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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gipsy (Vols I & II), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Gipsy (Vols I & II)
+       A Tale
+
+Author: G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
+
+Release Date: April 4, 2012 [EBook #39376]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIPSY (VOLS I & II) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by
+Google Books (Princeton University Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=nqMuAAAAYAAJ
+
+   2. The diphthong oe is represented by [oe].
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE GIPSY;
+
+
+                               A TALE.
+
+
+
+
+                           BY THE AUTHOR OF
+
+
+                 "RICHELIEU," "MARY OF BURGUNDY," &c.
+
+
+
+
+   "Ah! what a tangled web we weave,
+    When first we venture to deceive."
+                            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+
+
+                           IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                               VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+                               NEW YORK
+                    HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+                           FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+                                1855.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE GIPSY.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+At that time in the world's history when watches, in their decline
+from the fat comeliness of the turnip to the scanty meagerness of the
+half-crown, had arrived at the intermediate form of a biffin--when the
+last remnant of a chivalrous spirit instigated men to wear swords
+every day, and to take purses on horseback--when quadrupeds were
+preferred to steam, and sails were necessary to a ship--when Chatham
+and Blackstone appeared in the senate and at the bar, and Goldsmith,
+Johnson, and Burke, Cowper, Reynolds, Robertson Hume, and Smollett,
+were just beginning to cumber the highways of arts and sciences--at
+that period of the dark ages, the events which are about to be related
+undoubtedly took place, in a county which shall be nameless.
+
+It may be that the reader would rather have the situation more
+precisely defined, in order, as he goes along, to fix each particular
+incident that this book may hereafter contain to the precise spot and
+person for which it was intended. Nevertheless, such disclosures must
+not be; in the first place, because the story, being totally and
+entirely a domestic one, depends little upon locality; and, in the
+next place, because greater liberties can be taken with people and
+things when their identity is left in doubt, than when it is clearly
+ascertained; for, although--
+
+
+             "When caps into a crowd are thrown,
+              What each man fits he calls his own,"
+
+
+yet no one likes to have his name written upon his fool's cap, and
+handed down for the benefit of posterity, attached to such an
+ornament.
+
+It was, then, on an evening in the early autumn, at that particular
+period of history which we have described, that two persons on
+horseback were seen riding through a part of the country, the aspect
+of which was one whereon we delight to dwell; that is to say, it was a
+purely English aspect. Now, this character is different from all
+others, yet subject to a thousand varieties; for although England, in
+its extent, contains more, and more beautiful scenes, of different
+kinds and sorts of the picturesque, than any other country under
+heaven, nevertheless there is an aspect in them all that proclaims
+them peculiarly English. It is not a sameness--far, far from it; but
+it is a harmony; and whether the view be of a mountain or a valley, a
+plain or a wood, a group of cottages by the side of a clear, still
+trout stream, or a country town cheering the upland, there is still to
+be seen in each a fresh green Englishness, which--like the peculiar
+tone of a great composer's mind, pervading all his music, from his
+requiem to his lightest air--gives character and identity to every
+object, and mingles our country, and all its sweet associations, with
+the individual scene.
+
+The spot through which the travellers were riding, and which was a
+wide piece of forest ground, one might have supposed, from the nature
+of the scenery, to be as common to all lands as possible; but no such
+thing! and any one who gazed upon it required not to ask themselves in
+what part of the world they were. The road, which, though sandy, was
+smooth, neat, and well tended, came down the slope of a long hill,
+exposing its course to the eye for near a mile. There was a gentle
+rise on each side, covered with wood; but this rise, and its forest
+burden, did not advance within a hundred yards of the road on either
+hand, leaving between--except where it was interrupted by some old
+sand-pits--a space of open ground covered with short green turf, with
+here and there an ancient oak standing forward before the other trees,
+and spreading its branches to the way-side. To the right was a little
+rivulet gurgling along the deep bed it had worn for itself among the
+short grass, in its way towards a considerable river that flowed
+through the valley at about two miles' distance; and, on the left, the
+eye might range far amid the tall, separate trees--now, perhaps,
+lighting upon a stag at gaze, or a fallow deer tripping away over the
+dewy ground as light and gracefully as a lady in a ballroom--till
+sight became lost in the green shade and the dim wilderness of leaves
+and branches.
+
+Amid the scattered oaks in advance of the wood, and nestled into
+the dry nooks of the sand-pits, appeared about half a dozen dirty
+brown shreds of canvass, none of which seemed larger than a dinner
+napkin, yet which--spread over hoops, cross sticks, and other
+contrivances--served as habitations to six or seven families of that
+wild and dingy race, whose existence and history is a phenomenon, not
+among the least strange of all the wonderful things that we pass by
+daily without investigation or inquiry. At the mouths of one or two of
+these little dwelling-places might be seen some gipsy women with their
+peculiar straw bonnets, red cloaks, and silk handkerchiefs; some
+withered, shrunk, and witch-like, bore evident the traces of long
+years of wandering exposure and vicissitude; while others, with the
+warm rose of health and youth glowing through the golden brown of
+their skins, and their dark gem-like eyes flashing undimmed by sorrow
+or infirmity, gave the beau ideal of a beautiful nation long passed
+away from thrones and dignities, and left but as the fragments of a
+wreck dashed to atoms by the waves of the past.
+
+At one point, amid white wood ashes, and many an unlawful feather from
+the plundered cock and violated turkey, sparkled a fire and boiled a
+caldron; and, round about the ancient beldam who presided over the pot
+were placed in various easy attitudes several of the male members of
+the tribe--mostly covered with long loose great-coats, which bespoke
+the owners either changed or shrunk. A number of half-naked brats,
+engaged in many a sport, filled up the scene, and promised a sturdy
+and increasing race of rogues and vagabonds for after years.
+
+Over the whole--wood, and road, and streamlet, and gipsy
+encampment--was pouring in full stream the purple light of evening,
+with the long shadows stretching across, and marking the distances all
+the way up the slope of the hill. Where an undulation of the ground,
+about half-way up the ascent, gave a wider space of light than
+ordinary, were seen, as we have before said, two strangers riding
+slowly down the road, whose appearance soon called the eyes of the
+gipsy fraternity upon their movements; for the laws in regard to
+vagabondism[1] had lately been strained somewhat hard, especially in
+that part of the country, and the natural consequence was, that the
+gipsy and the beggar looked upon almost every human thing as an enemy.
+
+With their usual quick perception, however, they soon gathered that
+the travellers were not of that cast from whom they had anything to
+fear; and indeed there was nothing of the swaggering bailiff or
+bullying constable in the aspect of either. The one was a man of
+about six-and-twenty years of age, with fine features, a slight but
+well-made person, and a brown but somewhat pale complexion. His eyes
+were remarkably fine, and his mouth and chin beautifully cut; he rode
+his horse, too, with skill and grace; and withal he had that air of
+consequence which is at any time worth the riband of the Bath. His
+companion was older, taller, stronger. In age he might be thirty-two
+or three, in height he was fully six feet, and seldom was there ever a
+form which excelled his in all those points where great strength is
+afforded without any appearance of clumsiness. He rode his horse,
+which was a powerful dark-brown gelding, as if half his life were
+spent on horseback; and as he came down the hill with the peculiar
+appearance of ease and power which great bodily strength and activity
+usually give, one might well have concluded that he was as
+fine-looking a man as one had ever beheld. But when he approached so
+as to allow his features to be seen, all one's prepossessions were
+dispelled, and one perceived that, notwithstanding this fine person,
+he was in some respects as ugly a man as it was possible to conceive.
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 1: At various times very severe laws have been enacted in
+all countries against gipsies. The very fact of being a gipsy, or
+consorting with them for a certain length of time, was, at one period,
+punishable by death in England. The greater part of these laws,
+however, had been repealed before the epoch at which the events
+recorded in this book occurred; and that wandering race were simply
+subject to the regulations respecting rogues and vagabonds. The old
+spirit of the penal statutes, however, was not forgotten, and the
+gipsies were often visited with bitter persecution long after those
+statutes had ceased to exist. It is not unworthy of remark, that in
+Scotland they have been, at various times, not only treated with great
+lenity, but that their leaders have been recognised by law as
+sovereign princes, exercising capital jurisdiction over their own race.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+Thanks to Jenner and vaccination, we (the English) are nowadays as
+handsome a people as any, perhaps, in Europe, with smooth skins and
+features as nature made them; but in the times I talk of, vaccination,
+alas! was unknown; and whatever the traveller we speak of might have
+been before he had been attacked by the smallpox, the traces which
+that horrible malady had left upon his face had deprived it of every
+vestige of beauty--if, indeed, we except his eyes and eyelashes, which
+had been spared as if just to redeem his countenance from the
+frightful. They--his eyes and eyelashes--were certainly fine, very
+fine; but they were like the beauty of Tadmor in the wilderness,
+for all was ugliness around them. However, his countenance had a
+good-humoured expression, which made up for much; neither was it of
+that vulgar ugliness which robes and ermine but serve to render more
+low and unprepossessing. But still, when first you saw him, you could
+not but feel that he was excessively plain; and yet there was always
+something at the heart which made one--as the ravages of the disease
+struck the eye--think, if not say, "What a pity!"
+
+The dress of the two strangers was alike, and it was military; but
+although an officer of those days did not feel it at all scandalous or
+wrong to show himself in his regimentals, yet such was not the case in
+the present instance; and the habiliments of the two horsemen
+consisted, as far as could be seen, of a blue riding-coat, bound round
+the waist by a crimson scarf, with a pair of heavy boots, of that form
+which afterward obtained the name of Pendragon. Swords were at their
+sides, and--as was usual in those days, even for the most pacific
+travellers--large fur-covered holsters were at their saddle-bows; so
+that, although they had no servants with them, and were evidently of
+that class of society upon which the more liberal-minded prey and have
+preyed in all ages, there was about them "something dangerous," to
+attack which would have implied great necessity or a very combative
+disposition.
+
+As the travellers rode on, the gipsy men, without moving from the
+places they had before occupied, eyed them from under their bent
+brows, affecting withal hardly to see them; while the urchins ran like
+young apes by the side of their horses, performing all sorts of
+antics, and begging hard for halfpence; and at length a girl of
+about fifteen or sixteen--notwithstanding some forcible injunctions
+to forbear on the part of the old woman who was tending the
+caldron--sprang up the bank, beseeching the gentlemen, in the usual
+singsong of her tribe, to cross her hand with silver, and have their
+fortunes told; promising them at the same time a golden future, and,
+like Launcelot, "a pretty trifle of wives."
+
+In regard to her chiromantic science the gentlemen were obdurate,
+though each of them gave her one of those flat polished pieces of
+silver which were sixpences in our young days; and having done this,
+they rode on, turning for a moment or two their conversation, which
+had been flowing in a very different channel, to the subject of the
+gipsies they had just passed, moralizing deeply on their strange
+history and wayward fate, and wondering that no philanthropic
+government had ever endeavoured to give them a "local habitation and a
+name" among the sons and daughters of honest industry.
+
+"I am afraid that the attempt would be in vain," answered the younger
+of the two to his companion. "And besides, it would be doing a notable
+injustice to the profession of petty larceny to deprive it of its only
+avowed and honourable professors, while we have too many of its
+amateur practitioners in the very best society already."
+
+"Nay, nay! Society is not as bad as that would argue it," rejoined the
+other. "Thank God, there are few thieves or pilferers within the
+circle of my acquaintance, which is not small."
+
+"Indeed!" said his companion. "Think for a moment, my dear colonel,
+how many of your dearly-beloved friends are there who, for but a small
+gratification, would pilfer from you those things that you value most
+highly! How many would steal from one the affection of one's mistress
+or wife! How many, for some flimsy honour, some dignity of riband or
+of place, would pocket the reputation of deeds they had never done!
+How many, for some party interest or political rancour, would deprive
+you of your rightful renown, strip you of your credit and your fame,
+and 'filch from you your good name!' Good God! those gipsies are
+princes of honesty compared with the great majority of our dear
+friends and worldly companions."
+
+His fellow-traveller replied nothing for a moment or two, unless a
+smile, partly gay, partly bitter, could pass for answer. The next
+minute, however, he read his own comment upon it, saying, "I thought,
+De Vaux, you were to forget your misanthropy when you returned to
+England."
+
+"Oh, so I have," replied the other in a gayer tone; "it was only a
+single seed of the wormwood sprouting up again. But, as you must have
+seen throughout our journey, my heart is all expansion at coming back
+again to my native land, and at the prospect of seeing so many beings
+that I love: though God knows," he added, somewhat gloomily--"God
+knows whether the love be as fully returned. However, imagination
+serves me for Prince Ali's perspective glass; and I can see them all,
+even now, at their wonted occupations, while my vanity dresses up
+their faces in smiles when they think of my near approach."
+
+His companion sighed; and as he did not at all explain why he did
+so, we must take the liberty of asking the worthy reader to walk into
+the tabernacle of his bosom, and examine which of the mind's gods it
+was that gave forth that oracular sigh, so that the officiating
+priest may afford the clear interpretation thereof. But, to leave an
+ill-conceived figure of speech, the simple fact was, that the picture
+of home, and friends, and smiling welcome, and happy love, which his
+companion's speech had displayed, had excited somewhat like envy in
+the breast of Colonel Manners. Envy, indeed, properly so called, it
+was not; for the breast of Colonel Manners was swept out and garnished
+every day by a body of kindly spirits, who left not a stain of envy,
+hatred, or malice in any corner thereof. The proper word would have
+been _regret_; for regret it certainly was that he felt when he
+reflected that, though he had many of what the world calls friends,
+and a milky-way of acquaintances--though he was honoured and esteemed
+wherever he came, and felt a proud consciousness that he deserved to
+be so--yet that on all the wide surface of the earth there was no
+sweet individual spot where dearer love, and brighter smiles, and
+outstretched arms, glad voices, and sparkling eyes, waited to welcome
+the wanderer home from battle, and danger, and privation, and fatigue.
+He felt that there was a vacancy to him in all things; that the magic
+chain of life's associations wanted a link; and he sighed--not with
+_envy_, but with _regret_. That it was so was partly owing to events
+over which he had no control. Left an orphan at an early age, the
+father's mansion and the mother's bosom he had never known; and
+neither brother nor sister had accompanied his pilgrimage through
+life. His relations were all distant ones; and though (being the last
+of a long line) great care had been bestowed upon his infancy and
+youth, yet all the sweet ties and kindred fellowship which gather
+thickly round us in a large family were wanting to him.
+
+So far his isolated situation depended upon circumstances which he
+could neither alter nor avoid; but that he had not created for himself
+a home, and ties as dear as those which fortune had at first denied
+him, depended on himself; or rather what in vulgar parlance is called
+a _crotchet_, which was quite sufficiently identified with his whole
+nature, to be considered as part of himself, though it was mingled
+intimately--woven in and out--with qualities of a very different
+character.
+
+This crotchet--for that is the only term fitted for it, as it was
+certainly neither a whim nor a caprice--this crotchet may be
+considered as a matter of history--of his history, I mean; for it
+depended upon foregone facts, which must be here explained. It is sad
+to overturn all that imagination may have already done for the reader
+on the very first news that Colonel Manners had a foregone history at
+all. He had not been crossed in love, as may be supposed, nor had he
+seen the object of his affections swept away by a torrent, burned in a
+house on fire, killed by an unruly horse, or die by any of those means
+usually employed for such a purpose. No; he had neither to bewail the
+coldness nor the loss of her he loved, because, up to the moment when
+we have set him before the reader, he had unfortunately never been in
+love at all.
+
+The fact is, that during his youth Colonel Manners had possessed one
+of the finest faces in the world, and every one of his judicious
+friends had taken care to impress deeply upon his mind that it was the
+best portion of all his present possessions or future expectations. By
+nature he was quite the reverse of a vain man; but when he saw that
+the great majority of those by whom he was surrounded admired the
+beauties of his face far more than the beauties of his mind, and loved
+him for the symmetry of his external person more than for the
+qualities of his heart, of course the conviction that, however much
+esteem and respect might be gained by mental perfections, affection
+was only given to beauty, became an integral part of that fine texture
+of memories and ideas which, though I do not think it, as some have
+done, the mind itself, I yet look upon as the mind's innermost
+garment. Such was the case when, at the age of about twenty, he was
+attacked by the smallpox. For a length of time he was not allowed to
+see a looking-glass, the physicians mildly telling him that his
+appearance would improve; that they trusted no great traces would
+remain: but when he did see a looking-glass, he certainly saw the
+reflection of somebody he had never seen before. In the mean while his
+relations had too much regard for their own persons to come near him;
+and when, after having purified in the country, he went to visit an
+antique female cousin, who had been a card-playing belle in the reign
+of his majesty of blessed memory, King George the First, the old lady
+first made him a profound courtesy, taking him for a stranger; and
+when she discovered who he was, burst forth with, "Good God, Charles!
+you are perfectly frightful!"
+
+To the same conclusion Charles Manners had by this time come himself;
+and the very modesty of his original nature now leagued with one of
+the deceptions of vanity, and made him believe that he could never, by
+any circumstances, or events, obtain love. Nevertheless he made up his
+mind to his fate entirely, and determined neither to seek for nor to
+think of a good that could not be his. Indeed, at first, according to
+the usual extravagance of man's nature, he flew to the very far
+extreme, and believed that, putting woman's love out of the question,
+even the more intimate friendship and affection of his fellow-men
+might be influenced by his changed appearance, and that he would be
+always more or less an object of that pity which touches upon scorn.
+These ideas his commerce with the world soon showed him to be
+fallacious; but in the mean time they had a certain effect upon his
+conduct. Possessing a consciousness of great powers of mind and fine
+qualities of the heart, he determined to cultivate and employ them to
+the utmost, and compel esteem and respect, if love and affection were
+not to be obtained. In his course through the army, too, the sort of
+animosity which he felt against his own ugliness, which had cut him
+off from happiness of a sort that he was well calculated to enjoy,
+together with that mental and corporeal complexion which did not
+suffer him to know what fear is, led him to be somewhat careless of
+his own person; and during his earlier years of service he acquired
+the name of rash Charles Manners. But it was soon found that wherever
+the conduct of any enterprise was intrusted to his judgment, its
+success was almost certain, and that skill and intrepidity with him
+went hand-in-hand.
+
+Gradually he found that, with men at least, and with soldiers
+especially, personal beauty formed no necessary ingredient in
+friendship; and with a warm heart and noble feelings--guarded,
+however, by wisdom and discretion--he soon rendered himself
+universally liked and esteemed in the different corps with which
+he served, and had an opportunity of selecting one or two of his
+fellow-officers for more intimate regard. Unfortunately, however, he
+saw no reason to change his opinion in respect to woman's love.
+Indeed, he sought not to change it; for, as we have already said, the
+belief that female affection could only be won by personal beauty was
+one of those intimate convictions which were interwoven with all the
+fabric of his ideas. He ceased to think of it; he devoted himself
+entirely to his profession; he won honour and the highest renown; he
+found himself liked and esteemed by his military companions, courted
+and admired in general society, and he was content: at least, if he
+was not content, the regrets which would not wholly be smothered--the
+yearnings for nearer ties and dearer affections, which are principles,
+not thoughts--only found vent occasionally in such a sigh as that
+which we have just described.
+
+His companion, though he remarked it, made no comment on his sigh;
+for, notwithstanding the most intimate relationships of friendship
+which existed between himself and his fellow-traveller, and which had
+arisen in mutual services that may hereafter be more fully mentioned,
+he felt that the length of their acquaintance had not been such as to
+warrant his inquiring more curiously into those private intricacies of
+the bosom from which such signs of feeling issued forth. He saw,
+however, that the proximate cause of the slight shadow that came over
+his friend lay in something that he himself had said in picturing the
+happy dreams that checkered his misanthropy; and putting his horse
+into a quicker pace as they got upon the level ground, he changed the
+subject while they rode on.
+
+The time, as we have said, was evening; and as the strangers passed by
+the gipsy encampment, a flood of purple light, pouring from as
+splendid a heaven as ever held out the promise of bright after-days,
+was streaming over the road; but as the travellers reached the flat,
+and turned the angle of the wood where the road wound round the bases
+of the hills, the sky was already waxing gray, and a small twinkling
+spot of gold here and there told that darkness was coming fast. At the
+distance of about half a mile farther, the river was first seen
+flowing broad and silvery through the valley; and a quarter of an hour
+more brought the travellers to a spot where the water, taking an
+abrupt turn round a salient promontory thrown out from the main body
+of the hills, left hardly room for the road between the margin and the
+wood. On the other side of the river, which might be a hundred yards
+broad, was a narrow green meadow, backed by some young fir plantings,
+and just beyond the first turn of the bank a deep sombre dell led away
+to the right; while the shadows of the trees over the water, the
+darkening hue of the sky, and the wild uninhabited aspect of the whole
+scene, gave a sensation of gloom, which was not diminished by a large
+raven flapping heavily up from the edge of the water, and hovering
+with a hoarse croak over some carrion it had found among the reeds.
+
+"This is a murderous-looking spot enough!" said Colonel Manners,
+turning slightly towards De Vaux, who had been silent for some
+minutes; "this is a murderous-looking spot enough!"
+
+"Well may it be so!" answered his companion abruptly; "well may it be
+so; for on this very spot my uncle was murdered twenty years ago."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed his fellow-traveller; "indeed--but on reflection,"
+he added, "I remember having heard something of it, though I was then
+a boy, and have forgotten all the circumstances."
+
+He spoke as if he would willingly have heard them again detailed; but,
+for a moment or two, De Vaux made no reply; and the next instant the
+sound of a horse's feet at a quick trot suddenly broke upon the ear,
+and called the attention of both. In a minute more, a horseman wrapped
+in a large roquelaure passed them rapidly; and though he neither spoke
+nor bowed, his sudden appearance was enough to break off the thread of
+their discourse. When he was gone, Colonel Manners felt that, though
+De Vaux might take it up again if he would, he himself could not in
+propriety do so. De Vaux, however, was silent; for he was not one of
+those men to whom the accidents and misfortunes of their friends and
+relations furnished matter for pleasant discourse; and the topic of
+course dropped there. Perhaps, indeed, the younger traveller showed
+some inclination even to avoid the subject; for he led the
+conversation almost immediately into another channel, pointing out to
+his friend the various hills and landmarks which distinguished the
+grounds of his father from those of his aunt, and dwelling with
+enthusiasm upon the pleasures that his boyhood had there known, and
+the hopes which his return had re-awakened in his bosom; and yet there
+was mingled with the whole a touch of fastidiousness which contrasted
+strangely enough with the warmth of feeling and expression to which he
+gave way in other respects. He seemed to doubt the very love, the
+happiness of which he pictured so brightly; he seemed to distrust the
+joys to which he was so sensitively alive; he even seemed, in some
+degree, to sneer at himself for giving the credence that he did to
+those things which he most desired to believe true.
+
+But Edward de Vaux had been brought up in a fastidious school. He had
+lived at the acme of fortune and trod upon circumstances all his life,
+and this we hold to be the true way of becoming misanthropical. It is
+nonsense to suppose that a man turns misanthrope in consequence of
+great misfortunes. No such thing! it is by being fortunate _ter et
+amplius_. The spoiled children of the blind goddess are those that
+kick at her wheel; and those on whom she showers nothing but
+misfortunes cling tight to the tire, in hopes of a better turn, till
+the next whirl casts them off into the wide hereafter.
+
+Edward de Vaux stood at the climax of fortune. Never in his life had
+he known what a serious reverse or great misfortune is; and
+consequently he had gathered together all the petty vexations and
+minor disappointments that he had met with, and, to use the term of
+Napoleon Bonaparte, had nearly stung himself to death with wasps.
+Perhaps, too, he might be fastidious by inheritance, for his father
+was so in a still higher degree than himself; though in the father it
+showed itself in irritable impatience, and a sort of contempt both
+tyrannical and insulting towards those whom he disliked; while in the
+son, mingled with, if not springing from, finer feelings: passing,
+too, through the purifying medium of a gentler heart, and corrected by
+a high sense of what is gentlemanly, his fastidiousness seldom showed
+itself except in a passing sneer at any thing that is false, affected,
+or absurd, in an indignant sarcasm at that which is base or evil, or
+in petulant irritability at that which is weak.
+
+As he now rode onward to rejoin those friends whom he had not seen for
+nearly three years, accompanied by a companion who had never seen them
+at all, the little world of his heart was in a strange commotion. All
+the joy which an affectionate disposition can feel was rising up at
+every point against the sway of cold propriety, and yet he tormented
+himself with a thousand imaginary annoyances. Now he fancied that the
+delight he felt and expressed was undignified, and might lower him in
+the eyes of his companion; now he chose to doubt that his reception
+from those he had left behind would be warm enough to justify the
+exuberant pleasure that he himself experienced; while, keenly alive to
+the slightest ridicule, he shrunk from the idea of exposing, even to
+his dearest friend, one single spot in his heart to which the lash
+could be applied.
+
+"I was foolish," he thought, "not to leave Manners in London for a
+day, and get all the joyful absurdities of a first welcome over before
+he came down. However, my aunt would have it so; and it cannot be
+avoided now."
+
+As they proceeded, the purple of the evening died entirely away, and a
+gray dimness fell over tree, and stream, and hill. Star by star looked
+out, grew brighter and brighter, as the wandering ball on which we
+travel through the inconceivable depth turned our hemisphere from the
+superior light, and at length all was night.
+
+In the lapse of ten minutes more, the road--which, winding about
+between the hills and the stream, was forced often out of its true
+direction,--had conducted them to a steep bank overhanging a wider
+part of the valley, and here Colonel Manners divined--for he could
+scarcely be said to see--that a scattered but considerable village lay
+before them. Up and down the sides of the hill, a hundred twinkling
+lights in cottage windows were sprinkled like glow-worms among the
+darker masses of orchard and copsewood; and now and then, as the
+travellers advanced, a bright glare suddenly flashed forth from some
+opening door; and then again was as speedily extinguished, when the
+entrance or the exit of the visiter was accomplished. Some watchful
+dog, too, caught the sound of horses' feet, and, after one or two
+desultory barks, set up his tongue into a continual peal. His
+neighbours of the canine race took the signal, and--not at all unlike
+the human species--ever inclined to clamour, yelped forth in concert,
+whether they had heard or not the noise that roused their comrade's
+indignation, so that the village was soon one continued roar with the
+efforts of various hairy throats.
+
+The salutation, however, was sweet to Edward de Vaux, for it spoke of
+home--or at least of a dwelling that was dearer than any other home he
+might possess; and, pausing a moment, he pointed onward to a spot,
+where, on the edge of the hill beyond the village, might be seen,
+cutting sharp upon the pale silvery gray of the western sky, the dark
+outline of a large house, with a plentiful supply of chimneys, of an
+architecture somewhat less light and fanciful than that of Palladio,
+but very well suited to a dwelling in the land of peace and comfort.
+
+"That is my aunt's house," said De Vaux, "and, though it is nearly
+three miles by the road from the spot where that horseman passed us,
+it is not much more than three-quarters of a mile by the path over the
+hill. But that path," he added, "is impracticable for horses, or I
+should certainly have risked breaking your neck, Manners, rather than
+take this long tedious round."
+
+Now, strange to say, the round that they had taken seemed longer and
+more tedious to Edward de Vaux, when he came within sight of the
+mansion which was to end his journey, than it had done at any other
+moment of the ride. But so it was; and without inquiring into things
+with which we have nothing to do, we may conclude that he felt some
+of those vague, unreasonable doubts and apprehensions, which almost
+every one experiences on the first view of one's home after a long
+absence--those fears which are the very children of our hopes--that
+anxiety which the uncertainty of human fate impresses upon our minds,
+till we are sure that all is well. Who is there that has not gazed up
+at his own dwelling-place as he returned from far, and asked himself,
+with a sudden consciousness of the instability of all things, "Shall I
+find nothing gone amiss? Has no misfortune trod that threshold? Has
+disease or sorrow never visited it? Has death turned his steps aside?"
+
+Whatever it was that Edward de Vaux felt, although the round seemed a
+long one, and the time tedious that it had consumed, he yet drew in
+his rein, not so as to bring his horse quite up, but to check him into
+a walk; while he pointed out the house to his companion, and gazed at
+its dark and distant mass himself. At that very moment, a single ray
+glimmered in one of the windows, passed on into another, and then
+three windows suddenly streamed forth with light. It looked like a
+beacon to say that all was well; and though no man in the present day
+cares a straw for things that in other years, when skilfully applied,
+have won battles and overthrown dynasties--I mean omens--yet every man
+has a silent, unacknowledged, foolish little system of augury of his
+own; and Edward de Vaux and his companion, at the sight of this dexter
+omen, set spurs to their horses, and rode merrily on their way.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The reader, who loves variety, will not be displeased, perhaps, to
+find that this story, leaving the two horsemen whom we have conducted
+a short stage on their way, now turns to another of our characters not
+less important to our tale.
+
+In the same wood, which we have already described as clothing the
+hills and skirting the road over which De Vaux and his companion were
+travelling, but in a far more intricate part thereof than that into
+which the reader's eye has hitherto penetrated, might be seen, at the
+hour which we have chosen for the commencement of our tale, the figure
+of a man creeping quietly, but quickly, along a path so covered by the
+long branches of the underwood, that it could only be followed out by
+one who knew well the deepest recesses of the forest.
+
+This personage was spare in form, and without being tall, as compared
+with other men, he was certainly tall in reference to his other
+proportions. His arms were long and sinewy, his feet small, his ankles
+well turned, and his whole body giving the promise of great activity,
+though at a time of life when the agile pliancy of youth is generally
+past and gone. He was dressed in an old brown long coat, "a world too
+wide" for his spare form, so that, as he crept along with a quiet,
+serpentine turning of his body, he looked like an eel in a great coat,
+if the reader's imagination be vivid enough to call up such an image.
+A hat, which had seen other days, and many of them, covered his brows;
+but under that hat was a countenance, which, however ordinary might be
+the rest of his appearance, redeemed the whole from the common herd.
+The complexion spoke his race: it was of a pale, greenish tint,
+without any rosier hue in the cheeks to enliven the pure gipsy colour
+of his skin. His nose was small, and slightly aquiline, though of a
+peculiar bend, forming, from the forehead to the tip, what Hogarth
+drew for the line of beauty. The eyebrows were small, and pencilled
+like a Circassian's, and the eyes themselves, shining through their
+long, thick, black eyelashes, were full of deep light, and--to use a
+very anomalous crowd of words--of wild, dark, melancholy fire. His
+forehead was broad and high; and the long, soft, glossy, black hair
+that fell in untrimmed profusion round his face had hardly suffered
+from the blanching hand of time, although his age could not be less
+than fifty-five or fifty-six, and might be more. His teeth, too, were
+unimpaired, and of as dazzling a whiteness as if beetle and recca had
+all possessed the properties their venders assert, and had all been
+tried on them in their turn.
+
+Such was his appearance, as, creeping along through the brushwood with
+a stealthy motion, which would hardly have disturbed the deer from
+their lair, he made his way towards the spot where we have seen that
+his fellows were encamped. He was still far distant from it, however;
+and although it was evident that he was, or had been, well acquainted
+with the intricacies of the wood, yet it appeared that some leading
+marks were necessary to guide him surely on his way; for, ever and
+anon, when he could find a round knob of earth, raising itself above
+the rest of the ground, he would climb it, and gaze for several
+moments over the world of wood below him, rich in all the splendid
+hues of autumn, and flooded by the purple light of the evening.
+
+Ever, as he thus looked out, there might be seen a column of
+bluish-white smoke rising from a spot at a mile's distance; and, after
+towering up solemnly in the still air for several hundred feet,
+spreading into light rolling clouds, and drifting among the wood.
+Thitherward, again, he always turned his course; and any one who has
+remarked the fondness of gipsies for a fire, even when they have no
+apparent necessity for it, will little doubt that the smoke, or the
+flame, serves them, on many occasions, for a signal or a guide.
+
+As progression through thick bushes can never be very rapid, the
+evening had faded nearly into twilight ere the gipsy reached the
+encampment of his companions. The hearing of those whose safety often
+depends upon the sharpness of their ears is, of course, sufficiently
+acuminated by habit; and although his steps were, as we have shown,
+stealthy enough, his approach did not escape the attention of the
+party round the fire. We have seen that they had taken but little
+apparent notice of the two travellers, who had passed them about a
+quarter of an hour before; but the sound of quiet footsteps from the
+side of the wood, the moving of the branches, and the slight rustle of
+the autumn leaves, caused a far greater sensation. Two or three of the
+stoutest started instantly on their feet, and watched the spot whence
+those sounds proceeded, as if not quite sure what species of visiter
+the trees might conceal. The moment after, however, the figure we have
+described, emerging into the more open part of the wood, seemed to
+satisfy his comrades that there was no cause for apprehension; and
+those who had risen turned towards the others, saying, "It is
+Pharold," in a tone which, without expressing much pleasure, at all
+events announced no alarm.
+
+Several of the young gipsies sprang up, shaking their many-coloured
+rags--for, like the goddess of the painted bow, their clothing was
+somewhat motley--and ran on to meet the new comer; while the elder
+members of the respectable assemblage congregated under the oaks,
+though they did not show the same alacrity, perhaps, as the younger
+and more volatile of the party, received him with an air in which
+reverence was mingled with a slight touch of sullenness.
+
+"Who has passed since I left you, William?" was the first question of
+the gipsy on his return, addressing one of the young men who had been
+lying nearer than the others to the high-road, and by whose side
+appeared, as he rose, a most portentous cudgel.
+
+"A woman with eggs from the market; three labourers from the fields; a
+gamekeeper, who damned us all, and said, if he had his will, he would
+rid the country of us: and two gentlemen on horseback, who gave Leena
+a shilling," was the accurate reply of the young gipsy, whose face, we
+must remark, assumed not the most amiable expression that ever face
+put on, as he recorded the comments of the gamekeeper upon his race
+and profession. The other, who has been called Pharold, at first paid
+no attention to any part of the account, except the apparition of the
+two gentlemen on horseback; but in regard to them, he asked many a
+question--were they old or young--what was their appearance--their
+size--their apparent profession?
+
+To all these inquiries he received such correct and minute replies, as
+showed that the seeming indifference with which the gipsy had regarded
+the two travellers was anything but real; and that every particular of
+their dress and circumstances which eye could reach or inference
+arrive at, had been carefully marked, and, as it were, written down on
+memory.
+
+The language which the gipsies spoke among themselves was a barbarous
+compound of some foreign tongue, the origin and structure of which
+has, and most likely ever will, baffle inquiry, and of English,
+mingled with many a choice phrase from the very expressive jargon
+called slang. Thus, when the gipsy spoke of gentlemen he called them
+_raye_, when he spoke of the peasant, he termed him _gazo_: but as the
+gipsy tongue may, probably, be not very edifying to the reader, the
+conversation of our characters shall continue to be carried on in a
+language which is more generally intelligible.
+
+The account rendered by the young man, however, did not seem
+satisfactory to the elder, who twice asked if that were all; and then
+made some more particular inquiries concerning the gamekeeper who had
+expressed such friendly sentiments towards his tribe.
+
+"Keep a good watch, my boys," he said, after musing for a moment or
+two on the answers he received; "keep a good watch. There is danger
+stirring abroad; and I fear that we shall be obliged to lift our
+tents, and quit this pleasant nook."
+
+"The sooner we quit it the better, I say," cried the beldam who had
+been tending the pot. "What the devil we do here at all, I don't know.
+Why, we are wellnigh four miles from a farm yard, and five from the
+village; and how you expect us to get food I don't understand."
+
+"Are there not plenty of rabbits and hares in the wood?" said the
+other, in reply; "I saw at least a hundred run as I crossed just now."
+
+"But one cannot eat brown meat for ever," rejoined the dame; "and tiny
+Dick was obliged to go five miles for the turkey in the pot; and then
+had very near been caught in nimming it off the edge of the common."
+
+"Well, give me the brown meat for my share," answered Pharold; "I will
+eat none of the white things that they have fattened and fed up with
+their hoarded corn, and have watched early and late, like a sick
+child. Give me the free beast that runs wild, and by nature's law
+belongs to no one but him who catches it."
+
+"No, no, Pharold, you must have your share of turkey too," cried the
+old lady; for although it may appear strange, yet as there is honour
+among thieves, so there may be sometimes that sort of generosity among
+gipsies which led the good dame who, on the present occasion, presided
+over the pot--though, to judge by her size and proportions, and to
+gauge her appetite by the Lavater standard of her mouth, she could
+have eaten the whole turkey of which she spoke herself--which led her,
+I say, to press Pharold to his food with hospitable care, declaring
+that he was a "king of a fellow, though somewhat whimsical."
+
+The gipsies now drew round their fire, and scouts being thrown out
+on either side to guard against interruption, the pot was unswung
+from the cross bars that sustained it, trenchers and knives were
+produced, and, with nature's green robe for a table-cloth, a plentiful
+supper of manifold good things was spread before the race of
+wanderers. Nor was the meal unjoyous, nor were their figures--at all
+times picturesque--without an appearance of loftier beauty and more
+symmetrical grace, as, reclining on triclinia of nature's providing,
+with the fire and the evening twilight casting strange lights upon
+them, they fell into those free and easy attitudes which none but the
+children of wild activity can assume. The women of the party had all
+come forth from their huts, and among them were two or three lovely
+creatures as any race ever produced, from the chosen Hebrew to the
+beauty-dreaming Greek. In truth, there seemed more women than men of
+the tribe, and there certainly were more children than either; but due
+subordination was not wanting; and the urchins who were ranged behind
+the backs of the rest, though they wanted not sufficient food,
+intruded not upon the circle of their elders.
+
+Scarcely, however, had the first mouthfuls been swallowed, and the cup
+passed its round, when the farthest scout--a boy of about twelve years
+of age--ran in, and whispered the mystical words, "A horse's feet!"
+
+"One--or more than one?" was the instant question of Pharold, while
+his companions busied themselves in shovelling away the principal
+portions of their supper, and leaving nothing but what might pass for
+very frugal fare indeed. "Only one!" replied the boy, running back to
+his post; and the next instant another report was made to the effect,
+that a single horseman was coming up the road at full speed, together
+with such personal marks and appearances as the dim obscurity of the
+hour permitted the scouts to observe. All this, be it remarked, was
+carried on with both speed and quietude. The motions of the scouts
+were all as stealthy as those of a cat over a dewy green, and their
+words were all whispered; but their steps were quick, and their words
+were few and rapid.
+
+The motions of the horseman, however, were not less speedy; and ere
+much counsel could be taken, he was upon the road, exactly abreast of
+the spot where the gipsies' fire was lighted. There he drew in his
+reins at once; and, springing to the ground, called aloud to one of
+the boys, who was acting sentinel, bidding him hold his horse.
+
+"It is he!" said Pharold, "it is he!" and, rising from the turf, he
+turned to meet the stranger, who, on his part, approached directly to
+the fire, and at once held out his hand to the gipsy. Pharold took it,
+and wrung it hard, and then stood gazing upon the countenance of the
+stranger, as the fitful firelight flashed upon it, while his visiter
+fixed his eyes with equal intensity upon the dark features of the
+gipsy; and each might be supposed to contemplate the effect of time's
+blighting touch upon the face of the other, and apply the chilling
+tidings such an examination always yields to his own heart.
+
+It is probable, indeed, that such was really the case; for the first
+words of the gipsy were, "Ay, we are both changed indeed!"
+
+"We are so, truly, Pharold," replied the stranger; "so many years
+cannot pass without change. But did my last letter reach you?"
+
+"It did," replied the gipsy, "and I have done all that you required."
+
+"Did you obtain a sight of him?" demanded the other, eagerly.
+
+"I did," answered the gipsy, "in the park, as he walked alone--I
+leaped the wall, and--"
+
+Hitherto, all those first hurried feelings which crowd upon us, when,
+after a long lapse of years, we meet again with some one whom
+circumstances have connected closely with us in the past, had
+prevented the gipsy and his companion from remarking--or rather from
+remembering--the presence of so many witnesses. In the midst of what
+he was saying, however, the eye of Pharold glanced for a moment from
+the face of his companion to the circle by the fire, and he suddenly
+stopped. The other understood his motive at once, and replied, "True,
+true; let us come away for a moment, for I must hear it all."
+
+"Of course," answered Pharold, "though you will hear much, perhaps,
+that you would rather not hear. But come, let us go into the road; we
+shall be farther there from human ears than anywhere else."
+
+As they walked towards the highway both were silent; for there is not
+such a dumb thing on the face of the earth as deep emotion; and for
+some reason, which may, or may not, be explained hereafter, both the
+stranger and the gipsy were more moved by their meeting in that spot
+than many less firm spirits have been on occasions of more apparent
+importance.
+
+After thus walking on without a word for two or three hundred yards,
+the gipsy abruptly resumed his speech. "Well, well," he said, "when we
+are young we think of the future, and when we are old we think of the
+past; and, by my fathers, there is no use of thinking of either! We
+cannot change what is coming, nor mend what is gone; but, as I was
+saying, I have seen him: I found that he walked every day in the park
+by himself, and I watched his hour from behind the wall, and saw him
+come up the long avenue that leads to the west gate--you remember it?"
+
+"Well, well," answered the other; "but how did he look?--Tell me,
+Pharold, how did he look?"
+
+"Dark enough, and gloomy," answered the gipsy: "he came with his hands
+behind his back, and his hat over his brows, and his eyes bent upon
+the ground; and ever as he walked onward, his white teeth--for he has
+fine teeth still--gnawed his under lip; and, for my part, if my
+solitary walk were every day to be like that, I would not walk at all;
+but would rather lie me down by the roadside and die at once. Well
+then, often too as he came, he would stop and fix his eyes upon one
+particular pebble in the gravel, and stare at it, as if it had been
+enchanted; and then, with a great start, would look behind him to see
+if there was anyone watching his gloomy ways; or would suddenly
+whistle, as if for his dogs, though he had no dog with him."
+
+His companion drew a deep sigh, and then asked, "But how seemed he in
+health, Pharold? Is he much changed? He was once as strong a man as
+any one could see--does he still seem vigorous and well?"
+
+"You would not know him," replied the gipsy, and was going on, but the
+other broke in vehemently.
+
+"Not know him? That I would!" he exclaimed, "though age might have
+whitened his hair and dimmed his eye--though suffering might have
+shrivelled his flesh and bowed his stature--though death itself, and
+corruption in its train, might have wrought for days upon him, I would
+know him so long as the dust held together.--What, Pharold, not know
+him?--_I_ not know _him?_"
+
+"Well, well," answered the gipsy, "I meant that he was changed--far,
+far more changed than you are--you were a young man when last we met,
+at least in your prime of strength, and now you are an old one, that
+is all. But he--he does not seem aged but blighted. It is not like a
+flower that has blown, and bloomed, and withered, but one that with a
+worm in its heart has shrunk, and shrivelled, and faded. He is
+yellower than I am, though I gain my colour from a long race who
+brought it centuries ago from a land of sunshine, and he has got it in
+less than twenty years from the scorching of a heart on fire. He is
+bent, too; and his features are as thin as a heron's bill."
+
+"Sad--sad--sad," said his companion; "but how could it be otherwise?
+Well, what more? Tell me what happened when you met him? Did he know
+you?"
+
+"At once," answered the gipsy; "no, no; I have seen one of my tribe
+with a hot iron and an oaken board make painting of men's faces that
+no water could wash out; and none should know better than you, that my
+face has been burnt in upon his heart in such a way that it would take
+a river of tears to sweep away the marks of it. But let me tell my
+tale. When I saw that he was near, I sprang over the wall into the
+walk, and stood before him at once. When first he saw me he started
+back, as if it had been a snake that crossed him; but the moment
+after, I could see him recollect himself; and I knew that he was
+calculating whether to own he knew me, or to affect forgetfulness. He
+chose the first, and asked mildly enough what I did there. 'I thought
+you were out of the kingdom,' he said, 'and had promised Sir William
+Ryder never to return.' I replied that he said true, and that I had
+not returned till Sir William Ryder had told me to do so."
+
+"What said he then?" asked the other, eagerly; "what said he to that?"
+
+"He started," replied the gipsy, "and then muttered something about a
+villain and betraying him; but the moment after, as you must have seen
+him to do long ago, he gathered himself up, and looking as proud and
+stern as if the lives of a whole world were at his disposal, he asked,
+what was Sir William Ryder's motive in bidding me return. 'Some motive
+of course, he has,' he added, looking at me bitterly. 'Does he intend
+to play villain, or fool, or both,--for whatever folly his knavery may
+tempt him to commit, he will only injure himself; for at this time of
+day it is somewhat too late to try to injure _me_;' and as he spoke,"
+continued the gipsy, "he nodded his head gravely but meaningly, as if
+he would have said, 'You know that I speak truth.'"
+
+The lip of the stranger curled as his companion related this part of a
+conversation in which he seemed to take no slight interest; but as we
+do not choose to know any thing of what was passing in his bosom, we
+must leave that somewhat bitter smile to interpret itself.
+
+"I told him," continued the gipsy, "as you directed me, that his
+friend stood in some need of five thousand pounds, and trusting to his
+lordship's kindness and generosity, had directed me to come back and
+apply to him for that sum. So when he heard that, his face grew very
+dark; and after thinking for a minute of two, he looked up two of the
+walks, for he stood in the crossing, to see if he could see any of the
+park-keepers, to give me into their hands--I know that was what he
+wanted. However there was no one there; and he answered, looking at me
+as if he would have withered me into dust, 'Tell Sir William Ryder,
+wherever he is, that he shall ring no more from me. I have sent him
+his thousand a year regularly, and if any of the packets missed him,
+he should have let me know; but I will be no sponge to be squeezed by
+any man's pleasure; nor do I care,' he went on, 'who conspires to
+bring any false accusation against me. I am prepared to meet every
+charge boldly, and to prove my innocence before the whole world, if
+any one dare to accuse me.' He spoke very firmly," added the gipsy;
+"and as long as he continued speaking I kept my eyes upon the ground,
+though I felt that his were bent upon me: but the moment he had done,
+I raised mine and looked full upon his face, and his lip quivered and
+his eye fell in a moment."
+
+"Did he hold his resolution of refusing?" demanded the other, over
+whose countenance, as he listened, had been passing emotions as
+various as those which the gipsy had depicted; "did he hold his
+resolution to the end?"
+
+"Firmly!" replied Pharold, "though he softened his tone a great deal
+towards me. He said he was only angry with Sir William Ryder, not with
+me, and asked where I had been during so many years; and when I told
+him in Ireland, he replied, that it was a poor country: I could not
+have made much money there; and then he talked of other days, when the
+old lord took me to the hall because I was a handsome boy, and kept me
+for two years and more, and would have had me educated; and he vowed I
+did mighty wrong to run away and join my own people again; and he took
+out his purse and gave me all that it contained, and was sorry that it
+was no more; but if I would tell him, he said, where we were lying, he
+would send me more, for old acquaintance sake; and all the while he
+talked to me he looked up the walks to see if he could see the
+park-keepers, to have me taken up, and to accuse me of robbing him, or
+of some such thing. I could see it all in his eye; and so I told him
+that we were lying five miles to the east; and took leave of him
+civily, and came away, laughing that he should think I was fool enough
+to fancy he and I could ever do anything but hate each other to our
+dying day."
+
+His companion mused for several minutes; and even when he did speak,
+he took no notice either of the gipsy's suspicions or of the news he
+gave him, but rather,--as one sometimes does when one wishes any thing
+just heard to mature itself in the mind, ere further comment be made
+upon it,--he linked on what he next said, to that part of Pharold's
+speech which might have seemed the least interesting, namely, the
+gipsy's own history; and yet, although he certainly did this, in order
+to avoid, for the time, the most important parts of his narrative, he
+did not do it with the commonplace tone of one who speaks of feelings
+with which he has no sympathy: on the contrary, he spoke with warmth,
+and kindness, and enthusiasm; and expressed profound regret that the
+gipsy had, in his boyhood, thrown away advantages so seldom held out
+to one of his tribe.
+
+"Why? why?" cried the gipsy, "why should you grieve? I did but what
+you have done yourself. I quitted a life of sloth, effeminacy, and
+bondage, for one of ease, freedom, and activity. I left false forms,
+unnatural restraints, enfeebling habits--ay! and sickness too, for the
+customs of my fathers, for man's native mode of life, for a continual
+existence in the bosom of beautiful nature, and for blessed health. We
+know no sickness but that which carries us to our grave; we feel no
+vapours; we know no nerves. Go, ask the multitude of doctors,--a curse
+which man's own luxurious habits have brought upon him,--go, ask your
+doctor's whether a gipsy be not to be envied, for his exemption from
+the plagues that punish other men's effeminate habits."
+
+"True, Pharold! true!" replied his companion; "but still, even the
+short time that you lived in other scenes must have given your mind a
+taste for very different enjoyments from those that you can now find.
+You must have seen the beauty of law and order; you must have learned
+to delight in mental pleasures; you must long for the society of those
+of equal intellect and knowledge with yourself."
+
+"And do I not find them?" cried the gipsy, warming in defence of his
+race; "to be sure I do. Think not that we have none among us as
+learned and as thoughtful as yourselves, though in another way. But
+you cannot understand us. You think that it is in our habits alone
+that we are different; but, remember, that when you speak to a true
+gipsy, who follows exactly the path of his fathers, you speak to one
+different in race, and creed, and mind, and feeling, and law, and
+philosophy, from you and yours. You think us all ignorant, and either
+bound as drudges to some low rejected trade, or plundering others,
+because we do not comprehend the excellence of laws. But let me tell
+you again, that there are men among us deeply read in sciences which
+you know not; speaking well a language, for a hundred words of which
+your schools have laboured long years in vain. Have we not laws, too,
+of our own? laws better observed than your boasted codes? But you
+choose to doubt that we have them, because we put you beyond our code,
+as you put us beyond yours. When was ever justice shown to a gipsy?
+and therefore we look upon you as things to pillage. You speak, too,
+of the pleasures of the mind. Do you think my mind finds no exercise
+in scenes like these? I walk hand in hand with the seasons through the
+world. Winter, your enemy, is my friend and companion. Gladly do I see
+him come, with his white mantle, through the bare woods and over the
+brown hills. I watch the budding forth of spring, too, and her light
+airs and changing skies, as I would the sports of a beloved child. I
+hail the majestic summer, as if the God of my own land had come to
+visit our race, even here; and in the yellow autumn, too, with the
+rich fruit and the fading leaf, I have a comrade full of calmer
+thoughts. The sunrise, and the sunset, and the midday, to me, are all
+eloquence. The storm, the stream, the clouds, the wind, for me have
+each a voice. I talk with the bright stars as they wander through the
+deep sky, and I listen to the sun and moon, as they sing along their
+lonely pilgrimage. Is not this enough? What need I more than nature?"
+
+Perhaps his companion, whose mind was in no degree wanting in
+acuteness, might imagine that in all the very enjoyments which the
+gipsy enumerated, as well as in the tone he used, were to be traced
+some remains of a better education than that of his race in general;
+and might believe, that had that education been continued, every
+pleasure that he felt would have been doubled by refinement. But all
+this came upon his mind as impression rather than as thought; and the
+reader will please to observe, that there is an immense difference
+between the two. The truth was, that ever since the conversation had
+turned to the gipsy himself, his companion had been doing what is
+oftener done than the world imagines; that is to say, talking without
+thinking, and listening without attending. In short, he was thinking
+of other things; and yet, as we have said, he spoke with kindness, and
+zeal, and real feeling; but the fact is, that the language he was
+talking was memory. Years before, he had come to the same conclusions,
+and held the same arguments in his own mind, regarding the very person
+in whose company he was now once more; so that--having, in all the
+news he had heard, greater calls upon present thought than he could
+well satisfy,--as soon as the gipsy began to speak of gipsy-life, he
+turned that topic over to memory, well knowing that she had a
+plentiful stock of ideas prepared to supply any demand upon such a
+subject; while intellect went on, quietly thinking of himself and of
+the present. This plan, when skilfully executed, has a collateral
+advantage, which, by-the-way, is often turned into a principal one;
+namely, that while you let memory go on with the conversation--unless
+she trips, or something of that kind--your companion does not perceive
+that you are thinking at all; and thus the stranger, apparently
+listened to, and took part in the gipsy's conversation about himself,
+while his inner soul was busy, most busy, with the other tidings which
+he had received. By the time that the enumeration of wild pleasures,
+afforded by a wandering life was over, he had settled his plans in his
+own mind; and, breaking off the subject there, demanded abruptly,--
+
+"When, Pharold--tell me, when did you see him?"
+
+He mentioned no name; and the gipsy, at once dropping the high and
+enthusiastic tone in which he had been speaking, answered, as to a
+common question, "It was but to-day--not four hours ago, or you had
+not found me here."
+
+"And why not?" demanded the other. "Whither would you go?"
+
+"Far away," answered the gipsy, "far away! I love not his
+neighbourhood; nor is it safe for me and mine. He thinks evil against
+us, and he will not be long ere he tries to bring his thoughts to
+pass."
+
+"But he cannot injure you," replied the other; "in all the things
+wherein you and he have borne a part, he has more cause to fear you
+than you have to fear him."
+
+"True! true!" said the gipsy; "and yet I love not his neighbourhood. I
+may have done things in this land in my youth, when passion and
+revenge were strong, and wisdom and forbearance weak, that I should
+little like to have investigated in my middle age. Not that I fear for
+myself; for, from the dark leap that all men must take, I have never
+shrunk through life. But I fear the sorrow of those that would weep
+for me, and the unjust mingling of the innocent with the guilty, for
+which your laws are infamous."
+
+His companion mused for a moment; and then, laying his hand upon the
+arm of the gipsy, he replied, in a tone where kindness mingled with
+authority: "Mark me, Pharold!" said he; "you know that I am not one
+either to counsel you amiss, or to fall from you at a moment of need:
+base, indeed, should I be, were I to do so, after all you have done
+for me. But my resolutions are not yet fixed--my mind is not yet
+made up; and I must hear more, and examine deeply, ere I execute my
+half-formed purpose. Still you have no cause to fear; call upon me
+whenever you need me; and, in the meantime, if you please, you can
+remove from the spot where you now are, but not so far that I cannot
+find you, for you must help me to the end of all this."
+
+"To the common, at the back of Mrs. Falkland's woods?" asked the
+gipsy: "they will hardly seek us there."
+
+"As good a spot as any," replied his companion; "and in the case of
+necessity, Pharold, here, I have written down where you may always
+find me in this immediate neighbourhood; remembering, in the meantime,
+all that you have promised."
+
+"I have promised--I have promised!" replied the gipsy; "and you never
+knew me break my word. But what is this you give me with the paper? I
+want not gold--and from you, William."
+
+"But your people may," replied the other; "take it, take it, Pharold;
+it is never useless in such a life as yours."
+
+"I will take it," answered the gipsy, "because it may give me more
+control over my people; for although among our nation there are men
+whose minds you little dream of, yet these I have here are not,
+perhaps, of the best,--not that they are evil either; but wild, and
+headstrong, and rash--as I was myself, when I was young."
+
+They had already turned in their walk, and were now re-approaching the
+fire, round which the gipsies were gathered. Their conversation had
+not been without its share of interest to either, and each had much
+matter for reflection: so that--as thought is not that which makes a
+man speak, but that which keeps him silent--they advanced without
+another word to the spot where the stranger's horse stood. It was a
+fine powerful animal, of great bone and blood; but it was standing
+like a lamb in the hands of a little boy, while the beautiful girl,
+whom we have mentioned as accosting the other travellers, now stood
+stroking his proud neck, and examining the accoutrements with a care
+that some people might have thought suspicious. As Pharold and his
+companion returned, however, she sprung away to the rest of her tribe
+with a step as light as the moonshine on the sea.
+
+"She is very beautiful," said the stranger, whose eye had rested on
+her for a moment; "who is she, Pharold?"
+
+"She is my wife!" replied the gipsy, abruptly.
+
+His companion shook his head with a sigh, and putting his foot in the
+stirrup, mounted his horse, and rode away.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+While such events as have just been described were passing in the
+wood, the two travellers whom we first brought before the reader, and
+to whom we must now return, rode on; but begging leave to pass over
+all their farther journey, as it did not consist of more than half a
+mile, we may bring them safe to the gate of the very house, whose
+lights and shadows they had seen from the slope above the village.
+
+By this time it was as dark as could well be desired. It was not
+exactly Egyptian darkness, for there was nothing in it that could be
+_felt_, but the sun was gone entirely; and the last fringe of his
+golden robe had swept the sky some time. The moon was not yet up, so
+that the stars had the sky all to themselves; but though they were
+shining as brightly as they did many a thousand years ago, when they
+were first sent glittering into the depths of space, they did very
+little to show the travellers their way.
+
+Edward de Vaux, indeed, had taken it into his head to go to the back
+entrance of his aunt's house. But the truth is, he had worked himself
+up, as he came along, into a belief that there might be some fuss made
+upon his return, and had conjured up before his imagination everything
+that might or could possibly occur, in which there was the least smack
+of ridicule; although all the time he knew perfectly well that his
+companion was of too generous and feeling a disposition even to dream
+that anything was ridiculous which sprung from the heart. He well
+knew, also, that those he was about to meet were by education, and
+habit, and natural character, the last persons in the world to do or
+say anything that was not graceful and _bienseant_. But still, as his
+imagination was not the most tractable imagination in the world, but
+roved hither and thither, whether he liked it or not, on all
+occasions, he could not get the better of her in the present instance;
+and therefore, in order that everything in the way of reception might
+pass as quietly and as quickly as possible, he rode up to the gate of
+the back court, and after feeling about for the bell for some time, he
+rang for admittance.
+
+After a little delay, a coachman with a powdered wig, and three rows
+of curls round his ears, opened the gates with a lantern in his hand,
+and demanded what the strangers wanted; but without other reply, De
+Vaux rode into the yard with his companion, and springing to the
+ground, exposed his well-known face to the glare of the lantern and
+the wondering eyes of old Joseph, the immemorial coachman, who,
+bursting forth into a loud exclamation, called vehemently to the
+groom, and the helper, and the stable-boy. "The oaken doors returned a
+brazen sound!" and not only those that the old curly-wigged official
+of the hammercloth called to his aid appeared with ready promptitude,
+but eke a footman emerged from the passage of the servants'-hall, and
+two or three pippin-faced housemaids were seen "peeping from forth the
+alleys green" beyond.
+
+Thus, as usual, De Vaux's precaution in regard to not making a bustle
+had, in fact, the very contrary effect in the house itself. But this
+was not all: his method of proceeding had the very contrary effect
+with his companion, also, to that which he had purposed. Colonel
+Manners certainly did think, in the first instance, that such an
+entrance was a somewhat strange one for the house he saw before him;
+and when he found that it was in truth the stable-yard into which he
+had been taken, he thought the conduct of his friend still stranger.
+But by this time Charles Manners had known Edward de Vaux too long not
+to have some slight insight into his character and into the weaknesses
+thereof; and as they had ridden along together upon that day's
+journey, various little traits, which might have escaped any but a
+very keen and a very friendly eye, had given him the key of his
+friend's feelings on his return--a key which he did not fail to apply
+on the present occasion. The result was, that he soon comprehended the
+general motives of De Vaux, though perhaps not all the little ins and
+outs of the business--ins and outs, by-the-way, which depended as much
+upon the plan and architecture of the house, and upon the fact of the
+first landing of the grand staircase leading at once into the little
+ante-room of the drawing-room, so that the voice and step of any one
+ascending could be recognised instantly, as upon anything else in the
+world.
+
+A slight smile curled Colonel Manners's lip as he perceived what had
+been passing in his friend's mind; but he would not have had that
+smile seen for any recompense that could have been offered to him,
+unless it had been that of curing his friend of a folly. But he knew
+very well that De Vaux was not a man to be laughed out of anything on
+earth; and that, with all his sensibility to ridicule, it was only so
+long as the sneer was silent and suppressed that he cared anything
+about it. The moment that the laugh was open, his pride took arms to
+defend the position which he occupied, and every one knows that pride
+would always rather blow up the place than capitulate.
+
+Colonel Manners did, indeed, wish that his friend could be taught,
+with the same sort of bold determination which he displayed in
+opposing the loud laugh, to despise the silent sneer, which is as
+often excited in the minds of the worldlings by traits of a good and
+noble nature as by folly or by awkwardness: but he knew that the only
+lessons he would receive upon the subject would be gentle ones, spoken
+by the voice of friendship, without a touch of sarcasm.
+
+"It is a pity, a great pity," thought he, "that De Vaux, who affects
+to, and perhaps really does, despise the opinion of the general fool,
+should thus, as it were, make himself a slave to the laugh of his own
+fancy. I hope and trust that his fair future bride may have influence
+enough to school him from these weaknesses."
+
+Such was all his comment; and by the time it was made their horses
+were in safe hands, and a footman, as antique as the coachman, was
+leading the way up the back stairs towards the drawing-room.
+
+De Vaux was somewhat uneasy at the back stairs, and at a distant
+prospect of the kitchen, and the servants' hall, and the housekeeper's
+room; but Manners, though he saw it all, appeared to see nothing,
+rubbed his boot with his riding-whip, and talked of North America
+with all the zeal and volubility of a Mohawk. His companion was
+relieved; and following the fat legs and white stockings of the old
+footman up the narrow staircase, they were soon in a small lobby which
+led into the drawing-room. Soft Turkey carpets covered the floor of
+the lobby; against each of the piers stood a small antique table of
+tortoise-shell and brass; and in the deep recesses of the windows were
+placed those immense and beautiful china jars which formed the glory
+of our great-grandmothers. These again were filled with a composition
+of all the sweet-scented leaves gathered from the garden during the
+past year; and which, mingled with orris-root and many a fragrant
+spice, diffused through the whole air a rich perfume of the eighteenth
+century.
+
+But there was music upon the air of this bower as well as perfume. It
+was the music, however, of a sweet, low-toned woman's voice, speaking
+some sentences of which nothing could be distinguished but the melody.
+Nevertheless, it made the fitful colour come up for a moment in the
+cheek of Edward de Vaux; and whether his heart beat more quickly, or
+whether it maintained its even pulse, is a problem which we shall
+leave others to solve; for, the next moment, the door was thrown open,
+and the visiters all silently and unannounced entered the room.
