard; "you could not mistake him for +any other man in London." + +"He is _not_ in London, sir," observed the runner dogmatically. "If he +were mixing with the lot that he used to be amongst, I should surely +have heard of it; and if he is with people much beneath him in station, +I should have learned it still more certainly. As for that, however, he +is not one--if I remember him right--to hide himself, or work much +underground." + +"If you mean that he would not stoop to deception, Mr. Townshend," +remarked my tutor gravely, "I am afraid you are mistaken; the very money +which, as I have said, he obtained from me upon the day of his +disappearance, was dishonourably come by. His pretext of the Methodists +having bidden for a piece of ground upon which to build a chapel within +the Park, and almost opposite the Rectory, was, I have since discovered, +entirely false; and I cannot but fear that some judgment has overtaken +this unhappy man." + +Here, I am sorry to say, that Mr. Clint and Mr. Gerard looked at one +another in rather a comic manner, and the Bow Street runner helped +himself to a glass of the particular with an open chuckle. + +"Well, sir," responded that gentleman, "you see Judgments isn't much in +my way. When I catches a chap, he generally knows its judgment and +execution too; but barring that, I doubt whether there is much of a +special Providence for rascals--even when they rob a Church minister. +Not, of course, that I am saying Sir Massingberd Heath, baronet, is a +rascal, or anything like it; I never had anything to do with him in all +my life before this, and that's a good sign, look you. When I said he +was not a man to work underground, however, I did not mean that he would +not employ every ingenious device--and the one you mention was one of +the neatest I ever heard on--to procure money, but that he is of too +domineering and masterful a nature to lurk and spy about. The young +gentleman here need not be in much alarm, I think, of his relative's +turning up in Harley Street; notwithstanding which, he is a very +ticklish customer, no doubt, and one as I should not have been in the +least surprised to find myself under orders to fit with a pair of +bracelets, for such a thing, for instance, as murder." + +I think each of us started and looked at one another in hushed amazement +at this statement; and the wine-glass which Marmaduke was twisting +nervously in his fingers, rattled against the table in spite of his +efforts to remain calm. + +"I mean," observed Mr. Townshend, in explanation, "as the baronet, when +I knew him at least, was venomous, yet likewise hasty; and though +cunning enough, if his temper got the better of him, would do imprudent +things, I remember him well-nigh killing his jockey on the course at +Doncaster--it was the second year as ever the Leger was ran for--and +all for no fault of his, but just because he didn't win when his master +expected it. I remember how the crowd hissed the gentleman, and the ugly +look which he gave them in reply. There was no fuss made about the +matter afterwards; but Sir Massingberd had to supply a deal of Golden +Ointment to the poor lad's bruises: he was very free-handed with his +money at that time. I suppose, by the pace he was then going, that he +has not much left." + +"He has almost literally not a shilling," replied Mr. Long. "I am quite +certain that he had no ready-money in his possession besides the twenty +one-pound notes which he obtained from me upon that evening." + +"And no means of raising any?" inquired Mr. Townshend. + +"None whatever," replied my tutor positively. + +"That simplifies the business a good deal," remarked the Bow Street +runner, drawing out his pocket-book. "Now, I suppose you kept the +numbers of those notes?" + +"Yes, I did. Peter, did you not write them down for me?" + +"The notes ran from 82961 to 82980 inclusive," said I. + +"A very concise and sensible statement, young gentleman,"[1] remarked +the police-officer, approvingly; "I should like, however, to see the +figures in black and white." When these had been found among certain +memorandums of my tutor, Mr. Townshend copied them, and thus continued: +"Now, the first thing as has to be done, gentleman all--by which no +offence is meant to the young lady--is this: we must go to the Bank of +England, and find out if any of these here notes have been paid in since +November 16th. If they have been, one of two things is certain--Sir +Massingberd is spending them, or somebody else is spending them for him. +If the latter, it is probable that it is not with his consent; that is, +that he can't help it; that is, that he's dead as a ten-penny nail;" and +with that the speaker brought down his fist upon the mahogany, as though +he were hammering one in. + +"We shall leave the case, Mr. Townshend, entirely in your hands," +observed Mr. Gerard; "and please to look to me for any expenses you may +require." + +"Very good, sir," replied the runner, rising as if to take his leave; +"but since two or three heads are always better than one, in cases of +this sort, and the present company has their wits about them--which is +by no means the case with many as I have to do with--I should be glad of +a little assistance from yourselves." + +"Don't you think we ought to advertise the baronet as missing, and offer +a reward?" suggested Mr. Clint. + +"There will be no harm in that, of course," replied Mr. Townshend +carelessly; "although I can't say as I have much confidence in +advertisements; my own experience is, that parties who put them in +derive some satisfaction from reading them over to themselves, but the +advantage don't go much beyond that---except that it sometimes puts +people upon their guard as one wants to be off it. I have got a little +pressing business on hand to-morrow--in the forging line--and must now +be off; but if one or two of you will be at the Bank to-morrow +afternoon, at, let us say three o'clock, I shall be sure to be there to +meet you." + + +[1] Every lad in my position, not yet turned twenty-one, was a "young +gentleman" in these times; we were not so tenacious of our dignity as +the young men of to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE BANK-NOTES. + + +It was arranged, to my infinite joy, before retiring to rest that night, +that I was to make one of the Bank party. Marmaduke insisted on +accompanying us, being above measure curious about the matter, and eager +to know the worst (or the best) regarding it. Mr. Long had to return to +Fairburn for his Sunday's duty, and Mr. Clint could not spare the time +from his parchments; so Mr. Harvey Gerard and we two young men went +forth upon the trail together. As the paper-chase is the most glorious +pursuit undertaken by boys, as fox-hunting is the sport of sports for +men, so man-hunting is the avocation fitted for heroes. I know nothing +like it for interest and excitement--nothing. If I could only imbue my +readers with one-tenth of the absorbing concern with which we, the +subordinate actors in this drama of mystery, now began to be devoured, +they would be sorry indeed when this narrative comes to a conclusion. We +three were at the appointed spot some minutes before the hour which had +been agreed upon for meeting the Bow Street runner; but before the +chimes of the Old Exchange clock had ceased their "_Life let us +cherish_"--the tune which they always played on Fridays--the Bow Street +runner appeared. + +Passing through a great room within the Bank, in which, to my +unaccustomed eye, were displayed the riches of Croesus, and where the +golden showers seemed unceasingly to rain, we were conducted into a +private apartment, where sat some grey-headed official, uncommunicative, +calm, like one who has had his glut even of wealth, and to whom money, +whether in bullion or paper, was no longer any object. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, what can I do for you?" inquired he, sedately. "I +trust you are not come about any fresh wrongs against the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street. I never see your face but I think of an imitation +bank-note, and diminution of the stock in our cellar." + +"Thank you, sir," responded the runner, cheerfully; "I am afraid that I +shall have to see you in a day or two respecting a matter of that very +kind, but to-day I am come on a different business. A gentleman of high +rank has been missing for three weeks, or more; and his absence has +given the greatest anxiety to these, his friends. He was known to have +in his possession certain one-pound Bank of England notes, twenty in +all, of which the numbers are known. We wish to know whether they have +been paid in hither in the meantime, and if so, by whom." + +"Have you any order from the deputy-governor?" + +"Why, no, sir," responded the runner, insinuatingly. "I thought that +would not be necessary between you and me." + +"Well, well, I suppose you must have your own way, Townshend. You're a +dangerous man to cross." And the old gentleman wagged his head in a +blandly humorous manner, and made a little golden music with his bunch +of seals. "The numbers of the notes are here, are they? From 82961 to +80. Very good." Here he rang a silver bell, which presently produced an +official personage, something between a gentleman-usher and a +pew-opener. "You may show this party over the cancelled department, +James; and let Mr. Townshend investigate anything he pleases." + +With a not over-courteous nod, the old gentleman resumed his study of a +certain enormous volume, that looked, said Marmaduke, like the quarto +edition of Chaucer, but which, it is reasonable to conclude, was +something else. We were straightway conducted through several vast and +echoing chambers, into a spacious fire-proof vault, where the notes that +had been paid into the Bank awaited the periodical cremation. + +"A week later, and we might not have been in time," remarked the Bow +Street runner, "since every bank-note is burned within a month of its +having found its way home again. If Sir Massingberd has come to a +violent end, and been robbed of his money, we shall probably find it all +here, as those who despoiled him would be anxious to get the notes +changed at once." Our guide led the way to a certain department of the +chamber, with the same accuracy which a student would evince with +respect to a shelf in his own library, and took up in his hand a bundle +of one-pound notes; they were for the most part very dirty and greasy, +but he separated one from the other with a surprising ease and celerity, +reading out the numbers as he did so. "82900, 1, 2, 3--now we are +getting near it," observed the official. "Let us see, 951, is it not?" + +"82961," gasped I, "and the next nineteen." I could scarcely frame the +words, so great was my excitement. Marmaduke's eyes gleamed with anxiety +and impatience; and even Mr. Gerard held his breath, while the clerk +continued, in a dry, mechanical tone: + +"51, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wanting--7, 8, 9 all wanting. 82960---here you have +it; 61 wanting; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are none of them here. +Stop a bit. 82977--that's one, isn't it?" + +"Yes," cried I, "that's one. Pray, let me look at it." + +"Certainly not, sir," responded the official, severely. "With regard to +Mr. Townshend, I have my orders, but as respects him only." + +"Perfectly right," remarked the Bow Street runner, approvingly. "Then +please to give it to me, my man. Are there any more?" + +"Yes, there are--78, 79, 80." + +"Good. That is four in all, then." The detective took them up, and +showed them to me: of course, I could not identify them; but still I +felt some awe to think what hands--hands imbued with blood, +perchance--those notes might have passed through since I had seen Sir +Massingberd thrust them into his pocket. + +"I cannot carry these away with me, my good friend, I suppose?" inquired +Mr. Townshend, persuasively. + +"By no manner of means, Mr. Runner," replied the guardian of these +unctuous treasures, with dignity. "His Majesty himself would never be so +mad as to ask such a thing. A written order from the governor himself +would not permit you to do it." + +"Very good, sir; then we won't trouble the governor to write one," +returned the detective, dryly. "What I must know, however--permission or +no permission--is this: by whose hand were these sweet-smelling and +precious articles paid into the Bank of England?" + +It would have been amusing, under less anxious circumstances, to have +watched the demeanour of these two personages, each jealous of the +dignity of those by whom he was employed, and neither in the least +disposed to surrender one tittle of his delegated authority. + +"That information will, no doubt, be supplied to you," replied the +official, stiffly, "if it is thought right--and not otherwise. Follow +me, gentlemen, if you please, and I will direct you to the office where +such an application may be made." + +This we did; and I am bound to say, met with very great civility from +the superintendent of the department in question. In spite of the +admirable and systematic manner in which the huge establishment was +carried on, it was not easy, and in many cases would have been +impossible, to discover what individual had paid in any particular +note; but every pains and trouble were taken in our behalf, to effect +this. Out of the four notes, only one, No. 82979, could be identified as +having been received from any particular person--one Mr. Worrall, a +silk-merchant in the City. Having expressed our warmest thanks to the +authorities, we immediately called a coach, and started off to this +gentleman's warehouse. We were so fortunate as to find him in, although +he was just upon the point of setting forth to his private residence. +Upon an examination of his books, we discovered no record of the +bank-note about which we were concerned; still, he frankly owned to us +that such memoranda were not kept with excessive accuracy. "It is +possible yet that the people at the Bank may have been correct," +observed he. "You had better return there; and since the matter is one +of life and death, I do not mind confiding to you, that if that note +has passed through our hands at all, it will have the letter W, in red, +upon the back of it; it is very small, but still can be deciphered +without a magnifying-glass." + +"There was no mark," observed I, "upon any of the notes I saw." + +"There _was_ a mark," remarked the Bow Street runner, reflectively; and +I am pretty sure it was upon this very note.--"It is no wonder that you +did not see it, young gentleman, since your livelihood does not depend, +as mine does, upon keeping my eyes about me. The mark in question was +also almost obliterated by the red "Cancelled" which the Bank had placed +upon the note; but as far as I could make it out, it was the letter O." + +"That is the private mark of the Metropolitan Oil Company," exclaimed +Mr. Worrall, without hesitation. "Although, indeed, because I have told +my own secrets, I am not sure that I am justified in revealing those of +other people. Their offices are in the very next street to this." + +Off we started like hounds, who, after, a check, have once more struck +the scent. Business in the City had by this time greatly diminished, and +many of the shops were closed; but the Oil Company's emporium, as +behoved it, was lighted up from cellar to garret, to give assurance to +the world that what they sold could turn night, and even London fog, +into day. Notwithstanding the extreme luminosity of the premises, we +found the accounts of the establishment, however, rather opaque and +complicated; and although nothing could exceed the pains which the +clerks put themselves to upon our account, it was several hours before +No. 82979 could be identified, both as respected its incoming and +outgoing. Finally, however, we gleaned the certain information that the +note in question had been received only a day or two previously by the +Oil Company from a Mr. Vanderseld, the skipper of a foreign vessel, then +lying in the port of London, but which, he had informed them, was to +sail immediately. He had bought a small quantity of oil for his cabin +lamps, and taken it with him, but had ordered a large supply to be sent +to his address in Hamburg, and with this address we were made +acquainted. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend," quoth Mr. Harvey Gerard, as we rolled homewards +in a hackney-coach, after seven hours of this man-hunting, "what think +you that this news portends? Is the game still afoot, or is it only dead +game--quarry?" + +"I can speak with no sort of certainty yet," replied the Bow Street +runner; "but next to all the notes having been paid into the Bank on +the 17th or so--which, as I told you, would have almost indicated Sir +Massingberd's murder and robbery, without any doubt--I know of no worse +tidings than this, of their having come from Hamburg. There's a regular +agency abroad, and particularly in that town, for the sale of Bank of +England notes dishonestly come by. If a thief cannot get to the Bank +immediately, to turn his plunder into gold, he sends it across the +water; and then it comes back to us at home, through honest hands +enough. We must communicate, of course, with Vanderseld; but the +probability is that he will be unable to give us any information. These +sea-fellows take account of nothing except what concerns their own +trade. He may remember the quarter that the wind was blowing from upon +the day he had the note, to a nicety; but he won't have a notion, bless +you, as to who paid it him. No--it's the worst sign yet, to my mind, +that that 'ere note has come through foreign hands. But don't you be +down-hearted, my young gentleman," added the Bow Street runner, +addressing himself to Marmaduke, who looked very fagged and anxious; +"I'll find your respected uncle, mind you, let him be where he will; and +if he's dead, why, you shall see his corpse, though I have to dig it up +with my finger-nails." With which comforting statement we had, for that +evening, to be content. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A BENEVOLENT STRANGER. + + +Having written to Mr. Vanderseld of Hamburg, there was nothing, pending +the reception of his reply, for even Mr. Townshend to do beyond his +favourite occupation of keeping his eyes open. We advertised, however, +in the "Morning Chronicle" (a print that at that time was far from +looking forward, to death from want of circulation, and the having its +eyes closed by a penny piece), in the "Times," and in the "Sun," and +offered a reward of one hundred guineas for tidings of the missing +baronet; nor, in spite of the Bow Street Runner's depreciating remarks +upon this point, were our efforts in that direction wholly thrown away. +A full description of Sir Massingberd had appeared in the above +newspapers for ten successive days, and on the eleventh, the following +information came of it. We were all breakfasting in Harley Street, Mr. +Long having come up from Fairburn the previous day, when the butler +informed us that there was a man waiting in the hall, who wished to see +"H.G.," who had put a certain advertisement into the "Sun" newspaper. +"Show him in here at once, George," quoth Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands. +"How pleased I shall be if we learn what we wish to know, after all, +without any help from Bow Street. I beg you will take a chair, sir." +These last words were addressed to a very respectable-looking person, +whom the servant had ushered in, and who bowed to us in a very decorous +and unassuming fashion. He was attired in half-mourning, and carried a +little black leather bag and an umbrella--the latter a less common +companion in these days than a cane is now--as though he had just come +off a journey. + +"I have called, gentlemen," said he, "simply in consequence of seeing a +notice respecting the disappearance of a certain individual of whose +whereabouts I am in a position to inform you." + +"Is Sir Massingberd Heath alive, sir?" gasped Marmaduke. + +"Heaven be praised, he _is_, sir," responded the stranger, fervently. + +"Umph," ejaculated Mr. Gerard, with less piety. + +Mr. Long coughed behind his fingers, but otherwise kept a discreet +silence. + +"You know him, do you, sir?" inquired our host. + +"I know him well enough by sight, if, at least, your advertised +description of his personal appearance is accurate," resumed our +visitor. "His height, his beard, the curious indentation upon his +forehead, are all characteristic of the man whom I saw last night, and +whom I have seen every day for weeks. He is living under the name of +Daneton, at Nutgall, a village in Cambridgeshire, near which I reside. I +have not the slightest doubt whatever of his identity. As for knowing +him, except by sight, however, I cannot say that I do. Without meaning +offence, or wishing to hurt the feelings of relations, I may observe +that his mode of life is scarcely one to make acquaintance with him +advantageous. If I may speak without reserve upon the matter, I should +state that he drank considerably, to the extent, indeed, the landlord of +the inn has informed me, of, at least, a bottle and a half of French +brandy _per diem_." + +"That _must_ be my uncle," observed Marmaduke, naïvely. + +"He is so, sir, without a doubt," continued the stranger. "I do not seek +for any pecuniary reward; but having seen your advertisement, I thought +it my duty to come up hither, and relieve the feelings of anxious +relatives." + +Here the door opened, and Mr. Townshend walked in unannounced, as it was +his custom to do. Merely nodding to us all, as though he was an inmate +of the house, he sat down at the table with his back to the visitor, and +helped himself to a roll and butter. + +Mr. Gerard explained briefly the stranger's errand to the officer of +justice, and then observed, "Are we to understand, then, that you have +been so good as to come all the way from Nutgall hither, expressly to +give us this information?" + +"No, sir," responded the man with frankness; "I should deceive you if I +were to say that much. I have business in the City to-day, and arrived +so far by coach; I came on hither, merely a few miles beyond my mark; +that is all for which you are indebted to me." + +"That is a great deal," observed Mr. Long, warmly. "We take it very +kindly that you should have done so much." + +"I thought it only my duty, sir," replied the visitor, modestly. "The +trouble I do not take into account." + +"What a pity the gentleman did not think of writing by the post," +observed Mr. Townshend, still proceeding with his breakfast; "that would +have saved him this long expedition, and us many days of anxiety." + +"That is very true," returned the stranger; "but the fact is, one does +not always like to answer advertisements in that way. How did I know who +'H.G.' was? I thought also that a personal interview would be more +satisfactory. I am a poor man, but I did not grudge the chance of losing +an hour or two on an errand of charity." + +"You are very good," answered Marmaduke, gloomily. + +"And you must, please, permit us," added Mr. Long, taking out his purse, +"to at least reimburse you for that loss of time." + +"It seems to me," observed Mr. Townshend, speaking with his mouth full, +"that this gentleman is about to be rather hardly dealt by. It is true +that a guinea, or even half a one, may repay him for his lost time; but +if his intelligence respecting Sir Massingberd Heath turns out to be +such as he represents it, he will be entitled to the hundred guineas +reward." + +"I never thought of that," observed Mr. Long, returning his purse to his +pocket not without a blush. "I hope, sir, that you will acquit me of any +sordid design in what I proposed to do." + +"Most certainly, sir," returned the stranger, with animation; "and +indeed your views, as you just expressed them, are quite in accordance +with my own. I have no wish whatever for the reward in question; to have +done my duty is, I hope, a sufficient recompense for me. On the other +hand, I cannot well afford to lose these two or three hours which have +been expended in your service. A couple of guineas would quite repay me +for this, and even leave the obligation upon my side." + +There was a silence for a little, during which Mr. Long gazed +inquiringly at Mr. Gerard, and he, in his turn, looked towards Mr. +Townshend; then, as though the back of that gentleman's head had been +cognizant that counsel was demanded of it, the Bow Street runner spoke +as follows: + +"It would be nothing less than a fraud, in my opinion, if this good +gentleman's generosity is taken advantage of in the way he suggests. If +the management of this business is to be in my hands, I should say let +us behave with rectitude at least, if not with liberality. The hundred +guineas are fairly his, if he is correct in what he has told us; +whereas, if he is _not_ correct--since no mistake can have occurred in +the matter, by his own showing--why, this is merely an attempt to extort +money under false pretences." + +"Really, Mr. Townshend," cried my tutor, starting to his feet, "I think +your profession of thief-catching makes you very unscrupulous in your +imputations." + +For my own part, I felt excessively indignant too; and so, I think, +would Marmaduke have done, had he not been preoccupied with his own +thoughts. Lucy blushed, and cast down her eyes. Her father quietly +observed, "Mr. Townshend may have been somewhat plain-spoken, but what +he has said is common sense. If you will be good enough to leave your +address at Nutgall with us, sir, we shall communicate with you as soon +as we have convinced ourselves of the truth of your suspicions; and then +we shall not only have compensation but apologies to offer you." + +"Very good, sir," rejoined the visitor coolly. "My address is upon that +card. If I had known the sort of reception that awaited me here, I +should not perhaps have been so anxious to do my duty. Gentlemen, I +wish you good-day. I am sorry to have interrupted your repast." + +"Don't mention it, my good sir," observed the Bow Street runner, as he +disposed of his third slice of ham. "I have treated you as no stranger, +I assure you." + +To this sarcasm the visitor made no reply, but bowing to the rest of the +company, was about to withdraw with polite severity, when Mr. Long +stepped forward, and took him by the hand. "I believe you are a +kindly-hearted man," cried he, "who has been grievously wronged by those +whom you have attempted to benefit; but in any case, it cannot do you +any harm to have shaken hands with an honest man, and one who is a +humble minister of the gospel." + +I could have jumped up and shaken hands with the stranger also, but a +false shame prevented me. I thought that Townshend was only waiting for +the poor fellow to go to become contemptuously cynical upon those who +had shown any belief in him. The Bow Street runner, however, said never +a word, but proceeded with his interminable breakfast. + +Mr. Long was speechless with indignation. I saw Lucy Gerard cast an +approving glance at my excellent tutor, and then an imploring one +towards her father, who was biting his lips, as if to restrain his +laughter. + +At last, the rector broke silence. "I gather from what you have stated, +Mr. Townshend, that you will scarcely consider it worth while to go down +to Nutgall, or make any further inquiry into the circumstances of which +you have just heard." + +"It will certainly not be worth _my_ while," returned the Bow Street +runner curtly. + +"Then I shall go down into Cambridgeshire myself," observed my tutor. + +"Very good, sir. If time were less valuable to me, it would give me a +great deal of pleasure to accompany you." + +"My dear Peter," remarked my tutor, taking no notice of this wicked +banter, "what do you say to coming with me?" + +Even if I had been less disposed to do this than I was, I should still +have readily consented to be the rector's travelling companion, for to +refuse would have been to declare myself upon the enemy's side. + +Accordingly, we set off upon this amateur detective expedition that very +day; and on the following evening returned to Harley Street, having +possessed ourselves of this important information: That benevolence is +sometimes assumed for the base purpose of making a few shillings, and +that advertisements are occasionally taken advantage of to the confusion +of those who insert them. There was really a village called Nutgall; +that was the one fact that the respectable person in half-mourning had +brought along with his black leather bag and silk umbrella. There was +not a public-house in the place where Sir Massingberd could have +procured that bottle and a half of French brandy, had he been ever so +disposed to dissipation, or even where we ourselves could get bread and +cheese. + +I verily believe, at the time of his disenchantment, my revered tutor +would rather that the baronet had been really at Nutgall, and in the +humour and condition to wage implacable war against poor Marmaduke, than +have given such an opportunity of triumph to the man of Bow Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS. + + +It was the Runner's custom to call at Mr. Gerard's every evening, no +matter how often he might have been there during the day, in order to +report progress, or that there was none; and when his knock at the +front-door was heard, I perceived the rector wince upon his chair, like +one who has been roasted a little already, and expects to be before the +fire again immediately. Mr. Townshend, however, did not even so much as +allude to our Will-o'-the-Wisp pursuit, cautioned, perhaps, not to do so +by our host, or besought by his daughter, as I fancy. I do not think +that the gravity of the intelligence he brought with him would, of +itself, have blunted Mr. Townshend's appetite for acrimonious jesting, +which was insatiable; and, indeed, the issues of Death or Life, and of +Lost or Found, formed so much the ordinary business of his life, that +any discovery, no matter of what nature, disturbed him as little as +finding a gentleman with his head off disturbs the King of Dahomey. + +"Well, Mr. Long, I am glad to see you back again," said he; "you are the +very man I want. Does a farmer of the name of Arabel happen to reside in +or near your parish?" + +"He lives at Fairburn, within a stone's throw----" + +"You will never make a Bow Street runner," interrupted Mr. Townshend, +shaking his head. + +"Well, then," continued my tutor good-humouredly, "if accuracy is so +essential, I will say within half a mile and a few yards of my own +Rectory." + +"That is better, sir," returned the detective gravely. "And what sort of +a character do you consider this man to bear?" + +"Mr. Arabel is an honest man and a good churchman," replied the rector +positively; "and but for a little occasional excess----" + +"A drunkard, eh?" observed the Bow Street officer, briskly. + +"No, certainly not, Mr. Townshend. He takes too much liquor now and +then, I believe; but, I regret to say it, there are few more sober +persons in my parish than Richard Arabel." + +"Indeed," observed the other reflectively; "and yet he was the man who +paid No. 82979 to Mr. Vanderseld, who trades in grain. I have heard +from Hamburg, and have traced the note back again to Fairburn. I start +for that place this evening by post-chaise; and if you or Mr. Meredith +want a lift, I shall be happy to take one or both of you along with me." + +This intelligence astonished us all immensely, and my tutor and myself, +who knew the farmer, more than the rest. Such news would have been +itself sufficient to have taken the rector home at once; besides, he was +not only anxious, as usual, to get back to his own parish, but somewhat +grudged our long-continued absence and intellectual holiday. There did +not seem, too, to be any sort of necessity for my remaining longer with +Marmaduke, who had found, it was impossible to doubt, a companion far +more capable of upholding and encouraging him than I. The Bow Street +runner's offer was therefore accepted by both of us; and in a few hours +we took our seats in the same vehicle for Midshire. The chaise was as +roomy a one as could be procured, but still, as there was but one seat, +I had to assume the position of "bodkin" between my two companions. +Their conversation was at first entirely confined to the subject of our +expedition, namely, Farmer Arabel, concerning whom the detective +expressed his suspicions the more darkly, the more extravagantly he was +eulogized by Mr. Long. So vehement was their dispute, that I did not +like to interrupt it for a considerable period, during which I endured +great inconvenience from sitting upon a substance at once both sharp and +hard, contained in one of Mr. Townshend's pockets. If he had been a lady +of the present day, I should have known what it was, and perhaps have +modestly suffered on without remonstrance; but since he was not of the +softer sex, and certainly did not wear crinoline, I ventured to ask what +it was which inflicted such torture. + +"I beg your pardon, young gentleman," observed the Bow Street runner, +removing the article objected to; "you was only sitting upon a pair of +bracelets with which I may have perhaps to present Mr. Richard Arabel." + +"You don't mean to say that you carry handcuffs in your pocket!" +observed my tutor, with a shudder of disgust. + +"I mean to say I do, and should as soon think of moving about without +'em, as without my hat and breeches," returned the runner, with a +coolness that froze us both into a protracted silence. + +The rain fell heavily, as the night drew on, and dashed against the +streaming panes with fitful violence. The wind and wet poured in +together whenever the window was put down to pay the postboys. I pitied +the poor fellows, exposed to such weather, and was glad to see that Mr. +Townshend paid them liberally. "There are no persons who are more +open-handed travellers than your Bow Street runners," observed Mr. Long, +when I remarked to him upon this circumstance in the absence of our +friend, who had stepped out while we were changing horses somewhere, for +brandy and water; "and the reason of their generosity is this, that +other people have to pay for it." I had never heard my tutor utter so +severe a speech, and I gathered from it that his indignation against our +fellow-wayfarer was as poignant as ever; and yet within half an hour it +was fated that all his resentment should be neutralized by gratitude, +leaving a large margin of the latter sentiment over and above. + +The next stage was over a desolate, treeless heath, where the elements +had their own way against us more than ever, and our vehicle seemed +actually to shrink and shudder from the force of their onslaught. All of +a sudden, I was thrown forward against the opposite window by the +stoppage of the postchaise. At first I thought a horse had fallen; but +immediately afterwards the window next to Mr. Long was violently pushed +down from without, and a something black and small, which was a pistol, +was protruded into the carriage. + +"Your money or your life! Come, be quick, curse you, and don't keep +gentlemen waiting in the wet," said a rough voice. "Be quick, I say." A +volley of oaths accompanied this unpleasant request. + +"I have only a couple of guineas with me," cried Mr. Long, quietly, +"and you will not make it more by swearing." + +"That's a lie!" remarked the voice very uncivilly, "for you're a parson, +you are, and they've always money enough. Ain't he a parson, postboy? +Didn't you say so, when. I asked you who you'd got inside there? Come +here, won't yer?" + +At these words, one of the wretched postboys, shivering and dripping, +came forward to the window, and stammered out, "Really, gentlemen, I +couldn't help it; he swore as he'd blow out my brains, if I didn't tell; +so I told him as one was a clergyman, I believed, but the other two----" + +"My name is Townshend," interrupted the Bow Street runner, with great +distinctness. "If you had happened to know that, boy, and had informed +these gentlemen of the circumstance, I am sure they would never have +stopped us, unless, indeed, it was to inquire after my health." At the +same time he thrust his broad face out of the window into the light +thrown by a lantern carried by one of the robbers; for there were +several dim forms on horseback, as I could now perceive. If a +blunderbuss had been exhibited instead, it could not have caused +one-half of the panic which the sight of his features occasioned; each +robber turned his back at once, as though to prevent the recognition +being mutual, and spurred away into the darkness, leaving nothing but +the dismounted postboy to evidence that they were not mere phantoms of +the night. + +"Get to your saddle, and make you up for lost time," said the Runner +sternly; and when this mandate had been obeyed, and we were once more on +our way, he added, "That postboy sold us; I saw him whispering to a man +on horseback in the inn-yard while I was taking some drink in the +back-parlour; he was never asked any question when the chaise was +stopped. That was Jerry Atherton, too, who put his shooting-iron in at +that window; I should know his voice though a mob were shouting with +him. A man who wishes to do something of which the consequences are so +very serious, should not only wear crape, but keep his mouth shut." + +"We have to thank you very much, I am sure," said Mr. Long. "It was a +great providence for us that you were with us." + +"Very likely, sir," returned Mr. Townshend, grimly; "but not for Jerry, +nor yet for the postboy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE FALSE SCENT. + + +I am now drawing near the end of this strange eventful narrative, and my +readers will learn in a chapter or two what has in reality become of +Lost Sir Massingberd: whether he lies dead in Fairburn Chase, +notwithstanding that strict search of ours, or somewhere else, conveyed +by foemen's hands; or if, alive, he keeps in hiding nigh, for some evil +end, or has even left British soil for a time, to return, according to +his threat, on a day when he is least expected. If his real whereabouts +and true position have been guessed, then is he who hit upon it a wiser +man, not only than I was at that time (which might easily be), but +wiser than that genius of Bow Street, whose eye was reported to see +further into very millstones than any man alive of his time. He arrived +at Fairburn with his handcuffs and his suspicions, and would, I verily +believe, have made me his stalking-horse whereby to come down upon the +guileless Farmer Arabel, and extract what might be tantamount to a +confession. + +"You know him, Mr. Meredith," he had observed to me in his frankest +tone, as we walked out together after breakfast, on the morning after +our arrival; "and I look to you to make the matter easy. We will step +over to the farm at once, if you please, and have a glass of home-brewed +with the good man, when, I dare say, he will tell us what we want to +know, and exculpate himself at the same time." + +"Mr. Townshend," I replied, gravely, "I have been made a catspaw of +already, within a few weeks, and until the remembrance of that event has +worn off very considerably, I shall not act that part again." + +"Very good, sir," responded the Runner, cheerfully. "I only thought, +that being a well-wisher to the person in question, you might have made +the thing less unpleasant for him. If you went with me, introducing me +as a gentleman from London, anxious to see good farming, for +instance--that 'ud tickle him--I could bring the subject of the note +into conversation; then, if he explained to my satisfaction, as he will +doubtless be able to do, how he got possession of it, it will not be +necessary to inquire further. He need never know as a police-officer had +been down here with darbies in his pocket, upon the chance of having to +fit them on his wrists upon the charge of Wilful Murder." + +"There is certainly something in that," said I, musingly. + +"There is everything in it," returned Mr. Townshend, stepping carelessly +over the style, on the other side of which ran the pathway to Mr. +Arabel's residence. "The idea of this man's guilt being, as you say, +quite preposterous, it would only be a kindness on your part to spare +his feelings. That's a fine stout old fellow looking at those men at +work in yonder field, a sort of man that carries his years better than +one sees people do in London: I should say, now, that might be the +farmer himself." + +"Really," said I, stopping short, "I think you had better do this +business of yours alone, Mr. Townshend. I have eaten and drunk in Mr. +Arabel's house, and to be concerned in any such errand as this seems but +a poor return for his hospitality." + +"Ah, it _is_ him, is it? Very good, sir. Well, you may just please +yourself as to accompanying me now. When I have once set eyes on my man +it is not my habit to lose sight of him. Still, you might have made it +easier--for _him_, that is. It is no matter to me whether the thing is +done soft or hard." And the Bow Street runner stepped along as he spoke, +like a diligent man who sees his work cut out before him. + +After a moment's indecision, I followed upon Mr. Townshend's heels. + +"That's right, young gentleman," observed he, approvingly, but without +even turning his head. "Those is turnips, I suppose, and very good they +are with capers and a leg of mutton; as to wheat, I am not acquainted +with it, at least, so as to know it from oats and barley, unless when +it's in ear. Agriculture is one of them things to which I have not yet +given my attention; but I means to do so, and I have come here for +wrinkles concerning it, remember that, if you please." + +"Very well," said I, sheepishly, for I was obliged to confess to myself +that Mr. Townshend had got the better of me; and in a few more strides +we had got within earshot of the farmer. This was not indeed very near, +but Mr. Arabel had excellent lungs, and bade me welcome as soon as he +had recognized me. + +"Glad to see you, as likewise any friend of yours, Master Meredith. So +the rector is back, I hear; and the wise folks in London can tell no +more what has become of Sir Massingberd than we poor folks." + +"No, Mr. Arabel, they cannot; on the contrary," said I, determined that +there should be no hypocrisy upon my part at least, "here is one of +them, who is come down to Fairburn for information, and relies upon you +to give it to him too." + +"I should like to know when you saw Sir Massingberd last," observed the +Bow Street runner quietly, "and under what circumstances?" + +"That is soon told," returned the farmer simply; "but perhaps you would +rather step in out of the cold, and take a drop of something while you +hear it." + +"No, I thank you," said I, firmly, determined that the laws of +hospitality should not be thus infringed with my consent, "I must return +to the Rectory at once." + +"Then I will walk with you," observed the farmer civilly, "and tell you +all I know in a few words. The fact is, the squire and I had not been on +good terms for a length of time before his disappearance. He was a bad +landlord, and did not know how to behave to a tenant as would have done +his duty by him. He wanted his own rent paid to the day, and never had +to ask it from me, for that matter; but when he owed a little money +himself, it was dreadful hard to get it out of him. There happened to be +something due from him to me--it was a small matter, made up of little +things--corn for that horse he bought for Master Marmaduke, among +others, but the thing had been owing for a year or more. I had not +deducted it from the rent, and therefore he ought to have been the +readier to pay it; but he was not; and at last I cut up rough about it, +and went to the Hall myself on the 15th of last month, and then we +rather fell out together, the Squire and me." + +"You quarrelled, did you?" remarked Mr. Townshend, carelessly. + +"Well, yes, we did quarrel; leastways, _I_ did. Sir Massingberd always +quarrelled with whoever asked him for payment, so that was nothing. I +said that I would not leave the house without the money; but at last I +did leave upon his solemn promise to pay me the next day, that was the +very day of his disappearance, and he did pay me, with as many oaths as +one-pound notes into the bargain." + +"He paid you these on the 15th of November, then," observed the +detective. + +"On the 16th," replied the farmer. "I've got a memorandum of it in my +pocket-book; here it is, and the number of the notes 82977 to 80; there +was four in all." + +"And those notes you sent to your London agent along with more, and you +got some foreign stuff back from Hamburg in exchange for them." + +"And how the deuce come you to know that?" exclaimed the farmer in +extreme astonishment. + +"Well, it is my business to know a good many things," returned the Bow +Street runner, getting over the stile rather sulkily, for he was well +aware by this time that there would be no employment for his favourite +bracelets. + +"Well, that may be your friend's business," quoth Mr. Arabel, looking +after his retreating form, "but I'm gormed if he looks like it. I should +have said he was an individual in the same line as myself, only fatter, +and though I say it as shouldn't say it, a sight more foolish." + +"Nay," said I, "he is not a foolish man, Mr. Arabel, far from it; +although I think he has come down to Fairburn upon a fool's errand." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +"LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD." + + +I have said that I am approaching the conclusion of this my story, and +so in truth I am, so far as the readers thereof are concerned in it. +They will soon be put in possession of its secret, and close this +volume, not altogether without regret, as I hope. But for me, and those +who played their parts in this drama of mystery, months and years went +by without the least clue to its solution. Fairburn Hall remained +without a master, although not untenanted. The same servants occupied it +as before, and expected, although with less and less of certainty, that +the Squire would presently return and claim his own again. The +principal rooms, as was stated, had been locked up and sealed ever since +his disappearance, and the very neighbourhood of their doors had begun +to be avoided after dark. Noises were affirmed to have been heard in +them, both canine and human--doubtless the ghostly talk held between +Grimjaw and Sir Massingberd, who had now no longer any reason for +silence concerning that evil deed in which they had been concerned +together so long ago. The baronet's voice was also heard in the Park and +Chase, especially upon windy nights, cursing and threatening in a very +vehement and life-like manner, so that his preserves were almost as well +protected by the terror of his absence as they had been by that of his +presence. Reckless, indeed, must have been the poacher who wired hares +or slaughtered pheasants in the Home Spinney, where the dread Sir +Massingberd must have met with his end, or been spirited away, no man +knew how or whither. Had it not been for this superstitious awe, Oliver +Bradford would have found it difficult to guard his master's game, for +the old keeper, crippled with age and rheumatism, could no longer watch +o' nights himself, nor could he easily induce his subordinates to do so, +unless in pairs. They, too, had little liking to be alone in the Home +Spinney after dusk, nor near the Wolsey Oak, which of late years had had +certain portentous tenants in the shape of the two ravens, which were +for ever flying to and fro between it and their lodging in the church +tower. The old ancestral saying-- + + "Ill for Heaths when raven's croak + Bodeful comes from Wolsey's Oak"-- + +was remembered and repeated by the old folks of Fairburn to the rising +generation with many a solemn head-shake and significant pursing of the +lips. Yet, oddly enough, the general opinion, even of these ancient +gossips, was, that Sir Massingberd was yet alive. The misfortune +prophesied by the ravens was held to concern the family, or, in other +words, young Marmaduke, rather than his uncle. If the behaviour of these +intelligent birds proclaimed that the Squire was dead, they deserved +rather to be held as doves of good tidings than what they were. No; Sir +Massingberd was alive, and would turn up some day or other, wickeder +than ever. His return was as confidently looked for by many of his +vassals, as that of Barbarossa was wont to be. + +This was not, of course, the case with reasonable persons, like Mr. +Long, and, I may add, myself. When a twelvemonth had elapsed since his +disappearance, we both entreated Marmaduke to come down to Fairburn, and +take possession of what might fairly be considered his own. Mr. Gerard +and Mr. Clint were equally anxious that he should do this, but all +persuasion was unavailing. The most that could be extracted from him was +the promise that, when he came of age, a year and a half hence, he would +do as we pleased. It seemed to us, indeed, the height of improbability +that his uncle should still be in the land of the living; it seemed so +to the money-lenders, who showed themselves anxious to accommodate the +young man with enormous loans at a very trifling rate of interest; but +to the heir himself it by no means appeared so certain. There was +something characteristic, he thought, of his terrible uncle in this +mysterious withdrawal from human ken, with the fiendish object of +throwing everything out of gear for years, and thus striking terror by +his sudden reappearance. If he did reappear and found another--and that +one his hated nephew--in the enjoyment of his property, how diabolical +would be his wrath! There was often quite a sublimity of passion evinced +by the old baronet upon very slight occasions; but all such displays, +compared to what would happen in the case supposed, would have been but +as a cavalry inspection at the Curragh to the Balaklava charge. Such +were the thoughts, I am convinced, which actuated Marmaduke, although he +did not express them. He confined himself to stating that he did not +consider he had a right to take possession of Fairburn until the time he +mentioned had elapsed (nor, indeed, was he legally entitled to do so for +seven years), and I doubt if he would have given even that promise, had +he not felt sure that some revelation would be made in the meantime. + +But no such revelation _was_ made, and the day of Marmaduke Heath's +majority came round at last. Whether he would even then have put his +purpose of coming down to Fairburn into effect, had it depended solely +upon himself, I cannot say, but he had by that time other interests to +consult beside his own. Marmaduke Heath and Lucy Gerard were man and +wife; nor, if you had sought all England through, would you have chanced +upon a nobler-looking couple. At that period, although it was not so +afterwards, the dependence, the reliance, the looking up for comfort and +for counsel, so natural and so endearing in wedded life, were upon the +wrong side--upon Marmaduke's, not Lucy's. All that was done in respect +to his affairs was done by her; he only thought about doing them, and +resisted their being done until the very last, when, all other means +having failed, her sweet voice was called in by the councillors for his +good, and always succeeded. In one matter only had Marmaduke refused +even to listen to her--he had insisted upon raising a very large sum +upon his now excellent expectations, and settling it upon her before his +marriage. In vain he had been assured that such a settlement was +unnecessary, and the interest he would have to pay for the money +borrowed, absolutely thrown away. The young man had his way in this; and +on the day after the execution of the deed in question they were +married. I had determined within myself not to be present at that +wedding, in spite of a very pressing invitation, and although Mr. Long +himself attended it. + +"What, not go to see Marmaduke married?" cried my tutor, when I told him +of this intention. I call him still by that name, although he was at +this time merely my host, with whom I was stopping during one of my +Oxford vacations. "Why, Meredith, you astonish me beyond measure. I am +sure that neither of them will think I have rightly married them, unless +you are there to be bridegroom's man. Why, Lucy Gerard loves you, Peter, +almost as much as she does Marmaduke himself; while Mr. Gerard, between +you and me, would, I think, have preferred----" Then I broke down all of +a sudden, and laid my face between my hands upon the table, and sobbed +like a child. + +"Peter, Peter, my dear boy," exclaimed the Rector, laying his +fingers--ah, so pitifully--upon my head; "I had not dreamed of this. +Poor lad, poor lad, God comfort you and strengthen you; I feel for you +as though you were my very own son. What blind worms must we have been +not to have seen this before; or, rather, how bravely must you have +hidden it from us all! She doesn't know it, does she? I trust not. Then +let her never know it, Peter. I do not speak of others, for your +feelings deserve to be considered as much, and more, dear lad. But, oh, +think of hers. What bitterness will mingle with her cup of happiness +upon that day, when she feels that you are absent from such a cause--for +she will guess the cause at once, Peter." + +"I will be ill," groaned I. "Heaven knows that I shall feel ill enough, +and that shall be my excuse." + +"And do you think Marmaduke would marry, knowing that his best friend +lies ill and alone here? He would never do that. They would feel, I +hope, too, that if it were so, I should not have left you. No, Peter; +you have been very strong hitherto--be strong unto the end. Let her +never know that you have suffered and are suffering now for her sweet +sake." + +"I will do what you think is best, dear old friend," said I; "but please +to leave me by myself a little just now." + +And he did so; and I battled with my own heart and subdued it, and when +Marmaduke and Lucy were married I was present. + +"My dear Peter, your hand is as cold as a stone!" exclaimed the +bridegroom, when he wished me "Good-bye" that day. But Lucy said +nothing, save "Good-bye, Peter;" and even to that I could not reply. +They were very happy, those two, as indeed they deserved to be. Whatever +was wanting at that time in him, her good sense supplied; while in her, +neither then nor afterwards, was there anything wanting. She had +sympathized as much as lay in her power in the tastes and opinions of +her father; she had had a bringing-up which, in these days, would have +at least resulted in what is called a strong-minded woman, rather as +opposed to a gentle one. This could scarcely, indeed, have been the case +with Lucy, but her marriage with Marmaduke made it impossible. Her mind +had heretofore been, as it were, all orchard, bringing forth fine and +vigorous fruit; a portion of it now became a garden, producing flowers +dainty and rare. Her teacher being also her lover, it was no wonder that +her progress was rapid; and it is probable that the young student had +never found his studies so sweet as when communicating them to such a +pupil. From her father, she had learned philosophy; from her husband, +how to appreciate all that was beautiful in Nature and touching in +Song. As for her politics, Marmaduke was infinitely more solicitous to +imbue her with correct views respecting the poets, which, perhaps, was +fortunate enough. She would never have admitted, even to please him, +that her beloved, father was wrong, or even extreme in his views of +government; and, in truth, those opinions of hers--so enthusiastic, so +trustful, and founded upon the mistake of believing all her +fellow-creatures as guileless as herself--gave her conversation, an +added charm. To hear her talk of wrongs and rights, with heightened +colour and earnest eyes--no matter how elevated the rank of the person +addressed, nor how nearly connected with the very executive of whose +acts she was complaining--was enough to make a bishop exchange his mitre +for a white hat, and adopt the Thirty-nine Articles recommended by Mr. +Hone. + +"Judge Jeffreys himself could never have had the heart to condemn my +Lucy for a rebel," Mr. Harvey Gerard was wont to say; "although," he +would add, with a cynical twinkle in his eye, "I would not trust my Lord +Ellenborough." + +Mr. Long and myself were both in Harley Street upon the day when +Marmaduke came of age; and after dinner, Mr. Clint made a little speech, +not without connivance, I think, beforehand with others of the party. He +observed, that gratifying as was the occasion in question in all +respects, it was most satisfactory to himself, as concluding the period +which Marmaduke had assigned as the limit of his abstaining from taking +his rightful position in the world. He ventured to say this much upon +his own part, as having been connected with the Heath family for a +lengthened period; but he would also say for others--what he knew they +would be backward to say for themselves--that his young friend owed it +to them also not to delay the matter any longer. + +Marmaduke's face expressed more painful agitation than I had seen it +wear for months. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Clint," he returned; +"and, at all events, I will be as good as my word, which I passed to +Mrs. Heath," and he looked at his wife, as though he would have appealed +to her to release him from that promise. + +"Of course, I am right, sir," returned the lawyer quickly; "but you are +wrong and very uncivil not to give your wife her proper title. Lady +Heath, I beg to drink your very good health; Sir Marmaduke, here's to +your better manners;" and the lawyer emptied his glass, and filled it up +again, in case any other excuse should arise for the drinking of good +liquor. + +"Lady Heath's health; her husband's better manners," echoed laughingly +round the table. + +Marmaduke nerved himself by a strong effort, and replied to this toast +with feeling and eloquence. He promised to accede to the request made by +Mr. Clint, and to that end would return with us to Fairburn on the next +day but one to make his arrangements personally for coming to reside at +the Hall. As for his not having assumed the title, he protested, amidst +merriment, that he had not hitherto done so, solely out of deference to +the feelings of his father-in-law, whom he had once heard describe a +baronet as a something only not quite so bad as a lord. + +We were all delighted not only with the intentions Marmaduke thus +expressed, but with the cheerfulness and gaiety of his manner in +speaking of them; and when the rest had retired for the night, and my +old friend and I were in my room having that last chat by the midnight +fire which is perhaps the zenith of human converse, as the curtain +lecture is undoubtedly the nadir, I could not help congratulating him on +his change of spirits. "That you are a happy man, I know," said I; "you +would be ungrateful indeed if you were otherwise. But I cannot say how +pleased I am to find that the good Genius, who has so blessed you in +other respects, has exorcised this phantom fear of yours; that you no +longer dread that childish bugbear, Sir Massingberd." + +"Hush!" cried he, looking involuntarily over his shoulder; "do not +mention that name, Peter. I would gladly give up house and land this +moment, never to go back to Fairburn; I have a presentiment that evil +will come of it. She would absolve me from my promise even now--Heaven +bless her, as it must do, for she is of the angels!--but that there +will be another soon whose interests must be looked to as well as our +own. You will be godfather, dear Peter, will you not? Lucy and I both +wish it. 'Let it be Peter's godchild, Marmaduke,' she said to me only +yesterday, although I should not divulge these secrets to an old +bachelor like you." + +Of course, I promised readily enough, but long after he had bidden me +good-night, I sat over the paling embers, thinking, thinking; and when +every coal was charred, and the black bars cold that held them, I sat +thinking still. My hopes, for a few fleeting hours, long ago, had been +as bright and warm as they, and were now as dark--and dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +TAKING THE SEALS OFF. + + +Marmaduke Heath came down to Fairburn according to his promise, but it +cost him a great effort. With every stage his spirits seemed to fall and +fail; and when Mrs. Myrtle at last clasped him in her arms--for Master +Marmaduke was ever a great favourite of hers, and the fact of his having +grown up and got married weighed with her not a feather--his wan face +was paler than when she had seen it last, notwithstanding its three +years of happiness and freedom. It was Christmas-time; the Rectory was a +bower of ivy and holly-berries; and just within the threshold, the +locality which the good housekeeper had chosen for her embrace, hung a +huge bough of mistletoe, the finest that could be found in all the +Chase. In the spotless kitchen, so exquisitely clean that you might, as +the phrase goes, "have eaten your dinner off the floor," if it had not +happened to have been a sanded one, there were preparations for +sumptuous feasting; a delightful fragrance, suggestive of mince-pies +with plenty of citron, pervaded Mrs. Myrtle's private parlour, where the +divine mysteries of Apicius were being celebrated. The little larder, +cold and immaculate as a dead sucking-pig ready for the spit, was +victualled with noble meats as for a siege; while monstrous pasties and +plum-puddings, too many for the broad stone slabs, reposed upon the +Dutch tiles that formed its carpet. It was not intended that the +inhabitants of the Rectory should eat all the good things themselves; +but it was a custom of Mr. Long, aided and abetted by Mrs. Myrtle, to +keep open house for about a fortnight at this festive period, and to +entertain certain worthy persons, who were old and indigent, in the +sanded kitchen daily. Attempts to edify the poor in those days were not +made so often as they are at present, but it was held essential by all +good Christian country folk to keep Christmas as a feast, and to see +that others kept it. I suppose Fairburn Hall was the only house in the +county where that blessed time was ignored and taken no account of; Sir +Massingberd had never suffered the slightest honour to be paid to it; +and his worthy deputy and _locum-tenens_, Richard Gilmore, treated it +with the like contumely. + +The change from the bright little Rectory, with all its hospitable +preparations, to the gloomy grandeur of the masterless mansion, was +very striking, when we three crossed the road next morning, to take the +seals off, which Mr. Long had placed upon the principal rooms, and so, +as it were, to break the blockade caused by the baronet's disappearance. +The contrast began even with things without. Half one of the globes had +been sliced from its pedestal on one side of the great iron gates; and +in the very centre of the avenue, the grass grew long and rank. The +sun-dial was cracked and gaped in zigzag, an emblem of the uncertainty +that overhung the place. The heraldic beasts at the foot of the +entrance-steps were much more mutilated than when I had seen them last, +and had indeed only one stone fore-paw or claw between them. Disuse is +sister to Abuse, but still how comes it that mere absence should beget, +as it always does, such absolute Ruin? Had the Squire been at home the +last three years, the globe upon the pedestal would have been whole, the +dial flawless, the griffins with at least their larger limbs intact; and +yet no man was ever seen to work this mischief. When the great door +swung reluctantly back to admit the new possessor, he took my hand, and +bade me Welcome, but his tone was far from gay. Every glance he cast +around him evoked, I could see, some unpleasant association, and even, +perhaps, a vague terror. + +There is something uncanny in exploring any dwelling the rooms of which +have been locked up and unvisited for years--places that have been once +consecrated to humanity, but have afterwards been given up to Solitude +and slow decay. Memories of their ancient inmates seem to hang gloomily +about them, like the cobweb in their corners; they are eloquent of +desertion and of death. The shriek of the mouse, and the singing of the +blue fly in the pane, have perhaps alone been heard there in the +interim; but there seem to have been other and ghostlier noises, which +cease at our approach. Who knows what eerie deeds our sudden intrusion +may have interrupted! + + "What faces glimmered through the doors, + What footsteps trod the upper floors," + +ere we broke in! The peculiar circumstances under which our search was +made intensified these feelings in us three, and even Gilmore, who +accompanied us, was affected by them. + + "O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, + This place is _worse_ than haunted." + +The library was the first room we entered, which, even in the palmiest +days of Fairburn Hall had been a dreary room, because the least in use. +Except Marmaduke himself, no one ever sat there; the wicked books, which +were the only sort read and patronized by Sir Massingberd, were all in +the Squire's private sitting-room, and the gaps in the shelves that +lined the present apartment, revealed that the Heaths had laid in a +considerable stock of them. Old Sir Wentworth, a miser in his old age, +had been a dunce in his youth, and was once heard openly to regret that +circumstance from the fact, that he was unable to peruse the loose +continental literature which his ancestors had provided for his +delectation, free of expense. In the rare cases when the Oak Parlour had +not sufficient accommodation for the guests of the missing Squire, they +had been wont to adjourn to the present apartment, to smoke and lounge +through half the night; but it bore no trace of having been so used. +Every chair and sofa were in their appointed place, as though they had +grown up like trees through the dusty carpet. Upon the tables and +mantelpieces, the dust had settled inches thick. The grate was laid +ready for lighting; but over the coals and sticks hung a sort of mildew, +that looked as if it would have defied a pine-torch to set light to it. +These things we remarked gradually, one by one, for the butler had only +opened the shutters of one window, and the extent of the apartment was +prodigious. The shelves were filled almost entirely with quartos--books +were not hand-books in those days--rich with plates, and "meadows of +margin;" you could not have sent a child on an errand to bring one of +them; if he had managed to extricate a tome at all by painfully +loosening it at head and foot, it might have fallen out and brained +him. A fourth of the entire stock was composed of books of Catholic +theology. "Those," observed Mr. Long, "are the most valuable things in +the library. Sir Nicholas is supposed to have won his bride by paying +that costly tribute to her faith. The illuminations are most rare and +splendid. Why, what is this, Gilmore? I can't get this volume down. It +seems stuck to the others." + +The butler grinned maliciously. "I think you will find them all like +that, sir. There's nothing but the wood-backs left. The Squire disposed +of these books soon after Mr. Marmaduke left, and got this imitation +stuff put up instead." + +Mr. Long broke out into wrathful indignation, but the young heir kept +silence, only smiling bitterly. + +"Perhaps he was afraid that their heterodoxy might do his nephew harm," +remarked I, rather tickled, I confess, by this characteristic fraud. + +"No, sir," replied Gilmore, drily; "he merely observed, that, being +theological works, there was as much in them now as before." + +"Impious wretch!" exclaimed the Rector. "See, he has bartered the +Fathers of the Church for a set of empty backgammon boards, and lettered +them with their venerable names." + +"Here, however, is the Family Bible," said I; "he has not sold that." + +The spider had spun his web across the sacred volume, but it opened +readily enough at the only place, perhaps, into which its late owner had +ever looked--the huge yellow fly-leaf, upon which were inscribed the +names of the later generations of the Heaths; Sir Massingberd's birth in +his father's own handwriting, and Sir Wentworth's death in that of his +son's, and only too probably his murderer's. The autograph was bold and +flaring, quite different from the crabbed hand of the parent, is which +the names of Gilbert Heath and Marmaduke's mother were also written, as +likewise that of Marmaduke himself. There was a little space beneath the +last; and the young heir, looking over my shoulder, pointed to it, +significantly; doubtless, it had been hoped by the last possessor of the +volume that this might one day have been filled up by the date of his +nephew's, demise. + +We were about to leave the room, when Mr. Long suddenly exclaimed, "Nay, +let us try the secret way. You told me, I remember, that you did not +know of Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke. The spring lies in the index of +Josephus, a wooden volume, which perhaps put this notion of wholesale +'dumbies' into Sir Massingberd's head." This practical satire upon the +unpopularity of the Jewish historian was presently discovered, hidden +away upon one of those ground-floor shelves, which, if the enthusiastic +student investigates at all, it must be upon his knees. After a little +manipulation, the spring obeyed, and with a surly creak, as if in +protest, the whole compartment of shelves above moved slowly outward on +some hidden hinge, and disclosed the narrow stairs that ended in the +shepherdess of the state chamber. The steps were worm-eaten, and the +wall on both sides hung with moth-devoured and ragged tapestry. +Marmaduke shrank back, and gazed upon the aperture with abhorrence and +dismay. To what vile purposes might it not have been used, besides that +of attempting to overthrow a poor child's reason; nay, was it not +possible that what we had sought, yet feared to find for so long, might +be in this very place, where no eye could have looked or thought of +looking! Might it not have hidden there, and been imprisoned alive in +righteous retribution, by the very spring which had ministered to hate +and cruelty? "I went up here," said Mr. Long, divining the young man's +thoughts, "when I searched the house with Gilmore, and put on the seals. +I think we should climb Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke; as you will make the +Hall your home, it is well to leave no spot in it associated with any +unpleasantness, unfamiliar." So saying, the rector led the way, and we +all followed: there was some delay while he opened the door above, and +certainly it was not a cheerful position for us in the meantime, cooped +up in the darkness, with the arras touching us with its ghostly folds on +either side the narrow way; but I think that my tutor's advice was +good, and that his old pupil experienced a feeling of satisfaction when +the thing was done. Once more we stood together in that state bedroom +where Marmaduke had suffered such ghastly terrors when a boy. + +"Shall I ever forget those nights!" muttered he with a shudder. "Can +this room ever be otherwise than hateful to me! It was here, as I sat +weak and ill in that arm-chair, that my uncle struck me for losing----. +Stay, now I remember it all. Remove this skirting-board, Gilmore; take +the poker; do not spare the rotting wood. Ay, there it is." A yellow +something lay amid the dust and rubbish, which on inspection turned out +to be a gold pencil-case. "That was lent me by my uncle, a dozen years +ago," said Marmaduke musing, "and he chastised me for losing it. It had +rolled under yonder skirting-board, but I was too terrified at the time +to recollect the fact. I wish I could forget things now. Undo the other +shutters, Richard. Light, more light." + +And thus we let the blessed sunlight into all the shuttered rooms. It +glanced in galleries on knights in all their panoply, and smote the +steel upon their visors, as though the flame of battle