+
+It was a large handsome chamber, fitted up as unlike a modern
+drawing-room as possible. There was nothing in it of the last
+fashion, even of that day; but all was comfortable, and all bespoke
+both taste and affluence. On the walls were a few cabinet pictures,
+which at first appeared dark and dingy, but which, when any one
+looked farther, turned out gems; and on the rich and massive marble
+mantel-piece--which was itself nearly equal in size, and quite equal
+in value, to a house in a modern square--were placed pagodas, and
+feather fans, and screens, and many a little curiosity from different
+parts of the world--bracelets that might have clasped the arm of
+Cleopatra, and idols that had been acquainted with Captain Cook. The
+room, like every clever room, had a great number of tables of all
+sorts and sizes; and at two of these tables, not with hospitable cares
+intent, but very busy with that sort of idleness which ladies call
+work, sat two fair dames, who, in point of age, might divide between
+them the apportioned years of man. The division of those seventy
+years, however, was very unequal, as the one nearest the door had
+monopolized at least forty-six of them to herself, and had left
+her daughter--for such was the other lady--not much more than
+twenty-three. They were both very handsome women nevertheless; the
+mother feeling her years as light as a young king's crown, and the
+daughter, in addition to a very beautiful person, and a face where all
+that is fine was softened by all that is pleasing, having the advantage
+of youth and all youth's graces. There was one peculiarity in her
+countenance, which, as it had something to do with her mind, may
+as well be noticed. It was one of those faces which love not
+clouds--which smile where others frown; and as she sat with her eyes
+bent upon a provoking knot in her work, which for the last ten minutes
+had defied all her efforts to disentangle it, she was still
+half-laughing at the perversity of the silk, which seemed to take a
+pleasure in baffling her.
+
+There was a third person in the drawing-room, younger than either, and
+very different from both. As she lay upon a sofa at the other side of
+the room, with a book in her hand, and her eyes bent upon the pages,
+the light of the lamp falling at the same time from above upon her
+clear fair forehead, on her beautiful eyelids with their long dark
+eyelashes, and on the marble white chiselling of her nose and upper
+lip, she did not appear to be more than eighteen; but her real age,
+which we are bound to give, was twenty years, eleven months, and a few
+days, the exact number of which is forgotten. Her form was light and
+beautiful, and though those who did not love her might contend that
+she was certainly not equal to the Medicean Venus, yet she was a great
+deal more graceful than many another goddess, and as fair a specimen
+of the fairest of earth's creatures as the eye of man has ever seen
+since Eve's ill-fated experiment in Eden.
+
+Her hair was of that glossy golden brown, which is so beautiful and so
+seldom seen; and as the whole party had given up the expectation of
+their visiters for that night, she had turned back the shining curls
+which would have fallen into her eyes while reading; so that, with a
+wavy line on either side, they left her fair forehead bare, and formed
+a bunch of ringlets behind each ear, that might have defied the chisel
+of a Chantry.
+
+As the door which admitted De Vaux and his companion was that which
+led to the back staircase, the party in the drawing-room concluded,
+naturally enough, that it was opened by one of the domestics on some
+of the many motives or pretexts upon which a servant can visit the
+drawing-room. No one took any notice, no one looked up; and the fair
+girl upon the sofa went on commenting upon the book in her hand,
+without knowing that any one was listening to her gentle criticism.
+
+Thus each of the two visiters had time to make their own observations,
+if they chose it. A bright pleased smile lighted up the rough features
+of Colonel Manners, as he was thus at once admitted, without the help
+of an Asmodeous into the very heart of an English domestic circle, to
+each member of which he was a stranger. To him it was a sight full of
+pleasure and interest; it was a sight that he had seldom seen even
+when in England, and which he had not seen at all for several years
+while serving abroad: but it was one which fancy had often renewed for
+him in his solitary wanderings, which had been painted to his eye in
+the still night, and in the tented field on distant shores, which had
+been to him a dream, whereunto imagination could cling without the
+apprehension of disappointment; for he had ever thought of it as a
+thing whereof he might be the spectator, but never a sharer in its
+dearer ties.
+
+As for Edward de Vaux, he _did not_ choose to make any observations on
+the scene at all, for more fastidious in anticipation than in reality,
+the moment he was in the midst of his domestic circle a host of bright
+warm feelings rose up at once in his heart, and trampled every cold
+calculation of Chesterfieldism beneath their feet. Passing the old
+servant, who was himself amused to see the unconsciousness of the
+party in the drawing-room, De Vaux at once advanced towards the fair
+girl on the sofa. But there was a sound in his step different from
+that of any of the servants, which only let him pass half across the
+room ere her eyes were raised from the book and fell upon him. The
+sight instantly called into them a gleam as bright as sunshine after a
+storm, and the warm, eloquent blood rose into her cheek and brow,
+while with a voice of unquestionable icy, she exclaimed, "Edward! My
+dear aunt, here is Edward!"
+
+The next moment, however, the light of her glance faded away, the
+blood ebbed back from her cheek, and from that moment it was scarcely
+perceivable that Edward de Vaux was anything more to her than an
+intimate friend. It was all the work of an instant, and Colonel
+Manners had only time to think, "This is all very odd!" ere the other
+two ladies rose to welcome his companion and himself; while the one
+who had spoken, gracefully but composedly drew her small foot from the
+sofa to the ground, and advanced to meet her lover; contriving to
+execute what is sometimes a difficult man[oe]uvre, without showing
+half an inch of her ankle, though it might very well have borne the
+display.
+
+The elder lady now of course took the lead, and expressed her joy at
+the return of her nephew, in a manner which showed how compatible real
+dignity and grace are with every zealous and kindly feeling. "And
+this," she said the next moment, "is of course Colonel Manners; though
+you have not introduced him to me, Edward; but Colonel Manners indeed
+requires no introduction here; for allow me to say, my dear sir, that
+even were it not that you had saved the life of my nephew, and
+rendered him so many inestimable services, the son of your mother, who
+was my dear and early friend, would always be the most welcome of
+guests at my fire-side."
+
+Colonel Manners bowed, and replied, "I have been lucky enough to find
+among my mother's papers, madam, the letters of the Honourable Mrs.
+Falkland; and am aware how fortunate in a friend my parent was during
+the greater part of her short life. Most proud shall I be if the son
+may merit some portion of the same regard which you bestowed upon the
+mother."
+
+"You already command it, Colonel Manners," she replied:
+"Isadore,--Marian--Colonel Manners! My daughter--my niece, Miss De
+Vaux."
+
+Now this introduction puzzled Colonel Manners a good deal, for reasons
+which may as well be explained. He had heard long before, while
+abroad, that his friend Edward de Vaux, the only son of Lord Dewry,
+was affianced to his cousin, and that their marriage was to take place
+as soon as the young heir of the barony could return to his native
+country, provided that the lady were by that time of age. In the
+course of their intimacy in other lands, De Vaux had often spoken of
+his fair cousin Marian, and had indeed on their return besought
+Colonel Manners to accompany him down to the house of his aunt, in
+order to act the part of bridesman at his wedding, which was to take
+place immediately. With this request we have seen that he complied;
+but he had completely made up his mind to the belief that his friend
+was about to be united to the daughter of Mrs. Falkland, and he was
+now surprised to find a Miss De Vaux, towards whom the manner of
+Edward de Vaux was not exactly that which men assume towards their
+sisters. Besides, her name was Marian, that of his promised bride; and
+although this discovery, leaping over the head of all his own
+preconceptions, puzzled Colonel Manners for a moment, he soon set it
+all to rights in his own mind, by supposing, what was in fact the
+truth, that the fair girl we have described was the daughter of Lord
+Dewry's brother.
+
+All the while he was settling this to his own satisfaction, he was
+going through the manual of politeness, and doing De Vaux the favour
+of talking to Mrs. Falkland and her daughter, while the lover spoke in
+a lower tone to the other fair cousin. Whatever he said, however,
+seemed to have no very great effect upon her. She smiled, and seemed
+to answer him kindly and affectionately; but she displayed no further
+sign of that agitation which a girl in her situation might be expected
+to feel on the return of her lover from a long and dangerous
+expedition. Once, indeed, she laid her hand upon the table near her,
+and Colonel Manners saw that, notwithstanding the general composure
+which she seemed to feel, that hand trembled so much, that, as if
+conscious its tremour might be perceived, she instantly withdrew it,
+and suffered her arm to fall gracefully by her side.
+
+Manners marked all this, for from their first acquaintance De Vaux had
+interested him, as much perhaps by the contrast of the little foibles
+of his character with the greater and nobler qualities it possessed,
+as by any other circumstance: he had gradually suffered a deep regard
+for him to rise up in his heart; he had permitted imagination to
+indulge herself with bright pictures of his friend's domestic
+happiness; and in every little trait connected therewith he had a sort
+of personal feeling, which made him seek to discover all that he
+wished might be.
+
+After standing booted and spurred in the middle of the room for about
+ten minutes, and having learned that their servants had arrived with
+their baggage early in the morning of the same day, the two gentlemen
+retired to cast off their travelling costume, and attire themselves in
+apparel more suited to the drawing-room. Colonel Manners proceeded to
+the task systematically; and although he knew that nothing on earth
+could ever make him handsome, yet he took every reasonable pains with
+his dress, and was soon ready to descend again, with that neat, clean,
+soldier-like appearance for which he was particularly distinguished.
+De Vaux acted differently, as may well be supposed, and giving his man
+the keys of the trunk-mails, he cast himself on a chair; and, with his
+arms leaning on the dressing-table, remained for full ten minutes in
+deep and somewhat melancholy thought, while the servant continued to
+torment him every other minute, with--"Sir, do you want this?" or,
+"Sir, shall I do that?"
+
+Into his private thoughts we shall not at present pry, although we
+consider that we have a right to do so whenever the necessities of the
+tale may demand it; but in this instance it is only requisite to give
+the ending reflection of his revery, which may serve as a key to all
+the rest. "How cold Manners must have thought her reception of me! and
+yet her own lips, which never from her infancy spoke any thing but
+truth, have given me the assurance of her love. Well, we cannot change
+people's nature!--and yet she was very different as a child!"
+
+Such were the last dying words of his meditation and then, starting
+up, he proceeded hastily to dress himself, addressing the servant with
+as much impatience as if the man had been dreaming instead of himself.
+"There, give me that coat," he exclaimed. "Set down the dressing-case
+here. Put those shoes on the other side of the table; and throw the
+stockings over the back of the chair. How slow you are, William! Here
+now, pull off these great boots, and then go and see that old Joseph
+does not poison the horses with any of his nostrums." These various
+commands the man obeyed with as much promptitude as possible; and
+after he was gone, De Vaux proceeded to dress himself with all the
+haste of one who is afraid of being detected in loitering away his
+time. He was half-way through the operation, and was just arranging
+his hair, when Manners, whose rooms were on the opposite side of the
+corridor, rejoined him; and they descended together, without having
+made any comment on the subject which was certainly next to the heart
+of Edward de Vaux. He felt that in common delicacy he could not begin
+it, though he would have given worlds, by any curious process of
+distillation, to have extracted Colonel Manners's first impression of
+her he loved; and Manners was resolved to see more and judge more
+clearly, ere he ventured even the common nothings which are usually
+said upon such occasions.
+
+In the meanwhile, the ladies in the drawing-room had not, of course,
+refrained from comment on the appearance and arrival of their
+visiters. As the first object of all their affections was Edward de
+Vaux, his appearance and health naturally occupied several moments ere
+anything else was thought of.
+
+"How very well he looks!" said Mrs. Falkland; "his health seems
+greatly improved."
+
+"I never saw him look so handsome," said Isadore Falkland, "though he
+was wrapped in that horrid great coat."
+
+Marian de Vaux said nothing, but she repaid her cousin for her praises
+of her lover's looks by a smile as bright as an angel's, which
+fluttered away in a warm blush, though it had nearly been drowned in
+some sparkling drops that rose into her eyes. So she turned away, and
+began playing with the seals on the writing-table.
+
+"I am delighted that Edward has prevailed on Colonel Manners to come
+down with him," said Mrs. Falkland; "for I have longed to see him on
+his mother's account."
+
+"And I, because he saved Edward's life," said Marian de Vaux.
+
+"And I am delighted too," said Isadore Falkland, "because he seems a
+very agreeable gentlemanly man, though certainly a very ugly one--I
+think as ugly a man as I ever saw."
+
+"His face is certainly not handsome," replied her mother; "but his
+figure seems remarkably fine. His mother was as beautiful a woman as
+ever lived; and I have heard that till he was twenty he was equally
+good looking."
+
+"Poor fellow!" cried Isadore; "he has been very unfortunate, then; for
+it is better to be born ugly than to become so afterward."
+
+"I did not think him ugly at all," said Marian de Vaux.
+
+"That was because you only saw the man that saved Edward's life,"
+replied Isadore, laughing; "but he is not beautiful, I can assure you,
+Marian."
+
+"Happy are they, my dear Isadore," replied her mother, "who can 'see
+Othello's visage in his mind;' and I do not think you, my dear girl,
+are one either, to value any one for their personal appearance."
+
+"No, no, no, mamma! I am not," answered Miss Falkland; "but still,
+some sensible old gentleman has said that a good countenance is
+the best letter of recommendation; and now, had it not been that you
+had known Colonel Manners's mother, or that he had saved Edward's
+life--yet, notwithstanding--" she added, breaking off her sentence
+abruptly--"after all, perhaps, his face is just the one from which we
+should expect a man to save people's lives, and do a great many brave
+and noble things."
+
+"I think so, certainly," answered Mrs. Falkland. "However ugly it may
+be, I have seldom seen a face through which a fine mind shone out so
+distinctly."
+
+Such was the tenour of the conversation that went on in the
+drawing-room till the two gentlemen returned, and by their presence
+took themselves out of the range of topics. Other subjects were soon
+started, and filled the hours till supper-time. Edward de Vaux
+naturally took the place he loved best; and what passed between him
+and his fair cousin was not always loud enough in its tone, or general
+enough in its nature, to be very distinct to the rest of the party, or
+very interesting to the reader. Manners, who knew as well as any one
+how to effect a diversion in favour of a friend, placed himself near
+the other ladies, and displayed such stores of varied information as
+well occupied their attention. Those stores were somewhat desultory,
+perhaps, but they were gained from every source. Man, and all the fine
+and all the amusing traits of his character; countries, and all their
+beauties and their disadvantages; the history of other times, the
+varied events of the present; matters of taste and of science, the
+light wit of a playful imagination, and the choice knowledge procured
+by very extensive reading; all seemed to come within the scope of his
+mind. All too, had been refined and ornamented by judgment and good
+feeling, and his conversation had still the peculiar charm of
+appearing far less profound than it really was. It was all light, and
+playful, and gay; and yet, on rising from it, one felt improved and
+instructed, without well knowing how or in what. His memory, too, was
+excellent, and stored with a number of little anecdotes and beautiful
+scraps of poetry; and, without ever seeming to intrude them, he knew
+how to mingle them in the general current of what was passing, with
+tact almost as skilful as that of the greatest writer and most amiable
+man that centuries have witnessed upon earth--Sir Walter Scott.
+
+So extensive, indeed, seemed to have been the reading of their new
+acquaintance, that Mrs. Falkland wondered thereat in silence; while
+Isadore, well knowing that there is scarcely any question on the face
+of the earth that a young and pretty woman may not ask of a man under
+forty with perfect _bienseance_ and propriety, looked up with a smile,
+and said--"Pray tell me, Colonel Manners, where you have found time,
+while you have been defeating the king's enemies night and day, to
+read everything of every kind that is worth reading."
+
+"Oh, madam," he replied, "I am afraid I have read but little as
+compared with what I might have done. A soldier's life is the most
+favourable of all others for general reading; though, perhaps, not for
+pursuing steadily any particular study. He is for a few days full of
+active employment, and then for many more has hardly anything to do;
+and if he gives one half of his spare time to reading, he will, I
+believe, read more than many a philosopher. The only difficulty is in
+procuring books that are worth the trouble of poring over."
+
+In such conversation passed the hours till supper; for those were days
+of supper,--that most pleasant and sociable of all ways of acquiring
+the nightmare. When the meal was announced, it of course caused some
+derangement in the local position of the parties; and Edward de Vaux
+being brought for a moment nearer to his aunt than his other
+occupations had hitherto permitted, she took the opportunity of
+saying,--"I hope, Edward, your father will not be at all offended at
+your coming here first. He is sometimes a little _ombrageux_, you
+know; and I would advise you to ride over tomorrow as early as
+possible."
+
+"Oh! no fear of his being offended, my dear aunt," he replied. "In the
+first place, he wrote to give me that assurance. In the next place, as
+we chose to ride our own two best horses down, rather than trust them
+to two break-neck grooms, we could not have gone seventeen miles
+farther to-night: and in the last place," he added, in a lower tone,
+"you know that his lordship never likes visiters to take him by
+surprise; and as the invitation to Manners was yours, not his, of
+course I could not have brought him to the hall without writing, which
+I had no time to do. There is nothing he hates so much as any one
+taking him by surprise."
+
+Almost as he spoke, the old servant Peter, who had retired after
+announcing supper, once more threw the door open with a portentous
+swing, and proclaimed, in a loud voice, "Lord Dewry!" Something like a
+smile glanced upon Mrs. Falkland's lip, as the sudden and unexpected
+arrival of her brother contrasted somewhat strangely with what her
+nephew had just been saying. She paused in her progress to the
+supper-room, however; and, in a moment after, with a slow step, which
+was languid without being feeble, Lord Dewry entered the ante-room,
+and came forward towards them.
+
+While he is in the act of doing so, let us paint him to the reader--at
+least, as far as the outward man is concerned. Of the inward man more
+must be said hereafter. He was tall--perhaps six feet high, or very
+near it--and well made, though not excessively thin. His frame was
+broad, and had been very powerful; his shoulders wide, his chest
+expansive, and his waist remarkably small. In feature, too, it could
+be still discerned that he had once been a very handsome man; but his
+face was now thin and sharp, and his complexion extremely sallow. His
+eyes, however, were still fine, and his teeth of a dazzling whiteness.
+He might have numbered sixty years, but he looked somewhat older,
+although he had taken a good deal of pains with his dress, and lay
+under considerable obligations to his valet-de-chambre. The first
+impression produced on the mind of a stranger by the appearance of
+Lord Dewry was imposing but not pleasing; and, unfortunately, the
+unpleasant effect did not wear off. He looked very much the peer and
+the man of consequence, but there was a gloomy cloud upon his brow
+which was not melancholy, and a curl of the lip which was not a smile,
+and both prepared the mind of all who approached him, for not the most
+agreeable man in the world. His general expression, too, was cold, he
+had a look like the easterly wind, at once chilling and piercing; and
+though report said that he had been a very fascinating man in his
+youth, and had not always made the best use of his powers of pleasing,
+he did not seem at present to consider it at all necessary to use any
+effort to render himself agreeable, farther than the common forms of
+society and what was due to his own station required.
+
+"Well, my lord," said Mrs. Falkland, as he came forward, "I am happy
+to see you come to welcome our wanderer back again."
+
+As she spoke, Edward advanced to his father, who grasped his hand
+eagerly, while a smile of unfeigned pleasure for a single instant
+spread a finer expression over the worn features of the baron.
+"Welcome back, Edward!" he said; "welcome back! you look remarkably
+well! I have to apologize, Maria," he added, turning to his sister
+after this brief salutation bestowed upon his son, "I have to
+apologize for coming thus, without notice; but I have some business
+to-morrow, down at the park-house, of which I knew nothing till this
+morning; and I also wished to see Edward, whose devoirs here," and he
+turned towards Marian, "I knew must first be paid, according to all
+the rules of gallantry. How are you, my fair niece? You look a little
+pale. How are you, Isadore?" And the peer, without waiting to hear how
+any one was, cast his eyes upon the ground, and fixing upon a spot in
+the carpet, seemed calculating geometrically the precise measurement
+of all its strange angles.
+
+"We were just going to supper, my lord," said Mrs. Falkland; "will you
+come with us? But first let me introduce you to Colonel Manners." Lord
+Dewry acknowledged the introduction by a cold bow, while Manners said
+some words of course; and the question of supper being renewed, the
+nobleman agreed to go down with the party to the table, though he
+bestowed a word or two of heavy censure on the meal they were about to
+take.
+
+"It is, nevertheless," said Colonel Manners, "from its very hour, the
+most sociable one of the whole day; for by this time, in general, all
+the cares, and annoyances, and labours of the busy daylight are over;
+and, as is justly observed--I forget where--'nothing remains for us
+but enjoyment and repose.'"
+
+"Eating and sleep!" muttered Lord Dewry; "the delights of a hog and a
+squirrel;" but as what he said did not seem intended to be heard,
+Colonel Manners made no reply, though he did hear it; and the party
+seated themselves round the supper-table, in walking towards which
+these few sentences had passed. For some time the presence of the peer
+seemed destined to cast a gloom over the society in which he had so
+suddenly appeared. His manner even here, in the midst of his nearest
+relations, and by the side of his newly-returned son, was cold, stern,
+and gloomy, only broken by some flash of cynical scorn for things that
+other people valued, or by some biting sneer at the follies and
+weaknesses of his fellow-creatures.
+
+To his niece Marian de Vaux, however, his conduct was very different.
+At table he placed himself by her side; made an evident effort to
+render himself agreeable to her; and whenever he spoke to her softened
+his tone, and endeavoured to call up a smile. Such was his conduct on
+the present evening; but it maybe necessary also to stretch our view
+over the past, for his behaviour to his niece had always formed a
+strange contrast to his conduct towards others. The first effect of
+her presence, when he had not seen her for some time, was almost
+always to throw him into a fit of deep gloom; and those who watched
+him narrowly might have remarked his lip move, as if he were speaking
+to himself, though no sound was heard. From this fit of abstraction he
+generally roused himself soon, but it was evidently at the cost of
+great efforts; and then he would speak to his niece with a degree of
+tenderness which bordered on timidity, and treat her with attention
+approaching to gallantry. Any one who saw him in conversation with her
+might easily conceive him to have been the fascinating and courtly man
+that report had represented him in his younger days; and there was a
+kindness and gentleness in his whole demeanour towards her, which,
+together with the family name that she bore, had often caused her to
+be taken for his daughter. Nevertheless, even across the moments when
+he seemed exerting himself to please her, would break occasionally the
+same fits of gloom, called up by apparently the least calculated to
+produce any such effect. They were then always brief, however; and a
+seemed that the original exertion to conquer the dark feelings which
+the first sight of his niece appeared to arouse, was sufficient to
+hold all the rest in check.
+
+It was only to her, however, that he was thus gentle. Her presence
+made no difference in his conduct towards others; and the moment his
+attention or his speech was called from the conversation with his
+niece, he seemed to become a different being,--dark, stern, and
+overbearing.
+
+Such a demeanour, of course, was not calculated to promote any thing
+like cheerful conversation; and the atmosphere of his gloom would have
+affected all those by whom he was surrounded, and extinguished every
+thing like pleasure for that night, had it not been for the
+counteracting influence of Colonel Manners. He, without the slightest
+touch of obtrusiveness or self-conceit, by a just estimation of
+himself and others, was always in possession of his own powers of
+mind; and never suffered the presence of any other individual--unless,
+indeed, it was that of one whom he could at once admire and love--to
+give a tone to his behaviour, to restrain him in what he chose to say,
+or to frighten him from what he chose to do.
+
+He took the tone of his conversation from his own heart, and from its
+feelings at the time; and, guarded by fine sensibilities, good taste,
+knowledge of the world, and a refined education, there was not the
+slightest fear that he would ever give pain to any one whose
+approbation he valued. Of all this he was himself well aware; and,
+after a few moments given to something like wonder at the character of
+Lord Dewry, he proceeded in the same manner as if such a person had
+not been in existence.
+
+Isadore Falkland, as soon as she found that such powerful support was
+prepared for her, boldly resisted the influence of her uncle's
+presence also. Mrs. Falkland, whose naturally strong mind was not
+unfitted to cope with her brother, held on the even tenour of her way;
+and Edward de Vaux joining in, the conversation soon became once more
+general and cheerful. It had taken another turn, however; and the
+subject had become the mutual adventures of Colonel Manners and Edward
+de Vaux, in the war which was then raging between France and England
+in North America. Many was the wild enterprise, many the curious
+particular, that they had to speak of; "hair's breadth escapes and
+perils imminent"--scenes and persons quite fresh and strange to
+Europeans; a new world, and all that a new world contained, with a
+system of warfare totally different from any thing that had ever been
+seen on the older continents. At that time, neither a barbarous policy
+nor a criminal negligence had produced any of those lamentable results
+which are rapidly exterminating the Indian nations of America: but, at
+the same time, a most barbarous policy had--instead of endeavouring to
+civilize and soften the dusky natives of the woods, the real lords of
+the land--had engaged them, with all their fierce and horrid modes of
+warfare, in the contention between the two great bands of European
+robbers, who were struggling for the country that really belonged to
+the savage. Of these Indian nations, and of their wild habits, both
+Manners and De Vaux spoke at large; and many a strange scene had they
+witnessed together among the uncultivated woods and untamed people of
+the transatlantic world.
+
+Often, too, Manners, with kind and friendly zeal, would make Edward de
+Vaux the hero of his tale; and while he related, as if he were
+speaking of ordinary events, some gallant exploit or some noble
+action, would suffer his eye to glance for a single instant,
+unperceived, to the countenance of Marian de Vaux; it was generally
+calm and tranquil--beautiful, but still; yet occasionally, when the
+moment of danger or of interest came, and when Edward extricated
+himself gallantly from some difficult or dangerous situation, there
+was a bright light beamed up in her eyes, a long-drawn breath, and a
+flickering colour, which satisfied Manners that all was well.
+
+Nevertheless, Manners could not, of course, speak of his friend's
+adventures without a little delicate man[oe]uvring, in order to make
+the tale appear more a general than a personal one; nor could he
+continue the subject long. Often, therefore, he returned to the
+Indians, and often to the state of America in general, while Mrs.
+Falkland and her daughter gave him, by manifold questions and
+observations, full opportunity of varying the subject _ad libitum_.
+They sought to know, among other facts, what link of connection could
+possibly have sprung up between the Indians and the Europeans so
+strong as to make the savage nations have any feeling of regard or
+interest towards either of the countries which only struggled to
+monopolize the means of plundering and destroying them.
+
+"Oh, you must not think, my dear madam," answered Colonel Manners,
+"that all persons who visit America are actuated by one selfish
+motive, or pursue one system of fraud and oppression towards the
+Indians. On the contrary, there are many who go over there with the
+philanthropic motive of civilizing and benefiting the savage tribes
+themselves; and who, in the endeavour to effect this object, display a
+degree of wisdom, perseverance, judgment, and courage, that is quite
+astonishing. Nor are these qualities without the most immense effect
+upon the wild aborigines of the land, who look up to such men almost
+as they would to a god. De Vaux and I know a very remarkable instance
+of the kind, in one of the most noble-spirited and excellent of human
+beings, to whom we are both under no small obligations. He nursed me
+through a long and severe fever, when my senses were quite gone; and
+afterward enabled me, by his influence with the Indians, to render
+your nephew some small service--which, however, was entirely
+attributable to his exertions."
+
+"Nay, nay, Manners," replied De Vaux; "to yours as much as his, and
+more; for had you not ventured, at the head of a party of Indians, two
+hundred miles into a hostile country, not a step of which you knew--"
+
+"Well, well, De Vaux," answered his friend, "you must own that he went
+with me, though he did not know you, and I did. You must not take away
+from the merit of my hero, for such I intend to make him in these
+ladies' eyes. I know not, however, how you will like a hero of sixty,
+Miss Falkland; but such, I must confess, he is at least. He has now
+lived for many years, upon the very borders of civilization, or rather
+beyond it, for his house is surrounded by forests and Indian wigwams.
+He has never taken any part in the contentions of the tribes, and
+seems equally venerated by all, showering good and blessings upon the
+heads of every one who approaches him. He is deeply versed in the laws
+and the manners of the natives, too; and, though a finished and
+elegant scholar and gentleman, conforms when necessary, to their
+usages, in a manner that is at once amusing and admirable. He is, at
+the same time, the most skilful and indefatigable hunter that the
+world, perhaps, ever produced,--an accomplishment which renders him
+still more venerable in the eyes of the Indians, who, on account of
+all these qualities, have named him 'The White Father.'"[2]
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 2: We need hardly point out to the reader, that though the
+name Has been changed, the character of a well-known individual is not
+here overdrawn.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"Delightful creature!" exclaimed Miss Falkland, with her beautiful
+eyes sparkling like diamonds; "but tell me, Colonel Manners, tell me,
+what is he like? Mamma, if you have no objection, I will go out and
+marry him."
+
+"None in the world, my love!" answered Mrs. Falkland; "but, perhaps,
+it may be better, first, to send over and ask whether he will marry
+you."
+
+"That he will of course," answered she: "but, Colonel Manners, you
+have not told me what he is like--in person I mean."
+
+"Oh, he is fresh and hale as a life of exercise and a heart at rest
+can make him," replied Manners. "Indeed, he is as handsome a man as
+ever I saw."
+
+"Oh, that will do exactly!" cried Miss Falkland, laughing. Colonel
+Manners smiled too; but there was a tinge of melancholy in his smile;
+for, however much he might have made up his mind to the fact, that
+personal beauty is an indispensable requisite to obtain woman's love,
+yet every little trait which served to confirm that opinion touched a
+gloomy chord in his bosom, which again called forth the tone of many a
+harmonizing feeling, and made somewhat sad music within.
+
+"And pray, Colonel Manners," said Lord Dewry, with the cold, if not
+supercilious tone which he generally employed, "what may be the name
+of the wonderful person who does all these wonderful things?"
+
+"The name, my lord," replied Colonel Manners coolly, "the name of the
+gentleman who went two hundred miles into the Indian country to save
+your son, Captain de Vaux from the tomahawk, without ever having seen
+him, is one known throughout the greater part of America,--Sir William
+Ryder."
+
+Lord Dewry turned suddenly still paler than he was before; and then as
+red as fire. Whether it was that some feelings had been excited by
+that name with which he did not choose to trust his lips, or whether
+his emotion proceeded from temporary illness, did not appear; but he
+replied nothing; and Colonel Manners, by whom the peer's agitation had
+not been totally unmarked, went on. "If I remember right," he said, "I
+heard Sir William Ryder ask after your lordship's health from De Vaux,
+and say that he had known you many years ago in England."
+
+"I once knew, sir," replied Lord Dewry, drawing himself up, "I once
+knew an unworthy blackguard of that name, who is now I believe, in
+America; but he has no right to claim acquaintance with me."
+
+De Vaux looked at his father with astonishment, and then turned his
+eyes towards Manners, as if to pray him patience; but his friend was
+perfectly calm, and replied:--"Your lordship must allude to some
+different person, as the description does not at all correspond with
+him of whom I speak."
+
+"No, no, sir," answered the baron, reddening, "I speak of the same
+person,--there can be no doubt of it,--a gambling beggar!"
+
+"If you do speak of the same person, Lord Dewry," replied Colonel
+Manners, quite calmly, "I must beg of you to remember, that you speak
+of my friend; and in the presence of one who does not like to hear his
+friend's character assailed."
+
+"Indeed, sir, indeed!" exclaimed Lord Dewry, rising; "do you kindly
+wish to dictate to me, in my sister's house, what I am to say of a
+person, who it seems, has formed an unfortunate intimacy with my own
+son; and is, as I said, a gambling beggar?"
+
+Manners paused a moment. He and De Vaux were alike under deep
+obligations to the man of whom Lord Dewry spoke; and he felt that the
+language used by the peer was not only a gross personal insult to both
+of them, but especially to himself, who had been the means of
+introducing him to his companion, and who had the moment before
+bestowed such high and unqualified praise on the very person whom he
+now heard reviled. He remembered Lord Dewry's age and situation,
+however, and his own particular position, and endeavoured to moderate
+his reply as much as possible; though to pass the matter over in
+silence, or to leave the charges of the peer without direct
+contradiction, he felt to be impossible, as an officer, a man of
+honour, or the friend of Sir William Ryder.
+
+"Your personal opinion, my lord," he answered, "you may, of course,
+express to your own son, or your own family whenever you like,
+provided it be not injurious to any friend of mine. In which last case
+I shall, as before, beg your lordship to refrain in my presence, for I
+am not a man to hear a friend calumniated in silence."
+
+"Calumniated, sir! calumniated!" exclaimed Lord Dewry.
+
+"Yes, sir, such was the word I made use of," replied Colonel Manners,
+"because the expressions you applied to Sir William Ryder were
+calumnious, if applied to my friend, whom a long life of noble actions
+raises above suspicion; but I trust and believe we are speaking of
+different persons."
+
+"'Tis well, sir; 'tis very well!" replied Lord Dewry, appearing to
+grow somewhat cooler; "'tis extremely well!--I trust it is as you say.
+Give me a glass of soda-water. Maria, I shall now retire to rest;
+I am somewhat fatigued: my apartments are, I think, opposite the
+drawing-room. Good-night!--Colonel Manners, I wish you good-night!"
+And, bowing with low and bitter courtesy, he left the room.
+
+Colonel Manners, whatever might be his feelings, and whatever might be
+his intentions, took no notice of what had passed after Lord Dewry
+left the room, although he could not but feel that he had been
+insulted by a man whose age protected him; but both Mrs. Falkland and
+De Vaux spoke upon the subject, after a moment's painful pause. The
+first apologized with dignified mildness for the occurrence, and
+assuring her visiter that something strange and extraordinary must
+have irritated her brother during the course of the day, or that he
+would not so far have forgot his usual _bienseance_; and the latter
+pressed his friend with kindly earnestness to forget what had
+occurred, and not to suffer it to affect his conduct, or abridge his
+stay.
+
+Colonel Manners smiled, and suffered himself to be overcome: "You
+know, De Vaux, that I am not one to be driven from my position by the
+first fire," he said; "and as I suppose that Lord Dewry and myself
+will not meet very frequently after the present time, we shall have
+but few opportunities of being as agreeable to each other as we have
+been to-night."
+
+Thus ended the conversation, and soon after the party separated, each
+grieving not a little that the harmony of the evening had been so
+unfortunately interrupted, when there was no reason to expect such an
+event.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The mind of man is a curious thing, in some respects not at all unlike
+an old Gothic castle, full of turnings and windings, long dark
+passages, spiral staircases, and secret corners. Among all these
+architectural involutions, too, the ideas go wandering about,
+generally very much at random, often get astray, often go into a wrong
+room and fancy it their own; and often, too, it happens that, when one
+of them is tripping along quite quietly, thinking that all is right,
+open flies a door; out comes another, and turns the first back
+again--sometimes rudely, blowing her candle out, and leaving her in
+the dark,--and sometimes taking her delicately by the tips of the
+fingers, and leading her to the very spot whence she set out at first.
+
+Colonel Manners, retiring to his bedchamber, though he seldom, if
+ever, indulged in reveries of happiness which were never to be
+realized, could not help sitting down to think over the events
+of the evening, and the circle to which he had been introduced.
+In the first place, he took great care to turn the idea of Lord Dewry
+and his rudeness out of the castle, being a great economizer of
+pleasant thoughts; and then, with somewhat of a sigh (the sort of
+semi-singultus which people give to something irremediable in their
+own fate, while contemplating the state of another), he thought, "De
+Vaux is a very happy man! and yet," he continued, "though she is very
+beautiful, too, and evidently has deeper feelings beneath that calm
+exterior, yet, had I had to choose between the two cousins, I would
+have fixed upon the other." As he thus went on thinking, Colonel
+Manners began to remember that his thoughts might be treading upon
+dangerous ground: he did not know even that they might not be drawn
+into an ambuscade of dreams and wishes which he had long, as he
+fancied, defeated for ever; and, therefore, he hastily beat the
+general, and marched the whole detachment off to join his own
+regiment. What we mean is, that he turned his mind to military
+affairs, and would very fain have thought no more either of Mrs.
+Falkland's domestic circle, or of the future happiness of his friend;
+or, at least, he would have schooled himself, if he did think of such
+things at all, not to extract any personal feelings therefrom, but to
+let them be to him as matters in which he had no further share than as
+in a passing pageant of a pretty device, through which he was to move
+as he would have done through a minuet, forgetting it all as soon as
+the music ceased. Still, however, as he went on thinking, open flew
+some of the doors of association, and ever and anon out started some
+fresh idea, which brought him back to the happiness of his friend, and
+the delight of seeing a family circle of one's own, and looks of
+affection, and a joyful welcome after toil, and exertion, and danger
+were over.
+
+As sleep, however, is a strong fortress against the attack of
+dangerous thoughts, he resolved to take refuge there from a force that
+was too powerful for him; and, going to bed, he was soon within the
+gates of slumber. But fancy turned traitor within his fortress, and,
+ere long, whole troops of dreams poured in, laying his heart prostrate
+before imaginations which he had repelled with veteran courage for
+more than fourteen years. There was, of course, no resisting under
+such circumstances: the garrison threw down their arms, and he went on
+dreaming of love and domestic happiness all night. It did him no harm,
+however, for one of the most curious phenomena which take place in
+regard to those wild visitants, dreams, occurred in this case. The
+visions that had come to him had all been as vivid as reality: he had
+felt more and more acutely than he had, perhaps, ever felt in life;
+there had been pleasures and pains, intense and varying; events and
+feelings which, had they occurred in waking existence, he would have
+remembered till the last hour of his life; and yet, when he awoke, he
+had forgotten the whole. It was as if some after-sleep, with a sponge
+dipped in Lethe, had passed by, and wiped out from the tablet of
+memory all but a few rough scratches, sufficient to show the dreams
+had been there.
+
+The day was yet young when he awoke; but Manners was habitually an
+early riser--a habit that generally springs from two causes--vigorous
+health, a frame without languor, and easily refreshed; or from a
+refined heart, at ease within itself. When he had prayed--for all
+noble-minded beings pray; and the only truly great pride is the pride
+with which one owns one's self the servant of God: it is the soldier
+pointing to the colours under which he serves--when he had prayed, he
+dressed himself, somewhat slowly, gazing from time to time out of the
+window over the rich landscape sparkling with dew and morning; and
+then, opening his door, went out with the purpose of breathing the
+fresh air of the early day. The windows at either end of the corridor
+were still closed, for it had scarcely struck six, but the skylight
+over the staircase gave light enough; and Colonel Manners, descending,
+found a housemaid, with unbought roses on her cheeks, and blue arms,
+busily washing the marble hall and the steps that went out into the
+garden, which, stretching away to the south-west, was separated from
+the park in which the house stood, by a haw-haw and a light fence.
+
+Give me a flower-garden, in the early morning, with its dry
+gravel-walks shining in the fresh sunbeams, and all the thousands of
+flowers which man's care and God's bounty have raised to beautify our
+dwellings, expanding their refreshed petals to the young light. The
+garden into which Colonel Manners now went forth was an old-fashioned
+one, with manifold beds, arranged in as many mathematical figures.
+Each bed, fringed with its close-cut green border of box, was full of
+as many flowers as it would hold, and as the season afforded; and
+though of late many a foreign land has been ransacked to procure new
+exotics for our grounds, yet even then the garden was not without its
+rich assortment of flowering shrubs; some still bearing the blossom,
+some fallen into the fruit. Between the beds--and, as the gardens were
+of very great extent, the beds were not very close together--were
+spaces of soft green turf, sometimes flanked with holly, or hedged
+with yew, so as to make a sort of little bowling-green; sometimes wide
+open to the gay sunshine, and full of innumerable thrushes and
+blackbirds, hopping along, with their fine shanks sunk amid the blades
+of grass. Here and there, too, was an arbour covered with clematis;
+and hothouses and green-houses now and then peeped out from behind the
+shrubberies, on the sunny side of the garden.
+
+Colonel Manners took his way along a walk that flanked the enclosure
+to the east, and which, running by the side of the haw-haw, a little
+elevated above the park and surrounding country, gave, on the one
+side, an extensive prospect over a rich and smiling landscape, with
+the deer bounding over the grass, and the cattle lowing along the
+distant upland; and, on the other, showed the garden--somewhat formal,
+perhaps, but neat, and beautiful, and sparkling. He was a soldier, and
+a man of the world, and he loved books, and he did not dislike
+society; but, perhaps, there never was a man upon earth who more
+thoroughly enjoyed a solitary morning walk amid flowers and beautiful
+scenery--scenery in which one can pause and fill one's eye with fair
+sights, while the ideas springing from each particular blossom, or
+from the whole general view, can ramble out into a world of indistinct
+loveliness, wherein one can scarcely be said to think, but rather to
+live in a sensation of happiness which approaches near to heaven.
+
+Although, as we have observed, one can scarcely be said to think, yet
+there is no situation on the earth--or very few--in which a man so
+little likes to have his thoughts interrupted, and his fine
+imaginations forcibly called back to the dull ground. Colonel Manners,
+therefore, was not very well pleased, when, after following the walk
+which he had chosen to the end, he heard footsteps beyond the bushes,
+round which the path now swept.
+
+Had these footsteps, indeed, possessed that light peculiar sound which
+is produced by a small and pretty foot, Colonel Manners, who never
+objected to see the beautiful things of nature enhanced by the
+presence of the most beautiful, might not have thought his reveries
+unworthily disturbed. In the present instance, however, the sound was
+very different: it was the dull, heavy, determined step of a foot that
+takes a firm hold of the ground; and, as he went on, he was not
+surprised to meet with Lord Dewry at the turning of the walk.
+
+Colonel Manners, if he had not forgot all about their discussion of
+the preceding evening, had remembered it as little as possible; and,
+being one of those happy men who never suffer any annoyance of such a
+nature to rankle at the heart, he had settled the matter in his own
+mind by thinking that the old gentleman had the toothache, or
+some of those corporal pangs and infirmities which cause and excuse
+ill-temper, and sometimes even rudeness, at that period of life when
+the passing away of those mighty blessings, vigour and health, is in
+itself matter enough for irritation. As, however, he never liked to
+subject himself to occasions for commanding his temper, he proposed,
+in the present instance, merely to give the peer "Good-morning," and
+pass on upon his walk.
+
+This purpose he was not permitted to execute; as no sooner did Lord
+Dewry come opposite to him, than he stopped abruptly, and answered
+Colonel Manners's salutation by a cold and haughty bow. "Colonel
+Manners," he said, "I saw you come into the garden from the windows of
+my room, and I have done myself the honour of seeking you."
+
+The peer spoke slowly and calmly; but Manners, who doubted not that
+his intention was to apologize, was both somewhat surprised that so
+proud a man should do so at all, and likewise somewhat puzzled by a
+sneering curl of the nostril and a slight twinkling of the eyelid,
+which seemed to betray a spirit not quite so tranquil as his tone
+would have indicated. "Your lordship does me honour," he replied;
+"what are your commands?"
+
+"Simply as follows, Colonel Manners," replied Lord Dewry: "I think you
+last night made use of the term _calumny_, as applied to part of my
+discourse; and as I am not in the habit of being insulted without
+taking measures to redress myself, I have followed you hither for the
+purpose of arranging the necessary result."
+
+Colonel Manners felt inclined to smile, but he refrained, and replied,
+seriously, "My lord, I wish to heaven you would forget this business.
+You thought fit to apply the strongest terms of injury to a gentleman
+for whom I had expressed my friendship and gratitude; and I pronounced
+such terms to be calumnious in regard to my friend, but expressed, at
+the same time, my belief that we were speaking of different persons.
+For Heaven's sake, let the matter rest where it does: I meant no
+personal insult to you; I trust you meant none to me. I came down here
+the friend of your son, on a joyful occasion, and it would pain me not
+a little to go away the enemy of his father."
+
+The lip of Lord Dewry curled with a bitter and galling sneer. "Colonel
+Manners," he said, "I believe that you wear a sword."
+
+"I do, sir," replied Manners, reddening; "but I should be unworthy to
+wear one, did I draw it against a man old enough to be my father."
+
+Lord Dewry, too, reddened. "If, as I perceive, sir," he said, "you
+intend to make my age your protection, I trust you have calculated the
+consequences to your reputation, and will understand the light in
+which I view you. When I am willing, sir, to waive all respect of age,
+I do not see what you have to do with it."
+
+"Much, my lord," answered Colonel Manners; "much have my own
+conscience and my own honour to do with it."
+
+"Do not let an officer who is refusing to fight talk of honour, sir,"
+replied Lord Dewry.
+
+"You cannot provoke me to forget myself, Lord Dewry," answered the
+other; "I hold all duelling in abhorrence, and as any thing but a
+proof of courage but when the encounter is to be between a young and
+active man, and one of your lordship's age and probable habits, it is
+murder outright. Your lordship will excuse me for saying that I think
+the business a very foolish one, and that I must insist upon its being
+dropped."
+
+"I shall drop it as far as regards the endeavour to make a man fight
+who is not disposed to do so," replied Lord Dewry, with an angry and
+disappointed, rather than a contemptuous, smile, for which he intended
+it to be; "but, as a matter of course, I shall make generally known
+the fact that you have refused to draw your sword when called upon."
+
+Colonel Manners laughed. "My lord," he answered, "I have drawn it in
+eleven different battles in his majesty's service; I have been wounded
+nine times, and I am quite satisfied with a certain degree of
+reputation obtained in these affairs, without seeking to increase it
+by the encounter to which your lordship would provoke me."
+
+Lord Dewry stood and gazed at him for a moment or two with a heavy
+lowering brow, as if contemplating how he might lash his adversary to
+the course he sought to bring him to pursue; but the calm and
+confident courage and cool determination of Colonel Manners foiled him
+even in his own thoughts; and, after glaring at him thus while one
+might count twenty, he exclaimed, "You shall repent it, sir! you shall
+repent it!"
+
+"I do not think it, my lord," replied Manners: "I wish you
+good-morning;" and he turned calmly on his heel, retreading, with slow
+steps, the path he had followed from the house.
+
+In the mean time, the pace of Lord Dewry was much more rapid; but for
+a moment we must pause ourselves, and seize this opportunity of
+looking into his bosom, and seeing some of the motives which, like
+Cyclops in the cave of Vulcan, were busy forging all those hot
+thunderbolts that he was dealing about so liberally--_some_, we only
+say some; for were we to look at all, we should have a catalogue too
+long for recapitulation here. The fact, then, was, that Lord Dewry had
+been greatly irritated on the previous day, by a conversation of not
+the most pleasant kind, concerning the very Sir William Ryder of whom
+he was destined to hear such high praises the moment he set his foot
+within his sister's doors. Now, for various reasons, unto himself best
+known, the noble lord hated this Sir William Ryder with a most
+reverent and solicitous hatred, and would willingly have given a
+thousand pounds to any one who would have brought him proof positive
+that he was dead and safely deposited in that earthy chancery, the
+archives of which, though they contain many a treasured secret, can
+never meet the searching eye of this inquisitive world. What, then,
+were his feelings, when he heard that this very man, in regard to whom
+his darkest passions had been stirred up that very day, and towards
+whom he had nourished an evergreen animosity for many years--when he
+heard that, through the instrumentality of Colonel Manners, this man
+had been made intimate with his only son!
+
+This, then, was Manners's offence; but had it been likely to end
+there, Lord Dewry might even have forgiven it. Such, however, was not
+the case: Lord Dewry had some reason to believe that the object of his
+hatred might visit England; and imagination instantly set up before
+him the picture of his son, Colonel Manners, and Sir William Ryder
+meeting, and discussing many things that would be better let alone.
+Now he trusted and believed that, as far as his ancient enemy was
+concerned, he could manage his son, and cause him to break off a
+connection which had not been of long duration; but at the same time
+he judged it necessary to place a barrier between him and Colonel
+Manners himself, so as to cut off every link of communication between
+Edward de Vaux and Sir William Ryder; and for this purpose he at once
+determined to quarrel with his son's friend; which, in his own
+irritable and irritated state of mind, he found it not at all
+difficult to accomplish. On the preceding night he had begun,
+therefore, with real good-will; and as he was a man totally devoid of
+any thing like personal fear, and remembered that he had once been a
+remarkably good swordsman, while he forgot that he was sixty, he was
+really pleased when Manners made use of a term which promised to give
+him an opportunity of bringing their dispute to such an issue as must
+absolutely put an end to the intimacy between his son and Colonel
+Manners forever. "Even should I receive a wound," he thought, "so much
+the better;" and, strange as it is to say, had Lord Dewry even
+contemplated being killed in the encounter he sought, he would have
+looked upon it with less apprehension than might be supposed, when
+thereunto was attached the certainty of his son being separated for
+ever from Charles Manners and from Sir William Ryder; so much less
+terrible does it often appear to our contradictory nature to meet the
+eye of God than to encounter the scrutiny of beings like ourselves.
+
+Frustrated by the coolness and firmness of his opponent in the grand
+object of his morning's walk, he now turned towards the house,
+animated with a strong desire of accomplishing his purpose by other
+means. The peer now determined, as it was impossible to make Colonel
+Manners the aggressor, to induce his own family to take the
+initiative, and break with the object of his dislike or of his
+apprehension--for perhaps there might be a little of both at the
+bottom of his heart; and, with a resolution which was the more
+imperious and domineering from having seldom suffered contradiction,
+he sought the apartment of his son.
+
+Edward de Vaux was just up, and was in the act of putting on, one
+after another, the different parts of his apparel. As this act of
+clothing one's person, however much pleasure people may take in it
+habitually, is in itself a laborious and troublesome operation, De
+Vaux's servant was helping him therein; but the appearance of Lord
+Dewry, and a hint not to be mistaken, sent the man out of the room,
+while the noble lord betook him to a chair; and his son, seeing that
+there was not a little thunder in the dark cloud upon his father's
+brow, sat, expectant and half-dressed, wondering what was to come
+next.
+
+"Edward," said his father, in a tone which was intended at once to
+express parental affection, some slight touch of sadness, and firm
+relying confidence upon his son's good feelings, but which, in truth,
+did not succeed in expressing much except a great deal of irritation
+and heat--"Edward, I have come to speak with you upon last night's
+unfortunate business, and to give you, in a few words, my opinion upon
+the subject, in order that you may choose your part at once."
+
+Edward de Vaux, who knew his father well--though he knew not all his
+motives in the present instance--prepared himself to resist; for he
+divined, almost immediately from the beginning of Lord Dewry's
+discourse, what would be the end; being well aware, though he did not
+choose to put it exactly in such terms to his own heart, that a
+certain combination of vanity, pride, selfishness, and remorselessness
+in the bosom of his worthy parent, made him the exact person to resent
+highly even a slight offence, and to treasure long hatred for a casual
+word. But Edward de Vaux knew also that he himself stood in a position
+towards his father different from that in which any other person
+stood: he knew that the ties of nature, long habit, and irreproachable
+conduct rendered him the only real object of Lord Dewry's love--the
+only being who possessed any influence over a mind which never through
+life, in any other case than his own, had yielded to either persuasion
+or opposition. He himself, however, had found from experience, that he
+could resist with success when the ground of resistance was such as
+satisfied his own heart; and he now, therefore, prepared to practise,
+upon an occasion of more importance, a behaviour he had sometimes
+displayed in regard to trifles. He was aware, at the same time, from
+his soldierly habits, that it was advantageous sometimes to be the
+attacking party; and when his father paused, a little out of breath
+with climbing the stairs faster than necessary, and with speaking more
+vehemently than was becoming, he instantly replied, "Oh, my lord, if
+you mean the business with Manners, do not think of it any more!
+Manners is extremely good-humoured, and will forget it at once, I am
+sure. No further apology is necessary."
+
+"Apology, sir!" exclaimed Lord Dewry; "what do you mean? I have made
+no apology!"
+
+"No, my lord," replied De Vaux; "but, considering that Manners was my
+friend, that he saved my life at the risk of his own, that he came
+down here at my invitation, and that he was a guest in my aunt's
+house, I thought it necessary to apologize for the manner in which my
+father had treated him, saying that I was sure you were irritated by
+some other cause;" and adding--"I felt sure you would--that you would
+be sorry for having expressed yourself so bitterly, when you reflected
+upon the circumstances."
+
+"You did, sir!" said Lord Dewry, "you did!--then I have only to tell
+you that you said what was not the case;" De Vaux reddened; "that you
+took a great and unwarrantable liberty with my name," continued Lord
+Dewry, whose passion had quite overcome every restraint; "and that,
+had you considered your father as much as this new friend, you would
+have seen that _I_ was the insulted person--that _I_ had a right to
+demand apology, and you would have broken off all connection with a
+person who would show so little respect to your parent; and this,
+sir,--this is what I command you now to do, or to take the
+consequences of your disobedience."
+
+"My lord," answered De Vaux, cooling himself down as far as
+possible,--"my lord, as you must already have seen, we view the matter
+in a very different light. It grieves me bitterly that we should
+disagree so severely on the very day after my return; but if you wish
+me to break off my acquaintance with Colonel Manners, because you have
+thought fit to treat him with some rudeness, I must tell you, at once,
+such an idea could never be entertained by me for a moment. As to the
+consequences which your lordship speaks of, I am at a loss to conceive
+what you mean. A disagreement with your lordship is--"
+
+"The consequences, Captain De Vaux," interrupted his father, with a
+small red spot glowing in the middle of his sallow cheek--"the
+consequences may be more bitter than you think. You believe that the
+estates of the barony, being entailed, must descend to you; but let me
+tell you, young man--let me tell you," he repeated, approaching nearer
+to his son, and lowering his voice in tone, but not in emphasis,--"let
+me tell you, you could be deprived of them by a word. But no more of
+that," he added, raising his head, and resuming his usual air of
+dignity, which had been a good deal lost during that morning, "no more
+of that; the consequences to which I alluded, and to which I now
+allude, are the displeasure of your father, and the knowledge that you
+remain the friend of a man who has insulted him."
+
+"Could I see, my dear sir," replied De Vaux, "that Manners had insulted
+you--"
+
+"It is sufficient, sir, that I see it," interrupted his father,
+hastily, "it is sufficient that I see it; and I hold myself aggrieved
+that my son should see it otherwise. But do as you will, Edward de
+Vaux--do as you will. If you are lost to a sense of filial duty, and
+refuse to obey my positive injunction to break with this man, you may
+act as you think fit."
+
+"I shall never, my lord, even dream of breaking with him," replied De
+Vaux; "as it appears to me, that to do so would render me an
+accomplice in an act of notable injustice."
+
+"You are dutiful, sir--you are respectful," said Lord Dewry, setting
+his teeth hard; "but do as you please--do as you please: I wish you
+good-morning;" and, turning on his heel, he quitted the apartment.
+
+"This is mighty disagreeable," thought De Vaux, as he rang the bell to
+bring back his servant; "this is mighty disagreeable and mighty
+absurd, it seems to me; but the worst part of all will be the meeting
+at breakfast. However, all these things must be encountered as they
+come, in this good pleasant world of ours;" and he returned to his
+toilet.
+
+In the mean time the noble lord, his father, proceeded to his own
+apartments, laid his hand upon the bell, and rang in such a manner as
+to show that he was in a passion, not only to his own servant, but to
+the whole house. His own servant, however, a thin, dark, saturnine
+person, well calculated by constitutional frigidity to cope with an
+irritable master, was not in the least alarmed by any sign of his
+lord's angry mood, to which he was wont to oppose, on all occasions, a
+dull, obtuse silence, that left him without any remedy but patience.
+He accordingly proceeded slowly to Lord Dewry's apartment; received
+the objurgation for his tardiness with profound and unmoved
+taciturnity; listened to his lordship's orders to pack up all his
+dressing things, and order the horses to the carriage directly, in the
+same automatonical manner, and then went to take his breakfast, not at
+all approving of his master's purpose of setting out without
+refreshment. Lord Dewry, fondly fancying that he had gone to order the
+horses to be put to, waited in his bedroom very patiently for five
+minutes, then began to get angry during five minutes more, and then
+rang the bell for at least the same space of time. At the end of that
+period the man again made his appearance, and, with a face of dull
+unconsciousness, asked if his lordship had rung, although he had heard
+every succeeding stroke of the bell.
+
+Lord Dewry stamped with rage; but, finding that it had no effect, he
+left the man alone to arrange his dressing things, while, for the
+purpose of waiting till the carriage was ready, he went down to the
+library, calculating, of course, upon its being, as usual, the most
+solitary room in the whole house. If he expected to find it empty,
+however, he was mistaken: for Mrs. Falkland was seated at the table,
+writing a note; and, as there was no person, in or out of his own
+family, for whom his lordship entertained so great a respect--which
+would have been a little, perhaps, approaching to fear, if he could
+have feared any thing--there was no one consequently whom he less
+wished to meet, at a moment when he was acting in a manner which
+needed the full excitement of passion and pride to appear, even in his
+own opinion, either dignified or gentlemanly. He was drawing back, but
+Mrs. Falkland raised her eyes; and his lordship, conscious that he had
+been wishing to retreat, advanced, of course, with a greater degree of
+boldness, and asked whether he interrupted her by his presence.
+
+"Not in the least--not in the least," replied Mrs. Falkland; "but you
+seem prepared for travelling, my lord. You are not thinking of setting
+out before breakfast?"
+
+"Most assuredly I shall, Maria," replied the peer. "You do not suppose
+that I am going to subject myself to the pain of meeting again, in
+your house, a person by whom I have been so grossly insulted as this
+Colonel Manners?"
+
+"Whom you have so grossly insulted, I suppose, your lordship means,"
+replied Mrs. Falkland. "My lord, I am your sister, and consequently am
+not disposed to see faults; but I tell you sincerely, that you equally
+owe an apology to me and to Colonel Manners for your behaviour last
+night. The one to myself I will, of course, dispense with; but, if you
+do right, you will go to Colonel Manners, and tell him that something
+had occurred in the course of yesterday to irritate and vex you, and
+that you are extremely sorry that your irritation vented itself upon
+him." Mrs. Falkland spoke with infinite calmness; and, when she had
+done, wrote another sentence of her note, leaving her brother the
+while to pause on the somewhat bitter matter of her discourse.
+
+His lordship employed the time in remembering that it was a lady and
+his sister to whom he was opposed, and in subduing the wrath of his
+heart into the quieter form of sneer; although he still continued to
+gaze on her, while she wrote, with eyes in which his anger still
+maintained its ground, like a solitary post left behind a retreating
+army.
+
+"Do you know, Mrs. Falkland," he replied, with a curling lip, "in such
+pleasant little discussions as these, we gentlemen have hardly fair
+play when opposed to female antagonists; for, under shelter of your
+sex, you women dare say things to us that it would be ungentlemanly to
+retort, and which are very difficult to bear."
+
+"Truth, my lord, I am afraid, is often difficult to bear," replied
+Mrs. Falkland; "and perhaps, on such occasions, you may hear it in a
+more unqualified manner from a woman than from one of your own sex."
+
+"As the matter is a difference of opinion, Maria, between you and me,"
+said Lord Dewry, "it is rather like begging the question to assume
+that it is truth that gives me offence. You have forgot your logic, my
+good sister."
+
+"If I ever possessed any, my lord," rejoined Mrs. Falkland, "I
+certainly should not be disposed to try it upon you, in order to
+induce you either to make an apology, which is alike due to yourself
+and to Colonel Manners, or to stay here without making it."
+
+"I understand you, my dear sister, I understand you!" exclaimed Lord
+Dewry; "but do not be in a hurry. My carriage is ordered, and cannot
+be many minutes ere it delivers you from my presence. In the mean
+time, I will not interrupt you further.--Good-morning, Mrs. Falkland!"
+
+"Good-morning," she replied; and her brother walked towards the door.
+As he laid his hand upon the lock, he turned for a single glance at
+his sister; but Mrs. Falkland was writing on, with a rapid and easy
+pen, in the clear and running movements of which there was evidently
+not the slightest impediment from one extraneous thought in reference
+to the conversation which had just passed between them. Anger, hatred,
+malice, even active scorn itself, man can bear or retort; but utter
+indifference is more galling still. So Lord Dewry found it; and
+throwing open the door with a degree of force that made sundry of
+the smaller articles of furniture dance about the room, he issued
+forth in search of his carriage, with wounded pride and diminished
+self-importance.
+
+Gliding gracefully down the corridor towards the breakfast-room was,
+at that very moment, Marian de Vaux, his niece; and the sight of her
+beautiful face and form, with its calm and easy movements, was well
+calculated to tranquillize and sooth. But Lord Dewry had never been
+famous for being easily soothed. Dr. Johnson is said to have liked a
+"good hater;" and had he carried the predilection a little further,
+the peer was just the man to merit that sort of approbation. He was
+not only a good hater, but he was, and always had been, the man of all
+others to nourish his anger, and render it both stout and permanent.
+Now, during the early part of the preceding evening, before he found
+"mettle more attractive" in his quarrel with Colonel Manners, the
+noble lord had, as he always did, paid very great attention to Marian
+de Vaux. He had sat by her, he had talked to her, he had exerted
+himself to be agreeable to her, when it was very evident that he was
+not much disposed to be agreeable to any one. But now, as Marian
+approached, gave her hand, and wished him good-morning, he let her
+hand drop as soon as he had taken it, and answered her salutation by
+telling her he was in haste.
+
+Somewhat surprised at the cloud upon her uncle's brow, his flashing
+eye, and abrupt manner, Marian drew back, in order to let him pass,
+and Lord Dewry took two steps more along the passage. Then
+recollecting himself, however, and remembering how strange his conduct
+might appear, he turned, and made the whole seem stranger than ever,
+as all people do when, with a heart very full of feelings which they
+are afraid or ashamed to picture in their nakedness, they attempt to
+explain the strange behaviour to which those feelings have prompted
+them.
+
+"I am obliged to quit the house, Marian," he said, in a quick and
+agitated manner; "disagreeable occurrences have taken place, which
+compel me, in justice to myself, to withdraw: the whole business is an
+unfortunate one, and I am afraid it may be some time before we meet
+again; but I will write--I will write, and explain myself fully.
+Good-by! I hear the carriage!" And with a rapid step he walked on,
+leaving Marian de Vaux not a little confounded by all that had passed,
+and entirely misconstruing the few abrupt and unsatisfactory sentences
+which her uncle had pronounced.