once more darted +from their eyes; it made their tattered pennons blush again, and tipped +their rusted spears with sudden fire. It flashed upon the stern +ancestral faces on the wall, and through their dust evoked a look of +life. That winter sun had not the power to warm, however; all things +struck cold. The dark oak-pannels chilled us from their waveless depths; +the cumbrous organ, carved with fruit and flowers, kept frozen silence; +while in the chapel, Sir Nicholas in stone and mildew struck to our +marrow. His lady opposite, upon her knees in her "devout oratory," gave +us cold looks, as though we had interrupted her devotions. In vain the +painted windows, high and triple arched, cast down "warm gules" upon her +marble breast, and filled the sacred place with glorious hues. In vain +the gilded scroll, "Praie for hys Soule," appealed to us through dust +and damp, and his memorial pane blushed scarlet in its endeavour to +perpetuate his infamy. All things seemed cursed in that accursed house; +the hallowed places desecrated, and those where hospitality and good +fellowship were meant to reign, solitary and barren. There was one +apartment still which had been left by common consent to be visited last +of all--Sir Massingberd's oak parlour. There he might have been said to +have lived, for it was the only sitting-room he used from early +morning--and he was no great sleeper--until very late at night. There, +as we have seen, he had held his audiences, and dined, and sometimes +slept after any deep debauch. By all the household, except Gilmore, it +was held as a Bluebeard's chamber, and would not have been entered upon +any account, even had it not had the rector's seal upon it. It was here +that the lost baronet had passed his last hours within the house, and +thither he had intended to return--if he had meant to return at +all--before he retired for the night. The butler entered it first, and +let the light in; then Mr. Long, then I, then Marmaduke. Although I had +been there once before, I scarcely recognized the place, for upon that +occasion the squire himself had occupied it, and I had had no eyes +except for him. It was doubtless a comfortable room enough when the +fire was shining on its polished walls, and the red curtains snugly +drawn over the windows; but with that thin December light--for it was +afternoon by this time--creeping coldly in upon the three-year-old ashes +of the burnt-out fire, and on the panels, smeared with spots and stains, +it was very cheerless: + + "There was no sign of life, save one: + The subtle spider, that from overhead + Hung like a spy on human guilt and error, + Suddenly turned, and up its slender thread, + Ran with a nimble terror." + +This insect had woven its webs in every nook and cranny, in readiness +for the prey that rarely came, and the slanting pillars of motes and +light that streamed into the gloom seemed almost as palpable as they. A +door led up by three or four steps into Sir Massingberd's bedroom--a +bare unfurnished place, where skins of wild animals, instead of carpet, +were spread for a banquet to the moth. His shooting-boots stood up +still stiff and strong beside the empty grate, although they were white +with mildew, and his night-gear lay folded upon the rotting pillow, in +preparation for his rest. The sitting-room, however, bore the more +striking vestiges of its late proprietor. + +The huge arm-chair stood a little aside from the fender, where he had +pushed it back as he rose to leave the room; and the book which he had +been reading lay open with its face to the table, ready for him to +resume its perusal upon his return. A spirit-case with the stoppers in, +the couple of cigars which it had been Sir Massingberd's invariable +custom to smoke before going to bed, and a few fly-blown lumps of sugar, +were set out in hideous travesty of creature-comfort. The rector took up +the volume, and with one involuntary glance towards the fire-place, +tore the wrinkled and blue-spotted leaves to fragments. A scurrilous +French novel had engaged the last hours of the wretched old man, ere he +went forth--to his doom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE FAIRY'S WAND. + + +There are but few of us, I fear, who can say: "Though I should die +suddenly, and at the most unlooked-for time, there will be nothing left +behind me which I would have destroyed, even though I had had the +opportunity." Of course there are none who can boast that they are at +peace with all mankind; that they leave nothing unrepented of or +unatoned for; that their human affairs and social relations are exactly +where they would have wished them to be. But independent of these +matters, neglected by the very best of us, how eagerly must many a man +desire, between the warning and swift stroke of death, that he had had +but a little time--a little strength to set, not, indeed, his house in +order, but his desk and his note-book. What a cruel shock have many a +family received, after they have lost the Head whom they have worshipped +so many years, by discovering, where they looked for no such thing, +_after his death_, that he had all along (as will be thought) been even +such a one--_not_ as themselves, but worse--as they whom they had been +taught by his own self to look upon with contempt, or at least with +pity; as they who, by contrast with himself, were persons base and vile. +Is there no letter, reader, ragged and time-worn, perhaps, but still +legible, lying among that heap of correspondence you intend to winnow +some day--which it will be better to burn _now_? Is there no +half-forgotten gift, meant for your own eyes alone, when they were +brighter than at present, which it would be well to make an end of this +very day? Can you say: "Even though I do not return home to night, or +ever again, but am smashed by a railway locomotive, or driven over by a +'bus, or poisoned in a cab, yet there will be nothing of mine, nothing +when my friends take stock of my personal effects, of which I need be +ashamed." If so, thou art a good man indeed--or one of exceeding +prudence. Above all things, my friends, be good, for that is best; but +if not, at least be prudent. Let your memories be sullied with no stain, +at all events in the thoughts of those you leave at home. The actions of +the unjust blossom in their dust into flowers compared with which the +deadly nightshade is as the violet or the rose. The satirist tells us +that in a week, a month, a year at most, the memory of a dead man dies +even from the hearts of those he held most dear. This is not true; but +the satirist would have been severer yet, and have spoken truth as well, +had he said that the memory of a dead man, so far as his vice and +wickedness are concerned, dies not at all among his kin. It is spoken of +in whispers by the purest, and renders them less pure; it is made light +of by the vicious, but only to excuse their wrongful acts by a worse +example. "Wild as I may be, I am not so wild as the governor was in his +day," is a terrible legacy of comfort to leave behind one to one's son. + +It is possible that even Sir Massingberd Heath may at some far-back time +have deemed it necessary to lay to his soul some flattering unction of +this kind. There were Sir Wentworth and Sir Nicholas, and many a Heath +to extenuate his acts, if bad example might do it. But the time came to +him, and very early in life, when he had no longer this slender +justification, since he had outdone his worse progenitor in vice and +folly. Mr. Clint had known, Mr. Long had guessed--we all of us had +suspected more or less that the lost baronet's life had been evil beyond +that of an ordinary man; but the dumb revelations which were made +concerning it in the necessary examination of his papers, were simply +shocking. After destroying these, the next approach to cleansing +Fairburn Hall was to discharge all the indoor domestics. Mr. Richard +Gilmore resented this conduct towards a faithful servant of the family, +as he styled himself, very bitterly; but he departed with the rest, +laden, there is little doubt with a very considerable plunder. Presently +the upholsterers came down from town with a great following of +workpeople, and a caravan of waggons, bearing costly furniture; then a +host of servants, selected with as much care as was possible, replaced +the exiles; and when all was ready within and without--the waste places +of the grounds being reclaimed, and put upon the same footing with those +which hitherto had alone been "kept up"--Sir Marmaduke Heath and his +wife themselves took possession of Fairburn Hall. + +Art had already done much to change that sombre house into a comfortable +as well as splendid mansion; but the presence of its new mistress did +more than all to rescue it from the long tyranny of decay and gloom. +Beneath her smile, the shadows of the past could take no shape, but +vanished, thin and pale. She would allow them nowhere resting-place. +Where they had been wont to gather thickest to her husband's eyes, she +quelled them by her radiant presence, day and night. The Oak Parlour +and its adjoining bedroom; she formed into a double boudoir for her own +sweet self; and straightway all bat-winged, harpy-headed memories, the +brood of evil deeds, flew from it as the skirts of Night before the +dawn, and in their place an angel-throng came fluttering in, and made it +their abode. No stage-fairy, wand in hand, ever effected +transformation-scene more charming and complete. One fear, and one +alone, now agitated Marmaduke's heart, for the safety of his priceless +wife in her approaching trial. He would have gladly cancelled nature's +gracious promise, and lived childless all his days, rather than any risk +should befall Lucy. His friends, his servants, and the villagers, +brimful of hope that there should be an heir to Fairburn, flowed over in +earnest congratulations; but for his part, he felt apprehensive only. +His heart experienced no yearning for the child who might endanger the +mother. + +In accordance with her plan of ignoring all that had gone before of +shame and sorrow, and regenerating evil places with a baptism of joy, +Lady Heath had chosen the state chamber itself as her sleeping +apartment, and there in due time she safely brought forth a son. Upon +his knees, Marmaduke thanked Heaven for the blessing which was thus +vouchsafed to him, but above all, in that it had brought with it no +curse. Verily had the house of mourning become the house of feasting, +and the chamber of sorrow the chamber of mirth. + +The unconscious father had been sitting by the library fire, +endeavouring vainly to distract his mind from what was occurring +upstairs, and turning his eyes restlessly ever and anon towards the +door, when the voice of Dr. Sitwell suddenly broke the silence. + +"Sir Marmaduke, I congratulate you; you have a son and heir." + +"And my wife?" cried the husband impatiently. + +"She is as well as can possibly be expected, I do assure you." + +"You are very welcome," exclaimed the young baronet; "and would have +been so, although you had chosen to burst your way in with a torpedo. +But I confess you startled me a good deal." + +"I am afraid I did," returned the doctor, in a voice like a stream of +milk and honey, "although it was not my intention to do so. But the fact +is, I did not come in by the door at all. Her ladyship desired that I +should bring you the good news by way of Jacob's Ladder; and I may add, +that you may come back with me that way and see her yourself for just +one quarter of a minute." + +So even Jacob's Ladder was made a pleasant thoroughfare to Marmaduke, +and dearer from that hour than all staircases of wood or stone. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +FOUND. + + +Now, when Marmaduke junior, who was named also Peter, to mark the regard +which both its parents had for my poor self, became of the ripe age of +fourteen weeks or so, and the spring had so far advanced upon the summer +as to admit of open-air rejoicings, it was determined that the advent of +the heir of Fairburn should be celebrated with all due honour. This +would have been done before, for Lady Heath had soon recovered her +strength, and the child was reported to be a miracle of health and +plumpness, had it not been for the backwardness of the season. The Hall +had, of course, made merry upon the matter long ago, and if all the +poor in the place had not done so, it was from no want of materials in +the way of creature-comfort supplied by the young Squire. But what +Marmaduke had waited for was settled fine weather, in order that the +Chase might be filled by merrymakers, whose happiness should cleanse it +from all memories of woe and wrong. Much of these, it is true, had been +effaced already; a portion of the Park had been given up to the +villagers for cricket and other sports, a grant common enough now, but +one almost unexampled in those days, and the right of way which Sir +Massingberd had spent so many hundreds in opposing, had been voluntarily +surrendered. Oliver Bradford still retained his office, but being almost +bedridden, inspired less terror than of yore among evil-doers; this was +not so much to be regretted, however, since there was now little want, +and therefore few poachers in Fairburn, while the general popularity of +the young Squire lessened even those. I am afraid that if the new owner +had heard a gun discharged at night in the Home Spinney itself, it is +doubtful whether he would have laid down his book, or hesitated more +than usual in his vain attempt to checkmate his wife at chess, in order +to listen for the second barrel. The terror of the Lost Baronet had long +been fading from his old domain; and upon this occasion, when old and +young were all invited to make holiday in those once almost unknown +retreats of hare and deer, there was no urchin but was determined--by no +means single-handed, however--to explore them thoroughly. The very +Wolsey Oak which the ravens had made their quarters was not shunned, but +in the great space about it, races were run, and dances danced, and its +vast trunk was made the very headquarters of childish merriment. These +young folks did not affect the company of their elders, except when the +gongs gave signal from the various marquees that there was food afoot, +when they flocked to meet their parents at the heaped-up boards with a +dutiful celerity. The higher class of tenantry were upon the lawn, and +among them mixed with stately condescension a goodly number of the +county aristocracy. I remember that some of the latter introduced upon +this occasion the new dance called the quadrille, which had just arrived +from Paris at that time. It had come over in the bad company of the +waltz; but that lively measure was held to be too indecorous to be +imported to Fairburn under its new _régime_. Everybody, when out of +earshot of the host and hostess, was talking about the change that had +taken place in this respect. + +"How odd this all seems," quoth Squire Broadacres to his neighbour, Mr. +Flinthert, heir of the late lamented admiral. "None of _us_, I suppose, +have been at the Hall here for this quarter of a century." + +"Ay, that at least," quoth the other. "Of course, it is a great matter +to see people in the Heaths' position properly conducted as to morals. +But I doubt whether this young fellow may not go astray in another and +even a still more dangerous direction. They say his politics are, dear +me, shocking." + +"Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Broadacres. "It isn't in the Heath blood +to be radical. But his wife, she rules the roost, you see--and a +devilish pretty woman too; I could find it in my heart to forgive her +anything." + +"But that fellow, Harvey Gerard, her father--why, he's a downright +_sans-culotte_, sir." + +"The Gerards are bound to be, my dear sir," returned the jolly squire. +"All these things are a question of family; it's nothing but that. I am +told there is some French blood in him." + +"We want nothing of that sort down in Midshire," responded Mr. +Flinthert, shaking his head. + +"But we have got it, you see, my friend, and therefore we must make the +best of it. It was all very well to ignore Gerard while he was a +new-comer at the Dovecot, although, mind you, he was always a gentleman, +every inch of him, notwithstanding his queer opinions; but now that he +is become so nearly connected with Sir Marmaduke, and living at the Hall +half his time, why, the county must make up its mind to receive him." + +"I shall let him perceive, however, that it does so--so far at least as +I am concerned--upon sufferance, and, as it were--what is the word?--ay, +vicariously." + +"Very good," observed Mr. Broadacres, dryly. "I am not quite clear as to +your meaning; but if you intend to put Harvey Gerard down, I do not +think you will meet with any very triumphant success. Why, Sir +Massingberd here, who would have grappled with the devil, was tripped up +and thrown by this man with the greatest ease." + +"Nevertheless, I shall give him the cold shoulder," observed Mr. +Flinthert, stiffly; "although I shall studiously avoid being rude." + +"Faith, I would recommend your doing that, my friend," laughed the jolly +Squire. "If you turned your back upon Harvey Gerard instead of your +shoulder, my belief is that he'd kick you." + +"That he'd do what?" exclaimed Mr. Barnardistone Flinthert, late +high-sheriff and present magistrate and _custos rotulorum_ of Midshire. + +"That he'd take advantage of the opportunity, that's all," returned Mr. +Broadacres, quietly. "No, no, sir, with a man like Gerard, all good +Tories should keep on good terms. One can't hang him, you know, like a +radical tailor, and therefore it's quite worth while to make ourselves +appear to the best advantage. A stupid slight to a clever man has often +done more harm to the cause of good government than a whole regiment of +dragoons can remedy." + +"Oh curse his cleverness!" responded Mr. Flinthert, savagely. "I'm for +no such milk-and-water measures. I think it's the duty of somebody to +tell young Marmaduke----" + +"Well, say it _yourself_," interrupted Mr. Broadacres. + +"It's a positive duty, I say, that somebody should go to the baronet, +and tell him frankly that all this leniency to poaching fellows, and +liberty to the rabble, cannot but lead to harm. 'You're a young man,' he +should be told, 'and don't understand these things; but that is the +opinion of the county, and it behoves you to know it.'" + +"That would do more harm than good, Mr. Flinthert. You may depend upon +it that Marmaduke Heath thinks for himself in these matters, +notwithstanding that I dare say Gerard and his pretty daughter have had +some influence. The young fellow naturally goes exactly counter to all +that his uncle did before him. This holiday-making and mixture of high +and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Massingberd turn in his +grave." + +"Ay, if he _is_ in his grave," responded Mr. Flinthert, darkly. "But who +knows whether he may not turn up some day after all; tell me that." + +"I can't tell you that," responded Mr. Broadacres; "but I'll bet you ten +guineas to one that he never does." + +"Ay, but if he did!" replied the other, gloomily. "If he was to appear +this very day, for instance, what a scene it would be--what a revolution +for some people!" + +"Well, if he did, he'd find the property greatly improved--except that +that right of way has been reopened through the Park; all his thieving +servants dismissed; all his debts settled; and his mad gipsy wife amply +provided for, and well content, I am told, among her vagabond friends." + +Conversations somewhat similar to the above were being held all over the +lawn, for its denizens were not, like the lower classes, so bent upon +mere physical enjoyment as to be dead to the delights of scandal. But +when the great bell rang for their afternoon repast, which was to be +partaken of in one enormous tent, and at one gigantic table, the upper +part of which was reserved for the gentlefolks, such talk was hushed, of +course, and congratulations of host and hostess and the infant heir was +the only wear for every countenance. Not a word about the uncertainty of +Sir Marmaduke's tenure of Fairburn was whispered over the good cheer, or +a suggestion hazarded regarding the last proprietor's possible +reappearance. Far less, we may be certain, was any hint at such matters +let fall when the health of the future Sir Peter--two generations from +Somebody, and not to be associated with him upon any account--was +proposed by Mr. Broadacres, and drunk with a genuine enthusiasm that +brought the tears into his mother's eyes, who with many a fair county +dame graced the banquet as spectators. Then Mr. Long rose up and spoke +of Marmaduke as one whom he had known and loved from his youth up, and +the cheering rose tumultuous (but especially at the tenants' table, +because they knew him best), and was heard afar by the peasantry who +were dining likewise elsewhere, and who joined in it uproariously, +although they had already paid due honours to their lord; so that all +the Park was filled with clamour. To both these toasts, Sir Marmaduke, +aglow with happiness and excitement, the handsomest man by far in that +great company, with a grateful smile upon his student lips, gave +eloquent response. + +But when Lucy's health was proposed by Mr. Arabel, who dwelt, in homely +but fitting terms, upon her total lack of pride, her kindliness to all +that needed help, her beauty, which was sunshine to them all, then the +young Squire lost his self-command. He rose to speak with evident +embarrassment; he saw herself before him, watching him with eyes that +had plenty of pride for _him_ in them, and listening for his words as +though his tongue dropped jewels; he knew that he could not contradict +one word of praise that had been showered upon her, he could not +mitigate in modesty a single phrase of her eulogium, because it was all +true, and none but he knew how much more she was deserving of. "While he +stood there silent for a moment, but radiant with lips just parting for +his opening sentence, there was a commotion at the far end of the tent. +With that mysterious swiftness wherewith ill news pervades the minds of +men, all knew at once some terrible occurrence had taken place. Several +of the tenants rose, as if to intercept some person coming up towards +the upper table, but others cried, "Go on, it must be told." For an +instant, Lucy's glance flashed round to see that her child was safe in +its nurse's arms, then made her way swiftly and silently to her +husband's side. Before she reached it, before the man who bore the +tidings could get nearly so far, the whisper had gone round, "Sir +Massingberd is found." + +I shall never forget Marmaduke's face when he heard those words: his +colour fled, his eyes wandered timidly hither and thither, his lips +moved, but no sound came from them. At the touch of his wife's hand upon +his arm, however, a new life seemed to be instilled into him, and as a +village boy came forward bearing a rusty something in his hand, he +stretched his hand out for it, murmuring, "What is this? Why do you +bring this to me?" The boy was bashful, and gave no answer; but Farmer +Arabel stepped forward very gravely, and spoke as follows:-- + +"Why, Mr. Marmaduke, you see," he said, unconsciously reserving the +title for the man he had in his mind, "that is the life-preserver Sir +Massingberd always went about with in his woods at night; I know it by +the iron ring by which a leathern strap fastened it round his wrist. +Where did you find it, eh, boy?" + +"Well, sir, we was a-playing at Hide--me and Bill Jervis, and Harry +Jones, and a lot of us--and the Wolsey Oak was Home. So while it was the +other side's turn to hide, and we was waiting for them to cry "Whoop," +we began to knife the tree a bit, to pass the time; and digging away at +the bottom of the trunk, we made a hole, and presently came upon the +head of this thing here, and dragged it out. Then we made a bigger hole, +and please, sir, there was great big bones, and we couldn't pull them +through. Then we was frightened, and called to Jem Meyrick, the keeper, +as was in the booth close by; and he climbed up to the fork of the tree, +and cried out that the Wolsey Oak was hollow, and there was a skeleton +in it, standing up; and they do say as it's Sir Massingberd." + +While the boy was yet speaking, a knot of men came slowly up from the +direction of the Oak, bearing something among them, and followed at a +little distance by a vast crowd, all keeping an awful silence. When they +got near the opening of the tent, they set their ghastly burden down +upon the lawn; and we all went forth to look at it, including Marmaduke +himself, with a face as pale as ashes, and clutching Lucy by the hand, +as though he feared some power was about to tear her from him. I heard +her whisper to him, "This may not be Lost Sir Massingberd after all." + +Dr. Sitwell heard her also, and at once officiously replied: "Oh, but it +is, my lady; there has no man died in Fairburn for these thirty years, +except the late baronet, who could have owned those bones. I will pledge +my professional reputation that yonder man, when clothed in flesh and +blood, was six feet four. What a large skull, and what gigantic +thigh-bones!" + +"Ay," quoth Mr. Remnant, the general dealer, who was kneeling down +beside the skeleton and examining it with minuteness, as though it had +been offered to him for sale, "here is something hard and dry, with iron +nails upon it, which was once a shooting-shoe, one of a pair, or I am +much mistaken, which I sold to Sir Massingberd myself." + +"And, here," quoth Jem Meyrick, stepping forward, "is summat as I think +must have been the Squire's great gold chain, which I found at the +bottom of the trunk. The Wolsey Oak is quite hollow, Sir Marmaduke, +although none of us knew it. It is my belief that Sir Massingberd must +have climbed up into the fork to look about him, for he seemed to be +expecting poachers on that night, and that the rotten wood gave way +beneath him, and let him down feet foremost into the trunk." + +Without doubt, this was the true explanation of the matter. The skeleton +was found with the arms above the head, a position which had precluded +self-extrication, although it was evident that the wretched man had +made great efforts to escape from his living tomb, since what remained +of the shoe of the right foot was much turned up, and retained deep +marks of the pressure of the buckle. As I looked at these relics of +humanity, the gipsy's curse recurred to my mind with dreadful +distinctness: "_May he perish, inch by inch, within reach of the aid +that shall never come, ere the God of the poor take him into his hand_." + +It was a singular feature in the case, and one which was of course made +to point its moral among the villagers, that had Sir Massingberd not +closed the Park, and refused the right of way, he could scarcely have +thus miserably perished, since the footpath, as I have said, absolutely +skirted the tree in question; and people would have passed close by it +at all hours. It reminded me of the evil fate of James I. of Scotland, +who might have escaped his murderers in the Blackfriar's Abbey at Perth, +but for the simple fact that he had caused the mouth of a certain vault +to be bricked up, because his tennis-balls were wont to roll through it. +How long the wretched Squire had suffered before Death released him from +his fangs, it was impossible to guess, or whether that terrible cry +heard by Dick Westlock that same night, and by myself next morning, was +indeed from the throat of Sir Massingberd in his agony. + +We were the two persons who had been nearest to the Wolsey Oak between +the period of his entombment and the search instituted throughout the +Chase. He must have been dead before _that_, for the seekers passed +close beside the tree without the least suspicion of the ghastly Thing +it held; unless, indeed, he had heard our voices, but, choked by that +time: by the falling dry-rot, was unable to reply. No wonder the ravens +had sought the Wolsey Oaky and croaked forth Doom therefrom so long! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +L'ENVOI. + + +Weeks elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this +discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite +another man in body and mind. + +It was only by this change--when we saw him so strong and cheerful--that +we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had +so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him +to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in +Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the +wand of the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his +father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel +thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not +judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in +moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a +risk--ay, and what a selfish risk--he ran therein, let alone the +unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure! + +He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it +to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him roundly for the crime; observing, +however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred +Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all +bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but +the duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that +was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not +a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his +rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his +neighbours, sooner or later--although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very +late indeed. + +Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set +foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, +Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in +beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled +brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes. + +Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is +borne not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it +the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at +Fairburn lies my dear old tutor--far from the iron rails which enclose +the bones of the long-missing baronet. + +Sir Peter...--But why should I further speak of death, and make parade +of loss and change?--an old man like me should, having told his tale, be +silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to +constancy." + +The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of +that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great +space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast +bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the +Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had been cut down for forty +years and more. + +The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. +This may be true or not. My tale itself may be open to suspicion of +untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have +already been pronounced "improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics +of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the +author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such +clumsy hands as to seem fiction. + +Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young +days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a +picture sale attended by the _dilettanti_. A carking _connoisseur_ is +abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This +fellow," cries he, "has even had the audacity to attempt to paint a +fly! _That_ a fly, forsooth!" and he flips at it with contemptuous +fingers. + +The fly flew away. _It was a real one!_ + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37171-8.txt or 37171-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37171/ + +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/37171-8.zip b/old/37171-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..392b0d1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171-8.zip diff --git a/old/37171-h.zip b/old/37171-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..73313fc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171-h.zip diff --git a/old/37171-h/37171-h.htm b/old/37171-h/37171-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f12a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171-h/37171-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4701 @@ +<!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; +} + +a:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +v:link {color: #800000; text-decoration: none; } + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + +.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. 2/2, 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. 2/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37171] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + + + + +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> + +<h3>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h3> + +<h3>VOL. II.</h3> + +<h5>LONDON:</h5> + +<h5>SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON,</h5> + +<h5>14, LUDGATE HILL.</h5> + +<h5>1864.</h5> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<h4>CONTENTS.</h4> + +<p class="content"> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a> OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a> HARLEY STREET<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a> BEFORE THE BLOW<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a> LOST<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a> THE STONE GARDEN<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a> THE SEARCH<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a> WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a> THE PROCESSION<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a> AMONG FRIENDS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a> A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a> THE BANK-NOTES<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a> A BENEVOLENT STRANGER<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a> BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a> THE FALSE SCENT<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a> "LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD"<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a> TAKING THE SEALS OFF<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a> THE FAIRY'S WAND<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a> FOUND<br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a> L'ENVOI<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>LOST SIR MASSINGBERD.</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<h3>OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT.</h3> + + +<p>Notwithstanding the baronet's polite invitation, and although Mr. Long +did not return, as expected, upon the ensuing morning, I felt no +inclination to exchange my solitude for the society of Mr. Gilmore at +bowls. I was, indeed, rather curious to see the bowling-green, which I +had heard from my tutor was one of the very finest in England, fenced in +by wondrous walls of yew; but, to arrive there, it was necessary to pass +close to the Hall, and, consequently, to run great risk of meeting Sir +Massingberd, my repugnance to whom had returned with tenfold strength +since the preceding day. My reason, it is true, could suggest no +possible harm from my having enclosed his letter to Marmaduke, but still +an indefinable dread of what I had done oppressed me. I could not +imagine in what manner I could have been outwitted; but a certain +malignant exultation in Sir Massingberd's face when he was taking his +leave, haunted my memory, and rendered hateful the idea of meeting it +again. Moreover, the companionship of Gilmore, the butler, was not +attractive. He bore a very bad character with the villagers, among whom +he was said to emulate in a humble manner the vices of his lord and +master; he had been his companion and confidential servant for a great +number of years, and it was not to be wondered at, even supposing that +he commenced that servitude as an honest man, that his principles +should have been sapped by the communication.</p> + +<p>Those who had known Richard Gilmore best and longest, however, averred +that his nature had not been the least impaired by this companionship, +inasmuch as it had been always as bad as bad could be. I never saw his +pale secretive face, with the thin lips tightly closed, as if to prevent +the escape of one truant word, without reflecting what a repository of +dark and wicked deeds that keeper of Sir Massingberd's conscience needs +must be. Such men usually hold such masters in their own hands; for they +know too much about them, and it is that species of knowledge which, +above all others, is power. But it was not so in this case; the +antecedents of Gilmore's master were probably as evil as those of any +person who has ever kept a valet, but there was this peculiarity about +the baronet—that he cared little or nothing whether people knew them or +not. When a thoroughly unprincipled man has arrived at the stage of +being entirely indifferent to what his fellow-creatures think of him, he +has touched his zenith; he is as much a hero to his <i>valet-de-chambre</i> +as to anybody else. It was Gilmore's nature to be reticent; but, for all +Sir Massingberd cared, he might have ascended the steps at the +stone-cross at Crittenden upon market-day, and held forth upon the +subject of his master's peccadillos. Sir Massingberd stood no more in +fear of him than of any other man; otherwise, he would scarcely have +used such frightful language to him as he did whenever the spirit-case +had not been properly replenished, or he happened to mislay the key of +his own cigar-chest. It was no delicate tending that the lord of +Fairburn Hall required; no accurate arrangement of evening garments ere +he returned from shooting; no slippers placed in front of the fire. As +he was attired in the morning, so he remained throughout the day, and, +if it were the poaching season, throughout the night also. He never was +ill, and only very rarely was he so overcome with liquor as to require +any assistance in retiring. The putting Sir Massingberd to bed must have +been a bad quarter of an hour for Mr. Gilmore. I have mentioned that +when I paid my only visit to the Hall, the front-door bell was answered +by the butler with very commendable swiftness, under the impression that +it was his master; and, indeed, it was rumoured that, on more than one +occasion, the baronet had felled his faithful domestic like an ox, for +dilatoriness. Wonder was sometimes expressed that Mr. Gilmore, who was +supposed, as the phrase goes, to have feathered his nest very agreeably +during his master's prosperous days, should cleave to him in his present +poverty—the mere sentiment of attachment being deemed scarcely strong +enough to retain his gratuitous services; but the reply commonly made to +this was, I have no doubt, correct—namely, that, however matters might +seem, Mr. Richard Gilmore, we might be well assured, knew his own +business best, and on which side his bread was buttered.</p> + +<p>Sagacious, however, as this gentleman doubtless was, I did not fancy him +as a companion to play bowls with; and, instead of going in the +direction of the bowling-green, I took my way to Fairburn Chase. I had +not set foot within it for more than a year, and the season was much +further advanced then when I had last been there. The stillness which +pervaded it in summertime was now broken by the flutter of the falling +leaf and the plash of the chestnuts on the moist and sodden ground; the +autumn rains had long set in; there was that "drip, drip, drip" in the +woods which so mournfully reminds us that the summer, with all its life +and warmth, has passed away; and the dank earth was sighing from beneath +its load of tangled leaves, which, "hanging so light and hanging so +high," but lately danced in the sunny air. The presentiment of evil +which overshadowed me was deepened by the melancholy of Nature. I moved +slowly through the drippling fern towards the heronry; from the little +island suddenly flew forth, not the stately birds who ordinarily reigned +there, but a pair of ravens. I knew that such had taken up their +residence in the old church tower, for I had seen them flying in and out +of its narrow ivied window-slits; but their appearance in the present +locality was most unexpected. I was far from being superstitious, but I +would rather have seen any other birds just then. A few steps further +brought me to that bend in the stream which had been such a favourite +haunt of mine before I had dreamed there so unpleasantly. The lime-trees +stood ragged and bare, and weeping silently, deprived of their summer +bee-music; the sparkling sand, wherein I had seen the mysterious +footprints, was dark and damp; a few steps further brought me to the +stepping-stones, by which that unknown visitant must have crossed over, +if she were indeed of mortal mould; the wood upon the other side was no +longer impenetrable to sight; and through its skeleton arms I could see +some building of considerable size at no great distance. I knew where +such of the keepers and gardeners as lived upon the estate resided, and +it puzzled me to imagine to what purpose this cottage was assigned.</p> + +<p>While I hesitated as to whether I should cross the turbid and swollen +current, whose waters almost entirely covered the stepping-stones, a +laugh prolonged and shrill burst forth from the very direction in which +I was looking. It was the same mocking cry, never to be forgotten, which +I had heard at that very spot some fifteen months before. Anywhere else, +I should have recognized it; but in that place it was impossible to +doubt its identity. Knife-like, it clove the humid and unwilling air; +and, before the sound had ceased, a short, sharp shriek succeeded +it—the cry of a smitten human creature. In a moment I had crossed the +stream, and was forcing my way through the wood. As I drew nearer, I +perceived the edifice before me was of stone, and with a slated roof, +instead of being built with clay, and thatched, as were the rest of Sir +Massingberd's cottages. There was no attempt at ornamentation, but the +place was unusually substantial for its size, the door being studded +with nails, while the window upon either side of it was protected by +iron bars.</p> + +<p>I was just emerging from the fringe of the wood, when another sound +smote on my ear, which caused me to pause at once, and remain where the +trunk of an elm tree intervened between me and the cottage; it was +merely the bark of a dog, but it checked my philanthropic enthusiasm +upon the instant. There was no mistaking that wheezy note, telling of +canine infirmity, and days prolonged far beyond the ordinary span of +dogs. Besides there was but one dog permitted to be at large in Fairburn +Chase. It was the execrable Grimjaw. I could see him from my place of +concealment turning his almost sightless eyes in my direction as he sat +at the cottage door. Immediately afterwards, it opened, and out came +Richard Gilmore; he looked about him suspiciously, but having convinced +himself that there was nobody in the neighbourhood, he administered a +kick to Grimjaw's ribs, reproached him in strong language for having +made a causeless disturbance, and turning the key, and pocketing it, +walked away by a footpath that doubtless led, although by no means +directly, to the Hall. He had a dog-whip in his hand when I first saw +him, which I thought was an odd thing for a butler to carry, and he +seemed to think so, too, for he put it in a side-pocket before he +started, and buttoned it up. Grimjaw, gathering his stiffened limbs +together, slowly followed him, not without turning his grey head ever +and anon towards my covert, but without venturing again to express his +suspicions. I waited until the charming pair were out of sight, ere I +advanced to the cottage.</p> + +<p>The door of course, was fast; so, approaching the right-hand window, I +cautiously looked in through its iron bars; there was no casement +whatever, therefore all the objects which the room contained were as +clear to me as though I were in it. I beheld a sitting-room, the +furniture of which was costly, and had been evidently intended for a +much larger apartment, but which in variety was scanty enough. At a +mahogany table, which retained little more of polish than if it had just +been sawn from its trunk in Honduras, sat an ancient female, with her +back towards me, supporting her chin on both hands; a cold chicken in a +metal dish was before her, but neither a plate nor knife and fork; she +was muttering something in a low tone to herself, which, if it was a +grace, must have been a very long one. Her hair was scanty, and white as +snow, but hung down almost to the ground; she was miserably thin; and +her clothes, although they had once been of rich material, were ragged +and old.</p> + +<p>I had made no noise, as I thought, in my approach; and the day was so +dull and dark that she could scarcely have perceived my presence by any +shadow of my eavesdropping self; but no sooner had I set my eyes on her +than she began to speak, without looking round, imagining, doubtless, +that I was Gilmore. "So you are there again, peeping and prying, are +you, wicked thief," cried she. "Don't you know that a real lady should +take her meals in peace without being interrupted, especially after she +has been beaten? Think of that, you cur. Why, where's your whip?" She +uttered these last words with a yell of scorn; and turning suddenly, +with one arm raised as if to ward a blow, she met my unexpected face, +and I saw hers. So remarkable was her appearance, that although it was +she, not I, who was taken by surprise, I think I was the more astounded +of the two. Her countenance was that of an old woman, so wrinkled, or +rather shrivelled up, that the furrows might have represented the +passage of a century of time; yet the teeth were as white and regular as +in a young beauty, and the black beaded eyes had a force and fire in +them unquenched by age. In her thin puckered ears hung a pair of +monstrous gilded ornaments, and round her skinny neck was a necklace +such as a stage queen would wear; yet she had naked feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is you, is it?" observed she, with a grave distinctness, in +strong contrast to her late excited and mocking tones. "If I had known +that you were coming, young gentleman, I would have put on my bracelets. +The family jewels are not all gone to the pawnbroker's, as is generally +believed. Besides, you should never insult people because they are poor, +or mad; one would not be either one or the other, you know, if one could +help it."</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, madam, that I should offer you any insult," said I, +touched by the evident misfortune of this poor creature. "I merely ran +hither because I heard the cry, as I thought, of some one in distress."</p> + +<p>"Ah, that was the dog, sir," replied the old woman cheerfully; "the +butler was correcting his dog, and it howled a little. Of course it +could not have been me—certainly not; Sir Massingberd is so excessively +anxious that I should have everything that is good for me; he said that +with his own lips. And what a handsome mouth he has, except when he +looks at <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Why at me?" cried I. "He has no cause to dislike me, has he!"</p> + +<p>"No cause!" cried the old woman, coming closer to the bars, and lowering +her voice to a confidential whisper. "Oh no—not if you were dead. I +never wished you worse than myself; no, not when my poor baby died, and +I could not weep. I feel that now; if I could only weep, as in the good +old times with my husband! There was plenty of good weeping +then—plenty."</p> + +<p>"But why should you wish me dead, madam, who have never done you any +harm?"</p> + +<p>"No harm? What not to have taken the title from my boy? No harm, when +but for you, he would have been the heir to house and land! Why, look +you, if it had not been for something, I would have driven Gilmore's +knife into you that day when you were sleeping under the limes. That was +the very place where I used to meet my love—let me see, how many years +ago?"</p> + +<p>The eager eyes for one instant ceased to glitter; some fragment of a +memory of the past claimed the restless brain; then once more she +rambled on. "One, two, three, four—he never struck me more than four +times; that's true, I swear."</p> + +<p>"And what was the something that prevented you from killing me when I +was asleep by the heron's island?" inquired I.</p> + +<p>"What was it?" replied the old woman sadly. "Did you not cry, 'Mother, +mother,' in your sleep, to make me think of my boy? I wept at that; just +one tear. He might have been such another as yourself—with the +same—Why, what's the matter with your forehead? What have you done +with your horseshoe? Every Heath wears one of them; then why not you, +young Marmaduke?"</p> + +<p>"My name is not Heath," said I; "you are taking me for somebody else."</p> + +<p>"Dear me—dear me, what a mistake! The fact is, that living in a house +affects one's sight. Now, let me guess. If you are not Marmaduke Heath, +you must be...—What a dark skin you have, and what kind eyes!" She +looked suspiciously round the room, and laying her finger on her lip, +observed beneath her breath: "You are not Stanley Carew, are you? They +told me he was hung, but I know better than that. I have seen him since +a hundred times. To be hung for nothing must be a terrible thing; but +how much worse to be hung for love!"</p> + +<p>"I am not Stanley Carew," said I; "I am Peter Meredith, who lives with +Mr. Long at the Rectory."</p> + +<p>"I never happen to have heard your name before, sir," replied the old +woman, mincingly; "perhaps you have never heard mine. Permit me to +introduce myself. Don't suppose that our people don't know good manners, +I am Sinnamenta—Lady Heath."</p> + +<p>"Madam," said I, deeply moved, "I apprehended as much. If I can do you +any service, be sure that the will shall not be wanting. Pray, tell me +what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>"Well," returned the poor creature, quickly, "Marmaduke Heath should be +killed at once, that is all important. We have been thinking of nothing +else, my husband and I. But perhaps you have done it already." (How I +shrank from that random shaft.) "If so, I have no further desire except +to get out. If I could only be once more in the greenwood, my hair would +reassume its natural colour. That is why Mr. Gilmore is so careful to +keep me thus locked up. If my husband only saw me with my black hair +again—it reached to the ground, sir—matters would be very different. I +think I have already observed that it is not customary to watch a lady +while she is partaking of refreshment."</p> + +<p>With that, she once more seated herself at the table, with her back to +me; and judging thereby that my presence was distasteful to her, and +having no notion of how I could possibly give her any aid, I withdrew +from the sad scene. I had not, however, gone many steps, when she called +me back again through the iron bars.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Meredith," said she, "you arrived somewhat unexpectedly. It is to +that circumstance alone, I beg to repeat, that you must attribute the +absence of bracelets. My very best regards to all your family. +Sinnamenta, you know—Lady Heath."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<h3>HARLEY STREET.</h3> + + +<p>While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in +rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable +by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the +course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it +is fabled to do. During each of my visits there, I had perceived its +silent increase even more clearly than those between whom it was growing +up into the perfect flower, leaf by leaf, and bud by bud; they had +tended it together—Marmaduke and Lucy—until it was well nigh in +blossom, and yet they had not said to one another, and perhaps not even +to themselves, "Why, this is surely Love." Mr. Gerard had watched it, +not displeased, for he had found the young man all that my heart had +foretold that he would; Mr. Clint had seen it, and won by the strong +sense, as much as by the beauty of the gentle girl, forgot the +revolutionary stock of which she came. This, thought he, is the wife for +Marmaduke Heath; tender, but yet determined; dutiful, but indisposed to +submit to unauthorized dictation; as fearless as kind. In her, once +wedded to this young man, so morbid, so sensitive, so yielding, Sir +Massingberd would find, if it should be necessary, not only a foe, +resolute herself, but as firm as steel for him whom she had dowered with +her love. What Marmaduke's nature wanted, hers would supply. The keen +lawyer foresaw for that unhappy family, whose interests he and his had +had in keeping so many scores of years, a future such as had never been +promised before. It was an admission painful to me enough at that time, +but which I could not conceal from myself, that the real obstacle which +prevented the open recognition of attachment between these two young +people was Marmaduke himself. No girl more modest or less forward than +Lucy Gerard ever breathed, but I knew—ah, how well I knew!—that a word +from him would have brought the love-light to her eyes, which now lay +waiting but for it in the careful keeping of her maiden heart. But that +word had not been spoken. Perfect love, Marmaduke did not yet feel, for +he had not quite cast out fear. How can a man offer heart and hand to a +woman whom he does not feel certain that he can protect? It is for this +reason that marriage among slaves must for ever be a mockery. There +was, of course, no danger to Lucy Gerard in her marrying with Marmaduke, +although his uncle should storm "No" a thousand times; but the young man +felt that he was unworthy of her, while he entertained any terror of +him. It was wearing away; it was weakening day by day, through genial +influences, and the absence of all things which reminded him of Fairburn +and its master, but it was not dead yet. If by these words, I lead any +of my readers to suppose that Marmaduke Heath had the least resemblance +to that thing which is called a Coward, I have done my friend a grievous +wrong. Let me do away with the possibility of this most mistaken notion, +at once and for ever, by the recital of an event which, although it does +not come within the scope of the present narrative, nearly concerns one +of its most important characters.</p> + +<p>After the peace in 1815, there were more officers—English and +French—killed in single combat in Paris than in any one of the most +bloody battles of the late war. This desire to exterminate individual +Englishmen extended over the whole of France. A certain gentleman of my +acquaintance, then a very young man, chanced to be passing through a +town in Normandy, where an assemblage was collected outside the office +of the mayor. This arose from the very uncommon circumstance that that +functionary had been appealed to by a post-captain in the English navy +to punish a bullying Frenchman, who had striven to fasten a quarrel upon +him, although entirely unprovoked on his part. Now-a-days, the captain +would have been held to have behaved rightly enough, perhaps, but in +those fire-eating times an honest man's life was at the mercy of every +worthless ruffian who chose to run an equal risk with him from powder +and bullet. The decision, wonderful to relate, was given by the mayor +against his compatriot, and the crowd were correspondingly enraged. My +friend, whose nationality was apparent, was hustled and ill-treated, and +one person, well-dressed, and evidently of good position, knocked his +hat off, observing at the same time: "You will complain of me to the +mayor for that."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," returned the young Englishman quietly, picking his hat +up, all broken and muddy, from the trampled ground: "I shall treat you +very differently."</p> + +<p>"You will fight, will you? Come—I challenge you. Let us fight to-morrow +morning," exclaimed the bully, who was, as it turned out, a notorious +provincial duellist.</p> + +<p>"Not to-morrow, but now," rejoined my friend; "I have no time to wait +here, for I must be in Paris on Tuesday."</p> + +<p>"Then it will be in Père la Chaise," responded the other brutally.</p> + +<p>There was no difficulty in procuring seconds, which were even more +plentiful in those parts than principals, and the whole party +immediately left the town for a wood outside its suburbs. The choice of +weapons of course lay with the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"Which do you prefer," asked the Frenchman who acted as his friend upon +the occasion—"the pistol or the sword?"</p> + +<p>"I have never fired a pistol in my life," replied the Englishman, "nor +handled a sword."</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" cried his second, "what a barbarous education, what a +stupendous ignorance! You are as good as dead, I fear. I know not which +to recommend you. It is, however, at least sooner over with the +pistol."</p> + +<p>"The pistol be it then," said the Englishman coolly. "I elect that only +one shall be loaded; and that we fire within four paces of one another. +We shall then have an equal chance."</p> + +<p>The duellist turned pale as the death that threatened him, but he did +not venture to make any objection. It was manifest no other proposal +would have been fair. The seconds went apart, and placed powder and ball +in one weapon, powder only in the other. The combatants drew lots for +choice. The Frenchman won. The pistols were lying on a log of wood; he +advanced towards them, took one up in his hand, and retired with it, +then once more came back, and exchanged it for the other. He fancied +that the weapon was lighter than it should have been if it had a ball +within it. My friend's second objected strongly to this course; he +called it even unfair and shameful; he protested that the pistol taken +first ought to be retained. But the young Englishman, who was leaning +carelessly against a tree, exclaimed, "Let the gentleman have which he +likes. Whether he is right or not will be decided in a few seconds." So +the combatants were placed opposite to one another, and advanced to +within four paces. They raised their weapons; the word was given to +fire, and the Frenchman fell, pierced through the heart.</p> + +<p>"His blood is upon his own head," exclaimed the other solemnly. "He was +brave enough to have been a better man." Then perceiving that his help +could be of no avail to his late antagonist, he lifted his battered hat +to the Frenchman that remained alive, and returning to his carriage, +immediately resumed his journey.</p> + +<p>It is not possible, without putting some very strained and unusual +meaning on the word, to call the hero of such an adventure a coward; yet +the man who acted thus was Marmaduke Heath.</p> + +<p>The above relation is but a clumsy method of proving him courageous, I +am well aware; but I really know not otherwise how to make him appear +so, slave, as it is seen he was, to terrors which must seem almost +imaginary. It is said that no man, however fearless, quite gets over his +awe of his schoolmaster. An exaggeration of this sentiment probably +possessed this unfortunate young man; added to which was the fact that +Sir Massingberd was his uncle, a family tie which was doubtless not +without its influence, notwithstanding Marmaduke's evil opinion of his +own race. I suspect, too, he entertained a morbid notion that his own +life and that of his relative were somehow bound up together in one; +and on the few occasions when I ever saw him moved to wrath, a +similarity—mental as well as physical—between him and his uncle became +apparent, which actually inspired him with a sort of awe and hatred of +<i>himself</i>. A noble mind more injured and misshapen by ill-training it +was impossible to imagine. For the last few months, however, as I have +said, it had been growing aright, and gaining strength and vigour. No +home—even Mr. Clint and my tutor felt that—could possibly be better +adapted for him than his present one; the society of Mr. Gerard, a man +independent almost to audacity, and despising the haughty and the strong +with a supreme contempt, was the very tonic he needed. Rarely, however, +was his uncle's name mentioned in his presence: at first, Mr. Gerard had +purposely spoken of Sir Massingberd lightly and jestingly, but it was +found that the subject had better be altogether avoided. It is ill to +jest upon earthquakes with one who, having but just recovered from +certain shocks of a volcanic nature, is not without apprehensions of +more to come. This anticipation turned out to be but too well grounded. +A day or two after my discovery of the baronet's poor gipsy-wife at +Fairburn, whose existence was well known, I found, to both the rector +and Mr. Clint, and of course to Marmaduke himself, the postman carried +misfortune from me to Harley Street, although I was myself as +unconscious of the fact as he. Marmaduke did not come in to luncheon +from his study, as usual, and Mr. Gerard was sent with a gay message to +him by Lucy, to bid him do so. He was not wanted, he was to be assured, +upon his own account at all, but she was dying to hear news of Peter, +whose handwriting she had perceived upon the letter that had been sent +in to him that morning. Mr. Gerard found the poor lad with his eyes +riveted upon an autograph that was not mine, and upon words that I would +rather have cut off my hand than knowingly have sent him:</p> + + +<p>"Nephew Marmaduke,—I am told, whether falsely or not, it does not +matter now, that you have not seen the letter which I previously sent to +you. I think you can scarcely have done so, or you would not have dared +to disobey my orders therein contained, but would have returned to +Fairburn long ago. At all events, you will read <i>this</i> with your own +eyes, and beware how you hesitate to comply with it. <i>Return hither, +sir, at once.</i> It is idle to suppose that I wish you harm, as those you +are with would fain persuade you; but it is far worse than idle to +attempt to cross my will. Come back to Fairburn, and I will behave +towards you as though you had not acted in your late undutiful manner. +Delay to do so, and be sure that you will still have to return, but +under very different circumstances. Marmaduke Heath, you should know me +well by this time. When I say 'Come,' it is bad for the person to whom I +speak to reply, 'I will not come.' I give you twenty-four hours to +arrive here after the receipt of this letter; when these have elapsed +without my seeing you, I shall consider your absence to be equivalent to +a contumacious refusal. Then war will begin between us; and the strife +will be unequal, Nephew Marmaduke; although you had fifty men at your +back like lawyer Clint and this man Gerard, they could not keep you +from my arm. It will reach you wheresoever you are, at the time you +least suspect it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. +However well it may seem to be with you, it will not be well. When you +think yourself safest, you will be most in danger. There is indeed but +one place of safety for you: come you home.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">"MASSINGBERD HEATH."</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<p>The wily baronet had fooled me, and doubtless, when I rose to light the +taper, had substituted the above letter for that which he had persuaded +me to enclose to his unhappy nephew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<h3>BEFORE THE BLOW.</h3> + + +<p>As yet in ignorance of the mischief which I had unwittingly done to my +dearest friend, I could not but wonder why I received no news from +Harley Street. I had confessed to Mr. Long what Sir Massingberd had +persuaded me to do, and although he had thought me wrong to have acted +without consulting him in the matter, he anticipated no evil +consequences. He rather sought to laugh me out of my own forebodings and +presentiments. Still there was this somewhat suspicious corroboration of +them, that the newborn courtesies of our formidable neighbour had +suddenly ceased, as though the end for which they had been used was +already attained. The baronet's manner towards us was as surly as ever, +and even a trifle more so, as if to recompense himself for his previous +constrained politeness. To myself, his manner was precisely that of a +man who does not attempt to conceal his contempt for one whom he has +duped. Since Marmaduke's departure, there had gone forth various +decrees, injunctions, and what not, from the Court of Chancery, obtained +doubtless through Mr. Clint, on behalf of the heir-presumptive, against +certain practices of Sir Massingberd connected with the estate. Formerly +he had done what he chose, not only with "his own," but with what was +not his own in the eye of the law. But Marmaduke's reversionary rights +were now strictly protected. Not a tree in the park could fell beneath +the axe, but the noise thereof reached the Chancellor's ears, and +brought down reproof, and even threats, upon the incensed baronet. His +hesitation to institute proceedings for the recovery of his ward, had +given confidence to his opponents; and Mr. Gerard was not one to suffer +the least wrong to be committed with impunity; it was out of his pocket +that the expenses came for the edicts necessary to enforce compliance, +and I have heard him say that he never remembered to have spent any +money with greater personal satisfaction.</p> + +<p>This "thinning the timber" (as Sir Massingberd euphoniously termed +cutting down the most ornamental trees, in his excusatory despatches), +having been put a stop to, the squire took to selling the family plate. +A quantity of ancient silver, with the astonished Griffins upon it, was +transferred from the custody of Gilmore to that of certain transmuters +of metal in town, and came back again to Fairburn Hall in the shape of +gold pieces. But even the melting-pot was compelled to disclose its +secrets; and the squire received such a severe reprimand upon the text +of heirlooms, as made him writhe with passion, and which put an end to +any friendly connection that might have before existed between himself +and John, Lord Eldon, at once and for ever. I think it must have been +immediately after the receipt of that very communication, that Sir +Massingberd came over to the rectory upon the following errand. Mr. Long +and myself were at our "Tacitus" in the study one evening, when the +baronet was announced, and I rose to leave the room. "Stay where you +are, young gentleman," said he roughly; "what I have to say will, it is +like enough, soon be no secret to anybody. Mr. Long, I must tell you at +once that money I must have. The way in which my property is meddled +with by the lawyer in London, set on to do it by friends of yours, too, +is beyond all bearing. I declare to you, that I—Sir Massingberd Heath, +the nominal owner of twenty thousand acres, and of a rent-toll of half +as many thousand pounds—have not five guineas in my pocket at this +moment, nor do I know how to raise them. Now, am I a man, think you, to +sit down with my hands before me, and submit to such a state of things +as this?"</p> + +<p>"Really, Sir Massingberd, I cannot say," returned my tutor; "I cannot +see how I can help you in anyway."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you <i>can</i> help me, sir. You have influence with those +persons—curse them!—who have taken it in hand to do me these +injuries, who have interfered between uncle and nephew, between guardian +and ward. Now, I have made up my mind what I will do, and I am come here +to let you know it. You pretend to entertain some regard towards your +late pupil, Marmaduke."</p> + +<p>"The regard is genuine, Sir Massingberd. I wish others entertained the +like, who are more nearly connected with him than by the bond of pupil +and tutor."</p> + +<p>"Pray put me out of the question," returned the baronet coolly. "What I +have to say concerns others, not myself. You like this lad, and wish him +well; you hope for him an unclouded future; you trust that the character +of the family will be redeemed in his virtuous hands, and that the +remembrance of what it has been will not cleave to him, but will +gradually die out."</p> + +<p>"That is my earnest desire," replied Mr. Long, gravely.</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear it," continued the other; "and I suppose Mr. Clint +cherishes some similar notion; and this man Gerard—this rebel, this +hypocrite——"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, interrupting him, "you have bidden me +stay here; but I shall not remain to listen to slanders against Mr. +Harvey Gerard; he is no hypocrite, but a very honest and kind-hearted +man."</p> + +<p>"He has hoodwinked this young wise-acre already, you see," pursued the +baronet. "His object is evidently to secure the heir of Fairburn for his +daughter; I have not the least doubt the jade is making play with the +poor molly-coddle as fast as——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Long and myself both rose before the speaker could finish the +sentence. My tutor checked with his finger the wrathful words that were +at my lips, and observed with energy: "Sir Massingberd, be silent! +Under my roof, you shall not traduce that virtuous and excellent young +girl."</p> + +<p>I never saw Mr. Long so excited; I never admired him so much. The +baronet paused, as though hesitating whether it was worth while to +indulge himself in uttering insults; I am thankful to say he decided +that it was not. It would have been pollution to Lucy Gerard's name to +have heard it spoken by such lips.</p> + +<p>"Well, well," returned he, "I have nothing to say against the young +woman. It is probable, however, you will allow, that some attachment may +arise between herself and my nephew. You grant that, do you? Ah, I +thought so. In that case, Mr. Gerard would prefer the husband of his +daughter to be free from all stain. Good! There are three persons then, +at least, all interested in my nephew's good name. Now, listen: you know +something, parson, of the mode of life pursued by the Heaths from +generation to generation; you know something of the deeds that have been +committed at Fairburn Hall. What is known, however, is honourable and +harmless compared to what is <i>not</i> known; the vices which you have +shuddered at are mere follies—the offspring of idleness and high +spirits—compared to those of which you have yet to hear."</p> + +<p>It is impossible to imagine a more repulsive spectacle than this man +presented, exulting not only in his own wickedness, but in that of his +forefathers. He took from his pocket a huge manuscript, and thus +proceeded:—"The records of the House of Heath are red with blood, and +black with crime. I hold them in my hand here, and they are very pretty +reading. Now, look you, I will leave them here for your perusal, +parson—they have at least this attraction about them, they are +<i>true</i>—and when you have made yourself master of the contents, perhaps +you can recommend to me a publisher."</p> + +<p>"Is it possible," cried my tutor, "that you can do this dreadful wrong +at once to ancestors and descendant? Have you no mercy even for kith and +kin? Do you dare to defy God and Man alike?"</p> + +<p>"I dare publish that pamphlet, unless I have money," quoth Sir +Massingberd scornfully, "and that is the sole question with which we +need now concern ourselves. A pretty welcome young Sir Marmaduke will +meet with when he comes into the country among all who know his family +history. As for me, my character is one which is not likely to suffer +from any disclosure."