+
+She heard his step sound along the passage, down the stairs, and
+through the hall; listened to his voice giving some directions to his
+servant, and then to the closing of the carriage-door, and the grating
+roll of the wheels over the gravel before the house. Then mentally
+exclaiming, "This is all very strange, and very unfortunate!" she went
+on towards the breakfast-room, into which a servant had just carried
+the urn, without closing the door behind him. The sound of her cousin
+Isadore's voice, speaking gayly with Colonel Manners, issued forth as
+she approached; but Marian de Vaux was agitated and alarmed; and
+feeling that she must have time to think over her uncle's words, and
+to compose her mind, ere she mingled with any society, she turned to
+the music-room, and had entered it before she was aware that any one
+was there.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+It was a beautiful idea of Plato, and not at all an unchristian idea,
+that the sins which people have committed during life, and which in
+this case were termed _manes_, had an existence after death, and were
+the instruments for punishing those who had committed them--the worm
+that dieth not, and the fire that cannot be quenched. But had Plato
+seen into the bosom of Lord Dewry, he would have perceived that his
+theory might be carried a little further; and that the sins and
+passions do not wait till we are dead in order to torment their
+authors, but punish them even in this world, not alone in their
+consequences, but by their very existence. After having laboured
+_manibus pedibusque_ to render every member of his sister's household
+as uncomfortable as possible, the noble lord sunk back in his
+carriage, with his frame exhausted and his whole heart on fire
+with that flaming up of painful memories and violent passions
+which the occurrences we have related had excited. Unfortunately,
+however, it happens in the wonderful arrangement of this our earthly
+dwelling-place, that here our evil qualities not only torment
+ourselves, but others also; and the noble lord might have consoled
+himself with the certainty that he had, for the time at least,
+destroyed much tranquillity, and turned joy into bitterness.
+
+Of all who suffered on the occasion, Marian de Vaux perhaps suffered
+most. Mrs. Falkland, for her part, had been very much offended, but
+she respected her brother too little to permit his ill temper or
+rudeness to produce any lasting effect upon her. Edward de Vaux
+believed that his father's present mood would not be long ere it
+yielded to circumstances; and Colonel Manners, though of course
+considerably annoyed by what had taken place between Lord Dewry and
+himself, was not aware of what had passed afterward; and consequently
+did not enter, as he would otherwise have done most feelingly, into
+the uncomforts of Mrs. Falkland and his friend De Vaux. But with
+Marian the matter was different. She knew nothing of all the
+occurrences of the morning: she had seen her uncle retire on the
+preceding night, apparently dropping his dispute with Colonel Manners;
+and she never, for a moment, connected his extraordinary conduct of
+that day with the disagreement of the preceding evening.
+
+In almost all cases of apprehension and uncertainty, the human mind
+has a natural tendency to connect the occurrence of the moment,
+whatever it may be, with the principal object of our wishes and our
+feelings at the time. It matters not whether the two things be as
+distinct and distant as the sun is from the moon; association in an
+instant spins a thousand gossamer threads between them, forming a
+glistening sort of spider-like bridge, scarcely discernible to other
+people's eyes, but fully strong enough for fancy to run backwards and
+forwards upon for ever.
+
+Thus, then, was it with poor Marian de Vaux. It had been settled that
+her marriage with her cousin was to take place on the day she became
+of age--that is to say, in about three weeks. Now, whether she was
+pleased with the arrangement or not, we do not at all intend to say;
+but she had made up her mind to it completely; and the first thing
+that Lord Dewry's broken sentences suggested to her mind was, that
+some difficulty had occurred in regard to her union with Edward, and
+that his father had withdrawn the consent he had been before so
+willing to give.
+
+When Lord Dewry left her, she was as pale as death; and though before
+she reached the breakfast-room the colour had come back into her
+cheek, yet all her former ideas were so completely scattered to the
+four winds of heaven, that she felt it would be absolutely necessary
+to think what her own conduct, under such circumstances, ought to be,
+before she met any of the party; and especially before she met her
+cousin Edward, as towards him, of course, the regulation of her
+behaviour was most important. She turned, then, as we have before
+said, to the music-room, and entering it ere she perceived that any
+one was in it, found herself there alone with no other than Edward de
+Vaux.
+
+Whether he had gone there purposely or accidentally--from a habit
+which some people have, of returning to take a look at places where
+they have spent happy moments, or from a sort of presentiment that he
+might find Marian there, we have no means of judging; but on her part
+the meeting certainly was unexpected, and being such, it would hardly
+be fair to look narrowly into her manner of receiving her lover's
+first salutation, which salutation was sufficiently warm.
+
+As soon as she recollected herself, however, she turned at once to the
+subject of her thoughts. "But, Edward," she said, "this is a most
+unfortunate occurrence--in regard to your father, I mean."
+
+"Most unfortunate, indeed!" replied De Vaux, looking grave
+immediately.
+
+"But tell me what it is all about, Edward," rejoined his cousin. "I do
+not understand your father's conduct. Do explain it to me!"
+
+"I do not understand it either, my dear Marian," answered De Vaux;
+"his conduct is quite inexplicable."
+
+The tears would fain have run away over Marian de Vaux's cheeks; but
+she shut the gates in time, and only one straggler made its escape
+into the court of her eyes, unable to get farther. Her cousin did not
+see one-half of what was going on in the fair tabernacle of her bosom;
+but he saw that she was much distressed, and endeavoured to sooth her
+with the same assurances wherewith he made his own mind easy in regard
+to his father's conduct. "Nay, nay, dearest Marian!" he said, "do not
+distress yourself about this business, unfortunate as it is. The
+principal part of my father's present heat in the affair will pass
+away, for a great share is mere passion. I cannot however flatter
+myself into believing that his dislike will ever entirely subside,
+because, as you know, he is not a man who changes easily in such
+matters; but all his violence and his threatenings will die away and
+end in nothing."
+
+Marian, who had now recovered from her first emotion, paused, and
+looked pensively upon the ground; but while her bosom seemed as calm
+as monumental marble, there was a sad struggle going on within.
+"Edward!" said she, at length, "we cannot tell what may be your
+father's ultimate conduct; but, indeed, I think, that while his
+present objection--or, as you call it, dislike--continues, we ought
+certainly to delay our marriage."
+
+"Good God, Marian!" exclaimed Edward de Vaux, in utter astonishment:
+"in the name of heaven, my beloved, what has my father's dislike to
+Colonel Manners to do with our union?"
+
+"His dislike to Colonel Manners!" said Marian, blushing a good deal as
+she began to perceive her mistake, and comprehended at a glance that
+the clearing up of the matter might make an _expose_ of her inmost
+thoughts that for reasons of her own she did not desire. "His dislike
+to Colonel Manners! Oh, is that all! His words and conduct towards me
+just now, made me think that his dislike was to me, Edward, and to our
+union."
+
+"And did the thought give you so much pain, Marian?" said De Vaux,
+somewhat anxiously.
+
+But Marian de Vaux had by this time completely mastered her agitation,
+and she answered in her usual quiet sweet tone: "Of course it gave me
+great pain, Edward, to think that I had lost my uncle's regard, and
+great pain to think that the consequences might pain you. But tell me,
+was it really nothing more than his dispute with Colonel Manners which
+made your father's conduct so very strange?"
+
+"Nothing more, I can assure you," answered her lover; "but you know
+that my father, when he bursts forth into one of these fits of
+passion, is like Don Quixote at the puppet-show, and deals his blows
+to the right and left upon all things, whether they have offended him
+or not."
+
+"Hush, hush, Edward!" cried Marian, "he is your father, remember."
+
+De Vaux coloured slightly, and indeed he had not got to the end of his
+speech ere he had found that he had better have left it unsaid; for,
+notwithstanding his general fastidiousness, and a certain degree of
+bitter that mingled with his views of other people, he had too much
+taste to find any pleasure in pointing out the faults or follies of
+his near relations. He might feel them a little too sensitively, it is
+true; but he seldom made them the subject of his conversation; and he
+was now vexed, both that he had done so at all, and that Marian had
+been the person to whom he had done it.
+
+Thus, Edward de Vaux was a little out of humour with himself, and, as
+a matter of course, he soon found cause to be dissatisfied with
+others; for the human mind--to which nothing is so burdensome as
+self-reproach of any kind--is always glad to cast a part of its load
+upon the shoulders of other people. The first thing, then, that, upon
+reflecting rapidly over the moments just passed, Edward de Vaux found
+to be discontented with, was the manner in which Marian had spoken of
+delaying their union; and once having started this idea, he hunted it
+up and down through all the chambers and passages of his mind, like a
+boy after a mouse. "Their marriage seemed to her a matter of great
+indifference," he thought; and then he went onto persuade himself that
+her love for him was of a very calm and tranquil character compared
+with his for her. Indeed, it seemed little more than indifference, he
+fancied, or at best _sisterly affection_; and at the very thought of
+such a thing as _sisterly affection_, the spirit of Edward de Vaux
+sprang up as if a serpent had crossed his path, although his person
+remained perfectly calm, with his arm resting on the harpsichord, and
+his fingers twisting some of the strings of the harp. One of the
+strings breaking, with a sharp twang, called the spirit suddenly back
+again; and he found himself standing abstractedly before his fair
+cousin; while she looked upon him with a smile, which seemed to say,
+"I could triumph, if I would! but it is not in my nature."
+
+Now, Edward de Vaux, though he read the smile, and read it aright,
+which is not always done in that difficult language of which it was
+one of the hieroglyphics, was all the more puzzled when he had done.
+But the fact is, that women's eyes, in matters of love, seem to be not
+eyes but microscopes; and Marian had traced the whole fine progress of
+Edward's thoughts and feelings, through every turning and winding, as
+accurately as if he had laid them all open before her with his own
+free will. Then, connecting the result with some foregone conclusions
+in her own mind, the combination produced a smile, being, as we before
+said, the equivalent sign, in the language mentioned, of the words, "I
+could triumph, if I would! but it is not in my nature." There was,
+however, a little mental reservation, perhaps, in regard to the
+triumph, inasmuch as she reserved unto herself entire right and
+privilege of triumphing hereafter, in case she should find it
+necessary and expedient to do so.
+
+The time occupied in reading the smile, together with the beauty of
+the smile itself, and the exceeding loveliness of the lips on which it
+rested, all tended to get the better of the demon in the heart of De
+Vaux, and to make him feel, that as he loved her beyond anything on
+earth, he must try to content himself with obtaining her upon her own
+terms. Having come to this conclusion, it was natural enough that he
+should seek to linger out the time with her alone; but Marian felt
+that if she did stay at that moment, she might be obliged to triumph
+in the way she wished not to do, or to explain her smile without
+triumphing at all, which was still more disagreeable. She therefore
+determined to retreat to the breakfast-room, in which she was sure of
+finding allies; and which--as her apprehensions in regard to Lord
+Dewry's disapprobation, and the consequent emotion, had now been
+dissipated--she was no longer afraid of entering.
+
+De Vaux would fain have detained her, pleading that he had had no
+opportunity of conversing with her alone since his return, and urging
+all those little arguments which we leave to imagination. Marian,
+however, resisted with fortitude; and her lover, forced to content
+himself with a promise to take a long ramble with him after breakfast,
+as they had done in the days of their early youth, led her to the
+breakfast-room, where they found the rest of the party assembled, and
+conversing with as much ease and cheerfulness as if nothing had
+occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the morning.
+
+"Well, Edward," said Mrs. Falkland, "your father would not stay
+longer; and I forbore to press him," she added, with a little
+pardonable hypocrisy, "as I know that he has a good deal of business
+on his hands; and when he is determined on any point, it is vain to
+try to move him." As she spoke, she looked for an instant towards
+Colonel Manners, to give more meaning to her words in her nephew's
+ears than the words themselves imported.
+
+"I saw my father myself, my dear aunt," replied De Vaux: "he was with
+me in my room for half an hour, and explained the necessity of his
+departure."
+
+Colonel Manners could have smiled; but he thought it best to follow
+the lead that had been given, and to appear ignorant of anything else
+having taken place, though, of course, he felt internally convinced
+that his unfortunate dispute with De Vaux's father had been the cause
+of that nobleman's sudden and abrupt departure. "I think your father
+mentioned last night," he said, in pursuance of this plan, "that he
+was going to Dimden, did he not, De Vaux? Does it belong to your
+family?"
+
+"It always has done so," replied his friend: "it is here, very
+near--but a few miles off; but it is not kept up as I think it should
+be. My father always resides at the other house; and seems to have so
+strong an aversion to Dimden, that, not contented with not living
+there, he lets it fall somewhat to decay."
+
+"I must make you take me there some morning," answered Colonel
+Manners; "I have heard that it contains a fine collection of
+pictures."
+
+"Fine, I believe, but small," answered De Vaux, delighted to fancy
+that his friend had totally forgotten the dispute of the night before,
+and was ignorant of any fresh discomfort which had been produced by
+that morning; "fine, I believe, but small--but I do not understand
+anything about pictures."
+
+"Nay, nay, Edward, do not say that," exclaimed Miss Falkland. "Do you
+not love everything that is beautiful and fine in nature? have you not
+an eye to mark every shade and every line that is worth looking at in
+a landscape? and do you call that not understanding pictures? I have
+seen you and Marian find out a thousand beautiful little tints and
+touches, and lights and shades, in a view that I had generalized most
+vulgarly."
+
+Colonel Manners and Mrs. Falkland smiled; and perhaps both might have
+said, had they spoken their thoughts, "It was because your two cousins
+were in love, fair lady, and you were not!" They left the matter
+unexplained, however, contenting themselves with thinking that Isadore
+might, some time, learn the secret of finding out new beauties in a
+view; and De Vaux answered in his own style, "Still, Isadore, I know
+nothing about pictures, depend upon it. I cannot talk of _breadth_,
+and _handling_ and _chiar' oscuro_, and _juice_, and _ordonnance_."
+
+"Except when you mean a park of artillery, De Vaux," said Colonel
+Manners; "but, if I understand you rightly, you can see and feel the
+beauties of a picture as well as any one, though you cannot talk the
+jargon of a connoisseur about it."
+
+"Perhaps that is what I do mean," answered his friend; "but I believe
+the truth is, Manners, that you and I are both far behind in the
+elegant charlatanism of dilettanteship. Why, I have heard a man go on
+by the hour with the _copia fandi_ of a Cicero about a picture, the
+beauties of which he no more understood than the frame in which it was
+placed. These men's minds are like a yard measure, a thing on which a
+multitude of figures are written down, without the slightest use till
+they are properly applied by some one else. When I am seeing anything
+fine, heaven deliver me from the proximity of a walking dictionary of
+technical terms!"
+
+"They are very useful things in their way, Edward," answered Isadore;
+"and only think, if these men can be so eloquent about things that
+they do not feel, solely upon the strength of their jargon, how much
+more eloquent you, who do feel them, would be, if you had the jargon
+too."
+
+She spoke jestingly; but De Vaux, whose spleen had been somewhat
+excited, answered quickly, "I do not know, Isadore--I do not know. I
+very often think that a great acquaintance with the jargon of art
+tends to destroy the feeling for it. I have heard of a great critic,
+who, on viewing the Apollo of Belvidere, declared that had the lip
+been a hair's breadth longer, the god would have been lost. This was
+all very connoisseurish and very true, no doubt; but, depend upon it,
+that man felt the beauties of the immortal statue a thousand times
+more, whose only exclamation on seeing it was, 'Good God!' I would
+rather have the fresh feelings of even ignorance itself than the
+tutored and mechanical taste that measures the cheek-bones of a Venus,
+gauges the depth of colour in a Claude, or feels the edges of a book
+instead of looking into the inside."
+
+"Yes, but consider, Edward," said Marian, who since she entered the
+room had been sitting silent at the breakfast-table, "it surely does
+not follow that because we understand a thing well, we lose our first
+and natural taste for it. If I could paint like Claude or Poussin, I
+surely should not take less pleasure in a beautiful landscape."
+
+"NO, Marian," exclaimed Miss Falkland, well knowing that De Vaux would
+not support his sarcasms very vigorously against his cousin, "no; but,
+depend upon it, no one who could paint like Claude or Poussin would
+talk like a connoisseur."
+
+"Perhaps," said Colonel Manners, "knowledge of all kinds may be like
+the fabled cup, whose influence entirely depended upon those who drank
+from it--to some it was death, to others immortal life; wisdom to
+some, and foolishness to others. And thus I should think a great
+acquaintance with any art, in some instances--where the taste was good
+and the mind was strong--would refine the taste and give humility to
+the mind, by showing what an unfathomable mine of undiscovered things
+every study presents; while in other cases--where the taste was null
+and the mind weak--the result would be the vanity of ill-digested
+knowledge, and an idle gabble of unmeaning terms."
+
+"And how often would the latter be the case when compared with the
+former?" said De Vaux. "Answer me, my dear colonel."
+
+"I am afraid, indeed, nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a
+thousand," replied Colonel Manners: "and what, I must confess, is
+worse still, the proportion of those who would bow to the vanity of
+ill-digested knowledge, and give implicit credit to the gabble of
+unmeaning terms, would be still greater; while taste, and genius, and
+mind would be forced to content themselves with the poor thousandth
+part of those whom they addressed."
+
+"Then how is it, Colonel Manners," said Marian, "that we are told that
+what is really good has always ultimate success, notwithstanding this
+terrific array of folly against it?"
+
+"Because truth is permanent in its very essence; and falsehood--of
+every kind, as well false tastes as false statements--is evanescent,"
+replied Colonel Manners. "Such is, I suppose, the broad reason; but,
+to examine it more curiously, we shall find the progress of the thing
+somewhat amusing: for even the ultimate establishment of truth and
+wisdom is, in a great measure, owing to the voice of the false and
+foolish. Here is a fine picture or a fine statue, of that chaste but
+not attractive kind which ensures the admiration of those who can feel
+beauty, but does not win the attention of the crowd. A man without
+taste sees a man of taste gazing at it; hears him praise its beauties;
+and, as there is nothing so servile or so vain as folly, instantly
+affects to perceive the beauties which he never saw, and goes forth
+to trumpet them as things of his own discovery. Others come to see,
+and, as one fool will never be outdone by another, each sings its
+praises in the same vociferous tone, each gains his little stock of
+self-complacency from praising what others praise, and the reputation
+of the thing is established."
+
+"Unless," said De Vaux, "one of the learned fools we were talking
+of should step in; and as his vanity is always of the pugnacious
+kind--the vanity that will lead, instead of being led--he of course
+condemns what others have been praising; declares that the statue has
+no contour--that the picture wants breadth, force, chiar' oscuro. All
+the others cry out that it is evident it does so; wonder they could
+have admired it; and poor patient merit is kicked back into the
+shade."
+
+"But still, the same process takes place again," rejoined Colonel
+Manners. "The learned fool and his generation die off; but still, the
+merit of the thing remains till some one again rescues it from
+oblivion, and its reputation is finally established."
+
+"Indeed, now, Colonel Manners," said Mrs. Falkland, "I think that you
+have admitted Marian's maxim with too little limitation. That what is
+really good may always have ultimate success, is true, undoubtedly,
+when spoken of transcendent merit or of superexcellent qualities; but
+this transcendent merit only appears once, perhaps, in a century;
+and the world shows that, in the great mass of worldly things, the
+every-day virtues, the every-day exertions, the every-day characters
+which surround us in this busy existence, virtue and merit are not
+always ultimately successful. The religious, the political, the
+scientific charlatan often carries all before him; while the man of
+modest talent and unassuming virtue plods on his way unnoticed, and
+dies forgotten. So much, indeed, is this the case, that do not we
+daily see that many a shrewd man of real talent feels obliged to mix a
+little charlatanism with his other qualities for the sake of ensuring
+success? If Marian had said that things which are intrinsically
+immortal--which have in themselves inherent permanence--must have
+ultimate success when they are really good, and condemnation when
+they are bad, I would have granted it at once; but in all lesser
+things--and the world is made up of them--I sincerely believe that
+success depends upon accident or impudence."
+
+Colonel Manners smiled, and abandoned, or at least modified, his
+theory, admitting that Mrs. Falkland was right; for he was one of
+those men who, having generally reason on their side, can be candid
+without fear. But there was also something more than this in his
+candour: it sprung from his heart--it was a part of his character; and
+though it may seem unnatural to the greater part of mankind, it is no
+less a fact, that he was so great a lover of truth that, when once he
+was convinced, he never dreamed of contending against his conviction.
+He therefore gave up the position, that merit would always be
+ultimately successful, limiting it according to Mrs. Falkland's
+showing.
+
+Isadore added, that she thought it must be so, and would be sorry to
+believe it otherwise, as the occasional separation of virtue and
+success in this world afforded to her mind one of the strongest
+corroborative assurances of a future state. De Vaux laughed at her,
+and called her a little philosopher, and the conversation branched off
+to other things.
+
+Breakfast is a meal at which one loves to linger. The daylight and the
+wide world have all, more or less, an idea of labour attached to them;
+and though that labour be of the lightest kind, there is still a
+feeling in going forth after breakfast that we are about to take our
+share of the original curse; which feeling inclines man naturally to
+linger over the tea and coffee, and saunter to the window, or look
+into the fire, or play with the knife and fork for a few minutes more
+than is positively required. What between one oral occupation or
+another, then, the party at Mrs. Falkland's breakfast-table contrived
+to pass an hour very pleasantly. Colonel Manners, when all had risen,
+bestowed five minutes more upon the long window--while Isadore and her
+mother, De Vaux and Marian, held separate councils on the future
+proceedings of the day--and then retired to his own room, to write a
+note of business to some of his people in London. He had not long been
+gone when the fat and venerable servant, whom we have called Peter,
+entered the room, bearing a note, which, with much respectful
+ceremony, he delivered over to the hands of Miss De Vaux. Marian
+turned a little red and a little pale; and, had a jealous husband seen
+her receive that billet, he might have begun to suspect one whose
+every thought was pure; but the truth was, that poor Marian had
+instantly recognised her uncle's hand; and as her last ideas in
+respect to him had not been very pleasant, she was afraid that the new
+ones about to be called up by his note might be still more
+disagreeable. Without pausing to examine the scrawl upon the back,
+which implied her name, she broke the seal, and read. As she did so, a
+gentle smile and a softer suffusion stole over her face; but then she
+became more grave, then looked vexed, and then handed the paper to
+Mrs. Falkland, saying, "Do read it, my dear aunt; my uncle is both
+very kind and very unkind; but, indeed, it concerns you and Edward a
+great deal more than it does me."
+
+Mrs. Falkland took the letter and read it, the substance of which was
+to the following effect:--In the first place, the noble lord began by
+expressing more affection for Marian de Vaux than he had ever been
+known to express for man, woman, or child before in his existence. He
+next went on to say, that there was nothing on earth which had ever
+given him so much pleasure as the prospect of his son's marriage with
+her on whom he had been showering such praises: it was the solacing
+idea of his old age, he said, and the compensating joy for many a past
+sorrow. He then declared that he had hoped to be much with Edward and
+Marian during the days that were to intervene ere their marriage could
+be celebrated, and to have witnessed the ceremony as the most joyful
+and satisfactory one that he could ever behold; and next came the real
+object and substance-matter of the whole; for he concluded by
+expressing his bitter disappointment at not being able to do so, from
+the circumstance of a man who had so grossly insulted him as Colonel
+Manners had done, continuing in his sister's house, as her honoured
+guest and his son's bosom friend. Marian would understand, he said,
+that it was impossible for him to present himself again at
+Morley-house while Colonel Manners was there, without loss of dignity
+and honour; but he nevertheless besought her to let every thing
+proceed as if he were present; and he added a desire to see her as
+soon after her marriage as possible.
+
+While Mrs. Falkland, and then Edward de Vaux, read the letter in turn,
+Marian kept her eyes fixed on the ground. The fact is, however, that
+there was much in her uncle's letter to pain her, as well as to
+gratify her; and she would even willingly have sacrificed the
+gratifying part, if by so doing she could have done away the painful.
+It was very unpleasant, in the first place, to be pressed by
+assurances of affection and kindness to commit a gross injustice for
+the gratification of the person expressing that affection; and it was
+not a little disagreeable to think of her marriage to Lord Dewry's son
+taking place without his father's presence and countenance. Women of
+the finest minds and the justest feelings will think of what the world
+will say; and God forbid they ever should not. Marian de Vaux,
+therefore, thought of what the world would say, in regard to Lord
+Dewry being absent from her wedding; and she could not help feeling
+that the comments of all her kind acquaintances would be painful,
+both to her pride and her delicacy. All this was passing in her mind,
+while her eyes were busy with a pair of nondescripts on the damask
+table-cloth: but let it be clearly understood, that she never did
+Colonel Manners the wrong to wish that he should go, on account of any
+pain that she herself might suffer. She wished, indeed, that her uncle
+would be more just, more placable, more generous; but she felt clearly
+where the fault lay, and she never turned her eyes in the other
+direction. Mrs. Falkland appreciated Marian's feelings in almost all
+cases; but at present she estimated to the full all that would be
+distressing to her niece in the conduct of her brother, and thought,
+perhaps, that Marian might be more affected by it than she really
+was. "My dear Marian," she said, "this is very disagreeable for us
+all, and must be very painful to you, my sweet girl, in particular.
+Nevertheless we must do justice to ourselves. Were it any thing like a
+sacrifice of mere pleasure, we might and would willingly do a great
+deal to satisfy your uncle, and remove the unpleasant load he casts
+upon us; but this is a matter of right and wrong, in which he is
+decidedly in the wrong; and to yield to him would not only be
+dishonourable to ourselves, but seems to me quite impossible. The
+demeanour of Colonel Manners to me and mine has been every thing
+that I could desire, and is in every respect accordant with his
+well-established character, as a most gallant soldier and accomplished
+gentleman; and I can neither suffer the whims nor the ill-temper of
+any person, however near the relationship, to alter my conduct in such
+a case. What do you say, Edward?
+
+"I agree with you entirely, my dear aunt," he replied, "and so I told
+my father this morning. Holding Manners, as I do, to be most nobly in
+the right, I cannot suffer either my opinion of him, or my behaviour
+towards him, to be changed by the sudden dislike of even my parent."
+
+"And let me say, Edward, a most capricious and Lord Dewry-ish dislike
+it is--though he be your father and my uncle," added Miss Falkland.
+"What can he find to dislike in Colonel Manners? He is not beautiful,
+it is true: but he saved your life at the risk of his own; he nursed
+you in sickness; he was your companion in danger, and your friend at
+all times; so that if any one loved him, it should be your father.
+Besides, could any one have made himself more agreeable than he has
+done since he has been here? What pretence does Lord Dewry think mamma
+could have for turning such a man out of her house, when she had so
+lately invited him in the most pressing terms?"
+
+"Oh, of course, that is quite out of the question," said Mrs.
+Falkland, smiling at her fair daughter's enthusiasm; "though I cannot
+help thinking, Edward, that your father's design, in that letter, was
+to make us do so, by rendering the contrary so disagreeable to us."
+
+"If it were so, he will alter his behaviour," replied De Vaux, "when
+he finds that we cannot follow such a course; and I am sure you think
+with me, my dear aunt, that the only plan we can pursue is, to do as
+he bids us in his note, and proceed as if he were present."
+
+"Most certainly," replied Mrs. Falkland: "do you not think so too,
+Marian?"
+
+"Oh yes, Marian does," cried Isadore Falkland; "I am sure she does."
+
+"I am afraid we must do so," answered Marian, smiling somewhat sadly;
+"but, at all events, my dear aunt, I had better write to my uncle, and
+I will try to persuade him to change his determination."
+
+"Do so, my dear girl," replied her aunt; "though I am afraid you will
+find it in vain."
+
+Marian sat down and wrote, and put as much gentle sweetness into her
+note as would have gone far to soften any other man upon earth. She
+said not a word in regard to Colonel Manners, his quarrel with her
+uncle, or her own feelings on the subject: but she expressed to Lord
+Dewry how deeply gratified she was by his tenderness and affection;
+how ardently she hoped to retain it when she should become the wife of
+his son. She then went on to tell him, in language that came rushing
+from her heart, how bitterly painful it would be to her, if he
+continued the same determination of not being present at her marriage;
+and she entreated, with persuasions that none but woman could have
+written, that he would yield his resolution in this respect. In the
+whole course of her letter--though it was as artless as any collection
+of words that ever was penned--there was not one syllable that could
+offend the pride, or the vanity, or the feelings of her uncle--not one
+that could afford anger or irritation the least footing to rest upon.
+Had it been calculated upon the most experienced view of all the
+follies and passions of human nature, it could not have been better
+constructed; and yet, as we have said, it was as artless a composition
+as ever was penned: but the secret was, that it came from a fine, a
+gentle, and a sensitive mind.
+
+And now, while she folds, seals, and addresses it, with neat and
+careful hand, and gives it to the servant to be sent off immediately,
+we shall take the liberty of turning to another part of the subject,
+and treating of the person whose presence was the point of difficulty.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+When Lord Dewry quitted Colonel Manners at the end of the
+flower-garden, as we have shown in a preceding chapter, the gallant
+soldier had turned back towards the house, but with steps much less
+rapid than those of the peer, from the simple fact of no violent
+passion moving in his breast. In truth, it would seem, after all, that
+man, notwithstanding his great pretensions, his reasonings about his
+own existence, and his conceit in his painted jacket, is not at all
+unlike one of those figures that children buy at fairs, with his arms
+and legs, and even his head, hung on by wires; and with the passions
+to pull the string at the back, not only without his volition, but
+often against his will. Wrath pulls, and he kicks; revenge pulls, and
+he strikes; jealousy pulls, and he writhes; fear pulls, and he runs;
+love pulls, and he dances; and, as no one of these passions was behind
+Colonel Manners at the time, he had walked on slowly and deliberately
+towards the house, sometimes turning to look at the landscape,
+sometimes trifling with a flower, but doing neither one nor the other,
+perhaps, quite so often as when he set out that day upon his morning's
+walk.
+
+Still, it is not to be supposed that, though no very violent affection
+of the mind followed Lord Dewry's departure, Colonel Manners remained
+perfectly indifferent to what had occurred: on the contrary, it threw
+him into a fit of musing, if not of deep thought, and produced
+reflections which ended in resolutions, such as Colonel Manners might
+be expected to form. At the peer's wrath he laughed, and laughed at
+his menaces equally, secure in that calm, self-confident courage,
+which, not knowing what fear is, never dreams that it can be
+attributed to us; but at the uncomfort that his dispute with De Vaux's
+father might and would produce in the family he had come to visit,
+Colonel Manners did not laugh. He had assented on the preceding night,
+in words which, with him, amounted to a promise, to forget the baron's
+rudeness, and not to suffer it to abridge his stay; but, at present,
+new provocation had been given, and he had every reason to believe
+that his visit could not be prolonged to the period he had at first
+proposed, without material uncomfort to the family at Morley House,
+however strongly their kindness or their politeness might urge his
+stay.
+
+"Doubtless," thought Colonel Manners,--for we must put his
+private cogitations into the form of that necessary folly, a
+soliloquy,--"doubtless, the worthy peer will not go and expose himself
+so much to his own family, as to tell them what has occurred between
+us this morning; but equally, without doubt, he will contrive, by his
+demeanour towards me, to render the house, not only very unpleasant to
+me, but also to all its occupants; and, therefore, as this is a field
+where honour is neither to be gained nor supported, I must even beat a
+retreat. Yet De Vaux will, I know, feel very much mortified, if he
+fancies that his father is the cause of my departure; and therefore I
+suppose that the best plan be, to wait a day or two, and then, with
+the first letters that arrive,--and I must receive some soon, to plead
+important business, and set out. I suppose I must bear with this
+ill-tempered old gentleman's behaviour as best I may for eight and
+forty hours, though I am afraid it will be a struggle to avoid
+retorting a little of his bitterness upon himself."
+
+Such had been the substance of Colonel Manners' thoughts upon this
+subject, as he walked back, and such the determination he formed; but
+as he did form them, there was something like a sigh escaped from his
+bosom. The reception he had met with from Mrs. Falkland and her
+family, on his first arrival, had been so warm and kind, that all the
+best feelings of his heart had been enlisted on their side. He had
+completely made up his mind to spend a happy three weeks with people
+who seemed, in every respect, so amiable; and although he felt that it
+might be a little dangerous,--by making him feel more acutely, from
+comparison, the want of domestic ties and comforts,--although he felt
+it might be a little dangerous, yet he had experienced a pleasure at
+the idea of thus dwelling, even for a short space, in the midst of a
+true old English family, that made him bitterly regret the necessity
+of foregoing what he had set his heart upon. As he thought of going
+forth again alone, it seemed as if it were the voice of fate that
+forbade him to expose himself to the sight of feelings and enjoyments
+that he was never to know personally, and sent him back imperiously to
+the solitary state of existence which was to be his portion; and
+although Colonel Manners was accustomed to the contemplation, and had
+nerved his mind, not only to bear the uncomforts of his lot, but to
+resist every thought that would teach him to repine, yet there were
+times--and this was one--when he could not but feel the chill wind of
+solitude blow from the dreary prospect of the future, and blight even
+the enjoyment of the present. A dissertation on the moral and physical
+nature of man might be given to prove to a demonstration, that
+domestic ties are a necessity of his existence: and let any man gaze
+forward into future years, and fancy that some cold barrier is placed
+between him and domestic affection; that no kindred eye is to brighten
+at his presence, no affectionate lip smile at his happiness, no tear
+of sympathy to wash away one half of his griefs, no cheerful voice to
+dispel the thoughts of care, no assiduous hand to smooth the pillow of
+sickness, and close the eye of death,--let him picture his being
+solitary, his joys unshared, his sorrows undivided, his misfortunes
+unaided but by general compassion, his sickness tended by the slow
+hand of mercenaries, and his eyes closed, while the light has scarce
+departed, by the rude touch of some weary and indifferent menial,--let
+him fancy all this, and then he will feel, indeed, that domestic ties
+are a necessity of our existence; at least, if he be not either drunk
+with licentious passions, or a mere calculating machine.
+
+We do not mean to say that all these ideas, or any one of them,
+presented themselves to the mind of Colonel Manners. Far be it from us
+to insinuate that he was foolish enough to give a vivid form and
+painful minuteness to the evils of a state that he believed he could
+not avoid. He struggled even against the general impression; but, as
+we have said, there were moments in his life--and this was one--when,
+notwithstanding reason and resolution, he would feel bitterly that it
+is sad and sorrowful to pass through life alone, to spend one's days
+in solitude, and to go down into the grave without a tie. The
+impression was so strongly raised, and clung so firmly to his mind, at
+the moment we speak of, that he took a turn of a hundred yards back
+upon the walk, to give the thoughts full range. Then remembering
+himself, he broke out into an involuntary exclamation of, "This is
+folly!" and turned quickly back to the house.
+
+In the breakfast-room he found Miss Falkland alone, and was not sorry
+so to find her; for there was in her conversation a pleasant and
+good-humoured sparkling, a frank and fearless liveliness, which amused
+and interested him. Besides, Colonel Manners was by no means a man to
+object to the society of a very beautiful girl: on that score he was
+quite fearless; for he had so guarded his heart by rampart, and
+bastion, and half-moon, that he feared no attack, either by siege or
+storm. The thing that he feared was, the sight of a state of happiness
+which he coveted, but did not hope for; and therefore he could enjoy
+the gay conversation and pleasing presence of Isadore Falkland without
+alloy, though he might apprehend that a lengthened stay, in the midst
+of a cheerful family circle, might deepen his regret at his own
+loneliness.
+
+Now, although the house of Mrs. Falkland, like most other houses of
+its date, had a certain ramblingness of construction, midway between
+the Gothic of Henry the Seventh's and the anomalous architecture of
+the nineteenth century, yet the rooms were sufficiently proximate to
+allow Colonel Manners to hear every now and then, as the servant
+opened and shut the door of the breakfast-room, the voice of Lord
+Dewry, in tones more sharp than was becoming. Nor was he slack in
+attributing the acerbity of the sounds he heard to their right cause;
+so that, as we have before shown, when Mrs. Falkland and her nephew
+spoke of the departure of the noble lord as a thing that had taken
+place in the ordinary course of affairs, Manners had very nearly
+smiled.
+
+However, having taken his determination in regard to his proceedings,
+and, seeing no better plan that he could pursue, he suffered the
+matter to pass quietly, well knowing that real delicacy never makes a
+noise. To say the truth, he was not at all sorry to find that Lord
+Dewry had taken his departure; for he had every inclination to make
+himself both comfortable and agreeable while he did stay, neither of
+which objects are very attainable in the same house with a man who
+wants to fight a duel with you. After breakfast, as Manners was too
+much of a general to leave any thing to chance, he retired to his own
+apartments, in order to write such letters to London as would ensure
+immediate replies of the kind that would afford him a fair excuse for
+breaking through his engagement with De Vaux, without rendering the
+matter painful to his friend by any direct reference to his father;
+and, when this was accomplished, he returned to the rest of the party,
+whom he found in the act of seeing the footman leave the room with
+Marian's note to her uncle.
+
+"We propose to take a walk, Manners," said De Vaux, as he entered; "I
+must show you the beauties of our county; and I think we will go upon
+the path which leads across the hill, and brings us through the wood
+to within a few hundred yards of the spot where we saw the gipsies. We
+call it Marian's Walk, as she might always be found there when we were
+but little boys and girls."
+
+"It might have been called Edward's Walk as well, then," answered
+Isadore, gayly; "for I am sure she was never there without you,
+Edward. At all events, if you did not go with her, you were not long
+before you found her."
+
+"And can Miss de Vaux venture on so long a walk?" asked Colonel
+Manners, "in the present day, when the extent of a lady's morning
+promenade is twice round the room and once round the garden--when
+shoemakers stare, I am told, at the name of walking shoes, and declare
+that they never heard of such things?"
+
+Marian smiled. "You are severe upon us, Colonel Manners," she said;
+"but this walk is not so far either--though it is a little steep."
+
+"It seemed to me nearly six miles," replied Colonel Manners; "six
+miles, at least, from this spot to the place De Vaux mentions."
+
+"Oh, that was because you came by the road," replied Isadore: "if you
+had come over the hill, you would have shortened the way by one
+half--but I forgot; you would have met with some accident also, as it
+was dark, and you were on horseback. It is not much more than two
+miles to the place where the path again joins the high-road after
+passing through Morley wood."
+
+"If you find it so short, I trust you are to be of the party, Miss
+Falkland," said Colonel Manners.
+
+"Oh, most certainly," she replied. "It was all very well for Edward
+and Marian to wander through the woods together when they were boys
+and girls; but now propriety, you know, Colonel Manners, requires a
+sedate and aged chaperon; and besides, I could not leave the party of
+such an odd and unfortunate number as three: I should be afraid of
+some accident happening to you by the way."
+
+"But three is a fortunate number, my gay cousin," replied De Vaux,
+smiling, "not an unfortunate one, by every rule of cabalistic
+science."
+
+"In figures, but not in love, Edward," answered his cousin, with a gay
+laugh. "At least, I have read as much in your face, more than once,
+when I happened to be the unfortunate third--"
+
+"Hush, hush, Isadore," cried Marian. "Come, let us dress ourselves to
+go;" and taking her cousin's arm, she hurried her away. Now Marian de
+Vaux, who knew her cousin well, was quite sure that Isadore would not
+push her raillery of her lover one step too far; but still she was not
+sorry to break off Isadore's discourse; for love is one of those
+things that people may talk about a great deal when they feel it not,
+but which they bury deep in the heart's innermost tabernacle as soon
+as they know its value, and, like misers, tremble even when their
+treasure is named.
+
+Every one was soon ready to set out; and strolling through the garden
+separately, they proceeded to what was called the little gate, which
+gave them exit upon the road of which they were in search. By
+separately, I mean that neither of the gentlemen offered an arm to
+their female companions so long as they were within rows of box-wood
+bordering and upon gravel walks. There would have been something
+ridiculous in it; although, perhaps, the quality of walking arm-in-arm
+is to be looked upon as one of the peculiar privileges of humanity,
+which as much distinguishes man from other animals, as any other
+quality of his mind or body. He has been called, by those who strove
+to define him, "a forked radish, fantastically cut," "a viviparous
+biped, without feathers," "a cooking animal," and many another name.
+But had they called him "the animal that walks arm-in-arm,"
+philosophers might have come nearer to his distinctive quality; for
+not only is it a thing that no other animal does, but it also gives at
+once the idea of many of the finer qualities of man's mind, and is, in
+fact, a sort of living hieroglyphic of affection and sympathy, and
+mutual assistance and support.
+
+Now Colonel Manners and Edward de Vaux, looking upon the privilege of
+walking arm-in-arm in its true light, might consider it with too much
+reverence to enter upon it lightly, and therefore not offer to
+exercise it towards their fair companions, till the steepness of the
+way and the openness of the country seemed to render it necessary for
+their convenience and protection. There might, indeed, be another
+reason, which was, that in issuing forth from the house, a little
+derangement in the natural order of things had taken place--some stray
+glove, or wandering stick, or something of the kind, had been
+forgotten, so as to throw out the order of the march; and Colonel
+Manners found himself walking beside Marian de Vaux, while De Vaux was
+at the elbow of his cousin Isadore. Colonel Manners, in agreeing to go
+out upon this expedition, had perfectly well understood the part he
+was held to play; and De Vaux had the most firm and implicit reliance
+upon his friend's tact in the business; so that by a tacit convention
+it was arranged between them, that the long ramble which Marian had
+promised to take with her lover was to be as completely solitary and
+agreeable as if they had not a friend or relation upon the face of the
+earth. But the derangement which had taken place in the position of
+the forces of course rendered a counter movement on the part of De
+Vaux and his friend necessary; and yet, as the walk they followed was
+narrow, and did not admit of the advance of more than two abreast, the
+desired evolution could not be performed without rendering the object
+unpleasantly obvious, till some little accident came to their aid.
+Colonel Manners, however, had been out in the morning, as we have
+already seen, to reconnoitre the ground; and as soon as he saw the
+difficulty, he instantly laid out the plan of the evolutions, and
+fixed upon the exact position, walking on still by the side of Marian
+de Vaux, and talking of _les mouches qui volent_.
+
+But to proceed. Colonel Manners and Marian reached the little gate
+first, and unlocked it, and then Colonel Manners halted till Miss de
+Vaux and Miss Falkland had passed. The two ladies immediately halted
+on the bank of the little road facing the gate, with Marian on the
+right hand and Isadore on the left. Colonel Manners then resigned the
+command of the gate to Edward de Vaux; but, in marching out, while the
+other locked the door and brought the key, Manners took up a position
+upon the extreme left. De Vaux then advanced to the right of the line,
+and, wheeling about, gave his arm to Marian; Colonel Manners offered
+his to Miss Falkland, and led the way up the road to the left. This
+detail is given as an exemplification of Manners' military skill,--a
+quality which, unfortunately, we shall have no other opportunity of
+displaying throughout this book. Nor was Isadore Falkland's knowledge
+of strategy less marked, in taking up the position to the left, as it
+entirely commanded the road up which they were about to proceed; and
+as people in love in general walk a great deal slower than people not
+in love, it was necessary that she and Colonel Manners should lead the
+way, in order at once to give Edward and Marian de Vaux the protection
+of their presence and the benefit of their absence.
+
+Colonel Manners and Miss Falkland did not lose much time in silence,
+for they were both people who could talk very pleasantly; and,
+whatever they might think in regard to themselves, they each felt that
+it was so in regard to the other. They spoke of many things; and
+Isadore's conversation, as she became better acquainted with her
+companion, and discovered that there were stores of feeling and
+kindness at his heart which would prevent him from laughing at her own
+enthusiasms, poured forth more of the deeper stream of her character,
+over which the rippling current of gay and sparkling jest that she
+usually displayed, flowed as much to conceal the depth, as for any
+other purpose. Besides, she was happy and young; and where was ever
+the stream, however profound, that did not sparkle when the sun shone
+full upon it?
+
+Their first topic, as perhaps might be expected, was De Vaux and
+Marian; a topic which, under some circumstances, might have been
+dangerous; but Manners and Miss Falkland felt themselves perfectly
+secure. Still it was a delicate one: for however deep and true Colonel
+Manners' friendship might be for De Vaux, and however warm and
+enthusiastic might be the love of Isadore for her cousin Marian, there
+were, of course, a thousand little circumstances and feelings, upon
+which neither could enter, out of respect for the very friendship and
+affection which they felt for the two lovers. Nevertheless, perhaps,
+this very _retenue_, with the sort of faint and misty allusions which
+they were obliged to make to their friends' love and their friends'
+hopes and prospects, and the graceful circumlocutions and explicative
+figures that it obliged them to seek, were not without charms in
+themselves. Colonel Manners, for his part, felt very sure that, under
+Marian de Vaux's calm and tranquil manners were very deep and powerful
+feelings; but, at the same time, he wished--if consistently with
+delicacy it were possible--to find out from Miss Falkland whether his
+opinions were fully justified; and Isadore longed to know--with all a
+woman's yearnings to prove to her own heart the substantial existence
+of real, pure, permanent, unswerving love--whether her cousin had
+retained, during his long absence, all that tender, devoted, undivided
+attachment which he displayed towards Marian when present. Not at all
+did she wish to know whether Edward de Vaux had made love to, or
+flirted with, or talked sweet nonsense to any other woman. Do not let
+it be misunderstood; she never suspected such a thing, nor would have
+believed it had it been told her: but she would have given a great
+deal to find out, whether in the bosom of her cousin, the one thought
+of his affection had ever been paramount; whether the world, and
+ambition, and other scenes, and absence, and danger, and excitement
+had never banished the image of Marian from the bosom of Edward de
+Vaux; and, in short, she would have willingly heard it proved, in his
+instance, that love can exist in the bosom of man, under prolonged
+absence and varying circumstances. In all this, she was as
+disinterested as a woman ever can be in regard to an affair of love;
+but, the truth is, no woman can be totally so. The whole of that
+bright race are, in this respect, but a joint-stock company--to borrow
+a figure from familiar things--and love is their capital, in which all
+have an interest, and all a share.
+
+However, it will be easily conceived that, under these circumstances,
+the conversation between Miss Falkland and Colonel Manners was as
+nice, and delicate, and difficult an encounter of their wits as ever
+was practised. Colonel Manners was soon satisfied; for, in answer to
+some complimentary observation upon her cousin's manners and
+appearance, which went to praise their tranquillity as well as their
+elegance, Isadore answered frankly, and smiling as she did so, "Oh,
+Marian is often more _commoto dentro_ than you think." Miss Falkland's
+researches, however, were less easily pursued, and they led her, like
+a child hunting a butterfly, through a world of flowers. One time, she
+would put her problem generally, and wonder whether any man ever did
+feel, and continue to feel, as she wished to believe Edward had done
+towards Marian; and then she would put it particularly, and say, that
+she thought such an attachment as his must have been a wonderful
+solace and delight to him; an inexhaustible fund of sweet feelings and
+hope, throughout all that he had been obliged to endure. But still
+Colonel Manners, who very clearly understood what she meant, hung back
+a little in his explanations; pleased, in truth, to watch the feelings
+that prompted her and the path she pursued; pleased with all the
+graces that the subject called up in her countenance and her manner;
+the beaming smile, the sparkling eye, and sometimes the sudden stop
+and passing blush, when she became uncertain of the next step and
+dared not advance.
+
+After he had amused himself a little, and saw that she might
+misconstrue his backwardness into something disadvantageous to his
+friend, he caught at the next sentence, and replied, "Yes, indeed, I
+look upon De Vaux's attachment, and his engagement to your fair
+cousin, before he went to America, as one of the greatest blessings
+that could have happened to him; especially for a man whose heart was
+calculated to make it his happiness and his safeguard, and his leading
+star wherever he went."
+
+Isadore blushed warmly; and perhaps there was a little mingling of
+emotions in her blush; for, in the first place, the full confirmation
+of what she had wished and hoped, made her cheek glow; and, in the
+next place, Colonel Manners' words were so exactly a reply to the
+questions which had been lurking unspoken in her heart, that she
+almost suspected he had seen deeper into her thoughts than she had
+anticipated. A slight smile that followed upon his lip she considered
+as excessively malicious; but she was one who never suffered wrath to
+rankle in her bosom, but, in her way, revenged herself always on the
+spot. "You speak so feelingly, Colonel Manners," said she, just
+suffering a single ray of laughing light to gleam out of her fine dark
+eyes; "you speak so feelingly, that I doubt not you have been guarded
+and led in the same manner."
+
+Let it be clearly kept in mind, that Isadore Falkland had only known
+Colonel Charles Manners fourteen hours and a half, or she would not
+have said what she did for the world. It may be thought that the case
+ought to have been quite the contrary, and that she might have
+ventured more had she been more intimate. But such would be an
+erroneous view of the matter. Isadore Falkland well knew that fourteen
+hours and a half was not a sufficient space of time for any rational
+man either to feel or to affect love for the most enchanting being
+that ever the world beheld, and, consequently, that she might say a
+sportive thing in regard to Colonel Manners' heart, without any chance
+of a retort which might have been disagreeable--unless he had been a
+fool or a coxcomb, which she knew him not to be. Had she known him a
+fortnight, he might have made the retort, as a jest, which would have
+been disagreeable enough; or as a compliment, which would have been
+still more disagreeable; or as a serious fact, which would have been
+most disagreeable; and therefore, under such circumstances, she would
+never have thought of talking about the heart of one of the company,
+when there were but two in it. Had she known, too, that the subject
+was a painful one to Colonel Manners, she would as little have thought
+of touching upon it; and, indeed, a feeling that he was not handsome,
+and a vague misty sort of consciousness that that fact might have
+something to do with his remaining unmarried, did make her regret that
+she had said such words, almost as soon as they were beyond recall.
+
+"No, indeed," said Colonel Manners, with a touch of melancholy in his
+manner that could not wholly be banished; "no, indeed, I have not been
+so fortunate as either to have guardian angel or leading star;" and he
+smiled at the triteness of his own figures of speech, but with a smile
+that did not counteract, to the mind of Miss Falkland, the sadness of
+his tone. She was vexed with herself, and would have done anything on
+earth, in a reasonable way, to efface whatever painful feelings she
+might have awakened: but though she was generally skilful enough in
+putting an end to a difficulty where others were concerned, she found
+it not so easy to disentangle the affair when she herself was the
+culprit.
+
+Whether Colonel Manners perceived that Miss Falkland felt she had
+given pain, and was vexed with herself, or whether he likewise wished
+to get rid of the subject, matters little; but he now changed the
+topic somewhat abruptly; and looking round upon the woods, into the
+very heart of which they were plunging, he said, "I wonder that you
+fair ladies are not somewhat afraid of walking through these solitudes
+by yourselves."
+
+"There is no danger," she replied; "we have none but very orderly,
+peaceable people in our part of the world: though, in truth," she
+added, after a moment's thought, "we are the last family that should
+say there is no danger; but I have never heard of any very serious
+offence being committed in our neighbourhood since the murder of my
+poor uncle, which, as it is long ago, of course I do not recollect.
+
+"I remember having heard something of that event," replied Colonel
+Manners, "but do not recollect the particulars. Was he killed by
+highwaymen?"
+
+"I believe so," answered Miss Falkland, "though I know too little
+about it to tell you exactly what happened. But--oh, yes!--he was
+robbed and murdered, I remember; for it was proved that he had a large
+sum of money upon his person when he went out--several thousand
+pounds--and it was supposed that some one who knew the fact had either
+waylaid him, or had informed the murderers of the booty they might
+obtain."
+
+"He was, I think, your uncle by the side of Mrs. Falkland," said
+Colonel Manners, who of course felt an interest in the matter in
+proportion to the little difficulties of obtaining information.
+
+"Yes, my mother's brother," replied Isadore; "Marian's father. You may
+easily imagine that such a story rendered her an object of double
+interest to all her family--of redoubled tenderness, I believe I
+should say, and even my uncle, who is not very scrupulous in regard to
+what he says to any one, is more kind and considerate towards Marian
+than towards any other human being. That great and horrible crime,
+however--I mean the murder--seems to have frightened others from our
+neighbourhood; and though we occasionally hear of a little poaching,
+the people round us are uniformly well-behaved and peaceable."
+
+"Can you say as much for the gipsies towards whose encampment, if I
+understood De Vaux right, we are bending our way?" asked Colonel
+Manners. "They are, in general, very troublesome and unquiet
+neighbours."
+
+"I had not heard of their being here," replied Miss Falkland: "we are
+very seldom so honoured, I can assure you. I do not remember having
+seen gipsies here more than once; and that was not in this wood, but
+on a large common up yonder at the top of that hill, behind the house.
+They are a strange race!"
+
+"They are, indeed," answered her companion; "and De Vaux and I, as we
+passed their encampment, could not help marvelling that no government
+had ever thought it worth its while to pay some attention to them,
+either for the purpose of reclaiming them to civilized life, or, if
+that were judged impossible, for the purpose of obtaining those traces
+of knowledge which are waning from among them every day, but which
+some of their better men are said still to retain."
+
+"Do you mean their astrological knowledge?" asked Miss Falkland, with
+a look of no slight interest in the question.
+
+"O, no!" answered Colonel Manners, with a smile; "I mean the knowledge
+of their real history, of their original country, of their former
+laws, of their language in its purity, and of many facts of great
+interest, which, though with them they are merely traditionary, yet
+might be confirmed or invalidated by other testimony in our own
+possession."
+
+"They are a strange people, indeed!" said Miss Falkland. "Do you know,
+Colonel Manners, that the separate existence of these gipsies and of
+the Jews--coming down, as it were, two distinct streams, amid all the
+whirling confusion of an ocean of other nations--keeping their
+identity among wars, and battles, and changes, and the overturning of
+all things but themselves; retaining their habits, and their thoughts,
+and their national character apart, in spite both of sudden and
+violent revolutions in society, and of the slow, but even more
+powerful efforts of gradual improvement and civilization. Do you know,
+whenever I think of this, it gives me a strange feeling of mysterious
+awe that I cannot describe? It seems as if I saw more distinctly than
+in the common course of things the workings of the particular will of
+the Almighty; for I cannot understand how these facts can be accounted
+for by any of the common motives in existence; as, in both instances,
+interest, ambition, policy, and pleasure, with almost every inducement
+that could be enumerated, would have produced exactly the opposite
+result."
+
+"I shall not attempt to reason against you, Miss Falkland," replied
+Colonel Manners, with a smile; "and, indeed, I very much agree with
+you in opinion, though perhaps not in your wonder; for being a
+complete believer in a special providence, I only see the same hand in
+this that I think is discernible throughout creation."
+
+"But tell me, Colonel Manners," said Isadore, "have you any belief in
+the fortune-telling powers of the gipsies?"
+
+"None whatever," answered Colonel Manners.
+
+"Nor perhaps have I," said Isadore; "but at the same time it is
+strange that in all ages and in all countries, as far as I can
+understand, these gipsies have pretended to this particular science,
+and have been very generally believed. At all events, it shows that
+they have an immemorial tradition of such a power having been
+possessed by their ancestors; and if it were possessed by their
+ancestors, why not by themselves?"
+
+"But we have no reason to believe that it was possessed by their
+ancestors," replied Colonel Manners, "except, indeed, their own
+tradition, which, as you say, is evidently very ancient."
+
+"Nay, nay, but I think we have other proofs," replied Isadore, "and
+very strong ones, it appears to me. It is evident from the historical
+part of the Bible that the most ancient Egyptians had various means of
+divination, and even a magical influence, the reality and power of
+which is admitted by the sacred writers most distinctly; and
+consequently, when these facts are joined to an immemorial tradition
+of the descendants of the same nation, it seems that there is strong
+reason for believing that these powers existed even after the period
+to which the sacred volume refers."
+
+"I am inclined, indeed, to believe," replied Colonel Manners,
+"that the gipsies are descendants from some Egyptian tribe, although
+the fact has been contested strongly, and the French call them
+Bohemians--unreasonably enough. In regard to the powers of divination
+attributed to the ancient Egyptians, too, I believe them to have
+existed, because I believe the Bible not only as an inspired record,
+but as the best-authenticated history, without any exception, that
+exists; and at the same time I cannot suppose that men who had so
+grand, so comprehensive, and also so philosophical an idea of the
+Divinity, that four thousand years have not been able to produce the
+slightest enlargement of it, as displayed in many passages of Holy
+Writ--I cannot suppose that such men would have recorded as facts
+anything substantially inconsistent with the majesty of that Being
+whom they alone knew in the age when they wrote. But you must remember
+that these powers, though permitted then for reasons we know not, may
+have ceased now, like the powers of prophecy, and many other things of
+the same kind; and did the gipsies possess such powers at present,
+depend upon it, we should find them clothed in purple in the closets
+of kings, instead of wandering upon bare heaths, and stealing for a
+livelihood."
+
+"You are right, I know," replied Miss Falkland, with a smile, at the
+lingerings of credulity that still haunted her own bosom, "and I have
+convinced myself, and been convinced by others over and over again,
+that it is all nonsense; and yet,--"
+
+She paused, and Manners rejoined, "One of our old humorous poets says,
+
+
+             'A man convinced against his will,
+              Is of the same opinion still.'"
+
+
+"And perhaps you think the verses still more applicable to a woman,
+Colonel Manners," replied Miss Falkland; "but that is not exactly the
+case with me. My weakness extends no farther than this:--were a gipsy
+to predict any great evil for my future life, it would make me very
+uneasy, however much I might struggle against the impression; and, on
+that account, I would not have my fortune told, as they call it, for
+the world! Would you?"
+
+"Without the slightest apprehension," answered Colonel Manners,
+laughing. "They may try their chiromancy on me, when they please, and
+do me all the harm they can for half a crown, which is, I believe, the
+stipulated sum."
+
+"That is, because you are a man and a hero," replied Miss Falkland, in
+the same gay tone, "and you are bound by honour and profession to be
+afraid of nothing; but remember, I look upon it as an agreement--you
+are to have your fortune told this very day, and that will do for the
+whole party; for I will not have mine told, and I am sure Marian shall
+not, if I can prevent it."
+
+"Oh, I will be the scape-goat, with all my heart," he replied; "but I
+suppose we cannot be far from their encampment, if your computation of
+miles be correct."
+
+"We are close to the high-road," answered Miss Falkland; "but how far
+up the hill they are, you best know. However, let us wait for Edward
+and Marian. We must not make the babes in the wood of them; and of
+course they are a good way behind. Now, I dare say, while you and
+Edward were in America, you heard of Marian de Vaux till you were
+tired--was it not so, Colonel Manners?"
+
+"No, indeed," he answered, smiling; "far from it, I can assure you.
+Although I long ago found out by various infallible signs that De Vaux
+was in love; yet, never till circumstances had produced esteem and
+friendship, and friendship had become intimacy, did he ever mention
+his engagement, or the object of his attachment."
+
+"And then he doubtless painted her in very glowing colours," added
+Isadore, trying strenuously to while away the time till her cousins
+came up, they having lingered behind farther than she had expected.
+
+"Oh, of course, all lovers are like the old painter Arellius,"
+answered Colonel Manners, "and always paint the objects of their love
+as goddesses. But I will not gratify your malice, Miss Falkland; De
+Vaux has too fine a sense of the ridiculous ever to render himself so
+by exaggerating any feeling."
+
+"He has, indeed, too fine a sense of the ridiculous," answered
+Isadore; "it is his worst fault, Colonel Manners; and I fear that,
+like all the rest of our faults, it may some day prove his own bane;
+but here they come! Now, Colonel Manners, prepare to hear your fate.
+Edward, here is your friend going to have his fortune told."
+
+"You mean going to give half a crown to a gipsy," said De Vaux; "but if
+you are serious, Manners, I will, of course, stand by you to the last,
+as if you were going to fight a duel, or any other unreasonable thing.
+Turn to the left and you will see the appointed place, as the
+newspapers call it, before you."
+
+In this expectation, however, De Vaux was mistaken; for the gipsies
+and their accompaniments, men, women, and children, pots, kettles, and
+tents, had all disappeared. It must not be said, indeed, that they had
+left no vestige of their abode behind them, for half a dozen black
+spots burnt in the turf, and more than one pile of white wood ashes,
+attested the extent of their encampment; but nothing else was to be
+seen in the green wood, except the old oaks, and the yellow sunshine
+streaming through the rugged boughs, with a squirrel balancing itself
+on the branch of a fir, and two noisy jays screaming from tree to
+tree.
+
+"This is a very Robin Hood like scene," said Colonel Manners, as he
+looked around, "and less gloomy in the broad daylight than at
+eventide. But here are no gipsies, Miss Falkland; and I am afraid that
+you must put off hearing the future fate and fortunes of Charles
+Manners till another time."
+
+"I am very much mortified, indeed," replied Isadore, "and I see that
+you only laugh at me, Colonel Manners, without sympathizing in the
+least with disappointed curiosity; which,--as no one believes more
+fully than yourself,--is a very serious event in a woman's case.
+However, I shall hold you bound by your promise, and look upon you
+engaged as a man of honour to have your fortune told the very first
+time you meet with a party of gipsies,--nay, more, to let me know the
+result also."
+
+She spoke with playful seriousness; and Colonel Manners replied, "With
+all my heart, Miss Falkland; and, indeed, you shall find that your
+commands are so lightly borne by me, that I will take other
+obligations upon myself, and even seek out your favourites, the
+gipsies; for these protegees of yours seldom move far at a time,
+unless, indeed, all the poultry in the neighbourhood happens to be
+exhausted."
+
+"Oh, that is not the case here," answered Isadore; "there is plenty
+yet remaining in every farm-yard, and I dare say you will find them on
+the common."
+
+"I will go to-morrow, then, without fail," he answered, "for--" and he
+had nearly added words which would have betrayed his meditated
+departure; but he turned his speech another way; and all parties, well
+satisfied with their ramble, returned by the same path to the house.
+
+Nothing occurred during the rest of the day to disturb the
+tranquillity of the party. The evening passed away in conversation,
+generally light enough, but of which we have given a specimen above,
+fully sufficient to show its nature and quality. Sometimes it touched,
+indeed, upon deeper feelings, without ever becoming grave; and
+sometimes it ventured farther into the realms of learning, without
+approaching pedantry. The annoyance of Lord Dewry's behaviour on the
+preceding night had at the time reconciled Colonel Manners in some
+degree to the idea of quitting a circle in which he found much to
+please and interest him; but no such annoyance interrupted the course
+of this evening, and he experienced more pain than he liked to
+acknowledge, when he thought of leaving behind him for ever, a scene
+in which the hours passed so pleasantly. He felt, however, that the
+annoyance might soon be renewed, or that even if it were not, he had
+no right by his presence to shut out De Vaux's father from Mrs.
+Falkland's house; and he resolved still to adhere to his purpose, and
+set out for London on the day after that which was just about to
+follow.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The ordinary and too well-deserved lamentation over the fragility of
+human resolutions was not in general applicable to the determinations
+of Charles Manners, who was usually very rigid in his adherence to his
+purposes, whether they were of great or small importance. But it must
+not be supposed that this pertinacity, if it may so be called, in
+pursuit of designs he had already formed, proceeded from what the
+world calls obstinacy. Obstinacy maybe defined the act of persisting
+in error; and the rectitude and precision of his judgment generally
+kept him from being in error at first, so that he had rarely a
+legitimate cause for breaking his resolution. Nor was he either of
+such a hard and tenacious nature as to resist all persuasion, and,
+like the cement of the Romans, only to grow the stiffer by the action
+of external things. Far from it; he was always very willing to
+sacrifice his purposes--where no moral sacrifice was implied--to the
+wishes and solicitations of those he loved or esteemed. Nor is there
+any contradiction in this statement, though it may be inquired, how,
+then, did he break his resolutions less frequently than other people?
+The secret was this, and it is worth while to burden memory with it:
+he never formed his resolutions without thought, which saved at least
+one-third from fracture; and though he broke them sometimes at the
+entreaty of others, he never sacrificed them to any whim of his own,
+which saved _very nearly_ two-thirds more; for we may depend upon it
+that the determinations which we abandon, either from a change of
+circumstances, or from the persuasions of our friends, form but a very
+minute fraction, when compared with those that we give up, either from
+original error or after caprice.
+
+It has seemed necessary to give this lecture upon resolutions, because
+Colonel Manners very speedily found cause to abandon the determination
+which he formed so vigorously on the day we spoke of in the last
+chapter; and, that he might not be charged with inconsistency, it
+became requisite to enter into all those strict definitions and
+explanations that generally leave us as many loopholes for escape and
+evasion, as a treaty of peace or a deed of settlement.
+
+One resolution, however, and one promise, Colonel Manners certainly
+did keep, as soon as it was possible, which was, to inquire whether
+the gipsies were still in the neighbourhood, and to seek them out,
+with the full purpose of having his fortune told. Now, it may be
+supposed that here was a little weakness on the part of Colonel
+Manners--that he did give some credit to gipsy chiromancy; nay, the
+reader may even push his conjectures farther, and imagine him dreaming
+of Isadore Falkland's beautiful eyes, and all their varieties of
+expression, from the deep and soft to the gayest sparkle that ever
+twinkled through two rows of long silky eyelashes. But the simple fact
+was, that he had promised to go, and that he went; and though he might
+think Miss Falkland extremely beautiful and extremely pleasing, as
+every man who had been two minutes in her company must have thought,
+he no more dreamed of the possibility of so fair a creature, courted
+and loved as he knew she must be, ever uniting herself to so ugly a
+man as himself--and as he sat and shaved himself that morning he
+thought himself uglier than ever--than Napoleon Bonaparte, in the
+plenitude of power and the majesty of victory, thought of a low grave
+beneath a willow on a rock in the Atlantic.
+
+In regard to any belief in the gipsies' fortune-telling, there were
+little use of investigating closely, whether some thin fibre of the
+root of superstition had or had not been left in the bosom of Charles
+Manners. If any particle thereof did remain, it went no farther than
+to excite, perhaps, a slight degree of curiosity in regard to what the
+people would predict, more, perhaps, from feeling that it must be
+absurd, than from expecting any point of coincidence with his real
+fate; and certain it is that, whatever the gipsies might have told to
+Colonel Manners, he would have thought no more of after the immediate
+moment, except as a matter for jest, than he would of any other kind
+of _sortes_, whether drawn from Virgil or Joe Miller.
+
+It was just a quarter to six on the morning after that which had seen
+the walk in Morley Wood, when Manners, who was, as we have said, an
+early riser, gave some orders to his servant concerning his horses,
+and went out into the new wakened world. Having observed on the
+preceding day, for the purpose of carrying on the jest, the exact
+position of the hill on which Miss Falkland conjectured that the
+gipsies might have quartered themselves, he took his way across the
+park from that side which formed, in fact, the back of Morley House;
+and, having assured himself beforehand that he could find means of
+egress in that direction, he was soon beyond the walls, and winding up
+a small cart-road towards the summit.
+
+The hill itself was somewhat singular in form; and as it is rather
+characteristic of that particular county, we may as well endeavour to
+give the reader some idea of its appearance. It formed a portion of
+that steep range of upland which we have before described as
+principally covered with fine wood; but this particular point,
+projecting towards the river in the form of very nearly a right angle,
+seemed to have cast behind it the mass of forest which still continued
+over the ridge of the other hills. Vestiges of the wood, too, hung in
+broken patches on the flanks of even this protuberance, but the summit
+offered nothing but a bare, open plain, full of pits and ravines, and
+only further diversified by a few stunted hawthorns, and one single
+group of tall beeches, gathered together upon a tumulus, which covered
+the bodies of some of those invading warriors to whom our island was
+once a prey. The ascent to this plain from the small gate in the park
+wall, by which Colonel Manners issued forth, was in length somewhat
+more than a mile; but it consisted of two distinct grades, or steps,
+the first of which was formed by a little peninsula, jutting out from
+the salient angle of the main hill, and completely surrounded by the
+river on all sides except the one which served to unite it, by a
+narrow neck not above three hundred yards in breadth, to the high
+ground we have mentioned. This small peninsula, which was itself
+covered with wood, rose in a rocky bank to the height of about a
+hundred and fifty yards above the stream; and over the narrow isthmus
+was carried the road which passed the park; while the wall of the park
+itself, just excluding the wooded banks from the grounds of Morley
+House, was lowered in that part, so as to leave a full view of the
+picturesque little promontory from the windows of the mansion. Let the
+reader remember all this, for his memory may be taxed hereafter.
+
+Branching off from the right of the high-road lay the path up which
+Colonel Manners took his way, and which passed over a track upon the
+side of the hill, partly hedged in and cultivated, and partly left to
+its own ungrateful sterility. It was steep also, but Manners was a
+good climber; and, knowing that Mrs. Falkland's breakfast hour was
+half-past nine, he did not linger by the way, but soon found himself
+at the summit of the hill, and on the piece of waste ground which will
+be found in the county map under the name of Morley Common, or Morley
+Down. A good deal of dew had fallen in the night; and as the sun, who
+had not yet pursued his bright course far up the arch of heaven,
+poured the flood of his morning light upon the short blades of grass
+covering the common, the whole would have seemed crisp with hoarfrost,
+had not, every here and there, a tuft of longer leaves caught the rays
+more fully, and twinkled as if sprinkled with living diamonds, as the
+early air moved it gently in the beams. In different directions across
+the common might be seen a hundred small foot-roads, winding in that
+tortuous and unsteady manner which is sure to mark a path trodden out
+by man's unguided feet, and which offers no bad comment on his
+uncertain and roundabout way of arriving at his object; but, as the
+ground comprised many hundred acres, Colonel Manners might have been
+puzzled which way to take, had not his military habits at once sent
+him to the small planted tumulus which we have mentioned, in order to
+obtain a general view of the place.
+
+Climbing up the sides of the little mound, therefore, he gazed round
+him; but neither gipsies nor tents were visible; and he might have
+returned to Mrs. Falkland's, satisfied that they were not there, had
+not a small column of faint blue smoke, rising from behind some
+bushes, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, marked the
+presence of human beings in that direction, and shown that the bushes,
+though apparently not higher than a man's hat, masked some fall in the
+ground where the fire was kindled. Thither, then, Manners turned his
+steps, and soon perceived that another old sand-pit, with some bushes
+climbing up one of the sides, had given shelter to those of whom he
+was now in search.
+
+Before he could even discover so much, he became aware, by two low
+whistles, that his own approach had been perceived; and, as he was
+advancing directly towards the sand-pit, where a number of the gipsies
+had paused in their various occupations to watch him, he saw a man
+issue forth from one of the huts, put something hastily into the bosom
+of his long wrapping coat, and then come forward to meet him. The
+gipsy, as he came nearer, gazed at him from head to foot, with a clear
+dark eye, which had in it nothing either of the dogged sullenness or
+cunning stealthiness that sometimes marks the male part of the
+race,--often the fruit both of their own vices and the world's
+harshness. There was something in the air and manner of the man, that
+to so accurate an observer as Manners, spoke a great difference
+between him and the general class of his people; but, to save a
+repetition of description, it may be as well to say at once, that the
+gipsy who now appeared was the same whom we have designated Pharold.
+
+"Good-morning!" said Colonel Manners, as the other came near; "you
+have hid your tents very completely here."
+
+"Good-morning!" replied the gipsy, slightly knitting his brow, as he
+saw the soldier's eye running over every part of their encampment with
+some degree of curiosity; "Good-morning! It seems you were seeking me
+or mine."
+
+"I was so," replied Manners, still gazing with some interest upon the
+old sand-pit and its picturesque tenants, with their blazing fire of
+sticks, and its white smoke curling through the broken ground and amid
+the scattered bushes.
+
+"And what did you want with us, then?" asked Pharold, somewhat
+impatiently; "you wanted something, or you would not have come here."
+
+"I wish to have my fortune told," replied Manners with a smile,
+excited equally by the impatience of the gipsy's tone, and by the
+nature of his own errand.
+
+The gipsy looked at him steadily, and then shook his head. "No, no,
+no," said he; "you did not come for that. Never tell me, that you
+would get out of your bed by daybreak, and climb a high hill, and seek
+a bare common, at this hour, to have your fortune told--never tell me
+that, Colonel Manners."
+
+Manners started at hearing his own name pronounced familiarly by the
+gipsy, though he knew the world, and all the tricks that accident and
+confederacy can put upon us, too well to suppose that he who is
+emphatically termed in Scripture "the prince of the power of the air"
+had taken the trouble to send an account of his name and quality to a
+gipsy on a common. Still, as it was unexpected, he was surprised, and
+expressed it; but not in such a way as to make the gipsy believe more
+fully than he had done at first, that he really gave credit to the
+supernatural pretensions of his nation, and came there for the purpose
+of consulting them upon his destiny.
+
+"Pray how did you become acquainted with my name?" demanded Colonel
+Manners, calmly. "I do not know that I ever saw you before?"
+
+"Perhaps not," replied the gipsy; "but if you believe that I can tell
+you what you will become hereafter, why should you be surprised that I
+know what you are now?"
+
+"I never said that I would believe what you told me," answered
+Manners; "but I know that, as I have been scarcely two days in this
+country, you must have been very expeditious in gaining my name.
+However, it is a matter of small consequence: I came, as I said, to
+have my fortune told according to your method. Will you do it?"
+
+"It shall be done," said the gipsy, still gazing at him inquiringly.
+"It shall de done, if you really desire it; but I know you men of the
+world, and I cannot help thinking you came not on that errand alone. I
+should think that Lord Dewry had sent you, did I not know that he went
+away yesterday morning to Dimden, and then before midday back to the
+hall."
+
+"You are a very singular person," said Colonel Manners, with a smile,
+"not only because you know every thing that is going on in the place,
+as well as a village gossip, but because you will not believe the
+truth when it is told you. Once more, then, my good friend, let me
+assure you, that nobody sent me; and that my sole purpose is to have
+my fortune told: nor should I stay here any longer, even for that
+purpose, had I not promised another person to submit to the
+infliction.
+
+"So, so," said the gipsy; "so the fair lady you were walking with
+yesterday in Morley Wood is more wise, or, as you would call it, more
+credulous than you are. But do not look angry, gentleman. I will tell
+you your fortune presently, and will tell it truly, if you will do me
+a piece of service, of which I stand in need too--something that I
+have promised to do, though not for a lady with dark eyes; and you
+seem sent here on purpose to aid in it."
+
+Now Manners was half amused and half angry; but it is probable the
+anger would have got the better of the other feeling, had not his
+curiosity been excited also by the language, the manners, and the
+request of the gipsy, whose whole demeanour was something quite new to
+him. He replied, however, "I never undertake to do any thing without
+knowing the precise nature thereof; but if you will tell me what you
+desire, and I find it reasonable, I will not, of course, refuse."
+
+"Yes, yes! you shall hear what it is," answered the gipsy; "nor will
+you find the request unreasonable. But come hither a little away from
+the people, for they need not know it." Thus speaking, he led the way
+towards the mound from which Manners had made his reconnoissance of
+the common; and, as he went, he kept his right hand in his bosom, but
+spoke not a word. At length, when they were fully out of earshot,
+Manners himself stopped, thinking that he had humoured his companion's
+caprices far enough.
+
+"Now, my good fellow," he said, "nobody can either see or hear, unless
+they follow for the purpose. Pray what is it you wish me to do for
+you?"
+
+"You are a friend of Mr. De Vaux, are you not?" said the gipsy
+abruptly, stopping and turning round as Manners spoke.
+
+"As far as esteeming him highly, and desiring to serve him with all my
+heart, can make me so," answered Manners, now more particularly
+surprised, "I believe I may call myself his dear friend: but what if I
+be so?"
+
+"If you be really a friend of Mr. Edward de Vaux," said the gipsy,
+"you will not object to take a letter to him."
+
+"Why," answered Manners, "although I am not exactly either a private
+courier or a postman, yet if your request stops there, I can have no
+objection to do as you desire; reserving to myself, of course, the
+right of telling him where I got the letter, and the circumstances
+that attended my receiving it."
+
+"That you will do, if you please," replied the gipsy; "but the request
+does not stop there. There are conditions in regard to the delivery of
+the letter which you must observe, and that punctually."
+
+Manners smiled. "This is all very extraordinary," he said; "you speak
+in somewhat of a dictatorial tone, my good friend; and it is not easy
+for me to comprehend what business one of your class and nation can
+have with my friend De Vaux, so soon after his return from other
+lands."
+
+"Trouble not yourself with that, Colonel Manners," answered the gipsy;
+and then added, seeing that something like a cloud was gathering on
+his auditor's brow, "if I have offended you, sir, I am sorry: such was
+not my purpose; and, believe me, I may know what is due both to you
+and myself better than you think. You are the commander of one of the
+King of England's regiments, and I am a poor gipsy; but you come to
+make a request to me, for granting which--as every thing is barter or
+robbery in this world--for granting which I require something of you.
+So far we are as much equals as in the enjoyment of the free air, and
+yonder bright sunshine, and this piece of common ground. Whether there
+be any other difference between us, in point of higher or lower, God
+knows, and he alone. Thus, then, hear me patiently, while I tell you
+the conditions of my bargain; and afterward I will do your bidding
+concerning your future fortunes--whether you esteem my skill or not,
+being your business, and not mine, as you seek it without my offering
+it."
+
+"I believe you are right," replied Colonel Manners, beginning more
+fully to appreciate the character of him with whom he spoke; "go on,
+and let me hear your conditions in regard to the delivery of this
+letter, which is, I suppose, the object that you hold in your bosom."
+
+"It is not a pistol," said the gipsy, producing the letter.
+
+"I did not suppose that it was," replied Colonel Manners; "and had it
+been so, it would have been a matter of much indifference to me: but
+now for your conditions."
+
+"They are few and simple," answered the gipsy; "I require, or request,
+you to give this into Mr. De Vaux's own hand, and to choose a moment
+when he is not only alone, but when he is likely to have an
+opportunity of reading it in private; and though you may tell him when
+and how you received it, and add what comments you like, you must not
+indulge in the same tattle to other people; but must keep silence on
+all concerning it."
+
+"Your conditions are not very difficult," replied Colonel Manners; "I
+will undertake them. Give me the letter. Upon my honour," he added,
+seeing that Pharold hesitated, "I will do exactly as you have
+desired."
+
+The man gave him the letter, which was cleaner, neater, and, as far as
+the address went, better written than the hands from which it came
+would have led one to anticipate. The moment he had done so, Pharold
+uttered a long, loud whistle, which brought a little yellow urchin of
+ten years old to their side, as fast as a pair of bare feet could
+carry him. "Thou mayst go," said the gipsy; "and make haste." The boy
+set off like lightning on the road which led to the river, and the
+gipsy again turned to Colonel Manners. "Give me your hand, sir," he
+said.
+
+Colonel Manners did as he desired, smiling while he did so at a
+certain lurking feeling of the ridicule of his situation, which he
+could not repress. "If any of my old fellow-soldiers were to see me
+here," he thought, "taking counsel with a gipsy upon my future fate
+and prospects, they would certainly think Charles Manners mad." The
+gipsy, however, gazed seriously upon his hand, and then raised his
+eyes to the other's face, without the slightest expression in his own
+countenance which could raise a suspicion that he was seeking to play
+upon credulity.
+
+"Colonel Manners," said Pharold, "before I tell you what I read here,
+listen to me for one moment. Most people who come to us on such an
+errand smile as they give us their hand; some because they believe us
+thoroughly, and affect by a laugh to show they do not believe at all;
+while some, who really do not believe, smile out of vain conceit in
+their own superior strength of mind: but do you remember that this
+that we practise is, when properly practised, a science in which we
+have ourselves the most confident faith. We never inquire afterward
+whether what we have predicted has proved true or not, for we are
+always sure that it must do so: but, at all events, such confidence in
+our own knowledge cannot spring from nothing."
+
+Manners could have easily found a reply in favour of his own side of
+the question, but he did not think it worth while to argue logically
+upon chiromancy with a gipsy, although that gipsy might be somewhat
+superior to others of his tribe; and, therefore, without answering the
+arguments of Pharold, he remained in silence, while the other again
+turned a very steadfast glance upon his extended hand.
+
+"Colonel Manners," said the gipsy at length, "if I read right, you
+have been a fortunate man."
+
+"And, in some respects, an unfortunate one," rejoined his auditor,
+"though, in truth, I have no great reason to complain."
+
+"Far more fortunate than unfortunate," answered the gipsy. "Here are
+but three crosses in all your life as yet; two so near the beginning,
+that you could not have felt them; and one--a deep one--much more
+lately."
+
+Colonel Manners smiled. "In the past you are certainly not far wrong:
+but it is the future I wish to hear: what of it?"
+
+"You mock us, sir," said the gipsy, eying him. "However, you shall
+hear your fate as it is. You shall be fortunate and unfortunate."
+
+"That is the common lot of human nature," rejoined Colonel Manners.
+
+"But herein does your fate differ from the common lot of human
+nature," replied the gipsy: "you shall be no longer fortunate in those
+things wherein you have hitherto found success; for you shall do all
+that you think you will not do; and prosper where you neither hope nor
+strive."
+
+"That is certainly a strange fate," answered Manners; "for I have ever
+found that success is a coy goddess, who needs all our efforts to
+obtain her smiles, and even then gives them but sparingly."
+
+"It _is_ a strange fate, and yet, in some sense, it is not," answered
+the gipsy; "your painters rightly represent Fortune as a woman, though
+they might as well have left her eyes unbandaged; for it is neither
+new nor marvellous to see woman fly from those that pursue her, and
+cast herself into the arms of those who care not for her smiles. And
+yet the fate written on that hand is strange, too; for it speaks of
+fortunes as fair without effort, for the future, as those of the past
+have been rendered by toil and exertion. It is a strange fate; but,
+nevertheless it shall be yours: and now, forget not my words, but,
+when you find them verified, remember him that spoke them."
+
+"But are you going to tell me no more?" demanded Colonel Manners: "I
+would fain have you come a little more to particulars, my good friend.
+One can make but little of these broad generalities."
+
+"One can make nothing to laugh at," answered the gipsy, "and therefore
+I shall keep to them, though, perhaps, I could tell you more. Remember
+them, however, and, as you will soon find them true, lay them to your
+heart, sir, and let them teach you to believe, that a thing is not
+false because you do not understand it; that there may be truths
+without the range either of your knowledge or of your faculties--some
+that you cannot comprehend, because they have not been explained to
+you; and some that, if they were explained to you a thousand times,
+your mind is too narrow to conceive--and yet they are."
+
+"I wish, my good friend, that I could send you to converse with
+Voltaire," said Colonel Manners. "Who is he?" demanded Pharold; "I do
+not know him."
+
+"No," replied Manners; "I dare say not: but he is a famous wit, who
+dabbles in philosophy, and seems inclined to teach the world, by his
+example, if not by his precepts, that man should credit nothing that
+he cannot understand."
+
+"And what should I do with him'?" demanded the gipsy, frowning: "I
+think you are mocking me--is it not so?"
+
+"No, on my honour," replied Colonel Manners; "I am not mocking you. On
+the contrary, I think you a very extraordinary person, and fitted for
+a different station from that in which I find you. Whether you
+yourself believe that which you have told me concerning my future
+fortune, or not, I thank you for having gratified me; and, at all
+events, I have derived from your conversation more that I shall
+remember long, than I anticipated when I came here. Will you accept of
+that?"
+
+Colonel Manners offered him one of those beautiful golden pieces which
+are now, I fear me, lost to the world for ever, and which were then
+called guineas. But the gipsy put it away. "No," he said; "you have
+undertaken to fulfil my request, and I have complied with yours. We
+owe each other nothing, then. Farewell!" and, turning on his heel, he
+left Colonel Manners to descend the hill, thinking him more
+extraordinary than ever, from the last very ungipsy-like act, by which
+he had terminated their conversation.
+
+The sun was now much higher than when Manners had trod that path
+before; for, according to his usual custom, the gracious luminary
+seemed to have run more quickly at his first rising than he does after
+having climbed the steep hill of heaven; and the wayfarer began to
+think that he might be late at Mrs. Falkland's breakfast-table, where
+cold eggs and lukewarm coffee were the just punishments of those who
+linger long abed. As he had closed the park gate, however, and had not
+the key, he was obliged to go round and enter by the other side of the
+house; but this proceeding, at all events, tended to solve one mystery
+connected with his late interview. In the hall the first object he
+beheld was the little gipsy boy whom he had seen with Pharold on the
+hill; and he now found him in conversation with Mrs. Falkland herself,
+who appeared to be asking after some of the Egyptian fraternity who
+were ill. Old Peter stood behind, keeping a wary eye upon the boy,
+whom he justly considered a very promising eleve in no inferior school
+of petty larceny; and as Colonel Manners approached, Mrs. Falkland
+terminated her inquiries, and made over her little companion to the
+care of the footman, with orders to give him something and send him
+away; an order, the latter part of which was complied with in a more
+summary manner than she anticipated, as soon as her back was turned.
+
+"Good-morning, Colonel Manners," she said, as they walked towards the
+breakfast-room; "you find me with a curious little companion: but the
+fact is, that, while you were all out walking yesterday, a poor gipsy
+woman accidentally fell down from the high bank close by the house,
+and was brought in here, completely stunned. The village apothecary
+was away; and, as I endeavour to enact my Lady Bountiful, I did what I
+could for the poor creature, who soon recovered. We had half a dozen
+of her tribe in the servant's hall, however; and, much to the butler's
+and Peter's surprise--and, I must confess, to my own also--when they
+went away, nothing was missing. According to a promise made by one of
+them, they have sent me down that little boy this morning to tell me
+that the poor woman is now quite well. I wished to have despatched the
+apothecary to her, and offered to do so as soon as he returned; but
+they seemed to have an invincible repugnance to all the professors of
+the healing art."
+
+"All people, I believe, who enjoy very good health," replied Colonel
+Manners, "feel the same towards the learned doctors--the very sight of
+one reminds us of losing one of the best blessings of Heaven. However,
+the meeting with that little gipsy gentleman here explains something
+which I might have made a mystery of, had I not heard your account of
+your yesterday's interview; for this morning I had a long conversation
+with a gipsy on the hill--a very singular person--who addressed me at
+once by name, and seemed perfectly well acquainted with my being at
+your house."
+
+"Oh, your servant was present yesterday," replied Mrs. Falkland, "and,
+with all the dexterity of an old soldier, gave us very great
+assistance in bringing the poor woman to herself. I remarked, too,
+that her gipsy companions did but little, and contented themselves
+with standing round, asking irrelevant questions of the servants,
+which, of course, in that temple of tittle-tattle, a servant's hall,
+they found somebody willing to answer; so that I dare say there was
+nothing supernatural in your name being known on the hill. But how
+came you, Colonel Manners," she added, with a smile, "how came you in
+such deep consultation with a gipsy at this hour of the morning? You
+surely have not been having your fortune told?"
+
+"I must plead guilty, I am afraid," replied Colonel Manners; "but if
+the fault be a very grievous one, I must lay the blame upon Miss
+Falkland, as it was under her special injunctions that I went."
+
+"Indeed!" said Mrs. Falkland; "and to answer what object?"
+
+"Oh, if you mean Miss Falkland's object, I really cannot tell," he
+replied; "and my object was certainly a very foolish one, but one that
+leads many a man to do a still more foolish thing: I mean, it was to
+prove that I was not afraid."
+
+"And pray, what was the result?" demanded Mrs. Falkland; but by this
+time they were at the breakfast-room door, and Colonel Manners
+declared that he would not communicate his fate to any one before he
+revealed it to Miss Falkland in general consistory. This he had soon
+an opportunity of doing: and the whole business was laughed at gayly
+enough. It is wonderful how light a little merriment soon makes every
+thing appear; and this is the reason why, in moments of mirth and
+cheerfulness, so many secrets are revealed that one would often give
+worlds to shut up again in the casket of one's own breast. Let wise
+diplomatists keep far from merriment; for a light laugh or a gay
+witticism, whose idle wings seemed hardly strong enough to flutter it
+across the table, has often taken a weighty secret on its back, and
+flown away with it, never to return. Now, the letter that the gipsy
+had given Colonel Manners for his friend he had believed might be of
+some importance, as long as he was alone; but every gay word that was
+spoken on the subject of gipsies and fortune-telling took away
+something from its weight in his estimation; and had he been only
+restrained by a sense of its importance, he might have delivered the
+letter before breakfast was over, and made a jest of it. It has never
+been said that Colonel Manners was perfect; and though his mind was
+strong, it certainly was not without a full share of human weaknesses.
+Colonel Manners, however, was restrained by something besides a sense
+of the letter's importance--he had given his word to deliver it in a
+particular manner; and, whatever else he might do in the way of
+frailties, he never forgot a promise, though, in the present instance,
+it was long ere he found an opportunity of fulfilling the one he had
+made the gipsy on the hill.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Any one who has tried to speak with another for five minutes in
+private, without the pomp and circumstance of demanding an interview,
+will know that it is almost impossible to find the opportunity,
+unless the person be one's own wife. There is always something comes
+in the way just at the very moment--something unforeseen and
+unlikely,--especially if one be very anxious upon the subject. If the
+matter be of no importance, the opportunity presents itself at every
+turn; but if one be very, very desirous to unburden a full heart, or
+tell a tale of love, or give a valuable hint, or plead the cause of
+one's self, or any one else, without the freezing influence of a
+formal conference, one may wait hours and days--nay, weeks and months,
+sometimes--without finding five minutes open in the whole day.
+
+As soon as breakfast was over, Edward de Vaux followed Marian into the
+music-room; and when Marian left him, he came to tell his friend and
+Isadore that they proposed making a riding party to see something in
+the neighbourhood. Manners went up in his room to prepare; and, as he
+found himself on the stairs alone with De Vaux, he had his hand in his
+pocket to produce the letter, when Miss Falkland's step sounded close
+by them, and her voice invited her cousin to come with her, and see a
+little present she had bought for Marian's birthday. As soon as
+Manners was equipped for riding, he went to De Vaux's room,
+calculating--as he usually dressed in half the time that his friend
+expended on such exertions--that he would find him there: but no one
+was in the apartment but a servant, who told him that Mr. De Vaux had
+gone down. As he passed along one of the corridors, he saw De Vaux
+sauntering across the lawn towards the gates of the stable-yard; but
+ere he could catch him, his friend was surrounded by grooms and
+servants, receiving his orders concerning the horses; and as they
+turned again towards the house. Marian and Miss Falkland were standing
+in their riding dresses on the steps.
+
+"Well, I must wait," thought Manners, reflecting sagely on the
+difficulties of executing punctually even so simple a commission as
+that which he had undertaken. "Well, I must wait till we go to dress
+for dinner; then I am sure to find my opportunity."
+
+He was not destined, however, to remain burdened with his secret so
+long. The ride was pleasant, but did not extend far; and on the return
+of the party, while Manners and De Vaux stood looking at their boots
+in the hall, Miss Falkland and her cousin retired to change their
+dress, and the opportunity was not lost.
+
+"Now we are alone," said Manners, "let me execute a commission with
+which I am charged towards you, De Vaux, and which has teased me all
+the morning."
+
+"Not a challenge, I hope," replied the other; "for it seems a solemn
+embassy."
+
+"No, no, nothing of the kind," answered his friend; "but the fact
+is--"
+
+"Please, sir," said Colonel Manners' servant, opening the glass doors,
+"I believe the young mare is throwing out a splint; and I did not like
+to--"
+
+"Well, well," said Manners, somewhat impatiently, "I will come and see
+her myself, presently--I am engaged just now." The man withdrew; and
+resuming his discourse at the precise point where he had left off,
+Manners continued, "The fact is, that gipsy, of whom I was speaking
+this morning, charged me with a letter to you, which I promised to
+deliver in private, and when you were likely to be able to read it
+without interruption."
+
+"A gipsy!" said De Vaux, knitting his brows; "the circle of my
+acquaintance has extended itself farther than I thought, and in a
+class, also, equally beyond my wishes and anticipations: but are you
+sure there is no mistake? does he really mean me?"
+
+"There is the letter," replied Manners, "with your titles, _nomen
+and cognomen_, as clearly superscribed as ever I saw them
+written:--Captain the Honourable Edward de Vaux, with many et
+caeteras."
+
+"And in a good hand, and on tolerably clean paper," said De Vaux,
+taking the letter, and gazing on the back. "Why, this gipsy of yours
+must be a miracle, Manners."
+
+"He is a very extraordinary person, certainly," answered his
+companion, "both in his ideas and his deportment, which are equally
+above his class."
+
+"Nay, he must be a miracle--a complete miracle!" said De Vaux,
+laughing, "if he can mend kettles and write such an address as that,
+with the same good right hand. But this must be a begging letter."
+
+"I think not," replied Manners: "it would not surprise me to find that
+he knows more of you than you imagine; but, at all events, read the
+letter."
+
+De Vaux turned the letter, looked at the seal, which offered a very
+good impression, though one with which he was not acquainted, and
+then, tearing open the paper, read the contents. The very first words
+made his eye strain eagerly upon the page; a few lines more rendered
+him deadly pale; and though, as he went on, his agitation did not
+increase, yet the intensity of his gaze upon the sheet before him was
+not at all diminished; and when he had concluded it, after staring
+vacantly in his companion's face for a moment, he again turned to the
+letter, and read it attentively over once more.
+
+"I am afraid I have brought you evil tidings, De Vaux," said Colonel
+Manners, who had watched with some anxiety the changes upon the
+countenance of his friend: "if so, can I serve you? You know Charles
+Manners; and I need scarcely say how much pleasure it will give me to
+do any thing for you."
+
+"I must think, Manners--I must think," replied De Vaux: "these are
+strange tidings indeed, and vouched boldly too; but I doubt whether I
+have a right to communicate them to any one but the person they affect
+next to myself. However, I must think ere I act at all. Forgive me for
+not making you a sharer of them; and excuse me now, for I am much
+agitated, and hardly well."
+
+"Let me be no restraint upon you, De Vaux," answered his friend. "If I
+can serve you, tell me; if I can alleviate any thing you suffer by
+sympathy, let me share in what you feel; but do not suppose for a
+moment that I even desire to hear any thing that it may be proper to
+keep to your own bosom. Leave me now, without ceremony: but take care
+how you act, De Vaux; for I see there is matter of much importance in
+your mind; and you are, sometimes at least, in military affairs, a
+little hasty."
+
+"I will be as cool and thoughtful as yourself, my friend," replied De
+Vaux; "but I am agitated, and the best place for me is my own room."
+
+Thus saying, he left his friend, not a little surprised, indeed, that
+such a letter from such a person should have had the power to produce
+on the mind of a man like De Vaux the extreme agitation which he had
+just witnessed. De Vaux, he well knew, was not one to give credence to
+any thing lightly, or to yield to any slight feeling which a first
+impression might produce; but, in the present instance, it was evident
+that his friend had received a shock from some tidings which had been
+totally unexpected, but which must have been probable, as well as
+unpleasant, to produce such an effect. The extraordinary fact,
+however, that news of such importance should be left to the
+transmission of such a man as the gipsy--so separated by station, and
+state, and circumstances, from the person whom they concerned--was of
+course a matter of much astonishment to Colonel Manners; and surprise
+divided his bosom with anxiety and sympathy for his friend.
+
+It is a very disagreeable thing to have any two feelings thus making a
+shuttlecock of our attention; or, when they are very eager, struggling
+for it with mutual pertinacity; but the only way to act under such
+circumstances is, to treat them like two quarrelsome boys; and,
+shutting them up together, leave them to fight it out without
+interruption. Such was the plan which Colonel Manners now proposed to
+pursue; and, consequently, quitting the hall where his conversation
+with De Vaux had taken place, he walked straight to the library, and
+opened the door.
+
+What happened next was not without its importance; but as the mind may
+be at this moment more anxious concerning De Vaux than concerning his
+companion, we will follow him up the staircase as lightly as possible;
+enter his chamber, lay our hand upon his bosom, draw the curtain, and
+show the reader the scene within. But it may be as well first to look
+at that letter upon the table before which he is sitting, with his
+left hand upon his brow, and his right partly covering the sheet of
+paper which had so disturbed him. If one can draw it gently out from
+underneath his fingers, while his eyes are shut and his thoughts are
+busy, one may read what follows:--
+
+"To Captain Edward de Vaux." Here, be it remarked, that there was a
+difference between the superscription and the address; the latter
+having borne, "To Captain the Honourable Edward de Vaux," while in the
+inside was merely written, "To Captain Edward de Vaux."
+
+The difference may appear insignificant; but, in the present instance,
+and with the commentary of the epistle itself thereon, it signifies a
+great deal. However, the letter went on:--
+
+
+"_To Captain Edward de Vaux_.
+
+"Sir: I shall make no excuse for addressing you, as I am fully
+justified therein; and you yourself, however great the pain I may
+inflict upon you, will eventually admit that I am so. You are about, I
+understand, to unite your fate to a young lady of rank and fortune;
+and it is more than possible that mutual affection and mutual good
+feelings would render your union happy. Nevertheless, believing you to
+be a man of honour, I feel sure that you would not like to lead any
+one into such an alliance with expectations which are not alone
+doubtful, but fallacious. It is therefore necessary that you should
+know more precisely how you are situated; and I hesitate not to inform
+you, that on the title and estates held by your father you have no
+earthly right to calculate; that, should you marry Miss de Vaux, you
+bring with you nothing but your commission as a captain in the army;
+and that whatever you expect from your parent will most certainly go
+to another person. Your first conclusion--as a world in which there
+are so many villains is naturally suspicious--will be, that this
+letter is written either by some one who intends to set up some unjust
+claim to your rightful inheritance, by some disappointed suitor of
+your bride, or by some malevolent envier of another's happiness. Such,
+however, is not the fact. The person who writes this owes some
+gratitude to your family; not so much for what was accomplished, as
+for what your grandfather sought to accomplish in his favour. You may
+have heard the story--in which case you will give more credence to the
+present letter--or you may not have heard the story: but still, the
+way to satisfy yourself is open before you. Either resolve to question
+your father boldly concerning the points herein contained; or, if you
+would have the facts proved so that you cannot doubt them, come alone
+to the gipsies' tents, in the sand-pit on Morley Down, this evening or
+early to-morrow morning, and inquire for
+
+                                         "Pharold."
+
+
+Now, under any ordinary circumstances, the only course which De Vaux
+would have pursued might have been, to twist up the paper into any
+strange and fanciful form that the whim of the moment suggested, and
+put it into the first fire he met with, giving it hardly a second
+thought. But there were circumstances totally distinct from, and
+independent of, the letter itself, which gave it a degree of
+importance far above that which it intrinsically possessed. Edward de
+Vaux, though he had a slight recollection of a dark-eyed, beautiful
+creature, whom in his infancy he had called mother, lost all
+remembrance of her at a particular period of his life, and had never
+since, that he knew of, heard her name mentioned. He passed, it is
+true, for Lord Dewry's legitimate son, was received as such in
+society, and admitted as such by his own family and relations. But, if
+so, how was it he had never seen a picture of his mother among those
+of his ancestors, and beside that of his father, which stood in the
+gallery, and represented him as a man of about thirty-five years of
+age?--How was it he had never heard his mother's jewels mentioned,
+though those of the two baronesses who had preceded her were often
+referred to? How was it that his aunt, Mrs. Falkland, as he inferred
+from many facts, had never seen his mother? How was it that his father
+had never spoken her name in his hearing? All this had often struck
+him as something very extraordinary; and a thousand minor
+circumstances, which cannot be here recapitulated, had shown him that
+there was some mystery in regard to his family, which had frequently
+given him pain. Since his return, however, something more had
+occurred: two or three words had been spoken by his father, during
+their dispute concerning Colonel Manners, which had startled him at
+the time with a suspicion which he had instantly banished, but which
+now came up again with fearful confirmation of the tidings he had just
+received. Lord Dewry had declared that he could be deprived of the
+entailed estates of the barony by a single word. At the time, that
+expression had but slightly alarmed him; for, well knowing the
+violence of his father's disposition, and the acts and words of almost
+insane vehemence to which any opposition would drive him, he had
+instantly concluded that it was a meaningless threat, spoken to punish
+him for the spirit of resistance he had displayed. But now it came
+back in its full force; and he asked himself, what could such words
+mean, if he were a legitimate child? The estates were entailed on the
+male heir; he himself was the only male heir in the present line; and
+if by birth he were the lawful son of Lord Dewry, no earthly power
+could deprive him of the lands of his forefathers. But his father, who
+had been educated for the bar before he succeeded to the title, had
+told him that a word would take them from him. A stranger now repeated
+the same tale, and pointed more directly to the same conclusion; and
+all his former recollections changed his bitter doubts into a terrible
+certainty.
+
+Edward de Vaux bent down his head upon his hands, and covered his
+eyes, with a feeling of shame and degradation that was hardly
+supportable. It was not alone one well of bitterness that was opened
+upon him; but, in whatever direction he turned his thoughts, new gall
+and wormwood was poured into his cup. If there had been aught on earth
+of which he had been proud--and, in that instance, his pride, though
+bridled and restrained by better feelings, had been great;--if there
+had been any thing on earth of which he had been proud, it had been of
+his clear descent from thirteen generations of noble ancestors. He had
+taken a delight, even from boyhood, in tracing the recorded history of
+each, and in proving that there had not been one, from the founder of
+the family to his own immediate parent, who had not been well
+deserving of the rank and station that they held in their native land.
+He had drawn from his noble birth the moral which noble birth should
+always afford; and had determined that he, too, would deserve the
+title that they had received for great deeds; that he, too, would
+transmit the jewel of hereditary virtue to his children as an
+heirloom, unimpaired in passing through his hands. He knew that, in
+the words of a great natural poet,--
+
+
+             "The rank is but the guinea's stamp--
+                The man's the gold for a' that;"
+
+
+and he felt that, to bear the name of noble, without being noble in
+his heart, was but to carry the die of value upon inferior metal, and
+pass upon society a base and worthless counterfeit. But all such
+thoughts, such remembrances, and aspirations were now at an end. He
+could no longer look back to mighty men amid his forefathers, for the
+world's law cut the link between him and them. He had no longer a
+proud name to keep up and adorn with noble actions, for he was an
+illegitimate son, who had unrightfully usurped the name and station
+which belonged not to him. His best support, his noblest designs, his
+most generous purposes, were cast down, and his heart was laid
+prostrate along with them.
+
+But this was not all: he was now a beggar! the estates were entailed,
+and descended with the title; and though his father lived in somewhat
+gloomy retirement, yet the state with which he had surrounded his
+solitude De Vaux well knew could have left little accumulation from
+the revenues of his property. Here, then, were new evils to be
+encountered. Accustomed to luxury, and ease, and plenty, without one
+thought of that sordid ore, the want of which cramps so many a noble
+spirit, and stifles so many a great design, he had lived free from one
+of the greatest burdens upon man. He had never been lavish or
+extravagant, for such was not a part of his nature; but he had been
+generous and liberal to others, as well as at ease himself; and now he
+felt that every expense must be measured and gauged by considerations
+of economy; that every guinea must be weighed and estimated before it
+was parted with; that he must look upon money in a light that he had
+never done before; that he must make it a continual object of thought;
+that his mind, like the traveller in the land of the Lilliputians,
+must be painfully pinioned down on every side by the irritating ties
+of petty cares; that his ease must be at an end, and his generosity
+cease.
+
+There was more, however, far more bitter kept mingling in the draught.
+Round the idea of one's mother the mind of man clings with fond
+affection. It is the first sweet, deep thought stamped upon our infant
+hearts, when yet soft and capable of receiving the most profound
+impressions, and all the after-feelings of the world are more or less
+light in comparison. I do not know that even in our old age we do not
+look back to that feeling as the sweetest we have known through life.
+Our passions and our wilfulness may lead us far from the object of our
+filial love; we learn even to pain her heart, to oppose her wishes, to
+violate her commands; we may become wild, headstrong, and angry at her
+counsels or her opposition; but when death has stilled her monitory
+voice, and nothing but calm memory remains to recapitulate her virtues
+and good deeds, affection, like a flower beaten to the ground by a
+past storm, raises up her head and smiles among the tears. Round that
+idea, as we have said, the mind clings with fond affection; and even
+when the early period of our loss forces memory to be silent, fancy
+takes the place of remembrance, and twines the image of our dead
+parent with a garland of graces, and beauties, and virtues, which we
+doubt not that she possessed. Thus had it been with De Vaux: he could
+just call to mind a face that had appeared to him very beautiful, and
+a few kind and tender words from the lips of her he had called mother;
+but he had fancied her all that was good, and gentle, and virtuous;
+and now that he was forced to look upon her as a fallen being, as one
+who had not only forgotten virtue herself, but, in sin, had brought
+him into the world, to degradation and shame, what could be his
+feelings towards her?
+
+Horrid! horrid is it to say, that the world should take unto itself
+that awful power claimed by Almighty Omniscience, of visiting the sins
+of the fathers upon the children, and of making the guiltless
+offspring more than share the punishment inflicted on the offending
+parent! But so De Vaux felt that the world does, and that, in his
+instance, it was not alone the usual contemptible sneer, or still more
+contemptible neglect, that he was destined to meet; but that he must
+expect all the venomous pity and malignant compassion which his fall,
+more than his situation, would excite, and which the hard and
+unfeeling beings of the earth affect to experience for those they wish
+most powerfully to depress.
+
+Such accumulated feelings were all bitter enough; but there was one
+more bitter still, more filled with agony and degradation. De Vaux, as
+we have seen, was engaged to a being full of beauty, and grace, and
+gentleness, by promises which united them to each other, not alone as
+persons of high rank and fortune, having found a fitting alliance; but
+as two people who had known each other from infancy, had grown up in
+affection, and had for many a year looked forward to their marriage as
+the means of securing to both the utmost degree of human happiness for
+life; as the binding on of a talisman, that would shut out from their
+domestic hearth all the evil things of earth. With De Vaux, these
+feelings, these anticipations, were even stronger. He loved Marian
+with the fullest, deepest, most passionate attachment. Towards her his
+heart was all fire and thrilling energy; and, though there were times
+when he somewhat doubted that her feelings were of as powerful a kind
+towards him, yet he believed that she loved him as much as she could
+love; and perhaps even her slight reserve made him love her the more
+ardently. The day for their marriage was already fixed; the bridal
+ornaments were all prepared; their future life had, in the
+conversation of that very day, been laid out before them as on a map,
+and Edward de Vaux had as much doubted, when he sprang from his horse,
+that Marian, in all her beauty, was to be his bride within three short
+weeks, as he doubted of his own existence.
+
+Now, however, what were his feelings?--now that his situation was
+changed in every particular,--that in fortune, and in station, he had
+fallen at once from the situation in which she had promised him her
+hand; and when he felt that he had no right to claim from Marian de
+Vaux the execution of a promise which she had made under different
+circumstances, and to which he believed that all her friends would, of
+course, be opposed, as soon as his real position became known? He felt
+that he had no right either to ask or to expect it; and the darkest
+image that presented itself to his mind was, the loss of her he loved,
+for ever. Nor did this image come before him vague and undefined, as a
+thing of remote possibility,--though even then the apprehension would
+have been terrible enough,--but, in his present state of despondency,
+it appeared as an undoubted and inevitable certainty--as a thing that
+must and would take place. He felt as if Marian were _already_ lost to
+him for ever, and the bright bubble of his happiness irreparably
+broken. He fancied, also,--he could not help imagining, that something
+like contempt would mingle in the pity that she felt for him. She was
+herself so pure,--delicacy, modesty, and virtue so characterized her
+every movement, and her every word,--that he tortured himself with
+believing that a part of the reprobation and scorn with which she must
+think of his mother, would fall upon himself. "She will look upon me
+as the child of vice," he thought; "she will see in me the offspring
+of guilt and shame, and will easily make up her mind to the
+separation. She is always so reasonable, and so willing to do what she
+considers right, at any sacrifice, that her mind will soon be tutored
+to forget Edward de Vaux. Were she of that warm, ardent, deep-feeling
+nature that casts fate and happiness upon one die, I might hope that
+she would still cling to me: but it is in vain thinking of it--I have
+no reason to hope it. She will follow the dictates of common sense and
+prudence, and abandon an alliance which all her friends would now
+oppose."
+
+Poor Marian! thus did her unhappy lover contrive to wring his own
+heart even with her very virtues. After thinking for at least an hour
+in gloomy silence, a faint hope crossed his mind, that he might have
+mistaken the import of the letter--that his apprehensions might have
+deceived him. Experience, gained from the consequences of our faults,
+almost always, sooner or later, gives us a vague, unsatisfactory
+consciousness that such things exist in our bosom; and Edward de Vaux
+did know that he was given to torment himself needlessly. He therefore
+read the letter over again, and read it carefully; but, on doing so,
+his first impression was but the more confirmed.
+
+"Yet it might be false," he thought; "the whole tale might be false,
+or might refer to something else, and be the mere blunder of some
+ignorant and presumptuous person." But then the remembrance of his
+father's words returned, and all that had before seemed strange
+regarding his mother came up before his mind; and he once more gave
+himself up to despair.
+
+What was to be done, became the next question. There was just a
+sufficient portion of doubt mingled with his feelings to hold him
+tortured in suspense, without being enough to approach the limit of
+hope. This state, of course, he could have borne no longer under any
+circumstances; but his situation in regard to Marian rendered it
+absolutely necessary that he should put an end to all doubt upon the
+business. And yet it was terrible, most terrible, to feel that it must
+be his own hand which tore away the veil that concealed the obstacles
+to his marriage--that it must be his own hand that cast away his
+happiness for ever. The thought might cross his mind of letting things
+take their course--of choosing to disbelieve the letter--of treating
+it with contempt, and of proceeding with Marian to the altar, to
+secure the blessing of her hand, at least, before the rest was
+snatched from him. But if it did cross his mind, it was but as the
+image of a thing that might be with some men, but could never be with
+him. It occupied not a moment's consideration--it left no trace behind
+it. To investigate the matter instantly, and to the bottom, became his
+determination; and, having done so, to make the result known to those
+interested, and at once place himself fearlessly in the situation
+which he had alone a right to fill. He did get that there might be
+circumstances in the story which he was about to hear which might
+render it necessary to conceal it from the public ear, in
+consideration for the feelings of his father, or of others. But to
+Marian, at least, the facts must be told; she was too deeply
+implicated in it all to be left in ignorance of what touched her whole
+future happiness; and De Vaux resolved that not only should she be
+told, but that no lips but his own should tell it, as he well knew how
+a few explicative words, or a well-turned round of phrases, may
+pervert a plain tale from its true meaning. "I will trust none," he
+thought; "and, whatever the truth may be, from my lips alone shall she
+first hear it."
+
+The course to be pursued in his investigation became the next
+question. Two were pointed out in the letter itself; but from the
+first, that of applying to his father, he shrank with irresistible
+repugnance. It was not alone that De Vaux, as is common--we might
+almost say universal--among men, possessed more physical than moral
+courage; that he feared the fierce and angry mood of his father,
+irritated as he had been by late opposition, and loved not to venture
+upon a discussion with him, which would rouse every dark and stormy
+passion into fiery activity; but he feared himself also: he feared
+that anguish and anger, and the haughty irritation with which he was
+sure to be encountered, might make him forget himself, and say words
+that no after-sorrow could recall. There might still be a doubt, too,
+upon even the very subject of his fears, and he felt that were those
+fears unfounded, his father might justly look upon it as little better
+than a gross personal insult, were he asked if he had passed his
+illegitimate son upon the world as legitimate, and promoted his union
+with the heiress of a large fortune, under the pretence of his being
+heir to an honourable name and great possessions.
+
+De Vaux might believe that such conduct was not impossible; he might
+also think that his father was not actuated in so doing by the mean
+and sordid views which, at first sight, seem the only motives
+assignable for such behaviour. Various circumstances might have
+occurred, in earlier years, to make his father acknowledge an unreal
+marriage with his mother; considerations for her feelings, or for his
+own respectability, might be among the rest. Once having said so, and
+spoken of himself as of a legitimate child, Edward de Vaux knew well
+that his father's proud and reserved nature might have made him ever
+after silent upon the subject, till explanation became almost
+impossible; and the deceit he had practised or permitted might have
+been rather the result of haughty reserve than of cunning artifice.
+
+De Vaux felt that, however, ere he presumed to insinuate to his father
+a bare suspicion of his having committed such an act, he must have
+much better information and clearer proof to justify the charge. When
+such evidence was once obtained, he might communicate the discovery he
+had made to Lord Dewry by letter, and thus avoid that painful
+collision which a personal discussion of the matter must induce; or,
+if he found that the evidence was faulty or inconclusive; that there
+was motive for suspicion against the person who tendered it, or that
+the whole was an interested calumny, he might lay it before his
+father, as an affair which required him to investigate the assertions,
+and punish the authors of them.
+
+The determination, therefore, was taken to visit the gipsy himself;
+and the only consideration that remained was, whether to go alone, or
+to ask Manners to accompany him. From the latter idea he shrank, as,
+in that case, he must have exposed to his friend doubts and
+apprehensions which were bitterly humiliating, and might even
+compromise the secrets of others, to whom his friend was a stranger,
+in a manner which he had no right to do. The letter, also, bade him
+come alone; and, on reading it over once more, everything tended to
+make him give credence both to the sincerity of the writer and the
+accuracy of the facts. He had a faint remembrance, too, of having
+heard the name of Pharold mentioned by his aunt, as connected with the
+early days of her family; and the fact of the writer having referred
+him, in the first instance, to his own father, tended to show that
+there existed no design against himself personally. Besides, De Vaux
+was not a man to entertain fears of any kind for his own safety; and,
+as he clearly saw that Manners was totally ignorant of the contents of
+the letter which he had brought him, he determined to go alone, and
+investigate the matter thoroughly.
+
+His next question to his own heart was, "and, in the meantime, what
+shall be my conduct towards Marian? How shall I behave while I expect
+and believe that a few more hours will alter our situation towards
+each other for ever, and render that conduct wrong which was perfectly
+consistent with our engagement towards each other? If I change my
+manner, she may think my affection cooled, and feel herself unkindly
+treated. But then," he thought again, bitterly enough, "but then that
+will but serve to smooth the way to the change which is ultimately to
+take place; and perhaps it had better be reached by some such
+intermediate step." The next moment, again, his wavering thoughts
+turned to the other side, and he demanded whether he had any right
+to give her one instant's pain more than necessary. The reply was
+ready:--"No, no! that were cruel and unkind indeed; and should I do
+so, and my fears prove false, my behaviour would necessarily, from all
+the circumstances of the case, remain unexplained--a dark blot upon my
+affection towards her. Yet, hereafter, if she should learn that such
+tidings have been in my possession,--that such doubts have been justly
+working in my mind,--will she not think it wrong, and even deceitful,
+of me to treat her as my promised bride, when I know that she never
+can be such?"
+
+What was to be done? De Vaux, according to the old scholastic term,
+had got himself between the horns of a dilemma; and we must pause for
+one moment, in order to inquire how far he was art and part in putting
+himself into that situation. It is wonderful, most wonderful, how
+people deceive themselves in this world, and how they go on arguing
+with themselves on both sides of the question for an hour together,
+affecting to be puzzled, and asking themselves what is to be done,
+when, from the very first, they have determined, in secret counsel,
+what to do; and all this logic and disquisition has solely been for
+the purpose of bewildering _reason_, or _duty_, or _conscience_, or
+any other of those personified qualities of the soul, which the great
+parliament of man's passions choose to look upon as _the public_, _the
+spectators_.
+
+Now, at that point of De Vaux's cogitations wherein he thought, and
+rejected the idea, of admitting Manners to his confidence in the
+matter before him, as is fully displayed three or four pages back, a
+fancy struck him, which instantly changed into a secret resolution,
+not to make Manners his confidant in the business, but to open his
+whole heart to Marian de Vaux; and although it needed scarcely any
+argument to prove that she, whose fate was the most strictly bound up
+with his own, whose affection he certainly possessed, and whose good
+sense he never doubted, was the person, of all others, in whom he
+ought to confide; yet, some idle cant that he had read in some foolish
+book, or heard from some foolish people, about the absurdity of
+trusting a woman; some silly sneer or insignificant jest, magnified
+into a bugbear through the mist of memory, had power enough to make
+him hide his own determination from himself; and, in the first
+instance, go the roundabout path we have traced, in order to prove
+that he had no other resource but to tell her the whole affair, ere he
+boldly admitted his resolution even to his own heart, and brought
+forward the true and upright motives on which it was founded. So weak
+is human nature!
+
+As soon as this was done, the matter was no longer difficult; all
+embarrassment in regard to his conduct was removed, and he felt that
+what was kindest and what was most affectionate, was also the most
+just and the most reasonable. Whatever was the truth of the assertions
+contained in the letter he had received, and to whatever facts it
+alluded, it pointed principally at his union with Marian, and the
+disparity of fortune and rank which the writer affirmed to exist
+between them. She, therefore, was a person principally concerned; and
+on her ultimate decision their fate must rest. De Vaux feared not that
+any loss of fortune could affect Marian's regard: he could not have
+loved her had he supposed it would; but he did fear that the stigma,
+which he believed might rest upon his birth, and which he himself felt
+as so deeply humiliating, might make a difference in her feelings;
+and, when backed by the counsel and arguments of some of her maternal
+relations, might make her resolves unfavourable to his hopes. But
+still, in telling her all, from the beginning, in concealing nothing,
+in acting at once affectionately and candidly, he felt that he was
+establishing the best claim to continued affection and esteem: he
+felt, too, that, if there had been deceit on any part, such conduct
+would be the best proof to all that he was as free as day from any
+participation in it, and that, whatever were the result, his honour
+and his name would be clear.
+
+His determination, therefore, was backed by every motive, but still it
+required great delicacy in executing it. It was necessary not to shock
+or to pain her--he loved too much to do so--and yet to be perfectly
+explicit. It was requisite to tell her all, and to leave her fully
+convinced of his unalterable love; yet perfectly free to form her own
+decision on her future conduct. The hour, too, and the manner, were
+matters for consideration, and he resolved not to delay, but let the
+communication be made immediately, and as a matter of importance. It
+would require time, however; and, as it was already late, he was
+obliged to make up his mind that the visit to the gipsy must take
+place on the following morning: he only paused, then, to recover his
+composure completely, and to think of the best method of telling
+Marian the whole, in such a manner as to give her the least pain, yet
+show his confidence and affection the most clearly.
+
+He accordingly sat still, and laid it out like the plan of a battle;
+but in this he was very wrong; as, by so doing, he naturally presented
+Marian to his fancy in the light of the enemy. The consequences were,
+that his own private little demon instantly saw his advantage, and,
+whispering in De Vaux's ear, made his irritable and irritated spirit
+believe that Marian would act in a thousand different ways, which he
+could not blame, yet did not like. The fiend, who well knows how to
+seize probabilities, took hold of every particular point in Marian's
+character which could give him any thing to cling to; and De Vaux saw,
+in the glass of fancy, her beautiful countenance looking upon him as
+calmly and as reasonably as ever, without a shade of agitation passing
+over its placid sweetness during the whole time that he, with
+difficulty, and hesitation, and agony of spirit, and humiliation of
+heart, was telling her all his anxieties and apprehensions. He saw, in
+the same magic glass, the very spot of the room where she would stand,
+and the fine easy line of her figure, all displaying perfect composure
+and graceful ease; and he heard the soft, sweet modulations of her
+voice, calm, gentle, but unaltered; and at length he thought, "I know
+perfectly what she will say when she hears it: she will declare that I
+am too hasty in my conclusions; that I must see the gipsy, or whatever
+he may be, and hear the whole of what he has to say; for that the
+matter is too important to be judged of hastily, and that when we know
+the whole, and have had time to consider, we can decide: or she will
+speak of consulting my aunt, or her great uncle Lord Westerham, or any
+other of those cold, disinterested people who can give proper advice
+upon the subject: and yet I do my aunt injustice; for though of a
+decided nature, she is not of a cold-hearted one."
+
+Thus, then, did he torment himself for some minutes, taking as much
+pains to make himself miserable as if there were not quite enough pain
+in this world without our seeking it. Nor did he stop here; but went
+on in the same train till he had almost wrought himself out of the
+determination of telling Marian at all, though he ultimately came back
+to his first resolution. It is not to be concealed that all this
+hesitation, and a great deal of this anguish, proceeded from his
+having fallen into the common error of giving the reins over to
+imagination, and believing that he had placed them safely in the hands
+of reason. Had he acted wisely, he would not have sat down to fancy
+any thing upon the subject at all, but he would have risen up, on the
+contrary, as soon as his resolution was taken, and, seeking out her he
+loved, would have told her all his doubts and fears, without thinking
+at all previously either of what he would say or what she would say.
+Nature, left alone to work her own way, in a thousand instances out
+of a thousand and one does it gracefully; but if one calls in to
+counsel her all the host of man's passions, prejudices, faults, and
+foibles--though judgment may be present too--yet, nine times out
+often, the multitude of counsellors, in this case, produces any thing
+but safety. Neither is there ever any use of long consideration in
+circumstances like those we have mentioned. What we will do always
+requires thought; how we will do it, seldom, if ever. Trust to your
+own heart, if you have a good one; and if it be bad, the sooner you
+hurry it through the business the better. It is equally vain thinking
+what we will say ourselves, for we are sure never to say it; and still
+more fruitless to fancy what other people will say, for we know
+nothing about it.
+
+De Vaux, however, was in some respects a curious compound of very
+different principles. With all his errors and with all his faults, he
+had a great deal of candour; and, however keen he might be in
+investigating and lashing the motives of other people, he was not half
+so strict an inquisitor into their failings as he was into his own. As
+a consequence of this, though the knowledge often lay dormant, he did
+know, as we have often before hinted, with extraordinary accuracy, all
+the turnings and windings, the intricacies and the absurdities of his
+own nature; and as soon as the rush of passions was over, his
+conscience--like the power of the law restored after a popular
+tumult--would mount the tribunal, and sit in judgment on his own
+heart. Often, too--like the same power exerting itself to repress
+anarchy--his better judgment would rise up against the crowd of wild
+images presented by an irritable fancy, and after a short struggle
+would regain its power.
+
+Thus, in the present instance he felt, after a while, that he was but
+anticipating more misery when he had already sufficient to endure;
+and, doing in the end what he ought to have done at first, he started
+up, and went to seek Marian, in order to give her the opportunity of
+letting her own conduct speak for itself.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+De Vaux had calmed himself as much as he possibly could; and as he was
+not blessed with a face possessing that general expression of jocund
+felicity which is usually denominated a smiling countenance, whatever
+degree of gravity and care was left in his look at present excited no
+particular notice in the drawing-room, whither his steps were first
+directed. The party there assembled now consisted of Mrs. Falkland and
+her daughter, with Colonel Manners; and the latter alone saw that the
+agitation which he had beheld the gipsy's letter produce in his friend
+had ended in permanent distress.
+
+"Where is Marian?" said De Vaux, as he entered, not very much
+disappointed, perhaps, to find that she was not with the rest of the
+family; "where is Marian?--do you know, Isadore?"
+
+"I left her drawing in the little saloon at the other end of the
+house," replied Isadore; "but that was a full hour ago, Edward; and if
+she expected a gay knight or wandering troubadour to come and sooth
+her, either with his _gaie science_ or his _bien dire_, she may have
+left her solitude by this time in disappointment."
+
+De Vaux smiled somewhat bitterly, as he felt how much more painfully
+he had been employed than he would have been in the occupations to
+which Isadore referred; and, again leaving the drawing-room, he sped
+along the same passages which, with a light and bounding heart, he had
+often trod in search of her upon some joyous errand whom he now sought
+with feelings of care, anxiety, and sorrow. Marian was still where her
+cousin Isadore had left her; and though, perhaps, she did think that
+De Vaux might have found her out sooner, when he had no ostensible
+motive for being absent from the side of her he loved, yet, like a
+wise girl, she received him with as sweet a smile as if no such slight
+reproach had ever crossed her fancy. The next moment she rejoiced that
+she had done so; for the expression of anguish in her lover's eyes did
+not escape her, and she felt at once that, for whatever other
+occupation De Vaux had yielded the pleasure of her society, it was for
+no agreeable one.