</p> + +<p>"Are all the murders done and attempted set down here, Sir Massingberd?" +inquired my tutor, taking up the pamphlet "The catalogue of crime is +truly frightful; but you do not seem to have brought the narrative down +to the most recent dates."</p> + +<p>"The most recent dates?" reiterated the baronet mechanically.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," responded my tutor, "the history is evidently incomplete. If +it should come out in its present form, it would need an appendix. I +would scarcely recommend you to run the risk of another person +publishing a continuation. You had better take it home, and reconsider +the matter."</p> + +<p>The baronet affected to receive this advice in earnest, and retired, +foiled and furious.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> He never more set foot in the Rectory, save +twice; once when he called upon me, and persuaded me to forward that +hateful letter to Marmaduke, and again upon the occasion I am about to +describe. The errand he then came upon was of small consequence, but the +circumstance I shall never forget. After-events have made it one of the +most memorable in my life, for it was the last time, save one, that I +ever beheld Massingberd Heath. Little did I think what a mystery was +then impending—so frightful, so unexampled, that it now seems almost +strange that it did not visibly overshadow that giant form, that +ruthless face. If we could thus read the future of others, how fearful +would be many a meeting which is now so conventional and commonplace! It +is true that we should always part, both from friends and from enemies, +in some sort as though we were parting with them for the last time; but +how different a leave-taking would it be, if we were indeed assured +that they and we would meet no more upon this side the grave! How I +should have devoured that man with mine eyes, had I known that they +would not again behold him—save one awful Once—before we should both +stand together in the presence of God! What terrors, what anxieties, +what enigmas were about to be brought to us and to others by the +morrow's sun! Yet, at the time, with what little things we occupied +ourselves! It was in the morning that Sir Massingberd paid his visit—a +morning of early November, when the first sharp frost had just set in. +He came about money matters, as usual. We were surprised to see him, +because, as I have said, he had relapsed into his accustomed stern +unsociable habits, and had seemed to have given up all attempts to gain +any furtherance of his plans from Mr. Long. He had called he said, about +a matter that affected the parson himself, or he would not have +troubled him. Certain Methodists had offered him twenty pounds a year as +the ground-rent of a chapel to be built upon the outskirts of the Park, +and within view of the Rectory windows. For his part, he hated the +Methodists; and had no sort of wish to offend Mr. Long by granting their +prayer. Still, being grievously in want of money, he had come to say +that if Mr. Clint could not be induced to give him some pecuniary help, +the chapel must be built.</p> + +<p>My tutor, who had a very orthodox abhorrence of all dissent, and +especially when it threatened his own parish, was exceedingly disturbed +by this intelligence.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried he; "you preach to your nephew doctrines of Conservatism, +Sir Massingberd, and yet are induced for a wretched bribe to let a nest +of sectaries be built in the very avenue of your Park!"</p> + +<p>"It is terrible indeed," quoth the baronet drily; "but they might set it +up opposite my front door for an extra five-pound note. I announce their +offer solely on your account. They call on me to-morrow for my final +decision, and I cannot afford to say, 'No.' Now, you can do what you +please with Mr. Clint, and may surely represent to him that this is a +case where twenty pounds may be well expended. The matter will thus be +staved off for a year at least; and next year, you know, I may be in +better circumstances—or dead, which many persons would greatly prefer."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," returned my tutor gravely, "I will do my best with Mr. +Clint; but in the meantime, rather than let this chapel be built, I will +advance the money you mention at my own risk. I happen to have a +considerable sum in the house at present, which I intended to lodge with +the bank at Crittenden to-morrow. So you shall have the notes at once."</p> + +<p>"That is very fortunate," said the baronet, coolly; and Mr. Long counted +them out into his hand—twenty flimsey, but not yet ragged, one-pound +notes, for the imitation of the like of which half-a-dozen men were at +that time often strung up in front of the Old Bailey together. From +82961 to 82980 the numbers ran, which—albeit I am no great hand at +recollecting such things—I shall remember, from what followed, as long +as I live. I can see the grim Squire now, as he rolls them tightly up, +and places them in that huge, lapelled waistcoat-pocket; as he slaps it +with his mighty hand, as though he would defy the world to take them +from him, however unlawfully acquired; as he leaves the room with an +insolent nod, and clangs across the iron road with his nailed shoes.</p> + +<p>I watch him through the Rectory window, as, ere he puts the key in his +garden-door, he casts a chance look-up at the sky. He looks to see what +will happen on the morrow. Does he read nothing save Continuance of Fine +and Frosty Weather? Nothing. All is blue and clear as steel; not a cloud +to be seen the size of a man's hand from north to south, from east to +west. There is no warning to be read in the cold and smiling heaven; no +"<i>Mene, mene</i>," for this worse than Belshazzar on its broad cerulean +wall!</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> Years afterwards I became possessed of the pamphlet in +question, which, having glanced at, I very carefully committed to the +flames. I do not doubt, however, that Sir Massingberd would have carried +his threat into execution, had not Mr. Long's menace shaken his +purpose.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<h3>LOST.</h3> + + +<p>The morning subsequent to Sir Massingberd's visit to the Rectory was +bright, but intensely cold. I was very particular about my shaving in +those days, and would not have dispensed with that manly exercise upon +any account; but I remember that the frost made it a difficult process. +In the course of the ceremony, Mrs. Myrtle, who was a very privileged +person, knocked softly at my door. A visit from her at such a time was +unusual, but not unprecedented. I said, "Pray, come in." My attire was +tolerably complete, and perhaps I was not indisposed to let people know +what tremendous difficulties were entailed upon a gentleman by the +possession of an obstinate beard. I was not prepared for her closing the +door behind her, sinking into the nearest chair, and fanning herself, as +though it had been midsummer, with her outspread fingers. I looked at +her with a face all soap-suds and astonishment.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Myrtle, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't ask me, Master Peter," cried she, although she had come for +no other purpose than to be cross-questioned. "Oh, pray, don't, for it's +more nor I can bear. Dearey me, if I ain't all of a twitter!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing the matter with your master," said I, "surely? I saw him out of +the window a little while ago on the lawn, talking to one of the +under-keepers of the Hall."</p> + +<p>"I dare say you did, sir," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, with one of those +aggravated shudders which are generally produced by the anticipation of +senna and salts. "No, master's all well, thank Heaven."</p> + +<p>"No bad news from Harley Street?" exclaimed I, laying down my razor in a +tremor. "I trust Miss...—I mean that Mr. Marmaduke is as he should be."</p> + +<p>"For all that I know to the contrary, he is, sir," returned the +housekeeper; "and likewise all <i>friends</i>" Mrs. Myrtle laid such an +accent upon "friends" that my mind naturally rushed to the opposite.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say," said I, "that anything has happened to Sir +Massingberd?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Myrtle had no voice to speak, but she nodded a number of times in +compensation.</p> + +<p>"Is he DEAD?" asked I, very solemnly, for it was terrible to think of +sudden death in connection with that abandoned man.</p> + +<p>"Wus than dead, sir," returned the housekeeper; "many times wus than +dead; Heaven forgive me for saying so. Sir Massingberd is LOST."</p> + +<p>"Lost!" repeated I; "how? where?"</p> + +<p>"There is only One knows that, Master Peter; but the Squire is not at +the Hall, that's certain; he never returned there last night, after he +had gone his rounds in the preserves. He spoke with Bradford and two +more of the keepers, and bade them keep a good look-out as usual; but he +did not come to the watchers in the Home Plantation. He never got so +near the house as that; nobody saw him since midnight. Gilmore put out +his cigars and spirits as usual for him in his room; but they are +untouched. The front-door was not fastened on the inside; Sir +Massingberd never came in."</p> + +<p>Here I heard Mr. Long calling upon the stairs in a voice very different +from his customary cheerful tones, for Mrs. Myrtle.</p> + +<p>"Mercy me, I wonder whether there's anything new!" cried she, rising +with great alacrity. "As soon as I knows it, you shall know it, Master +Peter;" with which generous promise she hurried from the room.</p> + +<p>After this intelligence, shaving became an impossibility, and I hurried +down as soon as I could into the breakfast-room. My tutor was standing +at the window very thoughtful, and though he greeted me with his usual +hilarity, it struck me that it was a little forced.</p> + +<p>"Why, you are early this morning, Peter; and how profusely you have +illustrated yourself with cuts; it is sad to see one so young with such +a shaky hand. One would think you were one of the five-bottle-men, like +Sir—like Lord Stowell."</p> + +<p>He had been about to say "Sir Massingberd," I knew, and would on +ordinary occasions not have hesitated to do so.</p> + +<p>"De perditis nil nisi bonum?" quoth I inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, so you have heard of this nine hours' wonder, have you?" returned +my tutor. "Because our neighbour has chosen to leave home for a little, +on some private business best known to himself, everybody will have it +that he is Lost."</p> + +<p>"But it does seem very extraordinary too," said I, "does it not? He has +never done so before, has he?"</p> + +<p>"Not in all the years he has lived in Fairburn," returned my tutor +musingly.</p> + +<p>"And he made no preparations, I suppose, for departure, did he? Took no +clothes with him?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, nothing," interrupted Mr. Long, pacing the room to and fro, +with his hand to his forehead. "But he had money, you know; he was eager +to get that money yesterday."</p> + +<p>"Then he would probably have hired a vehicle," urged I; "Sir Massingberd +is not the man to use his own legs, beyond the limit, that is, of his +own lands. You have heard him say that he would never be seen on the +road without four horses."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long continued his walk without reply, but I thought I perceived +that he was not unwilling to have the subject discussed. He seemed to be +eager to take as light a view of the matter as possible, although like +one who contends against his own more sombre convictions. I, on the +contrary, had that leaning towards the gloomy and mysterious not +uncommon with young persons, and both imagined the worst, and +endeavoured to picture it.</p> + +<p>"He went out after the poachers did he not?" said I.</p> + +<p>"Yes, as usual," replied my tutor; "he has done it before, scores of +times."</p> + +<p>"The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last," returned I. +"I should not be surprised if the wretched man has been murdered by some +of those against whom he waged such unceasing war."</p> + +<p>"Then if so, he must have been shot, Peter," returned the rector +hastily: "without firearms, it would have been hard to dispose of the +gigantic baronet, armed as he doubtless was with his life-preserver. Now +no gun has been heard to go off by any one, although it was thought that +Sir Massingberd expected some raid to be made last night, by the +gipsies or others; at all events, he seemed more alert than usual, +Oliver tells me."</p> + +<p>The gipsies! My heart sank within me, as I thought of Rachel Liversedge +consumed with the wrongs of her "little sister;" and of the young man, +relative of that unhappy Carew whose life had been sworn away through +the Squire's machinations. I had seen nothing of them since my memorable +interview, but it was like enough that the tribe were yet in the +neighbourhood. True, they had waited so long for vengeance, that it was +not probable they should have set about it at this time; but if Sir +Massingberd had really come across them alone, while they were +committing a depredation, violence might easily enough have ensued; and +if violence, murder. I was very glad that Mrs. Myrtle came in at this +juncture with the eggs and buttered toast, and concealed my +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"No news, sir," said she lugubriously, as she placed the delicacies upon +the table. "The last words were, 'Nothing has been heard of him.'" The +housekeeper had established a system of communication by help of her +kitchen-maid and the stable-lad at the Hall, whereby she received +bulletins, every quarter of an hour or so, with respect to Sir +Massingberd's mysterious disappearance.</p> + +<p>"Well, no news is good news, you know," responded Mr. Long gaily. "We +should always look upon the bright side of things, Mrs. Myrtle."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; but when a thing ain't got a bright side," remarked the +housekeeper, shaking her head. "Why, it's dreadful now he's Lost; and it +would be dreadful even if, after all, he was al——"</p> + +<p>"Hush, hush, Mrs. Myrtle; you don't know but you may be speaking of a +poor soul that is gone to his account. Sir Massingberd is doubtless a +bad man; but let us not call it dreadful if he should be permitted to +return among us, and have some time yet, it may be, to repent in."</p> + +<p>"Then you think he's dead and gone, do you, sir? Well, that's what I +think, and that's what Patty thinks too, and she's a very reasonable +girl. 'Them ravens,' says she to me, 'didn't come to that church-tower +for nothing;' and though, of course, I told her to hold her tongue, and +not talk folly like that, there was a good deal in what she said. Why, +we have not had ravens here since Sir Wentworth came to his awful end in +London; there was a mystery about that too, wasn't there, sir? +Lawk-a-mercy! Mr. Meredith, you gave me quite a turn."</p> + +<p>I had only said "Look there!" and pointed to the window, through which +Gilmore and the head-keeper were seen approaching the Rectory, and +engaged in close conversation.</p> + +<p>"I'll go with Patty, and let them in," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, unconsciously +betraying that she was unequal to opening the door alone, in such an +emergency. It is probable that, when it was opened, the incomers and she +had a great deal to talk about, for they were not ushered into the +breakfast-room for many minutes, and after the very moderate meal which +sufficed us both upon the occasion had long been finished. The butler +and Oliver Bradford were by no means good friends, and it must have been +something portentous indeed which brought them to the Rectory together. +It was, in fact, their very rivalry which had produced the double +visit. Each conceived himself to be the superior minister of the absent +potentate, and called upon, by that position, to act in his master's +behalf, and give notice to neighbouring powers, such as the parson, of +the event that had paralyzed affairs at the Hall. It seemed only natural +(as he himself subsequently expressed it) to Oliver Bradford, who had +been servant, man and boy, to the Heath family for nearly sixty years, +that he should be the spokesman on an occasion such as this, and +sleeking his scanty white hairs over his forehead with the palm of his +hand, and passing the back of it across his mouth, he commenced as +follows:—</p> + +<p>"Muster Long, I make bold to come over here, having been upon the +property going on for three-score years and ten——"</p> + +<p>"As out-door servant," interrupted Mr. Gilmore, severely; "but not as +confidential in any way. Mr. Long, this old man here insisted upon +accompanying me in the performance of my duty, and I have humoured him."</p> + +<p>"You've what?" cried the ancient keeper; "you've humoured <i>me</i>, you oily +knave, have you? No, no, you never did that to Oliver Bradford. It +wasn't worth your while. I come here about my master's business as a +matter of right. Are a few years of truckling, and helping the devil's +hand, and feathering your own nest pretty comfortably, to be weighed +against a lifetime of honest service? Let Mr. Long here decide."</p> + +<p>"Look here, men," quoth my tutor, "it is no use quarrelling about +precedence. You are both in the same service, and owe the same duty to +your master. I know what has happened in a general way, and require no +long story from either of you. But you have doubtless each of you some +information concerning this matter peculiar to your own positions, and I +will ask you to communicate it in time. Twelve hours have not elapsed +since your master's disappearance, a very short time surely to set it +down so decidedly to some fatal accident."</p> + +<p>"He was as regular in his rounds as clockwork," interposed the old +keeper, shaking his head; "he would never have left the Home Spinney +unvisited last night, if life had been in him."</p> + +<p>"And if he had meant to leave Fairburn of his own head," added the +butler, "he would have come back for his brandy before he started; for +all his hearty look, Sir Massingberd could not get on long without that; +and he would not have taken Grimjaw out with him neither."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the dog was with him, was it?" said my tutor, musing.</p> + +<p>"It was not in the house, sir," replied Gilmore, "after Sir Massingberd +had left. I went to make the fire in his sitting-room, and I noticed +that the creature was neither on the hearthrug, nor under the sofa, as +is usually the case. I don't know when I have known the dog go out with +him o' nights before. When I went to open the front door as usual this +morning, there was Grimjaw, nigh frozen to death."</p> + +<p>"Your master had made no sort of preparation, so far as you know, for +his own departure anywhere?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever. I set out his cigars for him, and I noticed that he had +only put two in his case, a sure sign that he meant to return soon. He +had no greatcoat, although it was bitter cold."</p> + +<p>"Was he armed in any way?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; that is to say, he had his life-preserver, of course, but no +gun or pistol."</p> + +<p>"Had he any sum of money, or valuables of any kind about him, Gilmore?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think that is at all likely," replied the butler, grinning. "We +haven't seen money at the Hall this many a day. As for valuables, Sir +Massingberd had his big gold chain on, with a silver watch at the end of +it, borrowed from me years ago, and my property."</p> + +<p>It was remarkable how this ordinarily cautious and discreet person was +changed in manner, as though he was well assured that he would never +more have a master over him. Both Mr. Long and myself observed this.</p> + +<p>"What time was your master usually accustomed to return home from his +rounds in the preserves?"</p> + +<p>"I did not sit up for him in general," returned Gilmore; "but when I +have chanced to be awake, and to hear him come in, it was never later +than three o'clock. His ordinary time was about half-past twelve, but it +depended on what time he started. He left the Hall last night at about +ten, and should, therefore, have returned a little after midnight. I +never set eyes on him since nine o'clock, when he was in his own +sitting-room reading."</p> + +<p>"And when did <i>you</i> see him last, Bradford?"</p> + +<p>"When did I see Sir Massingberd Heath?" replied the old keeper, who had +been chafing with impatience through his rival's evidence—"well, I +see'd him last nine hours ago, at nearly twelve o'clock at night. I was +on watch in the Old Plantation, and he came upon me sudden, as usual, +with his long quick stride."</p> + +<p>"Was there anything at all irregular about his manner or appearance; +anything in the least degree different from what you always saw upon +these occasions?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, whatever, sir. Look you, I knew my master well," [He had +already begun to talk of him in the past tense!] "I could tell at a +glance when he was put out more than usual, or when he had anything out +of ordinary in hand; he never swore, saving your reverence's presence, +what you may call <i>freely</i> then. He might have knocked one down, likely +enough, if you gave him the least cross, but he was not flush of his +oaths. Now I never heard him in a better fettle in that respect than he +was last night. He cussed the lad Jem Meyrick, who had come up to me +away from Davit's Copse for a light to his pipe; and he cussed me too, +for giving it him, up hill and down dale, and in particular he cussed +Grimjaw for being so old and slow that he couldn't keep up with him. +Sir Massingberd never waited for him, of course; but after he'd been +with us a few minutes, the old dog came up puffin' and wheezin'; and +when the Squire left us, it followed him as well as it could, but with +the distance getting greater between them at every step. I watched them, +for the moon made it almost as light as day, going straight for the +Wolsey Oak, which was the direct way for the Home Spinney; and that was +where Sir Massingberd meant to go last night, although he never got +there, or leastways the watcher never saw him.</p> + +<p>"Have you any reason to believe, keeper, that there were poachers in any +part of the preserves last night?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Oliver, positively. "On the contrary, I knows there +wasn't, although Sir Massingberd was as suspicious of them as usual, or +more so. Why, with Jack Larrup and Dick Swivel both in jail, and all +the Larchers sent out of the parish, and Squat and Burchall at sea, +where was they to come from?"</p> + +<p>"Sir Massingberd must have had many enemies?" mused my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Ay, indeed, sir," replied old Oliver, pursing his lips; "he held his +own with the strong hand; so strong, however, as no man would contend +against him. If Sir Massingberd has been killed, Mr Long, it was not in +fair fight; he was too much feared for that."</p> + +<p>"There has been a gang of gipsies about the place this long time, has +there not?" quoth my tutor.</p> + +<p>"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of +Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're +feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, +although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more +have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would +attack a hawk, that's certain."</p> + +<p>My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation +with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and +inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, +and when.</p> + +<p>"You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this +afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have +chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry +having been made after him?"</p> + +<p>"That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis.</p> + +<p>"I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, +sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years."</p> + +<p>"In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the +responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very +good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, +to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, +must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary +up at the Hall."</p> + +<p>The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "<i>Very</i> well, sir," +but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We +must go together."</p> + +<p>"I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, +when the two had left the room.</p> + +<p>"No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about +collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain."</p> + +<p>Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I +meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't +you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by +for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle—a +sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any +further, just at present.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<h3>THE STONE GARDEN.</h3> + + +<p>When Mr. Long took his departure with Gilmore, he did not ask me to +accompany him, and assist in an undertaking which was likely to be +somewhat laborious. Perhaps he wished if the baronet did chance to +return in a fury, that he alone should bear the brunt of it. Perhaps he +thought there might be things at the Hall I had better not see, or +perhaps he wished to observe the butler's behaviour at leisure. I think, +however, he could scarcely have expected me to stay at home with my +books, while such doings as he had directed were on the point of taking +place. Euripides was doubtless in his day a sensation dramatist, but +the atrocities of Medea could not enchain me, with so much dreadful +mystery afoot in my immediate neighbourhood. Her departure through the +air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, was indeed a striking +circumstance; but how much more wonderful was the disappearance of Sir +Massingberd, who had departed no man knew how!</p> + +<p>The news had spread like wildfire through the village. Numbers of +country folk were hanging about the great gates of the avenue, drinking +in the impromptu information of the lodge-keeper; but they did not +venture to enter upon the forbidden ground. The universal belief among +them was, I found, that their puissant lord would soon reveal himself. +Doubting Castle, it was true, was for the present without its master; +but it was too much to expect that he would not return to it. The whole +community resembled prisoners in that fortress, who, although +temporarily relieved of the tyrant's presence, had little hope but that +he was only gone forth upon a ramble, and would presently return with +renewed zest for human flesh. The general consternation, however, was +extreme, and such as would probably not have been excited by the sudden +and unexplained removal of a far better man. The rumour had already got +abroad that there was to be an immediate search in the park, and that +Oliver Bradford had been empowered to select such persons as he thought +fit to assist in the same. There were innumerable volunteers for this +undertaking, principally on account of the excessive attraction of the +work itself, which promised some ghastly revelation; and secondarily, +for the mere sake of getting into Fairburn Chase at all—a demesne as +totally unknown to the majority of those present as the Libyan Desert. +The elders indeed remembered the time when a public footpath ran right +through the Chase, "close by the Heronry, and away under the Wolsey Oak, +and so through Davit's Copse, into the high road to Crittenden," said +one, "whereby a mile and a half was wont to be saved." "Ay, or two +mile," quoth another; "and Lawyer Moth always said as though the path +was ours by right, until Sir Massingberd got his son made a king's clerk +in London, which shut his mouth up and the path at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said a third, mysteriously, "and it ain't too late to try the +matter again, in case the property has got <i>into other hands</i>."</p> + +<p>This remark brought back at once the immediate cause of their assembling +together, and I began to be made the victim of cross-examination. To +avoid being compelled to give my own opinion (which I had already begun +to think a slander) upon the matter in hand, I took my leave as quietly +as could be, and escaped, whither they dared not follow me, through the +griffin-guarded gates. All within was, as usual, silent and deserted. A +few leaves were still left to flutter down in eddies from the trees, or +hop and rustle on the frosty ground, but their scarcity looked more +mournful than utter bareness would have done. It was now the saddest +time of all the year; the bleak east wind went wailing overhead; and +underneath, the soil was black with frost. Instead of pursuing the +avenue to the frontdoor of the Hall, where, as it seemed, I was not +wanted, I took a foot-track to the left, which I knew led to that +bowling-green whither I had been previously invited by Sir Massingberd, +although I had not taken advantage of his rare courtesy. If he did now +appear, no matter in what state of mental irritation, he could scarcely +quarrel with me for doing the very thing he had asked me to do. Had I +known, however, the character of the place in which I found myself, I +should have reserved my visit for a less eerie and mysterious occasion.</p> + +<p>The time of year, it is true, had no unfavourable influence upon the +scene that presented itself, for all was clothed in garments of thickest +green. Vast walls of yew shut in on every side a lawn of perfect +smoothness; everything proclaimed itself to belong to that portion of +the Hall property which was "kept up" by subsidy from without. The +quaint oak-seats, though old, were in good repair; the yew hedges +clipped to a marvel. Still nothing could exceed the sombre and funereal +aspect of the spot. It seemed impossible that such a sober game as +bowls could ever have been played there, or jest and laughter broken +that awful stillness. The southern yew-screen was in a crescent form, at +the ends of which were openings unseen from within the enclosed space. +Passing through one of these, I came upon what was called the Stone +Garden. It took its name from four stone terraces, from the highest of +which I knew that there must be a very extensive view. This space was +likewise covered with yew trees, clipped and cut in every conceivable +form, after the vile taste of the seventeenth century. There was +something weird in the aspect of those towering Kings and Queens—easily +recognizable, however, for what they were intended—and of those maids +of honour, with their gigantic ruffs and farthingales. One was almost +tempted to imagine that they had been human once, and been turned into +yew trees for their sins. The whole area was black with them; and a +sense of positive oppression, notwithstanding the eager air which caught +me sharply whenever I lost the shelter of one of these ungainly forms, +led me on to the top terrace, where one could breathe freely, and have +something else than yews to look upon.</p> + +<p>Truly, from thence the scene was wide and fair. I stood at that +extremity of the pleasure-grounds most remote from the Hall, and with my +back to it. Before me lay a solitary tract of wooded park, thickly +interspersed with planted knolls and coppices. Immediately beneath me +was the thicket called the Home Spinney, the favourite haunt of hare and +pheasant, and the spot in all the Chase most cherished by Sir +Massingberd. He would have resented a burglary, I do believe, with less +of fury than any trespass upon that sacred ground. Beyond the Spinney, +and standing by itself, far removed from any other tree, was the famous +Wolsey Oak. Why called so, I have not the least idea, for it had the +reputation of being a vast deal older than the days of the famous +Cardinal. Many a summer had it seen—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"When the monk was fat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And issuing shorn and sleek,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Would twist his girdle tight, and pat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">The girls upon the cheek;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's Pence,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And numbered bead and shrift,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bluff Harry broke into the spence,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">And turned the cowls adrift."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Yet still was it said to be as whole and sound as a bell. It was +calculated to measure over fourteen yards in circumference, and that for +many feet from its base; while its height, although it had lost some of +its upper branches, still far exceeded that of any other of its +compeers. Beyond this tree, but at another great interval, was the wood +known as the Old Plantation, where Oliver Bradford had last seen his +master alive. I was looking down, then, upon the very route which Sir +Massingberd had been seen to commence, but which he had never ended. It +was to the Home Spinney he had been apparently bound, when +something—none knew what—had changed his purpose. He would probably +have passed through it, and come up by that winding path yonder to the +spot where I now stood; it was the nearest way home for him. Perhaps he +had done so, although it was unlikely, since the watcher had not seen +him. Perhaps those very yews behind me had concealed his murderers. Shut +in by those unechoing walls of living green, no cry for aid would have +been heard, even if Sir Massingberd had been the man to call for it; he +would most certainly have never asked for mercy. But hark! what was +that sound that froze the current of my blood, and set my heart beating +and fluttering like the wings of a prisoned bird against its cage? Was +it a strangled cry for "Help!" repeated once, twice, thrice, or was it +the wintry wind clanging and grinding the naked branches of the Spinney? +A voice had terrified me in Fairburn Chase once before, which had turned +out to be no mere fancy; but there was this horror about the present +sound, that I seemed to dimly recognize it. It was the voice of Sir +Massingberd Heath, with an awful change in it, as if a powerful hand +were tightening upon his throat. It seemed, as I have said, to come from +the direction of the copse beneath, and yet I determined to descend into +it, rather than thread again the mazes of those melancholy yews. The +idea of my assistance being really required never entered into my +thoughts; what I wanted was to escape from this solitude, peopled only +with unearthly cries, and regain the companionship of my +fellow-creatures. How I regretted having left the society of those +honest folk outside the gates! To remain where I was, was impossible; I +should have gone mad. Fortunately, the Spinney was well-nigh leafless, +and a bright but wintry sun penetrated it completely. I fled over its +withered and frosted leaves, looking neither to left nor right, till I +leaped the deep ditch that formed its southern boundary, and found +myself in the open; then I stopped indeed quite short, for, before me, +not ten paces from the Spinney, from which he must have just emerged, +lay the body of Grimjaw. It was still warm, but lifeless. There were no +marks of violence about him; the struggle to extricate himself from the +ditch, it is probable, had cost the wretched creature his little +remaining vitality, weakened as he must have doubtless been by his +previous night's lodging on the cold stone steps. But how had he come +thither, who never moved anywhere out of doors, except with Sir +Massingberd or Gilmore? and whither, led perhaps by some mysterious +instinct, was he going when death had overtaken him—an easy task—and +glazed that solitary eye, which had witnessed so much which was still a +mystery to man?</p> + +<p>Was it possible that he had perished in endeavouring to obey his +master's cry for aid? that terrible "Help! help!" which rang in my ears +a while ago, as I stood in the Stone Garden, and which rings, through +half a century, in them now?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<h3>THE SEARCH.</h3> + + +<p>Shrinking away from the body of the unhappy Grimjaw, and fleeing from +the solitary spot in which it lay, I ran down towards the Heronry, +where, in the distance, I could now perceive a number of persons +assembled upon the lake-side. Below and above it, the stream flowed on +as usual; but the larger area of water which contained the island, was +frozen over with a thin coating of ice. This was being broken by men +armed with long and heavy poles, after which the work of dragging the +water was commenced. The scene was as desolate as the occupation was +ghastly and depressing. Perched upon stony slabs of their now leafless +home, the huge birds watched the proceedings with grave and serious air: +at first, they imagined, I think, that the thing was done for their own +behoof, and to the end that they might supply themselves with fish as +usual; but the appearance of the grappling-irons disabused them of this +idea. Now one, and now another, unable to restrain their curiosity, +would rise slowly and warily into the air, and making a circuit over our +heads, return to their old position to reflect, with head aside, upon +what they had seen. The presence as spectators of these gigantic +creatures, certainly increased the weird and awful character of the +employment in which we were engaged, and struck quite a terror into the +village folk, who were unaccustomed to see them in such close proximity. +Still the work was not gone about by any means in reverent and solemn +silence. If any man wishes his neighbours to speak their mind about him +thoroughly and unreservedly, I should say, judging from what I heard on +that occasion, Let him disappear, and be dragged for. It is not so +certain he is dead, that any delicacy need be exercised in telling the +severest truths about him; nor yet is there sufficient chance of his +reappearance to make folks reticent through fear. Only when the drags +halted a little, meeting with some hidden obstruction, all tongues were +silent, and pale faces clustered about the toilers, expecting that the +dreadful thing they sought was about to be brought to land.</p> + +<p>"I thought we had him then," said one of the men, after an occasion of +this sort; "but it was only a piece of stone."</p> + +<p>"It might have been his <i>heart</i>, for all that," muttered another, +cynically; and a murmur of "Ay, that's true," went round them all.</p> + +<p>"Has anybody been about the Home Spinney this morning?" inquired I of +Oliver Bradford, who had just given up his place at the ropes to a fresh +man.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, nor last night either, as it turns out. It will be bad for +somebody if Sir Massingberd does return, and finds out that the watcher +who ought to have been there was wiled away elsewhere by what he thought +was poachers holloing to one another—some owl's cry, as I should judge. +And to-day, I doubt if a creature has been near the place, for none of +my men seem to fancy going there alone."</p> + +<p>"And who <i>was</i> the watcher there last night, Oliver?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, we must not make mischief; he was a young chap new at the +business, a sort of grand-nevvy of mine by the wife's side. He'll do +better next time, will young Dick Westlock. He was over-eager, that's +all. And when you hear a cry in these woods, unless you are thoroughly +accustomed to them, it may lead you a pretty dance: it takes a practised +ear to tell rightly where it comes from."</p> + +<p>"You should know me better, Bradford," returned I, "than to suppose I +would bring a lad to harm by mentioning such a matter; but I should like +to ask him a question or two, if you will point him out."</p> + +<p>"There he is then, sir," answered Oliver, pointing to a good-looking, +honest lad enough, but one who perhaps would scarcely have been +considered sufficiently old for so trustworthy a part as sentinel of the +home preserves, had he not been grand-nephew to the head keeper.</p> + +<p>"Why, Dick," said I, "your uncle telly me that you took an owl for a +poacher last night, and followed his voice all over the Chase."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't no owl," sir, quoth Dick, stoutly; "it were the voice of a +man, whosoever it was."</p> + +<p>"Don't thee be a fool," exclaimed his uncle, roughly. "I tell thee it +was a bird, and called like this;" and the keeper gave a very excellent +imitation of the cry of an owl.</p> + +<p>This was not greatly unlike the sound which had so recently affrighted +my own ears; but then owls rarely cry in the daytime.</p> + +<p>"Dick," cried I, "never mind your uncle; listen to me. If you thought it +was a human voice, what do you think it said?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I can't rightly say as it said anything; it seemed to me to be a +sort of wobbling in the throat; and I thought it might be a sound among +some poaching fellars, made with a bird-call, or the like of that."</p> + +<p>"Supposing it said any word at all, Dick, what word was it most like?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Richard Westlock looked as nonplused and embarrassed as though I had +propounded to him some extremely complicated riddle.</p> + +<p>"Was it anything like 'Hel—p, hel—p?'" said I, imitating as well as I +could those terrible tones.</p> + +<p>"Bless my body," quoth Mr. Richard, slapping his legs with his hands, in +admiration of my sagacity, "if them ain't the very words as it <i>did</i> +say!"</p> + +<p>"What think you of that, Oliver Bradford?" inquired I, gravely.</p> + +<p>"As the bell tinks, so the fool thinks," responded the head keeper, +sententiously. "If you had asked Dick whether the word wasn't +'Jerusalem,' he would have said, 'Ay, that was the very word.'"</p> + +<p>"Still," urged I, "since there may be something more than fancy in the +thing, and the voice, if it was one, could not have come from under +water, let the Park woods be thoroughly searched at once. There are men +enough outside the gates to do that, without suspending the work that is +going on here, and why should we lose time?"</p> + +<p>The head keeper sulkily muttered something about not wanting a caddel of +people poking their noses into every part of Fairburn Chase; then with +earnest distinctness, as though the thought had only just struck him, +"Besides, Mr. Meredith, let me tell you that they may get to know more +than is good for them."</p> + +<p>At these words, I cast an involuntary glance at the plantation within a +few hundred feet of us, in the recesses of which dwelt Sinnamenta, Lady +Heath.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> may know, sir," continued the keeper, translating my thought, +"but everybody don't know, and it's much better that they shouldn't."</p> + +<p>Certainly the objection was a grave one, and I was glad enough to +perceive Mr. Long coming down from the Hall towards us, an authority by +whom the question could be decided.</p> + +<p>"You had better ask him yourself, Oliver," said I; for as my tutor had +never spoken to me of the existence of the unfortunate maniac, I did not +like to address him upon the subject. Bradford therefore went forward to +meet him; and after they had had some talk together, Mr. Long beckoned +me to him.</p> + +<p>"I think with you, Peter," said he, "that in any case, we should lose no +time in searching the Chase. If we do not discover what we seek, we can +scarcely fail to find some trace of a struggle, if struggle there has +been, between such a man as Sir Massingberd and whoever may have +assailed him. If he has been murdered, it is, of course, just possible +that the assassins threw the body into the water, although not here, +since the ice would scarcely have formed over it like this; otherwise, +they could not have removed it without leaving some visible trace. Do +you, Bradford, and a couple of your own men, examine that plantation +yonder thoroughly, so that it need not be searched again; and in the +meantime I will go and fetch more help."</p> + +<p>I have taken part in my time in many a "quest" for game, both large and +little: I have sought on foot in the rook-crannies of the north for the +hill-fox; I have penetrated the tangled jungles of Hindustan for tiger; +I have stood alone, gun in hand, on the skirts of a tropical forest, not +knowing what bird or beast the beaters within might chance at any moment +to drive forth; but I have never experienced such excitement as that +which I felt when, one of forty men, I walked from end to end of +Fairburn Chase in search of its lost master.</p> + +<p>In one long line, and at the distance of about twenty yards from one +another, we plodded on slowly and steadily; and with eyes that left no +bush unexamined. This work, which in summer would have been toil indeed, +was rendered comparatively easy by the bareness of the season; the +frost, too, made the swamps in the hollows safe to the tread, and the +tangled underwood brittle before us. Many a sunken spot we found hidden +in brake and brier, and scarcely known to the keepers themselves, such +as might easily have held, and we could not but think how fitly, the +Thing we feared to find, and sometimes, when one man called to his +neighbours, the whole line would halt, and each could scarcely restrain +himself from running in, and seeing with his own eyes what trace of the +missing man it was which had provoked the exclamation. We began at the +outskirts of the Park, and worked towards the Hall, so that the Home +Spinney, which was the likeliest spot of all, since he had been last +seen going in that direction, was reserved for the end. As the men +approached it, the excitement increased; they almost ran over the large +open space in which stood the Wolsey Oak, extending its gnarled and +naked arms aloft, as if in horror; but when they searched the coppice +itself, and found the body of Grimjaw, stiffened into stone since I last +saw it, many of them were not so eager to push on. I had omitted to tell +them of the wretched animal's death, and the effect of the sight upon +them was really considerable.</p> + +<p>That "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," is in +nothing more true than in the emotion produced by the sufferings or +decease of animals upon gentle folks and upon labouring persons. Greater +familiarity with such spectacles, and perhaps, too, a larger experience +of hardship and sorrow among his own fellow-creatures—which naturally +tends to weaken his sense of pity for mere animals—prevents the peasant +from being moved at all by some sights at which his superiors would be +really shocked: a dead horse lying in the road is, to the stonebreaker, +a dead horse, and nothing more; whereas, to him who goes by on wheels, +unless he is a veterinary surgeon, the sight is positively distressing. +I am sure that the spectacle of half a dozen ordinary dead dogs would +not have affected Oliver Bradford, for instance, in the least, while if +they had been "lurchers," and given to poaching practices, such a +funereal scene would have afforded him unmixed satisfaction. But when he +saw Grimjaw lying dead, and frozen, he shook his head very gravely, and +bade us mark his words, "That that ere dog didn't die for nothing, but +for a sign. That he would never have died, not he, if his master and +constant companion had still had breath in him, and more than that, we +should find, we might take his word for it, that that there body, and +that of Sir Massingberd Heath, were not very far from one another."</p> + +<p>There were murmurs of hushed and awe-struck adhesion to these remarks, +but not a dissentient voice in all the company, and in a frame of mind +which would now undoubtedly be called "sensational," and not in a broken +line of march, as heretofore, but almost shoulder to shoulder, we +entered the Home Spinney.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<h3>WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART.</h3> + + +<p>If this true narrative of mine should chance to find its channel of +publication in a hebdomadal periodical, and the end of the last chapter +coincide with the end of the week, I am afraid I shall have unduly +aroused the expectation of my readers, and kept them upon tenter-hooks +during that period upon false pretences, or rather what may seem to be +so. They will doubtless have promised themselves some ghastly spectacle +(and I give them my honour that if they will only have patience they +shall have it) to be presented in the very next page or two. It may +disappoint them temporarily, to hear that though we searched the +coppice, tree by tree, and left not one heap of leaves unstirred by our +feet, that we found nothing, nothing. And yet I will venture to say, +that if we had come upon that sight which all were so prepared for, the +stiffened limbs of murdered Sir Massingberd, with his cruel face set for +ever in death, and his hard eyes scowling up at the sky, it would +scarcely have filled us with greater awe. It would have been a terrible +sight, doubtless, but with every minute the terror would have faded, +until at last it might have even melted into pity. He could at least +have hurt no man more, being dead. But now that he was only Lost—still +Lost—we looked at one another with dumb surprise, and over our own +shoulders with misgivings. He was not above ground in all Fairburn +Chase, that was certain; nor under water, for the dragging-parties had +discovered no more than we. Any idea of suicide was quite out of the +question; Sir Massingberd Heath was the last man to leave life before he +was summoned, even if he really felt, as he averred, that there was no +sort of risk in doing so. Wicked men have a tolerably high opinion of +this world, notwithstanding their low views of the people that inhabit +it; and the French philosopher who put an end to his not invaluable +existence upon the ground that he had had enough of everything, was an +exceptional case.</p> + +<p>At the same time, the probabilities were immensely against the baronet's +having voluntarily undertaken any expedition, considering the +circumstances under which he must have set out—on foot, fatigued, and +at so late an hour. If secrecy had been his object, it would have been +far more easily secured by his departure at a less extraordinary time. +In the meanwhile, day after day passed by without any tidings, and the +mystery of his disappearance deepened and spread. Mr. Long was rather +reserved upon the matter at first, professing to entertain little doubt +that the wilful Squire would presently return, malicious and grim as +ever; but as time went on, he began to grow uneasy, and seemed to find +relief in conversing upon the subject, and suggesting more or less +impossible contingencies.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember, Peter," said he one morning at breakfast-time, +"reading out to me, some months ago, an account of the murder of a +certain lieutenant of the coast-guard by smugglers on the east coast; +how he oppressed them and treated them with unnecessary cruelty for +many, many months, until at last they took him away out of his bed by +force, and carried him no man knew whither, and put him to death with +tortures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," returned I, "perfectly well. They buried the poor wretch up to +his neck in the sea-sand, and bowled stones at his head."</p> + +<p>"Well, Peter, that frightful scene is constantly representing itself +whenever I shut my eyes; only the head is that of Sir Massingberd. You +cannot imagine how distressing it is to me now to go to bed, with the +expectation of this re-enacting itself before I can get to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Dear me, how dreadful!" returned I. "But does not the fact of your only +recognizing the victim, convince you of the unreality of the thing? If +you knew the faces of the smugglers, then indeed——"</p> + +<p>"I do know them, Peter," interrupted my tutor gravely; "that is the +worst of it; although it should, as you say, rather convince me of the +imaginary character of the scene, since the actors in it have long been +dead and gone, I believe. They are not smugglers, but gipsies. There is +on Carew in particular, one unhappy man, into whose history I need not +enter, but who once incurred the baronet's vengeance, and I am afraid it +is but too likely perished in consequence. It is a sad story of +deception on both sides; but it is certain that Sir Massingberd richly +earned the hatred of the wandering people. I have no right, of course, +to make any such charge, but Peter, I cannot help thinking that it is +they who have made away with the Squire. I casually inquired in the +village yesterday about the tribe that generally inhabit the fir-grove +on the Crittenden Road, and it seems they left the place by night, on or +about the very date of Sir Massingberd's disappearance."</p> + +<p>My heart grew cold and heavy as a stone at these words, delivered though +they were with vagueness, and without any threat of action to follow +them, for the suspicion which my tutor now suggested had long ago taken +firm root in my own mind. I would not, however, have given expression to +it upon any account, and my present wish was to do away with this notion +of the rector's as much as possible. I would not, perhaps, have assisted +in the escape of the Cingari from punishment, if punishment they +deserved, but neither would I have put out my hand to deliver them up. +The law had taken its wicked will of them often enough already, and in +connection with this very man.</p> + +<p>"Those who know these people best," said I, "such as Bradford and the +keepers, do not think it at all probable that they would have had the +courage to face Sir Massingberd. Even if they possessed it, what could +they have done but have slain him? and if slain, where have they put him +to?"</p> + +<p>"God alone knows," said my tutor solemnly; "but the man at the pike at +Crittenden says, I believe, that they had a covered cart with them, +which they have never been known to have before."</p> + +<p>I murmured something to the effect that the winter was coming on, and +that it was likely enough that they should have procured for themselves +some peripatetic shelter of that kind; but a nameless horror took hold +upon me, in spite of myself, when Mr. Long rejoined, that he should +think it his duty to have the gipsies followed, and a thorough +examination of their effects to be made. I had not another word to say. +I seemed already to see poor old Rachel Liversedge standing in the +felon's dock, avowing and glorying in her guilt, and defiant of the +sentence which would consign her and hers to the same fate that had +overtaken, with no such justice, Stanley Carew. Any hope of escape for +them, I knew, was out of the question. They had not the means for speedy +travel, while, in those days of superstition and intolerance, the +Cingari were an object of animadversion and alarm, whithersoever they +moved. That very day—acting upon information received concerning their +present whereabouts—Mr. Long set out on horseback, accompanied by the +parish constable, and Came up with the party whom he sought upon a +certain common within twenty miles of Fairburn. The tribe, of whom I had +only seen three grown-up members, were tolerably numerous, and the +constable evinced his fitness for being a peace-officer by counselling +the rector to do nothing rash, at least until reinforcements should +permit of his doing so with safety. The sight, however, of the covered +cart, placed, as it seemed, jealously in the very centre of the +encampment, was too much for Mr. Long, who, to do him justice, was as +bold as a lion, except where conventional "position," as in the case of +Sir Massingberd, made him indisposed for action. He turned his horse +straight for the desired object, in spite of the threatening looks of +several men, who were tinkering about an immense fire, and was only +stopped by the youngest of them starting up, and laying his hand +imperatively upon his bridle-rein.</p> + +<p>"Have you a warrant, Mr. Long," inquired the gipsy sternly, "that you +ride through our camp, when all the rest of the common is open to you, +and wish to pry into that poor place yonder, which is all we have of +house and home?"</p> + +<p>The rector had no sort of right for what he did, and was therefore +proportionally indignant.</p> + +<p>"Unhand my bridle, sirrah!" cried he. "What is your name, who seem to +know mine so well, and yet who knows me so little, that you can imagine +I am here in any other cause than that of Right and Justice?"</p> + +<p>"My name is Walter Carew," replied the gipsy, still retaining his hold.</p> + +<p>"Then that is warrant sufficient for what I do," cried my tutor +excitedly, and raising his riding-whip as he spoke.</p> + +<p>The swarthy face of the gipsy gleamed with passion, and his unoccupied +right hand sought his side, as if for a weapon. Mischief would +undoubtedly have ensued, but that at that moment the curtains of the +covered cart were parted by a skinny hand, and the voice of Rachel +Liversedge was heard bidding the young man let the bridle go, and not +spill parson's blood, which was as bad as wasting milk and water. Then +she added, with mock courtesy: "Pray, come hither, Mr. Long; our doors +are always open, and there can be no intrusion where there are only +females and sickness."</p> + +<p>"If that be all," returned my tutor in a softened tone, for though +somewhat arbitrary, as it would now be thought, towards his inferiors, +he was ever gentle to the sex; "if that indeed be all, I shall not +inflict my presence upon you long."<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>With those words, he threw himself from his horse, and climbed up into +the cart; it was rather a roomy one, but all that was in it was clearly +to be seen at the first glance. It was carpeted with rushes a foot +thick, from which Rachel Liversedge was busily engaged in weaving +chair-bottoms. Opposite to her sat another female, engaged with the same +articles, but constructing out of them crowns and necklaces, which, +though they did not very much resemble the ornaments for which they were +intended, appeared to afford her exquisite satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you introduce me, Rachel?" exclaimed she testily, as Mr. Long +looked in. "Don't you see the gentleman is bowing? Sinnamenta—Lady +Heath." The secret of the gipsies' sudden removal, as well as of their +use of the vehicle which had excited his suspicions, was at once +apparent to the rector.</p> + +<p>"Is she better, happier in your custody?" inquired my tutor, in a +whisper, of the chair-maker. "God knows I would not disturb her, if she +be."</p> + +<p>"My little sister is not beaten now," observed Rachel bitterly; +"although, of course, we have not those luxuries with which her husband +has always surrounded her."</p> + +<p>"Only four times, Sister Rachel!" observed the afflicted one, in a tone +of remonstrance, "one, two, three, four," checking them off on her poor +fingers, covered with worthless gewgaws. "I don't consider Gilmore's +beatings anything, only Sir Massingberd's."</p> + +<p>"May God's curse have found him!" exclaimed Rachel Liversedge fervently; +"may He have avenged her wrongs upon him at last! Don't look at me, sir, +as though I were a witch wishing a good man ill. I wish I <i>were</i> a +witch. How he should pine, and rave, and writhe, and suffer ten thousand +deaths in one!"</p> + +<p>She spoke with such hate and fury, that Mr. Long involuntarily cast once +more a suspicious glance around him, as though in reality she possessed +the means of vengeance which she so ardently desired. "Did you expect to +find him here?" continued she. "That was it, was it? I wish you had. I +would that I had his fleshless bones to show you. It is not <i>my</i> fault +that I have them not, be sure. If there were any manliness left among my +people—but there is not; they are curs all—if any memory of the +persecuted and the murdered had dwelt within them, as with me, let alone +this work of his," she pointed to her unconscious sister, "for which, +had he done nought else, I would have torn his heart out;—he would not +have lived thus long by forty years. For aught we know, however, he +lives yet; only hearing he was gone, we went and took my little sister +from her wretchedness, and thus will keep her if you give us leave, you +Christian gentlemen. Where he may be, we know not; we only hope that in +some hateful spot—in hell, if such a place there be—he may be +suffering unimagined pains."</p> + +<p>The fervour and energy of her words, however reprehensible in a moral +point of view, were such as left no doubt in the mind of Mr. Long that +the gipsy woman spoke truth. Assuring her, therefore, that, so far as he +was concerned, she should not be molested in the custody of her +unfortunate sister, my tutor rode back to Fairburn, relieved from the +dread burden of his late suspicion, but more at his wit's end for an +elucidation of the disappearance of Sir Massingberd than ever. Right +glad was I to hear that his errand among my dusky friends had been +bootless; but by the next morning's post I had received bitter news +from Harley Street. A copy of that menacing epistle which I had so +unwittingly enclosed to Marmaduke from his uncle, reached me from Mr. +Gerard. His words were kind, and intended to be comforting. He knew, of +course, that I had been deceived; he well knew, and they all knew, he +said, that my hand was the last to do Marmaduke hurt, to do aught but +protect and uphold him. But I could see that some grievous harm had +occurred, nevertheless, through me, as Sir Massingberd's catspaw. It was +more apparent to me because there was not one accompanying word from my +dear friend himself, whom I knew too well to imagine capable of blaming +me. It was most apparent of all because of the postscript written in +Lucy's own hand—so fair, so clear, so brave, so like her own sweet +self, saying that I must not reproach myself because I had been +overreached by a base man. "Marmaduke will write soon," she said; "he +does not love you less because he is silent upon this matter, and must +be kept so for a little while." He was ill, then, thanks to my dull +wits; and out of pity she had written "Marmaduke." Ah me, would <i>I</i> not +have been ill! Would <i>I</i> not have welcomed kinship with a score of +wicked uncles for such pity! "He does not love you less because he is +silent;" was that a quotation culled from her own heart's whisperings?</p> + +<p>"A most unfortunate business," said Mr. Long reflectively, when he had +possessed himself of this intelligence. "That letter of Sir +Massingberd's will undo all the good of the last twelve months. With +what a devilish ingenuity for torment has he framed every phrase. '<i>'My +arm will reach you wheresoever you are; at the time you least expect +it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. However Well it +may seem to be with you, it will not be Well.'</i> How thoroughly he knew +his nephew! This will make Marmaduke Heath a wretched man for life."</p> + +<p>"Not if Sir Massingberd be dead," said I, "and can be proved to be so."</p> + +<p>"That is true," responded my tutor, drily; then added, without, I think, +intending me to hear it, "But what will be worse than anything, is this +doubt as to whether he be dead or not."</p> + +<p>I felt convinced of this too, and bowed my head in sorrow and silence. +There was a long pause. Then my tutor suddenly started up, and +exclaimed, with animation, "Peter, will you go with me to London? I +certainly shall be doing more good there, just now, than here; and I +think that your presence will be welcome, nay, needful, in Harley +Street."</p> + +<p>"I shall be ready to start this very evening," returned I, thinking of +the mail which passed at night.</p> + +<p>"We will be off within an hour," replied my tutor; "I will order posters +from the inn at once. Too much time has been lost already; we should +have started when Sir Massingberd himself did."</p> + +<p>"Do you think he is gone to town, then, with any evil purpose?" inquired +I, aghast.</p> + +<p>"If he has gone at all, it is certain it is for no good," rejoined the +rector, gravely. "It is more than likely that this disappearance may be +nothing but a ruse to throw us off our guard. The cat that despaired of +attaining her end by other means, pretended to be dead."</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> In those days, it was not thought incumbent upon ministers +of the Gospel to look after gipsy-folk, whose souls, in case they had +any, were not opined to be much worth saying.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> + +<h3>THE PROCESSION.</h3> + + +<p>At the time of which I write, a dweller in the midlands who wanted to go +to town, did not drive down to the nearest railway station, to be +transported from thence by the fiery dragon to his destination. Railways +had been long heard of, and indeed there was one within twenty miles of +Fairburn, which we should now call a tramway only, for engine it had +none. Locomotives were the subject of debate in scientific circles, and +of scorn among the rest of the community. A journey such as that my +tutor and myself were about to undertake, is scarcely to be understood +by readers of the present generation. Not only did it consume an amount +of time which would now suffice for six times the distance, but it was +surrounded by difficulties and dangers that have now no existence +whatever—"extinct Satans," as a writer calls them, who is now scarcely +held to be "modern," but who at that time had never written a line. The +coach for which Mr. Long had thought it advisable not to wait, had met +in its time with a thousand-and-one strange casualties, and the guard +was a very Scheherazade at relating them. The "Highflyer" had come to +dreadful grief in racing with an empty stomach, but many "outsides," +against its rival, the "Rapid," which traversed a portion of the same +road. It had often to open both its doors, to let the water through, in +crossing Crittenden Ford, by neglect of which precaution upon one +occasion, four "insides" had the misfortune to be suffocated. It had +been dug out of snow-drifts a hundred times, and now and then it had +<i>not</i> been dug out, and the passengers had been frost-bitten. In winter +it was usual enough for them to spend a day or two perforce at some +country inn, because the roads were "not open." The "Highflyer" had once +been attacked by a tiger (out of a travelling caravan), which killed the +off-leader; but this was an exceptional adventure. It was attacked by +highwaymen at least once a year, but in this respect was considered +rather a fortunate coach. Only a few weeks previously, there had been +found by the reapers, in one of Farmer Arabel's wheat-fields, mail-bags +with letters containing many thousand pounds in drafts and bills, which +had been taken by gentlemen of the road from the custody of the guard of +the "Highflyer" in the early summer. These persons had gone into the +standing wheat to divide their booty, and left there what was to them +unavailable property, or too difficult to negotiate.</p> + +<p>In the two trips I had already taken to the metropolis, I had gone by +this curious conveyance, of which all Fairburn had something to say; but +I was now to journey even more gloriously still: so thoroughly had Mr. +Long got to be convinced that some immediate danger was imminent to +Marmaduke at the hands of his uncle, that he could not bear the least +unnecessary delay in giving him warning. We posted with four horses, and +generally at full gallop. I agree with the Great Lexicographer in +thinking that sensation very pleasurable indeed. The express-train, it +is true, goes five times as fast, but you do not feel that there is any +credit due to the steam-horse for that; you take it as a matter of +course, and would do so, no matter what exertions it should make for +you, short of bursting. But when you heard the ring of the sixteen hoofs +upon the iron road, and the sharp crack of the whips in the frosty air, +or leaned out of the window for a moment; and beheld the good steeds +smoking in your behalf, you said to yourself, or to your companion, if +you had one: "This is wonderful fine travelling." Perhaps you contrasted +such great speed with that attained by the Exeter flying-coaches in your +ancestors' time, and smiled with contemptuous pity at their five miles +an hour, stoppages excluded.</p> + +<p>The trees and hedges flew by you then, and gave an idea of the velocity, +such as the telegraph-posts, seen vanishing thin out of the window of a +railway-carriage, fail to convey; while, when you stopped for new +cattle, the hurry and bustle attendant on the order, "Horses on," helped +to strengthen the belief in your own fast travelling. Still, after the +first few hours, even the enjoyments of a post-chaise-and-four begin to +pall; and long before we had approached our destination, I was cramped, +and chilled, and tired enough. It was growing dark, too, so that there +was little to be seen without, and we had passed those dangerous parts +of the road where expectations of possible highwaymen had afforded me +some excitement. I was dozing dreamily, unconscious that the light of +London was flaring like a dusky dawn in front of us, and that we had +even already entered its then limits upon the north-east, when I was +roughly roused by the sudden stoppage of the carriage, accompanied by +wild cries, and a glare of lurid flame. Mr. Long had put down the +window, and was leaning out of it. There was a dense fog, and gas had +not yet been established in that part of London; but a vast assemblage +of people were streaming slowly past us, and many of them had torches in +their hands. They took no notice of us whatever, but yelled and shouted, +and every now and then cast glances behind them at some approaching +spectacle, which seemed to be about to overtake us. Presently, we beheld +this ourselves. First came a great number of constables, marching twenty +abreast, and clearing all before them with large staves; then a body of +the mounted patrol—a corps then but newly formed, and which, although +now well-nigh extinct, was destined in its time to do good service; then +more constables; then a vast quantity of horsemen, armed and unarmed, +and lastly this:—Extended on an inclined platform, built to a +considerable height upon an open cart, was the body of a dead man; it +was attired in blue trousers, and with a white and blue striped +waistcoat, but without a coat. On the left side of him was a huge +mallet, and on the right a ripping chisel.</p> + +<p>"Great Heaven! what is this?" inquired Mr. Long of one of the mounted +constables.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's him, sir, sure enough; we've got him at last," returned the +officer.</p> + +<p>"Him? Who?" cried I, half stupefied with fatigue and horror. "Have they +found Sir Massingberd?"</p> + +<p>No, it was not Sir Massingberd. The face which was now being slowly +carried past us was wicked and stern enough, but it was not <i>his</i> face. +The skin was black, the eyes were projecting; it was plain that the poor +wretch had been strangled. The excitement of those who caught sight of +it was hideous to witness; they cursed and hissed in hate and fury, and +battled to get near the cart, that they might spit upon the corpse +which it contained. The force of the advancing crowd was so tremendous +that we were compelled to move for some distance side by side with this +appalling sight, and presently immediately behind it; there we seemed to +fall in as a part of the procession, and were no doubt considered by the +majority of persons to officially belong to it. We were borne southwards +quite out of our proper direction, and were unable to prevent it, for it +was as much as the postillions could do to sit their horses, and avoid +being shouldered out of their saddles. Our progress was of course at a +foot's-pace only, and twice the procession halted, once opposite a +draper's, and once opposite a public-house, when the yells and hooting +of the crowd were terrible to hear. Not only were these two houses +closely shuttered up (as they well might be), but the shop-fronts +everywhere were closed, and the windows and the tops of the houses +crowded with spectators. By this time, we had got to know in what +dreadful proceedings we were thus taking an involuntary part. The body +in the cart was that of the murderer Williams, who had committed suicide +two days before, to escape, it was thought, not so much the scaffold, as +the execrations of his fellow-creatures. All London was filled with hate +of him, as before his capture it had been filled with fear; and the +government had caused this public exhibition of his corpse, to convince +the minds of the public that the wholesale assassin was really no longer +alive. The houses at which we had halted were those which had once been +inhabited by his unhappy victims, the Marrs and the Williamsons. +Subsequently, the corpse was conveyed to St. George's turn-pike, and +there interred with a stake thrust through the middle of it; but before +that frightful ceremony took place, the postillions had managed to +extricate us, and we had driven westward to our destination. Still, I +for my part had seen enough, and more than enough, to make that entry of +ours into London a thing impossible to forget; and I think it rendered, +by association, the mystery concerning which we had come up to Harley +Street, more menacing and sombre than before.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h3> + +<h3>AMONG FRIENDS.</h3> + + +<p>We found Marmaduke Heath in a less morbid state of mind than we had +expected. The die having been cast—the time given him by Sir +Massingberd for his return and so-called reconciliation with that worthy +having already elapsed without any action on the part of his uncle, the +effect of that "Captain Swing"-like epistle was slowly wearing off. No +one ever revived the matter in his presence, nor, as we have seen, was +he permitted even to write upon the subject. Still, he knew that I had +been lately communicated with concerning it—for at first the blow had +fallen on its object with such force and fulness that those about him +had really not liked to let me know the extent of the mischief I might +have committed—and he imagined that I had now come up in mere friendly +sorrow to cheer and comfort him. As he came out into the dark street on +that December evening to give me loving welcome, fresh from that awful +procession-scene, I positively looked with terror to left and right, +lest some cloaked figure, whom yet we both should recognize, might reach +forth an iron arm, and tear him away. It was I who was morbid and +unstrung, and not my friend; he strove, I knew, to appear to the best +advantage, in good humour and high spirits, in order that I might have +less to reproach myself with.</p> + +<p>"My dear old Peter" cried he, laughing, "how glad I am to see your +honest face. Have you brought me any verbal message from my charming +uncle, or are you only his deputy-postman? <i>How</i> is he—<i>how</i> is he?"</p> + +<p>I could see, in spite of his light way, that he was curious to have this +interrogation answered; but what was I to say? "I don't know whether +he's well or ill," returned I, carelessly, as I stepped into the hall. +"But how is Mr. Gerard and Miss——"</p> + +<p>"Here is 'Miss,'" returned a sweet voice, blithe as a bird's; "she is +excellently well, Peter, thank you. But what a white face <i>you</i> have +got! If that is the gift of country air there is certainly no such cause +for regretting our absence from the Dovecot, about which Marmaduke is +always so solicitous."</p> + +<p>"'Marmaduke' to his face, now!" thought I. I could not prevent my heart +from sinking a little, in spite of the lifebuoy of friendship. But I +answered gallantly, "There is no air that can wither <i>your</i> roses, Miss +Lucy, for the summer is never over where you are."</p> + +<p>"Bravo, Peter," quoth Mr. Gerard, set in the warm glow of the +dining-room, which gleamed forth from the open door behind him. "If he +is so complimentary in a thorough draught, what a mirror of courtesy +will he be when he gets thawed! Come in, my dear Mr. Long; come in to +the warm. No east wind ever brought people more good, than this which +brings you two to us. Lucy...—Ah, that's right; she has gone to order +the dinner to be rechaufféd. Now, do you travellers answer no man one +word, but go make yourselves comfortable—you have your old rooms, of +course—and then come down at once to food and fire. Marmaduke, my dear +boy, you keep me company here, please; otherwise, you will delay Peter, +with your gossip, I know."</p> + +<p>That was a sentence with a purpose in it. If, as Mr. Gerard at once +guessed, we had come up to town on business connected with Sir +Massingberd, it might be advisable that I should not be interrogated by +Marmaduke privately. For my part, I was greatly relieved by it, since I +had no desire to be the person to communicate bad tidings—for such I +knew he would consider them—to my friend a second time. My spirits had +risen somewhat with the warmth of our reception; it is not a little to +have honest friends, and welcome unmistakable in hand and voice and eye. +There is many a man who goes smoothly through the world by help of these +alone, and only at times sighs for the love that but one could have +given him, and which has been bestowed by her elsewhere. When I got +down into the dining-room, a minute or two before my tutor, I was +received by quite a chorus of kind voices—a very tumult of hospitable +greeting.</p> + +<p>"Warm your toes, Peter—warm your toes; you shall have a glass of sherry +worth drinking directly," cried Mr. Gerard, all in a breath.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Peter, you and I will have a glass together," exclaimed Marmaduke, +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Stop for 'the particular'—stop for the green seal: it will be here in +a minute," entreated the host.</p> + +<p>"No, no," returned Marmaduke; "I must drink his health at once. Cowslip +wine, if I drank it with Peter, would be better to me than +Johannisberg."</p> + +<p>He had his hand upon her arm, as I entered the room; I was sure of that, +although she had gently but swiftly withdrawn it from his touch, as the +door opened. How happy she looked; how passing fair with that faint +flush! How handsome and bright-faced was dear Marmaduke! How placidly +content, like one who draws his happiness from that of others, was the +countenance of Harvey Gerard! A picture of domestic pleasure and content +indeed, and with three noble figures in it. It was impossible to doubt +that two lovers stood before me, and a father who had found a +prospective son-in-law, whom he could love as a son. This new +relationship had been only established within a very few days, and upon +that account, perhaps, it was the more patent. My mischance in the +matter of Sir Massingberd's letter, had been the immediate cause of +Marmaduke's declaration. She had compassionated him in his troubles, and +he had told her in what alone his hope of comfort lay. He had not been +sanguine of securing her—who could have been, with such a priceless +prize in view?—for not only had he a diffidence in his own powers of +pleasing, great and winning as they were, beyond those of any man I ever +knew, but he feared to find an obstacle to his wishes in her father.</p> + +<p>"Dear Mr. Gerard," he had said, with his usual frankness, "I have won +your daughter's heart, and love her better than all the world. Still, it +is you alone who have her hand to dispose of. She loves and respects you +as never yet was father loved and respected, and this only makes her +dearer to me. I feel as much bound in this matter by your decision—Oh, +sir, God grant your heart may turn towards me—as she does herself. I +dare not tell you what I think of you to your face. The very greatness +of my respect for you makes me fear your rejection of <i>me</i>. I am, in one +respect at least, a weak and morbid man, while your mind is vigorous +and strong upon all points. You are in armour of proof from head to +heel; whereas, there is a joint in my harness open to every blow. I am +afraid, sir, that you despise me."</p> + +<p>"I do not despise you, Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had replied, in his kind +grave voice.</p> + +<p>"Ah, sir, I know what you would say," returned the young man with +vehemence; "you pity me, and pity and contempt are twin-sisters. +Besides, I am a Heath; you do not wish that blood of yours should mix +with that of an evil and accursed race; and, moreover—though that, with +a man like you, has, I know, but little weight—I may live and die a +pauper."</p> + +<p>"My dear Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had answered, "I cannot conceal from you +that there are grave objections to your marriage with my daughter, and +more especially at present. We need not revert to the last matter you +have spoken of, for wealth is not what I should seek for in my +son-in-law; even if it were, your alliance would reasonably promise it, +and might be sought by many on that account. As for your being a Heath, +that you cannot help; and, with respect to 'blood,' there is more +rubbish spoken upon that subject by otherwise sensible folk than upon +all others put together. Bad example and evil training are sufficient to +account for the bad courses of any family without impeaching their +circulating fluids. If your uncle had not happened to be likewise your +guardian, in you, my dear young friend, I frankly tell you, I should see +no fault, or rather no misfortune; but, since he has unhappily had the +opportunity of weakening and intimidating——"</p> + +<p>"Sir, sir, pray spare me," broke in Marmaduke, passionately; "are you +going to say that I am a coward?"</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid, my boy," replied Mr. Gerard, earnestly; "you are as +brave as I am, I do not doubt. If I thought you to be what you suggest, +I would not parley with you about my darling daughter for one moment. I +would say 'No' at once. My Lucy wooed by a poltroon!—no, that is not +possible. I do not say 'No' to <i>you</i>, Marmaduke."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir," exclaimed the young man, with emotion; +then added solemnly, "and I thank God."</p> + +<p>"What I do say, however," returned Mr. Gerard, "is 'Wait.' While your +uncle lives, I cannot, under existing circumstances, permit you to be my +Lucy's husband. At present, you are only boy and girl, and can well +afford to be patient."</p> + +<p>"And when we do marry," returned Marmaduke, gratefully, "you shall not +lose your daughter, sir, but rather gain a son. My home, if I ever have +one, shall be yours also. Pray, believe me when I say that you are my +second father, for you have given me a new life."</p> + +<p>It really seemed so to him who looked at the sparkling eyes and +heightened colour of the speaker, and listened to his tones, so rich +with hope and love.</p> + +<p>"There is certainly no one so civil as a would-be son-in-law," replied +Mr. Gerard, good-naturedly. "I wonder that old gentlemen in my position +ever permit them to marry at all."</p> + +<p>And thus it had been settled—as I saw that it had been—only a very +little while before our arrival in Harley Street.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"And what brings you good people up to town?" asked Mr. Gerard gaily, +"without sending a line in advance, which, even in mercy to the +housekeeper, you would surely have done, had not the business been +urgent? As to your travelling with four horses," added our host slily, +"I know so well the pride and ostentation of the clergy that I am not +the least astonished at your doing <i>that</i>, Mr. Rector."</p> + +<p>"Truly, sir, now that I find all safe and well," replied my tutor, "I +begin to think we might have travelled in a less magnificent way; but +the fact is, that I felt foolishly apprehensive and curious to tell you +our tidings. Sir Massingberd Heath has been Lost since Thursday +fortnight, November sixteenth."</p> + +<p>"Lost!" exclaimed Mr. Gerard, in amazement.</p> + +<p>"Lost!" echoed Lucy, compassionately.</p> + +<p>"Lost!" murmured Marmaduke, turning deadly pale. "That is terrible, +indeed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, poor wretched man," said Lucy, quickly; "terrible to think that +some judgment may have overtaken him in the midst of his +wickedness—unrepentant, revengeful, cruel."</p> + +<p>"That is truly what should move us most, Miss Gerard," observed my +tutor; "it is but too probable that he has been suddenly cut off, and +that by violence." Then he narrated all that had happened at Fairburn +since the night of Sir Massingberd's disappearance, uninterrupted save +once, when Mr. Gerard left the room for a few minutes, and returned with +another bottle of "the particular," which, it seemed, he would not even +suffer the butler to handle. Marmaduke sat silent and awe-struck, +drinking in every word, and now and then, when a sort of shudder passed +over him, I saw a little hand creep forth and slide into his, when he +would smile faintly, but not take his eyes off Mr. Long—no, not even +to reply to hers.</p> + +<p>"I think," added my tutor, when the narrative was quite concluded, "that +under these circumstances I was justified in coming up to town, Mr. +Gerard, since it is just possible that Sir Massingberd may, may——"</p> + +<p>"That he may not be dead," interrupted our host, gravely; "there is, of +course, that chance, and we must set to work at once to settle the +question."</p> + +<p>There was a violent ringing at the front-door bell. Mr. Long started up +with a "What's that?" Marmaduke's very lips grew white, and trembled. +For my part, I confess I congratulated myself that I was on that side of +the table which was furthest from any person who might enter the room. +Lucy alone maintained a calm demeanour, and looked towards her father +confidently.</p> + +<p>"That is Mr. Clint, I have no doubt," observed Mr. Gerard, quietly. "I +sent word to him an hour ago to come directly, and, if possible, to +bring Townshend with him. Whether Sir Massingberd be alive or not, we +shall soon discover, for the great Bow Street runner will be certain to +find either his body or his bones."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h3> + +<h3>A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO.</h3> + + +<p>Mr. Gerard had hardly finished speaking, when the butler announced Mr. +Clint and "another gentleman," for even among friends the famous Bow +Street officer, exercised his usual caution; and yet there was scarcely +a more public character than Townshend, or better known both to the +classes whom he protected, and to that against which he waged such +constant war. His personal appearance was itself sufficiently +remarkable. A short squab man, in a light wig, kerseymere breeches, and +a blue Quaker-cut coat, he was not, to look at, a very formidable +object. But he possessed the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a +fox. The ruffians who kept society in terror, themselves quailed before +<i>him</i>. They knew that he was hard to kill, and valued not his own life +one rush, when duty called upon him to hazard it; that he was faithful +as a watch-dog to the government which employed him, and hated by nature +a transgressor of the law, as a watch-dog hates a wolf. When Townshend +fairly settled himself down upon the track of an offender, the poor +wretch felt like the hare whose fleeing footsteps the stoat relentlessly +pursues; he might escape for the day, or even the morrow, but sooner or +later his untiring foe was certain to be up with him. In those early +days, when the telegraph could not overtake the murderer speeding for +his life, and set Justice upon her guard five hundred miles away, to +intercept him, and when the sun was not the slave of the Law, to +photograph the features of the doomed criminal, so that he can be +recognized as easily as Cain, thief-catching was a much more protracted +business than it is now; nevertheless, it was at least as certain.</p> + +<p>If the facilities for capture were not so great, neither were the +opportunities of escape for the offender so many and various. London was +not the labyrinth that it has since become, and if any criminal of note +forsook it for the provinces, his fate was almost certain. Travellers +did not then rush hither and thither, in throngs of a hundred strong, +impossible to be individually identified by the railway porter to whom +they surrender their tickets; but each man was entered in a way-bill, or +scanned with curiosity by innkeeper and post-boy, wherever his chaise +changed horses. When any considerable sum was sent by mail-coach, +whether by the government or by London bankers, to their provincial +agents, it was not unusual to employ Mr. Townshend as an escort. Nor was +it altogether unexampled for him to be sent for, as in the present +instance, to unravel some domestic mystery; although he was perhaps the +first police-officer who had been so employed, the father of all the +Fields and Pollakies of the present day. He was on intimate terms, +therefore, with many great people, and an especial favourite with the +court, his professional services being engaged at all drawing-rooms and +state occasions. This, combined with the natural assurance and sense of +power in the man, caused Mr. Townshend to hold his head pretty high, and +to treat with persons vastly superior in social station to himself upon +at least an equal footing. His easy nod, with which the great Bow +Street runner favoured us in Harley Street that evening, upon his first +introduction, was not very much unlike the salutation which Mr. Brummel, +at the same period, was wont to bestow upon British marquises and dukes. +Having taken his seat at the dessert-table, at the host's desire, he at +once began to compliment Mr. Gerard upon the contents of the bottle with +the yellow seal, and, in short, behaved himself in all respects as any +other guest would have done who was an intimate friend of the family, +and had dropped in after dinner upon his own invitation. No sooner, +however, did Mr. Clint introduce the subject which had called us up to +town, and Mr. Long begin to recapitulate the story of Sir Massingberd's +disappearance, than this singular person dropped at once all social +pretension, and showed himself the really great man he was. One glass of +wine was sufficient for him during the whole narration, and that he +seemed to sip mechanically, and rather as an assistance to thought, than +because he really enjoyed it, which, however there is no doubt he did. +He only interrupted my tutor twice or thrice, in order to make some +pertinent interrogation, and when all had been described (including a +slight sketch of Marmaduke's position), he sat for a little silent and +noiseless, tapping his wine-glass with his forefinger, and staring into +the fire.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend, and what is your opinion?" inquired Mr. Gerard a +little impatiently. "Do you think that this Lost Sir Massingberd is +alive or dead?"</p> + +<p>"That is a question which a fool would answer at once, sir, but a wise +man would take some time to reply to," returned the Bow Street runner +coolly, "But one thing you may depend upon, that he will not be 'Lost' +long. I have blotted that word out of my dictionary. I know Sir +Massingberd Heath well, or, at least, I did know him, and that is a +great advantage to start with; he was not a man, I should think, to +change with age. Tall figure and strong; large piercing eyes; much +beard; a mouth that tells he likes to have his own way; and on his +forehead a mark as if the devil had kicked him."</p> + +<p>"That is excellent," cried Mr. Gerard; "you could not mistake him for +any other man in London."</p> + +<p>"He is <i>not</i> in London, sir," observed the runner dogmatically. "If he +were mixing with the lot that he used to be amongst, I should surely +have heard of it; and if he is with people much beneath him in station, +I should have learned it still more certainly. As for that, however, he +is not one—if I remember him right—to hide himself, or work much +underground."</p> + +<p>"If you mean that he would not stoop to deception, Mr. Townshend," +remarked my tutor gravely, "I am afraid you are mistaken; the very money +which, as I have said, he obtained from me upon the day of his +disappearance, was dishonourably come by. His pretext of the Methodists +having bidden for a piece of ground upon which to build a chapel within +the Park, and almost opposite the Rectory, was, I have since discovered, +entirely false; and I cannot but fear that some judgment has overtaken +this unhappy man."</p> + +<p>Here, I am sorry to say, that Mr. Clint and Mr. Gerard looked at one +another in rather a comic manner, and the Bow Street runner helped +himself to a glass of the particular with an open chuckle.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir," responded that gentleman, "you see Judgments isn't much in +my way. When I catches a chap, he generally knows its judgment and +execution too; but barring that, I doubt whether there is much of a +special Providence for rascals—even when they rob a Church minister. +Not, of course, that I am saying Sir Massingberd Heath, baronet, is a +rascal, or anything like it; I never had anything to do with him in all +my life before this, and that's a good sign, look you. When I said he +was not a man to work underground, however, I did not mean that he would +not employ every ingenious device—and the one you mention was one of +the neatest I ever heard on—to procure money, but that he is of too +domineering and masterful a nature to lurk and spy about. The young +gentleman here need not be in much alarm, I think, of his relative's +turning up in Harley Street; notwithstanding which, he is a very +ticklish customer, no doubt, and one as I should not have been in the +least surprised to find myself under orders to fit with a pair of +bracelets, for such a thing, for instance, as murder."</p> + +<p>I think each of us started and looked at one another in hushed amazement +at this statement; and the wine-glass which Marmaduke was twisting +nervously in his fingers, rattled against the table in spite of his +efforts to remain calm.</p> + +<p>"I mean," observed Mr. Townshend, in explanation, "as the baronet, when +I knew him at least, was venomous, yet likewise hasty; and though +cunning enough, if his temper got the better of him, would do imprudent +things, I remember him well-nigh killing his jockey on the course at +Doncaster—it was the second year as ever the Leger was ran for—and +all for no fault of his, but just because he didn't win when his master +expected it. I remember how the crowd hissed the gentleman, and the ugly +look which he gave them in reply. There was no fuss made about the +matter afterwards; but Sir Massingberd had to supply a deal of Golden +Ointment to the poor lad's bruises: he was very free-handed with his +money at that time. I suppose, by the pace he was then going, that he +has not much left."</p> + +<p>"He has almost literally not a shilling," replied Mr. Long. "I am quite +certain that he had no ready-money in his possession besides the twenty +one-pound notes which he obtained from me upon that evening."</p> + +<p>"And no means of raising any?" inquired Mr. Townshend.</p> + +<p>"None whatever," replied my tutor positively.</p> + +<p>"That simplifies the business a good deal," remarked the Bow Street +runner, drawing out his pocket-book. "Now, I suppose you kept the +numbers of those notes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did. Peter, did you not write them down for me?"</p> + +<p>"The notes ran from 82961 to 82980 inclusive," said I.</p> + +<p>"A very concise and sensible statement, young gentleman,"<a name="FNanchor_1_3" id="FNanchor_1_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> remarked +the police-officer, approvingly; "I should like, however, to see the +figures in black and white." When these had been found among certain +memorandums of my tutor, Mr. Townshend copied them, and thus continued: +"Now, the first thing as has to be done, gentleman all—by which no +offence is meant to the young lady—is this: we must go to the Bank of +England, and find out if any of these here notes have been paid in since +November 16th. If they have been, one of two things is certain—Sir +Massingberd is spending them, or somebody else is spending them for him. +If the latter, it is probable that it is not with his consent; that is, +that he can't help it; that is, that he's dead as a ten-penny nail;" and +with that the speaker brought down his fist upon the mahogany, as though +he were hammering one in.</p> + +<p>"We shall leave the case, Mr. Townshend, entirely in your hands," +observed Mr. Gerard; "and please to look to me for any expenses you may +require."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," replied the runner, rising as if to take his leave; +"but since two or three heads are always better than one, in cases of +this sort, and the present company has their wits about them—which is +by no means the case with many as I have to do with—I should be glad of +a little assistance from yourselves."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think we ought to advertise the baronet as missing, and offer +a reward?" suggested Mr. Clint.</p> + +<p>"There will be no harm in that, of course," replied Mr. Townshend +carelessly; "although I can't say as I have much confidence in +advertisements; my own experience is, that parties who put them in +derive some satisfaction from reading them over to themselves, but the +advantage don't go much beyond that—-except that it sometimes puts +people upon their guard as one wants to be off it. I have got a little +pressing business on hand to-morrow—in the forging line—and must now +be off; but if one or two of you will be at the Bank to-morrow +afternoon, at, let us say three o'clock, I shall be sure to be there to +meet you."</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> Every lad in my position, not yet turned twenty-one, was a +"young gentleman" in these times; we were not so tenacious of our +dignity as the young men of to-day.</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h3> + +<h3>THE BANK-NOTES.</h3> + + +<p>It was arranged, to my infinite joy, before retiring to rest that night, +that I was to make one of the Bank party. Marmaduke insisted on +accompanying us, being above measure curious about the matter, and eager +to know the worst (or the best) regarding it. Mr. Long had to return to +Fairburn for his Sunday's duty, and Mr. Clint could not spare the time +from his parchments; so Mr. Harvey Gerard and we two young men went +forth upon the trail together. As the paper-chase is the most glorious +pursuit undertaken by boys, as fox-hunting is the sport of sports for +men, so man-hunting is the avocation fitted for heroes. I know nothing +like it for interest and excitement—nothing. If I could only imbue my +readers with one-tenth of the absorbing concern with which we, the +subordinate actors in this drama of mystery, now began to be devoured, +they would be sorry indeed when this narrative comes to a conclusion. We +three were at the appointed spot some minutes before the hour which had +been agreed upon for meeting the Bow Street runner; but before the +chimes of the Old Exchange clock had ceased their "<i>Life let us +cherish</i>"—the tune which they always played on Fridays—the Bow Street +runner appeared.</p> + +<p>Passing through a great room within the Bank, in which, to my +unaccustomed eye, were displayed the riches of Croesus, and where the +golden showers seemed unceasingly to rain, we were conducted into a +private apartment, where sat some grey-headed official, uncommunicative, +calm, like one who has had his glut even of wealth, and to whom money, +whether in bullion or paper, was no longer any object.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend, what can I do for you?" inquired he, sedately. "I +trust you are not come about any fresh wrongs against the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street. I never see your face but I think of an imitation +bank-note, and diminution of the stock in our cellar."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," responded the runner, cheerfully; "I am afraid that I +shall have to see you in a day or two respecting a matter of that very +kind, but to-day I am come on a different business. A gentleman of high +rank has been missing for three weeks, or more; and his absence has +given the greatest anxiety to these, his friends. He was known to have +in his possession certain one-pound Bank of England notes, twenty in +all, of which the numbers are known. We wish to know whether they have +been paid in hither in the meantime, and if so, by whom."</p> + +<p>"Have you any order from the deputy-governor?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, sir," responded the runner, insinuatingly. "I thought that +would not be necessary between you and me."</p> + +<p>"Well, well, I suppose you must have your own way, Townshend. You're a +dangerous man to cross." And the old gentleman wagged his head in a +blandly humorous manner, and made a little golden music with his bunch +of seals. "The numbers of the notes are here, are they? From 82961 to +80. Very good." Here he rang a silver bell, which presently produced an +official personage, something between a gentleman-usher and a +pew-opener. "You may show this party over the cancelled department, +James; and let Mr. Townshend investigate anything he pleases."</p> + +<p>With a not over-courteous nod, the old gentleman resumed his study of a +certain enormous volume, that looked, said Marmaduke, like the quarto +edition of Chaucer, but which, it is reasonable to conclude, was +something else. We were straightway conducted through several vast and +echoing chambers, into a spacious fire-proof vault, where the notes that +had been paid into the Bank awaited the periodical cremation.</p> + +<p>"A week later, and we might not have been in time," remarked the Bow +Street runner, "since every bank-note is burned within a month of its +having found its way home again. If Sir Massingberd has come to a +violent end, and been robbed of his money, we shall probably find it all +here, as those who despoiled him would be anxious to get the notes +changed at once." Our guide led the way to a certain department of the +chamber, with the same accuracy which a student would evince with +respect to a shelf in his own library, and took up in his hand a bundle +of one-pound notes; they were for the most part very dirty and greasy, +but he separated one from the other with a surprising ease and celerity, +reading out the numbers as he did so. "82900, 1, 2, 3—now we are +getting near it," observed the official. "Let us see, 951, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"82961," gasped I, "and the next nineteen." I could scarcely frame the +words, so great was my excitement. Marmaduke's eyes gleamed with anxiety +and impatience; and even Mr. Gerard held his breath, while the clerk +continued, in a dry, mechanical tone:</p> + +<p>"51, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wanting—7, 8, 9 all wanting. 82960—-here you have +it; 61 wanting; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are none of them here. +Stop a bit. 82977—that's one, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," cried I, "that's one. Pray, let me look at it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir," responded the official, severely. "With regard to +Mr. Townshend, I have my orders, but as respects him only."</p> + +<p>"Perfectly right," remarked the Bow Street runner, approvingly. "Then +please to give it to me, my man. Are there any more?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there are—78, 79, 80."</p> + +<p>"Good. That is four in all, then." The detective took them up, and +showed them to me: of course, I could not identify them; but still I +felt some awe to think what hands—hands imbued with blood, +perchance—those notes might have passed through since I had seen Sir +Massingberd thrust them into his pocket.</p> + +<p>"I cannot carry these away with me, my good friend, I suppose?" inquired +Mr. Townshend, persuasively.</p> + +<p>"By no manner of means, Mr. Runner," replied the guardian of these +unctuous treasures, with dignity. "His Majesty himself would never be so +mad as to ask such a thing. A written order from the governor himself +would not permit you to do it."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir; then we won't trouble the governor to write one," +returned the detective, dryly. "What I must know, however—permission or +no permission—is this: by whose hand were these sweet-smelling and +precious articles paid into the Bank of England?"</p> + +<p>It would have been amusing, under less anxious circumstances, to have +watched the demeanour of these two personages, each jealous of the +dignity of those by whom he was employed, and neither in the least +disposed to surrender one tittle of his delegated authority.</p> + +<p>"That information will, no doubt, be supplied to you," replied the +official, stiffly, "if it is thought right—and not otherwise. Follow +me, gentlemen, if you please, and I will direct you to the office where +such an application may be made."</p> + +<p>This we did; and I am bound to say, met with very great civility from +the superintendent of the department in question. In spite of the +admirable and systematic manner in which the huge establishment was +carried on, it was not easy, and in many cases would have been +impossible, to discover what individual had paid in any particular +note; but every pains and trouble were taken in our behalf, to effect +this. Out of the four notes, only one, No. 82979, could be identified as +having been received from any particular person—one Mr. Worrall, a +silk-merchant in the City. Having expressed our warmest thanks to the +authorities, we immediately called a coach, and started off to this +gentleman's warehouse. We were so fortunate as to find him in, although +he was just upon the point of setting forth to his private residence. +Upon an examination of his books, we discovered no record of the +bank-note about which we were concerned; still, he frankly owned to us +that such memoranda were not kept with excessive accuracy. "It is +possible yet that the people at the Bank may have been correct," +observed he. "You had better return there; and since the matter is one +of life and death, I do not mind confiding to you, that if that note +has passed through our hands at all, it will have the letter W, in red, +upon the back of it; it is very small, but still can be deciphered +without a magnifying-glass."</p> + +<p>"There was no mark," observed I, "upon any of the notes I saw."</p> + +<p>"There <i>was</i> a mark," remarked the Bow Street runner, reflectively; and +I am pretty sure it was upon this very note.—"It is no wonder that you +did not see it, young gentleman, since your livelihood does not depend, +as mine does, upon keeping my eyes about me. The mark in question was +also almost obliterated by the red "Cancelled" which the Bank had placed +upon the note; but as far as I could make it out, it was the letter O."</p> + +<p>"That is the private mark of the Metropolitan Oil Company," exclaimed +Mr. Worrall, without hesitation. "Although, indeed, because I have told +my own secrets, I am not sure that I am justified in revealing those of +other people. Their offices are in the very next street to this."</p> + +<p>Off we started like hounds, who, after, a check, have once more struck +the scent. Business in the City had by this time greatly diminished, and +many of the shops were closed; but the Oil Company's emporium, as +behoved it, was lighted up from cellar to garret, to give assurance to +the world that what they sold could turn night, and even London fog, +into day. Notwithstanding the extreme luminosity of the premises, we +found the accounts of the establishment, however, rather opaque and +complicated; and although nothing could exceed the pains which the +clerks put themselves to upon our account, it was several hours before +No. 82979 could be identified, both as respected its incoming and +outgoing. Finally, however, we gleaned the certain information that the +note in question had been received only a day or two previously by the +Oil Company from a Mr. Vanderseld, the skipper of a foreign vessel, then +lying in the port of London, but which, he had informed them, was to +sail immediately. He had bought a small quantity of oil for his cabin +lamps, and taken it with him, but had ordered a large supply to be sent +to his address in Hamburg, and with this address we were made +acquainted.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Townshend," quoth Mr. Harvey Gerard, as we rolled homewards +in a hackney-coach, after seven hours of this man-hunting, "what think +you that this news portends? Is the game still afoot, or is it only dead +game—quarry?"</p> + +<p>"I can speak with no sort of certainty yet," replied the Bow Street +runner; "but next to all the notes having been paid into the Bank on +the 17th or so—which, as I told you, would have almost indicated Sir +Massingberd's murder and robbery, without any doubt—I know of no worse +tidings than this, of their having come from Hamburg. There's a regular +agency abroad, and particularly in that town, for the sale of Bank of +England notes dishonestly come by. If a thief cannot get to the Bank +immediately, to turn his plunder into gold, he sends it across the +water; and then it comes back to us at home, through honest hands +enough. We must communicate, of course, with Vanderseld; but the +probability is that he will be unable to give us any information. These +sea-fellows take account of nothing except what concerns their own +trade. He may remember the quarter that the wind was blowing from upon +the day he had the note, to a nicety; but he won't have a notion, bless +you, as to who paid it him. No—it's the worst sign yet, to my mind, +that that 'ere note has come through foreign hands. But don't you be +down-hearted, my young gentleman," added the Bow Street runner, +addressing himself to Marmaduke, who looked very fagged and anxious; +"I'll find your respected uncle, mind you, let him be where he will; and +if he's dead, why, you shall see his corpse, though I have to dig it up +with my finger-nails." With which comforting statement we had, for that +evening, to be content.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h3> + +<h3>A BENEVOLENT STRANGER.</h3> + + +<p>Having written to Mr. Vanderseld of Hamburg, there was nothing, pending +the reception of his reply, for even Mr. Townshend to do beyond his +favourite occupation of keeping his eyes open. We advertised, however, +in the "Morning Chronicle" (a print that at that time was far from +looking forward, to death from want of circulation, and the having its +eyes closed by a penny piece), in the "Times," and in the "Sun," and +offered a reward of one hundred guineas for tidings of the missing +baronet; nor, in spite of the Bow Street Runner's depreciating remarks +upon this point, were our efforts in that direction wholly thrown away. +A full description of Sir Massingberd had appeared in the above +newspapers for ten successive days, and on the eleventh, the following +information came of it. We were all breakfasting in Harley Street, Mr. +Long having come up from Fairburn the previous day, when the butler +informed us that there was a man waiting in the hall, who wished to see +"H.G.," who had put a certain advertisement into the "Sun" newspaper. +"Show him in here at once, George," quoth Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands. +"How pleased I shall be if we learn what we wish to know, after all, +without any help from Bow Street. I beg you will take a chair, sir." +These last words were addressed to a very respectable-looking person, +whom the servant had ushered in, and who bowed to us in a very decorous +and unassuming fashion. He was attired in half-mourning, and carried a +little black leather bag and an umbrella—the latter a less common +companion in these days than a cane is now—as though he had just come +off a journey.</p> + +<p>"I have called, gentlemen," said he, "simply in consequence of seeing a +notice respecting the disappearance of a certain individual of whose +whereabouts I am in a position to inform you."</p> + +<p>"Is Sir Massingberd Heath alive, sir?" gasped Marmaduke.</p> + +<p>"Heaven be praised, he <i>is</i>, sir," responded the stranger, fervently.</p> + +<p>"Umph," ejaculated Mr. Gerard, with less piety.</p> + +<p>Mr. Long coughed behind his fingers, but otherwise kept a discreet +silence.</p> + +<p>"You know him, do you, sir?" inquired our host.</p> + +<p>"I know him well enough by sight, if, at least, your advertised +description of his personal appearance is accurate," resumed our +visitor. "His height, his beard, the curious indentation upon his +forehead, are all characteristic of the man whom I saw last night, and +whom I have seen every day for weeks. He is living under the name of +Daneton, at Nutgall, a village in Cambridgeshire, near which I reside. I +have not the slightest doubt whatever of his identity. As for knowing +him, except by sight, however, I cannot say that I do. Without meaning +offence, or wishing to hurt the feelings of relations, I may observe +that his mode of life is scarcely one to make acquaintance with him +advantageous. If I may speak without reserve upon the matter, I should +state that he drank considerably, to the extent, indeed, the landlord of +the inn has informed me, of, at least, a bottle and a half of French +brandy <i>per diem</i>."</p> + +<p>"That <i>must</i> be my uncle," observed Marmaduke, naïvely.</p> + +<p>"He is so, sir, without a doubt," continued the stranger. "I do not seek +for any pecuniary reward; but having seen your advertisement, I thought +it my duty to come up hither, and relieve the feelings of anxious +relatives."</p> + +<p>Here the door opened, and Mr. Townshend walked in unannounced, as it was +his custom to do. Merely nodding to us all, as though he was an inmate +of the house, he sat down at the table with his back to the visitor, and +helped himself to a roll and butter.</p> + +<p>Mr. Gerard explained briefly the stranger's errand to the officer of +justice, and then observed, "Are we to understand, then, that you have +been so good as to come all the way from Nutgall hither, expressly to +give us this information?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," responded the man with frankness; "I should deceive you if I +were to say that much. I have business in the City to-day, and arrived +so far by coach; I came on hither, merely a few miles beyond my mark; +that is all for which you are indebted to me."</p> + +<p>"That is a great deal," observed Mr. Long, warmly. "We take it very +kindly that you should have done so much."</p> + +<p>"I thought it only my duty, sir," replied the visitor, modestly. "The +trouble I do not take into account."</p> + +<p>"What a pity the gentleman did not think of writing by the post," +observed Mr. Townshend, still proceeding with his breakfast; "that would +have saved him this long expedition, and us many days of anxiety."</p> + +<p>"That is very true," returned the stranger; "but the fact is, one does +not always like to answer advertisements in that way. How did I know who +'H.G.' was? I thought also that a personal interview would be more +satisfactory. I am a poor man, but I did not grudge the chance of losing +an hour or two on an errand of charity."</p> + +<p>"You are very good," answered Marmaduke, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"And you must, please, permit us," added Mr. Long, taking out his purse, +"to at least reimburse you for that loss of time."</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," observed Mr. Townshend, speaking with his mouth full, +"that this gentleman is about to be rather hardly dealt by. It is true +that a guinea, or even half a one, may repay him for his lost time; but +if his intelligence respecting Sir Massingberd Heath turns out to be +such as he represents it, he will be entitled to the hundred guineas +reward."</p> + +<p>"I never thought of that," observed Mr. Long, returning his purse to his +pocket not without a blush. "I hope, sir, that you will acquit me of any +sordid design in what I proposed to do."</p> + +<p>"Most certainly, sir," returned the stranger, with animation; "and +indeed your views, as you just expressed them, are quite in accordance +with my own. I have no wish whatever for the reward in question; to have +done my duty is, I hope, a sufficient recompense for me. On the other +hand, I cannot well afford to lose these two or three hours which have +been expended in your service. A couple of guineas would quite repay me +for this, and even leave the obligation upon my side."</p> + +<p>There was a silence for a little, during which Mr. Long gazed +inquiringly at Mr. Gerard, and he, in his turn, looked towards Mr. +Townshend; then, as though the back of that gentleman's head had been +cognizant that counsel was demanded of it, the Bow Street runner spoke +as follows:</p> + +<p>"It would be nothing less than a fraud, in my opinion, if this good +gentleman's generosity is taken advantage of in the way he suggests. If +the management of this business is to be in my hands, I should say let +us behave with rectitude at least, if not with liberality. The hundred +guineas are fairly his, if he is correct in what he has told us; +whereas, if he is <i>not</i> correct—since no mistake can have occurred in +the matter, by his own showing—why, this is merely an attempt to extort +money under false pretences."</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Townshend," cried my tutor, starting to his feet, "I think +your profession of thief-catching makes you very unscrupulous in your +imputations."</p> + +<p>For my own part, I felt excessively indignant too; and so, I think, +would Marmaduke have done, had he not been preoccupied with his own +thoughts. Lucy blushed, and cast down her eyes. Her father quietly +observed, "Mr. Townshend may have been somewhat plain-spoken, but what +he has said is common sense. If you will be good enough to leave your +address at Nutgall with us, sir, we shall communicate with you as soon +as we have convinced ourselves of the truth of your suspicions; and then +we shall not only have compensation but apologies to offer you."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," rejoined the visitor coolly. "My address is upon that +card. If I had known the sort of reception that awaited me here, I +should not perhaps have been so anxious to do my duty. Gentlemen, I +wish you good-day. I am sorry to have interrupted your repast."</p> + +<p>"Don't mention it, my good sir," observed the Bow Street runner, as he +disposed of his third slice of ham. "I have treated you as no stranger, +I assure you."</p> + +<p>To this sarcasm the visitor made no reply, but bowing to the rest of the +company, was about to withdraw with polite severity, when Mr. Long +stepped forward, and took him by the hand. "I believe you are a +kindly-hearted man," cried he, "who has been grievously wronged by those +whom you have attempted to benefit; but in any case, it cannot do you +any harm to have shaken hands with an honest man, and one who is a +humble minister of the gospel."</p> + +<p>I could have jumped up and shaken hands with the stranger also, but a +false shame prevented me. I thought that Townshend was only waiting for +the poor fellow to go to become contemptuously cynical upon those who +had shown any belief in him. The Bow Street runner, however, said never +a word, but proceeded with his interminable breakfast.</p> + +<p>Mr. Long was speechless with indignation. I saw Lucy Gerard cast an +approving glance at my excellent tutor, and then an imploring one +towards her father, who was biting his lips, as if to restrain his +laughter.</p> + +<p>At last, the rector broke silence. "I gather from what you have stated, +Mr. Townshend, that you will scarcely consider it worth while to go down +to Nutgall, or make any further inquiry into the circumstances of which +you have just heard."</p> + +<p>"It will certainly not be worth <i>my</i> while," returned the Bow Street +runner curtly.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall go down into Cambridgeshire myself," observed my tutor.</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir. If time were less valuable to me, it would give me a +great deal of pleasure to accompany you."</p> + +<p>"My dear Peter," remarked my tutor, taking no notice of this wicked +banter, "what do you say to coming with me?"</p> + +<p>Even if I had been less disposed to do this than I was, I should still +have readily consented to be the rector's travelling companion, for to +refuse would have been to declare myself upon the enemy's side.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, we set off upon this amateur detective expedition that very +day; and on the following evening returned to Harley Street, having +possessed ourselves of this important information: That benevolence is +sometimes assumed for the base purpose of making a few shillings, and +that advertisements are occasionally taken advantage of to the confusion +of those who insert them. There was really a village called Nutgall; +that was the one fact that the respectable person in half-mourning had +brought along with his black leather bag and silk umbrella. There was +not a public-house in the place where Sir Massingberd could have +procured that bottle and a half of French brandy, had he been ever so +disposed to dissipation, or even where we ourselves could get bread and +cheese.</p> + +<p>I verily believe, at the time of his disenchantment, my revered tutor +would rather that the baronet had been really at Nutgall, and in the +humour and condition to wage implacable war against poor Marmaduke, than +have given such an opportunity of triumph to the man of Bow Street.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> + +<h3>BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS.</h3> + + +<p>It was the Runner's custom to call at Mr. Gerard's every evening, no +matter how often he might have been there during the day, in order to +report progress, or that there was none; and when his knock at the +front-door was heard, I perceived the rector wince upon his chair, like +one who has been roasted a little already, and expects to be before the +fire again immediately. Mr. Townshend, however, did not even so much as +allude to our Will-o'-the-Wisp pursuit, cautioned, perhaps, not to do so +by our host, or besought by his daughter, as I fancy. I do not think +that the gravity of the intelligence he brought with him would, of +itself, have blunted Mr. Townshend's appetite for acrimonious jesting, +which was insatiable; and, indeed, the issues of Death or Life, and of +Lost or Found, formed so much the ordinary business of his life, that +any discovery, no matter of what nature, disturbed him as little as +finding a gentleman with his head off disturbs the King of Dahomey.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Long, I am glad to see you back again," said he; "you are the +very man I want. Does a farmer of the name of Arabel happen to reside in +or near your parish?"</p> + +<p>"He lives at Fairburn, within a stone's throw——"</p> + +<p>"You will never make a Bow Street runner," interrupted Mr. Townshend, +shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"Well, then," continued my tutor good-humouredly, "if accuracy is so +essential, I will say within half a mile and a few yards of my own +Rectory."</p> + +<p>"That is better, sir," returned the detective gravely. "And what sort of +a character do you consider this man to bear?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Arabel is an honest man and a good churchman," replied the rector +positively; "and but for a little occasional excess——"</p> + +<p>"A drunkard, eh?" observed the Bow Street officer, briskly.</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not, Mr. Townshend. He takes too much liquor now and +then, I believe; but, I regret to say it, there are few more sober +persons in my parish than Richard Arabel."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," observed the other reflectively; "and yet he was the man who +paid No. 82979 to Mr. Vanderseld, who trades in grain. I have heard +from Hamburg, and have traced the note back again to Fairburn. I start +for that place this evening by post-chaise; and if you or Mr. Meredith +want a lift, I shall be happy to take one or both of you along with me."</p> + +<p>This intelligence astonished us all immensely, and my tutor and myself, +who knew the farmer, more than the rest. Such news would have been +itself sufficient to have taken the rector home at once; besides, he was +not only anxious, as usual, to get back to his own parish, but somewhat +grudged our long-continued absence and intellectual holiday. There did +not seem, too, to be any sort of necessity for my remaining longer with +Marmaduke, who had found, it was impossible to doubt, a companion far +more capable of upholding and encouraging him than I. The Bow Street +runner's offer was therefore accepted by both of us; and in a few hours +we took our seats in the same vehicle for Midshire. The chaise was as +roomy a one as could be procured, but still, as there was but one seat, +I had to assume the position of "bodkin" between my two companions. +Their conversation was at first entirely confined to the subject of our +expedition, namely, Farmer Arabel, concerning whom the detective +expressed his suspicions the more darkly, the more extravagantly he was +eulogized by Mr. Long. So vehement was their dispute, that I did not +like to interrupt it for a considerable period, during which I endured +great inconvenience from sitting upon a substance at once both sharp and +hard, contained in one of Mr. Townshend's pockets. If he had been a lady +of the present day, I should have known what it was, and perhaps have +modestly suffered on without remonstrance; but since he was not of the +softer sex, and certainly did not wear crinoline, I ventured to ask what +it was which inflicted such torture.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, young gentleman," observed the Bow Street runner, +removing the article objected to; "you was only sitting upon a pair of +bracelets with which I may have perhaps to present Mr. Richard Arabel."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that you carry handcuffs in your pocket!" +observed my tutor, with a shudder of disgust.</p> + +<p>"I mean to say I do, and should as soon think of moving about without +'em, as without my hat and breeches," returned the runner, with a +coolness that froze us both into a protracted silence.</p> + +<p>The rain fell heavily, as the night drew on, and dashed against the +streaming panes with fitful violence. The wind and wet poured in +together whenever the window was put down to pay the postboys. I pitied +the poor fellows, exposed to such weather, and was glad to see that Mr. +Townshend paid them liberally. "There are no persons who are more +open-handed travellers than your Bow Street runners," observed Mr. Long, +when I remarked to him upon this circumstance in the absence of our +friend, who had stepped out while we were changing horses somewhere, for +brandy and water; "and the reason of their generosity is this, that +other people have to pay for it." I had never heard my tutor utter so +severe a speech, and I gathered from it that his indignation against our +fellow-wayfarer was as poignant as ever; and yet within half an hour it +was fated that all his resentment should be neutralized by gratitude, +leaving a large margin of the latter sentiment over and above.</p> + +<p>The next stage was over a desolate, treeless heath, where the elements +had their own way against us more than ever, and our vehicle seemed +actually to shrink and shudder from the force of their onslaught. All of +a sudden, I was thrown forward against the opposite window by the +stoppage of the postchaise. At first I thought a horse had fallen; but +immediately afterwards the window next to Mr. Long was violently pushed +down from without, and a something black and small, which was a pistol, +was protruded into the carriage.</p> + +<p>"Your money or your life! Come, be quick, curse you, and don't keep +gentlemen waiting in the wet," said a rough voice. "Be quick, I say." A +volley of oaths accompanied this unpleasant request.</p> + +<p>"I have only a couple of guineas with me," cried Mr. Long, quietly, +"and you will not make it more by swearing."</p> + +<p>"That's a lie!" remarked the voice very uncivilly, "for you're a parson, +you are, and they've always money enough. Ain't he a parson, postboy? +Didn't you say so, when. I asked you who you'd got inside there? Come +here, won't yer?"</p> + +<p>At these words, one of the wretched postboys, shivering and dripping, +came forward to the window, and stammered out, "Really, gentlemen, I +couldn't help it; he swore as he'd blow out my brains, if I didn't tell; +so I told him as one was a clergyman, I believed, but the other two——"</p> + +<p>"My name is Townshend," interrupted the Bow Street runner, with great +distinctness. "If you had happened to know that, boy, and had informed +these gentlemen of the circumstance, I am sure they would never have +stopped us, unless, indeed, it was to inquire after my health." At the +same time he thrust his broad face out of the window into the light +thrown by a lantern carried by one of the robbers; for there were +several dim forms on horseback, as I could now perceive. If a +blunderbuss had been exhibited instead, it could not have caused +one-half of the panic which the sight of his features occasioned; each +robber turned his back at once, as though to prevent the recognition +being mutual, and spurred away into the darkness, leaving nothing but +the dismounted postboy to evidence that they were not mere phantoms of +the night.</p> + +<p>"Get to your saddle, and make you up for lost time," said the Runner +sternly; and when this mandate had been obeyed, and we were once more on +our way, he added, "That postboy sold us; I saw him whispering to a man +on horseback in the inn-yard while I was taking some drink in the +back-parlour; he was never asked any question when the chaise was +stopped. That was Jerry Atherton, too, who put his shooting-iron in at +that window; I should know his voice though a mob were shouting with +him. A man who wishes to do something of which the consequences are so +very serious, should not only wear crape, but keep his mouth shut."</p> + +<p>"We have to thank you very much, I am sure," said Mr. Long. "It was a +great providence for us that you were with us."</p> + +<p>"Very likely, sir," returned Mr. Townshend, grimly; "but not for Jerry, +nor yet for the postboy."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> + +<h3>THE FALSE SCENT.</h3> + + +<p>I am now drawing near the end of this strange eventful narrative, and my +readers will learn in a chapter or two what has in reality become of +Lost Sir Massingberd: whether he lies dead in Fairburn Chase, +notwithstanding that strict search of ours, or somewhere else, conveyed +by foemen's hands; or if, alive, he keeps in hiding nigh, for some evil +end, or has even left British soil for a time, to return, according to +his threat, on a day when he is least expected. If his real whereabouts +and true position have been guessed, then is he who hit upon it a wiser +man, not only than I was at that time (which might easily be), but +wiser than that genius of Bow Street, whose eye was reported to see +further into very millstones than any man alive of his time. He arrived +at Fairburn with his handcuffs and his suspicions, and would, I verily +believe, have made me his stalking-horse whereby to come down upon the +guileless Farmer Arabel, and extract what might be tantamount to a +confession.</p> + +<p>"You know him, Mr. Meredith," he had observed to me in his frankest +tone, as we walked out together after breakfast, on the morning after +our arrival; "and I look to you to make the matter easy. We will step +over to the farm at once, if you please, and have a glass of home-brewed +with the good man, when, I dare say, he will tell us what we want to +know, and exculpate himself at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Townshend," I replied, gravely, "I have been made a catspaw of +already, within a few weeks, and until the remembrance of that event has +worn off very considerably, I shall not act that part again."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir," responded the Runner, cheerfully. "I only thought, +that being a well-wisher to the person in question, you might have made +the thing less unpleasant for him. If you went with me, introducing me +as a gentleman from London, anxious to see good farming, for +instance—that 'ud tickle him—I could bring the subject of the note +into conversation; then, if he explained to my satisfaction, as he will +doubtless be able to do, how he got possession of it, it will not be +necessary to inquire further. He need never know as a police-officer had +been down here with darbies in his pocket, upon the chance of having to +fit them on his wrists upon the charge of Wilful Murder."</p> + +<p>"There is certainly something in that," said I, musingly.</p> + +<p>"There is everything in it," returned Mr. Townshend, stepping carelessly +over the style, on the other side of which ran the pathway to Mr. +Arabel's residence. "The idea of this man's guilt being, as you say, +quite preposterous, it would only be a kindness on your part to spare +his feelings. That's a fine stout old fellow looking at those men at +work in yonder field, a sort of man that carries his years better than +one sees people do in London: I should say, now, that might be the +farmer himself."</p> + +<p>"Really," said I, stopping short, "I think you had better do this +business of yours alone, Mr. Townshend. I have eaten and drunk in Mr. +Arabel's house, and to be concerned in any such errand as this seems but +a poor return for his hospitality."</p> + +<p>"Ah, it <i>is</i> him, is it? Very good, sir. Well, you may just please +yourself as to accompanying me now. When I have once set eyes on my man +it is not my habit to lose sight of him. Still, you might have made it +easier—for <i>him</i>, that is. It is no matter to me whether the thing is +done soft or hard." And the Bow Street runner stepped along as he spoke, +like a diligent man who sees his work cut out before him.</p> + +<p>After a moment's indecision, I followed upon Mr. Townshend's heels.</p> + +<p>"That's right, young gentleman," observed he, approvingly, but without +even turning his head. "Those is turnips, I suppose, and very good they +are with capers and a leg of mutton; as to wheat, I am not acquainted +with it, at least, so as to know it from oats and barley, unless when +it's in ear. Agriculture is one of them things to which I have not yet +given my attention; but I means to do so, and I have come here for +wrinkles concerning it, remember that, if you please."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said I, sheepishly, for I was obliged to confess to myself +that Mr. Townshend had got the better of me; and in a few more strides +we had got within earshot of the farmer. This was not indeed very near, +but Mr. Arabel had excellent lungs, and bade me welcome as soon as he +had recognized me.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, as likewise any friend of yours, Master Meredith. So +the rector is back, I hear; and the wise folks in London can tell no +more what has become of Sir Massingberd than we poor folks."</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Arabel, they cannot; on the contrary," said I, determined that +there should be no hypocrisy upon my part at least, "here is one of +them, who is come down to Fairburn for information, and relies upon you +to give it to him too."</p> + +<p>"I should like to know when you saw Sir Massingberd last," observed the +Bow Street runner quietly, "and under what circumstances?"</p> + +<p>"That is soon told," returned the farmer simply; "but perhaps you would +rather step in out of the cold, and take a drop of something while you +hear it."</p> + +<p>"No, I thank you," said I, firmly, determined that the laws of +hospitality should not be thus infringed with my consent, "I must return +to the Rectory at once."</p> + +<p>"Then I will walk with you," observed the farmer civilly, "and tell you +all I know in a few words. The fact is, the squire and I had not been on +good terms for a length of time before his disappearance. He was a bad +landlord, and did not know how to behave to a tenant as would have done +his duty by him. He wanted his own rent paid to the day, and never had +to ask it from me, for that matter; but when he owed a little money +himself, it was dreadful hard to get it out of him. There happened to be +something due from him to me—it was a small matter, made up of little +things—corn for that horse he bought for Master Marmaduke, among +others, but the thing had been owing for a year or more. I had not +deducted it from the rent, and therefore he ought to have been the +readier to pay it; but he was not; and at last I cut up rough about it, +and went to the Hall myself on the 15th of last month, and then we +rather fell out together, the Squire and me."</p> + +<p>"You quarrelled, did you?" remarked Mr. Townshend, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, we did quarrel; leastways, <i>I</i> did. Sir Massingberd always +quarrelled with whoever asked him for payment, so that was nothing. I +said that I would not leave the house without the money; but at last I +did leave upon his solemn promise to pay me the next day, that was the +very day of his disappearance, and he did pay me, with as many oaths as +one-pound notes into the bargain."</p> + +<p>"He paid you these on the 15th of November, then," observed the +detective.</p> + +<p>"On the 16th," replied the farmer. "I've got a memorandum of it in my +pocket-book; here it is, and the number of the notes 82977 to 80; there +was four in all."</p> + +<p>"And those notes you sent to your London agent along with more, and you +got some foreign stuff back from Hamburg in exchange for them."</p> + +<p>"And how the deuce come you to know that?" exclaimed the farmer in +extreme astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is my business to know a good many things," returned the Bow +Street runner, getting over the stile rather sulkily, for he was well +aware by this time that there would be no employment for his favourite +bracelets.</p> + +<p>"Well, that may be your friend's business," quoth Mr. Arabel, looking +after his retreating form, "but I'm gormed if he looks like it. I should +have said he was an individual in the same line as myself, only fatter, +and though I say it as shouldn't say it, a sight more foolish."</p> + +<p>"Nay," said I, "he is not a foolish man, Mr. Arabel, far from it; +although I think he has come down to Fairburn upon a fool's errand."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h3> + +<h3>"LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD."</h3> + + +<p>I have said that I am approaching the conclusion of this my story, and +so in truth I am, so far as the readers thereof are concerned in it. +They will soon be put in possession of its secret, and close this +volume, not altogether without regret, as I hope. But for me, and those +who played their parts in this drama of mystery, months and years went +by without the least clue to its solution. Fairburn Hall remained +without a master, although not untenanted. The same servants occupied it +as before, and expected, although with less and less of certainty, that +the Squire would presently return and claim his own again. The +principal rooms, as was stated, had been locked up and sealed ever since +his disappearance, and the very neighbourhood of their doors had begun +to be avoided after dark. Noises were affirmed to have been heard in +them, both canine and human—doubtless the ghostly talk held between +Grimjaw and Sir Massingberd, who had now no longer any reason for +silence concerning that evil deed in which they had been concerned +together so long ago. The baronet's voice was also heard in the Park and +Chase, especially upon windy nights, cursing and threatening in a very +vehement and life-like manner, so that his preserves were almost as well +protected by the terror of his absence as they had been by that of his +presence. Reckless, indeed, must have been the poacher who wired hares +or slaughtered pheasants in the Home Spinney, where the dread Sir +Massingberd must have met with his end, or been spirited away, no man +knew how or whither. Had it not been for this superstitious awe, Oliver +Bradford would have found it difficult to guard his master's game, for +the old keeper, crippled with age and rheumatism, could no longer watch +o' nights himself, nor could he easily induce his subordinates to do so, +unless in pairs. They, too, had little liking to be alone in the Home +Spinney after dusk, nor near the Wolsey Oak, which of late years had had +certain portentous tenants in the shape of the two ravens, which were +for ever flying to and fro between it and their lodging in the church +tower. The old ancestral saying—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Ill for Heaths when raven's croak</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Bodeful comes from Wolsey's Oak"—</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>was remembered and repeated by the old folks of Fairburn to the rising +generation with many a solemn head-shake and significant pursing of the +lips. Yet, oddly enough, the general opinion, even of these ancient +gossips, was, that Sir Massingberd was yet alive. The misfortune +prophesied by the ravens was held to concern the family, or, in other +words, young Marmaduke, rather than his uncle. If the behaviour of these +intelligent birds proclaimed that the Squire was dead, they deserved +rather to be held as doves of good tidings than what they were. No; Sir +Massingberd was alive, and would turn up some day or other, wickeder +than ever. His return was as confidently looked for by many of his +vassals, as that of Barbarossa was wont to be.