+
+"Look at this drawing, Edward," she said, as he came in: "do you not
+think that I have made my hermit look very melancholy sitting on that
+rock?"
+
+"Not so melancholy as my thoughts, dear Marian," replied De Vaux,
+gazing over her shoulder, apparently at the drawing, but in truth
+hardly seeing a line that the paper contained; "not so melancholy as
+my thoughts."
+
+"And what has occurred to make them so, Edward?" she asked, turning
+round to read the answer in his face before his lips could reply.
+"Surely, I have a right to know, if any one has, what it is that makes
+you unhappy."
+
+"You have, dear Marian, you have," he replied; "and I have sought you
+out here to make you share in all I feel, though the task be a painful
+one. But come here, and sit with me on the sofa by the window, and I
+will tell you all." And, taking her by the hand, he led her on towards
+one of the windows that looked out over the park; for, however strange
+it may be, there are undoubtedly particular positions and particular
+situations in which one can tell a disagreeable story more easily than
+in others.
+
+Marian was alarmed, and she was agitated, too, within; for she
+suffered not her agitation to appear upon the surface when she could
+help it; and, as is very natural, she anxiously strove to arrive at
+some leading fact as quick as possible. "Something must have occurred
+very lately, Edward," she said, "for you were very gay and cheerful
+during our ride this morning. Have you heard any thing from your
+father to distress you?"
+
+"No, dearest girl," he answered, "I have heard nothing from him; but I
+have heard from some one else much that distresses me: but I had
+better show you what I have received, which will explain the matter
+more briefly than I could do."
+
+So saying, he placed the gipsy's letter in her hand. Marian took it,
+and read it through; but, as she knew none of the circumstances which
+tended in the mind of De Vaux to corroborate the doubts insinuated by
+the letter, she viewed its contents in a different light; and,
+returning it with a smile, she asked, "And is that all that has made
+you uneasy, Edward? But it is evidently all nonsense, my dear cousin.
+If that foolish man, who teased me so much two years ago, were not out
+of the country, I should think it was a plan of his to annoy you; but
+depend upon it, that this is the trick of some one who wishes to
+disturb our happiness. What have we to do with gipsies, Edward? and
+how could gipsies know any thing about you and me, unless they were
+instructed by somebody else? And if any person in our own rank had
+real information, they would of course bring it forward themselves,
+and not send it through a set of gipsies."
+
+"You argue well, Marian," answered De Vaux, "and I would fain believe
+that you argue rightly; but I am sorry to tell you that several things
+have previously occurred, which tend to confirm the assertions
+contained in this."
+
+Marian turned a little pale from anxiety for him she loved. "Tell me
+all, Edward," she said, "tell me all; I am sure you will conceal
+nothing from me."
+
+"Nothing that I know, indeed, Marian," he answered: "I came with the
+purpose of opening my whole thoughts to you; for you have every right,
+that either true love or our mutual situation can give you, to know
+every thing that I know. Well, then, my beloved, the fact which most
+completely tends to corroborate the assertions in this letter,
+occurred in a conversation between myself and my father yesterday
+morning. It was when he was angry in regard to his unfortunate quarrel
+with Manners and my opposition of the view he had taken: and he said
+sternly, and bitterly enough, that though the estates were entailed, I
+could be deprived of them by a word."
+
+"Indeed!" said Marian, thoughtfully, "indeed!" but the next moment she
+added, "No, no, Edward, it must have been said in a moment of
+passion, without reason, and without truth. Depend upon it, your
+father and my uncle would never have spoken about our marriage to me,
+and to all my mother's family, as he has often done, calling you
+somewhat particularly the heir of his titles and estates, if you were
+neither, as that letter says."
+
+"But yet the letter and his words confirm each other," said De Vaux:
+"they both tell the same tale, dear Marian. Many a true word is spoken
+in a moment of passion, that a man has concealed for years, and would
+give worlds afterward to recall. Besides, I think I have heard the
+name of this Pharold before: have you not heard my aunt speak of some
+gipsy boy that my grandfather wished to educate?"
+
+"Oh, no, not my aunt," answered Marian. "All that happened when she
+was very young, quite a child, I believe. It was poor Mrs. Dickinson,
+the old housekeeper, who used to tell us stories about that gipsy when
+we were children; and his name was Pharold, I think. She spoke of him
+as of a fine creature, but very wild."
+
+"You see, dear Marian," said De Vaux, with a gloomy smile, "everything
+tends to the same result. My father's words confirm the story of the
+gipsy, and what we know of the gipsy would show that he had some
+acquaintance with the history of our family."
+
+Marian mused: "It is very strange, Edward," she said at length, "and I
+suppose there must, indeed, be some foundation for all this. But yet I
+cannot understand it: if the estates are entailed, what is there on
+earth that can prevent your inheriting them? If the title goes to the
+sons, you must have it; and if it had gone to the daughters, I must
+have had it, you know, which would have been all the same thing. If
+you do believe this story, as I am afraid you do, tell me how it can
+be."
+
+Edward de Vaux paused; for he had never calculated upon going further,
+or being more explicit than he had been. He had thought it would be
+enough to explain that he was likely to lose the lands and honours of
+Dewry, and that Marian would naturally draw her own conclusion, and
+perceive the only cause which could produce such a result. Her
+question, therefore, embarrassed him, for he would willingly have
+sealed his lips upon his mother's shame; and, though he had felt
+himself bound to tell her all he was likely to lose, without
+concealment, yet he hesitated at revealing the most painful part of
+his own suspicions, till those suspicions had been rendered
+certainties.
+
+Marian saw him hesitate, and raising her beautiful eyes to his face,
+she said, "Edward, you have promised to tell me all, and you must make
+it all you think, as well as all you know."
+
+It was not to be resisted. "Well, beloved, well!" he said, "I will,
+though it is very, very terrible to do so; and, in truth, I hardly
+know how to do it. Marian, did you ever see my mother?"
+
+"No, Edward, never that I know of," she replied: "why do you ask?"
+
+"Did you ever hear my aunt speak of her?" continued De Vaux, without
+replying to her question.
+
+"Let me think," said Marian. "I believe I have: but no, I cannot
+remember that I ever did, now I reflect upon it: no, I never did."
+
+"Nor my father either?" asked De Vaux.
+
+"No, never; certainly never," answered Marian.
+
+"Well, then--" said De Vaux, and he paused abruptly, fixing his eyes
+upon her face. Instantly a colour of the deepest crimson rushed up
+over the whole countenance of Marian de Vaux, dying cheek, and neck,
+and forehead with the blush of generous shame--the shame that every
+pure, virtuous, inexperienced woman feels when the idea of vice in her
+own sex is suddenly brought before her.
+
+Edward de Vaux turned deadly pale, as he both perceived that Marian
+had now caught his meaning, and comprehended most painfully the
+feelings in which that bright blush arose. The shame that Marian felt
+for the degradation of her sex touched the most agonized spot in De
+Vaux's heart. All that hatred for vice, and scorn for the vicious, and
+the pity which comes near contempt, could produce in a woman's bosom,
+seemed to De Vaux expressed by that blush, and pointed, more or less
+directly, towards himself; and, as I have said, he turned very pale.
+
+The deep emotion that he felt overpowered him for an instant; but then
+he made a great exertion, and, rising from the sofa, "Marian," he
+said, "I have now told you all, even to my innermost thoughts; and I
+have but one word to add, my dear, dear cousin. Nearly three years
+ago, you assured me of your love, and promised me your hand; and every
+member of your family willingly consented to our ultimate union; but
+then I was the Honourable Edward de Vaux, the heir to one of the most
+ancient peerages in England, and to twenty thousand per annum. Things
+have now changed; and, if the assertions in this letter, and my own
+suspicions be correct, I am now a nameless, illegitimate beggar,
+without a right to any thing on earth but my sword and my
+reputation--with shame upon my mother's head--with nothing to claim
+from my father, and without even a name that I can offer you. Under
+these circumstances, though I shall love you to the last day of my
+life, and think of you through every moment in the whole course of
+time, I give you back your promise, I free you from all engagement,
+and leave you totally untied to a connection from which your friends
+will naturally be glad enough to separate you."
+
+He spoke calmly, slowly, and distinctly; but the deadly paleness of
+his countenance showed how deeply he was moved at heart; and Marian
+gazed upon him, with her long dark eyelashes raised high, her
+beautiful eyes full upon his face, and her lip slightly trembling
+while he went on. As soon as he had ceased, she rose from the sofa,
+and, with agitation and ardour, all unlike her usual calmness, cast
+herself at once upon his bosom, with her arms circling his neck, her
+lips pressed upon his cheek, and her tears falling rapidly upon
+him.--"Edward, Edward!" she cried, "I am yours--all yours! Could
+you--could you do such injustice to your own Marian? You have given me
+back my promise, and I here give it you again--so that, whatever
+comes, I may never hear from any one a single word against our union.
+Nay, nay, let me speak--it is seldom that I am vehement; but I must
+speak now--you have my promise, most solemnly, most strictly; and I
+consider myself as much bound to you as if I were your wife. Not only
+shall no other person upon earth ever have my hand, but, whatever
+happens, and whoever opposes it, you shall have it, when and where you
+choose to ask it."
+
+Need I say how tenderly he pressed her to his heart? Need I say how
+ardently, how sincerely he thanked her? But still there was some
+slight hesitation in his mind. He almost doubted that she fully
+appreciated his situation, and he felt that he could not receive such
+a promise as she had made till she comprehended all. He bade her
+think, then, of the whole; and conjured her to remember, that it was
+not alone the loss of name and station, but that, if his anticipations
+were correct, every thing like wealth, or even competence, would also
+be lost to him.
+
+But all Marian's reserve was now gone, and the long-restrained
+feelings of her heart flowed forth all together. "Nay, nay, Edward,"
+she said, again seating herself on the sofa, without, however,
+withdrawing the small soft hand he held in his; "nay, nay, Edward,
+have I not enough for us both? enough to give us every comfort? Nay,
+every luxury that we ought to have we shall still possess; and why
+need we wish for more? Do you think that the coach-and-six, and the
+golden-coated coachman, and the three lackeys on the footboard ever
+entered into my calculations of happiness?"
+
+"No; but, dearest Marian," he replied, "it is only painful to me to
+think that I bring nothing to unite to your property. Your large
+fortune renders it only the more necessary that I should have one
+too--"
+
+"Hush, hush, hush!" cried Marian, eagerly: but still he went on: "I
+have to owe you every thing, Marian; love, and happiness, and rank,
+and station, and fortune too."
+
+"And will you, Edward, _you_ talk so proudly to Marian de Vaux?" she
+exclaimed. "Will you be too haughty to enjoy all the blessings that we
+possess, because it is Marian that gives them? Is not that which is
+mine yours? Has it not been so since we were children? Do not distress
+me, Edward, by one thought of such a kind. Indeed, I shall think you
+do not love me--that you are going to refuse my offered hand."
+
+"Oh, Marian, Marian!" he cried, kissing it a thousand times, while
+something very bright, and not unlike a tear, glittered in his eye. "I
+would not lose it for a thousand worlds! Distress you! dearest girl! I
+grieve to have distressed you for a moment; but I felt myself bound to
+tell you all."
+
+"Oh, that does not distress me at all," replied Marian; "the only
+thing that could distress me would be to see you grieve, or to think
+that you should make a difference, even in thought, between what is
+yours and what is mine. I declare, Edward, I never knew what it was to
+feel glad of a large fortune before; but now I am thankful, not only
+for what my mother left me, but for every shilling that my good old
+granduncle and guardian has scraped together for me, by his economy
+thereof. Three thousand a year, Edward--consider, we shall be as rich
+as princes; and if it had not been for that, this misfortune might
+have obliged us to wait on for many a year, till you had made a
+fortune in India, and very likely have lost your health, which no
+fortune could have compensated."
+
+Marian de Vaux spoke in a manner totally different from that which her
+cousin had seen her display for many a year. Her beautiful eyes were
+full of light and feeling; a smile, half-tender, half-playful, hovered
+over her lip, and her voice was full of eager kindness and thrilling
+affection. He had remembered her thus as a girl; but, as she had grown
+up towards womanhood, either the feelings which had animated her bosom
+with such a warm and enthusiastic glow had passed away, or the
+expression of them had been gradually suppressed. Now, again, she was
+all that he remembered her, and to see her so, plunged him into a
+sweet vision of the past--connected, though by some fine golden
+threads, with the present. He had seated himself on the sofa beside
+her, and, still holding her right hand in his, he had glided his left
+arm round her waist, and then, with his eyes fixed on a distant spot
+of the floor, he remained in silence for two or three moments after
+she had done speaking. Unless man were a cold unfeeling piece of
+ticking mechanism, like a watch, our measures of time would always be
+by our sensations: and as Marian had at that moment given way to all
+the eagerness of her heart, the two moments that Edward de Vaux
+remained in thought seemed to her an age. "What is the matter,
+Edward?" she said. "Are you still unhappy?"
+
+"No, my beloved," he answered, looking up in her face with a glance
+that fully confirmed his words,--"no, my beloved; I am most happy! so
+happy, indeed, that, were I placed as I was before, I would almost
+again undergo the pain which this discovery first caused me, to enjoy
+the delight which my Marian's conduct has bestowed."
+
+"And did you doubt what that conduct would be, Edward?" she demanded,
+half-reproachfully. Edward de Vaux coloured, and might have hesitated;
+for conscience, that bitter smiter, who always finds his time to apply
+the lash, now struck him severely for all those images which an
+irritable fancy had suggested concerning Marian's conduct. But she
+saved him the pain of a reply, which must either have been mortifying
+or insincere. "And did you doubt what my conduct would be?" she asked;
+and in the next moment she added, "But never mind, dear Edward; you
+see what it is, and do never doubt it again."
+
+"I will never doubt, as long as I live, my own beloved girl," he
+answered, ardently; "I will never doubt, as long as I live, that it
+will on every occasion be all that is good, and noble, and generous:
+but it was not that alone, my Marian, that made me so happy--so very,
+very happy."
+
+"What was it, then, dear Edward," she asked, in some surprise; for
+Marian, with all the quickness of a woman's perception, had noticed
+the passing colour that came into De Vaux's cheek; and knowing him,
+and all the little intricacies of his heart, better than he
+thought--better, perhaps, than she thought herself--she had instantly
+set down the blush to its right cause, and said, in her own heart,
+"Edward has been tormenting himself with fancies." Now, however, his
+words puzzled her, though a latent consciousness of having--in the
+urgency of the moment, and in the desire to sooth and render Edward
+patient under his misfortune--a latent consciousness of having given
+free course to feelings and enthusiasms which she had long held close
+prisoners in her bosom, made her now feel embarrassed in turn; and a
+bright warm blush, partly from curiosity, partly from that
+consciousness, mantled for a moment in her cheek.
+
+Edward de Vaux gazed upon her as she put her question with a smile,
+full of deep fond affection--with a sort of triumphant happiness, too,
+in his look that made her inclined, she knew not why, to hide her eyes
+upon his bosom, as she had done long ago, when first she had
+acknowledged to him the love that he had won, and witnessed the joy
+that it called up in his countenance. "I will tell you what it is,
+dearest," he answered, "that makes me now so happy, that I should have
+considered anything but yourself a light sacrifice to obtain such joy.
+It is, that the misfortune which has befallen me has called forth my
+beloved Marian's true and natural character, and shown her to me
+fully, as the same dear, excellent, feeling, enthusiastic girl that I
+have always pictured her to my own imagination--such as her feelings
+as a child gave promise that she would be--such as I remember her
+appearing constantly, not many years ago."
+
+Marian blushed, and looked down; and there was a swimming moisture in
+her eyes, which a little more might have caused to overflow in tears:
+but they would not have been unhappy ones. She felt--
+
+But it is difficult to say what she felt. It was not that she felt
+detected, for that word would imply a shade of culpability which she
+did not feel; but she felt that she had betrayed herself--that a veil
+which she had cast over the true features of her mind, from many a
+deep and complicated motive, had been raised--had been snatched away,
+and could never be dropped effectually again. The effect which the
+raising of that veil had produced was all glad and gratifying, it is
+true; but still there was that fluttering emotion at her heart, which
+the disclosure of long-hidden feelings must always produce: she felt
+as if she had told her love for the first time over again; and she
+knew, too, that she might be called upon to assign motives, and give
+reasons, which would be difficult to explain, but which she determined
+not to withhold, for many a good and sufficient cause. But all this
+agitated her. She blushed, she almost trembled; and Edward de Vaux was
+but the more convinced, from the agitation which he beheld, that the
+concealment of her real character, and the repression of her finest
+feelings, had been a conscious and voluntary act on the part of her he
+loved.
+
+He became curious, as well he might be, to learn more; and, as Marian
+still sat silently beside him, he tried the tacit persuasion of a
+gentle kiss upon the blushing cheek, that almost touched his shoulder.
+She turned round towards him with a thoughtful smile; but, as she did
+not speak, he asked more boldly, "Why, Marian, why, dearest, after
+having given me your love, and promised me your hand, have you let
+that dear little heart play at hide and seek with me, till I have
+sometimes almost doubted whether it was my own?"
+
+"You should not have doubted that, De Vaux," Marian answered; "but if
+you really wish to know why I have somewhat changed my conduct since I
+was a girl, and why I have, in some degree, repressed feelings that I
+have not experienced the less warmly, I will let you into some of the
+secrets of a woman's heart; but you must promise me, Edward, never to
+abuse the trust," she added, smiling more gaily; "and you must
+promise, too, not to be angry with any thing I shall say."
+
+"Angry! angry with you, Marian!" said De Vaux; "do not believe such a
+thing possible."
+
+Marian smiled again, for there is often a sort of prophetic
+presentiment in the breast of woman, which teaches her that, however
+much she may rule and command the lover, the husband will not receive
+the power in vain; and, perhaps, it is this knowledge of the shortness
+of their reign which sometimes makes women abuse it a little while it
+lasts. Marian smiled again at De Vaux's words, and then replied,
+"Well, then, Edward, keep your part of the compact, and I will tell
+you all. You say I have changed very much since I was a girl; and that
+is but natural, Edward; for, depend upon it, every woman does change,
+if she feels and thinks at all deeply. As a girl, her words and her
+actions are all of but little importance in the eyes of those around
+her, or in her own, unless she be nourished in conceit and affectation
+from her cradle; and, during the first fifteen or sixteen years of her
+life, though she may be taught to act like a lady, yet she sees no
+reason for concealing anything she feels, or anything she thinks, if
+it be not likely to hurt the feelings of others. As she goes on
+towards womanhood, however, the world changes its conduct towards her,
+and she finds it necessary to change towards it. She learns to look
+upon trifles in her own conduct, and in the conduct of others towards
+her, as matters of importance: the world and society assume a
+different aspect she trembles lest she should say, or do, or feel what
+is wrong; and very often she expresses too little of what she feels,
+lest she should express too much. Then, too, Edward," continued
+Marian, with the colour which had partly left her cheek while she
+spoke coming richly up again, and spreading over her whole face,
+"then, too, Edward, if she learns to love, all those fears and
+apprehensions are a thousand-fold increased. She is terrified at her
+own sensations, and almost thinks it wrong and sacrilegious to suffer
+that one being by whom her affections are won to take that station in
+her heart, above all the rest of the world, which she has hitherto
+devoted solely to a being beyond the world. Perhaps before that time
+she may have longed to love and be beloved; but the first moment she
+feels that it is so--especially if it come upon her suddenly--depend
+upon it, her feelings are more or less those of terror."
+
+De Vaux smiled, but his hand pressed tenderly upon Marian's as he did
+so; and she felt it was as much a smile of thanks, as if he had
+accompanied it with words of ever so much gratitude for the picture of
+her feelings that she had given him. She paused, however, for she was
+coming to matter which she feared might not please him so well; and
+his thoughts turning, too, in the same direction, he said, after
+waiting for a few moments to see if she would go on, "But, dear
+Marian, this happens to every woman without producing such a change as
+I have seen in you; and besides, what I have seen to-day, Marian, has
+shown me fully that there has been some more distinct and individual
+motive. Tell it me, Marian, tell it me, my beloved; and, believe me, I
+will not abuse your confidence."
+
+"Nor be angry?" she said, smiling again. "Remember, that it is a
+principal part of our agreement. Well, then, I will go on. When first
+we were engaged to each other, Edward, my chief thought--as, indeed,
+it ever has been since--was how to make the man I loved most
+completely happy, as far as my own conduct was concerned; and I was
+reading at that time a very clever book, which recommended women, on
+their marriage, to study, not alone the general character of their
+husband, but all his individual opinions and thoughts, in order to
+make their own behaviour completely conformable thereto; it asserted,
+also, that such was the surest way of winning happiness for both. I
+believed it, and resolved to try to follow the advice even before
+marriage. I listened to every thing you said, concerning the conduct
+of other women that we knew, with a determination of trying to acquire
+the qualities that you praised, and to avoid all that you blamed."
+
+"But, good God! my dearest Marian!" exclaimed Edward, warmly, "surely
+I did not blame them for suffering the beauties or the excellences of
+their natural characters to appear, nor praise them for assuming a
+coldness that was the most opposed to the general warmth of their
+nature?"
+
+"Not exactly, Edward," replied Marian; "but I will tell you what you
+did, which came much to the same purpose. Though whatever I did seemed
+to give you pleasure, yet, when you spoke of any of our acquaintance,
+you were so severe upon what appeared to me very slight mistakes in
+their demeanour; you were so rigid in your ideas of what was right in
+general behaviour; you even once censured so heavily a display, rather
+too open, of attachment to her husband, on the part of a lady whom we
+both knew, that I began to find that your opinions on such subjects
+were very nice indeed: and knowing," added Marian, with a smile, which
+De Vaux felt fully, "and knowing that my lover, with these nice
+opinions, was peculiarly sensitive to every thing that he thought
+could draw the slightest degree of ridicule upon him or his, I
+determined so to school my own conduct, and to repress the expression
+of my own feelings, as to ensure his heart against the slightest
+annoyance, concerning a word, or a movement, or a look of his wife."
+
+Marian paused, and Edward de Vaux, with his eyes bent upon the ground,
+remained silent for two or three minutes, till she became alarmed.
+"You promised me, Edward," she said, "not to be angry."
+
+"Not to be angry with you, my beloved girl," he said; "but I did not
+promise not to be angry with myself; and well, well do I deserve it."
+
+"Nay, nor must you be angry with yourself either, Edward," replied
+Marian; "if you are, I shall still think some of it lights upon me.
+If, in seeking the means of rendering you happy, I have made you
+unhappy, I shall meet with punishment instead of reward."
+
+"Dearest Marian," answered De Vaux, "it were vain to deny it. I have
+been a fastidious fool hitherto; and, like the other sneerers of this
+world, have been seeking the mote in my brother's eye, while I have
+forgot the beam in my own. But henceforth I will take example by you,
+dearest Marian, and so school my own heart as to get over that feeling
+of the ridiculous in others, and terror for it in myself, which I now
+find and believe to be a vice and not a quality."
+
+Marian shook her head with a doubtful smile, as if she would have
+said, "It is in your nature, Edward."
+
+"I will, indeed, Marian," he continued; "and you shall see what a
+strong resolution can do even with Edward de Vaux. But you must
+promise me in return, dearest, to reward my efforts, by casting off
+the reserve that my foolish fastidiousness has drawn over you. The
+qualities of my Marian's heart and mind are too beautiful to be hidden
+beneath such a veil."
+
+Marian smiled again, but looked a little thoughtful, for she felt that
+the task her lover would impose was no easy one. "I will do my best,
+Edward," she said; "but it must be by degrees. In the first place, all
+the world would think me mad, if I were to change suddenly from the
+quiet still-life demeanour of Marian de Vaux, and take up the gay,
+lively, enthusiastic character of Isadore Falkland; and, in the next
+place, it would be impossible, for I have now been training myself to
+this behaviour so long, that it has become quite habitual to me; and,
+whatever are the emotions that I feel at heart, my first effort--even
+before I know I am making one--is to keep those emotions from
+appearing. Sometimes, indeed," she added, laughing, "they break
+through all restraint, as they have done today; but that is only on
+great occasions. However, I will do my best to change back again; and,
+perhaps, as I have overdone the quiet and composed, I may find the
+happy medium, in returning to my old thoughtlessness. But, in the mean
+time, Edward, never you be deceived in regard to what I feel. You have
+seen the veil, as you call it, cast away; and you know entirely what
+is beneath it."
+
+"A thousand, thousand thanks, for letting me see it, Marian," he
+replied: "but I can never thank you enough, my beloved, for all that
+you have done this day--for showing me your heart, and for giving me a
+glimpse, too, of my own."
+
+"But I owe you thanks, too, Edward--deep and many thanks," replied
+Marian, "for the generous candour of your conduct; and for not
+shrinking, even for a moment, from making me a sharer in your thoughts
+and feelings, however painful they might be to communicate. And oh,
+Edward, let me entreat you ever to pursue the same course hereafter.
+Let me be the sharer of all your thoughts; let me hear every thing
+painful or to be feared, from your own lips, and the tale will loose
+half its bitterness; and I promise you that, if I cannot assist you
+with advice and support, I will not embarrass you by womanly fear, or
+weak irresolution."
+
+"I will, Marian, I will!" replied De Vaux; "for I can contemplate no
+case in which what I had to communicate would combine half so many
+sources of pain and anxiety as that which is just past: and now,
+dearest, then, give me your advice in regard to the course I ought to
+pursue in investigating this very painful business."
+
+"Do you not think, Edward," said Marian, "that you had better not
+investigate it at all? If, by letting it rest, and treating this
+information with contempt, you were likely to injure any one, of
+course I should say, sift it to the last grain. But it seems that
+these people, whoever they are, that send you such disagreeable
+tidings, hold out our approaching marriage as the only motive for your
+enquiry farther; and, as you have told me the whole without reserve,
+and I am perfectly satisfied, I see no reason why you should trouble
+yourself further about it. If you are to lose the titles and estates
+of your father on any pretext, let the gipsies send their information
+to the person who is to benefit by your loss. I would think no more of
+it."
+
+De Vaux shook his head, for his vivid imagination and excitable nature
+did not fit him for sitting down quietly under such a load of
+suspense. "No, no, Marian!" he said; "I could not bear such
+uncertainty; I should not know an hour's peace, and whenever a letter
+was put into my hand, whenever a stranger desired to speak with me, I
+should dread some evil tidings. Investigate thoroughly I must. If I
+find these insinuations false, my peace will be established on a surer
+rock than ever; and my disposition may not be the worse for the ordeal
+I have undergone, and the lessons I have received. If my fears prove
+just, and these tidings true, I think, dear Marian--I think," and he
+drew her nearer to his heart--"I think that, with the assurance of
+such love as yours, I can see all the rest that was bright in my lot
+pass away from me without a sigh."
+
+Marian's heart was relieved, for she had doubted how Edward de Vaux
+would endure the certainty which might soon be forced upon him, of the
+severe reverses which were yet unconfirmed. She had doubted, and, with
+all the skilful tenderness of a woman's heart, she had at once
+perceived that the most open assurances of her own love were the
+surest antidotes that she could offer him against the evils of the
+day. She had acted, it is true, by impulse; but there is always some
+rapidly operating motive even at the bottom of impulse itself, which,
+nine times out of ten, works with wonderful sagacity. There are many
+moments in the life of man, when his boasted reason, which is but a
+slow and considerate personage, has not time to act, and when, if
+there were no power but this same reason to save us from drowning, we
+might drown beyond redemption for anything that reason would do to
+help us; but God, who gives their never-failing instinct to the
+beasts, does not leave man without resource in those moments when
+haste, and need, and apprehension render him little better than a
+judgment-less animal, and has afforded him also a kind of instinct, a
+power which only acts on sudden emergencies, when reason has not time;
+which power we call impulse, but which is neither more nor less than
+the instinct of a hurry.
+
+Marian de Vaux had, in the first instance, acted on impulse, but as
+she went on, finding that impulse was quite right, and that the only
+means to sooth and to strengthen her lover under his misfortunes, was
+to let him see throughout the full extent of her love for him, she
+cast away, as we have seen, every reserve, and showed Edward de Vaux
+that he could but lose little, whatever he lost, compared with that
+inestimable affection which was still his own.
+
+Marian's heart was relieved by perceiving that her conduct had been
+successful, and that De Vaux was nerved against the worst; and, as she
+had no particular taste for suspense herself, any more than he had,
+she now recalled her words, and advised him, if his feelings were such
+as he expressed, to pursue the investigation at once.
+
+"That, Marian, for all our sakes and on every account, I must do,"
+he replied; "but the only question with me is, in which way had I
+better follow the inquiry. Here are two courses pointed out in this
+letter,--to apply at once to my father; or, in the first place, to
+visit this gipsy, and to ascertain precisely what information he
+possesses. I have already considered, and believe that the latter
+course would be the best; but my Marian has every right to guide me."
+
+"Oh! do not go to the gipsy," cried Marian on the first impulse; but
+impulse was wrong in this instance, and Marian soon found that it was
+so. Edward himself paused, and thought over the matter again; but, on
+consideration, Marian remembered many an objection to the plan of
+seeking information from Lord Dewry himself. She knew his haughtiness
+and his violence, and she knew, too, that De Vaux, tingling under a
+sense of degradation, and feeling that such degradation was
+attributable to his father, was in no state of mind to submit to the
+proud and insulting tone Lord Dewry too often employed, or to speak
+calmly and dispassionately upon a subject, in regard to which his
+whole heart was bleeding, and every better feeling deeply wounded. She
+dreaded the collision which might ensue between the two, and she
+thought it also very probable that Lord Dewry might refuse all
+information on the subject. "I am afraid I am wrong, Edward," she said
+at length; "I have a dread of those gipsies,--I do not know why; but
+still, perhaps, you should be more sure that such insinuations as
+these are not mere calumny, before you speak to your father about it."
+
+"That is true, my love," replied De Vaux; "and, besides, I have just
+remembered that if I wish to have the gipsy's information at all, I
+must have it before I see my father. He here in this letter tells me
+to come either this evening or to-morrow early. Now, it is too late to
+go to my father this evening, and before I could be back, if I went
+over to-morrow, the time would be expired and the gipsy gone. I think
+my best plan will be, to go early to the gipsy camp to-morrow morning,
+hear all the man has to say, and then, if necessary, I can ride over
+to the hall and speak with my father ere he goes out."
+
+"Yes, I doubt not that such is the best course," replied Marian; "but
+for God's sake, Edward, take care of those gipsies. They are, I
+believe, a terrible race of savages; and you told me that this was a
+large encampment which you saw in the wood. They might murder you,
+Edward, for your purse or your watch."
+
+"Oh, no fear, no fear, dearest!" replied De Vaux; "you see they never
+attempted to murder Manners today, though he was there at five or six
+in the morning, and his purse is likely to be much better filled than
+mine; and as they knew him, and know me, they must know also that his
+fortune is larger than mine ever will be."
+
+"But they may have some motive of revenge against you, Edward,"
+repeated Marian, contriving to increase her fears most wonderfully by
+thinking over them: "they have evidently some greater knowledge of our
+situation, and some deeper motive for their conduct, than is apparent;
+and may they not wish to entrap you for some purpose of revenge?"
+
+"I never injured one of them by word or deed, Marian," replied De
+Vaux; "and if you will consider for a moment, dearest, you will see
+that they can have no evil intention, at least, towards my person. In
+the first place, they sent the letter by Manners, and therefore must
+feel assured that other people will know of my visiting their
+encampment; and in the next place, this man, this Pharold, leaves the
+matter open to me to come to him, or to speak with my father on the
+subject. Had they any design against me, they would have contrived to
+convey the letter to me secretly, and would have taken care to tell me
+that I could get the information they offer nowhere but from
+themselves. Besides, they cannot be sure that I may not make the whole
+matter public, and come up with half a dozen companions."
+
+This reasoning calmed Marian de Vaux not a little; but still she was
+fearful, and could not banish from her mind a kind of foreboding that
+evil would come of Edward's visit to the gipsy. She knew, however,
+what absurd things forebodings are; and she felt how natural it was to
+be anxious and apprehensive for an object in which all her affections
+centred, the moment that a situation of danger presented itself,
+without seeking for any supernatural inspirations to justify her
+fears. At every reported movement of the armies during her lover's
+absence, she had too often felt the same alarm to give any great
+weight now to the fear she experienced, against the voice of reason
+and conviction; and seeing that De Vaux had every probability on his
+side of the argument, she ceased to oppose him by a word.
+
+"At all events, Edward," she said, "for my sake, do not go unarmed:
+that precaution cannot be very burdensome."
+
+"Certainly not," replied he, "and I will take my pistols with me, with
+all my heart, as well as my sword, if it will give you the slightest
+pleasure, Marian; though I am sure, my beloved, I shall have to use
+neither."
+
+"Well, you shall do it for my sake, Edward," said Marian; "and I think
+that to know it is so will lighten the weight upon you."
+
+De Vaux's answer was the precise one which any other man would have
+made in the same situation; and some further conversation ensued of no
+great import, in the course of which Marian proposed to her cousin to
+make Colonel Manners the companion of his expedition. She understood
+fully, however, the objections which, in reply, he urged against
+imparting to any one but herself a suspicion which so materially
+affected his station in society, his fortune, and even his happiness;
+and those objections having been stated to the reader before, it may
+be unnecessary to repeat them here. Suffice it to say, that their
+conversation continued so long that Marian's toilet for the
+dinner-table was far more hurried than her maid approved. Marian,
+however, safe in beauty and secure in love, felt that she could go
+down to dinner, even if a curl or two did stray from its right place;
+and there was something in her heart that made her never regret the
+moments given to Edward de Vaux.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+We left Colonel Charles Manners standing at the library door, with his
+hand upon the great brazen ball, embossed with sundry figures, which
+served as the handle to the lock. It may be remembered that Colonel
+Manners, being somewhat troubled with the internal contention between
+feeling for his friend's uneasiness and wonder for its cause, was
+seeking an empty room to let those two emotions calm themselves; but
+when he turned the above brazen ball, and the door opened to his will,
+he found that he had been mistaken in looking for solitude there; for
+the first things he saw were, a very beautiful face and a pair of
+bright gay eyes looking up at him from the other side of the little
+table on the left hand, with the hat and feathers, which it was then
+customary for ladies to wear in riding, thrown somewhat back from the
+forehead, so as to show the whole countenance of Isadore Falkland,
+raising her face with a look of half-laughing vexation, as if asking,
+"Who is about to disturb me now, when I came here in search of
+solitude?"
+
+The interpretation of the expression was so self-evident that Colonel
+Manners paused with a smile; and Isadore, finding that her face had
+told the truth somewhat too plainly, laughed, and begged him to come
+in. "Nay, Miss Falkland," said Manners, "I will not disturb you. Your
+look, I can assure you, said, _Not at home!_ as plain as those words
+ever were spoken." And he took a step back, as if to withdraw.
+
+"The servant made a mistake, then," replied Isadore; "I did not bid
+him say, 'Not at home' to Colonel Manners. But the truth is, I am
+endeavouring to compose my mind."
+
+"Indeed!" he exclaimed, in some surprise; "I am very sorry to hear
+that any thing has occurred to agitate it."
+
+"And can you say so, Colonel Manners?" asked Isadore laughing, "when
+you, yourself, were art and part in the deed?"
+
+Manners was still more surprised; but, as he saw that the agitation of
+which Miss Falkland complained was of no very serious nature, it only
+affected him so far as to bring him two steps farther into the room.
+
+"If I am one of the culprits," he said, approaching nearer the table,
+where Isadore sat enjoying his astonishment,--for hers was one of
+those light and happy hearts that can win a drop of honey from every
+flower, however small,--"if I am one of the culprits, I claim the
+right of an Englishman to hear the charge fairly read, Miss Falkland.
+Otherwise I refuse to plead."
+
+"Well, then, Colonel Manners," she replied, "you stand arraigned of
+having galloped as fast, when riding with two ladies, as if you had
+been at the head of your regiment; and of being art and part with
+Edward de Vaux in shaking the little brains possessed by one Isadore
+Falkland out of their proper place. The truth is," she added more
+seriously, "that after riding very fast, my ideas, which are never in
+a very composed and tranquil state, get into such a whirl, that I am
+always obliged to come and read some good book for a quarter of an
+hour ere I dare venture into rational society. Do you feel the same,
+Colonel Manners?"
+
+"Not exactly," answered Manners smiling, "but I rather fancy that I am
+more accustomed to galloping than you are, Miss Falkland; and that had
+you been as much used to that exercise as I have been, during eighteen
+years' service, you would find your ideas quite as clear, after the
+longest gallop that ever was ridden, as they were before you set out."
+
+By this time Colonel Manners had so far carried on his approaches that
+he was in the midst of the library, the door shut behind him; and a
+sofa in the window--not very far from Miss Falkland's left hand, with
+two or three books upon a console hard by--within one step of his
+position. What Isadore rejoined to his reply matters little. It was
+just sufficient to seat him on the sofa, with a book in his hand,
+which he had not the slightest intention of reading; and a
+conversation began, which, though it had no particular tendency, and
+was of no particular import, stretched itself over full three quarters
+of an hour. It was, however, one of those conversations which are the
+most pleasant that it is possible to imagine--one of those
+conversations, when an intelligent man and an intelligent woman sit
+down, without the intention of talking about any thing in particular,
+and end by talking of every thing under the sun. They must, however,
+feel convinced, like Isadore and Colonel Manners, that there is not
+the slightest chance on earth of their falling in love with each
+other; for the least drop of love, or any thing like it, changes the
+whole essence of the thing, and it is no longer conversation. But
+Isadore and Colonel Manners never dreamt of such a thing; and went on,
+letting subject run into subject, and thought follow thought, as they
+liked--not like a regiment of infantry, indeed, advancing in single
+file, one behind the other, with measured step and stiff demeanour,
+but like a bevy of rosy children rushing from a school-room door,
+sometimes one at a time, sometimes two or three linked hand in hand
+together, sometimes half a dozen in a crowd tumbling over one
+another's shoulders. Thus ran on their ideas, gaily, lightly, of every
+variety of face and complexion, without ceremony and without
+restraint. It is true it required some activity to keep up the game
+with spirit, for both were rapid; and Isadore, when she could not
+easily express herself in one way, often took another, more fanciful
+and flowery, so that had not Manners's wit been as agile as her own he
+might often have been left behind.
+
+The moments flew rapidly till, as we have said, three quarters of an
+hour had passed, as it were a minute; and neither Colonel Manners nor
+Isadore Falkland would have known that it had passed at all, had not a
+clock struck in the hall hard by, and Isadore suddenly thought that
+_somebody_--that great bugbear _somebody_--might deem it strange that
+she sat talking to Colonel Manners alone in the library, while the
+rest of the family were probably in the drawing-room. She now
+remembered, also, that she had still her riding-habit to change; and
+having by this time quite forgotten that Colonel Manners was an ugly
+man, she made the alteration of her dress an excuse to leave him,
+though, to speak truth, she broke off their conversation with regret,
+and felt inclined to look upon the moments she had thus spent as one
+of the pleasantest things she had yet met with in the garland of
+time--that garland which begins in buds and blossoms, and ends in
+blighted flowers and withered leaves.
+
+Manners, for his part,--though he had from the first thought her a
+very beautiful girl, and a very charming one, too,--had by this time
+determined that she was possessed of many a more admirable quality of
+mind and grace of person than he had even believed before; and an
+involuntary sigh, which broke from his lips when she left him taught
+him, to feel that it was as well, upon the whole, that he was so soon
+to take his departure. It was a part of his policy never to encourage
+regrets in regard to a state of life which he had made up his mind
+could not be his; and he found that to live long in the same house
+with Isadore Falkland might cultivate those regrets much more than was
+desirable.
+
+When she was gone, he thought for a moment over what had just passed,
+gave another moment to memories of the long gone, spent two or three
+more in trifling with the book he held in his hand, and then, after
+changing his boots in his own room, proceeded to the drawing-room.
+Mrs. Falkland was now there alone, but it was not long before Isadore
+again appeared; and, in a few minutes after, De Vaux, as we have
+before shown, entered the room for a single instant to enquire for
+Marian. Neither his aunt nor his cousin perceived that any thing had
+occurred to disturb his equanimity; but the eyes of his friend,
+quickened perhaps by what he already knew, discovered without
+difficulty that the pain which had been given him by the letter he had
+himself delivered was not at all diminished by reflection; and
+although he felt that he could ask no questions, he was not a little
+anxious for the result.
+
+Some time passed, ere it was necessary to dress for dinner, Without
+any thing of importance, either in word or deed, occurring in the
+drawing-room, except inasmuch as Mrs. Falkland informed Colonel
+Manners that a lady was to dine with them on that day who had also
+enjoyed the advantage of his mother's acquaintance in her youth.
+Isadore pronounced her a foolish, tiresome woman; and Manners, on
+hearing her name, said he had met her some years before, but did not
+venture to dissent from Miss Falkland's opinion.
+
+Mrs. Falkland smiled, and tacitly acknowledged that her own judgment
+of the good lady's qualities was not very different, by saying that
+she had merely invited her because she knew that she would feel hurt
+were she to hear that Colonel Manners had been long at Morley House
+without her having seen him. "And I never wish to hurt people's
+feelings, Colonel Manners," she added, "unless when it is very
+necessary indeed."
+
+"It is never worth while, my dear madam," replied Manners; "and I
+believe that, with a little sacrifice of our comfort, without any
+sacrifice of sincerity, we can always avoid it, however disagreeable
+people may be."
+
+Manners was in the drawing-room amongst the first after dressing, and
+he looked with some degree of anxiety for the appearance of De Vaux,
+in order to see whether the tidings he had received still continued to
+affect him so strongly. But when De Vaux came in his manner had wholly
+changed. His conversation with Marian had had the effect which such a
+conversation might be expected to have. The recollection of it, too,
+as a whole, while he had been dressing, had done as much as the
+conversation itself. It had shown him a sweet and consoling result,
+unmingled with any of the painful feelings, to which all he had
+himself been called upon to communicate, had given rise in his own
+breast. The gipsy's letter, and the suspicions which it called up, had
+shaken and agitated him, had taken away the foundations from the hopes
+and expectations of his whole life; but that which had past between
+him and her he loved had re-established all, and fixed the hopes of
+future happiness on a surer and a nobler basis than ever. He trod with
+a firmer, ay, and with a prouder, step, than when he had fancied
+himself the heir of broad lands and lordships; and when Marian herself
+soon after entered the room, his face lighted up with a happy glow,
+like the top of some high hill when it receives the first rays of the
+morning sun. Marian herself, too, blushed as she appeared, for all the
+display of her heart's inmost feelings, which she had that morning
+made to her lover's eyes, had left a consciousness about her heart--a
+slight but tremulous agitation, which brought the warm blood glowing
+into her cheek. There was nothing like unhappiness, however, left in
+the countenance of either; and Manners became satisfied, that whatever
+had been the contents of the gipsy's letter, the evil effects thereof
+were passing away.
+
+The Lady Barbara Simpson at length arrived with her husband in her
+train, and was most tiresomely pleased to see Colonel Manners. She was
+a worthy dame in the plenitude of ten lustres, in corporeal qualities
+heavy, and in intellectual ones certainly not light. Vulgarity is,
+unfortunately, to be found in every rank,--_unfortunately_, because,
+where found in high rank, in which every means and appliance is at
+hand to remedy it, its appearance argues vulgarity of mind, to which
+the coarseness of the peasant is comparatively grace. Now Lady Barbara
+Simpson was of the vulgar great; and, though the blood of all the
+Howards might have flowed in her veins, the pure and honourable stream
+would have been choked up by the mental mud of her nature. In her
+youth, no sum or labour had been spared to ornament her mind with
+those accomplishments and graces which are common in her class; and as
+music and drawing, and a knowledge of languages, are things which, to
+a certain degree, may be hung on like a necklace or a bracelet, the
+mind of Lady Barbara was perfectly well dressed before her parents had
+done with her education. But nothing could make the mind itself any
+thing but what it was; and the load of accomplishments, which masters
+of all kinds strove hard to bestow, rested upon it, like jewels on an
+ugly person, fine things seen to a disadvantage. The want of
+consideration for other people's feelings, or rather the want of that
+peculiar delicacy of sensation called _tact_, which teaches rapidly to
+understand what other people's feelings are, she fancied a positive,
+instead of a negative, quality, and called it in her own mind ease and
+good-humour; and thus, though she certainly was a good-tempered woman,
+her coarseness of feeling and comprehension rendered her ten times
+more annoying to every one near her than if she had been as malevolent
+as Tisiphone.
+
+During dinner, Manners felt as if he were sitting next to somebody
+clothed in hair-cloth, which caught his dress at every turn, and
+scrubbed him whenever he touched it; and his comfort was not greatly
+increased by finding himself an object of great attention and
+patronage to Lady Barbara. Opposite to him sat Isadore Falkland; and,
+though it was certainly a great relief to look in so fair a face, yet
+there was in it an expression of amused pity for Lady Barbara's martyr
+that was a little teasing. Her Ladyship first descanted
+enthusiastically upon the beauty of Colonel Manners's mother and
+called upon Mrs. Falkland to vouch how very lovely she was. Mrs.
+Falkland assented as briefly as possible; and Lady Barbara then took
+wine with Colonel Manners, and declared that there was not the
+slightest resemblance between him and his mother, examining every
+feature in his face as she did so to make herself sure of the fact.
+
+At this point of the proceedings Manners was more amused than annoyed;
+for his own ugliness was no secret to himself, and he therefore knew
+well that it could be no secret to others. He laughed then at her
+Ladyship's scrutiny, and replied, "I was once considered very like my
+mother, Lady Barbara; but whatever resemblance I did possess was
+carried away by my enemy the small-pox."
+
+"Oh yes," she cried in return, "a dreadful disease that! Shocking the
+ravages it sometimes makes! I see you must have had it very bad."
+
+"Very bad, indeed, Lady Barbara," replied Colonel Manners with a
+laughing glance towards Miss Falkland; "and, what is worse, I had it
+at that period of life when one has just learned to value good looks,
+without having learned to despise them."
+
+"Oh, terrible!" exclaimed Lady Barbara, really commiserating him; "it
+must have made a terrible change in you, indeed. Dear me, what a
+pity!"
+
+Marian de Vaux was pained for Colonel Manners, and she now interposed
+with a few words, endeavouring to change the subject; but Lady Barbara
+was like a hollow square of infantry, and could _faire face partout_,
+so that poor Marian only drew the fire on herself. Lady Barbara
+answered her question, and then added, "And so I hear you are going to
+be married in a fortnight, Miss De Vaux. Well, I wish you happy, with
+all my heart; though marriage is always a great risk, God knows; is it
+not, Mr. Simpson?"
+
+"It is, indeed, my dear," replied Mr. Simpson, a quiet little man with
+much sterling good sense concealed under an insignificant exterior,
+and with a certain degree of subacid fun in his nature, which was
+habitually brought forth by the absurdities of his wife,--"it is,
+indeed, my dear;" and he finished with an audible and perhaps not
+unintentional sigh, which gave point to his reply.
+
+"But, for all that, it is a very good, and a very proper state, too,"
+rejoined Lady Barbara, "and a very happy one, after all."
+
+"I am glad you find it so, my dear," said Mr. Simpson; but Lady
+Barbara went on, as usual, without attending to her husband.
+
+"I would advise all young people to marry," she said, "but not too
+young though,"--she herself had married at thirty-five--"not too young
+though, for then they only have such large families they do not know
+what to do with them. But now at a proper age every one ought to
+marry. Now, Colonel Manners, why are not you married? You ought to
+have been married before this."
+
+The reader knows that she was upon dangerous ground: but Manners was
+too good a politician to show that he was touched; and therefore he
+determined in reply to put that as a jest which had a good deal of
+serious earnest in it. "Oh, my dear madam," he answered, "you forget I
+am too ugly; I should never find a wife now."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, nonsense!" she answered; "ugliness has nothing to do
+with it; many a woman will marry the ugliest man in the world sooner
+than not marry at all; and besides, you ought to have a good fortune,
+Colonel Manners; and that is a great thing. But, I can tell you, you
+will certainly never find a wife, as you say, unless you ask some
+one."
+
+The draught was bitter enough; but Manners was indomitable, and
+answered still gayly, "Nay, nay, Lady Barbara, I am so diffident of
+my own merits, and so completely convinced that no one will ever fall
+in love with my beautiful countenance, that I shall certainly never
+marry till some lady asks me. It would require that proof, at least,
+to convince me that I had any chance of being loved."
+
+"And if any lady were to ask you," continued the unmerciful Lady
+Barbara, "would you really marry her after all, Colonel Manners?"
+
+"I believe I may answer that it would depend upon circumstances,"
+replied Colonel Manners, with a grave smile; "as, unfortunately for my
+happiness, your ladyship's marriage has put you out of the question."
+
+"Oh, do not let me be in the way in the least degree," rejoined Mr.
+Simpson from the other side of the table.
+
+De Vaux was fairly driven to a laugh; and Lady Barbara, beginning to
+find out that there was an error somewhere, paused for a moment, and
+went on with her dinner.
+
+However skilfully and courageously a man may struggle against his own
+feelings on those points where they have intrenched themselves by long
+habit and possession, yet, when forced by circumstance to treat as a
+matter of common conversation subjects that are habitually painful to
+him, there are slight traits--each almost imperceptible, but making
+something in the aggregate--which will betray what is going on within;
+sometimes to the eyes of another man, and almost always to those of a
+woman. A degree of bitterness will mingle with his gaiety; a sigh will
+sometimes tread upon the heels of a smile; and a deeper gravity will
+follow the transient, superficial laugh, and distinguish the true from
+the assumed. Women, by a more refined nature, by a necessity of
+concealing their own feelings under various disguises, and by the
+habit of judging others by slight indications, are rendered infinitely
+more capable of penetrating the veil with which we are often obliged
+to cover our deeper sentiments. Both Marian de Vaux and Isadore
+Falkland were at once in Colonel Manners's secret, and comprehended,
+without difficulty, how much was jest and how much was earnest in his
+replies to Lady Barbara. Both felt for him, too, and both were sorry
+for him; and as Marian, in consequence of her generous interposition
+in his favour, already suffered somewhat too much by her Ladyship's
+answers touching matrimony, to dare the field again, Isadore entered
+upon the campaign with greater power, and did her best to effect a
+diversion. In this she was tolerably successful, though Colonel
+Manners did not entirely escape; and the ladies retired sooner than
+usual, in consequence of Mrs. Falkland's desire to support her
+daughter.
+
+De Vaux, anxious for the following morning, in order that all his
+doubts might be brought to a conclusion, would willingly have followed
+the ladies as soon as possible: but, alas! those were days of hard
+drinking; and Mr. Simpson, though by no means given to excess any more
+than Manners or De Vaux, had his own peculiar method of consoling
+himself for his lady's tiresomeness during the day, by sitting long in
+the evening, with the sparkling decanters and the social biscuits, by
+which he was sure neither to be annoyed nor contradicted. He drank his
+wine slowly, and with real enjoyment, pausing over every sip as a
+miser over every guinea, playing with the stalk of his wineglass,
+saying little smart things, if he had any one to hear him, and if he
+had not, gazing in the fire and diversifying pleasant thoughts by
+discovering landscapes and faces therein.
+
+De Vaux, without any want of charity, wished every glass his last, and
+Colonel Manners wished himself in the drawing-room; but the _leges
+conviviales_ of those days were far more strict than in these
+degenerate times; and as the party was so small, both felt themselves
+obliged to sit ceremoniously at table, till suddenly Mr. Simpson
+perceived that neither of his companions had touched wine for half an
+hour, and kindly took the hint. It was now near ten o'clock: Lady
+Barbara had far to go, and was compassionate towards the four bright
+bays that were ordered at that hour; and thus Colonel Manners was
+spared the execution of all the man[oe]uvres he had planned to get out
+of her way in the drawing-room. The carriage was announced: De Vaux
+handed her down-stairs; and a glad sound it was when the wheels rolled
+away from the door.
+
+There are many people whose disagreeableness is of that peculiar kind
+that one can compensate the annoyance it occasions at the time by
+laughing at it with one's friends when it is over: but, unfortunately,
+Lady Barbara's was of so extensive and tenacious a quality that it
+outlasted her presence; and Mrs. Falkland, Isadore, and Marian, all
+found that they could not talk of it in Colonel Manners's presence
+without being as disagreeable as herself. As Marian, too, had no
+inclination to converse upon the risks of matrimony and large
+families, she was cut off from mentioning her share in the annoyance;
+and after a quarter of an hour spent in determining, in general terms,
+that Lady Barbara Simpson was a very disagreeable person, the family
+returned to its usual course. Marian was a little anxious about
+Edward's proposed excursion of the next morning; De Vaux himself was
+thoughtful in regard to the conduct he was to pursue towards the
+gipsy; and, as if by mutual consent, the whole party separated sooner
+than usual.
+
+We have not, however, done with the events of that night, and,
+consequently, we shall follow De Vaux to his room, where he rang his
+bell; and on the appearance of his servant, suffered him to give him
+his dressing-gown and slippers. "You need not wait, William," he said,
+when this operation was concluded; "I have something to write--give me
+that desk."
+
+The man obeyed and retired, and De Vaux proceeded to put down some
+notes in regard to what he was to demand of the gipsy, and what was to
+be the exact course he was to pursue, in order--without admitting any
+fact till it was proved, or committing himself in any way--to arrive
+both at the most accurate knowledge of his real situation, and the
+most incontestable proofs of whatever was affirmed by the man he went
+to visit.
+
+When he had done this, he thought of going to bed; but his head ached
+a good deal, with all the agitation he had gone through during the
+day, crowned by the conversation of Lady Barbara Simpson during
+dinner, and the tedium of Mr. Simpson after it; and approaching one of
+the windows, he drew the curtain, opened the shutters, and looked out.
+It was still moonlight, as when he had handed her ladyship to her
+carriage; and throwing up the heavy sash, he leaned out, enjoying the
+cool air. The moon was just at her highest noon, and the sky was
+beautifully clear, except inasmuch as, every now and then, there
+floated across a light white cloud, which the wind seemed playfully to
+cast round the planet, like a veil, as she walked on in soft and
+modest splendour, among the bright eyes of all the crowd of stars. The
+river, gleaming like melted silver, appeared at the extremity of the
+park, with the line of its banks, broken here and there by majestic
+elms; and even beyond the grounds, glimpses of its windings might be
+caught among the distant fields and plantations. The little wooded
+promontory that flanked the park, with the higher hill, starting up
+from the isthmus over which the road passed, rose grandly up, like two
+towering steps, towards the glittering heavens; and beyond the sloping
+fields and their hedgerow elms, with many an undulating line, lay soft
+and obscure, in the sheeny moonlight, as far as a spot where, half-way
+up the higher hill in front, the extreme horizontal line of the
+distant country cut upon the sky. Scarce a sound was to be heard as De
+Vaux gazed forth, but the whispering of the light breeze among the
+tree tops, and the sweet plaintive belling of the deer in the park
+below.
+
+"If I had known that these people would have gone so soon," he
+thought, "I would have made my visit to the gipsies' encampment
+to-night instead of to-morrow. The gipsies sit up, carousing by their
+fires, I believe, for full one-half of the night; and I might have set
+my mind at rest about this business without waiting so long."
+
+The thought of going even then now struck him; and he paused for a few
+minutes to consider whether he ought to do so or not. "I shall not
+sleep, even if I go to bed," he thought. "With all these things
+weighing on my mind, slumber is not very likely to visit me. A couple
+of hours will be enough to obtain all the information that I want; and
+returning home, I may sleep in certainty to-night, and to-morrow have
+to tell Marian that my apprehensions were groundless, or that our lot,
+as far as station and fortune go, must be lower than we at one time
+expected. I shall then have time, too, to sleep over my information,
+and to lay out my plan of action for to-morrow deliberately. I wonder
+if any of the servants are up yet?"
+
+The fears that Marian had expressed for his safety crossed his mind
+for a moment; but they crossed it merely as apprehensions, which might
+have given her some pain, if she knew that he was venturing to the
+gipsies' encampment at midnight. No doubt of his own security ever
+entered his thoughts; for, although De Vaux's imagination was a very
+active one, it was not fertile in images of personal danger. In short,
+he was constitutionally brave; and, like his father, did not know what
+corporal fear is. "I shall only have to tell Marian," he again
+thought, "that I have been, and that all she was alarmed about is
+over."
+
+He gave one more look to the moonlight and then closed his window. His
+boots were speedily drawn on; his dressing-gown exchanged for a
+military coat; his sword buckled to his side; and, in conformity with
+his promise to Marian, a brace of loaded pistols placed in his bosom.
+Thus equipped, he opened his door and descended the staircase. All was
+quiet; the lamp in the hall was still glimmering, though somewhat
+faintly; the servants were all evidently in bed; and turning the key
+in the glass door at the end of the lobby, De Vaux opened it
+cautiously, and stepped out upon the lawn.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The moon was shining bright and clear upon Morley Down, covering every
+rise on which its beams fell with soft and silvery light, and casting
+every dell and opposite slope into dark broad shadow. From that height
+a slight degree of mistiness appeared, hanging over the scene in the
+valley; but above, all was clear; and the satellite of the earth was
+so bountiful of her reflected rays, that our fellow-stars could
+scarcely be seen in the sky, twinkling faintly, half eclipsed by her
+excess of splendour. The scattered bushes and stunted hawthorns, and
+the tumulus, with its clump of towering beeches, caught the rays; but,
+with the peculiar effect of trees by moonlight, the latter seemed more
+to absorb than to reflect the light, while their long deep shadows
+cast upon the neighbouring ground, showed, at least, that they served
+to intercept the beams. In many of the little pits and hollows of the
+ground small pools of water had been formed; and so often did these
+appear, glistening in the moonshine, in situations otherwise dark,
+that it seemed as if the light sought out purposely the objects best
+calculated to reflect it, and, like active benevolence in search of
+humble merit, followed them into the dim and lowly abodes where they
+had made their dwelling.
+
+From these pools, however, the sand-pit in which the gipsies had
+pitched their tents was free; and the only water it contained was
+afforded by a small clear spring, which the labourers had cut through
+in digging for the produce of the pit; and, which, welling from the
+bank, fell into a clear small basin of yellow sand that would, in all
+probability, have absorbed it speedily, had it not found a sudden
+channel among some smooth stones and gravel, and thence wound away,
+forced into a thousand meanders by the irregularity of the ground,
+till, issuing forth upon the common, it pursued its course down the
+hill, and, joined by several other brooks, poured no inconsiderable
+addition into the river in the valley below. It, too, caught the
+moonbeams and glanced brightly in them; but that was not the only
+light that shone upon it, as it trickled down the bank, and rested in
+its little basin below. A redder and less pure gleam was reflected
+from its waters, for at about twenty yards from the source, close
+under shelter of the high bank and overhanging bushes, the gipsies had
+pitched their tents; and now, though the hour was nearly midnight,
+they were just in the midst of those revels that often rise up from
+many a moor and many a planting throughout old England, while the rest
+of her denizens are fast asleep. The evening was as warm as if it had
+been far earlier in the year; and although the wind was high it
+whistled sheer over the pit, without visiting with its rude search the
+corner thereof in which the race of wanderers had nested their
+encampment. The very sound, however, and the freshness of the night
+air, rendered the idea of a fire any thing but unpleasant; and in
+three different spots of the gipsy encampment the blaze rose up and
+the sticks crackled, while the pots, now withdrawn from the flame, the
+bottles of various shapes that lay round, and the cups, some of tin,
+some of horn, some of silver,[3] that circulated somewhat rapidly,
+told that the last and merriest meal of the day had commenced.
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 3: It is a peculiar trait in the character of the gipsies,
+remarked, I believe, in every country where they are to be found, that
+each individual strives to possess himself of something formed of one
+of the precious metals, denying himself even necessaries to procure
+it; and guarding it with a degree of care which the race extend to few
+other things. By some writers it is asserted that these cups, or
+ornaments, or other articles formed of gold or silver, descend from
+generation to generation, and are never parted with except under
+circumstances of the greatest necessity.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+Three several groups had assembled round the three fires, and each had
+its peculiar character. At that which burned in the middle of the
+scene appeared Pharold, leaning upon the ground, with his elbow
+supported by a projection of the bank, with a middle-aged woman on one
+side, and the beautiful girl we have before mentioned on the other.
+Two or three stout men, of from forty to fifty years, surrounded him;
+and though joining boldly and freely in all that passed, it was
+evident that they listened to him when he spoke with the respect due
+to experience and command, and without any of that sullenness which we
+have noticed in some of the younger members of the tribe who were with
+him in the forest. Some more women completed that group; and, though
+merry enough, it was evident, by their demeanour, that there sat the
+eiders of the tribe. The next fire, at the door of a tent farther up
+the pit, was surrounded by a different assemblage, though it was in
+some degree mixed. At the entrance of the little hut itself appeared
+the beldam whom we have seen acting as cook in the forest, and who on
+that occasion, had shown some inclination towards a resistance of
+Pharold's authority. Round about her were five or six sturdy young
+men, from five-and-twenty to thirty, and five or six women; two of
+whom did not appear to be more than eighteen or nineteen years of age,
+while the rest were fine buxom brown dames of thirty-five or six. The
+worthy lady of the hut, however, seemed now to have lost her acerbity;
+and in a gay and jovial mood, with many a quip and many a jest, kept
+all her younger auditors in a roar; though every now and then, with a
+curl of the lip and a winking eye, she glanced towards the party at
+the other fire, as if their graver conversation was the subject of her
+merry sarcasm.
+
+At the third fire appeared the younger part of the tribe, the boys and
+girls of all ages, except those, indeed, who rested sleeping in the
+huts; and this circle, the loud laughter and broad jokes of which were
+sometimes checkered by the sounds of contention and affray, occasioned
+by an old pack of cards, was presided by a strong handsome youth of
+about nineteen or twenty, whose proper place would have been,
+apparently, at the second fire. He was here, however, placed much
+nearer to the first group; and this proximity gave him, every now and
+then, an opportunity, in the intervals of teasing his younger
+comrades, of looking over his shoulder at the beautiful girl we have
+called Lena, who, as we have said, was leaning beside Pharold, and
+listening with seeming attention to his discourse.