</p> + +<p>This was not, of course, the case with reasonable persons, like Mr. +Long, and, I may add, myself. When a twelvemonth had elapsed since his +disappearance, we both entreated Marmaduke to come down to Fairburn, and +take possession of what might fairly be considered his own. Mr. Gerard +and Mr. Clint were equally anxious that he should do this, but all +persuasion was unavailing. The most that could be extracted from him was +the promise that, when he came of age, a year and a half hence, he would +do as we pleased. It seemed to us, indeed, the height of improbability +that his uncle should still be in the land of the living; it seemed so +to the money-lenders, who showed themselves anxious to accommodate the +young man with enormous loans at a very trifling rate of interest; but +to the heir himself it by no means appeared so certain. There was +something characteristic, he thought, of his terrible uncle in this +mysterious withdrawal from human ken, with the fiendish object of +throwing everything out of gear for years, and thus striking terror by +his sudden reappearance. If he did reappear and found another—and that +one his hated nephew—in the enjoyment of his property, how diabolical +would be his wrath! There was often quite a sublimity of passion evinced +by the old baronet upon very slight occasions; but all such displays, +compared to what would happen in the case supposed, would have been but +as a cavalry inspection at the Curragh to the Balaklava charge. Such +were the thoughts, I am convinced, which actuated Marmaduke, although he +did not express them. He confined himself to stating that he did not +consider he had a right to take possession of Fairburn until the time he +mentioned had elapsed (nor, indeed, was he legally entitled to do so for +seven years), and I doubt if he would have given even that promise, had +he not felt sure that some revelation would be made in the meantime.</p> + +<p>But no such revelation <i>was</i> made, and the day of Marmaduke Heath's +majority came round at last. Whether he would even then have put his +purpose of coming down to Fairburn into effect, had it depended solely +upon himself, I cannot say, but he had by that time other interests to +consult beside his own. Marmaduke Heath and Lucy Gerard were man and +wife; nor, if you had sought all England through, would you have chanced +upon a nobler-looking couple. At that period, although it was not so +afterwards, the dependence, the reliance, the looking up for comfort and +for counsel, so natural and so endearing in wedded life, were upon the +wrong side—upon Marmaduke's, not Lucy's. All that was done in respect +to his affairs was done by her; he only thought about doing them, and +resisted their being done until the very last, when, all other means +having failed, her sweet voice was called in by the councillors for his +good, and always succeeded. In one matter only had Marmaduke refused +even to listen to her—he had insisted upon raising a very large sum +upon his now excellent expectations, and settling it upon her before his +marriage. In vain he had been assured that such a settlement was +unnecessary, and the interest he would have to pay for the money +borrowed, absolutely thrown away. The young man had his way in this; and +on the day after the execution of the deed in question they were +married. I had determined within myself not to be present at that +wedding, in spite of a very pressing invitation, and although Mr. Long +himself attended it.</p> + +<p>"What, not go to see Marmaduke married?" cried my tutor, when I told him +of this intention. I call him still by that name, although he was at +this time merely my host, with whom I was stopping during one of my +Oxford vacations. "Why, Meredith, you astonish me beyond measure. I am +sure that neither of them will think I have rightly married them, unless +you are there to be bridegroom's man. Why, Lucy Gerard loves you, Peter, +almost as much as she does Marmaduke himself; while Mr. Gerard, between +you and me, would, I think, have preferred——" Then I broke down all of +a sudden, and laid my face between my hands upon the table, and sobbed +like a child.</p> + +<p>"Peter, Peter, my dear boy," exclaimed the Rector, laying his +fingers—ah, so pitifully—upon my head; "I had not dreamed of this. +Poor lad, poor lad, God comfort you and strengthen you; I feel for you +as though you were my very own son. What blind worms must we have been +not to have seen this before; or, rather, how bravely must you have +hidden it from us all! She doesn't know it, does she? I trust not. Then +let her never know it, Peter. I do not speak of others, for your +feelings deserve to be considered as much, and more, dear lad. But, oh, +think of hers. What bitterness will mingle with her cup of happiness +upon that day, when she feels that you are absent from such a cause—for +she will guess the cause at once, Peter."</p> + +<p>"I will be ill," groaned I. "Heaven knows that I shall feel ill enough, +and that shall be my excuse."</p> + +<p>"And do you think Marmaduke would marry, knowing that his best friend +lies ill and alone here? He would never do that. They would feel, I +hope, too, that if it were so, I should not have left you. No, Peter; +you have been very strong hitherto—be strong unto the end. Let her +never know that you have suffered and are suffering now for her sweet +sake."</p> + +<p>"I will do what you think is best, dear old friend," said I; "but please +to leave me by myself a little just now."</p> + +<p>And he did so; and I battled with my own heart and subdued it, and when +Marmaduke and Lucy were married I was present.</p> + +<p>"My dear Peter, your hand is as cold as a stone!" exclaimed the +bridegroom, when he wished me "Good-bye" that day. But Lucy said +nothing, save "Good-bye, Peter;" and even to that I could not reply. +They were very happy, those two, as indeed they deserved to be. Whatever +was wanting at that time in him, her good sense supplied; while in her, +neither then nor afterwards, was there anything wanting. She had +sympathized as much as lay in her power in the tastes and opinions of +her father; she had had a bringing-up which, in these days, would have +at least resulted in what is called a strong-minded woman, rather as +opposed to a gentle one. This could scarcely, indeed, have been the case +with Lucy, but her marriage with Marmaduke made it impossible. Her mind +had heretofore been, as it were, all orchard, bringing forth fine and +vigorous fruit; a portion of it now became a garden, producing flowers +dainty and rare. Her teacher being also her lover, it was no wonder that +her progress was rapid; and it is probable that the young student had +never found his studies so sweet as when communicating them to such a +pupil. From her father, she had learned philosophy; from her husband, +how to appreciate all that was beautiful in Nature and touching in +Song. As for her politics, Marmaduke was infinitely more solicitous to +imbue her with correct views respecting the poets, which, perhaps, was +fortunate enough. She would never have admitted, even to please him, +that her beloved, father was wrong, or even extreme in his views of +government; and, in truth, those opinions of hers—so enthusiastic, so +trustful, and founded upon the mistake of believing all her +fellow-creatures as guileless as herself—gave her conversation, an +added charm. To hear her talk of wrongs and rights, with heightened +colour and earnest eyes—no matter how elevated the rank of the person +addressed, nor how nearly connected with the very executive of whose +acts she was complaining—was enough to make a bishop exchange his mitre +for a white hat, and adopt the Thirty-nine Articles recommended by Mr. +Hone.</p> + +<p>"Judge Jeffreys himself could never have had the heart to condemn my +Lucy for a rebel," Mr. Harvey Gerard was wont to say; "although," he +would add, with a cynical twinkle in his eye, "I would not trust my Lord +Ellenborough."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long and myself were both in Harley Street upon the day when +Marmaduke came of age; and after dinner, Mr. Clint made a little speech, +not without connivance, I think, beforehand with others of the party. He +observed, that gratifying as was the occasion in question in all +respects, it was most satisfactory to himself, as concluding the period +which Marmaduke had assigned as the limit of his abstaining from taking +his rightful position in the world. He ventured to say this much upon +his own part, as having been connected with the Heath family for a +lengthened period; but he would also say for others—what he knew they +would be backward to say for themselves—that his young friend owed it +to them also not to delay the matter any longer.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke's face expressed more painful agitation than I had seen it +wear for months. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Clint," he returned; +"and, at all events, I will be as good as my word, which I passed to +Mrs. Heath," and he looked at his wife, as though he would have appealed +to her to release him from that promise.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I am right, sir," returned the lawyer quickly; "but you are +wrong and very uncivil not to give your wife her proper title. Lady +Heath, I beg to drink your very good health; Sir Marmaduke, here's to +your better manners;" and the lawyer emptied his glass, and filled it up +again, in case any other excuse should arise for the drinking of good +liquor.</p> + +<p>"Lady Heath's health; her husband's better manners," echoed laughingly +round the table.</p> + +<p>Marmaduke nerved himself by a strong effort, and replied to this toast +with feeling and eloquence. He promised to accede to the request made by +Mr. Clint, and to that end would return with us to Fairburn on the next +day but one to make his arrangements personally for coming to reside at +the Hall. As for his not having assumed the title, he protested, amidst +merriment, that he had not hitherto done so, solely out of deference to +the feelings of his father-in-law, whom he had once heard describe a +baronet as a something only not quite so bad as a lord.</p> + +<p>We were all delighted not only with the intentions Marmaduke thus +expressed, but with the cheerfulness and gaiety of his manner in +speaking of them; and when the rest had retired for the night, and my +old friend and I were in my room having that last chat by the midnight +fire which is perhaps the zenith of human converse, as the curtain +lecture is undoubtedly the nadir, I could not help congratulating him on +his change of spirits. "That you are a happy man, I know," said I; "you +would be ungrateful indeed if you were otherwise. But I cannot say how +pleased I am to find that the good Genius, who has so blessed you in +other respects, has exorcised this phantom fear of yours; that you no +longer dread that childish bugbear, Sir Massingberd."</p> + +<p>"Hush!" cried he, looking involuntarily over his shoulder; "do not +mention that name, Peter. I would gladly give up house and land this +moment, never to go back to Fairburn; I have a presentiment that evil +will come of it. She would absolve me from my promise even now—Heaven +bless her, as it must do, for she is of the angels!—but that there +will be another soon whose interests must be looked to as well as our +own. You will be godfather, dear Peter, will you not? Lucy and I both +wish it. 'Let it be Peter's godchild, Marmaduke,' she said to me only +yesterday, although I should not divulge these secrets to an old +bachelor like you."</p> + +<p>Of course, I promised readily enough, but long after he had bidden me +good-night, I sat over the paling embers, thinking, thinking; and when +every coal was charred, and the black bars cold that held them, I sat +thinking still. My hopes, for a few fleeting hours, long ago, had been +as bright and warm as they, and were now as dark—and dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> + +<h3>TAKING THE SEALS OFF.</h3> + + +<p>Marmaduke Heath came down to Fairburn according to his promise, but it +cost him a great effort. With every stage his spirits seemed to fall and +fail; and when Mrs. Myrtle at last clasped him in her arms—for Master +Marmaduke was ever a great favourite of hers, and the fact of his having +grown up and got married weighed with her not a feather—his wan face +was paler than when she had seen it last, notwithstanding its three +years of happiness and freedom. It was Christmas-time; the Rectory was a +bower of ivy and holly-berries; and just within the threshold, the +locality which the good housekeeper had chosen for her embrace, hung a +huge bough of mistletoe, the finest that could be found in all the +Chase. In the spotless kitchen, so exquisitely clean that you might, as +the phrase goes, "have eaten your dinner off the floor," if it had not +happened to have been a sanded one, there were preparations for +sumptuous feasting; a delightful fragrance, suggestive of mince-pies +with plenty of citron, pervaded Mrs. Myrtle's private parlour, where the +divine mysteries of Apicius were being celebrated. The little larder, +cold and immaculate as a dead sucking-pig ready for the spit, was +victualled with noble meats as for a siege; while monstrous pasties and +plum-puddings, too many for the broad stone slabs, reposed upon the +Dutch tiles that formed its carpet. It was not intended that the +inhabitants of the Rectory should eat all the good things themselves; +but it was a custom of Mr. Long, aided and abetted by Mrs. Myrtle, to +keep open house for about a fortnight at this festive period, and to +entertain certain worthy persons, who were old and indigent, in the +sanded kitchen daily. Attempts to edify the poor in those days were not +made so often as they are at present, but it was held essential by all +good Christian country folk to keep Christmas as a feast, and to see +that others kept it. I suppose Fairburn Hall was the only house in the +county where that blessed time was ignored and taken no account of; Sir +Massingberd had never suffered the slightest honour to be paid to it; +and his worthy deputy and <i>locum-tenens</i>, Richard Gilmore, treated it +with the like contumely.</p> + +<p>The change from the bright little Rectory, with all its hospitable +preparations, to the gloomy grandeur of the masterless mansion, was +very striking, when we three crossed the road next morning, to take the +seals off, which Mr. Long had placed upon the principal rooms, and so, +as it were, to break the blockade caused by the baronet's disappearance. +The contrast began even with things without. Half one of the globes had +been sliced from its pedestal on one side of the great iron gates; and +in the very centre of the avenue, the grass grew long and rank. The +sun-dial was cracked and gaped in zigzag, an emblem of the uncertainty +that overhung the place. The heraldic beasts at the foot of the +entrance-steps were much more mutilated than when I had seen them last, +and had indeed only one stone fore-paw or claw between them. Disuse is +sister to Abuse, but still how comes it that mere absence should beget, +as it always does, such absolute Ruin? Had the Squire been at home the +last three years, the globe upon the pedestal would have been whole, the +dial flawless, the griffins with at least their larger limbs intact; and +yet no man was ever seen to work this mischief. When the great door +swung reluctantly back to admit the new possessor, he took my hand, and +bade me Welcome, but his tone was far from gay. Every glance he cast +around him evoked, I could see, some unpleasant association, and even, +perhaps, a vague terror.</p> + +<p>There is something uncanny in exploring any dwelling the rooms of which +have been locked up and unvisited for years—places that have been once +consecrated to humanity, but have afterwards been given up to Solitude +and slow decay. Memories of their ancient inmates seem to hang gloomily +about them, like the cobweb in their corners; they are eloquent of +desertion and of death. The shriek of the mouse, and the singing of the +blue fly in the pane, have perhaps alone been heard there in the +interim; but there seem to have been other and ghostlier noises, which +cease at our approach. Who knows what eerie deeds our sudden intrusion +may have interrupted!</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"What faces glimmered through the doors,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">What footsteps trod the upper floors,"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>ere we broke in! The peculiar circumstances under which our search was +made intensified these feelings in us three, and even Gilmore, who +accompanied us, was affected by them.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">A sense of mystery the spirit daunted,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">And said, as plain as whisper in the ear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">This place is <i>worse</i> than haunted."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The library was the first room we entered, which, even in the palmiest +days of Fairburn Hall had been a dreary room, because the least in use. +Except Marmaduke himself, no one ever sat there; the wicked books, which +were the only sort read and patronized by Sir Massingberd, were all in +the Squire's private sitting-room, and the gaps in the shelves that +lined the present apartment, revealed that the Heaths had laid in a +considerable stock of them. Old Sir Wentworth, a miser in his old age, +had been a dunce in his youth, and was once heard openly to regret that +circumstance from the fact, that he was unable to peruse the loose +continental literature which his ancestors had provided for his +delectation, free of expense. In the rare cases when the Oak Parlour had +not sufficient accommodation for the guests of the missing Squire, they +had been wont to adjourn to the present apartment, to smoke and lounge +through half the night; but it bore no trace of having been so used. +Every chair and sofa were in their appointed place, as though they had +grown up like trees through the dusty carpet. Upon the tables and +mantelpieces, the dust had settled inches thick. The grate was laid +ready for lighting; but over the coals and sticks hung a sort of mildew, +that looked as if it would have defied a pine-torch to set light to it. +These things we remarked gradually, one by one, for the butler had only +opened the shutters of one window, and the extent of the apartment was +prodigious. The shelves were filled almost entirely with quartos—books +were not hand-books in those days—rich with plates, and "meadows of +margin;" you could not have sent a child on an errand to bring one of +them; if he had managed to extricate a tome at all by painfully +loosening it at head and foot, it might have fallen out and brained +him. A fourth of the entire stock was composed of books of Catholic +theology. "Those," observed Mr. Long, "are the most valuable things in +the library. Sir Nicholas is supposed to have won his bride by paying +that costly tribute to her faith. The illuminations are most rare and +splendid. Why, what is this, Gilmore? I can't get this volume down. It +seems stuck to the others."</p> + +<p>The butler grinned maliciously. "I think you will find them all like +that, sir. There's nothing but the wood-backs left. The Squire disposed +of these books soon after Mr. Marmaduke left, and got this imitation +stuff put up instead."</p> + +<p>Mr. Long broke out into wrathful indignation, but the young heir kept +silence, only smiling bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he was afraid that their heterodoxy might do his nephew harm," +remarked I, rather tickled, I confess, by this characteristic fraud.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Gilmore, drily; "he merely observed, that, being +theological works, there was as much in them now as before."</p> + +<p>"Impious wretch!" exclaimed the Rector. "See, he has bartered the +Fathers of the Church for a set of empty backgammon boards, and lettered +them with their venerable names."</p> + +<p>"Here, however, is the Family Bible," said I; "he has not sold that."</p> + +<p>The spider had spun his web across the sacred volume, but it opened +readily enough at the only place, perhaps, into which its late owner had +ever looked—the huge yellow fly-leaf, upon which were inscribed the +names of the later generations of the Heaths; Sir Massingberd's birth in +his father's own handwriting, and Sir Wentworth's death in that of his +son's, and only too probably his murderer's. The autograph was bold and +flaring, quite different from the crabbed hand of the parent, is which +the names of Gilbert Heath and Marmaduke's mother were also written, as +likewise that of Marmaduke himself. There was a little space beneath the +last; and the young heir, looking over my shoulder, pointed to it, +significantly; doubtless, it had been hoped by the last possessor of the +volume that this might one day have been filled up by the date of his +nephew's, demise.</p> + +<p>We were about to leave the room, when Mr. Long suddenly exclaimed, "Nay, +let us try the secret way. You told me, I remember, that you did not +know of Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke. The spring lies in the index of +Josephus, a wooden volume, which perhaps put this notion of wholesale +'dumbies' into Sir Massingberd's head." This practical satire upon the +unpopularity of the Jewish historian was presently discovered, hidden +away upon one of those ground-floor shelves, which, if the enthusiastic +student investigates at all, it must be upon his knees. After a little +manipulation, the spring obeyed, and with a surly creak, as if in +protest, the whole compartment of shelves above moved slowly outward on +some hidden hinge, and disclosed the narrow stairs that ended in the +shepherdess of the state chamber. The steps were worm-eaten, and the +wall on both sides hung with moth-devoured and ragged tapestry. +Marmaduke shrank back, and gazed upon the aperture with abhorrence and +dismay. To what vile purposes might it not have been used, besides that +of attempting to overthrow a poor child's reason; nay, was it not +possible that what we had sought, yet feared to find for so long, might +be in this very place, where no eye could have looked or thought of +looking! Might it not have hidden there, and been imprisoned alive in +righteous retribution, by the very spring which had ministered to hate +and cruelty? "I went up here," said Mr. Long, divining the young man's +thoughts, "when I searched the house with Gilmore, and put on the seals. +I think we should climb Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke; as you will make the +Hall your home, it is well to leave no spot in it associated with any +unpleasantness, unfamiliar." So saying, the rector led the way, and we +all followed: there was some delay while he opened the door above, and +certainly it was not a cheerful position for us in the meantime, cooped +up in the darkness, with the arras touching us with its ghostly folds on +either side the narrow way; but I think that my tutor's advice was +good, and that his old pupil experienced a feeling of satisfaction when +the thing was done. Once more we stood together in that state bedroom +where Marmaduke had suffered such ghastly terrors when a boy.</p> + +<p>"Shall I ever forget those nights!" muttered he with a shudder. "Can +this room ever be otherwise than hateful to me! It was here, as I sat +weak and ill in that arm-chair, that my uncle struck me for losing——. +Stay, now I remember it all. Remove this skirting-board, Gilmore; take +the poker; do not spare the rotting wood. Ay, there it is." A yellow +something lay amid the dust and rubbish, which on inspection turned out +to be a gold pencil-case. "That was lent me by my uncle, a dozen years +ago," said Marmaduke musing, "and he chastised me for losing it. It had +rolled under yonder skirting-board, but I was too terrified at the time +to recollect the fact. I wish I could forget things now. Undo the other +shutters, Richard. Light, more light."</p> + +<p>And thus we let the blessed sunlight into all the shuttered rooms. It +glanced in galleries on knights in all their panoply, and smote the +steel upon their visors, as though the flame of battle once more darted +from their eyes; it made their tattered pennons blush again, and tipped +their rusted spears with sudden fire. It flashed upon the stern +ancestral faces on the wall, and through their dust evoked a look of +life. That winter sun had not the power to warm, however; all things +struck cold. The dark oak-pannels chilled us from their waveless depths; +the cumbrous organ, carved with fruit and flowers, kept frozen silence; +while in the chapel, Sir Nicholas in stone and mildew struck to our +marrow. His lady opposite, upon her knees in her "devout oratory," gave +us cold looks, as though we had interrupted her devotions. In vain the +painted windows, high and triple arched, cast down "warm gules" upon her +marble breast, and filled the sacred place with glorious hues. In vain +the gilded scroll, "Praie for hys Soule," appealed to us through dust +and damp, and his memorial pane blushed scarlet in its endeavour to +perpetuate his infamy. All things seemed cursed in that accursed house; +the hallowed places desecrated, and those where hospitality and good +fellowship were meant to reign, solitary and barren. There was one +apartment still which had been left by common consent to be visited last +of all—Sir Massingberd's oak parlour. There he might have been said to +have lived, for it was the only sitting-room he used from early +morning—and he was no great sleeper—until very late at night. There, +as we have seen, he had held his audiences, and dined, and sometimes +slept after any deep debauch. By all the household, except Gilmore, it +was held as a Bluebeard's chamber, and would not have been entered upon +any account, even had it not had the rector's seal upon it. It was here +that the lost baronet had passed his last hours within the house, and +thither he had intended to return—if he had meant to return at +all—before he retired for the night. The butler entered it first, and +let the light in; then Mr. Long, then I, then Marmaduke. Although I had +been there once before, I scarcely recognized the place, for upon that +occasion the squire himself had occupied it, and I had had no eyes +except for him. It was doubtless a comfortable room enough when the +fire was shining on its polished walls, and the red curtains snugly +drawn over the windows; but with that thin December light—for it was +afternoon by this time—creeping coldly in upon the three-year-old ashes +of the burnt-out fire, and on the panels, smeared with spots and stains, +it was very cheerless:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"There was no sign of life, save one:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">The subtle spider, that from overhead</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Hung like a spy on human guilt and error,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Suddenly turned, and up its slender thread,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Ran with a nimble terror."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>This insect had woven its webs in every nook and cranny, in readiness +for the prey that rarely came, and the slanting pillars of motes and +light that streamed into the gloom seemed almost as palpable as they. A +door led up by three or four steps into Sir Massingberd's bedroom—a +bare unfurnished place, where skins of wild animals, instead of carpet, +were spread for a banquet to the moth. His shooting-boots stood up +still stiff and strong beside the empty grate, although they were white +with mildew, and his night-gear lay folded upon the rotting pillow, in +preparation for his rest. The sitting-room, however, bore the more +striking vestiges of its late proprietor.</p> + +<p>The huge arm-chair stood a little aside from the fender, where he had +pushed it back as he rose to leave the room; and the book which he had +been reading lay open with its face to the table, ready for him to +resume its perusal upon his return. A spirit-case with the stoppers in, +the couple of cigars which it had been Sir Massingberd's invariable +custom to smoke before going to bed, and a few fly-blown lumps of sugar, +were set out in hideous travesty of creature-comfort. The rector took up +the volume, and with one involuntary glance towards the fire-place, +tore the wrinkled and blue-spotted leaves to fragments. A scurrilous +French novel had engaged the last hours of the wretched old man, ere he +went forth—to his doom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> + +<h3>THE FAIRY'S WAND.</h3> + + +<p>There are but few of us, I fear, who can say: "Though I should die +suddenly, and at the most unlooked-for time, there will be nothing left +behind me which I would have destroyed, even though I had had the +opportunity." Of course there are none who can boast that they are at +peace with all mankind; that they leave nothing unrepented of or +unatoned for; that their human affairs and social relations are exactly +where they would have wished them to be. But independent of these +matters, neglected by the very best of us, how eagerly must many a man +desire, between the warning and swift stroke of death, that he had had +but a little time—a little strength to set, not, indeed, his house in +order, but his desk and his note-book. What a cruel shock have many a +family received, after they have lost the Head whom they have worshipped +so many years, by discovering, where they looked for no such thing, +<i>after his death</i>, that he had all along (as will be thought) been even +such a one—<i>not</i> as themselves, but worse—as they whom they had been +taught by his own self to look upon with contempt, or at least with +pity; as they who, by contrast with himself, were persons base and vile. +Is there no letter, reader, ragged and time-worn, perhaps, but still +legible, lying among that heap of correspondence you intend to winnow +some day—which it will be better to burn <i>now</i>? Is there no +half-forgotten gift, meant for your own eyes alone, when they were +brighter than at present, which it would be well to make an end of this +very day? Can you say: "Even though I do not return home to night, or +ever again, but am smashed by a railway locomotive, or driven over by a +'bus, or poisoned in a cab, yet there will be nothing of mine, nothing +when my friends take stock of my personal effects, of which I need be +ashamed." If so, thou art a good man indeed—or one of exceeding +prudence. Above all things, my friends, be good, for that is best; but +if not, at least be prudent. Let your memories be sullied with no stain, +at all events in the thoughts of those you leave at home. The actions of +the unjust blossom in their dust into flowers compared with which the +deadly nightshade is as the violet or the rose. The satirist tells us +that in a week, a month, a year at most, the memory of a dead man dies +even from the hearts of those he held most dear. This is not true; but +the satirist would have been severer yet, and have spoken truth as well, +had he said that the memory of a dead man, so far as his vice and +wickedness are concerned, dies not at all among his kin. It is spoken of +in whispers by the purest, and renders them less pure; it is made light +of by the vicious, but only to excuse their wrongful acts by a worse +example. "Wild as I may be, I am not so wild as the governor was in his +day," is a terrible legacy of comfort to leave behind one to one's son.</p> + +<p>It is possible that even Sir Massingberd Heath may at some far-back time +have deemed it necessary to lay to his soul some flattering unction of +this kind. There were Sir Wentworth and Sir Nicholas, and many a Heath +to extenuate his acts, if bad example might do it. But the time came to +him, and very early in life, when he had no longer this slender +justification, since he had outdone his worse progenitor in vice and +folly. Mr. Clint had known, Mr. Long had guessed—we all of us had +suspected more or less that the lost baronet's life had been evil beyond +that of an ordinary man; but the dumb revelations which were made +concerning it in the necessary examination of his papers, were simply +shocking. After destroying these, the next approach to cleansing +Fairburn Hall was to discharge all the indoor domestics. Mr. Richard +Gilmore resented this conduct towards a faithful servant of the family, +as he styled himself, very bitterly; but he departed with the rest, +laden, there is little doubt with a very considerable plunder. Presently +the upholsterers came down from town with a great following of +workpeople, and a caravan of waggons, bearing costly furniture; then a +host of servants, selected with as much care as was possible, replaced +the exiles; and when all was ready within and without—the waste places +of the grounds being reclaimed, and put upon the same footing with those +which hitherto had alone been "kept up"—Sir Marmaduke Heath and his +wife themselves took possession of Fairburn Hall.</p> + +<p>Art had already done much to change that sombre house into a comfortable +as well as splendid mansion; but the presence of its new mistress did +more than all to rescue it from the long tyranny of decay and gloom. +Beneath her smile, the shadows of the past could take no shape, but +vanished, thin and pale. She would allow them nowhere resting-place. +Where they had been wont to gather thickest to her husband's eyes, she +quelled them by her radiant presence, day and night. The Oak Parlour +and its adjoining bedroom; she formed into a double boudoir for her own +sweet self; and straightway all bat-winged, harpy-headed memories, the +brood of evil deeds, flew from it as the skirts of Night before the +dawn, and in their place an angel-throng came fluttering in, and made it +their abode. No stage-fairy, wand in hand, ever effected +transformation-scene more charming and complete. One fear, and one +alone, now agitated Marmaduke's heart, for the safety of his priceless +wife in her approaching trial. He would have gladly cancelled nature's +gracious promise, and lived childless all his days, rather than any risk +should befall Lucy. His friends, his servants, and the villagers, +brimful of hope that there should be an heir to Fairburn, flowed over in +earnest congratulations; but for his part, he felt apprehensive only. +His heart experienced no yearning for the child who might endanger the +mother.</p> + +<p>In accordance with her plan of ignoring all that had gone before of +shame and sorrow, and regenerating evil places with a baptism of joy, +Lady Heath had chosen the state chamber itself as her sleeping +apartment, and there in due time she safely brought forth a son. Upon +his knees, Marmaduke thanked Heaven for the blessing which was thus +vouchsafed to him, but above all, in that it had brought with it no +curse. Verily had the house of mourning become the house of feasting, +and the chamber of sorrow the chamber of mirth.</p> + +<p>The unconscious father had been sitting by the library fire, +endeavouring vainly to distract his mind from what was occurring +upstairs, and turning his eyes restlessly ever and anon towards the +door, when the voice of Dr. Sitwell suddenly broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"Sir Marmaduke, I congratulate you; you have a son and heir."</p> + +<p>"And my wife?" cried the husband impatiently.</p> + +<p>"She is as well as can possibly be expected, I do assure you."</p> + +<p>"You are very welcome," exclaimed the young baronet; "and would have +been so, although you had chosen to burst your way in with a torpedo. +But I confess you startled me a good deal."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I did," returned the doctor, in a voice like a stream of +milk and honey, "although it was not my intention to do so. But the fact +is, I did not come in by the door at all. Her ladyship desired that I +should bring you the good news by way of Jacob's Ladder; and I may add, +that you may come back with me that way and see her yourself for just +one quarter of a minute."</p> + +<p>So even Jacob's Ladder was made a pleasant thoroughfare to Marmaduke, +and dearer from that hour than all staircases of wood or stone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> + +<h3>FOUND.</h3> + + +<p>Now, when Marmaduke junior, who was named also Peter, to mark the regard +which both its parents had for my poor self, became of the ripe age of +fourteen weeks or so, and the spring had so far advanced upon the summer +as to admit of open-air rejoicings, it was determined that the advent of +the heir of Fairburn should be celebrated with all due honour. This +would have been done before, for Lady Heath had soon recovered her +strength, and the child was reported to be a miracle of health and +plumpness, had it not been for the backwardness of the season. The Hall +had, of course, made merry upon the matter long ago, and if all the +poor in the place had not done so, it was from no want of materials in +the way of creature-comfort supplied by the young Squire. But what +Marmaduke had waited for was settled fine weather, in order that the +Chase might be filled by merrymakers, whose happiness should cleanse it +from all memories of woe and wrong. Much of these, it is true, had been +effaced already; a portion of the Park had been given up to the +villagers for cricket and other sports, a grant common enough now, but +one almost unexampled in those days, and the right of way which Sir +Massingberd had spent so many hundreds in opposing, had been voluntarily +surrendered. Oliver Bradford still retained his office, but being almost +bedridden, inspired less terror than of yore among evil-doers; this was +not so much to be regretted, however, since there was now little want, +and therefore few poachers in Fairburn, while the general popularity of +the young Squire lessened even those. I am afraid that if the new owner +had heard a gun discharged at night in the Home Spinney itself, it is +doubtful whether he would have laid down his book, or hesitated more +than usual in his vain attempt to checkmate his wife at chess, in order +to listen for the second barrel. The terror of the Lost Baronet had long +been fading from his old domain; and upon this occasion, when old and +young were all invited to make holiday in those once almost unknown +retreats of hare and deer, there was no urchin but was determined—by no +means single-handed, however—to explore them thoroughly. The very +Wolsey Oak which the ravens had made their quarters was not shunned, but +in the great space about it, races were run, and dances danced, and its +vast trunk was made the very headquarters of childish merriment. These +young folks did not affect the company of their elders, except when the +gongs gave signal from the various marquees that there was food afoot, +when they flocked to meet their parents at the heaped-up boards with a +dutiful celerity. The higher class of tenantry were upon the lawn, and +among them mixed with stately condescension a goodly number of the +county aristocracy. I remember that some of the latter introduced upon +this occasion the new dance called the quadrille, which had just arrived +from Paris at that time. It had come over in the bad company of the +waltz; but that lively measure was held to be too indecorous to be +imported to Fairburn under its new <i>régime</i>. Everybody, when out of +earshot of the host and hostess, was talking about the change that had +taken place in this respect.</p> + +<p>"How odd this all seems," quoth Squire Broadacres to his neighbour, Mr. +Flinthert, heir of the late lamented admiral. "None of <i>us</i>, I suppose, +have been at the Hall here for this quarter of a century."</p> + +<p>"Ay, that at least," quoth the other. "Of course, it is a great matter +to see people in the Heaths' position properly conducted as to morals. +But I doubt whether this young fellow may not go astray in another and +even a still more dangerous direction. They say his politics are, dear +me, shocking."</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Broadacres. "It isn't in the Heath blood +to be radical. But his wife, she rules the roost, you see—and a +devilish pretty woman too; I could find it in my heart to forgive her +anything."</p> + +<p>"But that fellow, Harvey Gerard, her father—why, he's a downright +<i>sans-culotte</i>, sir."</p> + +<p>"The Gerards are bound to be, my dear sir," returned the jolly squire. +"All these things are a question of family; it's nothing but that. I am +told there is some French blood in him."</p> + +<p>"We want nothing of that sort down in Midshire," responded Mr. +Flinthert, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"But we have got it, you see, my friend, and therefore we must make the +best of it. It was all very well to ignore Gerard while he was a +new-comer at the Dovecot, although, mind you, he was always a gentleman, +every inch of him, notwithstanding his queer opinions; but now that he +is become so nearly connected with Sir Marmaduke, and living at the Hall +half his time, why, the county must make up its mind to receive him."</p> + +<p>"I shall let him perceive, however, that it does so—so far at least as +I am concerned—upon sufferance, and, as it were—what is the word?—ay, +vicariously."</p> + +<p>"Very good," observed Mr. Broadacres, dryly. "I am not quite clear as to +your meaning; but if you intend to put Harvey Gerard down, I do not +think you will meet with any very triumphant success. Why, Sir +Massingberd here, who would have grappled with the devil, was tripped up +and thrown by this man with the greatest ease."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless, I shall give him the cold shoulder," observed Mr. +Flinthert, stiffly; "although I shall studiously avoid being rude."</p> + +<p>"Faith, I would recommend your doing that, my friend," laughed the jolly +Squire. "If you turned your back upon Harvey Gerard instead of your +shoulder, my belief is that he'd kick you."</p> + +<p>"That he'd do what?" exclaimed Mr. Barnardistone Flinthert, late +high-sheriff and present magistrate and <i>custos rotulorum</i> of Midshire.</p> + +<p>"That he'd take advantage of the opportunity, that's all," returned Mr. +Broadacres, quietly. "No, no, sir, with a man like Gerard, all good +Tories should keep on good terms. One can't hang him, you know, like a +radical tailor, and therefore it's quite worth while to make ourselves +appear to the best advantage. A stupid slight to a clever man has often +done more harm to the cause of good government than a whole regiment of +dragoons can remedy."</p> + +<p>"Oh curse his cleverness!" responded Mr. Flinthert, savagely. "I'm for +no such milk-and-water measures. I think it's the duty of somebody to +tell young Marmaduke——"</p> + +<p>"Well, say it <i>yourself</i>," interrupted Mr. Broadacres.</p> + +<p>"It's a positive duty, I say, that somebody should go to the baronet, +and tell him frankly that all this leniency to poaching fellows, and +liberty to the rabble, cannot but lead to harm. 'You're a young man,' he +should be told, 'and don't understand these things; but that is the +opinion of the county, and it behoves you to know it.'"</p> + +<p>"That would do more harm than good, Mr. Flinthert. You may depend upon +it that Marmaduke Heath thinks for himself in these matters, +notwithstanding that I dare say Gerard and his pretty daughter have had +some influence. The young fellow naturally goes exactly counter to all +that his uncle did before him. This holiday-making and mixture of high +and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Massingberd turn in his +grave."</p> + +<p>"Ay, if he <i>is</i> in his grave," responded Mr. Flinthert, darkly. "But who +knows whether he may not turn up some day after all; tell me that."</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you that," responded Mr. Broadacres; "but I'll bet you ten +guineas to one that he never does."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but if he did!" replied the other, gloomily. "If he was to appear +this very day, for instance, what a scene it would be—what a revolution +for some people!"</p> + +<p>"Well, if he did, he'd find the property greatly improved—except that +that right of way has been reopened through the Park; all his thieving +servants dismissed; all his debts settled; and his mad gipsy wife amply +provided for, and well content, I am told, among her vagabond friends."</p> + +<p>Conversations somewhat similar to the above were being held all over the +lawn, for its denizens were not, like the lower classes, so bent upon +mere physical enjoyment as to be dead to the delights of scandal. But +when the great bell rang for their afternoon repast, which was to be +partaken of in one enormous tent, and at one gigantic table, the upper +part of which was reserved for the gentlefolks, such talk was hushed, of +course, and congratulations of host and hostess and the infant heir was +the only wear for every countenance. Not a word about the uncertainty of +Sir Marmaduke's tenure of Fairburn was whispered over the good cheer, or +a suggestion hazarded regarding the last proprietor's possible +reappearance. Far less, we may be certain, was any hint at such matters +let fall when the health of the future Sir Peter—two generations from +Somebody, and not to be associated with him upon any account—was +proposed by Mr. Broadacres, and drunk with a genuine enthusiasm that +brought the tears into his mother's eyes, who with many a fair county +dame graced the banquet as spectators. Then Mr. Long rose up and spoke +of Marmaduke as one whom he had known and loved from his youth up, and +the cheering rose tumultuous (but especially at the tenants' table, +because they knew him best), and was heard afar by the peasantry who +were dining likewise elsewhere, and who joined in it uproariously, +although they had already paid due honours to their lord; so that all +the Park was filled with clamour. To both these toasts, Sir Marmaduke, +aglow with happiness and excitement, the handsomest man by far in that +great company, with a grateful smile upon his student lips, gave +eloquent response.</p> + +<p>But when Lucy's health was proposed by Mr. Arabel, who dwelt, in homely +but fitting terms, upon her total lack of pride, her kindliness to all +that needed help, her beauty, which was sunshine to them all, then the +young Squire lost his self-command. He rose to speak with evident +embarrassment; he saw herself before him, watching him with eyes that +had plenty of pride for <i>him</i> in them, and listening for his words as +though his tongue dropped jewels; he knew that he could not contradict +one word of praise that had been showered upon her, he could not +mitigate in modesty a single phrase of her eulogium, because it was all +true, and none but he knew how much more she was deserving of. "While he +stood there silent for a moment, but radiant with lips just parting for +his opening sentence, there was a commotion at the far end of the tent. +With that mysterious swiftness wherewith ill news pervades the minds of +men, all knew at once some terrible occurrence had taken place. Several +of the tenants rose, as if to intercept some person coming up towards +the upper table, but others cried, "Go on, it must be told." For an +instant, Lucy's glance flashed round to see that her child was safe in +its nurse's arms, then made her way swiftly and silently to her +husband's side. Before she reached it, before the man who bore the +tidings could get nearly so far, the whisper had gone round, "Sir +Massingberd is found."</p> + +<p>I shall never forget Marmaduke's face when he heard those words: his +colour fled, his eyes wandered timidly hither and thither, his lips +moved, but no sound came from them. At the touch of his wife's hand upon +his arm, however, a new life seemed to be instilled into him, and as a +village boy came forward bearing a rusty something in his hand, he +stretched his hand out for it, murmuring, "What is this? Why do you +bring this to me?" The boy was bashful, and gave no answer; but Farmer +Arabel stepped forward very gravely, and spoke as follows:—</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Marmaduke, you see," he said, unconsciously reserving the +title for the man he had in his mind, "that is the life-preserver Sir +Massingberd always went about with in his woods at night; I know it by +the iron ring by which a leathern strap fastened it round his wrist. +Where did you find it, eh, boy?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, we was a-playing at Hide—me and Bill Jervis, and Harry +Jones, and a lot of us—and the Wolsey Oak was Home. So while it was the +other side's turn to hide, and we was waiting for them to cry "Whoop," +we began to knife the tree a bit, to pass the time; and digging away at +the bottom of the trunk, we made a hole, and presently came upon the +head of this thing here, and dragged it out. Then we made a bigger hole, +and please, sir, there was great big bones, and we couldn't pull them +through. Then we was frightened, and called to Jem Meyrick, the keeper, +as was in the booth close by; and he climbed up to the fork of the tree, +and cried out that the Wolsey Oak was hollow, and there was a skeleton +in it, standing up; and they do say as it's Sir Massingberd."</p> + +<p>While the boy was yet speaking, a knot of men came slowly up from the +direction of the Oak, bearing something among them, and followed at a +little distance by a vast crowd, all keeping an awful silence. When they +got near the opening of the tent, they set their ghastly burden down +upon the lawn; and we all went forth to look at it, including Marmaduke +himself, with a face as pale as ashes, and clutching Lucy by the hand, +as though he feared some power was about to tear her from him. I heard +her whisper to him, "This may not be Lost Sir Massingberd after all."</p> + +<p>Dr. Sitwell heard her also, and at once officiously replied: "Oh, but it +is, my lady; there has no man died in Fairburn for these thirty years, +except the late baronet, who could have owned those bones. I will pledge +my professional reputation that yonder man, when clothed in flesh and +blood, was six feet four. What a large skull, and what gigantic +thigh-bones!"</p> + +<p>"Ay," quoth Mr. Remnant, the general dealer, who was kneeling down +beside the skeleton and examining it with minuteness, as though it had +been offered to him for sale, "here is something hard and dry, with iron +nails upon it, which was once a shooting-shoe, one of a pair, or I am +much mistaken, which I sold to Sir Massingberd myself."</p> + +<p>"And, here," quoth Jem Meyrick, stepping forward, "is summat as I think +must have been the Squire's great gold chain, which I found at the +bottom of the trunk. The Wolsey Oak is quite hollow, Sir Marmaduke, +although none of us knew it. It is my belief that Sir Massingberd must +have climbed up into the fork to look about him, for he seemed to be +expecting poachers on that night, and that the rotten wood gave way +beneath him, and let him down feet foremost into the trunk."</p> + +<p>Without doubt, this was the true explanation of the matter. The skeleton +was found with the arms above the head, a position which had precluded +self-extrication, although it was evident that the wretched man had +made great efforts to escape from his living tomb, since what remained +of the shoe of the right foot was much turned up, and retained deep +marks of the pressure of the buckle. As I looked at these relics of +humanity, the gipsy's curse recurred to my mind with dreadful +distinctness: "<i>May he perish, inch by inch, within reach of the aid +that shall never come, ere the God of the poor take him into his hand</i>."</p> + +<p>It was a singular feature in the case, and one which was of course made +to point its moral among the villagers, that had Sir Massingberd not +closed the Park, and refused the right of way, he could scarcely have +thus miserably perished, since the footpath, as I have said, absolutely +skirted the tree in question; and people would have passed close by it +at all hours. It reminded me of the evil fate of James I. of Scotland, +who might have escaped his murderers in the Blackfriar's Abbey at Perth, +but for the simple fact that he had caused the mouth of a certain vault +to be bricked up, because his tennis-balls were wont to roll through it. +How long the wretched Squire had suffered before Death released him from +his fangs, it was impossible to guess, or whether that terrible cry +heard by Dick Westlock that same night, and by myself next morning, was +indeed from the throat of Sir Massingberd in his agony.</p> + +<p>We were the two persons who had been nearest to the Wolsey Oak between +the period of his entombment and the search instituted throughout the +Chase. He must have been dead before <i>that</i>, for the seekers passed +close beside the tree without the least suspicion of the ghastly Thing +it held; unless, indeed, he had heard our voices, but, choked by that +time: by the falling dry-rot, was unable to reply. No wonder the ravens +had sought the Wolsey Oaky and croaked forth Doom therefrom so long!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> + +<h3>L'ENVOI.</h3> + + +<p>Weeks elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this +discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite +another man in body and mind.</p> + +<p>It was only by this change—when we saw him so strong and cheerful—that +we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had +so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him +to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in +Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the +wand of the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his +father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel +thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not +judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in +moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a +risk—ay, and what a selfish risk—he ran therein, let alone the +unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure!</p> + +<p>He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it +to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him roundly for the crime; observing, +however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred +Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all +bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but +the duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that +was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not +a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his +rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his +neighbours, sooner or later—although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very +late indeed.</p> + +<p>Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set +foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, +Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in +beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled +brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes.</p> + +<p>Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is +borne not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it +the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at +Fairburn lies my dear old tutor—far from the iron rails which enclose +the bones of the long-missing baronet.</p> + +<p>Sir Peter...—But why should I further speak of death, and make parade +of loss and change?—an old man like me should, having told his tale, be +silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to +constancy."</p> + +<p>The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of +that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great +space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast +bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the +Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had been cut down for forty +years and more.</p> + +<p>The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. +This may be true or not. My tale itself may be open to suspicion of +untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have +already been pronounced "improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics +of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the +author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such +clumsy hands as to seem fiction.</p> + +<p>Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young +days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a +picture sale attended by the <i>dilettanti</i>. A carking <i>connoisseur</i> is +abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This +fellow," cries he, "has even had the audacity to attempt to paint a +fly! <i>That</i> a fly, forsooth!" and he flips at it with contemptuous +fingers.</p> + +<p>The fly flew away. <i>It was a real one!</i></p> + + +<p>THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37171-h.htm or 37171-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37171/ + +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/37171.txt b/old/37171.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57f0422 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4581 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, 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. 2/2 + A Romance of Real Life + +Author: James Payn + +Release Date: August 23, 2011 [EBook #37171] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + + + + +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. II. + +LONDON: + +SAMPSON LOW, SON, AND MARSTON, + +14, LUDGATE HILL. + +1864. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT + CHAPTER II. HARLEY STREET + CHAPTER III. BEFORE THE BLOW + CHAPTER IV. LOST + CHAPTER V. THE STONE GARDEN + CHAPTER VI. THE SEARCH + CHAPTER VII. WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART + CHAPTER VIII. THE PROCESSION + CHAPTER IX. AMONG FRIENDS + CHAPTER X. A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO + CHAPTER XI. THE BANK-NOTES + CHAPTER XII. A BENEVOLENT STRANGER + CHAPTER XIII. BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS + CHAPTER XIV. THE FALSE SCENT + CHAPTER XV. "LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD" + CHAPTER XVI. TAKING THE SEALS OFF + CHAPTER XVII. THE FAIRY'S WAND + CHAPTER XVIII. FOUND + CHAPTER XIX. L'ENVOI + + + + + +LOST SIR MASSINGBERD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OUT OF MIND, OUT OF SIGHT. + + +Notwithstanding the baronet's polite invitation, and although Mr. Long +did not return, as expected, upon the ensuing morning, I felt no +inclination to exchange my solitude for the society of Mr. Gilmore at +bowls. I was, indeed, rather curious to see the bowling-green, which I +had heard from my tutor was one of the very finest in England, fenced in +by wondrous walls of yew; but, to arrive there, it was necessary to pass +close to the Hall, and, consequently, to run great risk of meeting Sir +Massingberd, my repugnance to whom had returned with tenfold strength +since the preceding day. My reason, it is true, could suggest no +possible harm from my having enclosed his letter to Marmaduke, but still +an indefinable dread of what I had done oppressed me. I could not +imagine in what manner I could have been outwitted; but a certain +malignant exultation in Sir Massingberd's face when he was taking his +leave, haunted my memory, and rendered hateful the idea of meeting it +again. Moreover, the companionship of Gilmore, the butler, was not +attractive. He bore a very bad character with the villagers, among whom +he was said to emulate in a humble manner the vices of his lord and +master; he had been his companion and confidential servant for a great +number of years, and it was not to be wondered at, even supposing that +he commenced that servitude as an honest man, that his principles +should have been sapped by the communication. + +Those who had known Richard Gilmore best and longest, however, averred +that his nature had not been the least impaired by this companionship, +inasmuch as it had been always as bad as bad could be. I never saw his +pale secretive face, with the thin lips tightly closed, as if to prevent +the escape of one truant word, without reflecting what a repository of +dark and wicked deeds that keeper of Sir Massingberd's conscience needs +must be. Such men usually hold such masters in their own hands; for they +know too much about them, and it is that species of knowledge which, +above all others, is power. But it was not so in this case; the +antecedents of Gilmore's master were probably as evil as those of any +person who has ever kept a valet, but there was this peculiarity about +the baronet--that he cared little or nothing whether people knew them or +not. When a thoroughly unprincipled man has arrived at the stage of +being entirely indifferent to what his fellow-creatures think of him, he +has touched his zenith; he is as much a hero to his _valet-de-chambre_ +as to anybody else. It was Gilmore's nature to be reticent; but, for all +Sir Massingberd cared, he might have ascended the steps at the +stone-cross at Crittenden upon market-day, and held forth upon the +subject of his master's peccadillos. Sir Massingberd stood no more in +fear of him than of any other man; otherwise, he would scarcely have +used such frightful language to him as he did whenever the spirit-case +had not been properly replenished, or he happened to mislay the key of +his own cigar-chest. It was no delicate tending that the lord of +Fairburn Hall required; no accurate arrangement of evening garments ere +he returned from shooting; no slippers placed in front of the fire. As +he was attired in the morning, so he remained throughout the day, and, +if it were the poaching season, throughout the night also. He never was +ill, and only very rarely was he so overcome with liquor as to require +any assistance in retiring. The putting Sir Massingberd to bed must have +been a bad quarter of an hour for Mr. Gilmore. I have mentioned that +when I paid my only visit to the Hall, the front-door bell was answered +by the butler with very commendable swiftness, under the impression that +it was his master; and, indeed, it was rumoured that, on more than one +occasion, the baronet had felled his faithful domestic like an ox, for +dilatoriness. Wonder was sometimes expressed that Mr. Gilmore, who was +supposed, as the phrase goes, to have feathered his nest very agreeably +during his master's prosperous days, should cleave to him in his present +poverty--the mere sentiment of attachment being deemed scarcely strong +enough to retain his gratuitous services; but the reply commonly made to +this was, I have no doubt, correct--namely, that, however matters might +seem, Mr. Richard Gilmore, we might be well assured, knew his own +business best, and on which side his bread was buttered. + +Sagacious, however, as this gentleman doubtless was, I did not fancy him +as a companion to play bowls with; and, instead of going in the +direction of the bowling-green, I took my way to Fairburn Chase. I had +not set foot within it for more than a year, and the season was much +further advanced then when I had last been there. The stillness which +pervaded it in summertime was now broken by the flutter of the falling +leaf and the plash of the chestnuts on the moist and sodden ground; the +autumn rains had long set in; there was that "drip, drip, drip" in the +woods which so mournfully reminds us that the summer, with all its life +and warmth, has passed away; and the dank earth was sighing from beneath +its load of tangled leaves, which, "hanging so light and hanging so +high," but lately danced in the sunny air. The presentiment of evil +which overshadowed me was deepened by the melancholy of Nature. I moved +slowly through the drippling fern towards the heronry; from the little +island suddenly flew forth, not the stately birds who ordinarily reigned +there, but a pair of ravens. I knew that such had taken up their +residence in the old church tower, for I had seen them flying in and out +of its narrow ivied window-slits; but their appearance in the present +locality was most unexpected. I was far from being superstitious, but I +would rather have seen any other birds just then. A few steps further +brought me to that bend in the stream which had been such a favourite +haunt of mine before I had dreamed there so unpleasantly. The lime-trees +stood ragged and bare, and weeping silently, deprived of their summer +bee-music; the sparkling sand, wherein I had seen the mysterious +footprints, was dark and damp; a few steps further brought me to the +stepping-stones, by which that unknown visitant must have crossed over, +if she were indeed of mortal mould; the wood upon the other side was no +longer impenetrable to sight; and through its skeleton arms I could see +some building of considerable size at no great distance. I knew where +such of the keepers and gardeners as lived upon the estate resided, and +it puzzled me to imagine to what purpose this cottage was assigned. + +While I hesitated as to whether I should cross the turbid and swollen +current, whose waters almost entirely covered the stepping-stones, a +laugh prolonged and shrill burst forth from the very direction in which +I was looking. It was the same mocking cry, never to be forgotten, which +I had heard at that very spot some fifteen months before. Anywhere else, +I should have recognized it; but in that place it was impossible to +doubt its identity. Knife-like, it clove the humid and unwilling air; +and, before the sound had ceased, a short, sharp shriek succeeded +it--the cry of a smitten human creature. In a moment I had crossed the +stream, and was forcing my way through the wood. As I drew nearer, I +perceived the edifice before me was of stone, and with a slated roof, +instead of being built with clay, and thatched, as were the rest of Sir +Massingberd's cottages. There was no attempt at ornamentation, but the +place was unusually substantial for its size, the door being studded +with nails, while the window upon either side of it was protected by +iron bars. + +I was just emerging from the fringe of the wood, when another sound +smote on my ear, which caused me to pause at once, and remain where the +trunk of an elm tree intervened between me and the cottage; it was +merely the bark of a dog, but it checked my philanthropic enthusiasm +upon the instant. There was no mistaking that wheezy note, telling of +canine infirmity, and days prolonged far beyond the ordinary span of +dogs. Besides there was but one dog permitted to be at large in Fairburn +Chase. It was the execrable Grimjaw. I could see him from my place of +concealment turning his almost sightless eyes in my direction as he sat +at the cottage door. Immediately afterwards, it opened, and out came +Richard Gilmore; he looked about him suspiciously, but having convinced +himself that there was nobody in the neighbourhood, he administered a +kick to Grimjaw's ribs, reproached him in strong language for having +made a causeless disturbance, and turning the key, and pocketing it, +walked away by a footpath that doubtless led, although by no means +directly, to the Hall. He had a dog-whip in his hand when I first saw +him, which I thought was an odd thing for a butler to carry, and he +seemed to think so, too, for he put it in a side-pocket before he +started, and buttoned it up. Grimjaw, gathering his stiffened limbs +together, slowly followed him, not without turning his grey head ever +and anon towards my covert, but without venturing again to express his +suspicions. I waited until the charming pair were out of sight, ere I +advanced to the cottage. + +The door of course, was fast; so, approaching the right-hand window, I +cautiously looked in through its iron bars; there was no casement +whatever, therefore all the objects which the room contained were as +clear to me as though I were in it. I beheld a sitting-room, the +furniture of which was costly, and had been evidently intended for a +much larger apartment, but which in variety was scanty enough. At a +mahogany table, which retained little more of polish than if it had just +been sawn from its trunk in Honduras, sat an ancient female, with her +back towards me, supporting her chin on both hands; a cold chicken in a +metal dish was before her, but neither a plate nor knife and fork; she +was muttering something in a low tone to herself, which, if it was a +grace, must have been a very long one. Her hair was scanty, and white as +snow, but hung down almost to the ground; she was miserably thin; and +her clothes, although they had once been of rich material, were ragged +and old. + +I had made no noise, as I thought, in my approach; and the day was so +dull and dark that she could scarcely have perceived my presence by any +shadow of my eavesdropping self; but no sooner had I set my eyes on her +than she began to speak, without looking round, imagining, doubtless, +that I was Gilmore. "So you are there again, peeping and prying, are +you, wicked thief," cried she. "Don't you know that a real lady should +take her meals in peace without being interrupted, especially after she +has been beaten? Think of that, you cur. Why, where's your whip?" She +uttered these last words with a yell of scorn; and turning suddenly, +with one arm raised as if to ward a blow, she met my unexpected face, +and I saw hers. So remarkable was her appearance, that although it was +she, not I, who was taken by surprise, I think I was the more astounded +of the two. Her countenance was that of an old woman, so wrinkled, or +rather shrivelled up, that the furrows might have represented the +passage of a century of time; yet the teeth were as white and regular as +in a young beauty, and the black beaded eyes had a force and fire in +them unquenched by age. In her thin puckered ears hung a pair of +monstrous gilded ornaments, and round her skinny neck was a necklace +such as a stage queen would wear; yet she had naked feet. + +"Oh, it is you, is it?" observed she, with a grave distinctness, in +strong contrast to her late excited and mocking tones. "If I had known +that you were coming, young gentleman, I would have put on my bracelets. +The family jewels are not all gone to the pawnbroker's, as is generally +believed. Besides, you should never insult people because they are poor, +or mad; one would not be either one or the other, you know, if one could +help it." + +"Heaven forbid, madam, that I should offer you any insult," said I, +touched by the evident misfortune of this poor creature. "I merely ran +hither because I heard the cry, as I thought, of some one in distress." + +"Ah, that was the dog, sir," replied the old woman cheerfully; "the +butler was correcting his dog, and it howled a little. Of course it +could not have been me--certainly not; Sir Massingberd is so excessively +anxious that I should have everything that is good for me; he said that +with his own lips. And what a handsome mouth he has, except when he +looks at _you_." + +"Why at me?" cried I. "He has no cause to dislike me, has he!" + +"No cause!" cried the old woman, coming closer to the bars, and lowering +her voice to a confidential whisper. "Oh no--not if you were dead. I +never wished you worse than myself; no, not when my poor baby died, and +I could not weep. I feel that now; if I could only weep, as in the good +old times with my husband! There was plenty of good weeping +then--plenty." + +"But why should you wish me dead, madam, who have never done you any +harm?" + +"No harm? What not to have taken the title from my boy? No harm, when +but for you, he would have been the heir to house and land! Why, look +you, if it had not been for something, I would have driven Gilmore's +knife into you that day when you were sleeping under the limes. That was +the very place where I used to meet my love--let me see, how many years +ago?" + +The eager eyes for one instant ceased to glitter; some fragment of a +memory of the past claimed the restless brain; then once more she +rambled on. "One, two, three, four--he never struck me more than four +times; that's true, I swear." + +"And what was the something that prevented you from killing me when I +was asleep by the heron's island?" inquired I. + +"What was it?" replied the old woman sadly. "Did you not cry, 'Mother, +mother,' in your sleep, to make me think of my boy? I wept at that; just +one tear. He might have been such another as yourself--with the +same--Why, what's the matter with your forehead? What have you done +with your horseshoe? Every Heath wears one of them; then why not you, +young Marmaduke?" + +"My name is not Heath," said I; "you are taking me for somebody else." + +"Dear me--dear me, what a mistake! The fact is, that living in a house +affects one's sight. Now, let me guess. If you are not Marmaduke Heath, +you must be...