+
+The whole three fires had assembled round them a much greater number
+of the gipsy race than had been congregated in the wood where we first
+saw them; and, in truth, a very formidable party was there gathered
+together, who might have given not a little difficulty, and offered,
+should their need have required it, no insignificant resistance,
+either to game-keepers, constables, or police officers. Fourteen stout
+men, in their prime of strength, with nine or ten boys capable of very
+efficient service, were there met together, as well as a number of
+women, whose arms were of no insignificant weight, and whose tongues
+might have been more formidable still.
+
+As it may be necessary, for various reasons, to afford a sample of the
+sort of conversation which was taking place amongst the gipsies on
+that night, we shall begin, on many accounts, with the second fire,
+round which it appeared that a liquor, which smelt very like rum, had
+been circulating with no retarded movements.
+
+"Take it easy, take it easy, Dickon, my chick," said the old dame of
+whom we have already spoken, addressing one of the sturdy young
+vagabonds by whom she was surrounded: "never let's kick up a row among
+ourselves, do you see. That's the right way to bring the beaks upon
+us. He's a king of a fellow, too, that Pharold, though he do sometimes
+look at one, when he's angry, as if the words were too big for his
+throat--just as I've seen a fat cock turkey, when I've been nimming
+him off the perch, and got him tight round the neck with both my hands
+to stop his gabbling." The simile seemed to tickle the fancy of her
+auditors, who interrupted her by a roar, which soon, however, died
+away, and she proceeded. "He's a king of a fellow, though, and it
+wouldn't do to make a split; besides, he knows more than common; and
+the law's again it, too: so take it easy, Dickon, and I'll put you up
+to a thing or two."
+
+"Ay, do, mother, there's a good soul!" replied the young man. "Do you
+see, I don't want to split with Pharold; but damn me if I go out
+shooting at rabbits, and hares, and little devils like that, if I am
+to give my word that I won't touch a deer if it comes across me."
+
+"No, no, Dickie, never you meddle with nobody's dear," said the old
+woman; "though Bill there, at the other fire," she added, dropping her
+voice a little, and grinning significantly--"though Bill there, at the
+other fire, seems to have a great fancy for Pharold's own dear." A low
+laugh, whose suppressed tone argued that every one felt themselves on
+dangerous ground, followed her jest, and she went on: "But,
+howsomdever, Dick, never you meddle with nobody's deer, when you are
+bid not--till the person that bade you is out of the way--do you see?
+eh, Dicky, my boy?"
+
+"Ay, that's something like now, Mother Gray," replied Dickon. "Do you
+see, to-morrow, it seems, we must troop, half one way and half
+t'other; and then, if I be not sent to a distance, and can get some
+good fellows to help me, I'll bet a bob that I bring home two or three
+as fat bucks as ever laid their haunches on the king's table--and
+that's a better night's work than ever Pharold will do."
+
+"Well, well, Dickon, you shall do it," replied the old dame: "you wait
+quiet till to-morrow, and seem to think no more about it; and I will
+get Lena to wheedle Pharold out of the way, if some of his own strange
+jobs do not take him without; and you shall have free scope and fair
+play for a night, my boy, anyhow--so the keepers may count their deer
+the next morning, if they can."
+
+"But suppose I am sent away," said the young man; "I would rather have
+gone to-night by half."
+
+"But you know you can't, Dickon," she replied; "and it would only make
+a row to speak about it. We only go ten miles, any of us; and I will
+take care of your ten miles, my chick. So keep snug; and, do you see,
+there's no use of bringing up the deer to where we pitch. The shiners
+are what we want; and Harry Saxon, who bags the pheasants and hares,
+and who first gave me an inkling about the venison, will take the
+beasts of us for so much a head, and send them up to the lord-mayor in
+London. So to-morrow I'll be off early, and get the job arranged
+proper, and have a cart and horse ready, do you see, Dickon."
+
+Dickon rubbed his hands with much glee; and as it would seem that some
+people are born to deer-stealing, he felt that satisfaction which all
+men must feel when a prospect opens before them of their talents at
+length having a free course. At that moment, however, two shots were
+heard at no very great distance, but in the direction of the little
+wooded promontory near Morley House, and the sound called forth some
+symptoms of emotion in more than one of the party. Pharold listened,
+drew in his eyes, and knit his brows hard, while Dickon vowed, with an
+oath, "That fellow Hallet has gone down into Mrs. Falkland's
+preserves, and will blow us all with his cursed gun. He might have
+waited an hour or two."
+
+Pharold listened still, but made no comment; and those by whom he was
+surrounded seemed to suspend their own observations on the sound till
+his were spoken. In the mean time, Dickon and the good dame, whom he
+termed Mother Gray, proceeded with the edifying arrangements they had
+been making, and had nearly completed their plan for getting Pharold
+out of the way, stealing two or three deer from some of the
+neighbouring grounds, and sending them up to the capital to supply his
+majesty's burgher lieges in their necessity for fat venison. The exact
+park which they were to plunder, and some other of the minor
+considerations, were undergoing discussion, in which the whole party
+round the fire took a friendly and zealous share; when one of Dickon's
+comrades, who had been keeping an eye on Pharold's circle, touched him
+on the shoulder, saying, "They are going to divide the money."
+
+"They will not have so much to divide as we shall get to-morrow," said
+Dickon; "I will answer for that."
+
+"I don't know, I don't know, my chick," rejoined the worthy beldam;
+"that Pharold is a knowing hand, and always gets more than any one
+else, work for it how they will. How he gets it I am sure I don't
+know; and I often think he must coin his skin into guineas, for my
+part."
+
+Now the complexion of the old dame herself, and of every one round
+her, was as yellow as any one could desire; but that did not prevent
+them all from enjoying the joke highly, simply, perhaps, because
+Pharold's countenance might be a little brighter in hue than their
+own. Several of them, however, now rose and approached the other fire,
+at which the proposed division of gains was about to take place; for
+it seemed that the tribe in question had retained many of the original
+habits of their people which have been lost among other hordes.[4] One
+after another, till the turn came to Pharold, the several gipsies
+poured forth their acquisitions into this general fund. Silver and
+copper were the principal metals that appeared in the collection,
+though a few pieces of gold, consisting in general of coins of the
+value of seven shillings or half a guinea, sparkled between; the
+numbers who contributed, however, and the copious contributions of
+small coin that some of them poured forth, gave the whole sum an
+imposing amount; but when Pharold at length received the hat in which
+it was collected, and drawing forth an old purse added between thirty
+and forty golden pieces to the store, a murmur of joy and satisfaction
+ran through the assembled gipsies.
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 4: This habit is said still to exist among many of the gipsy
+tribes; and some persons have not scrupled to assert, though
+apparently without reason, that they carry their ideas of the
+community of property to a somewhat licentious extent.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+The partition next began; but it was not, as may be supposed,
+perfectly equal. It was perfectly just, however; each received
+according to the burdens upon him. The married man obtained a share
+double in amount to that bestowed upon a single man: the mother
+of a large family, even if her husband was no more, claimed in
+proportion to the number of her offspring, and each orphan--of which
+be it remarked, by one cause or another, there were several--- was
+treated as a single man. The partition was made by Pharold himself
+with rigorous equity; and though almost all the gipsies had gathered
+round, and observed his proceedings with gleaming black eyes and eager
+faces, none offered a word either of remonstrance or of information;
+for all were not only convinced of his justice, but every one would
+have felt shame to grumble at the award of one who, contributing more
+than the whole together, only claimed the share of an individual.
+
+When he had done, and the whole was distributed, Pharold addressed a
+few words to his companions, such as the division which had just taken
+place suggested. He told them that in this custom, as in all the
+others which they themselves observed, they followed exactly the
+manners of their fathers: and he praised, not without eloquence, the
+sort of patriarchal state in which they lived. He lamented grievously,
+however, that many of their nation were abandoning their ancient
+habits; that some had even established themselves in fixed
+dwelling-places, had submitted themselves to the laws, and had adopted
+the manners, of the people amongst whom they dwelt. He besought those
+who surrounded him to live as all their race had lived, and promised
+that thus they would continue to be as prosperous as the division of
+that night showed them to be at present.
+
+"A curse upon our children," cried one middle-aged woman, "if they
+quit the ways of their fathers, and go to live among the puny,
+white-faced things of the lands: a curse upon them all! May their line
+of life be crooked and broken off in the middle--full of crosses, and
+ending in _Gehennel_!"
+
+A murmur of approbation followed this denunciation; and the rest of
+the gipsies retiring to their several fires, their carousings were
+renewed, while Pharold related to those who more particularly
+surrounded him a variety of melancholy facts relative to the
+degeneracy of various gipsy tribes, who had fallen into the iniquity
+of fixed dwelling-places, and many other abominations. He spoke of
+much that he had seen in his own wanderings, and much that he had
+heard from others; and his story became so interesting that a good
+many of the younger of the race crept round to listen. This, however,
+did not seem to suit his purpose; for he speedily broke off his
+discourse, and, looking round him, exclaimed, in a voice loud
+enough to be heard at each of the neighbouring fires, "Come, my men,
+we are sad to-night, and that must not be. Will," he added, speaking
+to the young man who, as we have said, presided over the younger
+circle,--"Will, you are a songster, let us hear your voice."
+
+William obeyed without hesitation; and while he went on with his song,
+the old dame at the other fire continued conversing eagerly with her
+favourite Dickon, in tones which were low in themselves, and which
+were the better cut off from other ears by the rich fine voice of the
+singer.
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+       In the gray of the dawn, when the moon has gone down,
+       Ere the sun has got up over country and town,
+       'Tis the time for the lover to steal to his dear,
+       In the heart-beating May of the incoming year.
+                    _Chorus_.--In the gray of the dawn, &c.
+
+       In the gray of the dawn, when the fox is asleep,
+       And the foxes of cities in slumber are deep,
+       'Tis the time for the wise from his tent to walk out,
+       And to see what the rest of the world is about.
+                               In the gray of the dawn, &c.
+
+       In the gray of the dawn, ere the milkmaid trips by,
+       To bring home the milk from the bright-coated kye,
+       Some earlier hand may have taken the pain
+       To render her milking all labour in vain.
+                               In the gray of the dawn, &c.
+
+       In the gray of the dawn, if you'll meet me down by,
+       My own pretty maid with the dark gleaming eye,
+       We'll wander away far o'er mountain and plain,
+       And leave the old fools to look for us in vain.
+                               In the gray of the dawn, &c.
+
+       In the gray of the dawn, if you'll not come to me,
+       My own pretty maid, by the green hawthorn tree,
+       You may stumble by chance o'er the corpse of your love,
+       As you trip with some other along the dim grove.
+                               In the gray of the dawn, &c.
+
+
+"You have changed the song, Will," said Pharold, as the other ended;
+"you have added and taken away."
+
+The young man reddened, but merely replied that he had forgot some
+verses, and been obliged to put new ones; and Pharold, taking no
+further notice, continued his conversation with his companions. In the
+meantime, the consultation between the old lady and Dickon had gone on
+throughout the song, and was still continued.
+
+"Well, well, Dickon, my boy," rejoined the old lady to something that
+her companion had said under cover of the singing, "keep a good tongue
+in your head for a while, and we'll see what we can make of it. It is
+a shame, indeed, that he should have his own way of getting so much
+stuff, no one knows how--from the _Spirit_, I think--and prevent you
+from following your way of getting some too, specially when it's all
+to go with the rest. And he's proud of his way of getting money, too.
+Did you see with what an air he poured the shiners in?"
+
+"That I did, that I did," replied the other; "curse him! I'd get as
+many as he, if he'd let me."
+
+"Ay, but you see the thing is, Dick," she answered, "he gets it, no
+one knows how, without ever saying a word about it to any one. Now,
+you follow the same plan, my chick; and if he asks you, you can then
+tell him to mind his own business. But hush, he's looking at us. Bid
+Bill give us another stave."
+
+"Bill," cried Dickon, "give us another touch of it, there's a good
+'un. Sing us Old Dobbin, and then come here and take a swig of the
+bingo with me and Mother Gray."
+
+Bill was not at all reluctant, and without the slightest appearance of
+bashful hesitation again began to pour fourth his fine voice in song.
+The air, however, was of a very different kind, as far as expression
+went, from that which he had formerly chosen, which had been somewhat
+more sentimental and solemn than the words in general required, or
+than might have been expected from the personage by whom it was sung.
+In the present case, his tones were all lively, and the song seemed
+well known to all his companions.
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+                                  1.
+
+              Lift your head, Robin!
+                Lift it and see,
+              Why shakes his bells, Dobbin,
+                Under the tree.
+              Why shakes his bells, Dobbin,
+              His old noddle bobbing,
+          As if there were strangers upon the green lea?
+
+                                  2.
+
+              Lie quiet, lie quiet,
+                Though danger be near,
+              If we make not a riot
+                There's nothing to fear.
+              If you will but try it,
+              And only lie quiet,
+          There is no harm will happen my own little dear.
+
+                                  3.
+
+              I have heard of the fairy
+                That walks in the night,
+              With a figure so airy
+                And fingers so light,
+              That though watch-dogs hairy
+              May sleep in the airy,
+          She will empty your hen-coops before morning light.
+
+                                  4.
+
+              I have heard of the witches
+                That ride in the dark,
+              And despite hedge and ditches
+                Get into the park;
+              Nim hares from their niches,
+              Without any hitches,
+          And think man-traps and spring-guns a toothless dog's bark.
+
+                                  5.
+
+              Then lift your head, Robin,
+                Lift it to find
+              Why the bells of old Dobbin
+                Sound on the night wind;
+              Then lift your head, Robin,
+              For my heart is throbbing,
+          About witches and fairies and things of the kind.
+
+                                  6.
+
+              Lie still, 'tis no fairy
+                That trips the green sod;
+              To hen-coop or dairy
+                No witch takes her road.
+              No, no! 'tis no fairy,
+              Nor anything airy;
+          Lie still and be silent, the _beaks_ are abroad!
+
+
+This very edifying composition seemed to give infinitely greater
+satisfaction to the generality of the gipsies than the former song had
+done; and especially in those places where the singer contrived to
+modulate his voice, so as to change the tone from the male to the
+female, or from the female to the male, as the words required, the
+approbation of his hearers was loud and vehement. Pharold alone
+appeared somewhat gloomy upon the occasion; and were one to look into
+his breast, which we do not intend to do very deeply on this occasion,
+one might see a strange and bitter contest between early feelings,
+habits, and inclinations, and refinements and tastes acquired from the
+most opposite sources--a state of things so discordant in all their
+elements, that nothing but an originally wild and eccentric nature
+could have endured its existence in the same bosom. Some one has said,
+"_Malheureux celui qui est en avant de son siecle_;" and it certainly
+might be said, in every class of society, "_Malheureux celui qui est
+au-dessus de son etat_." Pharold then became gloomy, and felt
+disgusted at things which amused and interested his companions; nor,
+perhaps, was his gloom decreased by seeing that the beautiful young
+companion who leaned beside him was as much pleased and amused as the
+rest.
+
+"I thought that I had taught you to despise such things, Lena," he
+said in a low tone, and with somewhat of a frowning brow.
+
+"Yes, yes," she replied, colouring brightly; "and so I do, when I
+think; but yet--"
+
+She was interrupted by the man named Dickon, who gave a low whistle,
+and exclaimed at the same time, repeating apart of his companion's
+song,--
+
+
+              Lift your head, Robin,
+                Lift it and see,
+              Why shakes his bells, Dobbin,
+                Under the tree!
+
+
+And almost at the same moment one of the horses, of which the gipsies
+had several feeding upon the common just above, repeated a low neigh,
+which had been heard in the first instance by Dickon, as he was
+called, alone. All was instantly silent; and then the jumping sort of
+noise which a horse with a clog upon his feet makes, when endeavouring
+to go fast, was heard from the common; and Pharold's practised ear
+could also distinguish, proceeding from the gravel of the road, the
+sound of a man's footstep, the near approach of which had probably
+frightened the horse.
+
+"Jump up, Will," he cried quickly, addressing the singer; "jump up,
+and see who it is. Stop him up there! If he want me, whistle twice; if
+you want help, whistle once!"
+
+The young man was up the bank in a moment; but the length of time that
+elapsed before they heard any farther sound made them at first fancy
+that they had been mistaken in thinking that any one approached, and
+then showed them that in the clear silence of the night the sounds had
+made themselves heard farther than they had at first imagined. All
+kept a profound silence; but, after the lapse of about a minute, the
+murmur of distant voices was distinguished, and then came a low long
+whistle. Every one started on his feet, but the next moment a second
+whistle was heard, and Pharold said calmly, "It is for me! I may be
+absent, perhaps, for an hour or so: but as the young man has come
+to-night instead of to-morrow, we will set off all the earlier in the
+morning."
+
+He spoke to one of the elder men near him; but in a tone of voice loud
+enough to be heard by those around. Dickon and Mother Gray gave each
+other a look; and when Pharold slowly took his way up the bank she
+stuck her tongue into her toothless cheek with very little of that
+reverence in her looks which she sometimes professed for the leader of
+the tribe.
+
+Soon after he was gone the young man called Will returned; and was
+questioned by several of the gipsies regarding the stranger who had
+intruded upon them at so late an hour. All that he could or would
+reply was, that he was a young fellow with a sword by his side, and
+that he had walked away with Pharold; with which tidings they were
+forced to content themselves, and their revels went on and concluded
+much as they had begun.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Let any one who is fond of sublime sensations take his hat and staff,
+and climb a high hill by a moonlight midnight. There is apart of that
+dust of earth, which gathers so sadly upon our spirit during our daily
+commune with this sordid world, cast off at every step. The very act
+of climbing has something ennobling in it, and the clearer air we
+breathe, the elevation to which we rise, all gives the mind a
+sensation of power and lightness, as if it had partly shaken off the
+load of clay that weighs it down to the ground. But still more, when
+with solitude--the deep solitude of night--we rise up high above the
+sleeping world, with the bright stars for our only companions, and the
+calm moon for our only light--when we look through the profound depth
+of space, and see it peopled by never-ending orbs--when we gaze round
+our extended horizon and see the power of God on every side,--then the
+immortal triumphs over the mortal, and we feel our better being strong
+within us. The cares, the sorrows, the anxieties of earth seem as dust
+in the balance weighed with mightier things; and the grandest earthly
+ambition that ever conquered worlds and wept for more, may feel itself
+humiliated to the dust in the presence of silence, and solitude, and
+space, and millions of eternal suns.
+
+The cool night air playing round his brow calmed the feverish headache
+which anxiety and excitement had left upon Edward de Vaux; and as he
+walked forth from the park, and climbed the high hill towards Morley
+Down, with the stars looking at him from the clear heaven, and the
+moon glistening on every pebble of his path, it is wonderful how much
+his mind felt soothed and tranquilized, how small the cares of earth
+became in his sight. So much so, indeed, was this the case, that
+although, as he mounted the steep ascent, he heard distinctly two
+several shots fired, apparently, a great deal too near his aunt's
+preserves--a sound which, at any other time, might have roused his
+indignation in a very superabundant degree--he now only paused for a
+moment, and turned round to listen; and, hearing no more, walked on,
+regarding the destruction of some hares or pheasants as a matter of
+but small consequence. When he reached the common, the beauty of the
+moonlight scene, with its broad lights and shadows, and the solemn
+effect of silence, and solitude, and night, again made him halt in his
+advance, to gaze upwards into the depth, and feel the mightiness of
+the universe around him; and that, too, sunk all human cares so low by
+comparison, that he began to think he could bear any disclosure with
+calm tranquillity.
+
+He then walked on rapidly, regretting, perhaps, a little, that he had
+not asked Manners the exact position of the gipsy encampment, as he
+had become warm in climbing the hill, and the wind that blew over the
+common felt chill, and made a slight shudder pass over him. The little
+mound, however, was his resource, as it had been that of his friend
+when engaged on a similar errand; and, walking on to the spot where it
+stood, he climbed the side, and cast his eyes over the wide and broken
+flat grounds below him. In the direction of the sand-pit, he almost
+immediately beheld a light; and the next instant a fine mellow voice
+singing showed him that the gipsies were not only there but awake,
+though he was too far off to catch any thing but a few detached notes
+of a merry air rising up from below. Turning his steps in that
+direction, he had proceeded about a quarter of the way from the mound
+to the encampment, when an old white horse, which had lain down after
+feeding, started up at his approach, and hobbled away with its clogged
+feet, as fast as it could, uttering, at the same time, one or two
+short neighs, as if perfectly aware that its masters were of that
+class which does not like to be interrupted without warning. The light
+of the fire, now rising up above the abrupt edge of the sand-pit, and
+showing the dark outline of the bank, with the few black bushes
+cutting sharp upon the glare, pointed out to De Vaux the exact spot
+where the gipsies were to be found, when suddenly a human figure was
+seen rising rapidly across the light; and a minute or two after the
+form of a stout youth planted itself directly in the way of the
+wanderer.
+
+"Who do you want, and what?" demanded the young man, eyeing him from
+head to foot with a look of no particular satisfaction.
+
+De Vaux, however, answered him at once in such a manner as to put a
+stop to any farther enquiries, saying, "I want to see a person called
+Pharold, who is with you here. Can you bring me to him?"
+
+"No," replied the youth, "but I can bring him to you;" and he uttered
+a low, long whistle, succeeded by another, which was quickly followed
+by the appearance of Pharold himself, who, as he approached, took care
+to examine his visiter as accurately as the moonlight would permit.
+When he came near, without addressing De Vaux, or waiting to hear his
+errand, he turned to the young man, saying, "You may return, William;"
+and seeing a slight inclination to linger, he added, in a more
+authoritative tone, "Return!"
+
+The youth obeyed; and then turning to his visiter, the gipsy said,
+"You are Captain de Vaux, I suppose--nay, I see you are."
+
+"You are right," replied De Vaux; "though I am not aware that you ever
+saw me before; at least, I am certain that I never saw you."
+
+"I saw you on the day before yesterday," replied the gipsy, "though it
+was but for a moment, and you did not see me. But it is not alone from
+that I know you. You are very like your father, as I remember him; but
+still more like your grandfather and your uncle, in the times when I
+can recall as happy a set of faces in Dimden Hall as ever shone in the
+palace or the cottage."
+
+The gipsy sighed as he spoke, and De Vaux sighed too, for he had never
+seen such faces in his father's house; and there was also, in the
+picture thus presented, a sad sample of how happy things and scenes of
+joy can, in a few short years, pass away and be forgotten, which,
+linking itself by the chain of association to the present, carried on
+his mind to the time when he and his might be as those of whom the
+gipsy spoke, and all the happiness which he now so fondly anticipated
+with her he loved become a memory for some old remaining servant, or
+poor dependant, to sigh over in their age.
+
+"Then I am to suppose," rejoined De Vaux, after pausing for a moment
+on thoughts which, perhaps, might be called gloomy--"then I am to
+suppose that I am speaking with the person signing himself Pharold;
+and I may also conclude," he added, "that he is the same whom I have
+heard of, as having been taken, when a boy, by my grandfather, in
+order to educate him with my father and uncle; but who could not bear
+the restraints of that kind of life, and at the end of two years fled
+back to his own race and his native pursuits."
+
+"In less time, in less time than that," said the gipsy; "but I often
+went back, and was ever kindly met, and used to please myself by
+enacting one day the young gentleman at the hall, and the next the
+gipsy on the common. But after a time," he continued, carried away by
+his subject, "I strayed farther, and forgot what I might have been, to
+give myself more up to what I was to be--but there is no use of
+talking of such things now, it makes me sad! And so you have heard all
+that. Yet who would tell you? Your father never did, I am sure; and
+your aunt was then but a child of two or three years old; and your
+uncle--but you remember not him."
+
+"No," replied De Vaux, "any knowledge of the facts that I do possess
+was derived, I believe, from the tales of an excellent old
+housekeeper, who died not many years ago, and who seemed to speak of
+Pharold with no small regard."
+
+"And is she dead?" cried Pharold. "Poor good old Mrs. Dickinson--I
+knew not that she was dead--she was ever kind to me, good soul: and
+now she is dust and ashes! Well, well, the fairest, and the strongest,
+and the best, go down to the sand with the leaves of the tree!--but
+will the kindly affections, and the noble feelings, and the generous
+nature, die too and rot? Can you tell me that, young gentleman?--I
+think not."
+
+"Nor I either," answered De Vaux. "God forbid that we should think so!
+But, as I said, it was from that good old person, as I now recollect,
+that I heard all I know of your former history."
+
+De Vaux recurred to the subject of the old housekeeper purposely, for
+he was not at all sorry that--instead of having to meet the gipsy as
+an opponent, where every word was to be examined, and nothing admitted
+without proof--their conversation had taken such a turn as to draw
+forth the man's true character, and to show the deeper motives upon
+which he acted. Anxious, as he might naturally be, to ascertain
+whether there was any hidden passion which might tempt the other to
+deceive him, or to seek to injure either himself or those connected
+with him, De Vaux would fain have led the gipsy on to speak more fully
+of the past; but Pharold's mind, following always its own particular
+train, rested but for a moment longer upon the idea suggested, and
+then returned abruptly to the cause of their meeting.
+
+"Since you know so much of me, Captain de Vaux," he said, "you must
+also know that I possess knowledge in regard to your family which few
+other persons now living do possess; and you must know, likewise, that
+I am not one to say to you a word that is false, or to seek to wrong
+you by even a thought. That you have given some credence to my letter
+I see by your having come here, and that you put some confidence in me
+I see by your having come alone, and at this hour. Both deserve that I
+should be as explicit with you as possible; and, therefore, before you
+quit me, I will leave not a doubt upon your mind in regard to the
+truth of what I affirm."
+
+"By so doing," replied De Vaux, "you will at least entitle yourself to
+my gratitude and thanks, though I conceal not from you that it is
+difficult to feel grateful or to offer sincere thanks to one who,
+willingly or unwillingly, overturns our hopes and our happiness for
+ever."
+
+"It is difficult!" replied the gipsy; "I know it is difficult; but yet
+you must believe me when I tell you that I feel deeply and bitterly
+every pang that I inflict on you; that but for a duty and a promise
+registered in my own heart and beyond the stars--but for your own
+ultimate happiness--I would not pour upon you now all that I must bid
+you bear. You must believe all this, Captain de Vaux, for it is true."
+
+And De Vaux did believe it, in part, if not entirely; for there was a
+solemn earnestness about the man's manner, a sort of eager deprecation
+in his tone, that would have been very difficult to assume unfelt.
+Although his opinion of mankind in general, and of the gipsy race in
+particular, was not very high, still the barrier of distrust was not
+strong enough to shut out conviction when De Vaux heard the tones of
+real sincerity; and he spake truly when he replied, "I will believe
+that you do feel what you say, both because I have never, to my
+knowledge, injured you or yours, so that it would be gratuitous
+baseness to injure or afflict me; and because the little I have ever
+heard of your character in youth, as well as your tone and manner at
+present, convinces me that you are incapable of such a proceeding.
+Nevertheless, you must remember, that before I can yield belief to any
+part of a story which, in some way, must throw dark imputations upon
+my family, I am bound to exact proof, and must be permitted to
+question every assertion that is not supported by the fullest
+evidence."
+
+"Proof and evidence you shall have," replied the gipsy; "and you shall
+not only be permitted to question any thing that seems doubtful, but
+to be angry and indignant till you are convinced. Only, for your own
+sake, command yourself as much as possible. Remember that you have to
+hear a tale that will give you great pain; and, in order to enable
+yourself to judge rationally of its truth, you must govern your
+passions, and, as far as may be, subdue your feelings. You must
+promise, too, Captain de Vaux, to forgive him who inflicts the truth
+upon you. Will you promise me," he asked, laying his hand solemnly on
+De Vaux's arm, "to forgive whatever pain I may inflict, when you shall
+be satisfied both that my tale is true, and that I have no motive of
+earthly interest in relating it?"
+
+"Most certainly," replied De Vaux, "though you proved my illegitimacy
+ever so clearly. Of course I must forgive you, if disinterestedly you
+speak but the truth."
+
+"Worse, worse, far worse than that have I to tell," replied the gipsy;
+"but I cannot tell it here. The wind blows cold, and I saw you
+shudder, but your blood will run colder still before my tale is done.
+Besides, my people have long hearing and cunning ways. They are too
+near; and I would not that any other ear than yours in the whole world
+should listen to the words I am going to speak. You have trusted
+yourself so far to-night that you will not fear to trust yourself
+alone with me still farther. Come, then, with me to the edge of the
+wood that you see lying there about half a mile off. There we can
+shelter ourselves from the wind beneath the part of the bank just
+where it looks down upon the road. You are nearer home there, too."
+
+"I know I am," answered De Vaux, turning, and gazing somewhat fixedly
+upon him; "but do you know that the road which it does overhang is
+within a hundred yards of the spot where my uncle was murdered?"
+
+"I know it well," replied the gipsy; "but you will never be murdered
+like him, Captain de Vaux."
+
+"And why not?" said De Vaux, quickly. "What happened to him may happen
+to me."
+
+"My story must explain my words," rejoined Pharold; "I am unarmed--you
+are armed. All my comrades are there behind us: I go farther from
+them, and lead you nearer to your home. Were I willing to injure you,
+here were the place."
+
+"Lead on, lead on!" said De Vaux; "I will trust you, and follow you!"
+
+"Without reply, the gipsy led the way across the common, with every
+step of which he seemed so well acquainted as to be able to shape his
+course amid all the breaks, and bushes, and irregularities of the
+ground, without ever giving a glance to the right or the left. He said
+not a word either, and De Vaux followed equally in silence, with his
+interest and anxiety still more excited than they had been even by his
+strange companion's letter. In less than a quarter of an hour they had
+crossed that part of the common which lay between the sand-pit and the
+edge of the wood, exactly at that point where the hill, of which
+Morley Down formed the table land, joined on to the general chain of
+hills, from which it appeared as a kind of offset or promontory, and
+which, as we have said, were generally covered with forest. The neck
+of the promontory here overhung the turn of the road and the river, at
+about a couple of hundred yards nearer to Morley House than the spot
+where De Vaux had told Manners, on their first arrival in the country,
+that his uncle had been murdered some years before; and the track that
+lay between the place where he now stood and the highway was a steep
+precipitous bank of two or three hundred feet in height, covered with
+loose stones, scattered bushes, and one or two larger trees, thrown
+forward beyond the mass of wood on the left. The moon was shining
+bright on the road and the river, and though she had passed her
+meridian, promised yet several hours of light.
+
+"Come down this little path, sir," said the gipsy. "Under that bank,
+with those bushes round us, about thirty yards down, we can find
+shelter, and can see every thing around, so that there will be no fear
+of interruption."
+
+De Vaux followed as he desired, and in a few minutes reached the spot
+to which he had pointed. There, upon a felled oak, which only remained
+to be rolled down the hill, he seated himself on a little piece of
+level ground, where some one had endeavoured ineffectually to
+establish a quarry, and whence he could behold the village near his
+aunt's dwelling and the top of Morley House itself, though the view up
+the valley on the other side was interrupted by the sweep of the woody
+hill. The gipsy stood beside him, and De Vaux anxiously besought him
+to produce at once the proofs of the very painful assertions which his
+letter had contained.
+
+"I brought you not here without an object, Edward de Vaux," said the
+gipsy, still standing; "for here I can relate my tale better than
+anywhere else. Now, tell me what you remember of your early years, and
+what you have heard of your father's history--of his history and that
+of his family."
+
+"I did not seek you," answered De Vaux, "to tell you what I myself
+know, but to learn from you facts with which I am unacquainted. You
+have made assertions, and you must either support them by proof, or
+let them fall to the ground."
+
+"Well, well," said the gipsy, "be as cautious as you will! If you
+hesitate to tell the story you have heard, I will tell it for you,
+Captain de Vaux, as I know you have heard it, and stop me if I speak a
+word that is false. Your grandfather, the twelfth Lord Dewry, left two
+sons and one daughter, then nearly seventeen. His eldest son, who was
+about six-and-twenty, succeeded to his title; and his second son,
+Edward, your father, who was then at college, went soon after to
+London to study for the bar. They were both as handsome men as you
+could look upon; and of your father's life and conduct in the great
+capital, as I know nothing with much certainty, so shall I say but
+little--"
+
+"But it appears to me," interrupted De Vaux, "that such is the very
+matter on which you are called to speak. I was born in London; and if
+you can tell me nothing certain of my father's conduct in London, you
+can tell me nothing to the purpose."
+
+"Patience! patience, sir, I pray you!" replied the gipsy; "I can tell
+you much, though on your father's conduct in London I will spare you
+as far as may be. William Lord Dewry, your uncle, was one of those men
+such as the world seldom sees; full of fine and generous feelings,
+kind, forgiving, noble, with enthusiasm such as the cold call folly,
+and humanity such as the unfeeling term weakness, though the rectitude
+of his own conduct was as unbending as yonder oak, and his enthusiasm
+never led him to aught but what was just and good. For some years
+after he succeeded to the title, he remained unmarried, and it was
+generally supposed that he would continue to live as a single man.
+Those who knew him better, however, felt sure that if ever chance
+should throw in his way a woman who deserved his love, whose heart was
+full of such feelings as his own, and whose mind was stored with
+thoughts and wishes as high and noble as those which filled his own
+bosom, he would not only offer to join his fate to hers, but would
+love her as woman has seldom been loved on earth; that such a woman,
+so loved, would become the great object of his being and his life, and
+would concentrate on herself all those deep and ardent affections
+which from his boyhood he had shown that his heart possessed. He did
+at length, as you well know, find such a woman--full of all those
+qualities which were so bright in himself--beautiful, accomplished,
+and his equal in rank and fortune. He addressed himself at once to a
+heart that was free and unengaged; and the same fine properties that
+had won his love were sure to win her love for him. He was married,
+and was happy beyond all that he had ever dreamed. He was happy; nay,
+more, he was content! for the angel of his home was more than all he
+had expected, and he sought and wished for nothing more. Every
+feeling, every thought turned towards her; and though his kindness,
+his benevolence, his philanthropy, were doubled rather than
+diminished, yet no joy was any thing to the joy of his love. For
+a year and six months he was as happy as any human thing can
+be--happier, perhaps, than any human thing ever was before. I saw his
+happiness; and, oh! how it made my heart expand to behold it! But then
+suddenly came a change. His wife had given him a child--beautiful, I
+hear she is, as her mother and good as her father; but ere the opening
+of her infant mind could add anything to the happiness of her parents,
+or afford even a momentary consolation to her father when distress
+came, her mother was seized with sudden illness, and ere five days
+were over she was dead."
+
+The gipsy paused, and seemed to sigh bitterly over the memories of the
+past; while De Vaux, whose interest in all that concerned his beloved
+Marian was hardly less than he felt for those things that affected
+himself, waited anxiously to hear more; for though the story was not
+unfamiliar to him, yet it was put in a new light, and told in a mild
+and feeling tone, that gave it a thousand times more force than ever.
+After a moment or two of silence the gipsy went on:--"What a change,"
+he continued, "came upon him then! The world seemed all forgotten. He
+appeared as one struck with sudden blindness; and where he had beheld
+nothing but beauty around him before, he now beheld nothing but a
+blank. For hours and hours he would ride in solitude through the
+country, unaccompanied even by a servant. He would pass his friends
+when he met them as strangers, and when they spoke, would seem long
+ere he remembered them. He forgot all enjoyment and all occupation,
+and lived in the world as if it were not his proper place. Thus passed
+the days for near two months, when, at the end of that time, he one
+morning rode forth as usual alone; but he chanced--though it was
+seldom he mentioned whither he went--he chanced to say that he was
+going to the county town. He was known, too, to have a large sum of
+money on his person; and as he passed by the house of Mrs. Falkland,
+his sister, for it was at Dimden he always lived, he stopped for a few
+minutes."
+
+"You seem to know the whole facts as minutely as if you had followed
+him," said De Vaux, when the gipsy paused for a moment.
+
+"I do," said the gipsy; "and, if you will listen, you shall hear how.
+When he left Mrs. Falkland's, her husband, who was then living, and a
+noble, frank-hearted man, walked by his brother-in-law's horse as far
+as the village, but there he left him, and Lord Dewry rode on. He was
+seen by some boys who were playing in that field--can you see it? half
+a mile nearer than the village, with a red barn at the side. But none
+of the country people saw him after, and he never returned to the
+hall. His servants, who all loved him, were alarmed, and sent over to
+Mr. Falkland, and he despatched messengers to the county town, with
+orders to inquire at the villages on the road; but no Lord Dewry was
+to be heard of anywhere. The evening passed over in terror; night had
+come on, and the family of Morley House were retiring late to rest,
+when a messenger arrived from Mr. Arden the magistrate, to inform Mr.
+Falkland that a gipsy--do you remark--a gipsy had just been taken up
+upon the charge of beating a young peasant almost to death the day
+before, and now made a voluntary declaration that he had seen the Lord
+Dewry murdered at the elm-point, there down below, that very morning
+at ten o'clock. Mr. Falkland instantly got upon horseback, and rode
+over to see Mr. Arden; and it was agreed between them that the news
+should instantly be sent to the Honourable Edward de Vaux, your
+father, and that till he arrived nothing further should be asked of
+the gipsy, except if he knew where the body of Lord Dewry might in any
+likelihood be found. He said yes: it might be found at the sea; but
+that if they would search in the reeds by the bank, they would find
+the baron's hat, and that in some of the woods or meadows his horse
+would be met with. Search was instantly made, and some of his words
+proved true; for the hat, pierced through and through with a shot, was
+found bloody among the reeds, and his horse was discovered grazing in
+the meadows, four miles down, on the other side of the water. In the
+mean time, the courier rode night and day to London, and when he
+arrived, found the dead lord's brother at the playhouse. He was very
+much shocked at the news, and instantly came down hither with one Sir
+William Ryder, a good enough man, they said, at heart, but one who had
+been fond of play, and had lost a fine fortune by that foolish
+passion. When the new lord arrived, the gipsy was again brought up and
+placed before him. A great many questions were asked, and he told this
+story:--The young man he had beaten had foully ill-used a gipsy woman,
+and he, the gipsy, had punished him, scarcely as he deserved. He had
+left him for dead, however, on the ground; and thinking that if he
+were dead the offence might bring trouble on his people, if he went
+back to them, he hid himself in these woods, and on the morning of the
+murder was lying down yonder, in the sweep of trees there, just at the
+head of the point. He had been there all the morning, he said; and, as
+the country people generally take the short way over the hill, he had
+seen no one pass, till, about half-past nine o'clock, a man on
+horseback came and backed in his horse between the two old elm-trees
+that lie about five hundred yards farther up in the bite of the river.
+He lay very still there to see what would come of it; and in about
+half an hour he heard another horse's feet coming quickly up, and Lord
+Dewry turned the point. The gipsy said that he thought to have sprung
+out, and told him what he had seen; for his heart misgave him as to
+the purpose of the other horseman; but just at the moment the other
+came forth, and, riding quietly up, spoke with Lord Dewry calmly
+enough for some minutes. They then seemed to get into high dispute,
+and Lord Dewry pushed his horse on upon the road a little, while
+following, and speaking at his side, the other suddenly drew a pistol
+from his pocket, and fired right into the baron's head. At the same
+moment, as he was falling from the saddle, the horse, taking fright,
+plunged into the river, dragging him by the stirrup, and his hat fell
+into the rushes. The other horseman looked after him for a moment; but
+ere the swimming horse reached the opposite bank, he set spurs to his
+own beast, and was galloping away, when at the turn he was met by
+another. The gipsy could see them grasp each other's hands; but they
+stopped not a moment to speak: the second turned his horse with the
+first, and both galloped away like lightning. The gipsy plunged into
+the water, he said, to see if he could bring out the body, as soon as
+he saw that it had become disentangled from the stirrup; but it had
+sunk to rise no more; and when he was tired with swimming he returned
+to the woods.
+
+"Mr. Arden, the magistrate, said it was a very improbable story; but
+asked the gipsy if he could recognise the man who had committed the
+murder. The gipsy replied that he could, if he saw him, and could
+swear to him whenever he was placed before him. Mr. Arden then said
+that it would be better, under all circumstances, to commit the gipsy
+at once for his other offences, when he would be always forthcoming to
+give evidence if required; but as it was proved that the young man he
+had beaten was hourly getting better, and acknowledged that he had
+deserved the treatment he had received, the kind magistrate had no
+other excuse to propose for committing the gipsy but that of his being
+a rogue and a vagabond. In this, however, he was overruled by Lord
+Dewry, the new Lord Dewry, after some private consultations with Sir
+William Ryder. His lordship said, with a kind look to the gipsy, that
+it would be cruel, he thought, to commit a man to prison for having
+given voluntary evidence where it was much needed; and besides, that
+he had reason to think very well of that gipsy, who had, in a degree,
+been brought up by his father. Mr. Arden, however, suggested that the
+gipsy himself might have been the murderer; and though Lord Dewry
+treated the idea with contempt, yet the sturdy magistrate kept him in
+custody, till, by the marks of the horse's feet, and many other
+things, it was proved that his story must be true. In the mean time
+Lord Dewry and Sir William Ryder were very kind to him, and took care
+that he should want for nothing while he was detained. At length he
+was liberated, and went to join his own people, promising to return
+whenever he should be called upon, which every one felt sure he would
+do, as he had been educated with the dead man, and loved him as a
+brother. I need not tell you that I was that gipsy!
+
+"In the mean time," continued Pharold, "Mr. Edward de Vaux took the
+titles and entered into possession of the estates held by his late
+brother. The will of the last lord was found, and no one wondered that
+in it he never mentioned his brother's name; for it was known to all
+the world that they had had many a bitter dispute, and had long been,
+not as brothers should be. His daughter, Miss De Vaux, and the care of
+the splendid fortune which she inherited from her mother, were
+intrusted to his sister, Mrs. Falkland, to Mrs. Falkland's husband,
+and to a distant relation.
+
+"All his servants and friends were remembered by the dead nobleman,
+and almost every one that he knew was named except his own brother.
+The world did wonder, then, that that brother, with a singular
+generosity, resigned in favour of his niece many things that he might
+have claimed as belonging to the male heir, and treated all questions
+between them, in regard to property, with unexampled liberality. When
+he had settled all things, and retained a number of his brother's
+domestics, he ordered the hall at Dewry to be put in order; not loving
+the part of the country where his brother had been murdered. Thither,
+then, he went, after he had arranged his affairs in London, bringing
+down with him a young gentleman of seven years' old, his only son, and
+supposed heir to all the property."
+
+"And my mother!" cried De Vaux, raising his head from his hands, in
+which position he had been sitting while listening to the gipsy's
+story; for during its course he had been agitated by many a strange,
+but ill-defined, emotion. The story of his uncle's murder had always
+been one on which his mind had rested with awe and pain from his very
+childhood; but though he had heard it often told, both as a whole and
+in detached fragments, yet he had never listened to such minute
+details as were now given by an eye-witness of the horrible event, who
+seemed prepared to connect it, too, by some vague and unexplained
+link, with the painful assertions which had been made in regard to his
+own doubtful situation. The very expectation, or rather apprehension,
+of some horrible disclosure to follow at every word the gipsy uttered,
+had troubled and shaken him greatly; and the name of Sir William
+Ryder--a person who, it appeared, was then most intimate with his
+father, but who, it was clear, had since become the object of his most
+determined hatred--had added deeper feeling of mysterious dread to all
+those thoughts by which he was already perturbed. What could be the
+meaning of all this? whither would it lead? how was it to end? were
+the questions which continually pressed upon him as the gipsy
+proceeded; and it appeared even a relief, when Pharold's last words
+seemed to bring his ideas back from the new and dreadful topics on
+which they had been engaged, to the subject of his former doubts and
+suspicions.
+
+"And my mother!" he cried, as the gipsy paused, "what of her?"
+
+"Nothing, that I know," replied Pharold, apparently with some
+surprise; "nothing but that she was a Spanish lady, who married your
+father privately, after breaking her vows in a convent."
+
+"Then they were married?" cried De Vaux, eagerly.
+
+"Certainly!" answered the gipsy: "I never heard it doubted; though he
+kept her from all his family, and used her ill; which was one of the
+causes of his quarrels with his brother. But she was dead before he
+came down here to take possession of his brother's lands. But let me
+tell my tale."
+
+De Vaux again leaned his head upon his hands; every thing once more
+becoming dark and misty around him. "Go on! go on!" he said; "go on,
+and keep me not in suspense, for Heaven's sake!"
+
+"I have now told you," continued Pharold, "the story of your family as
+it went forth to the world, and as you most likely have heard it
+yourself. It is a goodly tale, and just such as could be desired under
+such circumstances! The picture is, indeed, a dark and painful one:
+but it has another side more dark and painful still; and ere you look
+at it, nerve your mind firmly, young gentleman; for if you be such as
+I believe you are, filled with honourable feelings and kindly
+affections, your very soul will writhe under all you have to hear."
+
+De Vaux waved his hand for him to go on; and the gipsy
+continued:--"You have heard the world's version of the story; you must
+now hear the gipsy's. My early history you know; for a year and nine
+months I was brought up with your uncle and your father. Your uncle
+ever loved me--your father never: but he was too proud to seek to
+injure me; and when I left the false restraints of what you call
+society, to go back to my own race and my native freedom, he and I
+were friends, as far as we could be.
+
+"Your uncle I often returned to see, though longer and longer became
+my absence, and greater and greater my contempt for gilded halls and
+mercenary slaves in laced jackets. I took a pleasure, however, a
+secret pleasure, in marking and learning all the doings of the man I
+loved best on earth; and sometimes, though my distaste to fine
+dwellings and insolent lackeys had grown into a diseased abhorrence
+that would not let me cross the lordly threshold of Dimden, yet often
+would I meet him in the park or in the walks, and hold a brief
+conversation with him in the free air. It was after an absence from
+this part of the country of near two years that I came back, and found
+that his heart had been withered by the death of her he loved. I was
+seeking for an opportunity of meeting him, when the offence was given
+to an unhappy woman of our tribe, which called for vengeance at my
+hand; and I was forced to conceal myself till I could learn what were
+the ultimate consequences of the punishment that I had inflicted. I
+hid myself, as I have told you, in that wood; and all the rest that I
+said before the magistrate is true: but I said not all the truth. I
+saw the horseman station himself between the elms; I saw Lord Dewry
+ride up, and they met; I heard the words they spoke; I saw him ride
+on, and I saw the other follow, though little did I dream his purpose;
+I saw him draw the pistol from his bosom; I saw it raised, and the
+shot fired that struck the good lord down--and the hand that fired it,
+young man--the hand that fired it was his brother's!"
+
+"It is false!" cried De Vaux, starting up and half-drawing his sword;
+"it is as false as hell itself!"
+
+"It is as true as yon stars in heaven!" replied the gipsy, calmly but
+sternly; and a long pause followed, while Pharold stood erect and
+tranquil before the son of him whom he had charged with so fearful a
+crime, and De Vaux gazed on him with a countenance in which the
+workings of all the manifold passions that such terrible tidings
+produced were fearfully visible. "Will you hear me out?" demanded the
+gipsy at length.
+
+"I will," said De Vaux, casting himself down again upon the tree; "I
+will! but think not to escape me. You have made a dreadful charge; and
+as there is a God in heaven, you shall show me that it is true before
+I quit you!" and leaning his head again upon his hand, he kept his
+eyes fixed upon the gipsy, as if fearful that he should elude him,
+till he came to parts of the details that made his hearer again bury
+his face in his hands.
+
+"I will!" continued Pharold; "I will show you that what I have uttered
+is true; for it was to that purpose that I brought you here. But be
+more calm, and let me tell you all the circumstances which might lead
+him to the terrible act that he committed."
+
+"He committed it not!" murmured De Vaux; but the gipsy went on as if
+he had not heard him. "I have since heard all the facts," he
+proceeded, "from one who knew them too well; the only one, indeed,
+besides myself. Edward de Vaux, the younger of the two brothers, was a
+man of extravagant tastes and habits. He went early and often into
+other countries, and there he learned expensive vices and follies. I
+would not pain you; but he gamed deeply, and lived sumptuously, while
+your mother lived neglected, and fared but hardly. What he inherited
+from his father was but small; what he acquired was nothing; what he
+squandered came from the liberality of his brother; and often his
+demands were more than any liberality could supply. Lord Dewry
+remonstrated and entreated, but in vain; and much and nobly, have I
+heard, did he offer to do for him, if he would retire into the
+country, and treat your mother well. But she died, and that cause of
+dispute was removed by her death. All check, indeed, seemed now cast
+away by her husband. He gamed more deeply than ever; lost all; applied
+to his brother; was refused, and then staked what he did not possess.
+He lost. Sir William Ryder, his great friend, joined him in an
+engagement to pay the sum within a certain time; but shortly before
+the period arrived, Mr. De Vaux was not to be found by his friend. Sir
+William thought that he had evaded him in order to cast the whole debt
+upon his shoulders; and, learning the route he had taken, followed at
+full speed; traced him step by step, and overtook him--at the very
+moment he had murdered his brother. Horrified, but confused and
+bewildered, before he well comprehended what he was doing, Sir William
+became a participator in the crime, by promising to conceal all that
+he had seen; and setting spurs to their horses, they arrived in London
+by different by-roads, in so short a space of time that it seemed
+impossible they could have done the distance. Well knowing that he
+must soon be sent for, the heir of the dead man took care to show
+himself in every place where his presence in London would be marked
+and remembered, in case of necessity; and he was found, as I have
+said, at the play-house. What sort of hell was in his heart, as he sat
+and saw mockeries and pageants, I know not."
+
+"But your story halts, sir," said De Vaux, sternly; "how could he know
+at what exact spot his brother would be found at that precise time?
+How could he--"
+
+"By that letter!" said the gipsy, placing abruptly an old but
+well-preserved paper in his hands, on which the regular post marks
+were easily discernible.
+
+"But I cannot read it by this faint light," said De Vaux, attempting
+to make out the contents, after gazing at the address; "what is its
+purport?"
+
+"I will tell you," replied the gipsy, striking a light with a flint
+and touchwood that he carried; "I will tell you; though you shall soon
+be able to satisfy yourself. It is your uncle's letter to your father,
+telling him that he has not sufficient money at his banker's to meet
+his fresh demand; but that, if he will be at the inn at the county
+town of ----, at noon of the eighteenth of May--the very day of the
+murder--he will give him the sum of five thousand pounds, which is all
+he can collect without burdening himself for other people's faults, in
+a manner that he does not choose to do. There!" he continued, lighting
+a few dry sticks; "there is light enough to read!"
+
+De Vaux read the letter. It was such exactly as the gipsy described:
+it was written in a hand which he remembered from other papers he had
+seen to be that of his uncle; it was dated four days before his death,
+signed with his name, sealed with his arms, directed to his brother,
+and by the post marks had evidently been received. Conviction was
+forcing itself painfully upon his mind, but drowning men will catch at
+straws; and he hoped yet to find some flaw in the horrible history he
+heard, and to be enabled to give it the lie to his own heart. He
+returned the letter; and folding his arms upon his breast, bade the
+gipsy go on; while, with a knitted brow and quivering lip, he
+continued gazing upon vacancy, suffering his mind to roam wildly
+through a thousand painful thoughts and memories, but without letting
+one word escape his ear.
+
+"By this letter," continued the gipsy, "did he know exactly when his
+brother would set out for the town of ----; and he knew his habits,
+too, well enough to arrange the rest of his plan. But crime is always
+agitated; and it is thus that even the coolest and most determined
+ever leave some trace behind by which murder may be detected. Your
+uncle came not so soon as he had expected, and he took the letter from
+his pocket to be sure that he himself had not overstepped the hour.
+Just as he was reading, the horse's feet which bore Lord Dewry
+sounded, and he hastily thrust back the paper, as he thought, into his
+pocket; but it fell, and I saw it, and forgot it not afterward. When
+the deed was done, he paused for a moment gazing upon the swimming
+horse, and the sinking form of his brother, as it detached itself from
+the stirrup, and without even a struggle the waters closed over his
+head; and I am as sure as there is a heaven above us, that at that
+instant the murderer would have given lands and lordships--nay, life
+itself--to have recalled the irrevocable act that he had done. He
+could gaze at it no longer; but striking his spurs into his horse like
+a madman, he turned back the way he came. Just at the turn of the wood
+he was met by Sir William Ryder; what he said I know not, but he
+grasped his hand for a moment, and then galloped away, followed by the
+other. Ere he had gone far his coolness had returned; for before he
+came down here all his plans had been arranged, and his conduct
+decided. He had questioned the messenger, too, and had heard the
+evidence that I had given; and though I had declared that I could
+swear to the person, he felt sure, from my _not_ swearing to him, that
+I either did not really know him, or had determined to conceal my
+knowledge. At all events, he had no resource but to front the matter;
+and he did so boldly. When I was brought into the justice room, I
+could see that he turned a little pale, and at the same time he put up
+his finger to his lip, in a way that I might take for a signal or not
+as I pleased. I repeated all I had said before, nay, I went further,
+and described exactly the appearance of the murderer, but such
+descriptions are always loose; and no one asked me whether any of
+those present was the man--"
+
+"Would you have said yes if they had?" interrupted De Vaux.
+
+"I do not well know what I might have done," replied the gipsy, "but
+I think not. What use would it have been to me to destroy the son of
+one who had loved and cherished me? He had committed an awful crime,
+it is true--but I was not the avenger. Besides, I knew that vengeance,
+in its intensity tenfold more terrible than aught that man could
+inflict, was in his heart already,--that there was a serpent eating it
+up,--that the mighty, the almighty Avenger of all crimes was there in
+his terrors, and that every hour of his after-existence would be
+constant judgment and continual death. No, no! on my life, I did not
+so much hate as pity him. At night, after I had been removed from the
+justice room, I heard the door of the chamber, in which they had
+confined me, open, and Sir William Ryder came in with a light. He was
+a fine-hearted man, though he had been misled; and although the real
+murderer had shown himself but little shaken, yet through the whole of
+my examination he, Sir William Ryder, had been agitated, as I could
+see, to his very soul. Both he and the other, however, whether to make
+me a friend or what matters little, had done all they could to soften
+the hardness of old Squire Arden, as he was called; but Sir William
+now came to me to see what I did know, and how far they could trust
+me. It was a difficult task; and had he gone about it as cunningly as
+some would have done, he might have failed with me. But he was too
+much moved for that. He spoke kindly to me, however, and told me that
+Lord Dewry was very much interested for me, and would take care of me,
+and I told him at once to bid Lord Dewry take care of himself, for his
+was the case of danger, and not mine. So then he said that he saw I
+knew more than I had spoken, and that Lord Dewry was grateful to me.
+'Call him not by a title that is not his,' I answered; 'for I know
+that the patent of their nobility bears, that if any of the family,
+judged according to law, be found guilty of a felony, he and his
+children are to be considered dead, their line extinct, and the next
+heir to claim as if they were not.' He answered that that mattered
+not, for that his friend had not been found guilty of any felony, nor
+ever would; and that he had only to say, if I would quit the kingdom,
+till he gave me leave to return, he would secure me the sum of one
+thousand pounds directly, and a pension for my life. I said I would
+think of it, and tell him when I was at liberty; and I was very soon
+after set free. Sir William Ryder did not fail to find me out,
+however; and it was agreed between us that I should go; and that he
+should meet me at the sea-port where I embarked, and there give me the
+money.
+
+"It took a time, however, to move the tribe to the port, and some were
+unwilling to go without knowing the reason. So we divided, some going
+with me, some betaking themselves to their own way. I saw Sir William
+Ryder often, and when I wrote to him to tell him that we were near a
+sea-port in Wales, he came down directly, and visited the encampment.
+He told me that he, too, was about to set out for America, and
+intended to spend the rest of his life in the colonies. 'I will try,'
+he said, 'by devoting the remainder of my days to doing good, and
+walking uprightly with all men, to efface from my memory the traces of
+many follies and of one great crime, in which I have not been a
+sharer, indeed, but which I have aided to conceal.' The second day,
+however, that he came out to us, his horse took fright at a monkey,
+which some of our people had among the tents, and threw him violently.
+He broke his collar-bone and several of his ribs, and being carried
+into a hut, we all nursed him tenderly. I found him better than I
+thought, and learned to love him; and under our care he got well
+sooner than if all the doctors in the world had seen him. While he was
+recovering it was that I learned how all had happened; and he tried to
+persuade himself and to make me believe that the murder had been
+committed in a moment of passion, and not by design, or that his
+friend was distracted with anxiety and distress at the moment that he
+committed it. When he left us for America I went away to Ireland. I
+have since seen many other lands, and have lived for some years in
+Scotland, but I never returned to this country of England till about
+three weeks ago."
+
+The gipsy paused, and De Vaux remained as he had placed himself, with
+his head bent down almost to his knees, and his eyes buried in his
+extended hands. He continued silent long, bowed down by a sense of
+misery, and humiliation, and despair. What would he have given at that
+moment to have all his former apprehensions confirmed, if the present
+terrible doubts could have been thereby swept away!--doubts, indeed,
+they could scarcely now be called, for the gipsy's story was too
+consistent in every part, was too much combined with facts within his
+own knowledge, was too clear an explanation of many parts of his
+father's conduct--his gloom, his reserve, his irritation, his
+agitation at the very name of Sir William Ryder--for him to entertain
+any thing but one of those faint, lingering, insane hopes, which death
+itself is the only thing that can extinguish. But, for the moment, the
+thought of whether there were still a doubt had merged itself in the
+more agonizing ideas of what must be his fate if the story were true.
+His own father! How could he ever behold him again? How was he to act
+towards him? What was he to do? Then came the idea of Marian in all
+her beauty, in all her gentleness, in all her generous love; and he
+felt that she could never be his; that the blood of her father placed
+between them an obstacle that could never be removed; that no time, no
+change, no effort could ever cast down that dreadful barrier; that at
+the very moment when his passionate love had been raised by her noble
+conduct almost to adoration was the moment at which he must sacrifice
+her for ever! And how must he sacrifice her? How must he act towards
+her? He could not, he dared not explain, by even a single word, the
+cause of that sacrifice; he could not tell her what had happened; he
+could not even have the blessing of weeping with her over their
+blighted hopes. Whichever way he turned, it was all horror and
+destruction; and the brain of the unhappy young man seemed to reel
+with the agony he suffered. He spoke not; he could hardly be said to
+think; it was all one frightful dream of misery and despair. He felt
+that his fate, as far as happiness was concerned, was sealed for ever;
+and yet a thousand whirling and inconsistent visions rushed upon his
+brain regarding his future conduct. How--how was he to act? What--what
+was he to do? At one moment he thought of going instantly to his
+father's presence, of telling him he knew all, and of ending his own
+life before him, to cast off the intolerable burden of thought and
+sensation; but then he remembered all that his father had already
+suffered; called to mind the deep and gloomy pondering--the solitary
+meditations, and the never-smiling lip--the bursts of wild and
+impatient passion, the hollow cheek, the sunken eye, and all the
+indications of a heart torn and mangled by remorse; and that idea
+vanished in filial sorrow. At another time he thought of burying
+himself deep in the wilds of America, of joining some Indian tribe,
+and hiding his name and its disgrace in scenes to which Europeans
+never penetrated; but then again the idea of Marian, and of never,
+never seeing her more, overcame him with fresh anguish. He knew not
+where to turn his eyes for guide or direction; he knew not how to act;
+he knew not whither to go: every place was hopeless--every view
+presented but despair; and, after a long and terrible silence, one
+deep and bitter groan found its way to his lips.
+
+The gipsy's heart was moved for him; and, after gazing upon him for
+several minutes, he said, "I grieve from my very heart to pain you
+thus; but yet, young man, be comforted: there is a balm for all
+things."
+
+The very words of comfort, however, proceeding from the same tongue
+that had destroyed all his happiness for ever, roused De Vaux almost
+to phrensy; and, starting up, he exclaimed, "Either what you have told
+me is false, or you must know that there is no comfort for me on
+earth! What balm do you mean?"
+
+"The balm of time," replied the gipsy, unmoved, "which, as I know by
+the experience of many sorrows, can take the venom from the most
+cankered wound!"
+
+De Vaux glared at him for a moment as if he would have struck him to
+the earth, and then--for there are some loads of misery which are too
+vast for the human mind to comprehend or to believe at first--and then
+replied, "I believe you have been deceiving me, and wo be unto you if
+you have! Have you any other proof," he cried, striving eagerly to
+catch at a doubt; "have you any other proof? If so, produce it
+quickly!"
+
+"I am not deceiving you, young gentleman," answered the gipsy; "and I
+can forgive both your anger and your unbelief."
+
+"But the proof! the proof!" cried De Vaux; "have you any other proof?"
+
+"I have," answered Pharold, "and I will produce it, though the letter
+I have shown you is proof enough. I grieve for you, sir, but you must
+not injure me."
+
+"The letter you may have stolen," replied De Vaux, fiercely, "or found
+it years afterward. What other proof have you? Give me some other
+proof, and I will believe you."
+
+"You believe me already at your heart," answered the gipsy; "but the
+other proof is this:--I have said that the murderer gazed for a moment
+after his victim, and that I saw that he gazed in deep and terrible
+remorse. Know you how I saw that it was so? Thus: The moment that the
+shot was fired, and that his brother was falling, his hand let the
+pistol drop from his grasp, and he sat on his horse motionless as a
+statue, as if the deed he had done had turned him into stone; nor did
+he move hand or limb till he turned and galloped away as if the fiends
+of hell were pursuing him. The pistol was not lost any more than the
+letter; and happy for him was it that they both fell into the hands of
+one who concealed them carefully; for had they been found by any
+other, your father might have ended his days upon a scaffold more than
+twenty years ago. You ask for more proof. Look there! that is the
+weapon, and you know the arms of a younger brother of your race too
+well to doubt me longer."