--What a dark skin you have, and what kind eyes!" She +looked suspiciously round the room, and laying her finger on her lip, +observed beneath her breath: "You are not Stanley Carew, are you? They +told me he was hung, but I know better than that. I have seen him since +a hundred times. To be hung for nothing must be a terrible thing; but +how much worse to be hung for love!" + +"I am not Stanley Carew," said I; "I am Peter Meredith, who lives with +Mr. Long at the Rectory." + +"I never happen to have heard your name before, sir," replied the old +woman, mincingly; "perhaps you have never heard mine. Permit me to +introduce myself. Don't suppose that our people don't know good manners, +I am Sinnamenta--Lady Heath." + +"Madam," said I, deeply moved, "I apprehended as much. If I can do you +any service, be sure that the will shall not be wanting. Pray, tell me +what shall I do?" + +"Well," returned the poor creature, quickly, "Marmaduke Heath should be +killed at once, that is all important. We have been thinking of nothing +else, my husband and I. But perhaps you have done it already." (How I +shrank from that random shaft.) "If so, I have no further desire except +to get out. If I could only be once more in the greenwood, my hair would +reassume its natural colour. That is why Mr. Gilmore is so careful to +keep me thus locked up. If my husband only saw me with my black hair +again--it reached to the ground, sir--matters would be very different. I +think I have already observed that it is not customary to watch a lady +while she is partaking of refreshment." + +With that, she once more seated herself at the table, with her back to +me; and judging thereby that my presence was distasteful to her, and +having no notion of how I could possibly give her any aid, I withdrew +from the sad scene. I had not, however, gone many steps, when she called +me back again through the iron bars. + +"Mr. Meredith," said she, "you arrived somewhat unexpectedly. It is to +that circumstance alone, I beg to repeat, that you must attribute the +absence of bracelets. My very best regards to all your family. +Sinnamenta, you know--Lady Heath." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +HARLEY STREET. + + +While I was thus passing my time at Fairburn, at work with my tutor, in +rides rendered doubly lonesome by contrast with those made so enjoyable +by the company of my friend, or in rambles about the solitary Chase, the +course of true love was running more smoothly in Harley Street than it +is fabled to do. During each of my visits there, I had perceived its +silent increase even more clearly than those between whom it was growing +up into the perfect flower, leaf by leaf, and bud by bud; they had +tended it together--Marmaduke and Lucy--until it was well nigh in +blossom, and yet they had not said to one another, and perhaps not even +to themselves, "Why, this is surely Love." Mr. Gerard had watched it, +not displeased, for he had found the young man all that my heart had +foretold that he would; Mr. Clint had seen it, and won by the strong +sense, as much as by the beauty of the gentle girl, forgot the +revolutionary stock of which she came. This, thought he, is the wife for +Marmaduke Heath; tender, but yet determined; dutiful, but indisposed to +submit to unauthorized dictation; as fearless as kind. In her, once +wedded to this young man, so morbid, so sensitive, so yielding, Sir +Massingberd would find, if it should be necessary, not only a foe, +resolute herself, but as firm as steel for him whom she had dowered with +her love. What Marmaduke's nature wanted, hers would supply. The keen +lawyer foresaw for that unhappy family, whose interests he and his had +had in keeping so many scores of years, a future such as had never been +promised before. It was an admission painful to me enough at that time, +but which I could not conceal from myself, that the real obstacle which +prevented the open recognition of attachment between these two young +people was Marmaduke himself. No girl more modest or less forward than +Lucy Gerard ever breathed, but I knew--ah, how well I knew!--that a word +from him would have brought the love-light to her eyes, which now lay +waiting but for it in the careful keeping of her maiden heart. But that +word had not been spoken. Perfect love, Marmaduke did not yet feel, for +he had not quite cast out fear. How can a man offer heart and hand to a +woman whom he does not feel certain that he can protect? It is for this +reason that marriage among slaves must for ever be a mockery. There +was, of course, no danger to Lucy Gerard in her marrying with Marmaduke, +although his uncle should storm "No" a thousand times; but the young man +felt that he was unworthy of her, while he entertained any terror of +him. It was wearing away; it was weakening day by day, through genial +influences, and the absence of all things which reminded him of Fairburn +and its master, but it was not dead yet. If by these words, I lead any +of my readers to suppose that Marmaduke Heath had the least resemblance +to that thing which is called a Coward, I have done my friend a grievous +wrong. Let me do away with the possibility of this most mistaken notion, +at once and for ever, by the recital of an event which, although it does +not come within the scope of the present narrative, nearly concerns one +of its most important characters. + +After the peace in 1815, there were more officers--English and +French--killed in single combat in Paris than in any one of the most +bloody battles of the late war. This desire to exterminate individual +Englishmen extended over the whole of France. A certain gentleman of my +acquaintance, then a very young man, chanced to be passing through a +town in Normandy, where an assemblage was collected outside the office +of the mayor. This arose from the very uncommon circumstance that that +functionary had been appealed to by a post-captain in the English navy +to punish a bullying Frenchman, who had striven to fasten a quarrel upon +him, although entirely unprovoked on his part. Now-a-days, the captain +would have been held to have behaved rightly enough, perhaps, but in +those fire-eating times an honest man's life was at the mercy of every +worthless ruffian who chose to run an equal risk with him from powder +and bullet. The decision, wonderful to relate, was given by the mayor +against his compatriot, and the crowd were correspondingly enraged. My +friend, whose nationality was apparent, was hustled and ill-treated, and +one person, well-dressed, and evidently of good position, knocked his +hat off, observing at the same time: "You will complain of me to the +mayor for that." + +"Certainly not," returned the young Englishman quietly, picking his hat +up, all broken and muddy, from the trampled ground: "I shall treat you +very differently." + +"You will fight, will you? Come--I challenge you. Let us fight to-morrow +morning," exclaimed the bully, who was, as it turned out, a notorious +provincial duellist. + +"Not to-morrow, but now," rejoined my friend; "I have no time to wait +here, for I must be in Paris on Tuesday." + +"Then it will be in Pere la Chaise," responded the other brutally. + +There was no difficulty in procuring seconds, which were even more +plentiful in those parts than principals, and the whole party +immediately left the town for a wood outside its suburbs. The choice of +weapons of course lay with the Englishman. + +"Which do you prefer," asked the Frenchman who acted as his friend upon +the occasion--"the pistol or the sword?" + +"I have never fired a pistol in my life," replied the Englishman, "nor +handled a sword." + +"Heavens!" cried his second, "what a barbarous education, what a +stupendous ignorance! You are as good as dead, I fear. I know not which +to recommend you. It is, however, at least sooner over with the +pistol." + +"The pistol be it then," said the Englishman coolly. "I elect that only +one shall be loaded; and that we fire within four paces of one another. +We shall then have an equal chance." + +The duellist turned pale as the death that threatened him, but he did +not venture to make any objection. It was manifest no other proposal +would have been fair. The seconds went apart, and placed powder and ball +in one weapon, powder only in the other. The combatants drew lots for +choice. The Frenchman won. The pistols were lying on a log of wood; he +advanced towards them, took one up in his hand, and retired with it, +then once more came back, and exchanged it for the other. He fancied +that the weapon was lighter than it should have been if it had a ball +within it. My friend's second objected strongly to this course; he +called it even unfair and shameful; he protested that the pistol taken +first ought to be retained. But the young Englishman, who was leaning +carelessly against a tree, exclaimed, "Let the gentleman have which he +likes. Whether he is right or not will be decided in a few seconds." So +the combatants were placed opposite to one another, and advanced to +within four paces. They raised their weapons; the word was given to +fire, and the Frenchman fell, pierced through the heart. + +"His blood is upon his own head," exclaimed the other solemnly. "He was +brave enough to have been a better man." Then perceiving that his help +could be of no avail to his late antagonist, he lifted his battered hat +to the Frenchman that remained alive, and returning to his carriage, +immediately resumed his journey. + +It is not possible, without putting some very strained and unusual +meaning on the word, to call the hero of such an adventure a coward; yet +the man who acted thus was Marmaduke Heath. + +The above relation is but a clumsy method of proving him courageous, I +am well aware; but I really know not otherwise how to make him appear +so, slave, as it is seen he was, to terrors which must seem almost +imaginary. It is said that no man, however fearless, quite gets over his +awe of his schoolmaster. An exaggeration of this sentiment probably +possessed this unfortunate young man; added to which was the fact that +Sir Massingberd was his uncle, a family tie which was doubtless not +without its influence, notwithstanding Marmaduke's evil opinion of his +own race. I suspect, too, he entertained a morbid notion that his own +life and that of his relative were somehow bound up together in one; +and on the few occasions when I ever saw him moved to wrath, a +similarity--mental as well as physical--between him and his uncle became +apparent, which actually inspired him with a sort of awe and hatred of +_himself_. A noble mind more injured and misshapen by ill-training it +was impossible to imagine. For the last few months, however, as I have +said, it had been growing aright, and gaining strength and vigour. No +home--even Mr. Clint and my tutor felt that--could possibly be better +adapted for him than his present one; the society of Mr. Gerard, a man +independent almost to audacity, and despising the haughty and the strong +with a supreme contempt, was the very tonic he needed. Rarely, however, +was his uncle's name mentioned in his presence: at first, Mr. Gerard had +purposely spoken of Sir Massingberd lightly and jestingly, but it was +found that the subject had better be altogether avoided. It is ill to +jest upon earthquakes with one who, having but just recovered from +certain shocks of a volcanic nature, is not without apprehensions of +more to come. This anticipation turned out to be but too well grounded. +A day or two after my discovery of the baronet's poor gipsy-wife at +Fairburn, whose existence was well known, I found, to both the rector +and Mr. Clint, and of course to Marmaduke himself, the postman carried +misfortune from me to Harley Street, although I was myself as +unconscious of the fact as he. Marmaduke did not come in to luncheon +from his study, as usual, and Mr. Gerard was sent with a gay message to +him by Lucy, to bid him do so. He was not wanted, he was to be assured, +upon his own account at all, but she was dying to hear news of Peter, +whose handwriting she had perceived upon the letter that had been sent +in to him that morning. Mr. Gerard found the poor lad with his eyes +riveted upon an autograph that was not mine, and upon words that I would +rather have cut off my hand than knowingly have sent him: + + +"Nephew Marmaduke,--I am told, whether falsely or not, it does not +matter now, that you have not seen the letter which I previously sent to +you. I think you can scarcely have done so, or you would not have dared +to disobey my orders therein contained, but would have returned to +Fairburn long ago. At all events, you will read _this_ with your own +eyes, and beware how you hesitate to comply with it. _Return hither, +sir, at once._ It is idle to suppose that I wish you harm, as those you +are with would fain persuade you; but it is far worse than idle to +attempt to cross my will. Come back to Fairburn, and I will behave +towards you as though you had not acted in your late undutiful manner. +Delay to do so, and be sure that you will still have to return, but +under very different circumstances. Marmaduke Heath, you should know me +well by this time. When I say 'Come,' it is bad for the person to whom I +speak to reply, 'I will not come.' I give you twenty-four hours to +arrive here after the receipt of this letter; when these have elapsed +without my seeing you, I shall consider your absence to be equivalent to +a contumacious refusal. Then war will begin between us; and the strife +will be unequal, Nephew Marmaduke; although you had fifty men at your +back like lawyer Clint and this man Gerard, they could not keep you +from my arm. It will reach you wheresoever you are, at the time you +least suspect it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. +However well it may seem to be with you, it will not be well. When you +think yourself safest, you will be most in danger. There is indeed but +one place of safety for you: come you home. + + "MASSINGBERD HEATH." + + + +The wily baronet had fooled me, and doubtless, when I rose to light the +taper, had substituted the above letter for that which he had persuaded +me to enclose to his unhappy nephew. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +BEFORE THE BLOW. + + +As yet in ignorance of the mischief which I had unwittingly done to my +dearest friend, I could not but wonder why I received no news from +Harley Street. I had confessed to Mr. Long what Sir Massingberd had +persuaded me to do, and although he had thought me wrong to have acted +without consulting him in the matter, he anticipated no evil +consequences. He rather sought to laugh me out of my own forebodings and +presentiments. Still there was this somewhat suspicious corroboration of +them, that the newborn courtesies of our formidable neighbour had +suddenly ceased, as though the end for which they had been used was +already attained. The baronet's manner towards us was as surly as ever, +and even a trifle more so, as if to recompense himself for his previous +constrained politeness. To myself, his manner was precisely that of a +man who does not attempt to conceal his contempt for one whom he has +duped. Since Marmaduke's departure, there had gone forth various +decrees, injunctions, and what not, from the Court of Chancery, obtained +doubtless through Mr. Clint, on behalf of the heir-presumptive, against +certain practices of Sir Massingberd connected with the estate. Formerly +he had done what he chose, not only with "his own," but with what was +not his own in the eye of the law. But Marmaduke's reversionary rights +were now strictly protected. Not a tree in the park could fell beneath +the axe, but the noise thereof reached the Chancellor's ears, and +brought down reproof, and even threats, upon the incensed baronet. His +hesitation to institute proceedings for the recovery of his ward, had +given confidence to his opponents; and Mr. Gerard was not one to suffer +the least wrong to be committed with impunity; it was out of his pocket +that the expenses came for the edicts necessary to enforce compliance, +and I have heard him say that he never remembered to have spent any +money with greater personal satisfaction. + +This "thinning the timber" (as Sir Massingberd euphoniously termed +cutting down the most ornamental trees, in his excusatory despatches), +having been put a stop to, the squire took to selling the family plate. +A quantity of ancient silver, with the astonished Griffins upon it, was +transferred from the custody of Gilmore to that of certain transmuters +of metal in town, and came back again to Fairburn Hall in the shape of +gold pieces. But even the melting-pot was compelled to disclose its +secrets; and the squire received such a severe reprimand upon the text +of heirlooms, as made him writhe with passion, and which put an end to +any friendly connection that might have before existed between himself +and John, Lord Eldon, at once and for ever. I think it must have been +immediately after the receipt of that very communication, that Sir +Massingberd came over to the rectory upon the following errand. Mr. Long +and myself were at our "Tacitus" in the study one evening, when the +baronet was announced, and I rose to leave the room. "Stay where you +are, young gentleman," said he roughly; "what I have to say will, it is +like enough, soon be no secret to anybody. Mr. Long, I must tell you at +once that money I must have. The way in which my property is meddled +with by the lawyer in London, set on to do it by friends of yours, too, +is beyond all bearing. I declare to you, that I--Sir Massingberd Heath, +the nominal owner of twenty thousand acres, and of a rent-toll of half +as many thousand pounds--have not five guineas in my pocket at this +moment, nor do I know how to raise them. Now, am I a man, think you, to +sit down with my hands before me, and submit to such a state of things +as this?" + +"Really, Sir Massingberd, I cannot say," returned my tutor; "I cannot +see how I can help you in anyway." + +"Yes, you _can_ help me, sir. You have influence with those +persons--curse them!--who have taken it in hand to do me these +injuries, who have interfered between uncle and nephew, between guardian +and ward. Now, I have made up my mind what I will do, and I am come here +to let you know it. You pretend to entertain some regard towards your +late pupil, Marmaduke." + +"The regard is genuine, Sir Massingberd. I wish others entertained the +like, who are more nearly connected with him than by the bond of pupil +and tutor." + +"Pray put me out of the question," returned the baronet coolly. "What I +have to say concerns others, not myself. You like this lad, and wish him +well; you hope for him an unclouded future; you trust that the character +of the family will be redeemed in his virtuous hands, and that the +remembrance of what it has been will not cleave to him, but will +gradually die out." + +"That is my earnest desire," replied Mr. Long, gravely. + +"I am glad to hear it," continued the other; "and I suppose Mr. Clint +cherishes some similar notion; and this man Gerard--this rebel, this +hypocrite----" + +"Sir Massingberd Heath," said I, interrupting him, "you have bidden me +stay here; but I shall not remain to listen to slanders against Mr. +Harvey Gerard; he is no hypocrite, but a very honest and kind-hearted +man." + +"He has hoodwinked this young wise-acre already, you see," pursued the +baronet. "His object is evidently to secure the heir of Fairburn for his +daughter; I have not the least doubt the jade is making play with the +poor molly-coddle as fast as----" + +Mr. Long and myself both rose before the speaker could finish the +sentence. My tutor checked with his finger the wrathful words that were +at my lips, and observed with energy: "Sir Massingberd, be silent! +Under my roof, you shall not traduce that virtuous and excellent young +girl." + +I never saw Mr. Long so excited; I never admired him so much. The +baronet paused, as though hesitating whether it was worth while to +indulge himself in uttering insults; I am thankful to say he decided +that it was not. It would have been pollution to Lucy Gerard's name to +have heard it spoken by such lips. + +"Well, well," returned he, "I have nothing to say against the young +woman. It is probable, however, you will allow, that some attachment may +arise between herself and my nephew. You grant that, do you? Ah, I +thought so. In that case, Mr. Gerard would prefer the husband of his +daughter to be free from all stain. Good! There are three persons then, +at least, all interested in my nephew's good name. Now, listen: you know +something, parson, of the mode of life pursued by the Heaths from +generation to generation; you know something of the deeds that have been +committed at Fairburn Hall. What is known, however, is honourable and +harmless compared to what is _not_ known; the vices which you have +shuddered at are mere follies--the offspring of idleness and high +spirits--compared to those of which you have yet to hear." + +It is impossible to imagine a more repulsive spectacle than this man +presented, exulting not only in his own wickedness, but in that of his +forefathers. He took from his pocket a huge manuscript, and thus +proceeded:--"The records of the House of Heath are red with blood, and +black with crime. I hold them in my hand here, and they are very pretty +reading. Now, look you, I will leave them here for your perusal, +parson--they have at least this attraction about them, they are +_true_--and when you have made yourself master of the contents, perhaps +you can recommend to me a publisher." + +"Is it possible," cried my tutor, "that you can do this dreadful wrong +at once to ancestors and descendant? Have you no mercy even for kith and +kin? Do you dare to defy God and Man alike?" + +"I dare publish that pamphlet, unless I have money," quoth Sir +Massingberd scornfully, "and that is the sole question with which we +need now concern ourselves. A pretty welcome young Sir Marmaduke will +meet with when he comes into the country among all who know his family +history. As for me, my character is one which is not likely to suffer +from any disclosure." + +"Are all the murders done and attempted set down here, Sir Massingberd?" +inquired my tutor, taking up the pamphlet "The catalogue of crime is +truly frightful; but you do not seem to have brought the narrative down +to the most recent dates." + +"The most recent dates?" reiterated the baronet mechanically. + +"Yes, sir," responded my tutor, "the history is evidently incomplete. If +it should come out in its present form, it would need an appendix. I +would scarcely recommend you to run the risk of another person +publishing a continuation. You had better take it home, and reconsider +the matter." + +The baronet affected to receive this advice in earnest, and retired, +foiled and furious.[1] He never more set foot in the Rectory, save +twice; once when he called upon me, and persuaded me to forward that +hateful letter to Marmaduke, and again upon the occasion I am about to +describe. The errand he then came upon was of small consequence, but the +circumstance I shall never forget. After-events have made it one of the +most memorable in my life, for it was the last time, save one, that I +ever beheld Massingberd Heath. Little did I think what a mystery was +then impending--so frightful, so unexampled, that it now seems almost +strange that it did not visibly overshadow that giant form, that +ruthless face. If we could thus read the future of others, how fearful +would be many a meeting which is now so conventional and commonplace! It +is true that we should always part, both from friends and from enemies, +in some sort as though we were parting with them for the last time; but +how different a leave-taking would it be, if we were indeed assured +that they and we would meet no more upon this side the grave! How I +should have devoured that man with mine eyes, had I known that they +would not again behold him--save one awful Once--before we should both +stand together in the presence of God! What terrors, what anxieties, +what enigmas were about to be brought to us and to others by the +morrow's sun! Yet, at the time, with what little things we occupied +ourselves! It was in the morning that Sir Massingberd paid his visit--a +morning of early November, when the first sharp frost had just set in. +He came about money matters, as usual. We were surprised to see him, +because, as I have said, he had relapsed into his accustomed stern +unsociable habits, and had seemed to have given up all attempts to gain +any furtherance of his plans from Mr. Long. He had called he said, about +a matter that affected the parson himself, or he would not have +troubled him. Certain Methodists had offered him twenty pounds a year as +the ground-rent of a chapel to be built upon the outskirts of the Park, +and within view of the Rectory windows. For his part, he hated the +Methodists; and had no sort of wish to offend Mr. Long by granting their +prayer. Still, being grievously in want of money, he had come to say +that if Mr. Clint could not be induced to give him some pecuniary help, +the chapel must be built. + +My tutor, who had a very orthodox abhorrence of all dissent, and +especially when it threatened his own parish, was exceedingly disturbed +by this intelligence. + +"What!" cried he; "you preach to your nephew doctrines of Conservatism, +Sir Massingberd, and yet are induced for a wretched bribe to let a nest +of sectaries be built in the very avenue of your Park!" + +"It is terrible indeed," quoth the baronet drily; "but they might set it +up opposite my front door for an extra five-pound note. I announce their +offer solely on your account. They call on me to-morrow for my final +decision, and I cannot afford to say, 'No.' Now, you can do what you +please with Mr. Clint, and may surely represent to him that this is a +case where twenty pounds may be well expended. The matter will thus be +staved off for a year at least; and next year, you know, I may be in +better circumstances--or dead, which many persons would greatly prefer." + +"Certainly," returned my tutor gravely, "I will do my best with Mr. +Clint; but in the meantime, rather than let this chapel be built, I will +advance the money you mention at my own risk. I happen to have a +considerable sum in the house at present, which I intended to lodge with +the bank at Crittenden to-morrow. So you shall have the notes at once." + +"That is very fortunate," said the baronet, coolly; and Mr. Long counted +them out into his hand--twenty flimsey, but not yet ragged, one-pound +notes, for the imitation of the like of which half-a-dozen men were at +that time often strung up in front of the Old Bailey together. From +82961 to 82980 the numbers ran, which--albeit I am no great hand at +recollecting such things--I shall remember, from what followed, as long +as I live. I can see the grim Squire now, as he rolls them tightly up, +and places them in that huge, lapelled waistcoat-pocket; as he slaps it +with his mighty hand, as though he would defy the world to take them +from him, however unlawfully acquired; as he leaves the room with an +insolent nod, and clangs across the iron road with his nailed shoes. + +I watch him through the Rectory window, as, ere he puts the key in his +garden-door, he casts a chance look-up at the sky. He looks to see what +will happen on the morrow. Does he read nothing save Continuance of Fine +and Frosty Weather? Nothing. All is blue and clear as steel; not a cloud +to be seen the size of a man's hand from north to south, from east to +west. There is no warning to be read in the cold and smiling heaven; no +"_Mene, mene_," for this worse than Belshazzar on its broad cerulean +wall! + + +[1] Years afterwards I became possessed of the pamphlet in question, +which, having glanced at, I very carefully committed to the flames. I do +not doubt, however, that Sir Massingberd would have carried his threat +into execution, had not Mr. Long's menace shaken his purpose. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOST. + + +The morning subsequent to Sir Massingberd's visit to the Rectory was +bright, but intensely cold. I was very particular about my shaving in +those days, and would not have dispensed with that manly exercise upon +any account; but I remember that the frost made it a difficult process. +In the course of the ceremony, Mrs. Myrtle, who was a very privileged +person, knocked softly at my door. A visit from her at such a time was +unusual, but not unprecedented. I said, "Pray, come in." My attire was +tolerably complete, and perhaps I was not indisposed to let people know +what tremendous difficulties were entailed upon a gentleman by the +possession of an obstinate beard. I was not prepared for her closing the +door behind her, sinking into the nearest chair, and fanning herself, as +though it had been midsummer, with her outspread fingers. I looked at +her with a face all soap-suds and astonishment. + +"My dear Mrs. Myrtle, what is the matter?" + +"Oh, don't ask me, Master Peter," cried she, although she had come for +no other purpose than to be cross-questioned. "Oh, pray, don't, for it's +more nor I can bear. Dearey me, if I ain't all of a twitter!" + +"Nothing the matter with your master," said I, "surely? I saw him out of +the window a little while ago on the lawn, talking to one of the +under-keepers of the Hall." + +"I dare say you did, sir," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, with one of those +aggravated shudders which are generally produced by the anticipation of +senna and salts. "No, master's all well, thank Heaven." + +"No bad news from Harley Street?" exclaimed I, laying down my razor in a +tremor. "I trust Miss...--I mean that Mr. Marmaduke is as he should be." + +"For all that I know to the contrary, he is, sir," returned the +housekeeper; "and likewise all _friends_" Mrs. Myrtle laid such an +accent upon "friends" that my mind naturally rushed to the opposite. + +"You don't mean to say," said I, "that anything has happened to Sir +Massingberd?" + +Mrs. Myrtle had no voice to speak, but she nodded a number of times in +compensation. + +"Is he DEAD?" asked I, very solemnly, for it was terrible to think of +sudden death in connection with that abandoned man. + +"Wus than dead, sir," returned the housekeeper; "many times wus than +dead; Heaven forgive me for saying so. Sir Massingberd is LOST." + +"Lost!" repeated I; "how? where?" + +"There is only One knows that, Master Peter; but the Squire is not at +the Hall, that's certain; he never returned there last night, after he +had gone his rounds in the preserves. He spoke with Bradford and two +more of the keepers, and bade them keep a good look-out as usual; but he +did not come to the watchers in the Home Plantation. He never got so +near the house as that; nobody saw him since midnight. Gilmore put out +his cigars and spirits as usual for him in his room; but they are +untouched. The front-door was not fastened on the inside; Sir +Massingberd never came in." + +Here I heard Mr. Long calling upon the stairs in a voice very different +from his customary cheerful tones, for Mrs. Myrtle. + +"Mercy me, I wonder whether there's anything new!" cried she, rising +with great alacrity. "As soon as I knows it, you shall know it, Master +Peter;" with which generous promise she hurried from the room. + +After this intelligence, shaving became an impossibility, and I hurried +down as soon as I could into the breakfast-room. My tutor was standing +at the window very thoughtful, and though he greeted me with his usual +hilarity, it struck me that it was a little forced. + +"Why, you are early this morning, Peter; and how profusely you have +illustrated yourself with cuts; it is sad to see one so young with such +a shaky hand. One would think you were one of the five-bottle-men, like +Sir--like Lord Stowell." + +He had been about to say "Sir Massingberd," I knew, and would on +ordinary occasions not have hesitated to do so. + +"De perditis nil nisi bonum?" quoth I inquiringly. + +"Oh, so you have heard of this nine hours' wonder, have you?" returned +my tutor. "Because our neighbour has chosen to leave home for a little, +on some private business best known to himself, everybody will have it +that he is Lost." + +"But it does seem very extraordinary too," said I, "does it not? He has +never done so before, has he?" + +"Not in all the years he has lived in Fairburn," returned my tutor +musingly. + +"And he made no preparations, I suppose, for departure, did he? Took no +clothes with him?" + +"Nothing, nothing," interrupted Mr. Long, pacing the room to and fro, +with his hand to his forehead. "But he had money, you know; he was eager +to get that money yesterday." + +"Then he would probably have hired a vehicle," urged I; "Sir Massingberd +is not the man to use his own legs, beyond the limit, that is, of his +own lands. You have heard him say that he would never be seen on the +road without four horses." + +Mr. Long continued his walk without reply, but I thought I perceived +that he was not unwilling to have the subject discussed. He seemed to be +eager to take as light a view of the matter as possible, although like +one who contends against his own more sombre convictions. I, on the +contrary, had that leaning towards the gloomy and mysterious not +uncommon with young persons, and both imagined the worst, and +endeavoured to picture it. + +"He went out after the poachers did he not?" said I. + +"Yes, as usual," replied my tutor; "he has done it before, scores of +times." + +"The pitcher goes often to the well, but is broken at last," returned I. +"I should not be surprised if the wretched man has been murdered by some +of those against whom he waged such unceasing war." + +"Then if so, he must have been shot, Peter," returned the rector +hastily: "without firearms, it would have been hard to dispose of the +gigantic baronet, armed as he doubtless was with his life-preserver. Now +no gun has been heard to go off by any one, although it was thought that +Sir Massingberd expected some raid to be made last night, by the +gipsies or others; at all events, he seemed more alert than usual, +Oliver tells me." + +The gipsies! My heart sank within me, as I thought of Rachel Liversedge +consumed with the wrongs of her "little sister;" and of the young man, +relative of that unhappy Carew whose life had been sworn away through +the Squire's machinations. I had seen nothing of them since my memorable +interview, but it was like enough that the tribe were yet in the +neighbourhood. True, they had waited so long for vengeance, that it was +not probable they should have set about it at this time; but if Sir +Massingberd had really come across them alone, while they were +committing a depredation, violence might easily enough have ensued; and +if violence, murder. I was very glad that Mrs. Myrtle came in at this +juncture with the eggs and buttered toast, and concealed my +embarrassment. + +"No news, sir," said she lugubriously, as she placed the delicacies upon +the table. "The last words were, 'Nothing has been heard of him.'" The +housekeeper had established a system of communication by help of her +kitchen-maid and the stable-lad at the Hall, whereby she received +bulletins, every quarter of an hour or so, with respect to Sir +Massingberd's mysterious disappearance. + +"Well, no news is good news, you know," responded Mr. Long gaily. "We +should always look upon the bright side of things, Mrs. Myrtle." + +"Yes, sir; but when a thing ain't got a bright side," remarked the +housekeeper, shaking her head. "Why, it's dreadful now he's Lost; and it +would be dreadful even if, after all, he was al----" + +"Hush, hush, Mrs. Myrtle; you don't know but you may be speaking of a +poor soul that is gone to his account. Sir Massingberd is doubtless a +bad man; but let us not call it dreadful if he should be permitted to +return among us, and have some time yet, it may be, to repent in." + +"Then you think he's dead and gone, do you, sir? Well, that's what I +think, and that's what Patty thinks too, and she's a very reasonable +girl. 'Them ravens,' says she to me, 'didn't come to that church-tower +for nothing;' and though, of course, I told her to hold her tongue, and +not talk folly like that, there was a good deal in what she said. Why, +we have not had ravens here since Sir Wentworth came to his awful end in +London; there was a mystery about that too, wasn't there, sir? +Lawk-a-mercy! Mr. Meredith, you gave me quite a turn." + +I had only said "Look there!" and pointed to the window, through which +Gilmore and the head-keeper were seen approaching the Rectory, and +engaged in close conversation. + +"I'll go with Patty, and let them in," quoth Mrs. Myrtle, unconsciously +betraying that she was unequal to opening the door alone, in such an +emergency. It is probable that, when it was opened, the incomers and she +had a great deal to talk about, for they were not ushered into the +breakfast-room for many minutes, and after the very moderate meal which +sufficed us both upon the occasion had long been finished. The butler +and Oliver Bradford were by no means good friends, and it must have been +something portentous indeed which brought them to the Rectory together. +It was, in fact, their very rivalry which had produced the double +visit. Each conceived himself to be the superior minister of the absent +potentate, and called upon, by that position, to act in his master's +behalf, and give notice to neighbouring powers, such as the parson, of +the event that had paralyzed affairs at the Hall. It seemed only natural +(as he himself subsequently expressed it) to Oliver Bradford, who had +been servant, man and boy, to the Heath family for nearly sixty years, +that he should be the spokesman on an occasion such as this, and +sleeking his scanty white hairs over his forehead with the palm of his +hand, and passing the back of it across his mouth, he commenced as +follows:-- + +"Muster Long, I make bold to come over here, having been upon the +property going on for three-score years and ten----" + +"As out-door servant," interrupted Mr. Gilmore, severely; "but not as +confidential in any way. Mr. Long, this old man here insisted upon +accompanying me in the performance of my duty, and I have humoured him." + +"You've what?" cried the ancient keeper; "you've humoured _me_, you oily +knave, have you? No, no, you never did that to Oliver Bradford. It +wasn't worth your while. I come here about my master's business as a +matter of right. Are a few years of truckling, and helping the devil's +hand, and feathering your own nest pretty comfortably, to be weighed +against a lifetime of honest service? Let Mr. Long here decide." + +"Look here, men," quoth my tutor, "it is no use quarrelling about +precedence. You are both in the same service, and owe the same duty to +your master. I know what has happened in a general way, and require no +long story from either of you. But you have doubtless each of you some +information concerning this matter peculiar to your own positions, and I +will ask you to communicate it in time. Twelve hours have not elapsed +since your master's disappearance, a very short time surely to set it +down so decidedly to some fatal accident." + +"He was as regular in his rounds as clockwork," interposed the old +keeper, shaking his head; "he would never have left the Home Spinney +unvisited last night, if life had been in him." + +"And if he had meant to leave Fairburn of his own head," added the +butler, "he would have come back for his brandy before he started; for +all his hearty look, Sir Massingberd could not get on long without that; +and he would not have taken Grimjaw out with him neither." + +"Oh, the dog was with him, was it?" said my tutor, musing. + +"It was not in the house, sir," replied Gilmore, "after Sir Massingberd +had left. I went to make the fire in his sitting-room, and I noticed +that the creature was neither on the hearthrug, nor under the sofa, as +is usually the case. I don't know when I have known the dog go out with +him o' nights before. When I went to open the front door as usual this +morning, there was Grimjaw, nigh frozen to death." + +"Your master had made no sort of preparation, so far as you know, for +his own departure anywhere?" + +"None whatever. I set out his cigars for him, and I noticed that he had +only put two in his case, a sure sign that he meant to return soon. He +had no greatcoat, although it was bitter cold." + +"Was he armed in any way?" + +"No, sir; that is to say, he had his life-preserver, of course, but no +gun or pistol." + +"Had he any sum of money, or valuables of any kind about him, Gilmore?" + +"I don't think that is at all likely," replied the butler, grinning. "We +haven't seen money at the Hall this many a day. As for valuables, Sir +Massingberd had his big gold chain on, with a silver watch at the end of +it, borrowed from me years ago, and my property." + +It was remarkable how this ordinarily cautious and discreet person was +changed in manner, as though he was well assured that he would never +more have a master over him. Both Mr. Long and myself observed this. + +"What time was your master usually accustomed to return home from his +rounds in the preserves?" + +"I did not sit up for him in general," returned Gilmore; "but when I +have chanced to be awake, and to hear him come in, it was never later +than three o'clock. His ordinary time was about half-past twelve, but it +depended on what time he started. He left the Hall last night at about +ten, and should, therefore, have returned a little after midnight. I +never set eyes on him since nine o'clock, when he was in his own +sitting-room reading." + +"And when did _you_ see him last, Bradford?" + +"When did I see Sir Massingberd Heath?" replied the old keeper, who had +been chafing with impatience through his rival's evidence--"well, I +see'd him last nine hours ago, at nearly twelve o'clock at night. I was +on watch in the Old Plantation, and he came upon me sudden, as usual, +with his long quick stride." + +"Was there anything at all irregular about his manner or appearance; +anything in the least degree different from what you always saw upon +these occasions?" + +"Nothing, whatever, sir. Look you, I knew my master well," [He had +already begun to talk of him in the past tense!] "I could tell at a +glance when he was put out more than usual, or when he had anything out +of ordinary in hand; he never swore, saving your reverence's presence, +what you may call _freely_ then. He might have knocked one down, likely +enough, if you gave him the least cross, but he was not flush of his +oaths. Now I never heard him in a better fettle in that respect than he +was last night. He cussed the lad Jem Meyrick, who had come up to me +away from Davit's Copse for a light to his pipe; and he cussed me too, +for giving it him, up hill and down dale, and in particular he cussed +Grimjaw for being so old and slow that he couldn't keep up with him. +Sir Massingberd never waited for him, of course; but after he'd been +with us a few minutes, the old dog came up puffin' and wheezin'; and +when the Squire left us, it followed him as well as it could, but with +the distance getting greater between them at every step. I watched them, +for the moon made it almost as light as day, going straight for the +Wolsey Oak, which was the direct way for the Home Spinney; and that was +where Sir Massingberd meant to go last night, although he never got +there, or leastways the watcher never saw him. + +"Have you any reason to believe, keeper, that there were poachers in any +part of the preserves last night?" + +"No, sir," replied Oliver, positively. "On the contrary, I knows there +wasn't, although Sir Massingberd was as suspicious of them as usual, or +more so. Why, with Jack Larrup and Dick Swivel both in jail, and all +the Larchers sent out of the parish, and Squat and Burchall at sea, +where was they to come from?" + +"Sir Massingberd must have had many enemies?" mused my tutor. + +"Ay, indeed, sir," replied old Oliver, pursing his lips; "he held his +own with the strong hand; so strong, however, as no man would contend +against him. If Sir Massingberd has been killed, Mr Long, it was not in +fair fight; he was too much feared for that." + +"There has been a gang of gipsies about the place this long time, has +there not?" quoth my tutor. + +"There has, sir; but don't you think of gipsies and this here matter of +Sir Massingberd as having anything to do with one another. They're +feeble, feckless bodies at the best. They ain't even good poachers, +although my master always bid us beware of them. They would no more +have ventured to meddle with the squire, than a flock of linnets would +attack a hawk, that's certain." + +My tutor had been setting down on paper brief notes of his conversation +with these two men; but he now put the writing away from him, and +inquired what steps, in their judgment, ought to be taken in the matter, +and when. + +"You know your master better than I. If he chanced to come back this +afternoon, or to-morrow, or next day, from any expedition he may have +chosen to undertake, would he not be much annoyed at any hue and cry +having been made after him?" + +"That he just would," observed the keeper with emphasis. + +"I would not have been the man to make the fuss," remarked the butler, +sardonically, "for more money than he has paid me these ten years." + +"In a word," observed my tutor, "you are both come here to shift the +responsibility of a public search from your own shoulders to mine. Very +good. I accept it. Let sufficient hands be procured at once, Bradford, +to search the Chase and grounds, and drag the waters. And you, Gilmore, +must accompany me, while I set seals on such rooms as may seem necessary +up at the Hall." + +The butler was for moving away on the instant with a "_Very_ well, sir," +but Mr. Long added, "Please to wait in Mrs. Myrtle's parlour for me. We +must go together." + +"I don't like the look of that man Gilmore at all, sir," observed I, +when the two had left the room. + +"No, nor I, Peter," returned my tutor, sententiously, as he set about +collecting tapes and sealing-wax; "I am afraid he is a rogue in grain." + +Now, that was not by any means, or rather was very far short of, what I +meant to imply; what I had had almost upon my burning lips was, "Don't +you think he has murdered Sir Massingberd?" But the moment had gone by +for putting the question, even if Mr. Long had not begun to whistle--a +sure sign with him that he did not wish to speak upon the matter any +further, just at present. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE STONE GARDEN. + + +When Mr. Long took his departure with Gilmore, he did not ask me to +accompany him, and assist in an undertaking which was likely to be +somewhat laborious. Perhaps he wished if the baronet did chance to +return in a fury, that he alone should bear the brunt of it. Perhaps he +thought there might be things at the Hall I had better not see, or +perhaps he wished to observe the butler's behaviour at leisure. I think, +however, he could scarcely have expected me to stay at home with my +books, while such doings as he had directed were on the point of taking +place. Euripides was doubtless in his day a sensation dramatist, but +the atrocities of Medea could not enchain me, with so much dreadful +mystery afoot in my immediate neighbourhood. Her departure through the +air in a chariot drawn by winged dragons, was indeed a striking +circumstance; but how much more wonderful was the disappearance of Sir +Massingberd, who had departed no man knew how! + +The news had spread like wildfire through the village. Numbers of +country folk were hanging about the great gates of the avenue, drinking +in the impromptu information of the lodge-keeper; but they did not +venture to enter upon the forbidden ground. The universal belief among +them was, I found, that their puissant lord would soon reveal himself. +Doubting Castle, it was true, was for the present without its master; +but it was too much to expect that he would not return to it. The whole +community resembled prisoners in that fortress, who, although +temporarily relieved of the tyrant's presence, had little hope but that +he was only gone forth upon a ramble, and would presently return with +renewed zest for human flesh. The general consternation, however, was +extreme, and such as would probably not have been excited by the sudden +and unexplained removal of a far better man. The rumour had already got +abroad that there was to be an immediate search in the park, and that +Oliver Bradford had been empowered to select such persons as he thought +fit to assist in the same. There were innumerable volunteers for this +undertaking, principally on account of the excessive attraction of the +work itself, which promised some ghastly revelation; and secondarily, +for the mere sake of getting into Fairburn Chase at all--a demesne as +totally unknown to the majority of those present as the Libyan Desert. +The elders indeed remembered the time when a public footpath ran right +through the Chase, "close by the Heronry, and away under the Wolsey Oak, +and so through Davit's Copse, into the high road to Crittenden," said +one, "whereby a mile and a half was wont to be saved." "Ay, or two +mile," quoth another; "and Lawyer Moth always said as though the path +was ours by right, until Sir Massingberd got his son made a king's clerk +in London, which shut his mouth up and the path at the same time." + +"Ay," said a third, mysteriously, "and it ain't too late to try the +matter again, in case the property has got _into other hands_." + +This remark brought back at once the immediate cause of their assembling +together, and I began to be made the victim of cross-examination. To +avoid being compelled to give my own opinion (which I had already begun +to think a slander) upon the matter in hand, I took my leave as quietly +as could be, and escaped, whither they dared not follow me, through the +griffin-guarded gates. All within was, as usual, silent and deserted. A +few leaves were still left to flutter down in eddies from the trees, or +hop and rustle on the frosty ground, but their scarcity looked more +mournful than utter bareness would have done. It was now the saddest +time of all the year; the bleak east wind went wailing overhead; and +underneath, the soil was black with frost. Instead of pursuing the +avenue to the frontdoor of the Hall, where, as it seemed, I was not +wanted, I took a foot-track to the left, which I knew led to that +bowling-green whither I had been previously invited by Sir Massingberd, +although I had not taken advantage of his rare courtesy. If he did now +appear, no matter in what state of mental irritation, he could scarcely +quarrel with me for doing the very thing he had asked me to do. Had I +known, however, the character of the place in which I found myself, I +should have reserved my visit for a less eerie and mysterious occasion. + +The time of year, it is true, had no unfavourable influence upon the +scene that presented itself, for all was clothed in garments of thickest +green. Vast walls of yew shut in on every side a lawn of perfect +smoothness; everything proclaimed itself to belong to that portion of +the Hall property which was "kept up" by subsidy from without. The +quaint oak-seats, though old, were in good repair; the yew hedges +clipped to a marvel. Still nothing could exceed the sombre and funereal +aspect of the spot. It seemed impossible that such a sober game as +bowls could ever have been played there, or jest and laughter broken +that awful stillness. The southern yew-screen was in a crescent form, at +the ends of which were openings unseen from within the enclosed space. +Passing through one of these, I came upon what was called the Stone +Garden. It took its name from four stone terraces, from the highest of +which I knew that there must be a very extensive view. This space was +likewise covered with yew trees, clipped and cut in every conceivable +form, after the vile taste of the seventeenth century. There was +something weird in the aspect of those towering Kings and Queens--easily +recognizable, however, for what they were intended--and of those maids +of honour, with their gigantic ruffs and farthingales. One was almost +tempted to imagine that they had been human once, and been turned into +yew trees for their sins. The whole area was black with them; and a +sense of positive oppression, notwithstanding the eager air which caught +me sharply whenever I lost the shelter of one of these ungainly forms, +led me on to the top terrace, where one could breathe freely, and have +something else than yews to look upon. + +Truly, from thence the scene was wide and fair. I stood at that +extremity of the pleasure-grounds most remote from the Hall, and with my +back to it. Before me lay a solitary tract of wooded park, thickly +interspersed with planted knolls and coppices. Immediately beneath me +was the thicket called the Home Spinney, the favourite haunt of hare and +pheasant, and the spot in all the Chase most cherished by Sir +Massingberd. He would have resented a burglary, I do believe, with less +of fury than any trespass upon that sacred ground. Beyond the Spinney, +and standing by itself, far removed from any other tree, was the famous +Wolsey Oak. Why called so, I have not the least idea, for it had the +reputation of being a vast deal older than the days of the famous +Cardinal. Many a summer had it seen-- + + "When the monk was fat, + And issuing shorn and sleek, + Would twist his girdle tight, and pat + The girls upon the cheek; + Ere yet, in scorn of Peter's Pence, + And numbered bead and shrift, + Bluff Harry broke into the spence, + And turned the cowls adrift." + +Yet still was it said to be as whole and sound as a bell. It was +calculated to measure over fourteen yards in circumference, and that for +many feet from its base; while its height, although it had lost some of +its upper branches, still far exceeded that of any other of its +compeers. Beyond this tree, but at another great interval, was the wood +known as the Old Plantation, where Oliver Bradford had last seen his +master alive. I was looking down, then, upon the very route which Sir +Massingberd had been seen to commence, but which he had never ended. It +was to the Home Spinney he had been apparently bound, when +something--none knew what--had changed his purpose. He would probably +have passed through it, and come up by that winding path yonder to the +spot where I now stood; it was the nearest way home for him. Perhaps he +had done so, although it was unlikely, since the watcher had not seen +him. Perhaps those very yews behind me had concealed his murderers. Shut +in by those unechoing walls of living green, no cry for aid would have +been heard, even if Sir Massingberd had been the man to call for it; he +would most certainly have never asked for mercy. But hark! what was +that sound that froze the current of my blood, and set my heart beating +and fluttering like the wings of a prisoned bird against its cage? Was +it a strangled cry for "Help!" repeated once, twice, thrice, or was it +the wintry wind clanging and grinding the naked branches of the Spinney? +A voice had terrified me in Fairburn Chase once before, which had turned +out to be no mere fancy; but there was this horror about the present +sound, that I seemed to dimly recognize it. It was the voice of Sir +Massingberd Heath, with an awful change in it, as if a powerful hand +were tightening upon his throat. It seemed, as I have said, to come from +the direction of the copse beneath, and yet I determined to descend into +it, rather than thread again the mazes of those melancholy yews. The +idea of my assistance being really required never entered into my +thoughts; what I wanted was to escape from this solitude, peopled only +with unearthly cries, and regain the companionship of my +fellow-creatures. How I regretted having left the society of those +honest folk outside the gates! To remain where I was, was impossible; I +should have gone mad. Fortunately, the Spinney was well-nigh leafless, +and a bright but wintry sun penetrated it completely. I fled over its +withered and frosted leaves, looking neither to left nor right, till I +leaped the deep ditch that formed its southern boundary, and found +myself in the open; then I stopped indeed quite short, for, before me, +not ten paces from the Spinney, from which he must have just emerged, +lay the body of Grimjaw. It was still warm, but lifeless. There were no +marks of violence about him; the struggle to extricate himself from the +ditch, it is probable, had cost the wretched creature his little +remaining vitality, weakened as he must have doubtless been by his +previous night's lodging on the cold stone steps. But how had he come +thither, who never moved anywhere out of doors, except with Sir +Massingberd or Gilmore? and whither, led perhaps by some mysterious +instinct, was he going when death had overtaken him--an easy task--and +glazed that solitary eye, which had witnessed so much which was still a +mystery to man? + +Was it possible that he had perished in endeavouring to obey his +master's cry for aid? that terrible "Help! help!" which rang in my ears +a while ago, as I stood in the Stone Garden, and which rings, through +half a century, in them now? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE SEARCH. + + +Shrinking away from the body of the unhappy Grimjaw, and fleeing from +the solitary spot in which it lay, I ran down towards the Heronry, +where, in the distance, I could now perceive a number of persons +assembled upon the lake-side. Below and above it, the stream flowed on +as usual; but the larger area of water which contained the island, was +frozen over with a thin coating of ice. This was being broken by men +armed with long and heavy poles, after which the work of dragging the +water was commenced. The scene was as desolate as the occupation was +ghastly and depressing. Perched upon stony slabs of their now leafless +home, the huge birds watched the proceedings with grave and serious air: +at first, they imagined, I think, that the thing was done for their own +behoof, and to the end that they might supply themselves with fish as +usual; but the appearance of the grappling-irons disabused them of this +idea. Now one, and now another, unable to restrain their curiosity, +would rise slowly and warily into the air, and making a circuit over our +heads, return to their old position to reflect, with head aside, upon +what they had seen. The presence as spectators of these gigantic +creatures, certainly increased the weird and awful character of the +employment in which we were engaged, and struck quite a terror into the +village folk, who were unaccustomed to see them in such close proximity. +Still the work was not gone about by any means in reverent and solemn +silence. If any man wishes his neighbours to speak their mind about him +thoroughly and unreservedly, I should say, judging from what I heard on +that occasion, Let him disappear, and be dragged for. It is not so +certain he is dead, that any delicacy need be exercised in telling the +severest truths about him; nor yet is there sufficient chance of his +reappearance to make folks reticent through fear. Only when the drags +halted a little, meeting with some hidden obstruction, all tongues were +silent, and pale faces clustered about the toilers, expecting that the +dreadful thing they sought was about to be brought to land. + +"I thought we had him then," said one of the men, after an occasion of +this sort; "but it was only a piece of stone." + +"It might have been his _heart_, for all that," muttered another, +cynically; and a murmur of "Ay, that's true," went round them all. + +"Has anybody been about the Home Spinney this morning?" inquired I of +Oliver Bradford, who had just given up his place at the ropes to a fresh +man. + +"No, sir, nor last night either, as it turns out. It will be bad for +somebody if Sir Massingberd does return, and finds out that the watcher +who ought to have been there was wiled away elsewhere by what he thought +was poachers holloing to one another--some owl's cry, as I should judge. +And to-day, I doubt if a creature has been near the place, for none of +my men seem to fancy going there alone." + +"And who _was_ the watcher there last night, Oliver?" + +"Well, sir, we must not make mischief; he was a young chap new at the +business, a sort of grand-nevvy of mine by the wife's side. He'll do +better next time, will young Dick Westlock. He was over-eager, that's +all. And when you hear a cry in these woods, unless you are thoroughly +accustomed to them, it may lead you a pretty dance: it takes a practised +ear to tell rightly where it comes from." + +"You should know me better, Bradford," returned I, "than to suppose I +would bring a lad to harm by mentioning such a matter; but I should like +to ask him a question or two, if you will point him out." + +"There he is then, sir," answered Oliver, pointing to a good-looking, +honest lad enough, but one who perhaps would scarcely have been +considered sufficiently old for so trustworthy a part as sentinel of the +home preserves, had he not been grand-nephew to the head keeper. + +"Why, Dick," said I, "your uncle telly me that you took an owl for a +poacher last night, and followed his voice all over the Chase." + +"It wasn't no owl," sir, quoth Dick, stoutly; "it were the voice of a +man, whosoever it was." + +"Don't thee be a fool," exclaimed his uncle, roughly. "I tell thee it +was a bird, and called like this;" and the keeper gave a very excellent +imitation of the cry of an owl. + +This was not greatly unlike the sound which had so recently affrighted +my own ears; but then owls rarely cry in the daytime. + +"Dick," cried I, "never mind your uncle; listen to me. If you thought it +was a human voice, what do you think it said?" + +"Well, I can't rightly say as it said anything; it seemed to me to be a +sort of wobbling in the throat; and I thought it might be a sound among +some poaching fellars, made with a bird-call, or the like of that." + +"Supposing it said any word at all, Dick, what word was it most like?" + +Mr. Richard Westlock looked as nonplused and embarrassed as though I had +propounded to him some extremely complicated riddle. + +"Was it anything like 'Hel--p, hel--p?'" said I, imitating as well as I +could those terrible tones. + +"Bless my body," quoth Mr. Richard, slapping his legs with his hands, in +admiration of my sagacity, "if them ain't the very words as it _did_ +say!" + +"What think you of that, Oliver Bradford?" inquired I, gravely. + +"As the bell tinks, so the fool thinks," responded the head keeper, +sententiously. "If you had asked Dick whether the word wasn't +'Jerusalem,' he would have said, 'Ay, that was the very word.'" + +"Still," urged I, "since there may be something more than fancy in the +thing, and the voice, if it was one, could not have come from under +water, let the Park woods be thoroughly searched at once. There are men +enough outside the gates to do that, without suspending the work that is +going on here, and why should we lose time?" + +The head keeper sulkily muttered something about not wanting a caddel of +people poking their noses into every part of Fairburn Chase; then with +earnest distinctness, as though the thought had only just struck him, +"Besides, Mr. Meredith, let me tell you that they may get to know more +than is good for them." + +At these words, I cast an involuntary glance at the plantation within a +few hundred feet of us, in the recesses of which dwelt Sinnamenta, Lady +Heath. + +"_You_ may know, sir," continued the keeper, translating my thought, +"but everybody don't know, and it's much better that they shouldn't." + +Certainly the objection was a grave one, and I was glad enough to +perceive Mr. Long coming down from the Hall towards us, an authority by +whom the question could be decided. + +"You had better ask him yourself, Oliver," said I; for as my tutor had +never spoken to me of the existence of the unfortunate maniac, I did not +like to address him upon the subject. Bradford therefore went forward to +meet him; and after they had had some talk together, Mr. Long beckoned +me to him. + +"I think with you, Peter," said he, "that in any case, we should lose no +time in searching the Chase. If we do not discover what we seek, we can +scarcely fail to find some trace of a struggle, if struggle there has +been, between such a man as Sir Massingberd and whoever may have +assailed him. If he has been murdered, it is, of course, just possible +that the assassins threw the body into the water, although not here, +since the ice would scarcely have formed over it like this; otherwise, +they could not have removed it without leaving some visible trace. Do +you, Bradford, and a couple of your own men, examine that plantation +yonder thoroughly, so that it need not be searched again; and in the +meantime I will go and fetch more help." + +I have taken part in my time in many a "quest" for game, both large and +little: I have sought on foot in the rook-crannies of the north for the +hill-fox; I have penetrated the tangled jungles of Hindustan for tiger; +I have stood alone, gun in hand, on the skirts of a tropical forest, not +knowing what bird or beast the beaters within might chance at any moment +to drive forth; but I have never experienced such excitement as that +which I felt when, one of forty men, I walked from end to end of +Fairburn Chase in search of its lost master. + +In one long line, and at the distance of about twenty yards from one +another, we plodded on slowly and steadily; and with eyes that left no +bush unexamined. This work, which in summer would have been toil indeed, +was rendered comparatively easy by the bareness of the season; the +frost, too, made the swamps in the hollows safe to the tread, and the +tangled underwood brittle before us. Many a sunken spot we found hidden +in brake and brier, and scarcely known to the keepers themselves, such +as might easily have held, and we could not but think how fitly, the +Thing we feared to find, and sometimes, when one man called to his +neighbours, the whole line would halt, and each could scarcely restrain +himself from running in, and seeing with his own eyes what trace of the +missing man it was which had provoked the exclamation. We began at the +outskirts of the Park, and worked towards the Hall, so that the Home +Spinney, which was the likeliest spot of all, since he had been last +seen going in that direction, was reserved for the end. As the men +approached it, the excitement increased; they almost ran over the large +open space in which stood the Wolsey Oak, extending its gnarled and +naked arms aloft, as if in horror; but when they searched the coppice +itself, and found the body of Grimjaw, stiffened into stone since I last +saw it, many of them were not so eager to push on. I had omitted to tell +them of the wretched animal's death, and the effect of the sight upon +them was really considerable. + +That "the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense," is in +nothing more true than in the emotion produced by the sufferings or +decease of animals upon gentle folks and upon labouring persons. Greater +familiarity with such spectacles, and perhaps, too, a larger experience +of hardship and sorrow among his own fellow-creatures--which naturally +tends to weaken his sense of pity for mere animals--prevents the peasant +from being moved at all by some sights at which his superiors would be +really shocked: a dead horse lying in the road is, to the stonebreaker, +a dead horse, and nothing more; whereas, to him who goes by on wheels, +unless he is a veterinary surgeon, the sight is positively distressing. +I am sure that the spectacle of half a dozen ordinary dead dogs would +not have affected Oliver Bradford, for instance, in the least, while if +they had been "lurchers," and given to poaching practices, such a +funereal scene would have afforded him unmixed satisfaction. But when he +saw Grimjaw lying dead, and frozen, he shook his head very gravely, and +bade us mark his words, "That that ere dog didn't die for nothing, but +for a sign. That he would never have died, not he, if his master and +constant companion had still had breath in him, and more than that, we +should find, we might take his word for it, that that there body, and +that of Sir Massingberd Heath, were not very far from one another." + +There were murmurs of hushed and awe-struck adhesion to these remarks, +but not a dissentient voice in all the company, and in a frame of mind +which would now undoubtedly be called "sensational," and not in a broken +line of march, as heretofore, but almost shoulder to shoulder, we +entered the Home Spinney. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +WHAT WAS IN THE COVERED CART. + + +If this true narrative of mine should chance to find its channel of +publication in a hebdomadal periodical, and the end of the last chapter +coincide with the end of the week, I am afraid I shall have unduly +aroused the expectation of my readers, and kept them upon tenter-hooks +during that period upon false pretences, or rather what may seem to be +so. They will doubtless have promised themselves some ghastly spectacle +(and I give them my honour that if they will only have patience they +shall have it) to be presented in the very next page or two. It may +disappoint them temporarily, to hear that though we searched the +coppice, tree by tree, and left not one heap of leaves unstirred by our +feet, that we found nothing, nothing. And yet I will venture to say, +that if we had come upon that sight which all were so prepared for, the +stiffened limbs of murdered Sir Massingberd, with his cruel face set for +ever in death, and his hard eyes scowling up at the sky, it would +scarcely have filled us with greater awe. It would have been a terrible +sight, doubtless, but with every minute the terror would have faded, +until at last it might have even melted into pity. He could at least +have hurt no man more, being dead. But now that he was only Lost--still +Lost--we looked at one another with dumb surprise, and over our own +shoulders with misgivings. He was not above ground in all Fairburn +Chase, that was certain; nor under water, for the dragging-parties had +discovered no more than we. Any idea of suicide was quite out of the +question; Sir Massingberd Heath was the last man to leave life before he +was summoned, even if he really felt, as he averred, that there was no +sort of risk in doing so. Wicked men have a tolerably high opinion of +this world, notwithstanding their low views of the people that inhabit +it; and the French philosopher who put an end to his not invaluable +existence upon the ground that he had had enough of everything, was an +exceptional case. + +At the same time, the probabilities were immensely against the baronet's +having voluntarily undertaken any expedition, considering the +circumstances under which he must have set out--on foot, fatigued, and +at so late an hour. If secrecy had been his object, it would have been +far more easily secured by his departure at a less extraordinary time. +In the meanwhile, day after day passed by without any tidings, and the +mystery of his disappearance deepened and spread. Mr. Long was rather +reserved upon the matter at first, professing to entertain little doubt +that the wilful Squire would presently return, malicious and grim as +ever; but as time went on, he began to grow uneasy, and seemed to find +relief in conversing upon the subject, and suggesting more or less +impossible contingencies. + +"Do you remember, Peter," said he one morning at breakfast-time, +"reading out to me, some months ago, an account of the murder of a +certain lieutenant of the coast-guard by smugglers on the east coast; +how he oppressed them and treated them with unnecessary cruelty for +many, many months, until at last they took him away out of his bed by +force, and carried him no man knew whither, and put him to death with +tortures?" + +"Yes," returned I, "perfectly well. They buried the poor wretch up to +his neck in the sea-sand, and bowled stones at his head." + +"Well, Peter, that frightful scene is constantly representing itself +whenever I shut my eyes; only the head is that of Sir Massingberd. You +cannot imagine how distressing it is to me now to go to bed, with the +expectation of this re-enacting itself before I can get to sleep." + +"Dear me, how dreadful!" returned I. "But does not the fact of your only +recognizing the victim, convince you of the unreality of the thing? If +you knew the faces of the smugglers, then indeed----" + +"I do know them, Peter," interrupted my tutor gravely; "that is the +worst of it; although it should, as you say, rather convince me of the +imaginary character of the scene, since the actors in it have long been +dead and gone, I believe. They are not smugglers, but gipsies. There is +on Carew in particular, one unhappy man, into whose history I need not +enter, but who once incurred the baronet's vengeance, and I am afraid it +is but too likely perished in consequence. It is a sad story of +deception on both sides; but it is certain that Sir Massingberd richly +earned the hatred of the wandering people. I have no right, of course, +to make any such charge, but Peter, I cannot help thinking that it is +they who have made away with the Squire. I casually inquired in the +village yesterday about the tribe that generally inhabit the fir-grove +on the Crittenden Road, and it seems they left the place by night, on or +about the very date of Sir Massingberd's disappearance." + +My heart grew cold and heavy as a stone at these words, delivered though +they were with vagueness, and without any threat of action to follow +them, for the suspicion which my tutor now suggested had long ago taken +firm root in my own mind. I would not, however, have given expression to +it upon any account, and my present wish was to do away with this notion +of the rector's as much as possible. I would not, perhaps, have assisted +in the escape of the Cingari from punishment, if punishment they +deserved, but neither would I have put out my hand to deliver them up. +The law had taken its wicked will of them often enough already, and in +connection with this very man. + +"Those who know these people best," said I, "such as Bradford and the +keepers, do not think it at all probable that they would have had the +courage to face Sir Massingberd. Even if they possessed it, what could +they have done but have slain him? and if slain, where have they put him +to?" + +"God alone knows," said my tutor solemnly; "but the man at the pike at +Crittenden says, I believe, that they had a covered cart with them, +which they have never been known to have before." + +I murmured something to the effect that the winter was coming on, and +that it was likely enough that they should have procured for themselves +some peripatetic shelter of that kind; but a nameless horror took hold +upon me, in spite of myself, when Mr. Long rejoined, that he should +think it his duty to have the gipsies followed, and a thorough +examination of their effects to be made. I had not another word to say. +I seemed already to see poor old Rachel Liversedge standing in the +felon's dock, avowing and glorying in her guilt, and defiant of the +sentence which would consign her and hers to the same fate that had +overtaken, with no such justice, Stanley Carew. Any hope of escape for +them, I knew, was out of the question. They had not the means for speedy +travel, while, in those days of superstition and intolerance, the +Cingari were an object of animadversion and alarm, whithersoever they +moved. That very day--acting upon information received concerning their +present whereabouts--Mr. Long set out on horseback, accompanied by the +parish constable, and Came up with the party whom he sought upon a +certain common within twenty miles of Fairburn. The tribe, of whom I had +only seen three grown-up members, were tolerably numerous, and the +constable evinced his fitness for being a peace-officer by counselling +the rector to do nothing rash, at least until reinforcements should +permit of his doing so with safety. The sight, however, of the covered +cart, placed, as it seemed, jealously in the very centre of the +encampment, was too much for Mr. Long, who, to do him justice, was as +bold as a lion, except where conventional "position," as in the case of +Sir Massingberd, made him indisposed for action. He turned his horse +straight for the desired object, in spite of the threatening looks of +several men, who were tinkering about an immense fire, and was only +stopped by the youngest of them starting up, and laying his hand +imperatively upon his bridle-rein. + +"Have you a warrant, Mr. Long," inquired the gipsy sternly, "that you +ride through our camp, when all the rest of the common is open to you, +and wish to pry into that poor place yonder, which is all we have of +house and home?" + +The rector had no sort of right for what he did, and was therefore +proportionally indignant. + +"Unhand my bridle, sirrah!" cried he. "What is your name, who seem to +know mine so well, and yet who knows me so little, that you can imagine +I am here in any other cause than that of Right and Justice?" + +"My name is Walter Carew," replied the gipsy, still retaining his hold. + +"Then that is warrant sufficient for what I do," cried my tutor +excitedly, and raising his riding-whip as he spoke. + +The swarthy face of the gipsy gleamed with passion, and his unoccupied +right hand sought his side, as if for a weapon. Mischief would +undoubtedly have ensued, but that at that moment the curtains of the +covered cart were parted by a skinny hand, and the voice of Rachel +Liversedge was heard bidding the young man let the bridle go, and not +spill parson's blood, which was as bad as wasting milk and water. Then +she added, with mock courtesy: "Pray, come hither, Mr. Long; our doors +are always open, and there can be no intrusion where there are only +females and sickness." + +"If that be all," returned my tutor in a softened tone, for though +somewhat arbitrary, as it would now be thought, towards his inferiors, +he was ever gentle to the sex; "if that indeed be all, I shall not +inflict my presence upon you long."[1] + +With those words, he threw himself from his horse, and climbed up into +the cart; it was rather a roomy one, but all that was in it was clearly +to be seen at the first glance. It was carpeted with rushes a foot +thick, from which Rachel Liversedge was busily engaged in weaving +chair-bottoms. Opposite to her sat another female, engaged with the same +articles, but constructing out of them crowns and necklaces, which, +though they did not very much resemble the ornaments for which they were +intended, appeared to afford her exquisite satisfaction. + +"Why don't you introduce me, Rachel?" exclaimed she testily, as Mr. Long +looked in. "Don't you see the gentleman is bowing? Sinnamenta--Lady +Heath." The secret of the gipsies' sudden removal, as well as of their +use of the vehicle which had excited his suspicions, was at once +apparent to the rector. + +"Is she better, happier in your custody?" inquired my tutor, in a +whisper, of the chair-maker. "God knows I would not disturb her, if she +be." + +"My little sister is not beaten now," observed Rachel bitterly; +"although, of course, we have not those luxuries with which her husband +has always surrounded her." + +"Only four times, Sister Rachel!" observed the afflicted one, in a tone +of remonstrance, "one, two, three, four," checking them off on her poor +fingers, covered with worthless gewgaws. "I don't consider Gilmore's +beatings anything, only Sir Massingberd's." + +"May God's curse have found him!" exclaimed Rachel Liversedge fervently; +"may He have avenged her wrongs upon him at last! Don't look at me, sir, +as though I were a witch wishing a good man ill. I wish I _were_ a +witch. How he should pine, and rave, and writhe, and suffer ten thousand +deaths in one!" + +She spoke with such hate and fury, that Mr. Long involuntarily cast once +more a suspicious glance around him, as though in reality she possessed +the means of vengeance which she so ardently desired. "Did you expect to +find him here?" continued she. "That was it, was it? I wish you had. I +would that I had his fleshless bones to show you. It is not _my_ fault +that I have them not, be sure. If there were any manliness left among my +people--but there is not; they are curs all--if any memory of the +persecuted and the murdered had dwelt within them, as with me, let alone +this work of his," she pointed to her unconscious sister, "for which, +had he done nought else, I would have torn his heart out;--he would not +have lived thus long by forty years. For aught we know, however, he +lives yet; only hearing he was gone, we went and took my little sister +from her wretchedness, and thus will keep her if you give us leave, you +Christian gentlemen. Where he may be, we know not; we only hope that in +some hateful spot--in hell, if such a place there be--he may be +suffering unimagined pains." + +The fervour and energy of her words, however reprehensible in a moral +point of view, were such as left no doubt in the mind of Mr. Long that +the gipsy woman spoke truth. Assuring her, therefore, that, so far as he +was concerned, she should not be molested in the custody of her +unfortunate sister, my tutor rode back to Fairburn, relieved from the +dread burden of his late suspicion, but more at his wit's end for an +elucidation of the disappearance of Sir Massingberd than ever. Right +glad was I to hear that his errand among my dusky friends had been +bootless; but by the next morning's post I had received bitter news +from Harley Street. A copy of that menacing epistle which I had so +unwittingly enclosed to Marmaduke from his uncle, reached me from Mr. +Gerard. His words were kind, and intended to be comforting. He knew, of +course, that I had been deceived; he well knew, and they all knew, he +said, that my hand was the last to do Marmaduke hurt, to do aught but +protect and uphold him. But I could see that some grievous harm had +occurred, nevertheless, through me, as Sir Massingberd's catspaw. It was +more apparent to me because there was not one accompanying word from my +dear friend himself, whom I knew too well to imagine capable of blaming +me. It was most apparent of all because of the postscript written in +Lucy's own hand--so fair, so clear, so brave, so like her own sweet +self, saying that I must not reproach myself because I had been +overreached by a base man. "Marmaduke will write soon," she said; "he +does not love you less because he is silent upon this matter, and must +be kept so for a little while." He was ill, then, thanks to my dull +wits; and out of pity she had written "Marmaduke." Ah me, would _I_ not +have been ill! Would _I_ not have welcomed kinship with a score of +wicked uncles for such pity! "He does not love you less because he is +silent;" was that a quotation culled from her own heart's whisperings? + +"A most unfortunate business," said Mr. Long reflectively, when he had +possessed himself of this intelligence. "That letter of Sir +Massingberd's will undo all the good of the last twelve months. With +what a devilish ingenuity for torment has he framed every phrase. '_'My +arm will reach you wheresoever you are; at the time you least expect +it, and from the quarter to which you have least looked. However Well it +may seem to be with you, it will not be Well.'_ How thoroughly he knew +his nephew! This will make Marmaduke Heath a wretched man for life." + +"Not if Sir Massingberd be dead," said I, "and can be proved to be so." + +"That is true," responded my tutor, drily; then added, without, I think, +intending me to hear it, "But what will be worse than anything, is this +doubt as to whether he be dead or not." + +I felt convinced of this too, and bowed my head in sorrow and silence. +There was a long pause. Then my tutor suddenly started up, and +exclaimed, with animation, "Peter, will you go with me to London? I +certainly shall be doing more good there, just now, than here; and I +think that your presence will be welcome, nay, needful, in Harley +Street." + +"I shall be ready to start this very evening," returned I, thinking of +the mail which passed at night. + +"We will be off within an hour," replied my tutor; "I will order posters +from the inn at once. Too much time has been lost already; we should +have started when Sir Massingberd himself did." + +"Do you think he is gone to town, then, with any evil purpose?" inquired +I, aghast. + +"If he has gone at all, it is certain it is for no good," rejoined the +rector, gravely. "It is more than likely that this disappearance may be +nothing but a ruse to throw us off our guard. The cat that despaired of +attaining her end by other means, pretended to be dead." + + +[1] In those days, it was not thought incumbent upon ministers of the +Gospel to look after gipsy-folk, whose souls, in case they had any, were +not opined to be much worth saying. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE PROCESSION. + + +At the time of which I write, a dweller in the midlands who wanted to go +to town, did not drive down to the nearest railway station, to be +transported from thence by the fiery dragon to his destination. Railways +had been long heard of, and indeed there was one within twenty miles of +Fairburn, which we should now call a tramway only, for engine it had +none. Locomotives were the subject of debate in scientific circles, and +of scorn among the rest of the community. A journey such as that my +tutor and myself were about to undertake, is scarcely to be understood +by readers of the present generation. Not only did it consume an amount +of time which would now suffice for six times the distance, but it was +surrounded by difficulties and dangers that have now no existence +whatever--"extinct Satans," as a writer calls them, who is now scarcely +held to be "modern," but who at that time had never written a line. The +coach for which Mr. Long had thought it advisable not to wait, had met +in its time with a thousand-and-one strange casualties, and the guard +was a very Scheherazade at relating them. The "Highflyer" had come to +dreadful grief in racing with an empty stomach, but many "outsides," +against its rival, the "Rapid," which traversed a portion of the same +road. It had often to open both its doors, to let the water through, in +crossing Crittenden Ford, by neglect of which precaution upon one +occasion, four "insides" had the misfortune to be suffocated. It had +been dug out of snow-drifts a hundred times, and now and then it had +_not_ been dug out, and the passengers had been frost-bitten. In winter +it was usual enough for them to spend a day or two perforce at some +country inn, because the roads were "not open." The "Highflyer" had once +been attacked by a tiger (out of a travelling caravan), which killed the +off-leader; but this was an exceptional adventure. It was attacked by +highwaymen at least once a year, but in this respect was considered +rather a fortunate coach. Only a few weeks previously, there had been +found by the reapers, in one of Farmer Arabel's wheat-fields, mail-bags +with letters containing many thousand pounds in drafts and bills, which +had been taken by gentlemen of the road from the custody of the guard of +the "Highflyer" in the early summer. These persons had gone into the +standing wheat to divide their booty, and left there what was to them +unavailable property, or too difficult to negotiate. + +In the two trips I had already taken to the metropolis, I had gone by +this curious conveyance, of which all Fairburn had something to say; but +I was now to journey even more gloriously still: so thoroughly had Mr. +Long got to be convinced that some immediate danger was imminent to +Marmaduke at the hands of his uncle, that he could not bear the least +unnecessary delay in giving him warning. We posted with four horses, and +generally at full gallop. I agree with the Great Lexicographer in +thinking that sensation very pleasurable indeed. The express-train, it +is true, goes five times as fast, but you do not feel that there is any +credit due to the steam-horse for that; you take it as a matter of +course, and would do so, no matter what exertions it should make for +you, short of bursting. But when you heard the ring of the sixteen hoofs +upon the iron road, and the sharp crack of the whips in the frosty air, +or leaned out of the window for a moment; and beheld the good steeds +smoking in your behalf, you said to yourself, or to your companion, if +you had one: "This is wonderful fine travelling." Perhaps you contrasted +such great speed with that attained by the Exeter flying-coaches in your +ancestors' time, and smiled with contemptuous pity at their five miles +an hour, stoppages excluded. + +The trees and hedges flew by you then, and gave an idea of the velocity, +such as the telegraph-posts, seen vanishing thin out of the window of a +railway-carriage, fail to convey; while, when you stopped for new +cattle, the hurry and bustle attendant on the order, "Horses on," helped +to strengthen the belief in your own fast travelling. Still, after the +first few hours, even the enjoyments of a post-chaise-and-four begin to +pall; and long before we had approached our destination, I was cramped, +and chilled, and tired enough. It was growing dark, too, so that there +was little to be seen without, and we had passed those dangerous parts +of the road where expectations of possible highwaymen had afforded me +some excitement. I was dozing dreamily, unconscious that the light of +London was flaring like a dusky dawn in front of us, and that we had +even already entered its then limits upon the north-east, when I was +roughly roused by the sudden stoppage of the carriage, accompanied by +wild cries, and a glare of lurid flame. Mr. Long had put down the +window, and was leaning out of it. There was a dense fog, and gas had +not yet been established in that part of London; but a vast assemblage +of people were streaming slowly past us, and many of them had torches in +their hands. They took no notice of us whatever, but yelled and shouted, +and every now and then cast glances behind them at some approaching +spectacle, which seemed to be about to overtake us. Presently, we beheld +this ourselves. First came a great number of constables, marching twenty +abreast, and clearing all before them with large staves; then a body of +the mounted patrol--a corps then but newly formed, and which, although +now well-nigh extinct, was destined in its time to do good service; then +more constables; then a vast quantity of horsemen, armed and unarmed, +and lastly this:--Extended on an inclined platform, built to a +considerable height upon an open cart, was the body of a dead man; it +was attired in blue trousers, and with a white and blue striped +waistcoat, but without a coat. On the left side of him was a huge +mallet, and on the right a ripping chisel. + +"Great Heaven! what is this?" inquired Mr. Long of one of the mounted +constables. + +"Oh, it's him, sir, sure enough; we've got him at last," returned the +officer. + +"Him? Who?" cried I, half stupefied with fatigue and horror. "Have they +found Sir Massingberd?" + +No, it was not Sir Massingberd. The face which was now being slowly +carried past us was wicked and stern enough, but it was not _his_ face. +The skin was black, the eyes were projecting; it was plain that the poor +wretch had been strangled. The excitement of those who caught sight of +it was hideous to witness; they cursed and hissed in hate and fury, and +battled to get near the cart, that they might spit upon the corpse +which it contained. The force of the advancing crowd was so tremendous +that we were compelled to move for some distance side by side with this +appalling sight, and presently immediately behind it; there we seemed to +fall in as a part of the procession, and were no doubt considered by the +majority of persons to officially belong to it. We were borne southwards +quite out of our proper direction, and were unable to prevent it, for it +was as much as the postillions could do to sit their horses, and avoid +being shouldered out of their saddles. Our progress was of course at a +foot's-pace only, and twice the procession halted, once opposite a +draper's, and once opposite a public-house, when the yells and hooting +of the crowd were terrible to hear. Not only were these two houses +closely shuttered up (as they well might be), but the shop-fronts +everywhere were closed, and the windows and the tops of the houses +crowded with spectators. By this time, we had got to know in what +dreadful proceedings we were thus taking an involuntary part. The body +in the cart was that of the murderer Williams, who had committed suicide +two days before, to escape, it was thought, not so much the scaffold, as +the execrations of his fellow-creatures. All London was filled with hate +of him, as before his capture it had been filled with fear; and the +government had caused this public exhibition of his corpse, to convince +the minds of the public that the wholesale assassin was really no longer +alive. The houses at which we had halted were those which had once been +inhabited by his unhappy victims, the Marrs and the Williamsons. +Subsequently, the corpse was conveyed to St. George's turn-pike, and +there interred with a stake thrust through the middle of it; but before +that frightful ceremony took place, the postillions had managed to +extricate us, and we had driven westward to our destination. Still, I +for my part had seen enough, and more than enough, to make that entry of +ours into London a thing impossible to forget; and I think it rendered, +by association, the mystery concerning which we had come up to Harley +Street, more menacing and sombre than before. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +AMONG FRIENDS. + + +We found Marmaduke Heath in a less morbid state of mind than we had +expected. The die having been cast--the time given him by Sir +Massingberd for his return and so-called reconciliation with that worthy +having already elapsed without any action on the part of his uncle, the +effect of that "Captain Swing"-like epistle was slowly wearing off. No +one ever revived the matter in his presence, nor, as we have seen, was +he permitted even to write upon the subject. Still, he knew that I had +been lately communicated with concerning it--for at first the blow had +fallen on its object with such force and fulness that those about him +had really not liked to let me know the extent of the mischief I might +have committed--and he imagined that I had now come up in mere friendly +sorrow to cheer and comfort him. As he came out into the dark street on +that December evening to give me loving welcome, fresh from that awful +procession-scene, I positively looked with terror to left and right, +lest some cloaked figure, whom yet we both should recognize, might reach +forth an iron arm, and tear him away. It was I who was morbid and +unstrung, and not my friend; he strove, I knew, to appear to the best +advantage, in good humour and high spirits, in order that I might have +less to reproach myself with. + +"My dear old Peter" cried he, laughing, "how glad I am to see your +honest face. Have you brought me any verbal message from my charming +uncle, or are you only his deputy-postman? _How_ is he--_how_ is he?" + +I could see, in spite of his light way, that he was curious to have this +interrogation answered; but what was I to say? "I don't know whether +he's well or ill," returned I, carelessly, as I stepped into the hall. +"But how is Mr. Gerard and Miss----" + +"Here is 'Miss,'" returned a sweet voice, blithe as a bird's; "she is +excellently well, Peter, thank you. But what a white face _you_ have +got! If that is the gift of country air there is certainly no such cause +for regretting our absence from the Dovecot, about which Marmaduke is +always so solicitous." + +"'Marmaduke' to his face, now!" thought I. I could not prevent my heart +from sinking a little, in spite of the lifebuoy of friendship. But I +answered gallantly, "There is no air that can wither _your_ roses, Miss +Lucy, for the summer is never over where you are." + +"Bravo, Peter," quoth Mr. Gerard, set in the warm glow of the +dining-room, which gleamed forth from the open door behind him. "If he +is so complimentary in a thorough draught, what a mirror of courtesy +will he be when he gets thawed! Come in, my dear Mr. Long; come in to +the warm. No east wind ever brought people more good, than this which +brings you two to us. Lucy...--Ah, that's right; she has gone to order +the dinner to be rechauffed. Now, do you travellers answer no man one +word, but go make yourselves comfortable--you have your old rooms, of +course--and then come down at once to food and fire. Marmaduke, my dear +boy, you keep me company here, please; otherwise, you will delay Peter, +with your gossip, I know." + +That was a sentence with a purpose in it. If, as Mr. Gerard at once +guessed, we had come up to town on business connected with Sir +Massingberd, it might be advisable that I should not be interrogated by +Marmaduke privately. For my part, I was greatly relieved by it, since I +had no desire to be the person to communicate bad tidings--for such I +knew he would consider them--to my friend a second time. My spirits had +risen somewhat with the warmth of our reception; it is not a little to +have honest friends, and welcome unmistakable in hand and voice and eye. +There is many a man who goes smoothly through the world by help of these +alone, and only at times sighs for the love that but one could have +given him, and which has been bestowed by her elsewhere. When I got +down into the dining-room, a minute or two before my tutor, I was +received by quite a chorus of kind voices--a very tumult of hospitable +greeting. + +"Warm your toes, Peter--warm your toes; you shall have a glass of sherry +worth drinking directly," cried Mr. Gerard, all in a breath. + +"Yes, Peter, you and I will have a glass together," exclaimed Marmaduke, +eagerly. + +"Stop for 'the particular'--stop for the green seal: it will be here in +a minute," entreated the host. + +"No, no," returned Marmaduke; "I must drink his health at once. Cowslip +wine, if I drank it with Peter, would be better to me than +Johannisberg." + +He had his hand upon her arm, as I entered the room; I was sure of that, +although she had gently but swiftly withdrawn it from his touch, as the +door opened. How happy she looked; how passing fair with that faint +flush! How handsome and bright-faced was dear Marmaduke! How placidly +content, like one who draws his happiness from that of others, was the +countenance of Harvey Gerard! A picture of domestic pleasure and content +indeed, and with three noble figures in it. It was impossible to doubt +that two lovers stood before me, and a father who had found a +prospective son-in-law, whom he could love as a son. This new +relationship had been only established within a very few days, and upon +that account, perhaps, it was the more patent. My mischance in the +matter of Sir Massingberd's letter, had been the immediate cause of +Marmaduke's declaration. She had compassionated him in his troubles, and +he had told her in what alone his hope of comfort lay. He had not been +sanguine of securing her--who could have been, with such a priceless +prize in view?--for not only had he a diffidence in his own powers of +pleasing, great and winning as they were, beyond those of any man I ever +knew, but he feared to find an obstacle to his wishes in her father. + +"Dear Mr. Gerard," he had said, with his usual frankness, "I have won +your daughter's heart, and love her better than all the world. Still, it +is you alone who have her hand to dispose of. She loves and respects you +as never yet was father loved and respected, and this only makes her +dearer to me. I feel as much bound in this matter by your decision--Oh, +sir, God grant your heart may turn towards me--as she does herself. I +dare not tell you what I think of you to your face. The very greatness +of my respect for you makes me fear your rejection of _me_. I am, in one +respect at least, a weak and morbid man, while your mind is vigorous +and strong upon all points. You are in armour of proof from head to +heel; whereas, there is a joint in my harness open to every blow. I am +afraid, sir, that you despise me." + +"I do not despise you, Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had replied, in his kind +grave voice. + +"Ah, sir, I know what you would say," returned the young man with +vehemence; "you pity me, and pity and contempt are twin-sisters. +Besides, I am a Heath; you do not wish that blood of yours should mix +with that of an evil and accursed race; and, moreover--though that, with +a man like you, has, I know, but little weight--I may live and die a +pauper." + +"My dear Marmaduke," Mr. Gerard had answered, "I cannot conceal from you +that there are grave objections to your marriage with my daughter, and +more especially at present. We need not revert to the last matter you +have spoken of, for wealth is not what I should seek for in my +son-in-law; even if it were, your alliance would reasonably promise it, +and might be sought by many on that account. As for your being a Heath, +that you cannot help; and, with respect to 'blood,' there is more +rubbish spoken upon that subject by otherwise sensible folk than upon +all others put together. Bad example and evil training are sufficient to +account for the bad courses of any family without impeaching their +circulating fluids. If your uncle had not happened to be likewise your +guardian, in you, my dear young friend, I frankly tell you, I should see +no fault, or rather no misfortune; but, since he has unhappily had the +opportunity of weakening and intimidating----" + +"Sir, sir, pray spare me," broke in Marmaduke, passionately; "are you +going to say that I am a coward?" + +"Heaven forbid, my boy," replied Mr. Gerard, earnestly; "you are as +brave as I am, I do not doubt. If I thought you to be what you suggest, +I would not parley with you about my darling daughter for one moment. I +would say 'No' at once. My Lucy wooed by a poltroon!--no, that is not +possible. I do not say 'No' to _you_, Marmaduke." + +"Oh, thank you, thank you, sir," exclaimed the young man, with emotion; +then added solemnly, "and I thank God." + +"What I do say, however," returned Mr. Gerard, "is 'Wait.' While your +uncle lives, I cannot, under existing circumstances, permit you to be my +Lucy's husband. At present, you are only boy and girl, and can well +afford to be patient." + +"And when we do marry," returned Marmaduke, gratefully, "you shall not +lose your daughter, sir, but rather gain a son. My home, if I ever have +one, shall be yours also. Pray, believe me when I say that you are my +second father, for you have given me a new life." + +It really seemed so to him who looked at the sparkling eyes and +heightened colour of the speaker, and listened to his tones, so rich +with hope and love. + +"There is certainly no one so civil as a would-be son-in-law," replied +Mr. Gerard, good-naturedly. "I wonder that old gentlemen in my position +ever permit them to marry at all." + +And thus it had been settled--as I saw that it had been--only a very +little while before our arrival in Harley Street. + + * * * * * + +"And what brings you good people up to town?" asked Mr. Gerard gaily, +"without sending a line in advance, which, even in mercy to the +housekeeper, you would surely have done, had not the business been +urgent? As to your travelling with four horses," added our host slily, +"I know so well the pride and ostentation of the clergy that I am not +the least astonished at your doing _that_, Mr. Rector." + +"Truly, sir, now that I find all safe and well," replied my tutor, "I +begin to think we might have travelled in a less magnificent way; but +the fact is, that I felt foolishly apprehensive and curious to tell you +our tidings. Sir Massingberd Heath has been Lost since Thursday +fortnight, November sixteenth." + +"Lost!" exclaimed Mr. Gerard, in amazement. + +"Lost!" echoed Lucy, compassionately. + +"Lost!" murmured Marmaduke, turning deadly pale. "That is terrible, +indeed." + +"Yes, poor wretched man," said Lucy, quickly; "terrible to think that +some judgment may have overtaken him in the midst of his +wickedness--unrepentant, revengeful, cruel." + +"That is truly what should move us most, Miss Gerard," observed my +tutor; "it is but too probable that he has been suddenly cut off, and +that by violence." Then he narrated all that had happened at Fairburn +since the night of Sir Massingberd's disappearance, uninterrupted save +once, when Mr. Gerard left the room for a few minutes, and returned with +another bottle of "the particular," which, it seemed, he would not even +suffer the butler to handle. Marmaduke sat silent and awe-struck, +drinking in every word, and now and then, when a sort of shudder passed +over him, I saw a little hand creep forth and slide into his, when he +would smile faintly, but not take his eyes off Mr. Long--no, not even +to reply to hers. + +"I think," added my tutor, when the narrative was quite concluded, "that +under these circumstances I was justified in coming up to town, Mr. +Gerard, since it is just possible that Sir Massingberd may, may----" + +"That he may not be dead," interrupted our host, gravely; "there is, of +course, that chance, and we must set to work at once to settle the +question." + +There was a violent ringing at the front-door bell. Mr. Long started up +with a "What's that?" Marmaduke's very lips grew white, and trembled. +For my part, I confess I congratulated myself that I was on that side of +the table which was furthest from any person who might enter the room. +Lucy alone maintained a calm demeanour, and looked towards her father +confidently. + +"That is Mr. Clint, I have no doubt," observed Mr. Gerard, quietly. "I +sent word to him an hour ago to come directly, and, if possible, to +bring Townshend with him. Whether Sir Massingberd be alive or not, we +shall soon discover, for the great Bow Street runner will be certain to +find either his body or his bones." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +A DETECTIVE OF HALF A CENTURY AGO. + + +Mr. Gerard had hardly finished speaking, when the butler announced Mr. +Clint and "another gentleman," for even among friends the famous Bow +Street officer, exercised his usual caution; and yet there was scarcely +a more public character than Townshend, or better known both to the +classes whom he protected, and to that against which he waged such +constant war. His personal appearance was itself sufficiently +remarkable. A short squab man, in a light wig, kerseymere breeches, and +a blue Quaker-cut coat, he was not, to look at, a very formidable +object. But he possessed the courage of a lion, and the cunning of a +fox. The ruffians who kept society in terror, themselves quailed before +_him_. They knew that he was hard to kill, and valued not his own life +one rush, when duty called upon him to hazard it; that he was faithful +as a watch-dog to the government which employed him, and hated by nature +a transgressor of the law, as a watch-dog hates a wolf. When Townshend +fairly settled himself down upon the track of an offender, the poor +wretch felt like the hare whose fleeing footsteps the stoat relentlessly +pursues; he might escape for the day, or even the morrow, but sooner or +later his untiring foe was certain to be up with him. In those early +days, when the telegraph could not overtake the murderer speeding for +his life, and set Justice upon her guard five hundred miles away, to +intercept him, and when the sun was not the slave of the Law, to +photograph the features of the doomed criminal, so that he can be +recognized as easily as Cain, thief-catching was a much more protracted +business than it is now; nevertheless, it was at least as certain. + +If the facilities for capture were not so great, neither were the +opportunities of escape for the offender so many and various. London was +not the labyrinth that it has since become, and if any criminal of note +forsook it for the provinces, his fate was almost certain. Travellers +did not then rush hither and thither, in throngs of a hundred strong, +impossible to be individually identified by the railway porter to whom +they surrender their tickets; but each man was entered in a way-bill, or +scanned with curiosity by innkeeper and post-boy, wherever his chaise +changed horses. When any considerable sum was sent by mail-coach, +whether by the government or by London bankers, to their provincial +agents, it was not unusual to employ Mr. Townshend as an escort. Nor was +it altogether unexampled for him to be sent for, as in the present +instance, to unravel some domestic mystery; although he was perhaps the +first police-officer who had been so employed, the father of all the +Fields and Pollakies of the present day. He was on intimate terms, +therefore, with many great people, and an especial favourite with the +court, his professional services being engaged at all drawing-rooms and +state occasions. This, combined with the natural assurance and sense of +power in the man, caused Mr. Townshend to hold his head pretty high, and +to treat with persons vastly superior in social station to himself upon +at least an equal footing. His easy nod, with which the great Bow +Street runner favoured us in Harley Street that evening, upon his first +introduction, was not very much unlike the salutation which Mr. Brummel, +at the same period, was wont to bestow upon British marquises and dukes. +Having taken his seat at the dessert-table, at the host's desire, he at +once began to compliment Mr. Gerard upon the contents of the bottle with +the yellow seal, and, in short, behaved himself in all respects as any +other guest would have done who was an intimate friend of the family, +and had dropped in after dinner upon his own invitation. No sooner, +however, did Mr. Clint introduce the subject which had called us up to +town, and Mr. Long begin to recapitulate the story of Sir Massingberd's +disappearance, than this singular person dropped at once all social +pretension, and showed himself the really great man he was. One glass of +wine was sufficient for him during the whole narration, and that he +seemed to sip mechanically, and rather as an assistance to thought, than +because he really enjoyed it, which, however there is no doubt he did. +He only interrupted my tutor twice or thrice, in order to make some +pertinent interrogation, and when all had been described (including a +slight sketch of Marmaduke's position), he sat for a little silent and +noiseless, tapping his wine-glass with his forefinger, and staring into +the fire. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, and what is your opinion?" inquired Mr. Gerard a +little impatiently. "Do you think that this Lost Sir Massingberd is +alive or dead?" + +"That is a question which a fool would answer at once, sir, but a wise +man would take some time to reply to," returned the Bow Street runner +coolly, "But one thing you may depend upon, that he will not be 'Lost' +long. I have blotted that word out of my dictionary. I know Sir +Massingberd Heath well, or, at least, I did know him, and that is a +great advantage to start with; he was not a man, I should think, to +change with age. Tall figure and strong; large piercing eyes; much +beard; a mouth that tells he likes to have his own way; and on his +forehead a mark as if the devil had kicked him." + +"That is excellent," cried Mr. Gerard; "you could not mistake him for +any other man in London." + +"He is _not_ in London, sir," observed the runner dogmatically. "If he +were mixing with the lot that he used to be amongst, I should surely +have heard of it; and if he is with people much beneath him in station, +I should have learned it still more certainly. As for that, however, he +is not one--if I remember him right--to hide himself, or work much +underground." + +"If you mean that he would not stoop to deception, Mr. Townshend," +remarked my tutor gravely, "I am afraid you are mistaken; the very money +which, as I have said, he obtained from me upon the day of his +disappearance, was dishonourably come by. His pretext of the Methodists +having bidden for a piece of ground upon which to build a chapel within +the Park, and almost opposite the Rectory, was, I have since discovered, +entirely false; and I cannot but fear that some judgment has overtaken +this unhappy man." + +Here, I am sorry to say, that Mr. Clint and Mr. Gerard looked at one +another in rather a comic manner, and the Bow Street runner helped +himself to a glass of the particular with an open chuckle. + +"Well, sir," responded that gentleman, "you see Judgments isn't much in +my way. When I catches a chap, he generally knows its judgment and +execution too; but barring that, I doubt whether there is much of a +special Providence for rascals--even when they rob a Church minister. +Not, of course, that I am saying Sir Massingberd Heath, baronet, is a +rascal, or anything like it; I never had anything to do with him in all +my life before this, and that's a good sign, look you. When I said he +was not a man to work underground, however, I did not mean that he would +not employ every ingenious device--and the one you mention was one of +the neatest I ever heard on--to procure money, but that he is of too +domineering and masterful a nature to lurk and spy about. The young +gentleman here need not be in much alarm, I think, of his relative's +turning up in Harley Street; notwithstanding which, he is a very +ticklish customer, no doubt, and one as I should not have been in the +least surprised to find myself under orders to fit with a pair of +bracelets, for such a thing, for instance, as murder." + +I think each of us started and looked at one another in hushed amazement +at this statement; and the wine-glass which Marmaduke was twisting +nervously in his fingers, rattled against the table in spite of his +efforts to remain calm. + +"I mean," observed Mr. Townshend, in explanation, "as the baronet, when +I knew him at least, was venomous, yet likewise hasty; and though +cunning enough, if his temper got the better of him, would do imprudent +things, I remember him well-nigh killing his jockey on the course at +Doncaster--it was the second year as ever the Leger was ran for--and +all for no fault of his, but just because he didn't win when his master +expected it. I remember how the crowd hissed the gentleman, and the ugly +look which he gave them in reply. There was no fuss made about the +matter afterwards; but Sir Massingberd had to supply a deal of Golden +Ointment to the poor lad's bruises: he was very free-handed with his +money at that time. I suppose, by the pace he was then going, that he +has not much left." + +"He has almost literally not a shilling," replied Mr. Long. "I am quite +certain that he had no ready-money in his possession besides the twenty +one-pound notes which he obtained from me upon that evening." + +"And no means of raising any?" inquired Mr. Townshend. + +"None whatever," replied my tutor positively. + +"That simplifies the business a good deal," remarked the Bow Street +runner, drawing out his pocket-book. "Now, I suppose you kept the +numbers of those notes?" + +"Yes, I did. Peter, did you not write them down for me?" + +"The notes ran from 82961 to 82980 inclusive," said I. + +"A very concise and sensible statement, young gentleman,"[1] remarked +the police-officer, approvingly; "I should like, however, to see the +figures in black and white." When these had been found among certain +memorandums of my tutor, Mr. Townshend copied them, and thus continued: +"Now, the first thing as has to be done, gentleman all--by which no +offence is meant to the young lady--is this: we must go to the Bank of +England, and find out if any of these here notes have been paid in since +November 16th. If they have been, one of two things is certain--Sir +Massingberd is spending them, or somebody else is spending them for him. +If the latter, it is probable that it is not with his consent; that is, +that he can't help it; that is, that he's dead as a ten-penny nail;" and +with that the speaker brought down his fist upon the mahogany, as though +he were hammering one in. + +"We shall leave the case, Mr. Townshend, entirely in your hands," +observed Mr. Gerard; "and please to look to me for any expenses you may +require." + +"Very good, sir," replied the runner, rising as if to take his leave; +"but since two or three heads are always better than one, in cases of +this sort, and the present company has their wits about them--which is +by no means the case with many as I have to do with--I should be glad of +a little assistance from yourselves." + +"Don't you think we ought to advertise the baronet as missing, and offer +a reward?" suggested Mr. Clint. + +"There will be no harm in that, of course," replied Mr. Townshend +carelessly; "although I can't say as I have much confidence in +advertisements; my own experience is, that parties who put them in +derive some satisfaction from reading them over to themselves, but the +advantage don't go much beyond that---except that it sometimes puts +people upon their guard as one wants to be off it. I have got a little +pressing business on hand to-morrow--in the forging line--and must now +be off; but if one or two of you will be at the Bank to-morrow +afternoon, at, let us say three o'clock, I shall be sure to be there to +meet you." + + +[1] Every lad in my position, not yet turned twenty-one, was a "young +gentleman" in these times; we were not so tenacious of our dignity as +the young men of to-day. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE BANK-NOTES. + + +It was arranged, to my infinite joy, before retiring to rest that night, +that I was to make one of the Bank party. Marmaduke insisted on +accompanying us, being above measure curious about the matter, and eager +to know the worst (or the best) regarding it. Mr. Long had to return to +Fairburn for his Sunday's duty, and Mr. Clint could not spare the time +from his parchments; so Mr. Harvey Gerard and we two young men went +forth upon the trail together. As the paper-chase is the most glorious +pursuit undertaken by boys, as fox-hunting is the sport of sports for +men, so man-hunting is the avocation fitted for heroes. I know nothing +like it for interest and excitement--nothing. If I could only imbue my +readers with one-tenth of the absorbing concern with which we, the +subordinate actors in this drama of mystery, now began to be devoured, +they would be sorry indeed when this narrative comes to a conclusion. We +three were at the appointed spot some minutes before the hour which had +been agreed upon for meeting the Bow Street runner; but before the +chimes of the Old Exchange clock had ceased their "_Life let us +cherish_"--the tune which they always played on Fridays--the Bow Street +runner appeared. + +Passing through a great room within the Bank, in which, to my +unaccustomed eye, were displayed the riches of Croesus, and where the +golden showers seemed unceasingly to rain, we were conducted into a +private apartment, where sat some grey-headed official, uncommunicative, +calm, like one who has had his glut even of wealth, and to whom money, +whether in bullion or paper, was no longer any object. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend, what can I do for you?" inquired he, sedately. "I +trust you are not come about any fresh wrongs against the Old Lady of +Threadneedle Street. I never see your face but I think of an imitation +bank-note, and diminution of the stock in our cellar." + +"Thank you, sir," responded the runner, cheerfully; "I am afraid that I +shall have to see you in a day or two respecting a matter of that very +kind, but to-day I am come on a different business. A gentleman of high +rank has been missing for three weeks, or more; and his absence has +given the greatest anxiety to these, his friends. He was known to have +in his possession certain one-pound Bank of England notes, twenty in +all, of which the numbers are known. We wish to know whether they have +been paid in hither in the meantime, and if so, by whom." + +"Have you any order from the deputy-governor?" + +"Why, no, sir," responded the runner, insinuatingly. "I thought that +would not be necessary between you and me." + +"Well, well, I suppose you must have your own way, Townshend. You're a +dangerous man to cross." And the old gentleman wagged his head in a +blandly humorous manner, and made a little golden music with his bunch +of seals. "The numbers of the notes are here, are they? From 82961 to +80. Very good." Here he rang a silver bell, which presently produced an +official personage, something between a gentleman-usher and a +pew-opener. "You may show this party over the cancelled department, +James; and let Mr. Townshend investigate anything he pleases." + +With a not over-courteous nod, the old gentleman resumed his study of a +certain enormous volume, that looked, said Marmaduke, like the quarto +edition of Chaucer, but which, it is reasonable to conclude, was +something else. We were straightway conducted through several vast and +echoing chambers, into a spacious fire-proof vault, where the notes that +had been paid into the Bank awaited the periodical cremation. + +"A week later, and we might not have been in time," remarked the Bow +Street runner, "since every bank-note is burned within a month of its +having found its way home again. If Sir Massingberd has come to a +violent end, and been robbed of his money, we shall probably find it all +here, as those who despoiled him would be anxious to get the notes +changed at once." Our guide led the way to a certain department of the +chamber, with the same accuracy which a student would evince with +respect to a shelf in his own library, and took up in his hand a bundle +of one-pound notes; they were for the most part very dirty and greasy, +but he separated one from the other with a surprising ease and celerity, +reading out the numbers as he did so. "82900, 1, 2, 3--now we are +getting near it," observed the official. "Let us see, 951, is it not?" + +"82961," gasped I, "and the next nineteen." I could scarcely frame the +words, so great was my excitement. Marmaduke's eyes gleamed with anxiety +and impatience; and even Mr. Gerard held his breath, while the clerk +continued, in a dry, mechanical tone: + +"51, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wanting--7, 8, 9 all wanting. 82960---here you have +it; 61 wanting; 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. There are none of them here. +Stop a bit. 82977--that's one, isn't it?" + +"Yes," cried I, "that's one. Pray, let me look at it." + +"Certainly not, sir," responded the official, severely. "With regard to +Mr. Townshend, I have my orders, but as respects him only." + +"Perfectly right," remarked the Bow Street runner, approvingly. "Then +please to give it to me, my man. Are there any more?" + +"Yes, there are--78, 79, 80." + +"Good. That is four in all, then." The detective took them up, and +showed them to me: of course, I could not identify them; but still I +felt some awe to think what hands--hands imbued with blood, +perchance--those notes might have passed through since I had seen Sir +Massingberd thrust them into his pocket. + +"I cannot carry these away with me, my good friend, I suppose?" inquired +Mr. Townshend, persuasively. + +"By no manner of means, Mr. Runner," replied the guardian of these +unctuous treasures, with dignity. "His Majesty himself would never be so +mad as to ask such a thing. A written order from the governor himself +would not permit you to do it." + +"Very good, sir; then we won't trouble the governor to write one," +returned the detective, dryly. "What I must know, however--permission or +no permission--is this: by whose hand were these sweet-smelling and +precious articles paid into the Bank of England?" + +It would have been amusing, under less anxious circumstances, to have +watched the demeanour of these two personages, each jealous of the +dignity of those by whom he was employed, and neither in the least +disposed to surrender one tittle of his delegated authority. + +"That information will, no doubt, be supplied to you," replied the +official, stiffly, "if it is thought right--and not otherwise. Follow +me, gentlemen, if you please, and I will direct you to the office where +such an application may be made." + +This we did; and I am bound to say, met with very great civility from +the superintendent of the department in question. In spite of the +admirable and systematic manner in which the huge establishment was +carried on, it was not easy, and in many cases would have been +impossible, to discover what individual had paid in any particular +note; but every pains and trouble were taken in our behalf, to effect +this. Out of the four notes, only one, No. 82979, could be identified as +having been received from any particular person--one Mr. Worrall, a +silk-merchant in the City. Having expressed our warmest thanks to the +authorities, we immediately called a coach, and started off to this +gentleman's warehouse. We were so fortunate as to find him in, although +he was just upon the point of setting forth to his private residence. +Upon an examination of his books, we discovered no record of the +bank-note about which we were concerned; still, he frankly owned to us +that such memoranda were not kept with excessive accuracy. "It is +possible yet that the people at the Bank may have been correct," +observed he. "You had better return there; and since the matter is one +of life and death, I do not mind confiding to you, that if that note +has passed through our hands at all, it will have the letter W, in red, +upon the back of it; it is very small, but still can be deciphered +without a magnifying-glass." + +"There was no mark," observed I, "upon any of the notes I saw." + +"There _was_ a mark," remarked the Bow Street runner, reflectively; and +I am pretty sure it was upon this very note.--"It is no wonder that you +did not see it, young gentleman, since your livelihood does not depend, +as mine does, upon keeping my eyes about me. The mark in question was +also almost obliterated by the red "Cancelled" which the Bank had placed +upon the note; but as far as I could make it out, it was the letter O." + +"That is the private mark of the Metropolitan Oil Company," exclaimed +Mr. Worrall, without hesitation. "Although, indeed, because I have told +my own secrets, I am not sure that I am justified in revealing those of +other people. Their offices are in the very next street to this." + +Off we started like hounds, who, after, a check, have once more struck +the scent. Business in the City had by this time greatly diminished, and +many of the shops were closed; but the Oil Company's emporium, as +behoved it, was lighted up from cellar to garret, to give assurance to +the world that what they sold could turn night, and even London fog, +into day. Notwithstanding the extreme luminosity of the premises, we +found the accounts of the establishment, however, rather opaque and +complicated; and although nothing could exceed the pains which the +clerks put themselves to upon our account, it was several hours before +No. 82979 could be identified, both as respected its incoming and +outgoing. Finally, however, we gleaned the certain information that the +note in question had been received only a day or two previously by the +Oil Company from a Mr. Vanderseld, the skipper of a foreign vessel, then +lying in the port of London, but which, he had informed them, was to +sail immediately. He had bought a small quantity of oil for his cabin +lamps, and taken it with him, but had ordered a large supply to be sent +to his address in Hamburg, and with this address we were made +acquainted. + +"Well, Mr. Townshend," quoth Mr. Harvey Gerard, as we rolled homewards +in a hackney-coach, after seven hours of this man-hunting, "what think +you that this news portends? Is the game still afoot, or is it only dead +game--quarry?" + +"I can speak with no sort of certainty yet," replied the Bow Street +runner; "but next to all the notes having been paid into the Bank on +the 17th or so--which, as I told you, would have almost indicated Sir +Massingberd's murder and robbery, without any doubt--I know of no worse +tidings than this, of their having come from Hamburg. There's a regular +agency abroad, and particularly in that town, for the sale of Bank of +England notes dishonestly come by. If a thief cannot get to the Bank +immediately, to turn his plunder into gold, he sends it across the +water; and then it comes back to us at home, through honest hands +enough. We must communicate, of course, with Vanderseld; but the +probability is that he will be unable to give us any information. These +sea-fellows take account of nothing except what concerns their own +trade. He may remember the quarter that the wind was blowing from upon +the day he had the note, to a nicety; but he won't have a notion, bless +you, as to who paid it him. No--it's the worst sign yet, to my mind, +that that 'ere note has come through foreign hands. But don't you be +down-hearted, my young gentleman," added the Bow Street runner, +addressing himself to Marmaduke, who looked very fagged and anxious; +"I'll find your respected uncle, mind you, let him be where he will; and +if he's dead, why, you shall see his corpse, though I have to dig it up +with my finger-nails." With which comforting statement we had, for that +evening, to be content. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +A BENEVOLENT STRANGER. + + +Having written to Mr. Vanderseld of Hamburg, there was nothing, pending +the reception of his reply, for even Mr. Townshend to do beyond his +favourite occupation of keeping his eyes open. We advertised, however, +in the "Morning Chronicle" (a print that at that time was far from +looking forward, to death from want of circulation, and the having its +eyes closed by a penny piece), in the "Times," and in the "Sun," and +offered a reward of one hundred guineas for tidings of the missing +baronet; nor, in spite of the Bow Street Runner's depreciating remarks +upon this point, were our efforts in that direction wholly thrown away. +A full description of Sir Massingberd had appeared in the above +newspapers for ten successive days, and on the eleventh, the following +information came of it. We were all breakfasting in Harley Street, Mr. +Long having come up from Fairburn the previous day, when the butler +informed us that there was a man waiting in the hall, who wished to see +"H.G.," who had put a certain advertisement into the "Sun" newspaper. +"Show him in here at once, George," quoth Mr. Gerard, rubbing his hands. +"How pleased I shall be if we learn what we wish to know, after all, +without any help from Bow Street. I beg you will take a chair, sir." +These last words were addressed to a very respectable-looking person, +whom the servant had ushered in, and who bowed to us in a very decorous +and unassuming fashion. He was attired in half-mourning, and carried a +little black leather bag and an umbrella--the latter a less common +companion in these days than a cane is now--as though he had just come +off a journey. + +"I have called, gentlemen," said he, "simply in consequence of seeing a +notice respecting the disappearance of a certain individual of whose +whereabouts I am in a position to inform you." + +"Is Sir Massingberd Heath alive, sir?" gasped Marmaduke. + +"Heaven be praised, he _is_, sir," responded the stranger, fervently. + +"Umph," ejaculated Mr. Gerard, with less piety. + +Mr. Long coughed behind his fingers, but otherwise kept a discreet +silence. + +"You know him, do you, sir?" inquired our host. + +"I know him well enough by sight, if, at least, your advertised +description of his personal appearance is accurate," resumed our +visitor. "His height, his beard, the curious indentation upon his +forehead, are all characteristic of the man whom I saw last night, and +whom I have seen every day for weeks. He is living under the name of +Daneton, at Nutgall, a village in Cambridgeshire, near which I reside. I +have not the slightest doubt whatever of his identity. As for knowing +him, except by sight, however, I cannot say that I do. Without meaning +offence, or wishing to hurt the feelings of relations, I may observe +that his mode of life is scarcely one to make acquaintance with him +advantageous. If I may speak without reserve upon the matter, I should +state that he drank considerably, to the extent, indeed, the landlord of +the inn has informed me, of, at least, a bottle and a half of French +brandy _per diem_." + +"That _must_ be my uncle," observed Marmaduke, naively. + +"He is so, sir, without a doubt," continued the stranger. "I do not seek +for any pecuniary reward; but having seen your advertisement, I thought +it my duty to come up hither, and relieve the feelings of anxious +relatives." + +Here the door opened, and Mr. Townshend walked in unannounced, as it was +his custom to do. Merely nodding to us all, as though he was an inmate +of the house, he sat down at the table with his back to the visitor, and +helped himself to a roll and butter. + +Mr. Gerard explained briefly the stranger's errand to the officer of +justice, and then observed, "Are we to understand, then, that you have +been so good as to come all the way from Nutgall hither, expressly to +give us this information?" + +"No, sir," responded the man with frankness; "I should deceive you if I +were to say that much. I have business in the City to-day, and arrived +so far by coach; I came on hither, merely a few miles beyond my mark; +that is all for which you are indebted to me." + +"That is a great deal," observed Mr. Long, warmly. "We take it very +kindly that you should have done so much." + +"I thought it only my duty, sir," replied the visitor, modestly. "The +trouble I do not take into account." + +"What a pity the gentleman did not think of writing by the post," +observed Mr. Townshend, still proceeding with his breakfast; "that would +have saved him this long expedition, and us many days of anxiety." + +"That is very true," returned the stranger; "but the fact is, one does +not always like to answer advertisements in that way. How did I know who +'H.G.' was? I thought also that a personal interview would be more +satisfactory. I am a poor man, but I did not grudge the chance of losing +an hour or two on an errand of charity." + +"You are very good," answered Marmaduke, gloomily. + +"And you must, please, permit us," added Mr. Long, taking out his purse, +"to at least reimburse you for that loss of time." + +"It seems to me," observed Mr. Townshend, speaking with his mouth full, +"that this gentleman is about to be rather hardly dealt by. It is true +that a guinea, or even half a one, may repay him for his lost time; but +if his intelligence respecting Sir Massingberd Heath turns out to be +such as he represents it, he will be entitled to the hundred guineas +reward." + +"I never thought of that," observed Mr. Long, returning his purse to his +pocket not without a blush. "I hope, sir, that you will acquit me of any +sordid design in what I proposed to do." + +"Most certainly, sir," returned the stranger, with animation; "and +indeed your views, as you just expressed them, are quite in accordance +with my own. I have no wish whatever for the reward in question; to have +done my duty is, I hope, a sufficient recompense for me. On the other +hand, I cannot well afford to lose these two or three hours which have +been expended in your service. A couple of guineas would quite repay me +for this, and even leave the obligation upon my side." + +There was a silence for a little, during which Mr. Long gazed +inquiringly at Mr. Gerard, and he, in his turn, looked towards Mr. +Townshend; then, as though the back of that gentleman's head had been +cognizant that counsel was demanded of it, the Bow Street runner spoke +as follows: + +"It would be nothing less than a fraud, in my opinion, if this good +gentleman's generosity is taken advantage of in the way he suggests. If +the management of this business is to be in my hands, I should say let +us behave with rectitude at least, if not with liberality. The hundred +guineas are fairly his, if he is correct in what he has told us; +whereas, if he is _not_ correct--since no mistake can have occurred in +the matter, by his own showing--why, this is merely an attempt to extort +money under false pretences." + +"Really, Mr. Townshend," cried my tutor, starting to his feet, "I think +your profession of thief-catching makes you very unscrupulous in your +imputations." + +For my own part, I felt excessively indignant too; and so, I think, +would Marmaduke have done, had he not been preoccupied with his own +thoughts. Lucy blushed, and cast down her eyes. Her father quietly +observed, "Mr. Townshend may have been somewhat plain-spoken, but what +he has said is common sense. If you will be good enough to leave your +address at Nutgall with us, sir, we shall communicate with you as soon +as we have convinced ourselves of the truth of your suspicions; and then +we shall not only have compensation but apologies to offer you." + +"Very good, sir," rejoined the visitor coolly. "My address is upon that +card. If I had known the sort of reception that awaited me here, I +should not perhaps have been so anxious to do my duty. Gentlemen, I +wish you good-day. I am sorry to have interrupted your repast." + +"Don't mention it, my good sir," observed the Bow Street runner, as he +disposed of his third slice of ham. "I have treated you as no stranger, +I assure you." + +To this sarcasm the visitor made no reply, but bowing to the rest of the +company, was about to withdraw with polite severity, when Mr. Long +stepped forward, and took him by the hand. "I believe you are a +kindly-hearted man," cried he, "who has been grievously wronged by those +whom you have attempted to benefit; but in any case, it cannot do you +any harm to have shaken hands with an honest man, and one who is a +humble minister of the gospel." + +I could have jumped up and shaken hands with the stranger also, but a +false shame prevented me. I thought that Townshend was only waiting for +the poor fellow to go to become contemptuously cynical upon those who +had shown any belief in him. The Bow Street runner, however, said never +a word, but proceeded with his interminable breakfast. + +Mr. Long was speechless with indignation. I saw Lucy Gerard cast an +approving glance at my excellent tutor, and then an imploring one +towards her father, who was biting his lips, as if to restrain his +laughter. + +At last, the rector broke silence. "I gather from what you have stated, +Mr. Townshend, that you will scarcely consider it worth while to go down +to Nutgall, or make any further inquiry into the circumstances of which +you have just heard." + +"It will certainly not be worth _my_ while," returned the Bow Street +runner curtly. + +"Then I shall go down into Cambridgeshire myself," observed my tutor. + +"Very good, sir. If time were less valuable to me, it would give me a +great deal of pleasure to accompany you." + +"My dear Peter," remarked my tutor, taking no notice of this wicked +banter, "what do you say to coming with me?" + +Even if I had been less disposed to do this than I was, I should still +have readily consented to be the rector's travelling companion, for to +refuse would have been to declare myself upon the enemy's side. + +Accordingly, we set off upon this amateur detective expedition that very +day; and on the following evening returned to Harley Street, having +possessed ourselves of this important information: That benevolence is +sometimes assumed for the base purpose of making a few shillings, and +that advertisements are occasionally taken advantage of to the confusion +of those who insert them. There was really a village called Nutgall; +that was the one fact that the respectable person in half-mourning had +brought along with his black leather bag and silk umbrella. There was +not a public-house in the place where Sir Massingberd could have +procured that bottle and a half of French brandy, had he been ever so +disposed to dissipation, or even where we ourselves could get bread and +cheese. + +I verily believe, at the time of his disenchantment, my revered tutor +would rather that the baronet had been really at Nutgall, and in the +humour and condition to wage implacable war against poor Marmaduke, than +have given such an opportunity of triumph to the man of Bow Street. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +BETTER THAN A BLUNDERBUSS. + + +It was the Runner's custom to call at Mr. Gerard's every evening, no +matter how often he might have been there during the day, in order to +report progress, or that there was none; and when his knock at the +front-door was heard, I perceived the rector wince upon his chair, like +one who has been roasted a little already, and expects to be before the +fire again immediately. Mr. Townshend, however, did not even so much as +allude to our Will-o'-the-Wisp pursuit, cautioned, perhaps, not to do so +by our host, or besought by his daughter, as I fancy. I do not think +that the gravity of the intelligence he brought with him would, of +itself, have blunted Mr. Townshend's appetite for acrimonious jesting, +which was insatiable; and, indeed, the issues of Death or Life, and of +Lost or Found, formed so much the ordinary business of his life, that +any discovery, no matter of what nature, disturbed him as little as +finding a gentleman with his head off disturbs the King of Dahomey. + +"Well, Mr. Long, I am glad to see you back again," said he; "you are the +very man I want. Does a farmer of the name of Arabel happen to reside in +or near your parish?" + +"He lives at Fairburn, within a stone's throw----" + +"You will never make a Bow Street runner," interrupted Mr. Townshend, +shaking his head. + +"Well, then," continued my tutor good-humouredly, "if accuracy is so +essential, I will say within half a mile and a few yards of my own +Rectory." + +"That is better, sir," returned the detective gravely. "And what sort of +a character do you consider this man to bear?" + +"Mr. Arabel is an honest man and a good churchman," replied the rector +positively; "and but for a little occasional excess----" + +"A drunkard, eh?" observed the Bow Street officer, briskly. + +"No, certainly not, Mr. Townshend. He takes too much liquor now and +then, I believe; but, I regret to say it, there are few more sober +persons in my parish than Richard Arabel." + +"Indeed," observed the other reflectively; "and yet he was the man who +paid No. 82979 to Mr. Vanderseld, who trades in grain. I have heard +from Hamburg, and have traced the note back again to Fairburn. I start +for that place this evening by post-chaise; and if you or Mr. Meredith +want a lift, I shall be happy to take one or both of you along with me." + +This intelligence astonished us all immensely, and my tutor and myself, +who knew the farmer, more than the rest. Such news would have been +itself sufficient to have taken the rector home at once; besides, he was +not only anxious, as usual, to get back to his own parish, but somewhat +grudged our long-continued absence and intellectual holiday. There did +not seem, too, to be any sort of necessity for my remaining longer with +Marmaduke, who had found, it was impossible to doubt, a companion far +more capable of upholding and encouraging him than I. The Bow Street +runner's offer was therefore accepted by both of us; and in a few hours +we took our seats in the same vehicle for Midshire. The chaise was as +roomy a one as could be procured, but still, as there was but one seat, +I had to assume the position of "bodkin" between my two companions. +Their conversation was at first entirely confined to the subject of our +expedition, namely, Farmer Arabel, concerning whom the detective +expressed his suspicions the more darkly, the more extravagantly he was +eulogized by Mr. Long. So vehement was their dispute, that I did not +like to interrupt it for a considerable period, during which I endured +great inconvenience from sitting upon a substance at once both sharp and +hard, contained in one of Mr. Townshend's pockets. If he had been a lady +of the present day, I should have known what it was, and perhaps have +modestly suffered on without remonstrance; but since he was not of the +softer sex, and certainly did not wear crinoline, I ventured to ask what +it was which inflicted such torture. + +"I beg your pardon, young gentleman," observed the Bow Street runner, +removing the article objected to; "you was only sitting upon a pair of +bracelets with which I may have perhaps to present Mr. Richard Arabel." + +"You don't mean to say that you carry handcuffs in your pocket!" +observed my tutor, with a shudder of disgust. + +"I mean to say I do, and should as soon think of moving about without +'em, as without my hat and breeches," returned the runner, with a +coolness that froze us both into a protracted silence. + +The rain fell heavily, as the night drew on, and dashed against the +streaming panes with fitful violence. The wind and wet poured in +together whenever the window was put down to pay the postboys. I pitied +the poor fellows, exposed to such weather, and was glad to see that Mr. +Townshend paid them liberally. "There are no persons who are more +open-handed travellers than your Bow Street runners," observed Mr. Long, +when I remarked to him upon this circumstance in the absence of our +friend, who had stepped out while we were changing horses somewhere, for +brandy and water; "and the reason of their generosity is this, that +other people have to pay for it." I had never heard my tutor utter so +severe a speech, and I gathered from it that his indignation against our +fellow-wayfarer was as poignant as ever; and yet within half an hour it +was fated that all his resentment should be neutralized by gratitude, +leaving a large margin of the latter sentiment over and above. + +The next stage was over a desolate, treeless heath, where the elements +had their own way against us more than ever, and our vehicle seemed +actually to shrink and shudder from the force of their onslaught. All of +a sudden, I was thrown forward against the opposite window by the +stoppage of the postchaise. At first I thought a horse had fallen; but +immediately afterwards the window next to Mr. Long was violently pushed +down from without, and a something black and small, which was a pistol, +was protruded into the carriage. + +"Your money or your life! Come, be quick, curse you, and don't keep +gentlemen waiting in the wet," said a rough voice. "Be quick, I say." A +volley of oaths accompanied this unpleasant request. + +"I have only a couple of guineas with me," cried Mr. Long, quietly, +"and you will not make it more by swearing." + +"That's a lie!" remarked the voice very uncivilly, "for you're a parson, +you are, and they've always money enough. Ain't he a parson, postboy? +Didn't you say so, when. I asked you who you'd got inside there? Come +here, won't yer?" + +At these words, one of the wretched postboys, shivering and dripping, +came forward to the window, and stammered out, "Really, gentlemen, I +couldn't help it; he swore as he'd blow out my brains, if I didn't tell; +so I told him as one was a clergyman, I believed, but the other two----" + +"My name is Townshend," interrupted the Bow Street runner, with great +distinctness. "If you had happened to know that, boy, and had informed +these gentlemen of the circumstance, I am sure they would never have +stopped us, unless, indeed, it was to inquire after my health." At the +same time he thrust his broad face out of the window into the light +thrown by a lantern carried by one of the robbers; for there were +several dim forms on horseback, as I could now perceive. If a +blunderbuss had been exhibited instead, it could not have caused +one-half of the panic which the sight of his features occasioned; each +robber turned his back at once, as though to prevent the recognition +being mutual, and spurred away into the darkness, leaving nothing but +the dismounted postboy to evidence that they were not mere phantoms of +the night. + +"Get to your saddle, and make you up for lost time," said the Runner +sternly; and when this mandate had been obeyed, and we were once more on +our way, he added, "That postboy sold us; I saw him whispering to a man +on horseback in the inn-yard while I was taking some drink in the +back-parlour; he was never asked any question when the chaise was +stopped. That was Jerry Atherton, too, who put his shooting-iron in at +that window; I should know his voice though a mob were shouting with +him. A man who wishes to do something of which the consequences are so +very serious, should not only wear crape, but keep his mouth shut." + +"We have to thank you very much, I am sure," said Mr. Long. "It was a +great providence for us that you were with us." + +"Very likely, sir," returned Mr. Townshend, grimly; "but not for Jerry, +nor yet for the postboy." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE FALSE SCENT. + + +I am now drawing near the end of this strange eventful narrative, and my +readers will learn in a chapter or two what has in reality become of +Lost Sir Massingberd: whether he lies dead in Fairburn Chase, +notwithstanding that strict search of ours, or somewhere else, conveyed +by foemen's hands; or if, alive, he keeps in hiding nigh, for some evil +end, or has even left British soil for a time, to return, according to +his threat, on a day when he is least expected. If his real whereabouts +and true position have been guessed, then is he who hit upon it a wiser +man, not only than I was at that time (which might easily be), but +wiser than that genius of Bow Street, whose eye was reported to see +further into very millstones than any man alive of his time. He arrived +at Fairburn with his handcuffs and his suspicions, and would, I verily +believe, have made me his stalking-horse whereby to come down upon the +guileless Farmer Arabel, and extract what might be tantamount to a +confession. + +"You know him, Mr. Meredith," he had observed to me in his frankest +tone, as we walked out together after breakfast, on the morning after +our arrival; "and I look to you to make the matter easy. We will step +over to the farm at once, if you please, and have a glass of home-brewed +with the good man, when, I dare say, he will tell us what we want to +know, and exculpate himself at the same time." + +"Mr. Townshend," I replied, gravely, "I have been made a catspaw of +already, within a few weeks, and until the remembrance of that event has +worn off very considerably, I shall not act that part again." + +"Very good, sir," responded the Runner, cheerfully. "I only thought, +that being a well-wisher to the person in question, you might have made +the thing less unpleasant for him. If you went with me, introducing me +as a gentleman from London, anxious to see good farming, for +instance--that 'ud tickle him--I could bring the subject of the note +into conversation; then, if he explained to my satisfaction, as he will +doubtless be able to do, how he got possession of it, it will not be +necessary to inquire further. He need never know as a police-officer had +been down here with darbies in his pocket, upon the chance of having to +fit them on his wrists upon the charge of Wilful Murder." + +"There is certainly something in that," said I, musingly. + +"There is everything in it," returned Mr. Townshend, stepping carelessly +over the style, on the other side of which ran the pathway to Mr. +Arabel's residence. "The idea of this man's guilt being, as you say, +quite preposterous, it would only be a kindness on your part to spare +his feelings. That's a fine stout old fellow looking at those men at +work in yonder field, a sort of man that carries his years better than +one sees people do in London: I should say, now, that might be the +farmer himself." + +"Really," said I, stopping short, "I think you had better do this +business of yours alone, Mr. Townshend. I have eaten and drunk in Mr. +Arabel's house, and to be concerned in any such errand as this seems but +a poor return for his hospitality." + +"Ah, it _is_ him, is it? Very good, sir. Well, you may just please +yourself as to accompanying me now. When I have once set eyes on my man +it is not my habit to lose sight of him. Still, you might have made it +easier--for _him_, that is. It is no matter to me whether the thing is +done soft or hard." And the Bow Street runner stepped along as he spoke, +like a diligent man who sees his work cut out before him. + +After a moment's indecision, I followed upon Mr. Townshend's heels. + +"That's right, young gentleman," observed he, approvingly, but without +even turning his head. "Those is turnips, I suppose, and very good they +are with capers and a leg of mutton; as to wheat, I am not acquainted +with it, at least, so as to know it from oats and barley, unless when +it's in ear. Agriculture is one of them things to which I have not yet +given my attention; but I means to do so, and I have come here for +wrinkles concerning it, remember that, if you please." + +"Very well," said I, sheepishly, for I was obliged to confess to myself +that Mr. Townshend had got the better of me; and in a few more strides +we had got within earshot of the farmer. This was not indeed very near, +but Mr. Arabel had excellent lungs, and bade me welcome as soon as he +had recognized me. + +"Glad to see you, as likewise any friend of yours, Master Meredith. So +the rector is back, I hear; and the wise folks in London can tell no +more what has become of Sir Massingberd than we poor folks." + +"No, Mr. Arabel, they cannot; on the contrary," said I, determined that +there should be no hypocrisy upon my part at least, "here is one of +them, who is come down to Fairburn for information, and relies upon you +to give it to him too." + +"I should like to know when you saw Sir Massingberd last," observed the +Bow Street runner quietly, "and under what circumstances?" + +"That is soon told," returned the farmer simply; "but perhaps you would +rather step in out of the cold, and take a drop of something while you +hear it." + +"No, I thank you," said I, firmly, determined that the laws of +hospitality should not be thus infringed with my consent, "I must return +to the Rectory at once." + +"Then I will walk with you," observed the farmer civilly, "and tell you +all I know in a few words. The fact is, the squire and I had not been on +good terms for a length of time before his disappearance. He was a bad +landlord, and did not know how to behave to a tenant as would have done +his duty by him. He wanted his own rent paid to the day, and never had +to ask it from me, for that matter; but when he owed a little money +himself, it was dreadful hard to get it out of him. There happened to be +something due from him to me--it was a small matter, made up of little +things--corn for that horse he bought for Master Marmaduke, among +others, but the thing had been owing for a year or more. I had not +deducted it from the rent, and therefore he ought to have been the +readier to pay it; but he was not; and at last I cut up rough about it, +and went to the Hall myself on the 15th of last month, and then we +rather fell out together, the Squire and me." + +"You quarrelled, did you?" remarked Mr. Townshend, carelessly. + +"Well, yes, we did quarrel; leastways, _I_ did. Sir Massingberd always +quarrelled with whoever asked him for payment, so that was nothing. I +said that I would not leave the house without the money; but at last I +did leave upon his solemn promise to pay me the next day, that was the +very day of his disappearance, and he did pay me, with as many oaths as +one-pound notes into the bargain." + +"He paid you these on the 15th of November, then," observed the +detective. + +"On the 16th," replied the farmer. "I've got a memorandum of it in my +pocket-book; here it is, and the number of the notes 82977 to 80; there +was four in all." + +"And those notes you sent to your London agent along with more, and you +got some foreign stuff back from Hamburg in exchange for them." + +"And how the deuce come you to know that?" exclaimed the farmer in +extreme astonishment. + +"Well, it is my business to know a good many things," returned the Bow +Street runner, getting over the stile rather sulkily, for he was well +aware by this time that there would be no employment for his favourite +bracelets. + +"Well, that may be your friend's business," quoth Mr. Arabel, looking +after his retreating form, "but I'm gormed if he looks like it. I should +have said he was an individual in the same line as myself, only fatter, +and though I say it as shouldn't say it, a sight more foolish." + +"Nay," said I, "he is not a foolish man, Mr. Arabel, far from it; +although I think he has come down to Fairburn upon a fool's errand." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +"LET IT BE PETER'S GODCHILD." + + +I have said that I am approaching the conclusion of this my story, and +so in truth I am, so far as the readers thereof are concerned in it. +They will soon be put in possession of its secret, and close this +volume, not altogether without regret, as I hope. But for me, and those +who played their parts in this drama of mystery, months and years went +by without the least clue to its solution. Fairburn Hall remained +without a master, although not untenanted. The same servants occupied it +as before, and expected, although with less and less of certainty, that +the Squire would presently return and claim his own again. The +principal rooms, as was stated, had been locked up and sealed ever since +his disappearance, and the very neighbourhood of their doors had begun +to be avoided after dark. Noises were affirmed to have been heard in +them, both canine and human--doubtless the ghostly talk held between +Grimjaw and Sir Massingberd, who had now no longer any reason for +silence concerning that evil deed in which they had been concerned +together so long ago. The baronet's voice was also heard in the Park and +Chase, especially upon windy nights, cursing and threatening in a very +vehement and life-like manner, so that his preserves were almost as well +protected by the terror of his absence as they had been by that of his +presence. Reckless, indeed, must have been the poacher who wired hares +or slaughtered pheasants in the Home Spinney, where the dread Sir +Massingberd must have met with his end, or been spirited away, no man +knew how or whither. Had it not been for this superstitious awe, Oliver +Bradford would have found it difficult to guard his master's game, for +the old keeper, crippled with age and rheumatism, could no longer watch +o' nights himself, nor could he easily induce his subordinates to do so, +unless in pairs. They, too, had little liking to be alone in the Home +Spinney after dusk, nor near the Wolsey Oak, which of late years had had +certain portentous tenants in the shape of the two ravens, which were +for ever flying to and fro between it and their lodging in the church +tower. The old ancestral saying-- + + "Ill for Heaths when raven's croak + Bodeful comes from Wolsey's Oak"-- + +was remembered and repeated by the old folks of Fairburn to the rising +generation with many a solemn head-shake and significant pursing of the +lips. Yet, oddly enough, the general opinion, even of these ancient +gossips, was, that Sir Massingberd was yet alive. The misfortune +prophesied by the ravens was held to concern the family, or, in other +words, young Marmaduke, rather than his uncle. If the behaviour of these +intelligent birds proclaimed that the Squire was dead, they deserved +rather to be held as doves of good tidings than what they were. No; Sir +Massingberd was alive, and would turn up some day or other, wickeder +than ever. His return was as confidently looked for by many of his +vassals, as that of Barbarossa was wont to be. + +This was not, of course, the case with reasonable persons, like Mr. +Long, and, I may add, myself. When a twelvemonth had elapsed since his +disappearance, we both entreated Marmaduke to come down to Fairburn, and +take possession of what might fairly be considered his own. Mr. Gerard +and Mr. Clint were equally anxious that he should do this, but all +persuasion was unavailing. The most that could be extracted from him was +the promise that, when he came of age, a year and a half hence, he would +do as we pleased. It seemed to us, indeed, the height of improbability +that his uncle should still be in the land of the living; it seemed so +to the money-lenders, who showed themselves anxious to accommodate the +young man with enormous loans at a very trifling rate of interest; but +to the heir himself it by no means appeared so certain. There was +something characteristic, he thought, of his terrible uncle in this +mysterious withdrawal from human ken, with the fiendish object of +throwing everything out of gear for years, and thus striking terror by +his sudden reappearance. If he did reappear and found another--and that +one his hated nephew--in the enjoyment of his property, how diabolical +would be his wrath! There was often quite a sublimity of passion evinced +by the old baronet upon very slight occasions; but all such displays, +compared to what would happen in the case supposed, would have been but +as a cavalry inspection at the Curragh to the Balaklava charge. Such +were the thoughts, I am convinced, which actuated Marmaduke, although he +did not express them. He confined himself to stating that he did not +consider he had a right to take possession of Fairburn until the time he +mentioned had elapsed (nor, indeed, was he legally entitled to do so for +seven years), and I doubt if he would have given even that promise, had +he not felt sure that some revelation would be made in the meantime. + +But no such revelation _was_ made, and the day of Marmaduke Heath's +majority came round at last. Whether he would even then have put his +purpose of coming down to Fairburn into effect, had it depended solely +upon himself, I cannot say, but he had by that time other interests to +consult beside his own. Marmaduke Heath and Lucy Gerard were man and +wife; nor, if you had sought all England through, would you have chanced +upon a nobler-looking couple. At that period, although it was not so +afterwards, the dependence, the reliance, the looking up for comfort and +for counsel, so natural and so endearing in wedded life, were upon the +wrong side--upon Marmaduke's, not Lucy's. All that was done in respect +to his affairs was done by her; he only thought about doing them, and +resisted their being done until the very last, when, all other means +having failed, her sweet voice was called in by the councillors for his +good, and always succeeded. In one matter only had Marmaduke refused +even to listen to her--he had insisted upon raising a very large sum +upon his now excellent expectations, and settling it upon her before his +marriage. In vain he had been assured that such a settlement was +unnecessary, and the interest he would have to pay for the money +borrowed, absolutely thrown away. The young man had his way in this; and +on the day after the execution of the deed in question they were +married. I had determined within myself not to be present at that +wedding, in spite of a very pressing invitation, and although Mr. Long +himself attended it. + +"What, not go to see Marmaduke married?" cried my tutor, when I told him +of this intention. I call him still by that name, although he was at +this time merely my host, with whom I was stopping during one of my +Oxford vacations. "Why, Meredith, you astonish me beyond measure. I am +sure that neither of them will think I have rightly married them, unless +you are there to be bridegroom's man. Why, Lucy Gerard loves you, Peter, +almost as much as she does Marmaduke himself; while Mr. Gerard, between +you and me, would, I think, have preferred----" Then I broke down all of +a sudden, and laid my face between my hands upon the table, and sobbed +like a child. + +"Peter, Peter, my dear boy," exclaimed the Rector, laying his +fingers--ah, so pitifully--upon my head; "I had not dreamed of this. +Poor lad, poor lad, God comfort you and strengthen you; I feel for you +as though you were my very own son. What blind worms must we have been +not to have seen this before; or, rather, how bravely must you have +hidden it from us all! She doesn't know it, does she? I trust not. Then +let her never know it, Peter. I do not speak of others, for your +feelings deserve to be considered as much, and more, dear lad. But, oh, +think of hers. What bitterness will mingle with her cup of happiness +upon that day, when she feels that you are absent from such a cause--for +she will guess the cause at once, Peter." + +"I will be ill," groaned I. "Heaven knows that I shall feel ill enough, +and that shall be my excuse." + +"And do you think Marmaduke would marry, knowing that his best friend +lies ill and alone here? He would never do that. They would feel, I +hope, too, that if it were so, I should not have left you. No, Peter; +you have been very strong hitherto--be strong unto the end. Let her +never know that you have suffered and are suffering now for her sweet +sake." + +"I will do what you think is best, dear old friend," said I; "but please +to leave me by myself a little just now." + +And he did so; and I battled with my own heart and subdued it, and when +Marmaduke and Lucy were married I was present. + +"My dear Peter, your hand is as cold as a stone!" exclaimed the +bridegroom, when he wished me "Good-bye" that day. But Lucy said +nothing, save "Good-bye, Peter;" and even to that I could not reply. +They were very happy, those two, as indeed they deserved to be. Whatever +was wanting at that time in him, her good sense supplied; while in her, +neither then nor afterwards, was there anything wanting. She had +sympathized as much as lay in her power in the tastes and opinions of +her father; she had had a bringing-up which, in these days, would have +at least resulted in what is called a strong-minded woman, rather as +opposed to a gentle one. This could scarcely, indeed, have been the case +with Lucy, but her marriage with Marmaduke made it impossible. Her mind +had heretofore been, as it were, all orchard, bringing forth fine and +vigorous fruit; a portion of it now became a garden, producing flowers +dainty and rare. Her teacher being also her lover, it was no wonder that +her progress was rapid; and it is probable that the young student had +never found his studies so sweet as when communicating them to such a +pupil. From her father, she had learned philosophy; from her husband, +how to appreciate all that was beautiful in Nature and touching in +Song. As for her politics, Marmaduke was infinitely more solicitous to +imbue her with correct views respecting the poets, which, perhaps, was +fortunate enough. She would never have admitted, even to please him, +that her beloved, father was wrong, or even extreme in his views of +government; and, in truth, those opinions of hers--so enthusiastic, so +trustful, and founded upon the mistake of believing all her +fellow-creatures as guileless as herself--gave her conversation, an +added charm. To hear her talk of wrongs and rights, with heightened +colour and earnest eyes--no matter how elevated the rank of the person +addressed, nor how nearly connected with the very executive of whose +acts she was complaining--was enough to make a bishop exchange his mitre +for a white hat, and adopt the Thirty-nine Articles recommended by Mr. +Hone. + +"Judge Jeffreys himself could never have had the heart to condemn my +Lucy for a rebel," Mr. Harvey Gerard was wont to say; "although," he +would add, with a cynical twinkle in his eye, "I would not trust my Lord +Ellenborough." + +Mr. Long and myself were both in Harley Street upon the day when +Marmaduke came of age; and after dinner, Mr. Clint made a little speech, +not without connivance, I think, beforehand with others of the party. He +observed, that gratifying as was the occasion in question in all +respects, it was most satisfactory to himself, as concluding the period +which Marmaduke had assigned as the limit of his abstaining from taking +his rightful position in the world. He ventured to say this much upon +his own part, as having been connected with the Heath family for a +lengthened period; but he would also say for others--what he knew they +would be backward to say for themselves--that his young friend owed it +to them also not to delay the matter any longer. + +Marmaduke's face expressed more painful agitation than I had seen it +wear for months. "I suppose you are right, Mr. Clint," he returned; +"and, at all events, I will be as good as my word, which I passed to +Mrs. Heath," and he looked at his wife, as though he would have appealed +to her to release him from that promise. + +"Of course, I am right, sir," returned the lawyer quickly; "but you are +wrong and very uncivil not to give your wife her proper title. Lady +Heath, I beg to drink your very good health; Sir Marmaduke, here's to +your better manners;" and the lawyer emptied his glass, and filled it up +again, in case any other excuse should arise for the drinking of good +liquor. + +"Lady Heath's health; her husband's better manners," echoed laughingly +round the table. + +Marmaduke nerved himself by a strong effort, and replied to this toast +with feeling and eloquence. He promised to accede to the request made by +Mr. Clint, and to that end would return with us to Fairburn on the next +day but one to make his arrangements personally for coming to reside at +the Hall. As for his not having assumed the title, he protested, amidst +merriment, that he had not hitherto done so, solely out of deference to +the feelings of his father-in-law, whom he had once heard describe a +baronet as a something only not quite so bad as a lord. + +We were all delighted not only with the intentions Marmaduke thus +expressed, but with the cheerfulness and gaiety of his manner in +speaking of them; and when the rest had retired for the night, and my +old friend and I were in my room having that last chat by the midnight +fire which is perhaps the zenith of human converse, as the curtain +lecture is undoubtedly the nadir, I could not help congratulating him on +his change of spirits. "That you are a happy man, I know," said I; "you +would be ungrateful indeed if you were otherwise. But I cannot say how +pleased I am to find that the good Genius, who has so blessed you in +other respects, has exorcised this phantom fear of yours; that you no +longer dread that childish bugbear, Sir Massingberd." + +"Hush!" cried he, looking involuntarily over his shoulder; "do not +mention that name, Peter. I would gladly give up house and land this +moment, never to go back to Fairburn; I have a presentiment that evil +will come of it. She would absolve me from my promise even now--Heaven +bless her, as it must do, for she is of the angels!--but that there +will be another soon whose interests must be looked to as well as our +own. You will be godfather, dear Peter, will you not? Lucy and I both +wish it. 'Let it be Peter's godchild, Marmaduke,' she said to me only +yesterday, although I should not divulge these secrets to an old +bachelor like you." + +Of course, I promised readily enough, but long after he had bidden me +good-night, I sat over the paling embers, thinking, thinking; and when +every coal was charred, and the black bars cold that held them, I sat +thinking still. My hopes, for a few fleeting hours, long ago, had been +as bright and warm as they, and were now as dark--and dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +TAKING THE SEALS OFF. + + +Marmaduke Heath came down to Fairburn according to his promise, but it +cost him a great effort. With every stage his spirits seemed to fall and +fail; and when Mrs. Myrtle at last clasped him in her arms--for Master +Marmaduke was ever a great favourite of hers, and the fact of his having +grown up and got married weighed with her not a feather--his wan face +was paler than when she had seen it last, notwithstanding its three +years of happiness and freedom. It was Christmas-time; the Rectory was a +bower of ivy and holly-berries; and just within the threshold, the +locality which the good housekeeper had chosen for her embrace, hung a +huge bough of mistletoe, the finest that could be found in all the +Chase. In the spotless kitchen, so exquisitely clean that you might, as +the phrase goes, "have eaten your dinner off the floor," if it had not +happened to have been a sanded one, there were preparations for +sumptuous feasting; a delightful fragrance, suggestive of mince-pies +with plenty of citron, pervaded Mrs. Myrtle's private parlour, where the +divine mysteries of Apicius were being celebrated. The little larder, +cold and immaculate as a dead sucking-pig ready for the spit, was +victualled with noble meats as for a siege; while monstrous pasties and +plum-puddings, too many for the broad stone slabs, reposed upon the +Dutch tiles that formed its carpet. It was not intended that the +inhabitants of the Rectory should eat all the good things themselves; +but it was a custom of Mr. Long, aided and abetted by Mrs. Myrtle, to +keep open house for about a fortnight at this festive period, and to +entertain certain worthy persons, who were old and indigent, in the +sanded kitchen daily. Attempts to edify the poor in those days were not +made so often as they are at present, but it was held essential by all +good Christian country folk to keep Christmas as a feast, and to see +that others kept it. I suppose Fairburn Hall was the only house in the +county where that blessed time was ignored and taken no account of; Sir +Massingberd had never suffered the slightest honour to be paid to it; +and his worthy deputy and _locum-tenens_, Richard Gilmore, treated it +with the like contumely. + +The change from the bright little Rectory, with all its hospitable +preparations, to the gloomy grandeur of the masterless mansion, was +very striking, when we three crossed the road next morning, to take the +seals off, which Mr. Long had placed upon the principal rooms, and so, +as it were, to break the blockade caused by the baronet's disappearance. +The contrast began even with things without. Half one of the globes had +been sliced from its pedestal on one side of the great iron gates; and +in the very centre of the avenue, the grass grew long and rank. The +sun-dial was cracked and gaped in zigzag, an emblem of the uncertainty +that overhung the place. The heraldic beasts at the foot of the +entrance-steps were much more mutilated than when I had seen them last, +and had indeed only one stone fore-paw or claw between them. Disuse is +sister to Abuse, but still how comes it that mere absence should beget, +as it always does, such absolute Ruin? Had the Squire been at home the +last three years, the globe upon the pedestal would have been whole, the +dial flawless, the griffins with at least their larger limbs intact; and +yet no man was ever seen to work this mischief. When the great door +swung reluctantly back to admit the new possessor, he took my hand, and +bade me Welcome, but his tone was far from gay. Every glance he cast +around him evoked, I could see, some unpleasant association, and even, +perhaps, a vague terror. + +There is something uncanny in exploring any dwelling the rooms of which +have been locked up and unvisited for years--places that have been once +consecrated to humanity, but have afterwards been given up to Solitude +and slow decay. Memories of their ancient inmates seem to hang gloomily +about them, like the cobweb in their corners; they are eloquent of +desertion and of death. The shriek of the mouse, and the singing of the +blue fly in the pane, have perhaps alone been heard there in the +interim; but there seem to have been other and ghostlier noises, which +cease at our approach. Who knows what eerie deeds our sudden intrusion +may have interrupted! + + "What faces glimmered through the doors, + What footsteps trod the upper floors," + +ere we broke in! The peculiar circumstances under which our search was +made intensified these feelings in us three, and even Gilmore, who +accompanied us, was affected by them. + + "O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; + A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, + And said, as plain as whisper in the ear, + This place is _worse_ than haunted." + +The library was the first room we entered, which, even in the palmiest +days of Fairburn Hall had been a dreary room, because the least in use. +Except Marmaduke himself, no one ever sat there; the wicked books, which +were the only sort read and patronized by Sir Massingberd, were all in +the Squire's private sitting-room, and the gaps in the shelves that +lined the present apartment, revealed that the Heaths had laid in a +considerable stock of them. Old Sir Wentworth, a miser in his old age, +had been a dunce in his youth, and was once heard openly to regret that +circumstance from the fact, that he was unable to peruse the loose +continental literature which his ancestors had provided for his +delectation, free of expense. In the rare cases when the Oak Parlour had +not sufficient accommodation for the guests of the missing Squire, they +had been wont to adjourn to the present apartment, to smoke and lounge +through half the night; but it bore no trace of having been so used. +Every chair and sofa were in their appointed place, as though they had +grown up like trees through the dusty carpet. Upon the tables and +mantelpieces, the dust had settled inches thick. The grate was laid +ready for lighting; but over the coals and sticks hung a sort of mildew, +that looked as if it would have defied a pine-torch to set light to it. +These things we remarked gradually, one by one, for the butler had only +opened the shutters of one window, and the extent of the apartment was +prodigious. The shelves were filled almost entirely with quartos--books +were not hand-books in those days--rich with plates, and "meadows of +margin;" you could not have sent a child on an errand to bring one of +them; if he had managed to extricate a tome at all by painfully +loosening it at head and foot, it might have fallen out and brained +him. A fourth of the entire stock was composed of books of Catholic +theology. "Those," observed Mr. Long, "are the most valuable things in +the library. Sir Nicholas is supposed to have won his bride by paying +that costly tribute to her faith. The illuminations are most rare and +splendid. Why, what is this, Gilmore? I can't get this volume down. It +seems stuck to the others." + +The butler grinned maliciously. "I think you will find them all like +that, sir. There's nothing but the wood-backs left. The Squire disposed +of these books soon after Mr. Marmaduke left, and got this imitation +stuff put up instead." + +Mr. Long broke out into wrathful indignation, but the young heir kept +silence, only smiling bitterly. + +"Perhaps he was afraid that their heterodoxy might do his nephew harm," +remarked I, rather tickled, I confess, by this characteristic fraud. + +"No, sir," replied Gilmore, drily; "he merely observed, that, being +theological works, there was as much in them now as before." + +"Impious wretch!" exclaimed the Rector. "See, he has bartered the +Fathers of the Church for a set of empty backgammon boards, and lettered +them with their venerable names." + +"Here, however, is the Family Bible," said I; "he has not sold that." + +The spider had spun his web across the sacred volume, but it opened +readily enough at the only place, perhaps, into which its late owner had +ever looked--the huge yellow fly-leaf, upon which were inscribed the +names of the later generations of the Heaths; Sir Massingberd's birth in +his father's own handwriting, and Sir Wentworth's death in that of his +son's, and only too probably his murderer's. The autograph was bold and +flaring, quite different from the crabbed hand of the parent, is which +the names of Gilbert Heath and Marmaduke's mother were also written, as +likewise that of Marmaduke himself. There was a little space beneath the +last; and the young heir, looking over my shoulder, pointed to it, +significantly; doubtless, it had been hoped by the last possessor of the +volume that this might one day have been filled up by the date of his +nephew's, demise. + +We were about to leave the room, when Mr. Long suddenly exclaimed, "Nay, +let us try the secret way. You told me, I remember, that you did not +know of Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke. The spring lies in the index of +Josephus, a wooden volume, which perhaps put this notion of wholesale +'dumbies' into Sir Massingberd's head." This practical satire upon the +unpopularity of the Jewish historian was presently discovered, hidden +away upon one of those ground-floor shelves, which, if the enthusiastic +student investigates at all, it must be upon his knees. After a little +manipulation, the spring obeyed, and with a surly creak, as if in +protest, the whole compartment of shelves above moved slowly outward on +some hidden hinge, and disclosed the narrow stairs that ended in the +shepherdess of the state chamber. The steps were worm-eaten, and the +wall on both sides hung with moth-devoured and ragged tapestry. +Marmaduke shrank back, and gazed upon the aperture with abhorrence and +dismay. To what vile purposes might it not have been used, besides that +of attempting to overthrow a poor child's reason; nay, was it not +possible that what we had sought, yet feared to find for so long, might +be in this very place, where no eye could have looked or thought of +looking! Might it not have hidden there, and been imprisoned alive in +righteous retribution, by the very spring which had ministered to hate +and cruelty? "I went up here," said Mr. Long, divining the young man's +thoughts, "when I searched the house with Gilmore, and put on the seals. +I think we should climb Jacob's ladder, Marmaduke; as you will make the +Hall your home, it is well to leave no spot in it associated with any +unpleasantness, unfamiliar." So saying, the rector led the way, and we +all followed: there was some delay while he opened the door above, and +certainly it was not a cheerful position for us in the meantime, cooped +up in the darkness, with the arras touching us with its ghostly folds on +either side the narrow way; but I think that my tutor's advice was +good, and that his old pupil experienced a feeling of satisfaction when +the thing was done. Once more we stood together in that state bedroom +where Marmaduke had suffered such ghastly terrors when a boy. + +"Shall I ever forget those nights!" muttered he with a shudder. "Can +this room ever be otherwise than hateful to me! It was here, as I sat +weak and ill in that arm-chair, that my uncle struck me for losing----. +Stay, now I remember it all. Remove this skirting-board, Gilmore; take +the poker; do not spare the rotting wood. Ay, there it is." A yellow +something lay amid the dust and rubbish, which on inspection turned out +to be a gold pencil-case. "That was lent me by my uncle, a dozen years +ago," said Marmaduke musing, "and he chastised me for losing it. It had +rolled under yonder skirting-board, but I was too terrified at the time +to recollect the fact. I wish I could forget things now. Undo the other +shutters, Richard. Light, more light." + +And thus we let the blessed sunlight into all the shuttered rooms. It +glanced in galleries on knights in all their panoply, and smote the +steel upon their visors, as though the flame of battle once more darted +from their eyes; it made their tattered pennons blush again, and tipped +their rusted spears with sudden fire. It flashed upon the stern +ancestral faces on the wall, and through their dust evoked a look of +life. That winter sun had not the power to warm, however; all things +struck cold. The dark oak-pannels chilled us from their waveless depths; +the cumbrous organ, carved with fruit and flowers, kept frozen silence; +while in the chapel, Sir Nicholas in stone and mildew struck to our +marrow. His lady opposite, upon her knees in her "devout oratory," gave +us cold looks, as though we had interrupted her devotions. In vain the +painted windows, high and triple arched, cast down "warm gules" upon her +marble breast, and filled the sacred place with glorious hues. In vain +the gilded scroll, "Praie for hys Soule," appealed to us through dust +and damp, and his memorial pane blushed scarlet in its endeavour to +perpetuate his infamy. All things seemed cursed in that accursed house; +the hallowed places desecrated, and those where hospitality and good +fellowship were meant to reign, solitary and barren. There was one +apartment still which had been left by common consent to be visited last +of all--Sir Massingberd's oak parlour. There he might have been said to +have lived, for it was the only sitting-room he used from early +morning--and he was no great sleeper--until very late at night. There, +as we have seen, he had held his audiences, and dined, and sometimes +slept after any deep debauch. By all the household, except Gilmore, it +was held as a Bluebeard's chamber, and would not have been entered upon +any account, even had it not had the rector's seal upon it. It was here +that the lost baronet had passed his last hours within the house, and +thither he had intended to return--if he had meant to return at +all--before he retired for the night. The butler entered it first, and +let the light in; then Mr. Long, then I, then Marmaduke. Although I had +been there once before, I scarcely recognized the place, for upon that +occasion the squire himself had occupied it, and I had had no eyes +except for him. It was doubtless a comfortable room enough when the +fire was shining on its polished walls, and the red curtains snugly +drawn over the windows; but with that thin December light--for it was +afternoon by this time--creeping coldly in upon the three-year-old ashes +of the burnt-out fire, and on the panels, smeared with spots and stains, +it was very cheerless: + + "There was no sign of life, save one: + The subtle spider, that from overhead + Hung like a spy on human guilt and error, + Suddenly turned, and up its slender thread, + Ran with a nimble terror." + +This insect had woven its webs in every nook and cranny, in readiness +for the prey that rarely came, and the slanting pillars of motes and +light that streamed into the gloom seemed almost as palpable as they. A +door led up by three or four steps into Sir Massingberd's bedroom--a +bare unfurnished place, where skins of wild animals, instead of carpet, +were spread for a banquet to the moth. His shooting-boots stood up +still stiff and strong beside the empty grate, although they were white +with mildew, and his night-gear lay folded upon the rotting pillow, in +preparation for his rest. The sitting-room, however, bore the more +striking vestiges of its late proprietor. + +The huge arm-chair stood a little aside from the fender, where he had +pushed it back as he rose to leave the room; and the book which he had +been reading lay open with its face to the table, ready for him to +resume its perusal upon his return. A spirit-case with the stoppers in, +the couple of cigars which it had been Sir Massingberd's invariable +custom to smoke before going to bed, and a few fly-blown lumps of sugar, +were set out in hideous travesty of creature-comfort. The rector took up +the volume, and with one involuntary glance towards the fire-place, +tore the wrinkled and blue-spotted leaves to fragments. A scurrilous +French novel had engaged the last hours of the wretched old man, ere he +went forth--to his doom. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +THE FAIRY'S WAND. + + +There are but few of us, I fear, who can say: "Though I should die +suddenly, and at the most unlooked-for time, there will be nothing left +behind me which I would have destroyed, even though I had had the +opportunity." Of course there are none who can boast that they are at +peace with all mankind; that they leave nothing unrepented of or +unatoned for; that their human affairs and social relations are exactly +where they would have wished them to be. But independent of these +matters, neglected by the very best of us, how eagerly must many a man +desire, between the warning and swift stroke of death, that he had had +but a little time--a little strength to set, not, indeed, his house in +order, but his desk and his note-book. What a cruel shock have many a +family received, after they have lost the Head whom they have worshipped +so many years, by discovering, where they looked for no such thing, +_after his death_, that he had all along (as will be thought) been even +such a one--_not_ as themselves, but worse--as they whom they had been +taught by his own self to look upon with contempt, or at least with +pity; as they who, by contrast with himself, were persons base and vile. +Is there no letter, reader, ragged and time-worn, perhaps, but still +legible, lying among that heap of correspondence you intend to winnow +some day--which it will be better to burn _now_? Is there no +half-forgotten gift, meant for your own eyes alone, when they were +brighter than at present, which it would be well to make an end of this +very day? Can you say: "Even though I do not return home to night, or +ever again, but am smashed by a railway locomotive, or driven over by a +'bus, or poisoned in a cab, yet there will be nothing of mine, nothing +when my friends take stock of my personal effects, of which I need be +ashamed." If so, thou art a good man indeed--or one of exceeding +prudence. Above all things, my friends, be good, for that is best; but +if not, at least be prudent. Let your memories be sullied with no stain, +at all events in the thoughts of those you leave at home. The actions of +the unjust blossom in their dust into flowers compared with which the +deadly nightshade is as the violet or the rose. The satirist tells us +that in a week, a month, a year at most, the memory of a dead man dies +even from the hearts of those he held most dear. This is not true; but +the satirist would have been severer yet, and have spoken truth as well, +had he said that the memory of a dead man, so far as his vice and +wickedness are concerned, dies not at all among his kin. It is spoken of +in whispers by the purest, and renders them less pure; it is made light +of by the vicious, but only to excuse their wrongful acts by a worse +example. "Wild as I may be, I am not so wild as the governor was in his +day," is a terrible legacy of comfort to leave behind one to one's son. + +It is possible that even Sir Massingberd Heath may at some far-back time +have deemed it necessary to lay to his soul some flattering unction of +this kind. There were Sir Wentworth and Sir Nicholas, and many a Heath +to extenuate his acts, if bad example might do it. But the time came to +him, and very early in life, when he had no longer this slender +justification, since he had outdone his worse progenitor in vice and +folly. Mr. Clint had known, Mr. Long had guessed--we all of us had +suspected more or less that the lost baronet's life had been evil beyond +that of an ordinary man; but the dumb revelations which were made +concerning it in the necessary examination of his papers, were simply +shocking. After destroying these, the next approach to cleansing +Fairburn Hall was to discharge all the indoor domestics. Mr. Richard +Gilmore resented this conduct towards a faithful servant of the family, +as he styled himself, very bitterly; but he departed with the rest, +laden, there is little doubt with a very considerable plunder. Presently +the upholsterers came down from town with a great following of +workpeople, and a caravan of waggons, bearing costly furniture; then a +host of servants, selected with as much care as was possible, replaced +the exiles; and when all was ready within and without--the waste places +of the grounds being reclaimed, and put upon the same footing with those +which hitherto had alone been "kept up"--Sir Marmaduke Heath and his +wife themselves took possession of Fairburn Hall. + +Art had already done much to change that sombre house into a comfortable +as well as splendid mansion; but the presence of its new mistress did +more than all to rescue it from the long tyranny of decay and gloom. +Beneath her smile, the shadows of the past could take no shape, but +vanished, thin and pale. She would allow them nowhere resting-place. +Where they had been wont to gather thickest to her husband's eyes, she +quelled them by her radiant presence, day and night. The Oak Parlour +and its adjoining bedroom; she formed into a double boudoir for her own +sweet self; and straightway all bat-winged, harpy-headed memories, the +brood of evil deeds, flew from it as the skirts of Night before the +dawn, and in their place an angel-throng came fluttering in, and made it +their abode. No stage-fairy, wand in hand, ever effected +transformation-scene more charming and complete. One fear, and one +alone, now agitated Marmaduke's heart, for the safety of his priceless +wife in her approaching trial. He would have gladly cancelled nature's +gracious promise, and lived childless all his days, rather than any risk +should befall Lucy. His friends, his servants, and the villagers, +brimful of hope that there should be an heir to Fairburn, flowed over in +earnest congratulations; but for his part, he felt apprehensive only. +His heart experienced no yearning for the child who might endanger the +mother. + +In accordance with her plan of ignoring all that had gone before of +shame and sorrow, and regenerating evil places with a baptism of joy, +Lady Heath had chosen the state chamber itself as her sleeping +apartment, and there in due time she safely brought forth a son. Upon +his knees, Marmaduke thanked Heaven for the blessing which was thus +vouchsafed to him, but above all, in that it had brought with it no +curse. Verily had the house of mourning become the house of feasting, +and the chamber of sorrow the chamber of mirth. + +The unconscious father had been sitting by the library fire, +endeavouring vainly to distract his mind from what was occurring +upstairs, and turning his eyes restlessly ever and anon towards the +door, when the voice of Dr. Sitwell suddenly broke the silence. + +"Sir Marmaduke, I congratulate you; you have a son and heir." + +"And my wife?" cried the husband impatiently. + +"She is as well as can possibly be expected, I do assure you." + +"You are very welcome," exclaimed the young baronet; "and would have +been so, although you had chosen to burst your way in with a torpedo. +But I confess you startled me a good deal." + +"I am afraid I did," returned the doctor, in a voice like a stream of +milk and honey, "although it was not my intention to do so. But the fact +is, I did not come in by the door at all. Her ladyship desired that I +should bring you the good news by way of Jacob's Ladder; and I may add, +that you may come back with me that way and see her yourself for just +one quarter of a minute." + +So even Jacob's Ladder was made a pleasant thoroughfare to Marmaduke, +and dearer from that hour than all staircases of wood or stone. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +FOUND. + + +Now, when Marmaduke junior, who was named also Peter, to mark the regard +which both its parents had for my poor self, became of the ripe age of +fourteen weeks or so, and the spring had so far advanced upon the summer +as to admit of open-air rejoicings, it was determined that the advent of +the heir of Fairburn should be celebrated with all due honour. This +would have been done before, for Lady Heath had soon recovered her +strength, and the child was reported to be a miracle of health and +plumpness, had it not been for the backwardness of the season. The Hall +had, of course, made merry upon the matter long ago, and if all the +poor in the place had not done so, it was from no want of materials in +the way of creature-comfort supplied by the young Squire. But what +Marmaduke had waited for was settled fine weather, in order that the +Chase might be filled by merrymakers, whose happiness should cleanse it +from all memories of woe and wrong. Much of these, it is true, had been +effaced already; a portion of the Park had been given up to the +villagers for cricket and other sports, a grant common enough now, but +one almost unexampled in those days, and the right of way which Sir +Massingberd had spent so many hundreds in opposing, had been voluntarily +surrendered. Oliver Bradford still retained his office, but being almost +bedridden, inspired less terror than of yore among evil-doers; this was +not so much to be regretted, however, since there was now little want, +and therefore few poachers in Fairburn, while the general popularity of +the young Squire lessened even those. I am afraid that if the new owner +had heard a gun discharged at night in the Home Spinney itself, it is +doubtful whether he would have laid down his book, or hesitated more +than usual in his vain attempt to checkmate his wife at chess, in order +to listen for the second barrel. The terror of the Lost Baronet had long +been fading from his old domain; and upon this occasion, when old and +young were all invited to make holiday in those once almost unknown +retreats of hare and deer, there was no urchin but was determined--by no +means single-handed, however--to explore them thoroughly. The very +Wolsey Oak which the ravens had made their quarters was not shunned, but +in the great space about it, races were run, and dances danced, and its +vast trunk was made the very headquarters of childish merriment. These +young folks did not affect the company of their elders, except when the +gongs gave signal from the various marquees that there was food afoot, +when they flocked to meet their parents at the heaped-up boards with a +dutiful celerity. The higher class of tenantry were upon the lawn, and +among them mixed with stately condescension a goodly number of the +county aristocracy. I remember that some of the latter introduced upon +this occasion the new dance called the quadrille, which had just arrived +from Paris at that time. It had come over in the bad company of the +waltz; but that lively measure was held to be too indecorous to be +imported to Fairburn under its new _regime_. Everybody, when out of +earshot of the host and hostess, was talking about the change that had +taken place in this respect. + +"How odd this all seems," quoth Squire Broadacres to his neighbour, Mr. +Flinthert, heir of the late lamented admiral. "None of _us_, I suppose, +have been at the Hall here for this quarter of a century." + +"Ay, that at least," quoth the other. "Of course, it is a great matter +to see people in the Heaths' position properly conducted as to morals. +But I doubt whether this young fellow may not go astray in another and +even a still more dangerous direction. They say his politics are, dear +me, shocking." + +"Not a bit of it," replied Mr. Broadacres. "It isn't in the Heath blood +to be radical. But his wife, she rules the roost, you see--and a +devilish pretty woman too; I could find it in my heart to forgive her +anything." + +"But that fellow, Harvey Gerard, her father--why, he's a downright +_sans-culotte_, sir." + +"The Gerards are bound to be, my dear sir," returned the jolly squire. +"All these things are a question of family; it's nothing but that. I am +told there is some French blood in him." + +"We want nothing of that sort down in Midshire," responded Mr. +Flinthert, shaking his head. + +"But we have got it, you see, my friend, and therefore we must make the +best of it. It was all very well to ignore Gerard while he was a +new-comer at the Dovecot, although, mind you, he was always a gentleman, +every inch of him, notwithstanding his queer opinions; but now that he +is become so nearly connected with Sir Marmaduke, and living at the Hall +half his time, why, the county must make up its mind to receive him." + +"I shall let him perceive, however, that it does so--so far at least as +I am concerned--upon sufferance, and, as it were--what is the word?--ay, +vicariously." + +"Very good," observed Mr. Broadacres, dryly. "I am not quite clear as to +your meaning; but if you intend to put Harvey Gerard down, I do not +think you will meet with any very triumphant success. Why, Sir +Massingberd here, who would have grappled with the devil, was tripped up +and thrown by this man with the greatest ease." + +"Nevertheless, I shall give him the cold shoulder," observed Mr. +Flinthert, stiffly; "although I shall studiously avoid being rude." + +"Faith, I would recommend your doing that, my friend," laughed the jolly +Squire. "If you turned your back upon Harvey Gerard instead of your +shoulder, my belief is that he'd kick you." + +"That he'd do what?" exclaimed Mr. Barnardistone Flinthert, late +high-sheriff and present magistrate and _custos rotulorum_ of Midshire. + +"That he'd take advantage of the opportunity, that's all," returned Mr. +Broadacres, quietly. "No, no, sir, with a man like Gerard, all good +Tories should keep on good terms. One can't hang him, you know, like a +radical tailor, and therefore it's quite worth while to make ourselves +appear to the best advantage. A stupid slight to a clever man has often +done more harm to the cause of good government than a whole regiment of +dragoons can remedy." + +"Oh curse his cleverness!" responded Mr. Flinthert, savagely. "I'm for +no such milk-and-water measures. I think it's the duty of somebody to +tell young Marmaduke----" + +"Well, say it _yourself_," interrupted Mr. Broadacres. + +"It's a positive duty, I say, that somebody should go to the baronet, +and tell him frankly that all this leniency to poaching fellows, and +liberty to the rabble, cannot but lead to harm. 'You're a young man,' he +should be told, 'and don't understand these things; but that is the +opinion of the county, and it behoves you to know it.'" + +"That would do more harm than good, Mr. Flinthert. You may depend upon +it that Marmaduke Heath thinks for himself in these matters, +notwithstanding that I dare say Gerard and his pretty daughter have had +some influence. The young fellow naturally goes exactly counter to all +that his uncle did before him. This holiday-making and mixture of high +and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Massingberd turn in his +grave." + +"Ay, if he _is_ in his grave," responded Mr. Flinthert, darkly. "But who +knows whether he may not turn up some day after all; tell me that." + +"I can't tell you that," responded Mr. Broadacres; "but I'll bet you ten +guineas to one that he never does." + +"Ay, but if he did!" replied the other, gloomily. "If he was to appear +this very day, for instance, what a scene it would be--what a revolution +for some people!" + +"Well, if he did, he'd find the property greatly improved--except that +that right of way has been reopened through the Park; all his thieving +servants dismissed; all his debts settled; and his mad gipsy wife amply +provided for, and well content, I am told, among her vagabond friends." + +Conversations somewhat similar to the above were being held all over the +lawn, for its denizens were not, like the lower classes, so bent upon +mere physical enjoyment as to be dead to the delights of scandal. But +when the great bell rang for their afternoon repast, which was to be +partaken of in one enormous tent, and at one gigantic table, the upper +part of which was reserved for the gentlefolks, such talk was hushed, of +course, and congratulations of host and hostess and the infant heir was +the only wear for every countenance. Not a word about the uncertainty of +Sir Marmaduke's tenure of Fairburn was whispered over the good cheer, or +a suggestion hazarded regarding the last proprietor's possible +reappearance. Far less, we may be certain, was any hint at such matters +let fall when the health of the future Sir Peter--two generations from +Somebody, and not to be associated with him upon any account--was +proposed by Mr. Broadacres, and drunk with a genuine enthusiasm that +brought the tears into his mother's eyes, who with many a fair county +dame graced the banquet as spectators. Then Mr. Long rose up and spoke +of Marmaduke as one whom he had known and loved from his youth up, and +the cheering rose tumultuous (but especially at the tenants' table, +because they knew him best), and was heard afar by the peasantry who +were dining likewise elsewhere, and who joined in it uproariously, +although they had already paid due honours to their lord; so that all +the Park was filled with clamour. To both these toasts, Sir Marmaduke, +aglow with happiness and excitement, the handsomest man by far in that +great company, with a grateful smile upon his student lips, gave +eloquent response. + +But when Lucy's health was proposed by Mr. Arabel, who dwelt, in homely +but fitting terms, upon her total lack of pride, her kindliness to all +that needed help, her beauty, which was sunshine to them all, then the +young Squire lost his self-command. He rose to speak with evident +embarrassment; he saw herself before him, watching him with eyes that +had plenty of pride for _him_ in them, and listening for his words as +though his tongue dropped jewels; he knew that he could not contradict +one word of praise that had been showered upon her, he could not +mitigate in modesty a single phrase of her eulogium, because it was all +true, and none but he knew how much more she was deserving of. "While he +stood there silent for a moment, but radiant with lips just parting for +his opening sentence, there was a commotion at the far end of the tent. +With that mysterious swiftness wherewith ill news pervades the minds of +men, all knew at once some terrible occurrence had taken place. Several +of the tenants rose, as if to intercept some person coming up towards +the upper table, but others cried, "Go on, it must be told." For an +instant, Lucy's glance flashed round to see that her child was safe in +its nurse's arms, then made her way swiftly and silently to her +husband's side. Before she reached it, before the man who bore the +tidings could get nearly so far, the whisper had gone round, "Sir +Massingberd is found." + +I shall never forget Marmaduke's face when he heard those words: his +colour fled, his eyes wandered timidly hither and thither, his lips +moved, but no sound came from them. At the touch of his wife's hand upon +his arm, however, a new life seemed to be instilled into him, and as a +village boy came forward bearing a rusty something in his hand, he +stretched his hand out for it, murmuring, "What is this? Why do you +bring this to me?" The boy was bashful, and gave no answer; but Farmer +Arabel stepped forward very gravely, and spoke as follows:-- + +"Why, Mr. Marmaduke, you see," he said, unconsciously reserving the +title for the man he had in his mind, "that is the life-preserver Sir +Massingberd always went about with in his woods at night; I know it by +the iron ring by which a leathern strap fastened it round his wrist. +Where did you find it, eh, boy?" + +"Well, sir, we was a-playing at Hide--me and Bill Jervis, and Harry +Jones, and a lot of us--and the Wolsey Oak was Home. So while it was the +other side's turn to hide, and we was waiting for them to cry "Whoop," +we began to knife the tree a bit, to pass the time; and digging away at +the bottom of the trunk, we made a hole, and presently came upon the +head of this thing here, and dragged it out. Then we made a bigger hole, +and please, sir, there was great big bones, and we couldn't pull them +through. Then we was frightened, and called to Jem Meyrick, the keeper, +as was in the booth close by; and he climbed up to the fork of the tree, +and cried out that the Wolsey Oak was hollow, and there was a skeleton +in it, standing up; and they do say as it's Sir Massingberd." + +While the boy was yet speaking, a knot of men came slowly up from the +direction of the Oak, bearing something among them, and followed at a +little distance by a vast crowd, all keeping an awful silence. When they +got near the opening of the tent, they set their ghastly burden down +upon the lawn; and we all went forth to look at it, including Marmaduke +himself, with a face as pale as ashes, and clutching Lucy by the hand, +as though he feared some power was about to tear her from him. I heard +her whisper to him, "This may not be Lost Sir Massingberd after all." + +Dr. Sitwell heard her also, and at once officiously replied: "Oh, but it +is, my lady; there has no man died in Fairburn for these thirty years, +except the late baronet, who could have owned those bones. I will pledge +my professional reputation that yonder man, when clothed in flesh and +blood, was six feet four. What a large skull, and what gigantic +thigh-bones!" + +"Ay," quoth Mr. Remnant, the general dealer, who was kneeling down +beside the skeleton and examining it with minuteness, as though it had +been offered to him for sale, "here is something hard and dry, with iron +nails upon it, which was once a shooting-shoe, one of a pair, or I am +much mistaken, which I sold to Sir Massingberd myself." + +"And, here," quoth Jem Meyrick, stepping forward, "is summat as I think +must have been the Squire's great gold chain, which I found at the +bottom of the trunk. The Wolsey Oak is quite hollow, Sir Marmaduke, +although none of us knew it. It is my belief that Sir Massingberd must +have climbed up into the fork to look about him, for he seemed to be +expecting poachers on that night, and that the rotten wood gave way +beneath him, and let him down feet foremost into the trunk." + +Without doubt, this was the true explanation of the matter. The skeleton +was found with the arms above the head, a position which had precluded +self-extrication, although it was evident that the wretched man had +made great efforts to escape from his living tomb, since what remained +of the shoe of the right foot was much turned up, and retained deep +marks of the pressure of the buckle. As I looked at these relics of +humanity, the gipsy's curse recurred to my mind with dreadful +distinctness: "_May he perish, inch by inch, within reach of the aid +that shall never come, ere the God of the poor take him into his hand_." + +It was a singular feature in the case, and one which was of course made +to point its moral among the villagers, that had Sir Massingberd not +closed the Park, and refused the right of way, he could scarcely have +thus miserably perished, since the footpath, as I have said, absolutely +skirted the tree in question; and people would have passed close by it +at all hours. It reminded me of the evil fate of James I. of Scotland, +who might have escaped his murderers in the Blackfriar's Abbey at Perth, +but for the simple fact that he had caused the mouth of a certain vault +to be bricked up, because his tennis-balls were wont to roll through it. +How long the wretched Squire had suffered before Death released him from +his fangs, it was impossible to guess, or whether that terrible cry +heard by Dick Westlock that same night, and by myself next morning, was +indeed from the throat of Sir Massingberd in his agony. + +We were the two persons who had been nearest to the Wolsey Oak between +the period of his entombment and the search instituted throughout the +Chase. He must have been dead before _that_, for the seekers passed +close beside the tree without the least suspicion of the ghastly Thing +it held; unless, indeed, he had heard our voices, but, choked by that +time: by the falling dry-rot, was unable to reply. No wonder the ravens +had sought the Wolsey Oaky and croaked forth Doom therefrom so long! + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +L'ENVOI. + + +Weeks elapsed before Marmaduke Heath recovered from the shock of this +discovery; but when he once began to do so, he grew up to be quite +another man in body and mind. + +It was only by this change--when we saw him so strong and cheerful--that +we got to estimate how powerful had been that sombre influence which had +so long overshadowed him, and what great exertion it must have cost him +to let it appear to us so little. The uncertainty of his tenure in +Fairburn Hall had secretly affected him very deeply, in spite of the +wand of the good fairy. He went to France for a little trip with his +father-in-law, for a thorough change, and there it was he had that duel +thrust upon him of which we have incidentally made mention; let us not +judge him harshly in that matter, for men of his day were as wanting in +moral courage as they were ignorant of physical fear. Yet what a +risk--ay, and what a selfish risk--he ran therein, let alone the +unchristian wickedness of that wicked adventure! + +He never dared to reveal to Lucy what he had done; but he confessed it +to Harvey Gerard, who rebuked him roundly for the crime; observing, +however, to myself, not without some pride, that he had always averred +Marmaduke was a fine fellow, and entertained a proper contempt for all +bullies and scoundrels. The young baronet acted weakly, doubtless; but +the duellist's blood was surely upon his own head. At all events, that +was the view Marmaduke himself took of the matter, and there was now not +a happier man in all Midshire than he; discharging the duties of his +rank and position in a manner that won the applause of all his +neighbours, sooner or later--although Mr. Flinthert's applause came very +late indeed. + +Year after year, I was a frequent guest at Fairburn Hall, and never set +foot in a house with inmates more blessed in one another. Year by year, +Lucy seemed to grow in goodness, and even, as it seemed to me, in +beauty. I saw her last with silver hair crowning her still unwrinkled +brow; and since that day no fairer sight has met these failing eyes. + +Death has long released the noble soul of Harvey Gerard, but his name is +borne not unworthily by a grandson as fearless as himself, and after it +the hard-won letters V.C. In a sunny spot in the little church-yard at +Fairburn lies my dear old tutor--far from the iron rails which enclose +the bones of the long-missing baronet. + +Sir Peter...--But why should I further speak of death, and make parade +of loss and change?--an old man like me should, having told his tale, be +silent, and not court stranger ears to "gain the praise that comes to +constancy." + +The last time I saw Fairburn, it lay in sunshine. There was no trace of +that bad man whose deeds once overshadowed it, save that in one great +space, close to the public footway through the park, there was a vast +bare ring, where grass, it was said, had never grown, although the +Wolsey Oak, which had once stood above it, had been cut down for forty +years and more. + +The place was cursed, so village gossip told, by Lost Sir Massingberd. +This may be true or not. My tale itself may be open to suspicion of +untruth, and this and that, which have been therein narrated, have +already been pronounced "improbable," "impossible," "absurd." To critics +of this sort, I have only to express my regret that the mission of the +author has in my case been reversed, and facts have fallen into such +clumsy hands as to seem fiction. + +Let me add one extract from the works of an author popular in my young +days, but now much oftener quoted than perused. He is describing a +picture sale attended by the _dilettanti_. A carking _connoisseur_ is +abusing some effort of an unhappy artist to portray nature. "This +fellow," cries he, "has even had the audacity to attempt to paint a +fly! _That_ a fly, forsooth!" and he flips at it with contemptuous +fingers. + +The fly flew away. _It was a real one!_ + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Lost Sir Massingberd, v. 2/2, by James Payn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOST SIR MASSINGBERD, V. 2/2 *** + +***** This file should be named 37171.txt or 37171.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/1/7/37171/ + +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/37171.zip b/old/37171.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebef1b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/37171.zip |