+
+De Vaux took the pistol which the gipsy produced. It was curiously
+inlaid with silver, and the arms of his family embossed upon the
+stock. He had once seen one, and only one, precisely similar in the
+hands of his father, when he came upon him by accident in his private
+study. His father had put it away in haste into a chest that contained
+it; and, with a pale cheek and quivering lip, had reproved his son for
+breaking in upon his privacy. De Vaux now saw the fellow-weapon of the
+one he had then beheld: the last faint gleam of hope left his heart
+for ever; and striking his hand upon his bosom, and groaning in the
+bitterness of his heart, he cast himself frantically down upon the
+cold ground.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+It is a wonder that man ever smiles; for there is something so strange
+and awful in the hourly uncertainty of our fate--in the atmosphere of
+darkness and insecurity that surrounds our existence--in the troops of
+dangers to our peace and to our being that ride invisible upon every
+moment as it flies--that man is, as it were, like a blind man in the
+front of a great battle, where his hopes and his joys are being swept
+down on every side, and in which his own existence must terminate at
+length, in some undefined hour, and some unknown manner--and yet he
+smiles as if he were at a pageant!
+
+Were his smile the smile of faith and confidence in the great, good
+Being who sees the struggle and prepares the reward, he might smile
+unshaken indeed; but, alas, alas! is it so? I fear but seldom.
+
+There are few things on earth more melancholy than when one is
+burdened with some evil news to see those whom it is destined to
+plunge into grief full of gay life and happiness, enjoying the bright
+moments as if there were nothing but pleasure in the world. There is
+something awful in it! It brings home to our own hearts the fearful
+fact that, at the very instant when we are at the height of joy, some
+remote, unseen, unknown, unexpected agents may be performing acts
+destined to blast our happiness for ever. There is something
+mysterious in it, too; for it shows us that at the very moment when
+our state is in reality the most miserable upon earth, we are often
+giving ourselves up to the most wild and rapturous gayety, solely
+because some other tongue has not spoken in our ear a few conventional
+sounds which the inhabitant of another land would not understand, but
+which, as soon as they are spoken, plunge us from the height of joy
+down into the depth of despair.
+
+On the third morning of Colonel Manners's stay at Morley House, and on
+which he expected letters that would give him a fair excuse for
+abridging his visit, he rose as early, but came down somewhat later
+than usual. He still, however, expected to find himself earlier than
+the rest of the family; but on passing the music-room, the door of
+which was ajar, he heard the notes of a harpsichord--the solace and
+delight of our worthy ancestors--mingling with some gay voices
+talking; and, taking the prescriptive right of opening quite all
+half-opened doors, he walked in, and found Miss Falkland at the
+instrument, speaking cheerfully, over her shoulder, to Miss De Vaux,
+who stood behind.
+
+A slight complaining cry on the part of the lazy hinges made both
+ladies turn their eyes towards it; and Isadore smiled as she did so,
+while a faint colour spread itself deepening over Marian's soft
+cheek--perhaps she might expect to see some one else than Colonel
+Manners, and be just sufficiently disappointed to say something civil
+and kind to him on his entrance, as a sort of compensation for the bad
+compliment she paid him at the bottom of her heart.
+
+"Isadore was just talking of you, Colonel Manners," she said, looking
+towards her cousin, as if leaving her to explain in what manner.
+
+"There is a proverb to that effect, madam," replied Manners, smiling;
+"but I am always glad to find myself subject of discourse to those I
+esteem, if the matter be not censure at least. May I be let into the
+secret?"
+
+"Oh, beyond all doubt," replied Isadore. "The fact is, De Vaux
+betrayed you last night, Colonel Manners; and told me, without even
+binding me to secrecy, that you sing remarkably well."
+
+"He did me injustice, I assure you," replied Manners; "but if that be
+'the head and front of my offence,' I can prove myself innocent of
+singing remarkably well at any time you like."
+
+"No time like the present, Colonel Manners," said Isadore. "It wants
+full half an hour to breakfast, and there is nothing on earth so
+painful as to live in long-drawn expectation of such things. Will you
+sing, Colonel Manners?"
+
+"I believe," he replied, "that there is some superstitious penalty
+attached to singing before breakfast; but nevertheless I will dare the
+adventure if you have any music that I know, for the sin of
+accompanying myself I commit not."
+
+"Do you know that?" asked Miss Falkland; "or that! or that?"
+
+"No, indeed," answered Colonel Manners; "but I know the air of this
+one, and have sung it more than once to different words, the
+composition of a lady possessing no small poetical powers. I will try
+to recollect them now; though, to speak the truth, it is doing some
+injustice to the lines to take them from the drama for which they were
+designed, and apply them to an old song."
+
+"Oh, never mind; we will make all due allowances," replied Miss
+Falkland; "am I to accompany you, or Marian!--Oh, very well, with all
+my heart! Is it to be the time of a monody or a jig?"
+
+"Not too fast, if you please," replied Colonel Manners; and Miss
+Falkland accompanying him, he sang the following lines to an air,
+which was then not very new, but which is now in all probability lost
+to posterity.
+
+
+                                SONG.
+
+             "I woo thee not as others woo,
+              I flatter not as others do,
+                  Nor vow that I adore;
+              I cannot laugh, I cannot smile.
+              Nor use, as they, each courtly wile,
+                But oh, I love thee more.
+
+             "The rich, the noble, and the great,
+              Offer thee wealth, and power, and state,
+                And fortunes running o'er!
+              How can I smile, when none of these
+              Give me the worldly power to please,
+                Though I may love thee more?
+
+             "And yet I hope, because I love
+              With thoughts that set thee far above
+                Vain Fortune's glittering store.
+              Others may deem thou canst be won
+              By things that sparkle in the sun,
+                But oh, I love thee more.
+
+             "I do believe that unto thee
+              Truth, honour, plain sincerity,
+                Are jewels far before
+              All that the others think are dear;
+              And yet far more than they I fear,
+                Because I love thee more.
+
+             "I love thee more than all the train
+              Who flaunt, who flatter, and who feign,
+                And vow that they adore:
+              I love thee as men loved of yore--
+              Ah, no, I love thee more--far more
+                Than man e'er loved before."
+
+
+"I do not think I could have resisted those verses well sung," cried
+Isadore, smiling as he concluded, if I had been the most disdainful
+beauty that ever carried a hawk upon her glove in the days of old.
+"What do you say, Marian?"
+
+"I do not know how far my powers of resistance might go," answered
+Marian de Vaux, "but I should very much like to hear the rest of the
+story. You say that it is in a drama, Colonel Manners, I think; pray,
+can it be procured?"
+
+"I am afraid not," answered Manners: "it is the writing of a lady, and
+has never been given to the world; at least, as far as I know."
+
+"But at all events tell us the fate of the lover," exclaimed Isadore;
+"that you are bound to do in common charity, after having excited our
+curiosity."
+
+"Oh, he is made happy, of course," he replied, "as all lovers are, or
+should be."
+
+"Say _true lovers_, if you please, Colonel Manners," cried Isadore,
+"and then I will agree; but if a woman were to make happy, as you
+gentlemen call it before you are married, every impertinent personage
+who comes up, and making you a low bow, with his hat under his arm,
+asks you, 'Pray, madam, will you marry me?' as if he were asking you
+merely to walk a minuet, she would have enough to do, I can assure
+you."
+
+"I can easily conceive it," answered Manners, laughing; "but what a
+clamorous summons that bell makes! pray does it ring for breakfast
+every morning? I did not near it yesterday."
+
+"That was because you were out having your fortune told when it rang,
+Colonel Manners," replied Miss Falkland; "but it rings every morning
+at this hour, and if Mrs. Falkland is not down, it falls to my lot to
+make the tea. Wherefore I must now remove to the breakfast-room."
+
+Thus saying, she led the way, while her cousin and Colonel Manners
+followed; and the hot and shining urn having taken its wonted place,
+she proceeded with the breakfast arrangements, while the butler
+bustled about, first at the sideboard, and then at the table, looking
+ever and anon at the two young ladies, and then at Colonel Manners,
+and then at the fire-place, till, having nothing further to do, he was
+obliged to retire.
+
+"Gibson looks as if he had some vast secret upon his mind," said
+Isadore, speaking to her cousin; "did you see, Marian, how he moved
+about? You must know, Colonel Manners, that that old gentleman is a
+very privileged person in our family, and often condescends to pour
+forth the secrets of the village upon us, in despite of all our
+struggles and reluctance."
+
+"I am sorry he did not gratify himself this morning," said Manners:
+"there are few things more delightful than a village story well told."
+
+"You were the great obstacle, I am afraid," replied Miss Falkland: "he
+has his own peculiar notions of decorum, and a visiter is pretty sure
+of reverence; but I do believe, from his extreme alacrity this
+morning, that he would have even disregarded your presence had a
+single word been said to him. But I did not choose to gratify him even
+by a word; for I knew if I had but said, 'Gibson, bring more butter,'
+he would instantly have burst forth with, 'Yes, miss, I'll tell you
+all about it. The park-keeper's daughter's husband's sister--' and so
+he would have gone on for an hour."
+
+Colonel Manners could not help laughing, and even Marian smiled at the
+manner in which her gay cousin imitated the old man's prolixity; but
+at the same time there was an expression of anxiety on Miss De Vaux's
+countenance which nothing but the presence of Edward de Vaux could
+have done away. He had not yet come down, however, and the next person
+who entered was Mrs. Falkland, whose first observation, after the
+common salutations of the morning, was, "Why--is not Edward down?
+surely he has not grown a sluggard in the wars!"
+
+"Oh no, my dear aunt," replied Marian; "I dare say he was down before
+we were up, for he told me last night that he was going out early this
+morning, but would be back to breakfast."
+
+The old butler was just at that moment entering with a partridge pie;
+and halting in the midst, he exclaimed, "No, indeed, Miss Marian; no,
+indeed! Master Edward has not come down, because he has never been
+up."
+
+"Never been up!" said Mrs. Falkland, mistaking the man's meaning;
+"then you had better send up his servant to wake him, Gibson. But why
+are you so pale, Marian? what is the matter?"
+
+"Oh, that is not it at all, ma'am," replied the butler, taking upon
+himself to answer for all parties. "Mr. De Vaux has never been in bed
+last night, ma'am. His servant told me so this minute. There is the
+bed turned down, says he, just as the housemaid left it, and his
+slippers standing by the great chair, and his hat, and sword, and
+riding-coat gone."
+
+"Nay, Marian, do not look so alarmed," said Isadore, laying her hand
+affectionately upon that of her cousin. "This will prove all airy
+nothing, depend upon it; but you had better come away with me, love,
+and leave mamma and Colonel Manners to sift it; for you will only
+agitate yourself more than is at all necessary by listening to the
+miraculous conjectures of every different servant in the house."
+
+"No, no; I would a great deal rather hear all, Isadore," answered
+Marian, in her usual calm tone, though the excessive paleness which
+had spread over her countenance evinced clearly enough that her heart
+was any thing but at ease. "You had better send for Edward's servant,
+my dear aunt."
+
+Her suggestion was instantly followed, and De Vaux's servant, who had
+been an old soldier, entered the room, and stood at ease before the
+party assembled round the breakfast-table.
+
+"Colonel Manners, will you be so kind"--said Mrs. Falkland.
+
+"Most certainly, my dear madam," replied Manners, understanding her
+meaning as well as if she had expressed it. "When did you see your
+master last, William?"
+
+"Last night, sir, at twenty minutes to twelve," said the man. "Did he
+seem as if he were about to go to bed?" demanded Manners.
+
+"No, sir," replied the servant. "He made me give him his dressing-gown
+and slippers, but told me not to wait, for that he had a great deal to
+write before he could go to bed."
+
+Marian's face cleared up a little, for she was glad to imagine that
+De Vaux might have sat up writing on all the many subjects which she
+knew occupied his mind till daylight had appeared, and might then have
+set out at once for the gipsy encampment; but Colonel Manners
+proceeded:--"Do you know at what time any of the other servants were
+up?"
+
+"The groom and I were up at five, sir," replied the man, "and it was
+just dawning then; but as we went along the corridor I saw my master's
+door ajar, and thinking I must have left it so by carelessness, I just
+pulled it gently to."
+
+"Were all the horses in the stable?" asked Colonel Manners.
+
+"All, sir," answered the servant.
+
+"And now, William, in what state did you find your master's room?"
+demanded Mrs. Falkland.
+
+"Why, madam, I found that nobody had been in bed, clearly enough,"
+replied the man; "and I found, too, that Captain De Vaux had put off
+his dressing-gown and slippers, and put on his riding-coat and boots;
+and I remarked, also, that the curtains of one of the windows were
+undrawn, and the window itself open."
+
+"Oh, then, I dare say he went out after daylight," said Colonel
+Manners, "and will soon be back. Shall we ask him any thing further,
+my dear madam?"
+
+Mrs. Falkland had nothing more to inquire, and the man was dismissed.
+
+"It is as well," said Manners, who knew that De Vaux was the man of
+all others to be very much mortified, if he came back and found that
+his absence had been made unnecessarily a nine-day's wonder of--"it is
+as well to treat this business as quietly as possible, though, I
+confess, it does seem to me strange that De Vaux should go out so
+early, so very early, as to be seen by none of the servants, and also
+should never have gone to bed; but I think Miss De Vaux said just now
+that he mentioned his intention of going out very early."
+
+"I did so," replied Marian, colouring slightly, from a feeling of
+embarrassment, in regard to disclosing any part of all that her cousin
+had confided to her, and yet painfully anxious on his account. "He
+intended to go to speak with somebody, who gave you, I think, a letter
+for him yesterday, Colonel Manners."
+
+Manners was not a little anxious for his friend also; but he saw
+Marian's still deeper anxiety, and he strove tenderly to avoid giving
+her greater pain than necessary, while he yet continued to investigate
+the cause of her lover's absence. "Oh, if he be gone to that person
+who gave me the letter," he said, "De Vaux is safe enough; but,
+perhaps, he may not be back for an hour or two, as it is a long way,
+and they may have much to speak of; but yet, Mrs. Falkland, I should
+like, if you could make an excuse for sending for the housemaid who
+usually washes the stone steps, to ask her one or two questions."
+
+"Certainly," answered Mrs. Falkland. "If you will ring the bell, I
+will find some excuse."
+
+The housemaid was accordingly sent for; and holding fast either
+corner of her apron, presented herself before the company in the
+breakfast-room. Mrs. Falkland then asked her one or two questions of
+no particular moment, and Colonel Manners next demanded, somewhat to
+the girl's surprise, "The mornings are becoming frosty now, are they
+not, my good girl?"
+
+"Oh, that they are, sir," answered she. "It was all as white this
+morning as if it had snowed last night."
+
+"And did you see any marks of feet upon the steps?" demanded Manners.
+
+"No, sir, none," replied the girl.
+
+"Are you sure?" repeated Colonel Manners.
+
+"Oh, quite sure, sir," she replied; "for I washed and whitened the
+steps with my own two hands, and cold work it was; and I must have
+seen steps if there had been any."
+
+After this answer she was dismissed, courtesying low, and not
+ungracefully.
+
+"I dare say he will soon come back," said Colonel Manners, when the
+woman was gone; "and, at all events, if he be with the person who gave
+me the letter, he is in no danger, I am sure."
+
+Both Mrs. Falkland and her daughter perceived that Manners, at least,
+if not Marian, spoke with a slight touch of mystery concerning the
+letter and its sender, but, of course, they asked no questions; and
+Colonel Manners's assurance that his friend was in no danger served in
+some degree to tranquilize Marian. The breakfast, as may be supposed,
+passed over dully enough, for every one was more anxious than they
+chose to show, and their anxiety was, of course, increased by every
+minute as it flew. Each passing step that made itself heard in the
+breakfast-room, the sound of every opening door, caused Marian's heart
+to beat, and Isadore to look round, but still the person for whose
+return they were so anxious did not appear; and however slowly the
+minutes flew, so many of them passed away at length as to justify
+serious alarm.
+
+The time had now lingered on till eleven had struck by the clock in
+the hall, and some very painful remembrances of all that had taken
+place at the death of her beloved brother were recalled to the mind of
+Mrs. Falkland by the unaccountable absence of her nephew. Isadore,
+with all her natural cheerfulness, was anxious and silent; but it was
+scarcely possible to express all the painful emotions that thrilled in
+the bosom of Marian de Vaux. Manners, for his part--though his
+feelings as a man were, of course, essentially different from those of
+the persons by whom he was now surrounded--was far more alarmed about
+his friend's absence than he liked to admit, and somewhat undecided in
+regard to what he should do himself, under existing circumstances. He
+wished much to go and seek his friend; but he did not like to do so
+till the length of time was sufficient to warrant the conclusion that
+some accident must have befallen him; and at the same time he
+reflected, that during his absence some news might arrive which would
+render his presence and assistance necessary at Morley House. At
+length, however, he could master his impatience no longer; and,
+ringing the bell, he said, with as much appearance of unconcern as he
+could command, "I think, my dear madam, that it may be as well for me
+to go and see if I can hear any thing of De Vaux, in the direction
+which his fair cousin imagines that he has taken. I do not, indeed,
+think that there is any cause for alarm; but it may quiet your mind."
+
+"Oh yes, yes! pray do, Colonel Manners," cried Marian, starting up,
+and clasping her hands. "I beg your pardon for asking you such a
+thing; but, indeed, it will be a very great consolation."
+
+"If it afford you the slightest comfort, my dear young lady," replied
+Colonel Manners, "it will be the greatest pleasure to me. Will you
+send my servant?" he added as the butler appeared. The servant came
+promptly: for the anxiety of the parlour soon finds its way, in a
+greater or less degree, to the servant's hall; and all the domestics
+at Morley House were as much on the alert as the garrison of a newly
+invested fort.
+
+"Put my saddle on the gray directly," said Colonel Manners; "saddle
+Amherst for yourself, and bid Captain De Vaux's servant get a horse
+ready to come with me." The man retired. "I will just put myself in
+riding costume, and be down directly," Manners added; and leaving the
+ladies still gazing in melancholy guise from the windows of the
+breakfast-room, he retired to his own apartment.
+
+Long before the horses could be ready, however, he had rejoined them,
+and was in the act of saying, "Now, I think, Mrs. Falkland, with three
+old soldiers upon the search, we must soon be able to bring you
+tidings of your nephew; and, I trust, perfectly satisfactory tidings
+too," when the butler again made his appearance. The terror expressed
+upon his countenance, and his first exclamation of, "Oh, ma'am!"
+instantly sent every drop of blood from Marian's cheek back to her
+heart. Colonel Manners would fain have stopped a communication
+which was evidently alarming, and which might not only be a
+confirmation of their worst fears, but be told in the most abrupt and
+most painful manner; but it was too late, and the old man went on,
+"Oh, madam, here is John Harwood, who has the cottage on t'other side
+of the point, come up to say, that last night, about one o'clock, he
+heard shots fired in the wood, and he's afraid there's been bad
+business there."
+
+Marian dropped down where she stood, as if she had been struck with
+lightning, and for the time all attention was called towards her.
+Colonel Manners aided to carry the fair unhappy girl to her room; and
+then leaving her to the care of her female relations, he returned
+to question both the butler and the peasant, whose intelligence had so
+much increased their alarm. On inquiry, however, he found that old
+Gibson's taste for the sublime and horrible had given greater effect
+to John Harwood's tale than it deserved.
+
+The man had simply heard shots fired, and his own natural conclusion
+had been, that poachers were busy in the wood, of which, as a
+dependent on Mrs. Falkland's family, he found himself bound to give
+information. Colonel Manners, however, sent another servant to the
+stables to hurry the horses, and then returning to the breakfast-room,
+wrote down a few words in pencil to inform Mrs. Falkland that the
+story had been exaggerated; but he was almost instantly joined by
+Isadore, who assured him that her cousin was better.
+
+Moments of grief, anxiety, and danger are wonderfully powerful in
+breaking down all the cold and icy barriers which society places
+between us and those we like; and Isadore Falkland came forward, and
+laid her fair hand as familiarly upon Colonel Manners's arm as if she
+had known him from her infancy. There was an earnestness in her fine
+eyes, too, and an appealing softness in her whole look, that was very
+irresistible. "Colonel Manners," she said, "this state of apprehension
+and uncertainty is very dreadful, especially to us poor women, who,
+having but little knowledge of the world and its ways, have little
+means of judging whether our fears be reasonable or not. I can see
+that you have put a restraint upon yourself before Marian; but I
+beseech you to tell me, at least, if you have any friendship for a
+person you have known so short a time, what is your real opinion! Do
+you think there is any serious cause for apprehension?"
+
+"You and your family, Miss Falkland," replied Manners, "have taught me
+how soon one can feel the deepest interest and friendship for those
+who deserve it; but in regard to De Vaux, I really see no cause for
+apprehension."
+
+"Nay, nay, Colonel Manners," said Isadore, "I shall not think you have
+much regard for me if you try to sooth me by false hopes respecting my
+cousin. There is an anxiety in your look, which could not be there if
+there were no cause for alarm."
+
+"Indeed, Miss Falkland," he replied, with a smile which was not of the
+gayest character in the world--"indeed, I have the deepest regard for
+you, and would not deceive you for a moment. De Vaux's absence is
+strange, undoubtedly. His never having gone to bed is strange. But in
+regard to these shots which have been heard--as the man himself
+believed till your old butler infected him with his own miraculous
+mood--they have been undoubtedly fired by poachers; and I see not the
+slightest reason for believing that they are in any way connected with
+your cousin's absence."
+
+There had been a degree of earnestness in Manners's profession of
+regard that had called a slight glow into Isadore's cheek, and made
+her heart beat a little quicker, though Heaven knows he had not the
+slightest thought of making her heart beat with any but its ordinary
+pulse, and Isadore herself never suspected that he had. It was only
+one of those slight passing emotions which sometimes move the heart
+without our well knowing why, like the light ripple that will
+occasionally dimple the surface of a still, sheltered water from some
+breath of air too soft and gentle to be felt by those who watch it
+from the banks. Whatever caused the glow, it was all gone in an
+instant; and she answered, "Perhaps what makes us all the more uneasy
+is, that none of us can forget that my uncle, Marian's father, was
+murdered many years ago in this neighbourhood; and the first news of
+his death came upon mamma by surprise, in the same way that this has
+done upon poor Marian."
+
+"I trust in Heaven, and believe most firmly, Miss Falkland, that you
+will find no further resemblance between the fate of your cousin and
+that of his uncle," replied Colonel Manners: "but, at all events, I
+will lose no time and spare no exertion in endeavouring to satisfy you
+as to his fate; and, if it should cost me my life, I will discover him
+before I give up the search."
+
+"Nay, nay, you must take care of your life," said Isadore; "it must
+doubtless be valuable to many, and therefore must not be risked
+unadvisedly."
+
+"It is valuable to none that I know of, Miss Falkland," said Manners,
+with a melancholy smile, "and to myself least of all; but,
+nevertheless, I never trifle with it, looking upon it but as a loan
+from that great Being who will demand it again when he himself thinks
+fit. But I anticipate no danger from my visit to the gipsies."
+
+"Are you going, then, to the gipsies in search of Edward?" exclaimed
+Miss Falkland, in evident astonishment. "Good Heaven, I had no idea of
+that!"
+
+"It was from one of them that I received the letter to which Miss de
+Vaux referred," replied Colonel Manners; "and I may add," he
+continued, "to you, Miss Falkland, that the impression that letter
+made upon your cousin was such as to induce me to believe that if news
+is to be heard of him anywhere, it will be from them that I shall
+obtain it."
+
+"This is all very strange, indeed!" cried Isadore. "But tell me,
+Colonel Manners, do you know the contents of the letter?"
+
+"Not in the least," he replied; "but certain it is, that whatever they
+were, they affected your cousin sensibly. I had it from a gipsy-man,
+certainly of a very superior stamp to the rest, although I found him
+consorting with a gang of as ruffianly fellows as ever I beheld."
+
+"Oh, then, for Heaven's sake, take more men with you!" cried Isadore,
+eagerly: "you may get murdered, too, and then--"
+
+"Nay, nay, I have no fear," answered Manners, "and there, you see, are
+the horses. Three strong men on horseback might surely contend with a
+whole legion of gipsies."
+
+"Must I plead in vain, Colonel Manners?" said Isadore, really
+apprehensive for his safety, and desirous of persuading him, but
+blushing at the same time from feeling conscious that she was more
+apprehensive for him than she had often before felt for any one. "Must
+I plead in vain? or must I ask you for my sake, if you will not for
+Heaven's sake? But consider what we should do if we were to lose your
+aid and assistance at such a moment. Take two or three of our servants
+with you also."
+
+"For your sake, Miss Falkland, I would do much more difficult things,"
+replied Manners, earnestly; "but listen to my reasons. It would delay
+me long to wait till fresh horses are saddled, and longer to take men
+on foot with me. In many cases speed is everything: I have lost more
+time than I can well excuse already; and I can assure you, that with
+the two strong and trustworthy fellows who accompany me, there is
+nothing on earth to fear. Adieu! I doubt not soon, very soon, to bring
+you not only news, but good news."
+
+Thus saying, he left the room, and sprang upon horseback, while
+Isadore returned to the apartment of her cousin, who was now in bed by
+the orders of the village apothecary, and in the act of taking such
+medicines as he judged most likely to calm and sooth the mind by their
+sedative effect upon the body. Here Isadore communicated in a low
+voice to her mother all that she had gathered from Colonel Manners;
+and placing herself at the window of her fair cousin's room, watched
+the dark edge of the hill where it cut upon the sky, till at length
+she saw the figures of three horses straining with their riders up the
+steep ascent. The next moment they came upon the level ground at the
+top, changed their pace into a quick gallop, were seen for a minute or
+two flying along against the clear blue behind, and then, passing on,
+were lost entirely to her sight.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+We must now beg leave to retrograde a little in regard to time: and,
+in order to bring every character in our story to the same point, must
+turn for a while to a personage of whom we have heard nothing since
+the day after Edward de Vaux's arrival at Morley House.
+
+The beautiful world in which we live, the multitude of blessings by
+which we are surrounded, and that beneficent ordination by which the
+human mind in its natural state is rendered capable of resting
+satisfied with whatever portion is allotted to it, would make the
+earth that we inhabit an Eden indeed, if Satan had not supplied us
+with easy steps to lead us to misery. Our passions form the first
+round of the ladder; then come our follies close above them; then
+follow next our vices; these, with brief intervals, are succeeded by
+crimes; and all beyond is wretchedness. Every crime, too, is prolific
+in miseries--its legitimate children--who not only return to prey upon
+their proper parent, but ravage far and wide the hearts of thousands
+of others. Not only is it on the grand scale when the glory-seeking
+felon calls the dogs of war to tear the prostrate carcass of some
+peaceful country, and, by his individual fault, render millions
+wretched; but each petty individual crime, like the one small seed
+from which mighty forests spring, is but the germ of gigantic and
+incalculable consequences; and no one knows to what remote and
+unforeseen events each trifling action may ultimately lead: no one can
+tell to whose bosom the error he commits may not bring despair, or how
+many hearts may be laid desolate by the sin or the folly of the
+moment.
+
+The father of Edward de Vaux--for to him we must now turn--had gone on
+in the usual road by which small errors grow into great crimes. He had
+committed follies, and yielded to passions. Passions had hardened into
+vices, and vices had ultimately hurried him beyond what he would at
+first have dreamed possible for a reasonable creature to perpetrate.
+In the story we have heard told by the gipsy, the part that he had
+acted was in no degree overdrawn by the narrator, though there were
+some secrets in Lord Dewry's breast alone, which neither, indeed,
+justified nor even palliated his crime--for such deeds admit not of
+palliation,--but which showed, at least, that the crowning act itself
+was not accompanied by many of the circumstances which seemed to
+aggravate it. Overwhelmed by a debt that he could not pay,
+disappointed of relief from a source that had never before failed, Mr.
+De Vaux had set out from London to meet his brother in a state of mind
+which approached insanity, and was, in fact, despair. Hardened by many
+years of vice, he had retained very few of those Christian principles
+which had not been wanting in his early education; and there remained,
+certainly, not sufficient virtue of any kind to make him view an
+escape from disgrace, by an act of suicide, as any thing unmanly or
+infamous in itself. He had determined, then, either to obtain from his
+brother the full sum he demanded, by whatever means might suggest
+themselves at the moment--threats, supplications, or remonstrances--or
+to terminate his own existence on the spot,--principally with a view
+to avoid the shame he anticipated in London if he could not discharge
+his obligations, but partly, also, with a savage desire of inflicting
+bitter regrets upon his brother for the obduracy of his refusal.
+
+As the most retired spot for executing this purpose, he had chosen the
+point where we have seen that he had waited his brother's coming; and
+there a busy devil, that had been stirring at his heart all the way
+down, renewed its suggestions with tenfold importunity. He saw before
+him some of the rich lands of Lord Dewry; he saw them smiling with the
+promise of abundance; all seemed happy in the world but his own heart;
+all seemed prosperous but himself. His brother, notwithstanding his
+late loss, appeared in his eyes peculiarly blessed; and again and
+again the fiend within asked him what right by nature had his brother,
+because he was the elder, to the sole possession of all those
+advantages which, the same evil spirit lyingly told him, would have
+kept him from vice and misery, had they been equally divided between
+them? His brother arrived while he was in this mood. The first means
+he employed to obtain what he wanted were entreaty and persuasion; and
+when these failed, he had recourse to threats and violence. Lord Dewry
+retorted with reproach and reprehension; and his brother, in a moment
+of frantic passion, brought the curse of Cain upon his own head.
+
+The agony of remorse was the first thing that succeeded; but
+self-preservation and the enjoyment of that which he had so dearly
+purchased, became the next considerations, and he bent all the
+energies of a keen and daring mind to that purpose. He mastered his
+own feelings, both bodily and mental; and, after returning to London
+with a degree of speed and perseverance that killed the horse which
+bore him, he overcame both personal fatigue and anguish of heart, and
+showed himself on the evening of his return at two private parties and
+one public place; and, what is more, he showed himself with a smiling
+countenance and an unembarrassed air. But when it was all over--the
+examination of the facts, the taking possession of the property, and
+the removal of those who could betray him--the excitement which had
+been caused by danger passed away; that bubble, the hope of happiness
+without virtue, burst under his rude touch, and left his heart to
+remorse for ever.
+
+Knowing that he must often see his brother's child, though at first
+the sight was full of agony, he forced himself, by a great effort, to
+endure it, till he had overcome the pain by habit; and at the same
+time the lingering remains of some better feelings in his heart made
+him look upon every generous or kindly thing that he could do towards
+her as an act of atonement for the crime he had committed.
+
+Such were some of the motives, or, rather, such were some of the
+facts, which had influenced Lord Dewry in all his actions for the last
+twenty years. For a time, indeed, he had affected gayety which he did
+not feel, and mingled in society which had lost all charm for him; but
+the revellings of the never-dying worm upon his heart's inmost core
+would make themselves felt, and gradually he drew back from the world,
+gave himself up to solitude and stately reclusion, forgot what it was
+to smile, and only mingled with his fellow-men to pour forth upon them
+the gall and bitterness that welled from an everlasting source in his
+own bosom.
+
+Remorse, however, was not the only fiend that preyed upon his heart:
+fear, too, had its share. We have said, and said truly, that he was
+corporeally as brave a man as ever lived: he knew not what bodily fear
+is; but that is a very, very different affection of the complicated
+being, man, from the mental terrors, the daily doubts, the hourly
+apprehensions, that crowded upon him in solitude and retirement.
+Corporal pain, the simple act of dying, he feared not, and there yet
+lingered in his mind some faint traces of his early faith, suggesting
+vague ideas of atonement made for man's crimes, which led him to
+believe that the anguish which he suffered below might be received in
+place of repentance, and procure him pardon hereafter; so that, on
+ordinary occasions, he felt no tangible dread even of the awful
+separation of soul and body. But this was not all: the torturing
+uncertainty of his fate was a bitter portion of his curse. He knew
+that there were two men in the world who could, at any time, doom him
+to disgrace and death; or at least, if, by the precautions he had
+taken, their success in any attempt of the kind had been rendered
+doubtful, yet their knowledge of the dreadful secret of his state
+rendered all that he possessed--honour, fortune, rank, even existence
+itself--precarious; and he felt, as he looked around him, that he was
+living in a gilded dream, which the next moment might vanish, and
+leave him to misery and despair.
+
+At first, when, perhaps, it might have been in his power to implicate
+the gipsy as the murderer of his brother, and, by pursuing him as
+such, to have crushed one strong source of evidence against himself,
+two powerful causes had operated to deter him from such a course. He
+knew that Sir William Ryder, though implicated by accidental
+circumstances in his crime, was of too generous a nature to connive at
+any further evil to which the desire of concealing it might lead him.
+But it would be doing him injustice not to say that he himself had
+shrunk from the very thought. His heart was not hardened enough for
+that: he felt that there was too much blood upon his hand already; and
+although the idea did cross his mind, yet at that time remorse was
+stronger than fear, and even had Sir William Ryder not existed, he
+would have chosen rather to bear apprehension than a greater load of
+regret.
+
+Time, however, had now altered such feelings; he was accustomed to
+remorse, but no time can harden the heart to fear; and the first
+imagination which crossed his mind, when, at the end of twenty years,
+he again saw the gipsy, was to destroy him. The reader may recollect a
+conversation in the beginning of this work, wherein Pharold detailed
+the particulars of an interview he had had with the peer; and it may
+easily be conceived, that from that interview Lord Dewry perceived at
+once that the moment was come when he must try his strength with those
+who had the power to injure him, and silence them for ever, or yield
+for ever to his fate; and with a strong determination, but a mind
+fearfully agitated, he instantly resolved to crush those he feared, if
+human ingenuity, backed by wealth, and power, and a daring
+disposition, could accomplish such an object.
+
+Such had been the state of his mind when he so unexpectedly visited
+the house of Mrs. Falkland, and found new cause for apprehension in
+the conversation of Colonel Manners. But his coming thither had not
+for its sole object to meet and welcome his newly-returned son. He had
+learned, by instant and close inquiry after the gipsy had left him,
+that parties of his race had been seen lying in the neighbourhood of
+Morley Wood, with the view, it was supposed, of poaching on the open
+and ill-protected grounds in that district; and suspecting, from his
+conversation with Pharold, that on the refusal he had given, Sir
+William Ryder himself might return to England, he hastened over to his
+sister's house, which lay within a few miles of his property of
+Dimden, in order, if possible, to pursue means of destroying the
+actual witness of his crime, before the arrival of the only other
+person who even suspected it.
+
+Let it not be supposed--although there were in reality no means at
+which Lord Dewry would now have hesitated to effect his purpose--that
+he deliberately, and boldly, and undisguisedly proposed to his own
+heart to bring about the gipsy's death. No, no: the great power of
+evil is too well aware how horrible his naked suggestions are, not to
+furnish them with a veil, flimsy enough, it is true, but still
+sufficient to cover some part of their deformity. No! Lord Dewry
+only proposed--at least, he cheated himself into thinking so--to
+detect the gipsy or his comrades in some unlawful exploit, which might
+give an excuse for removing them for ever from the country, and at the
+same time might render any evidence they might tender against himself,
+not only suspicious, but almost inadmissible.
+
+The severe laws in regard to poaching, and the loose and lawless
+habits of the gipsies themselves, he doubted not would furnish the
+means; and his great object was to discover an offence of such
+magnitude, and to obtain proofs so clear, that great severity would be
+warranted and the justice of the accusation undeniable. It might cross
+his mind that, in the pursuit of these views, a gipsy or a keeper
+might be killed, that the charge of murder might be added to that of
+poaching, and that a felony might rid him of the enemy of his repose
+for ever. Such a thing might cross his mind, and be viewed with no
+great dissatisfaction; but, at the same time, he denied to himself
+that such was his object. "No: God forbid! But, if it did happen, he
+should of course take advantage of it to silence for ever the voice of
+one who had been witness to the _unfortunate accident_ by which, in a
+moment of hasty passion, his brother had been deprived of life, and
+who seemed disposed to abuse the knowledge he unhappily possessed."
+
+Such had been the thoughts of Lord Dewry as he travelled over to Mrs.
+Falkland's house on the night of his son's arrival, and such were the
+thoughts that again took possession of him as soon as the passion in
+which he had left her subsided on the following morning.
+
+"With Sir William Ryder," he thought, as the carriage rolled rapidly
+on towards Dimden--"with Sir William Ryder I shall easily be able to
+deal single-handed, if once I can remove his confederate. He used to
+be a simple, frank-hearted, foolish fellow; but I must, by some means,
+keep him from any further meeting with Edward. I have already remarked
+that the boy sees there is some mystery; and a bare hint would awaken
+suspicions that I would rather die than he should even dream of. But
+this man--this Pharold--must be my first care; and my next must be to
+procure such proofs of my having been in London at the time of my
+brother's death that suspicion itself shall be silenced, if either of
+the villains dare to open his lips."
+
+The manner in which this latter object was to be accomplished became
+the next consideration; but ere Lord Dewry could come to any
+determination upon the subject, the lodge of Dimden Park, and the old
+woman who opened the gates, courtesying to the ground as the carriage
+rolled through, met his eyes, and told him that he must reserve that
+matter for after-thought.
+
+The place that he was now entering had been the favourite habitation
+of his brother, where his days of happiness and sunshine had been
+passed, and whence his virtues had made themselves felt and beloved
+through all the country round. There were many recollections and
+associations then connected with that spot which, as it may easily be
+conceived, were not a little painful to the man who now entered it:
+and although he sometimes visited the house, and had once or twice in
+twenty years spent a day within its walls, yet he had never been able
+to vanquish the distress that the sight occasioned him so far as to
+live in it for any length of time. He now beheld it in a state which
+added to the pain whereof other circumstances had rendered it
+fruitful. It was not exactly going to ruin, for he had given strict
+orders, and paid large annual sums, for the express purpose of keeping
+the grounds in order and the house in repair; but those orders had
+been given from a distance, and had been received with a conviction
+that the master's eye would never inspect their execution very
+minutely. There were long tufts of grass in the walks and on the
+roads, though here and there was to be seen a faint and lazy effort to
+clear away, by the exertions of a few hours, the shameful negligence
+of many a day. Some of the trees, which had been felled years before,
+were rotting in the long dank grass; and the fences which had been
+placed to keep the deer within their proper bounds lay flat upon the
+ground, overturned and broken. The road over which the carriage rolled
+was channelled with deep unmended ruts; and the fine old house, with
+its closed windows and smokeless chimneys, stood in its wide, open
+esplanade, like the palace of damp and desertion. Lord Dewry bit his
+lip, and muttered audibly, "This must be amended. The scoundrels did
+not expect me to visit the place, and have been shamefully negligent.
+I will send them away."
+
+But as he thought thus, his other purposes crossed his mind, and
+brought with it one of those annoying and degrading convictions which
+so often follow evil actions and crooked policy. He felt that when he
+was about to engage his park-keepers in an action which his own heart
+told him was base, he could not dare to treat them severely for the
+faults they had themselves committed; and to a proud and violent man
+the restraint which he was obliged to put upon his passions was bitter
+enough. As the carriage approached the house, hasty symptoms of
+opening windows and unbarring doors showed that his coming had been
+remarked; and as he had no ambiguous commands to lay upon the old
+servants who had been left to keep the mansion in order, upon them
+fell the full weight of his indignation. When the first angry burst
+was over, he ordered the old man to call the principal park-keeper;
+and while he was absent upon that errand, strode gloomily through the
+dreary chambers, feeling his heart more dark and comfortless than even
+the long-deserted apartments amid which he stood. He then called for
+pen and ink, which, after some difficulty, he obtained, and wrote and
+despatched the note which we have seen delivered to Marian de Vaux.
+
+At length the park-keeper appeared, a bold and sturdy fellow, with no
+inconsiderable portion of shrewd cunning in his countenance, to which
+had been superadded at present an air of dogged preparation,
+occasioned by the tidings of Lord Dewry's anger, which the old man had
+given him as they walked along towards the house.
+
+"Harvey," said the peer, as the man presented himself, "you have
+suffered the park to get into a terrible state. I must have all this
+changed. Those fences must be put up; those trees cleared away: speak
+to Wilson about the road, and tell him if ever I see it in that state
+again I shall discharge him; and--do not answer me, but listen; for I
+came over to speak to you upon matters of more importance.--What are
+you waiting for, John?"
+
+"I thought your lordship might want me," said the old man, who had
+lingered in the room.
+
+"No, no, not I," replied the peer: "retire, and shut the door; but
+take care what you are about, for in future I shall come over at
+least every month; and if I find the house is not properly attended to
+after this warning, you and your wife go out of it without another
+word.--Now, Harvey, tell me," he continued, as the old man withdrew
+with a low and deprecating bow, "have you many poachers here?"
+
+"Why, no, my lord," replied the park-keeper, his face brightening up
+to find that the anticipated storm had blown away; "we have not had
+much of that work doing lately, though I dare say we soon shall have."
+
+"And why so?" demanded Lord Dewry. "I am glad to hear that poaching is
+on the decrease. What makes you think it will revive again?"
+
+"As to revive, my lord, why, I don't know," replied the man; "but I
+doubt we shall soon have more of it--so I think. It's just the time,
+you see, my lord--long moonlight nights, and a good deal of the
+out-door work over."
+
+The man paused; but these were not the reasons the peer had hoped to
+hear him assign for his apprehensions of more extended poaching, and
+found that he must bring him nearer to the point by some direct
+course. "We have a great deal of poaching near the hall," he said:
+"Wise tells me that there are a number of bad characters continually
+in the woods, gipsies and thieves of all descriptions."
+
+"Ay, for the matter of that we have gipsies enough just now, too,"
+replied the keeper; "and that's the reason, my lord, why I said I
+thought we should soon hear of more poaching: but I did not like to
+mention it, you see. Why, there, I saw no longer ago than yesterday,
+up in Morley Wood, I dare say a score of them--lazy beggars! D--n
+them, I hate those fellows, and so I told 'em--beg your lordship's
+pardon."
+
+Lord Dewry found that he was now on the right course; but, afraid of
+pursuing the matter so eagerly as to cause suspicions which might
+perhaps tell against himself hereafter, he replied with a tranquil
+countenance, "It would not surprise me if these were the same that
+have been plundering and poaching in a most desperate manner near the
+hall."
+
+"O, no doubt they are the same, my lord," replied the keeper; "and as
+to poaching, they were at it last night, or I have no ears: I heard a
+gun--I am sure I heard a gun--though I got up, and went all over the
+grounds without finding them. But I heard a gun--I am sure enough of
+that, anyhow."
+
+"Oh, if that be the case," said Lord Dewry, "we must really take
+serious measures for their apprehension and conviction. They once
+murdered a gamekeeper, those gipsies, not far from here; and it is
+dangerous to honest men to let them be in the country."
+
+"Ay, that it is, my lord," said the keeper; "they'd murder any one as
+soon as look at him. They nearly murdered me once. I wish we could get
+rid of them, that I do, anyhow."
+
+"And so do I, too," replied Lord Dewry, solemnly; "I do not like men's
+lives risked continually, nor their property plundered at every turn,
+solely because these gipsies are suffered to continue in the kingdom.
+I declare I would give fifty guineas to any one who could convict them
+in such a manner as to ensure their being sent out of the country
+without fail. I do not like my people continually exposed to their
+attacks."
+
+"Your lordship is very kind and very generous," said the keeper; "and
+if your lordship would really give the fifty guineas, I dare say we
+could find some young fellows that would join in and take a hand in
+catching them."
+
+"But we must first be able to prove that they have committed some
+offence," replied Lord Dewry, thoughtfully.
+
+"Oh, they have committed offences enough, my lord," answered the
+keeper; "and if your lordship give fifty guineas, we shall soon have
+plenty to help in catching them."
+
+The peer paused for a moment or two without any direct reply; but he
+then answered, "What I have said I mean, Harvey: the fifty guineas I
+would give of course to the man by whose means they were principally
+brought to justice; but I would do more, and pay handsomely every one
+concerned in actually taking them. Do you think they have ever shot
+any of the deer?" he added after a short pause.
+
+"No, my lord, no!" answered the keeper, fearful that blame might fall
+upon himself; "I will answer for it they have not done that."
+
+"I am sorry for it," said Lord Dewry, dryly. The man stared, and the
+peer proceeded:--"I am sorry for it; because, you see, Harvey, the
+offence would be the heavier, and we might get rid of them for ever if
+we could prove such a thing against them; whereas this poaching,
+especially if it be a first offence, will only take them out of the
+way for a time, and then turn them back upon us more enraged against
+us than ever."
+
+"That's true, my lord, that's true," replied the keeper, whose
+perceptions were sufficiently acute, and who began to see that his
+master had a very potent distaste to the race of gipsies, although his
+mind, proceeding in its habitual train, did not fail to conclude that
+the peer's motives for hating them were the same which would have
+actuated himself had he been in the peer's situation, namely, wrath at
+their having destroyed the peculiar objects of his veneration, game,
+and anger at their having outwitted him in his endeavours to preserve
+it. He went no further in his investigations of his lord's designs,
+though he himself had peculiar motives of his own; but, possessing
+goodly powers of detestation himself, he easily conceived that the
+baron would not scruple at any plausible stratagem for the purpose of
+obtaining his object. "That's true, my lord, that's true," replied he;
+"but do you know, I should not wonder if they did some night shoot a
+fat buck upon his moonlight walk; and I dare say, for the matter of
+that, we could get them to do it very soon."
+
+"Nay, nay," cried the peer in a tone of moderation, "take care what
+you are about, Harvey; for if any one were to discover that you
+instigated them, you might get transported; and though of course I
+would take care that none of my servants was a loser by his zeal in my
+service, yet I should not like you to get into any scrape."
+
+"Your lordship is very kind," said the man; "but I will take care that
+I get into no scrape; and as to any one hearing me say any thing about
+it, no fear of that, for I will never say a word to any one but your
+lordship; and but little will I say even now. But I know how to manage
+the matter; and if I can get some stout hands to help me and the two
+under-keepers in taking the fellows, when once we have found out when
+they are about the job, I'll rid the country of them soon enough--a
+set of lazy, thieving beggars."
+
+"Why, Harvey," said the peer, with a complacent smile, "you do not
+seem fond of these gipsies, I think."
+
+"I fond of them, my lord!" said the man. "No, no! I owe them an old
+grudge, which I have long thought to pay. One of them nearly killed me
+once when I was a younker, now near twenty years ago, just for being a
+little over-civil to one of their women. I might have had my revenge
+at the time; but I was weak and sick with the bruises, and I was
+spoony enough to let him get off; but he'll not do so again if I catch
+hold of him."
+
+"But pray, Harvey," said the peer, "how do you propose to obtain
+such information in regard to when and where these men are to be
+caught--for they must be caught in the fact, remark--as to enable you
+to seize them with any certainty? Do you know any of their gang
+personally?"
+
+"Not I, my lord," replied the man; "but, do you see, my lord, I know a
+man up in the village, called Harry Saxon, who hears a good deal about
+all those sorts of people, and I will get him just to put it into
+their heads to--"
+
+"Hush, hush, Harvey!" interrupted the nobleman, but a tone as to
+express much disapprobation. "Do not tell me what you intend to do,
+but merely how you are to learn when and where to catch them."
+
+"Why, _he_ will tell me all that, to be sure, my lord," replied the
+keeper. "He's a good sort of man, and won't disoblige me, I'll
+warrant."
+
+"And pray what is his usual occupation?" demanded the peer in a casual
+way.
+
+"Oh, he sells venison to the dealers in London," replied the keeper;
+and then suddenly perceiving that he was on the edge of a precipice,
+he added, "that is, when any of the gentlemen in the neighbourhood
+want to kill off some of their bucks, he buys them and sends them up
+to London. I have heard, too," he continued, seeing that his lord
+listened with an unmoved countenance, as if to something of course--"I
+have heard, too, that he sends up many a good brace of partridges, and
+many a pheasant and a hare: but he is a good sort of man, upon the
+whole; and when he knows a keeper, like, he will not let the people
+poach and that upon the grounds that he keeps, and that's what makes
+us have so much game here. I'll warrant the game is better preserved
+here than anywhere else in the country."
+
+The peer made no observations upon these disjointed pieces of
+information; but in his own mind concluded, and not without reason,
+that his keeper was a very great scoundrel. He took care, however,
+neither by word, look, nor action, to suffer the man he was making use
+of to perceive what sort of a character he was establishing in his
+opinion; being fully resolved in his own mind, however, to discharge
+him as soon after he had served the present purpose as might be found
+convenient.
+
+Deceit, like every other art, has been wonderfully perfected and
+refined since first it took its origin in the rude, uncultivated human
+breast. There can be no doubt whatever that when one man entertains an
+opinion which he wishes to conceal from another, the first natural
+effort of his mind would be to tell him the direct contrary; and much
+refinement and experience in the art must have been acquired before
+the necessity was ascertained of doing things more delicately, and
+implying, rather than saying, that one believes another to be an
+honest man, when one is sure he is a great rogue. As the world
+proceeded, however, and the liberal science of deceit became so
+thoroughly studied as to force one, with very few exceptions, to say,
+as said the Psalmist, "All men are liars," a new refinement was
+introduced, and it became necessary to know when to cover one's own
+opinion by a skilful implication of the reverse, when, returning to
+the original and simple mode, in plain terms to announce the direct
+contrary of what one feels, and to deceive the most thoroughly by the
+appearance of the utmost candour.
+
+In the present instance Lord Dewry chose the latter means, and ended
+the conversation with the keeper by saying, "Well, Harvey, well! I
+believe you are a very honest fellow. There are ten guineas for you to
+give the men you are obliged to employ, an earnest of their reward;
+and if you succeed in catching these gipsies, so as to convict them
+either of deer-stealing or aggravated poaching, you may count upon
+fifty guineas and my favour, besides having all your _bona fide_
+expenses paid."
+
+The man made a low bow, though he did not understand at all what _bona
+fide_ meant; and the peer with a slow step walked to his carriage. The
+old man and woman who kept the house followed half a step behind,
+troubling him all the way by questions concerning the superintendence
+of the place, in regard to which their directions had been full and
+explicit years before, but by re-demanding which they meant, as usual
+on such occasions, to insinuate a justification of their late
+negligence, implying that if they had been properly instructed they
+would have behaved better. Short and severe were the replies of the
+baron; and when the carriage-door was at length closed, and the
+vehicle rolled away, he sunk into thought, feeling that at least one
+part of his plan was in a fair way for execution, but feeling,
+likewise, deep, deep in his heart's core, the melancholy
+conviction--not the less poignant because he strove not to see
+it--that one crime was lashing him on with a fiery scourge to the
+commission of many more.
+
+The house he had just visited, and the scenes through which he was
+passing, had not been without their effect. They had recalled to his
+mind his brother, who had there lived so long the object of his envy,
+and now of his deep regret. That brother's virtues, his kindness, his
+noble generosity, tried to the very utmost by his excesses and
+demands, often, often returned reproachfully to his mind. All the good
+and affectionate acts which had seemed as nothing while his own
+passions and interests existed in opposition, and while his brother
+lived, had been estimated with terrible exactness as soon as his own
+hand had placed the impassable barrier of death between them; and the
+sight of that house now, as it always did, recalled every memory that
+could aggravate remorse, and stir into an intenser blaze the
+unquenchable fire that burned his heart.
+
+There, too, he had himself been educated from infancy to manhood; over
+those lawns and walks he had played in the guileless innocence of
+youth; under those trees he had sat a thousand times with the dead, in
+the sweet and hopeful summer-days of boyhood. Their arms clasped round
+each other's necks, or their hands locked in each other, they had
+wandered in their hours of play through the calm green shades of the
+park, or sat beneath the stately oak, reading some lighter book than
+that appointed for their daily studies. He remembered it all well; and
+many an individual day, too, would come forward from the crowd of
+early memories, and stand before his eyes bright and distinct as if it
+were hardly yet numbered with the past. He could call back even the
+feelings of those times, the noble and enthusiastic glow of their
+bosoms when they had read together some great actions, some generous
+self-devotion, some pious act of friendship, some deed of mighty
+patriotism; and now, what had those feelings become? In his brother
+they were extinct in death, or, rather, glorifying him in a brighter
+world; and with him himself they were but memories; with him it was
+the feelings that were dead, while he himself lived but to remember
+them. Nor was his a heart to scoff at their memory as some men might
+have done. Perhaps, indeed, had his crimes been lighter--had they but
+reached the grade of vices--had they been of that character which
+man's blind selfishness can dress up in other garbs, and cover beneath
+a light robe of wit, or of what we call philosophy, he might have
+sneered at the sweet and innocent days that forced themselves upon his
+recollection, and have parried all that was painful in them by a jest.
+But the terrible, irrevocable, awful deed that he had committed had
+been weighty enough, not only to break the elastic spring of gayety in
+his heart for ever, but to leave those sweet early hours of guileless
+happiness and noble feeling which still flattered him with the thought
+that he had not always been base, or cruel, or depraved, the least
+painful of all that series of painful things whereof his memory was
+alone composed. And yet remorse mingled its poison even with them, and
+perhaps rendered the agony they produced on the present occasion more
+poignant, because on that point his heart was not hardened to the
+lash.
+
+He cast the memories from him as the vehicle rolled on, for he found
+not only that they were painful, but that other thoughts of the
+imperious present must have way; and that though he trusted by a new
+crime to remove some part of the danger of his situation, yet that it
+was necessary to contemplate his position in every point of view, in
+order to guard against all that might happen. But here, perhaps, his
+feelings were even less enviable than those from which he turned.
+Personal danger, not abstract and distinct, but accompanied by shame,
+and scorn, and detection, was the first image that presented itself
+to his mind. To meet the hatred and contempt of the whole world,
+to be exposed in a court of justice, and on a public scaffold to be
+pointed and hooted at by the rude populace--to be called the
+fratricide, the murderer--to undergo the horrors of imprisonment,
+suspense, trial, condemnation, and execution--and to plunge, loaded
+with a brother's blood and many another sin, into the wide, dim,
+terrible hereafter--such were the only objects of his anticipation, if
+his present schemes should fail.
+
+Nor was it at all strange that he should feel them now much more
+poignantly than at the time which immediately followed his brother's
+death, though, perhaps, the years which had elapsed might have
+rendered his safety less in danger now than then. But at that period
+he had little time to reflect; and his whole mind had been occupied in
+acting. He had seen and felt the immediate peril, and had apprehended
+many a vague horror; but imagination had not had time to act--she had
+not had time to call up and particularize, as she had since done with
+terrible minuteness, all the awful and agonizing scenes that await the
+detected murderer.
+
+As he leaned back in his carriage, and with closed eyes thought
+of all the past and all the future, the mingling emotions that
+agitated his breast were dreadful indeed. Bitter, bitter
+remorse--strong, lasting, never-sleeping remorse--was for the moment
+paramount; and could he have seen any way of avoiding shame and death
+but by new evil, he would have resigned much, he would have resigned
+all, to follow it. But there was no means before him of escaping all
+the horrors that threatened, but either to destroy those he feared or
+to destroy himself: he had but the choice of two great crimes; and
+the terrors of the endless future, aggravated by the condemnation of
+self-destruction, were too great for him to think of attempting his
+own life. As we have before said, it was not that he feared death; for
+often in his moods of deepest despondency he thought that if some one
+were to take away his life as he had taken that of his brother, it
+might be received, together with his long remorse, as some atonement
+for the past; but he feared to make it his own act, and to double,
+instead of diminishing, the load upon his own head; and in the
+desperate choice which was before him he yielded to the common
+weakness of human nature, and chose that crime of which punishment was
+most remote.
+
+Such were some of the emotions which agitated his mind as the
+carriage rolled on towards his usual residence; but still the picture
+of them is but faint and imperfect, as every picture of agitated
+feelings must be. There were a thousand shades that escape the pen, a
+thousand sudden changes for which it would be difficult to account.
+Nevertheless, it must not be supposed that this varying and uncertain
+mood was the general state of his mind, when no outward circumstance
+had served to awaken antagonist feelings. On the contrary, he was
+generally firm in his despair, with remorse for the predominant tone
+of his whole sensations; but at the same time, with a stern
+determination to hold all that for which he had paid so deep a price,
+and to defend his own safety at any risk. It was only when some
+association connected with other days touched a tenderer point in his
+heart, and aroused some better feelings from their sleep of years,
+that the winds and the tempests dashed against the dark dwelling-place
+of his spirit, and threatened to level it with its foundation in the
+sand. The mood seldom lasted long, however, and, indeed, could not
+have done so without driving him to phrensy; and now, as he came
+within sight of the plantations that skirted his other property, he
+put on a firmer frame of mind, cast doubt, and fear, and hesitation
+behind him, and called up those powers of quick, decisive thought and
+vigorous action which had often in former days carried him through
+many a scene of difficulty and danger.
+
+"I have been as weak as a child," he said, when he looked back on all
+the feelings to which he had given way--"I have been as weak as a
+child; and that at a moment when I most need manly firmness: but it is
+past, and I will not easily forget myself again!"
+
+On the next day but one, at a very early hour, Lord Dewry again drove
+over to Dimden, and had the pleasure of learning, by implications and
+hints from his head park-keeper, that the plan which had been shadowed
+out for entangling the gipsies was in a fair way for execution; and
+yet his spirit was ill at rest, for he felt that his plan was an
+imperfect one, and that at a thousand points it might fail. The
+gipsies might be too wary; and, at all events, Pharold was not likely
+to take part himself in such a scheme. If his companions were
+implicated, and he were to escape, the natural consequence would be,
+that his roused-up vengeance would take the ready means of sating
+itself by betraying the fearful secret that he possessed; and thus the
+attempt to remove him would but bring about more certainly the danger
+that was apprehended. Yet what could he do? the peer asked himself. If
+he could add one other link to the chain in which he had sought to
+entangle the gipsy, it might render it complete, and prevent the
+possibility of his escape. But what was that link to be? He could not
+tell, and yet it served him as food for stern and eager meditation as
+the carriage bore him rapidly home again, after having satisfied
+himself that his scheme, as far as it went, was already in progress
+towards its completion.
+
+As he drove up to the door of the house, he remarked that one of his
+grooms was walking a hard-ridden horse up and down upon the gravel,
+while the dirty condition of the animal bespoke a long journey. As
+such sights, however, were not at all uncommon, and the horse might
+either belong to the steward, or to some stranger come on a visit of
+curiosity to the house, it excited but little notice on the part of
+the peer, who was entering without inquiry, when one of the servants
+informed him that a gentleman was waiting his lordship's return in the
+small library. Lord Dewry turned a little pale; for there was a
+consciousness of danger and of the uncertainty of his condition at the
+heart of the peer, that caused the blood to forsake his cheek at any
+announcement of a visit, the import of which he did not know. He
+rebuked the servant, however, for admitting any one to wait for him
+during his absence; and ordered him never to do so again, adding, that
+when he expected or wished to see any one, he would always give
+intimation of his will.
+
+The servant excused himself on account of the stranger's pressing and
+determined manner, motives which did not in the least reconcile the
+peer to his admission; but, without any further appearance of
+distrust, he walked with slow and stately steps to the library, and
+throwing open the door advanced towards a table, determined not to
+afford his unwished-for guest a pretext for sitting down by even
+approaching a chair himself.
+
+The stranger's person merits some slight description, and even a more
+detailed account of his clothing than is required on ordinary
+occasions. He was a man perhaps four or five years younger than the
+peer himself, thin, light, active, with a twinkling gray eye, somewhat
+too full of moisture, and a number of those long radiating wrinkles
+which, I believe, are called crows' feet, decorating the corners of
+the eyelids. His general complexion was white, of that dry and
+somewhat withered appearance which long habits of dissipation leave
+behind, when dissipation is not combined with drunkenness. In every
+glance there was a quick, sharp, prying expression, joined to a
+somewhat subservient smile, which was strangely enough displayed upon
+a cast of countenance, the natural expression of which was
+pertinacious effrontery.
+
+His dress was well worn, and had not apparently been formed originally
+of any very costly materials; but it had withal a smart cut, and a
+smart look, which prevented the eye from detecting either the long
+services it had rendered, or the coarseness of the stuff. It was of a
+rather anomalous description, too, consisting of what was then called
+a marone frock with a silver lace, a pair of buckskin breeches for
+riding in, thunder and lightning silk stockings, just showing their
+junction with the breeches above, and a pair of heavy boots; while
+ruffles, and a frill of that species of lace which, seeming all darns
+together, admits the most frequently of being mended, decorated his
+wrists and his bosom.
+
+Lord Dewry gazed at him as he rose from the chair in which he had been
+sitting with a look which, if it did not absolutely express the stare
+of utter strangeness, had very few signs of recognition in it. But the
+other was neither to be abashed nor discomposed; and his manners,
+which were those of a gentleman, softened down a good deal of the
+effrontery which his demeanour displayed. Had he not been a gentleman,
+and in the habit of mingling with gentlemen, his determined impudence
+would have been insufferable; and even as things were, that impudence,
+together with a certain affected swagger in tone and language, which
+was very generally assumed by the puppies of the day, and which the
+visiter caricatured, were quite sufficiently annoying, especially to
+such a man as Lord Dewry. Conceiving at once that the peer was not
+peculiarly delighted with his visit, the stranger advanced round the
+table, and with a low bow addressed him ere he had time to speak.
+
+"I perceive," he said, "that the lapse of time which has occurred
+since we met, together with the accession of well-deserved fortunes
+and dignities, and the cares consequent thereupon, has obliterated
+from your memory, my lord, the person of a former friend. I must,
+therefore, announce myself as Sir Roger Millington."
+
+The peer bowed haughtily. "I once," he said, "had some acquaintance
+with a person of that name; but, as you say, sir, the lapse of time
+has been so great since we have held any communication with each
+other, that I certainly did not expect it to be so suddenly renewed,
+and far less to be favoured with an unannounced visit at a time which,
+perhaps, may not be the most convenient."
+
+"My lord," replied his companion, unrebuffed, "I am happy to find that
+your lordship's memory extends to our acquaintance at least; and to
+refresh it in regard to the degree of that acquaintance, I think I
+could show you some letters in your lordship's hand, beginning, some,
+'My dear friend!' some, 'My dear Millington!' some, 'Damn it, my dear
+Millington!' with an elegant variety in the terms, whereby your
+lordship was kind enough to express your friendship for your humble
+servant."
+
+Lord Dewry coloured highly between anger and shame; but he did not
+feel at all the more disposed to receive Sir Roger Millington kindly
+on account of these proofs of their former intimacy. He had not
+forgotten, any more than his visiter, that they had once been choice
+companions in both the elegant and inelegant debaucheries of a London
+life; but a great change in situation, and a total change in feelings,
+had made the peer as desirous of forgetting the past as the other was
+of recalling it; and he hated him in proportion as he felt himself
+thwarted. Sir Roger Millington, however, had calculated his game with
+the utmost nicety; and once that nothing was to be obtained by gentler
+means, and determined, therefore, if possible, to force him to the
+object towards which he could not lead him. Such had been his motive
+in the somewhat pointed and galling manner in which he had repeated
+some of Lord Dewry's former expressions of regard, and he was not a
+little gratified to see the colour rise in his cheek as he spoke.
+
+Lord Dewry's reply, however, which immediately followed, was not quite
+so much to his taste; for the peer also played his part skilfully; and
+though, in reality, as angry as Sir Roger desired, he concealed his
+anger, and replied in the same cold haughty tone. "You recall to me,
+sir," he said, "days of which I am heartily ashamed, scenes of which
+we have neither of us reason to be proud, and expressions which I
+greatly wish could be retracted."
+
+"I am sorry, as your lordship wishes it, that such a thing is not
+possible," answered the persevering Sir Roger; "but I think, if you
+will take a few moments to consider, your lordship may find reason to
+change some of your sentiments. I may have become an altered man as
+well as Lord Dewry; and if so, his lordship will have no cause to hate
+or shun an old friend, because he once followed in a course which his
+lordship led, and has since followed in his repentance. I hear that a
+mutual friend of your lordship's and my own is coming to England soon,
+if not already on his way from America--I mean Sir William Ryder; and
+I should be sorry to have to tell him, on his return, that your
+lordship casts off your old acquaintances. You had better consider of
+it, my lord."
+
+"I shall consider nothing, sir," replied the peer, "except that my
+time is too valuable to be wasted in idle discourse, which can end in
+nothing; and therefore I have the honour of wishing you good-morning."
+Thus saying, he stood for about the space of a minute and a half,
+expecting Sir Roger to leave the room; but being disappointed, he
+himself turned upon his heel, with a curling lip and a flashing eye,
+and quitted the library, leaving the door open behind him.
+
+Sir Roger Millington stood for a moment or two in some embarrassment,
+but at length impudence and necessity prevailed. "No," cried he; "no:
+damn it, it will never do to be beaten when one has resolved on such
+an attack. Curse me, if I don't die in the breach, like other heroes.
+Why, if I cannot raise a hundred or two I'm done, that's clear. No,
+no: I'll not stir;" and casting himself down into a chair, he coolly
+took up a book and began to read.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+"To be teased with such an insolent scoundrel at such a moment
+as this!" thought the peer, as he strode hastily to his usual
+sitting-room: "it is insufferable! I have a great mind to order the
+villains that let him in to horsewhip him out again for their pains: I
+believe that they will some day drive me mad among them!" And stamping
+his foot upon the ground, as was his custom when very angry, he
+clenched his thin hand as if he would have struck the object of his
+indignation. Suddenly, however, stopping in the midst of his passion,
+he fell into deep thought, which kept him standing in the middle of
+the room for two or three minutes; then approaching the bell, he rang
+it calmly. His own valet, whose peculiar province was to attend to
+that especial sitting-room, appeared in less time than ordinary. "Is
+the gentleman who was in the little library gone?" demanded the peer.
+
+"No, my lord," replied his laconic attendant.
+
+"I shall dine in the larger room to-day," said Lord Dewry: "bid Mr.
+Scott have the table laid for two, and tell _le Chef_ that the dinner
+must be different."
+
+The man bowed, and withdrew; and the peer, after pausing for a single
+moment where he was, re-opened the door, and proceeded through the
+neighbouring gallery to a vestibule, whence his eye could rest upon
+the door of the room in which he had left Sir Roger Millington. Here
+again, however, he paused even for several minutes; and then, raising
+his head, which had been sunk somewhat upon his bosom, he walked on
+with a calm, dignified step towards the room which he had quitted not
+a quarter of an hour before in such great indignation. Sir Roger
+Millington was seated exactly in the chair which had received his
+person when the peer left him, and was deeply, and apparently
+pleasantly, engaged with the book he had taken up. So perfectly
+comfortable, indeed, did he seem to have made himself, that Lord
+Dewry, notwithstanding strong determinations to the contrary--the
+motives of which will be explained immediately--could scarcely refrain
+from kicking him through the glass door into the park. He conquered
+his passion, however; and, in a tone which was very different from
+that which he had used towards the same person a quarter of an hour
+before, but which was still sufficiently guarded by haughty coldness
+to prevent the transition from appearing excessively abrupt, he
+addressed his visiter once more. "Sir Roger Millington," he said, "I
+am glad to find that you are not gone; for a little reflection makes
+me regret having treated a former acquaintance somewhat hastily: but
+the truth is, your arrival has occurred at a moment when I am not only
+extremely busy, but also when my feelings have been irritated and hurt
+by various occurrences, which may in some degree have made me forget
+my courtesy."
+
+"Come, come," thought Sir Roger Millington, "matters are improving!
+some fools would have gone away ashamed or affronted! There is nothing
+like knowing when to keep one's ground--when to beat a retreat! My
+lord," he continued, aloud, "it gives me the greatest pain to think
+that I have intruded upon you at such a moment: but I am quite ready
+to repair my fault by retiring! only requesting your lordship to name
+some hour to-morrow when I can have the honour of conversing with you
+on matters of some importance."
+
+"Of importance to yourself or to me, Sir Roger?" demanded the peer,
+forcing a half-smile; though there had been something in the
+pertinacity with which his visiter had held his ground that made him
+almost apprehend that these matters of importance might refer, in some
+unpleasant manner, to himself.
+
+Had Sir Roger Millington had the slightest means whatever of showing
+that the matters of which he had to speak were in any degree relative
+to the peer, he would have ventured the assertion that they were of
+importance to him; but as he had not, he judged it expedient to be
+candid in the more placable mood which his noble host now displayed;
+and he accordingly answered, "Of more importance to myself, my lord, I
+am afraid, than to you."
+
+It was a lucky hit, however; for this proceeding not only quieted all
+Lord Dewry's apprehensions, but also favoured his views in other
+respect.
+
+"I am glad to hear it, Sir Roger," replied the baron; "for, to say the
+truth, I have important business of my own enough upon my hands to
+tire me of it; and I would rather speak upon any one else's affairs
+than have any more of myself. But you must not think of leaving the
+hall, though I am afraid I must be absent from you a considerable part
+of the day. I shall expect the pleasure of your company for a few
+days, and I will order my servant to conduct you to your apartments.
+You must amuse yourself as best you may till the evening. Here are
+books enough, you see, if you have turned student; and if you are
+still fond of field-sports, the gamekeeper will show you where you may
+find plenty of game. Use the house as your own, I beg; but only excuse
+the master of it for a few hours."
+
+"My lord, your lordship is too good, too kind," replied his companion,
+bowing low and lower; "but--"
+
+"Oh, I understand," said the peer; "you have ridden here, and have not
+dressing materials: never mind, we will cast away ceremony, Sir
+Roger."
+
+"But if any one could be sent over to the village of Barholm, my
+lord," said Sir Roger, "since your lordship is so very good, they
+would find my valise at the inn."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," said the peer, increasing in courtesy at every
+response--"certainly; we will see about it directly." And he rang the
+bell once or twice with that air of good-will which was well
+calculated to wipe away the memory of any former coldness. "Richard,"
+he said, as soon as a servant appeared, "send over the errand-boy on
+horseback directly to Barholm, and bid him inquire for the things Sir
+Roger Millington has left there at the inn. Bid the groom look to Sir
+Roger's horse, and then come here to show him to the yellow room.
+Attend upon him while he does me the pleasure of remaining here, and
+see that everything is supplied properly.--Now, Sir Roger, I must beg
+you to excuse me for a short time, but I shall have the pleasure of
+seeing you at dinner."
+
+Sir Roger bowed low: the peer withdrew; and the servant, saying, "I
+will be back in a minute, sir, to show you to your apartments,"
+followed, to give the orders he had received to the errand-boy and the
+under-groom.
+
+Sir Roger Millington cast himself back into his chair, mentally
+declaring, "'Pon my soul, he seems a devilish good fellow, after all;
+somewhat hasty, and hellish proud, but better at bottom than he lets
+himself appear. I should not wonder if this card, which, by----, is
+the last in my hand, should turn up a trump, after all. Egad, that
+would be queer!"
+
+Such were his first reflections; and he had not time to proceed much
+beyond them when the servant reappeared, and begged him to follow. The
+visiter immediately complied; and walking through a suite of handsome
+rooms, where gold lace, and damask, and pictures, and cabinets, and
+brass, and tortoise-shell, and marble, combined to form a very
+dazzling assemblage of furniture and decorations, he was led up a fine
+flight of stairs to another story, where, through corridors scarcely
+less handsomely garnished than the apartments below, he was conducted,
+murmuring, "What a splendid house!" to a spacious bedroom and
+dressing-room, adorned with yellow damask hangings, and supplied with
+everything at which luxury had yet arrived in the days whereof we
+speak. Here, after asking his further commands, the servant left him,
+and Sir Roger Millington threw himself on one of the sofas, asking,
+"Well, what the devil can the fellow want? for want something he
+certainly does. However, no matter; all the better for me. I'm the man
+for his money, whatever he wants; and, by Jupiter! I'll take good care
+not to quarrel with the sort of bread and butter that is to be got in
+this house!"
+
+Leaving Sir Roger Millington to speculate upon such very natural
+propositions, we may as well follow the peer once more to his private
+room, and endeavour to ascertain the cause of a change in his
+demeanour towards the poor knight, which had been, as we have seen, no
+less sudden than complete.
+
+No sooner had he entered the chamber than he closed the door, and
+bolted it; approached a small iron chest, which stood riveted to the
+floor and to the wall, and, opening it with a key which was attached
+to a strong gold chain round his neck, he folded his arms upon his
+breast, and gazed in for a moment, biting his lip and straining his
+eye as if it required no small powers of self-command to proceed any
+farther. He then drew forth a large holster-pistol, richly embossed
+with silver--the fellow to that which had been placed in the hands of
+Edward de Vaux by the gipsy Pharold--and held it for a time in his
+hand, with his eyes not fixed upon it, but upon some far object in the
+distant landscape, which nevertheless, he saw not in the least; for
+the intensity of the mind's occupation at that moment had broken for
+the time the connection between the intellectual soul and her
+servants, the corporal senses; so that his eye was as blind to the
+things on which it was fixed as if it had been seared by lightning.
+His thoughts were far away--in other years and in other scenes; and as
+he laid the weapon down upon a chair beside him, he murmured, "It
+_must_ have fallen into the river, or it would have been found with
+the hat."
+
+He then sought for a moment among some papers, from which he selected
+one; and replacing every thing in the chest as it had been before,
+turned to the table and gazed upon the sheet, which seemed alone
+filled with memoranda of dates and numbers that certainly could
+possess no meaning to any eye but his own. To him, however, their
+import seemed of great consequence; for again and again he studied
+them; and ever and anon the contemplation would plunge him into deep
+fits of thought, from which he only roused himself again to gaze upon
+the figures as before.
+
+"It will do," he said at length, "it will do; but I must take care of
+what I am about. Yet of this Roger Millington there is no fear. He
+would at any time of his life have condemned his own soul for gold,
+and now he seems beggared and wretched enough. The other people can
+offer him nothing: I can offer him ease and luxury; and he will not
+only have no temptation to betray me, but every inducement to keep my
+secret till the grave closes over us both. And yet," he added,
+thoughtfully--"and yet I must not put it in his power ever to annoy me
+hereafter. He must rest in my power rather than I in his. Yet if we
+can silence this Pharold for ever, all real danger will be past; and I
+must risk something--I must risk much, for that object."
+
+Such were some of the thoughts which passed through the mind of Lord
+Dewry; nor were his conclusions formed upon a very wrong estimate of
+the character of his present visiter. The better qualities of Sir
+Roger Millington were few. The best of them was personal courage, or
+rather that total thoughtlessness in regard to death, and what is to
+follow death, which in many men supplies the place of a nobler
+principle. He had always, too, been what is called generous; and he
+did, indeed, possess that curious combination of qualities which makes
+a man pillage and ruin the father of a family, and thus bring want,
+destruction, and desolation upon a whole household, while at the same
+time he is willing, on every occasion, to share the ill-gotten wealth
+of the moment with any one who needs it. His generosity, however,
+still more displayed itself in wasting, among debauchees like himself,
+whatever he possessed, and thinking no means ignoble to dissipate what
+he had thought no means dishonourable to obtain.
+
+Born of a good family, introduced early into the best society, and
+placed, as a military man, in a situation which should have acted
+rather to strengthen honourable principles than to lead him from them,
+he had at first, so long as the actual war lasted, gained some credit
+and renown as a soldier; but no sooner had a peace succeeded than
+various gambling transactions, of a somewhat doubtful character,
+rendered it expedient that he should quit the service. This he was
+permitted to do without disgrace; but from that hour his progress had
+been downwards in fortune and society. He had first mingled with
+gentlemen upon equal terms; and during the greater part of his
+acquaintance with Lord Dewry had kept himself on the same footing with
+his companions, by keeping up the same expenses, and by indulging the
+same vices. He was often very successful at play; and, though it was
+reported that his scruples were not very great in regard to the
+experience or the sobriety of those with whom he sat down, as his
+winnings enabled him, generally, to live in luxury and splendour,
+there were few found to object to the means of acquirement. He
+sometimes lost, however; and, as on one or two occasions his losses
+had been to persons of greater wealth than courage, he was said to
+have discharged his debt by lending the use of his sword in some of
+the numerous disputes which vice and debauchery entail upon their
+disciples.
+
+All these things were suspected; but still Sir Roger Millington was
+not, on that account, shut out from society. Some people merely
+thought that in him they knew where to find a _serviceable man_ when
+they wanted such a thing; and others did not choose to quarrel with
+one who was in better repute at the Park or the back of Montague
+House, the two great resorts of duellists in that day, than in St.
+James's-street. Gambling, however, is always a losing trade; and, by
+slow degrees, and with many a brief revival of fortune, Sir Roger
+Millington was forced down lower and lower in the scale of reputation
+and estate. It must be a very honourable spirit, indeed, that poverty
+renders more scrupulous; and such was certainly not the case with Sir
+Roger Millington. The means of obtaining money seemed to him all
+honourable if they led him not to Tyburn; and, at length, he would
+fight with or for any man for a very trifling consideration. By this
+trade, varied, where he found it necessary, by sycophancy or by
+impudence, he contrived for some time to keep himself up, till at
+length some one of his adversaries, more wise than the rest, took
+courage to refuse to cross swords with a bully and a sharper,
+horsewhipped Sir Roger when he posted him, fought and wounded the
+first man of honour that looked cold on him for his conduct, and left
+Sir Roger Millington no resource but to quit the circles in which he
+had been formerly received.
+
+These circumstances had occurred about two years before the knight's
+visit to Lord Dewry; and it would be more painful and disgusting than
+amusing or instructive to follow him through the shifts and turnings
+of the succeeding months. At length the happy thought struck him which
+we have seen him execute; and with a horse, the last of a once
+splendid stud, a valise containing all that remained of his wardrobe,
+three guineas, and some silver in his purse, a vast stock of
+impudence, and a packet of the peer's old letters, he set out to see
+whether he could wring anything either from the weakness or the
+kindness of Lord Dewry, from whom he had won, in former days, many a
+sum which he now sighed to think upon.
+
+He came, as we have seen, at the very moment when the assistance of
+such a person as himself, who was not in the least scrupulous either
+in regard to oaths or dangers, was likely to prove most serviceable to
+the peer, provided that any bonds could be invented, so close and
+clinging as to restrain a man who had never yet been bound by any
+principles of religion, morality, or honour. On their meeting, the
+uses to which he might be put had not at first struck Lord Dewry, and
+he had given way to the irritable impatience natural to his character:
+but the last words of Sir Roger Millington concerning Sir William
+Ryder, had struck a chord of association which soon awoke other ideas;
+and before the peer had reached his own room he had seen and
+comprehended the variety of services which Sir Roger might render him.
+
+Thought, however, was required, both to arrange and give a tangible
+form to plans which were yet vague and undefined; and to devise means
+of so guarding against the very agent he was about to employ as not to
+fall into a new danger in striving to escape an old one. Men who have
+involved themselves in the dark work of crime, like those employed in
+forging red-hot iron, are obliged to touch the objects of their labour
+with tools of steel, lest they should burn themselves with the bolts
+they forge. After much thought, however, Lord Dewry believed that he
+saw means of rendering Sir Roger Millington, not only obedient to his
+every wish, but faithful also; and though the plans in which he was to
+be employed, of course required long and intense consideration, the
+new views that opened before the peer gave him so much comfort that he
+heard the dressing-bell ring, long before he had expected it, without
+any feelings but those of renewed security and anticipated triumph
+over those who had before caused him so much doubt and apprehension.
+
+Now Lord Dewry was a shrewd and strong-minded man, who, as far as a
+violent and proud disposition, and very uncontrollable passions, would
+let him, generally acted upon a regularly-arranged and well-considered
+system in every thing he undertook: but it is extraordinary how often
+a man acts upon system without knowing it; for, after all, as before
+said, we are but mere puppets, body and mind, in the hands of our
+desires. Lord Dewry had ordered the beggared and threadbare Sir Roger
+Millington to be taken to one of the most splendid apartments in his
+splendid house; he had ordered such an intimation to be given to the
+cook as would place upon the table a rich and luxurious repast; he had
+directed that repast to be spread in a room full of magnificence; and
+now he dressed himself with scrupulous care and elegance, without at
+all being aware that it was all part of a system to re-awaken in the
+bosom of the penniless knight that thirst for luxury and ease which
+would render him most willingly and eagerly the tool of him who could
+bestow it. So it was, however; and though pride had her word too, and
+told his lordship that such display would make his visiter more humble
+and respectful, yet the principal object was to show him how many
+pleasant and desirable things might be obtained by being the very
+humble and most devoted servant of the noble lord.
+
+Had Lord Dewry sat and calculated for an hour what system was most
+likely to produce the desired effect upon a man of the peculiar mental
+and bodily idiosyncrasy of Sir Roger Millington, he could not have
+more happily adapted his actions to the circumstances. In his high and
+plumy days of fortune, Sir Roger Millington had learned to love and
+delight in every good thing of the earth that we inhabit; and in his
+days of debasement and poverty he had equally learned to admire and
+bow down to, in others, the possession of those things which had given
+him so much pleasure when he possessed them himself. The soft tread of
+the Turkey carpets, the sight of damask, and lace, and or-molu, an
+accidental whiff of the distant kitchen, as he passed the top of a
+back staircase--a whiff faint and fragrant as if it came from "the
+spice islands in the south"--the very feel of the sofa on which he
+sat, were all so many arguments in favour of any plan, action, or idea
+which Lord Dewry could possibly suggest; and when, after having
+received his goods and chattels from the village, selected the best of
+his wardrobe, and made himself look, as he could do, perfectly
+gentlemanly, he descended to the drawing-room, it was with an
+impression of the greatest possible respect and admiration for the
+talents, sentiments, feelings, thoughts, and virtues of his noble
+entertainer.
+
+He was almost immediately joined by the peer, who was surprised but
+not sorry to see his guest look so much like a gentleman; for though
+he sincerely desired that he should be such at heart as to do his
+unscrupulous bidding unscrupulously, yet he was quite willing to have
+him such, in appearance, as would excite neither wonder nor
+animadversion.
+
+Hasty as the peer was by nature, and eager as he was in the present
+instance, he had acquired sufficient command over himself to reserve
+any more open communication with Sir Roger till a more proper moment;
+although, had he given way to the impulse of his own heart, he would
+have entered upon the business which occupied his thoughts at once.
+But he felt what an advantage such a course of action would confer
+upon his guest; and, therefore, without showing the slightest haste or
+impatience, he spoke a moment or two upon the weather, and the state
+of the nation, and the alarming increase of crime in the metropolis,
+and several other things, about which he cared not in the least, and
+then turned to some of the pictures that hung upon the walls,
+expatiating upon their various merits with as much learning as a
+connoisseur, and as much taste as an Agar Ellis. "Yes," he said, "that
+is a very fine picture, though not so valuable as it looks. It is by
+one of the disciples of Rubens, and artists believe the heads to be by
+Rubens himself. But I will show you a real treasure!" and approaching
+a small panel opposite, covered with two richly-carved and gilded
+doors, he opened them; and, drawing a silk curtain, displayed an inner
+frame containing a Madonna exquisitely painted. "That is an undoubted
+Correggio," he said; "and one of the most beautiful pictures that
+master ever painted. Remark the exquisite bend of that head, so full
+of grief and resignation. The beauty of the colouring, too--that tear
+upon the cheek, the faint pink of the nostril partaking slightly of
+the blue of the drapery, and the drapery itself, how masterly! Look
+here, too, at the hands crossed upon the breast! Did you ever behold
+such beautiful hands? so small and delicate, yet so soft and full!
+every thing graceful and light, yet every thing full of contour and
+correctness!"
+
+The doors were thrown open while he still spoke, and dinner was
+announced; nor did Lord Dewry, during the whole course of the meal,
+deviate from the rule he had laid down, of hurrying his communication
+by neither word nor hint. The dinner itself was such as might be
+expected from his fortune and his habits--abundant, but not loaded,
+showing every delicacy that wealth could procure, and yet taking care
+that, as in the Palace of the Sun, the workmanship should excel the
+materials. The wines, however, surpassed every thing else; and that
+sort of nectar which is called, _sec sillery_ once again greeted the
+palate of Sir Roger Millington, after many years of tedious interval.
+Sir Roger blessed the stars which had conferred so many good things on
+a man to whom he hoped to render service; for though he neither ate
+nor drank to excess, he enjoyed to the full, and saw the dessert
+placed upon the table only with the expectation of at length hearing
+how he might merit a participation in such blessings in future.
+
+The best polished crystal, full of the liquid rubies of rich Medoc,
+was set upon the table; and the majestic butler drew off after the
+retiring footmen. Lord Dewry recommended the claret; and when he saw
+the glass filled, he opened his approaches cautiously.
+
+"Now, Sir Roger," he said, "we have all the evening before us, without
+fear of interruption; and though I trust you will give me the pleasure
+of your company some days longer, yet, as you spoke of some matter
+which was of importance to you, it may be pleasanter to us both to get
+rid of the business at once, and devote the rest of our time to less
+weighty affairs."
+
+Sir Roger had not prepared for this way of opening the campaign; and
+he felt some fear that any demand upon the purse of his noble host
+might banish him from a dwelling where he felt himself as yet quite
+comfortable. A moment's thought, however, reassured him; for, both
+from his general knowledge of the world, and his particular knowledge
+of the peer, he felt very sure that such a sudden transition from
+rudeness to hospitality, as we have heretofore recorded, could not
+have taken place without a motive--that motive he concluded to be a
+desire of reaping advantage from some of his numerous and pliant
+abilities; and he therefore perceived that the policy now was to make
+a bargain as best he might. All this train of argumentation was run
+over rapidly in his brain, and he then replied, "The fact is, my lord,
+that some of my old evil habits have, as your lordship may have
+anticipated, somewhat impaired my property, and put me to temporary
+difficulties. Such being the case, and being rather rudely pressed, I
+bethought me of your lordship's former kindness and liberality, and
+came down in haste to see whether I could not induce you to favour me
+with the loan of a small sum."
+
+"A loan!" exclaimed the peer, raising his eyebrows as if something
+quite unexpected had broke upon his ear, though there was the dawning
+of a half-suppressed smile about his lip that contradicted his tone of
+surprise--"a loan! Ah, I dare say we can manage that matter, Sir
+Roger. But be candid with me; tell me the state of your finances: it
+shall not injure your views, upon my honour!"
+
+"Bad enough, my lord, bad enough," replied his companion, candidly,
+and yet shrewdly; for he began to fancy that candour would be best:
+"bad enough, I am sorry to say. I have had a sad run against me, and
+have not been able to get over it."
+
+"No heavy debts?" said the peer.
+
+"No, upon my honour, no," replied Sir Roger; "I do not owe twenty
+pounds in the world; but I find a difficulty in getting one."
+
+"That was always an extraordinary trait of yours, Millington," said
+the peer: "you were never in debt, though you spent a good deal, and
+played high."
+
+"Because I always paid away my money as fast as I got it," replied his
+guest. "As soon as I had a sum, any one might have it that wanted it,
+whether a tradesman or a friend; and as I had large sums then," he
+added, with a sigh, "I was never long in debt."
+
+This was, indeed, partly true of the times to which he referred, as
+the peer well knew; and the reason for his having few debts in later
+years was still more simple, though he mentioned it not--it was, that
+no one would trust him. Lord Dewry, however, seemed affected by his
+reference to old times, and replied, "Well, well, Sir Roger, we will
+not let you be hard pressed any longer. What is the sum you at present
+want?"
+
+Sir Roger Millington hesitated between the fear of asking too
+much and asking too little; and he would have given the three guineas
+that graced his pocket willingly to have found out what service was
+to be demanded of him in return, that he might shape his request
+accordingly. "It cannot be to fight," he thought; "the fellow used
+to do all that business for himself, and devilish well, too! but,
+however, it must be some pitiful job, indeed, if it is not worth a
+couple of hundred. I'll ask fifty more.--Why, my lord," he said aloud,
+"the fact is, that two hundred and fifty pounds, I am afraid, will be
+requisite."
+
+"Well, well," said Lord Dewry, who, thinking chiefly of Sir Roger's
+former style of living, had calculated upon a demand of at least
+double that amount--"well, well, that can be managed; and, upon my
+honour, it shall be managed: but now let us speak a little upon other
+matters."
+
+"Now it comes!" thought Sir Roger Millington; but the peer
+proceeded,--"I have now promised you this sum unconditionally; but if
+you will explain to me more fully the real and particular state of
+your finances, perhaps we may strike out something that may prove
+ultimately still more beneficial to you--I mean permanently
+beneficial."
+
+Sir Roger Millington sat with his eyes wide open, and the internal
+voice of his wonder would have been, could any one have heard it,
+"Why, what's the meaning of all this? is he going to turn out really
+generous, after all?" He had recourse to the claret jug, however,
+which soothed him wonderfully; and he answered, "Why, my lord, as I
+have already said, the state of my finances is bad--very bad! In
+short, my lord, there is nothing which your lordship can do to mend
+them that will not be most gratefully received by Roger Millington."
+
+"We must think of it, Sir Roger; we must think of it well," replied
+the peer; "and you will find, Sir Roger, that no man will do more than
+I will to remove you from all difficulties, and put you at your ease.
+The worst point of the whole business is, I am afraid that all I can
+do for you is but for my own life. My estates are strictly entailed. I
+live up to my income; and I am afraid that with me would die anything
+that I could annually do for you."
+
+"May your lordship live for ever!" replied Sir Roger, with more
+sincerity, perhaps, than ever courtier offered such an aspiration in
+favour of the kings of the Medes and Persians. "The truth is, my
+lord," he continued, "nothing can be worse than the state of my
+present fortunes. I certainly did not doubt being able to mend them
+with a little assistance; but if your lordship carries into execution
+your kind intentions in my favour, and mends them for me, all I can
+say is, that you shall find one man at least grateful in this world;
+and I hope also that your lordship will point out to me some means of
+aiding you in return, for the burden of my obligation to you will be
+greatly relieved by being able to show my zeal in your service."
+
+"Oh, we will think of that hereafter," said Lord Dewry; "and as
+you are a man of taste and ingenuity, I have no doubt, Sir Roger, in
+the various changes and alterations which I am making here and at
+Dimden--I have no doubt that we shall be able to find you employment
+of a nature the most agreeable to your feelings and the most suitable
+to your mind. Nobody need know any thing of the pecuniary arrangements
+between us. You shall always be received here as a friend, and the
+rest of your days may pass in sunshine and enjoyment."
+
+These were prospects bright indeed to the view of the impoverished
+knight; and as he felt that no services on his part would be too great
+or too unscrupulous to merit such reward, he very plainly gave his
+noble entertainer to understand that such was the case, and explained
+to him how willing he would be to undertake any task he chose to
+impose. This was the plainest speaking which had been held during the
+evening; and the peer was not sorry that it had come on the part of
+his guest, for he was anxious now to arrive at the point, and yet he
+decidedly wished that the way might be smoothed for him. He smiled
+most graciously, therefore, as he replied, "Well, well, Sir Roger,
+your offers shall soon be put to the proof. I have upon my hands, at
+the present moment, some business which is very difficult to manage;
+and as I know you to be both firm and skilful, I will request your
+assistance in it. But remember, I beg, that my object, as I shall
+explain to you immediately, is perfectly just and upright; and
+although the business wants a little shrewd management, yet it is one
+in which you may engage conscientiously."
+
+"I doubt it not, my lord, I doubt it not," replied Sir Roger, who,
+perhaps, in all the variety of human actions, would have found very
+few in which, under his present circumstances, he would not have
+engaged quite conscientiously--"I doubt it not, my lord. Pray,
+proceed."
+
+"Oh, it is a long story," answered the baron; "and before we proceed
+to that, let me ask you, Sir Roger, if you remember, with any degree
+of accuracy, the transactions which took place between you and me and
+Sir William Ryder, in regard to a large sum of money that we lost to
+you in the year 17--?"
+
+"Perfectly, most perfectly, my lord," replied Sir Roger: "my memory
+never fails on such points; I could swear to every fact."
+
+"Then, do you remember," said the peer, "receiving a note from me on
+the eighteenth of May, telling you that if you would wait another week
+I would pay you the whole sum at once, as my brother would be able by
+that time to call in money to lend me? and do you remember your coming
+to me the same evening to say that you were quite willing to wait, and
+our going out together to a party?"
+
+"I remember it all accurately, my lord," replied the poor knight, to
+whom the recollection of days when the proud man before whom he now
+sat had been his debtor and his humble servant was too gratifying to
+be easily forgotten--"I remember it all well--every particular; but
+you are mistaken in the date, my lord: it was the nineteenth, not the
+eighteenth, of May."
+
+"No, no; it is you who are mistaken, Sir Roger," replied the peer,
+with a meaning smile. "It was the eighteenth, I can assure you."
+
+Sir Roger did not comprehend. "Indeed, my lord," he replied, "it was
+the nineteenth; I remember it from many circumstances. On that very
+morning the great bet had come off between Colonel Hammerstone and the
+Nailer, and--"
+
+"Nay, nay, I am positive," said the peer, "from circumstances that I
+cannot forget either. It was the eighteenth day of May, in the year
+17--."
+
+"But, my lord, I have your lordship's own note," said Sir Roger,
+persevering.
+
+"Have you so?" cried the peer. "I wish you would be so kind as to let
+me see it."
+
+"Certainly, my lord; I will bring it in a moment," said Sir Roger;
+and, rising from his chair, he left the room, in order to bring the
+paper to which he referred. While he was gone, Lord Dewry sat silent
+and stern, with his hand over his eyes and the upper part of his face;
+but his lips, which were uncovered, moved as if he were speaking, and
+the working of the muscles of his cheeks seemed to indicate that he
+was in bodily pain. As soon as his guest returned, however, he
+withdrew his hand, and all was clear and smiling, except, perhaps, a
+slight contraction of the brow, and an anxious intensity of gaze in
+his eye, which had both become habitual. Sir Roger Millington resumed
+his place; and, laying down upon the table a bundle of papers which he
+carried, he selected one, and presented it to the peer, saying,
+"There, my lord, is the note."
+
+Lord Dewry received it calmly, not only because he knew the contents
+exactly as well as Roger Millington, but because he felt perfectly
+satisfied that Sir Roger himself was secured--bound hand and foot his
+slave--by promises and expectations which no one else had the power or
+the necessity of holding out to him. The paper, though it bore the
+marks of age in the yellow hue of its complexion and the paleness of
+the ink, was in other respects well preserved; and the peer, unfolding
+it, perused it attentively, and still held it in his hand when he had
+done.
+
+"I see, Sir Roger," he said, "that you are correct, as far as the
+dating of this note goes; but at the same time, I can assure you, I
+must have dated it wrong at the time by some unfortunate mistake,
+which mistake, by an unpleasant concatenation of circumstances, might
+prove of the greatest disadvantage to me at present, and might even
+deprive me of the power of assisting you in the way that I am so
+desirous of doing."
+
+The master-key of self-interest instantly unlocked the door of Sir
+Roger Millington's understanding; and he now saw that some very strong
+motive must influence the peer in wishing to prove that the letter was
+written on a different day from that on which it was dated. He
+consequently determined at once that it should be written on any day
+whatsoever that his lordship thought fit; but, at the same time,
+having a due regard to the friable nature of promises, he extremely
+desired to make himself master of his noble friend's secret views, in
+order to have some check upon him hereafter. "Indeed, my lord," he
+replied, in a tone of much concern, "I am sorry to hear that the fact
+should be likely to produce such results. May I inquire how such an
+unfortunate state of things is likely to ensue from so simple a
+circumstance?"
+
+"Oh, certainly," replied Lord Dewry, with somewhat of a sarcastic
+smile; "you may inquire, and I will answer you, Sir Roger: but then,
+if I do, I must, I am afraid, demand a bond for the two hundred and
+fifty pounds I am about to advance, as I must either have security for
+my money or my secrets--which you like, Sir Roger."
+
+"Oh, then, my lord," replied Sir Roger Millington, inclining his head
+with a significant bow, "the matter is very simple. As I have no
+security to offer for the money, I will beg not to burden myself with
+your lordship's confidence any further than you think absolutely
+necessary; and in regard to the note which is likely to produce
+results so unlucky to both you and me--for I am fain to believe that
+my prosperity is now intimately connected with your lordship's--I
+think the best way to settle the matter will be to put it in the
+fire."
+
+"I do not exactly know that," answered Lord Dewry, musing: "at all
+events, let me convince you first that it was written on the
+eighteenth, instead of the nineteenth."
+
+"My lord, I am already convinced," said Sir Roger Millington, who,
+once having obtained the cue, could go on without the prompter--"I am
+already convinced: I see my mistake. I remember it was the day before
+the great walking bet came off, which was on the nineteenth, at
+Hounslow. Indeed, it is impossible that it could have been otherwise:
+for I was present on the ground all day; and if I was at Hounslow all
+day, I could not receive your note in London."
+
+"True, true," said the peer; though he very well knew that the note
+which he had written after his return to town, the very day subsequent
+to his brother's death, had found Sir Roger just come back from
+Hounslow--"true, true, Sir Roger; and doubtless you could swear to all
+these facts, should it be necessary."
+
+"Beyond all doubt, my lord," replied the knight, "circumstances crowd
+upon my memory which all tend to show that your lordship is right; and
+it must have been the mistaken date of the note which deceived me."
+
+"Would it not, then, be advisable," demanded the peer, "to rectify the
+date which the note bears, instead of destroying it--hey, Sir Roger,
+hey?"
+
+"Certainly, my lord, certainly," said Sir Roger; and then, dropping
+his voice, he added in a half-whisper, "if it can be done without the
+chance of discovery."
+
+"Easily," replied the peer--"easily, Sir Roger: a little acid which I
+have in my library will take out the tail of the nine, without leaving
+a trace; there will then remain only a cipher, which I will alter to
+an eight; so that no one will see a difference between the writing of
+that figure and the rest of the letter. You and I, the only persons
+concerned in a private letter from me to you, are both convinced that
+the date ought to be so rectified; and no one else need know any thing
+about it."
+
+"I am perfectly of your lordship's opinion," replied Sir Roger; "had
+it not better be done immediately?"
+
+"With all my heart," replied the peer; "follow me, Sir Roger; we will
+return here, and conclude our claret when we have done."
+
+The serviceable Sir Roger followed without another word to the peer's
+private room. A small bottle of acid was produced, which answered its
+object fully: the obnoxious figure was changed into a more convenient
+one with ink mingled with water, to render it of the same hue as the
+rest of the writing, and the most severe and practised eye could not
+have detected a change. When it was done, the peer and his confederate
+stood gazing upon the paper with very different feelings: Sir Roger,
+totally indifferent to all considerations of right and wrong in the
+matter, only wondering what was to come next, and desirous of knowing
+whether he himself was to resume possession of the letter, or whether
+his noble host intended to keep it for his own purposes; Lord Dewry
+feeling at his heart that blessed sensation of security which he had
+not known for twenty years.
+
+The peer's next act was calmly to take his pocketbook from his pocket,
+and drawing forth five notes, amounting to the sum which Sir Roger had
+demanded, he laid them, one after another, down upon the paper which
+they had been corrupting; and then, taking up the whole packet, he put
+it into his companion's hand. "Sir Roger," he said, "I always like to
+be as good as my word, and often endeavour to prove myself better than
+my word. In regard to these notes," he added, seeing the knight about
+to pour forth thanks, "let us say no more about them; and in regard to
+this note," pointing to the one they had altered, "let me beg you to
+put it by carefully with the rest of my letters; and should you ever
+be called upon to produce it and speak about it, you will remember the
+fact accurately, that it was received by you on the eighteenth of May,
+the day before the great bet came off at Hounslow. Also, you will
+remember that you called upon me in answer to it, and that we sat
+together for half an hour. But it may be as well to forget, perhaps,
+that we went out in company to Hillier's party. Let all statements be
+as simple as possible, with no more circumstances than are necessary
+to show that you do really remember the facts. And now let us return
+to our claret, for we have more to talk of yet, both concerning your
+affairs and mine."
+
+Sir Roger bowed low, promising to act exactly as he was instructed.
+"You know I have been a soldier, my lord," he said, "and am well aware
+of the necessity of obeying orders without the slightest variation."
+
+The peer led the way back to the dining-room, and rang for more
+claret, though there was a good deal still upon the table; but the
+cause was, in truth, that he desired a moment or two to think further
+before he continued his conversation with Sir Roger Millington. His
+original design had been to employ him in a much more extensive and
+conclusive enterprise than he had hitherto broached to him; but in the
+very initiatory steps, the fact of the letter being still in
+existence, the facility which Sir Roger had shown in bending to his
+wishes, and the certainty of his following exactly the directions he
+had received, seemed to remove the necessity for further efforts. "I
+have now," thought the peer, "the most perfect and conclusive proof to
+adduce that I was in London on the very day of my brother's death; and
+granting that the oath of Sir Roger Millington may be somewhat
+doubted, on account of his established character, the letter--the
+letter is proof positive. Besides, what can be opposed to it but the
+oath of a gipsy and a gambler? neither of them worth more than his, if
+so much. The letter is conclusive. Perhaps it may be as well to let
+the gipsy alone; and yet it is not to be longer endured--this state of
+momentary apprehension of what the next minute is to produce. Nor can
+there be any doubt that, as soon as Pharold finds out this business in
+regard to the deer-stealing, which has gone too far by this time to be
+stayed, his first vengeance will be to tell all, and I may as well be
+prepared to cast the charge back upon himself. Besides, if I can crush
+him before the other arrives in England, I may set the whole world at
+defiance."
+
+As he thought thus he drank a large glass of claret. There never yet
+was man who committed a great crime, and did not thenceforth feel that
+the predominant longing of his soul was, once more to be able to
+"sleep in spite of thunder." He drank another full glass; and then
+went on, determined to bring the struggle to an issue at once, now
+that he had all his preparations made, and was sure of the result.
+
+"What we have just been speaking of, Sir Roger," he said, as the
+servant shut the door after setting down the claret, "brings to my
+mind our former acquaintance, Sir William Ryder. I should scarcely
+think that he proposes to come back again to this country, as you
+hinted this morning, considering that he left many a debt unpaid.
+Among other things, you know he was your debtor in the transaction of
+which we but now spoke, as well as myself, though not to the same
+amount; and you are doubtless also aware that I paid the whole debt.
+Pray, when did you hear from him?"
+
+"I did not hear from him directly, my lord," replied the knight, "as
+we have, in fact, kept up no correspondence. I wrote to him, indeed,
+shortly after his departure, but he never answered my letter. But I
+saw a few days ago in an American paper, that the well-known Sir
+William Ryder was about to quit his dwelling at some strange named
+place in a few weeks, for the purpose of visiting England, in order to
+induce the government to take measures for the protection and
+instruction of the savage Indians."
+
+A sneering smile curled the lip of the peer, but he made no
+observation upon the information he received. "Did you not go down
+with him to Holyhead, on his way to embark for America from some Irish
+port?" demanded Lord Dewry; "I think I have heard so."
+
+"No, my lord, no," replied Sir Roger; "I met him at Holyhead by
+accident. I had just come over from Ireland, where I had been to
+settle a little affair with a man in Dublin. I lent Sir William one of
+my horses to go out to see some gipsies--what the devil business he
+had with them I could never tell--but the horse threw him and broke
+his ribs, and hurt himself into the bargain; but a gipsy fellow, the
+best farrier I ever saw, cured him in a week--the horse, I mean; but I
+believe they cured Sir William too, for I left him in their hands
+recovering fast; I myself being obliged to be at Newmarket before he
+could get out of his bed."
+
+"I thought I remembered something of the transaction," said the peer.
+"Sir William Ryder, with whom I was in some correspondence at that
+time, in regard to the very debt of which we were speaking, wrote to
+me that he had seen you there, and mentioned the accident your horse
+had met with. But now tell me, Sir Roger, did you not receive from the
+gipsy farrier a bank-note, in change for money given him in payment?"
+
+"No, my lord, not that I remember," said the knight; "faith, I have
+forgot what I gave him, and all about it."
+
+"Recollect yourself, Sir Roger," said Lord Dewry; "I think, if you
+remember right, you will find that he gave you in change a note, which
+you afterward gave to me when we last settled our accounts together,
+about six months after I succeeded to this property."
+
+"Nay, nay, my lord," said the knight, "your lordship is not right
+there: it was you gave me the money; I gave you none. It was a round
+sum, you know, my lord."
+
+Lord Dewry bit his lip, and Sir Roger Millington could hear his foot
+stamp upon the carpet under the table with impatience at his
+contradiction. In truth, the noble lord did not at all desire to be
+driven to explanations, though, in fact, the dark and fearful scheme
+which his mind had formed for the purpose of delivering himself from
+all fear for ever was too deep and intricate to be understood by him
+whom he intended for his tool in accomplishing it, without a much
+fuller knowledge of the subject than the knight possessed.
+
+"You do not understand me," cried the peer, hastily; "you will not
+understand me, Sir Roger! Mark me, now!" and then, after thinking for
+a moment, he proceeded in a stern, determined tone, and with a dark,
+contracted brow:--"You remember my succeeding to this property, Sir
+Roger; and you remember the circumstances of my brother's unfortunate
+death? The only person who saw the--the business was a gipsy; and at
+the time some circumstances made it appear so strongly probable that
+that gipsy had been himself the--the murderer, that Mr. Arden--old Mr.
+Arden, who is still living--wished to commit him. I, however,
+foolishly would believe nothing of the story, as this very gipsy had
+always been a protege of my brother's, and he was liberated. A number
+of small particulars, however, afterward appeared to make me regret my
+obstinacy, and to convince me that the villain was really the assassin
+of my poor brother. I had him sought for in vain; and all the news I
+could learn of him was, that he had sailed from Holyhead for Ireland.
+There I lost sight of him, till a few days ago, when I suddenly met
+him in the park; and I have since learned that he is lingering about
+in the neighbourhood of my other place at Dimden. I have laid a trap
+for him: we shall catch him this very night; and, if it cost me half
+my fortune, I will bring him to justice."
+
+"Your lordship is right, very right," exclaimed Sir Roger Millington;
+"but I do not see--"
+
+"Listen to me, Sir Roger, and you shall see," replied the peer: "I
+doubt not that I shall be able to convict him; but if my recollections
+are right, and can be supported by yours, his conviction is certain.
+My brother at his death had a large sum of money on his person. One of
+those notes, marked with his name, in his own handwriting, has since
+come into my possession; and _I am sure that I received it from you,
+while I feel almost sure that you received it from the gipsy!_" He
+spoke the last words slowly and emphatically, and then added, rapidly
+and sternly, "Now, what I want you to do, Sir Roger, is to recollect
+yourself, and--if you can remember the facts of your having received
+the note and given it to me--to be prepared to swear to those facts,
+should it be necessary."
+
+Sir Roger Millington turned very pale. A light--a fearful light--had
+broken in upon him, and how far it served to guide his suspicions
+aright matters little. He was a man of few scruples, and vice and
+misery had both contributed to harden his heart; for though the uses
+of adversity maybe sweet when acting on a virtuous disposition, yet I
+am afraid that in this good world of ours the back of that great felon
+Vice only gets callous under the lash of affliction. Sir Roger
+Millington, however, had, as we have said, but few scruples of any
+kind; yet this thing that Lord Dewry now proposed to him was a step
+beyond the point at which he had arrived in all the course of evil and
+of folly that he had hitherto pursued. He had fought and had slain men
+in another man's quarrel, but in doing so he had perilled his own
+life, and the corporal risk had seemed in some degree to balance the
+moral culpability; but now he was asked to say and do things which,
+without any danger to himself, would conduct another to an ignominious
+death,--one against whom he had no enmity, whom he had never, perhaps,
+beheld, and of whose real guilt there was in his bosom many a terrible
+doubt. He felt that it was a fearful and an awful thing that he was
+called upon to do, and, in despite of the absence of all moral
+principle--of twenty years' hardening in vice, and of a long training
+in degradation and dishonour--he turned pale, he hesitated; and,
+forgetting all restraint, rose from his seat and walked once or twice
+up and down the room in evident agitation.
+
+Lord Dewry saw how far he had committed himself. He saw that,
+notwithstanding all his caution, his words, having been spoken to one
+whom habitual vice had rendered familiar with all the wiles of crime,
+might have put his suspicions on a track from which they could never
+be withdrawn, and that although Sir Roger had him not, indeed, in his
+power, as the gipsy had, yet that no sacrifice would be too great to
+force him on to acts which would make his co-operation irretrievable.
+He suffered him then to pace the room for a single minute; and then
+rising, he placed himself opposite to him, and laid his hand on that
+of the knight. "Sir Roger," he said, "I am inclined to do much for
+you, but you know service must have service in return."
+
+"But tell me, tell me, my lord," exclaimed the other, with some
+vehemence, "do you really believe that the note you speak of was ever
+in the possession of the gipsy?"
+
+"I not only believe it, but I am sure of it," replied the peer. "Hear
+me, Sir Roger; I pledge you my honour, my soul, my word, this note
+which you now see, and which is marked with my brother's own hand,
+must have been in possession of the gipsy after my brother's death;
+and if it did not come to me from you, it must at all events have come
+through some one who received it of the gipsy." Nor in this assertion
+did he speak falsely; for the note was one of those which he had sent
+to the gipsy by Sir William Ryder, and which had accidentally returned
+to his own possession.
+
+It is wonderful how easily men can sometimes satisfy their conscience.
+Sir Roger did not pause to ask any very minute explanation: the
+vehemence with which his noble entertainer spoke convinced him that in
+some sense he spoke sincerely; and he would have been very sorry, by
+any indiscreet question, to have discovered that there was any thing
+like a double meaning in the words. "Well, well," he said, "I think I
+do remember something of the transaction, my lord; and I doubt not
+that a few moments' thought will bring it all back clearly to my
+memory."
+
+The peer pressed his hand. "Well, then, Sir Roger," he said, "so much
+for my affairs when they are all settled: hear what I wish to do for
+you. I propose to give you apartments in my house at Dimden, where you
+shall undertake to superintend all my improvements and works of taste,
+for which you will favour me by receiving a deed of annuity for one
+thousand per annum _during my life_. I am sorry that I cannot make it
+permanent, but I have not the power; all I can do can only last as
+long as my life lasts."
+
+Bright, bright grew the eyes of Sir Roger Millington; and, bowing low
+before the peer, he uttered a few words of thanks, and cast himself
+back into his chair to enjoy the glad transition from a state of
+beggary and despair to the prospect of affluence and luxury such as he
+had never hoped to see again. All scruples were swallowed up in
+satisfaction; not even a shadow of them remained; and he was now only
+anxious to prove his zeal in those services which were to merit so
+noble a reward.
+
+The peer had seated himself, also, with the note of which he spoke
+laid on the table before him; and it was not difficult for him to see
+that the feelings of the serviceable Sir Roger Millington were
+undergoing the exact sort of transition which he desired. He
+accordingly entered into further explanations; and Sir Roger, in his
+eagerness to merit the favour of so generous a patron, proposed of his
+own free will to write his name upon the note in such a manner as to
+give every apparent veracity to the recollections to which he was to
+swear.
+
+"You will find the butler's pen and ink in the buffet," said the peer,
+in reply; "dip your pen first in the claret, Sir Roger, to make the
+ink look faint and old. Only put your name; no date--no date; never be
+too precise. Thank you--thank you: now he cannot escape me."
+
+"But, my lord," said Sir Roger, "as I am to swear to the person of the
+gipsy from whom I received the note, will it not be better that I
+should see him first before he is taken up; so that I may identify him
+at once without any appearance of connivance?"
+
+"That is, I am afraid, impossible," replied the peer; "for we have
+found out that he and his fellows have a design upon the deer in
+Dimden Park this very night, and a large party of keepers have been
+assembled to arrest them, so that between twelve and one they will all
+be prisoners. Otherwise it might have been better as you say."
+
+"But there is time before that," said Sir Roger, looking at his watch,
+which--as the dinner hours of that day were very, very different from
+those of the present time--only pointed at seven even after this long
+conversation with the peer,--"there is time before that, my lord: how
+far is it to Dimden?"
+
+"Fourteen miles at least," replied the peer.
+
+"Lend me a strong horse, and I will be over by half-past eight,"
+answered Sir Roger. "If I cannot get a sight of him by any other
+means, I will join the keepers privately, and as soon as ever the
+business is over, come back here; so that I may point out the fellow
+at once, if there should be twenty of them. What is his name, my lord?
+do you know?"
+
+"Pharold, he is called," answered the peer, thoughtfully. "Your plan
+is good, but I am afraid it is too late. Let us take care that by
+trying to do too much we do not spoil all."
+
+"Oh, no fear, no fear, my lord," replied Sir Roger, who was not
+without hopes of getting a private conversation with the gipsy before
+his arrest, and who had an object of his own in wishing to do so; for
+although rogues often trust each other in a manner which--with the
+knowledge of each other's character that they must possess--is little
+less than a miracle, no man covenants with another whom he knows to be
+a villain without seeking some check upon him; and Sir Roger was not a
+little desirous of having the peer more fully in his power, as some
+security for the fulfilment of his promises. "No fear, no fear, my
+lord; and remember, it would never do if I were to point out the wrong
+man by any chance."
+
+This argument was conclusive with Lord Dewry. The bell was rung, a
+swift horse was ordered to be saddled immediately, Sir Roger equipped
+himself for riding, received minute directions as to the way to
+Dimden, and the peer and his guest were standing before the fireplace,
+waiting for the horse, each occupied with his own thoughts, and each
+rejoicing at the event of a meeting which had seemed at first so
+inauspicious--Sir Roger Millington indulging in dreams of future
+luxury and ease, and the baron triumphing in the hope that the means
+he had employed, the dark and dreadful scheme which he was prepared to
+execute, would bid defiance to accusation, and sweep from his path for
+ever the man that he most feared on earth--when the sound of more
+horses' feet than one was heard without, the bell was rung violently,
+and the servant, entering, announced that a gentleman on horseback was
+at the door, urging important business with his lordship.
+
+"Did he give his name?" demanded Lord Dewry.
+
+"Yes, my lord," replied the man: "he bade me say that it was Colonel
+Manners!"
+
+"Ho, ho!" said the peer, his lip curling with a haughty smile: "take
+him into the saloon. This is a business of no importance, Sir Roger;
+do not let it detain you. Fare you well, my good friend, and may
+success attend you!"
+
+"I give your lordship back your wish," replied Sir Roger, "and will
+wait on you to-morrow at breakfast with all my tidings."
+
+Thus saying, they parted, Sir Roger proceeding to hasten the arrival
+of the horse, and the peer walking with a haughty step towards the
+saloon, where he was waited by Colonel Manners.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+We must now turn to follow the course of Colonel Manners, from the
+time we last left him at Morley House to the moment of his visit to
+Lord Dewry, comprising in all a space of about eight hours. While
+waiting for his horse he had, as we have already seen, examined
+quickly, but not the less accurately, into the story of the peasant
+who had heard shots fired in the neighbouring wood during the night
+before; and he had thus satisfied himself that there was very little
+probability of there being any connection whatever between those shots
+and the absence of his friend, except such as the marvel-loving mood
+of the old butler and the natural fears of De Vaux's relations had
+supplied from the stores of imagination. The shots had been fired, it
+seemed, in a direction different from that in which there were many
+reasons for believing that De Vaux had gone; and the man himself
+acknowledged, not only that he had originally supposed the sounds to
+be occasioned by poachers, but that he had heard the report of one gun
+on the preceding night.
+
+Convinced, from what he himself suspected, as well as from what Marian
+had said, that De Vaux had gone to visit the gipsies on the hill,
+Colonel Manners at once determined to turn his horse's head thither,
+before he made any examination in the wood where the shots had been
+heard; and in this resolution he was strongly confirmed by a short
+conversation with the head-gardener, whom he met as he was just
+passing the gates.
+
+As soon as Manners saw him he checked his horse, and demanded, "Pray,
+in coming through the garden this morning, did you see any marks of
+steps in the direction of the small door leading towards Morley Down?"
+
+"No, sir," replied the man; "but I found the key in the outside of the
+door this morning, so that anybody might have got into the garden that
+liked; but, however, I cannot see that any of the fruit is gone. Did
+you hear of any one having got in last night, sir?"
+
+"No, no," answered Manners: "I did not mean to imply that," and
+spurring on his horse, he rode forward more than ever determined to
+address his first inquiries to the gipsies. Now Colonel Manners was
+not a man to pause and wonder what could be the connection between the
+Honourable Edward de Vaux and the king of shreds and patches from whom
+he had received the letter, till the time was past for rendering
+effectual service. Nevertheless, as he rode on, he did wonder much at
+that connection, revolving in his mind every thing probable and
+improbable which could account for circumstances with regard to which
+the reader wants no explanations; but keeping his horse's chest all
+the time steadily against the hill, and his spurs to its flanks, to
+prevent its resisting a method of progression to which he never
+subjected it except on occasions of necessity. The beast panted, but
+still Manners, feeling that perhaps too much time had been lost
+already, kept it up to the same pace, saying, internally, "You would
+have gone unflinching at the heels of the hounds, my good gray, and
+the matter is more important now."
+
+The early rays of the sun had licked up the hoar-frost of a clear
+autumnal morning, but had left the roads, in consequence, and
+especially the road up which Manners's course lay, heavy and
+difficult. The sunshine, too, of the autumn--as we often see with the
+sunshine of life--had been too early bright to continue unclouded to
+the close of the day; and now, even as he rode on, a thin brownish
+film of dull vapour began to creep up from the verge of the horizon,
+promising rain ere long. Manners spurred on all the faster, not that,
+as far as his own person was concerned, he cared whether it rained or
+not, but he had served long enough with nations who follow their
+enemies by the lightest traces in the dew or in the sand to know that
+a heavy rain was often destruction itself to the hopes of a pursuing
+party.
+
+At length he reached the level at the top of the ascent; and, pointing
+with his hand to the tumulus, he said, turning to those who followed
+him, "You, William, ride up as far as you can upon the mound, and keep
+a keen eye upon the whole plain. If you see any one skulking about or
+watching, give instant notice, and gallop up if you hear me call. You
+come with me," he added, to his own man; and, taking the shortest cut
+towards the sandpit, he spurred on towards the spot where he had last
+seen the gipsies. The bushes, however, were now directly between him
+and the bank that had sheltered their encampment, so that he could see
+nothing till he was nearly upon the pit.
+
+Then, however, his disappointment was not small to find the usual
+relics of a gipsy resting-place, but nothing else. A few rags, a leaf
+of an old black-letter book, feathers of many birds, and fur of more
+than one sort of beast, several charred spots, and a large stick or
+two, were to be seen upon the ground; but nothing else met the eye in
+any direction, and Manners paused for a moment to lay out what was to
+be done next.
+
+"Go back for a hundred yards," he said, at length, turning to his
+servant; "and then make a slow circle at that distance quite round
+this pit, seeing whether you can find fresh footmarks in any
+direction."
+
+The servant obeyed, and in a few minutes, exclaimed, "Here are a great
+many, sir, along this road, which seems to go down the other side of
+the hill. Horses' feet, too, and cart-wheels, quite fresh."
+
+"Go on quite round," rejoined his master. "What do you find more?"
+
+"Here are a good many scattered footmarks in this direction, sir,"
+replied the man when he had arrived at a spot situated exactly between
+Manners and the little tumulus; "but they do not tend in any
+particular way that I can see."
+
+Manners rode up; but the footprints were turned in many directions,
+and were of various sizes, some seemingly fresh, and some half-effaced
+by others. Nothing, therefore, could be discovered from the traces on
+that particular spot; but as Colonel Manners had every reason for
+believing that his friend must have approached the gipsy encampment
+from that side, he took the pains of dismounting, and tracing the
+different steps some way upon each of the several paths in which they
+led. It was in vain, however; the whole were so puzzled and intermixed
+that he could make nothing of them, and had his foot in the stirrup to
+mount again when De Vaux's servant came down from the mound, at full
+gallop, exclaiming, "There is certainly some one watching there, sir,
+at the edge of that wood. I have seen them come out and in three
+times. There! there! Do you see, sir? He is coming more forward now."
+
+Could Manners have bent down with his attendants, so as to escape the
+attention of the person who approached, he would certainly have done
+so; but though they might have hidden themselves among the
+neighbouring slopes, their horses were not so easily concealed, and
+the sandpit was now too far off to afford them a screen. A moment's
+thought showed him that it would be best to stand quite still, as the
+man, whoever he was, was still advancing. The next moment, however,
+the stranger stopped--went on again a few steps farther--stopped
+again; and then, turning precipitately, made his way back towards the
+wood.
+
+Manners was in the saddle in a moment; and could speed have
+accomplished what he desired, the person who so evidently sought to
+avoid observation would not have escaped, but the distance he had
+advanced from the wood had not been more than a hundred yards; and
+long ere Manners's horse could reach the skirt of the forest ground
+all vestige of him he pursued was lost in an intricate labyrinth of
+trees and bushes, which set further search at defiance. The two men
+came up shortly after, while Manners was pausing disappointed by the
+edge of the wood; and De Vaux's servant, touching his hat, called the
+colonel's attention to some footmarks, which they had passed as they
+followed him. Manners instantly turned back, and in a dip of the
+ground, where some mud had been left by a half dried up pool, he
+discovered the distinct traces of two different sets of footsteps.
+Both were small, and neither seemed to have been left by the tread of
+a peasant; but one was evidently the mark of a boot, cut by some neat
+and fashionable maker; and De Vaux's servant declared that he could
+swear to that print having been made by his master's foot.
+
+Nothing remained, then, but to follow these footsteps as far as
+possible; but the difficulty of doing so was not small, for there were
+but few spots of a nature similar to that in which the traces had been
+found, and the ground around was in general covered by short parched
+grass, or long tufts of rushes. At length, however, at the distance of
+more than fifty yards farther on, in the exact direction in which the
+other steps pointed, Manners discovered the mark of a heel, and this
+again led them to more steps. Several times the traces seemed lost
+entirely, and several times Colonel Manners was obliged to return to
+the last he had seen, and set off anew; but still the positive
+assertions of his friend's servant that the footsteps were those of De
+Vaux caused Manners to persist, till at length he succeeded in tracing
+the prints to the edge of the steep bank, to which, as we have seen,
+the gipsy had really led his unfortunate visiter.
+
+Manners now paused, with some very painful apprehensions gathering
+thick upon him. Thither, it is true, De Vaux must have come willingly
+with some other person, for there was not the slightest appearance
+either of haste or resistance in any of the footmarks they had seen;
+but it was in that very wood, near which they now were, that the
+report of fire-arms had been heard the night before; and, as far as
+Manners had been able to discover, it had been in the precise
+direction to which the steps had now guided them. What, too, he asked
+himself, could be De Vaux's inducement to approach so lonely a place
+as this--by a path which led to no other object--in the dead of the
+night, and with a person to whom it appeared he must have been a
+stranger? What, too, could be that person's object in leading him
+hither at such a time?
+
+No answer could he give to either of these questions which was at all
+likely to calm the apprehensions that he now began seriously to
+entertain concerning his friend's fate; and he gazed round the spot to
+which the footsteps had conducted him with more anxiety concerning the
+next object that was to meet his view than ever he had felt on the
+field of battle.
+
+At length, however, his eye rested on the little rugged path by which
+his friend and the gipsy had descended to the scene of their
+conference; and Manners at once followed it. Here, again, the two sets
+of footprints were distinctly visible, going down towards the
+abandoned quarry and the felled oak. There were marks also to be seen,
+as of some one coming up; but they had evidently been imprinted by the
+tread of one person, and that not of Edward de Vaux. A few drops of
+blood next met Manners's eye, as with an attentive gaze he examined
+the ground while he descended. Then came more and more, dotting the
+sand with red, till they at length led on to a spot where the same
+footsteps were thick and many, as if the persons whose course they
+marked had stood there for some time. There, too, appeared, however,
+an evidence of more import; for close to the spot where De Vaux and
+the gipsy had been standing, the sand had drank up a large quantity of
+gore, while the patches of short green grass that had rooted
+themselves here and there upon the broken ground around were dabbled
+with red in various directions.
+
+Manners gazed with horror and with grief on signs so unequivocal of
+the fate of his unhappy friend; and if he sorrowed bitterly for De
+Vaux, his heart was hardly less afflicted when he thought of her who
+was so soon to have become his bride--of her whose father and whose
+lover had shared the same dark and melancholy fate. His heart bled for
+her; and although, under any circumstances, he would have felt the
+same sympathy for De Vaux's family, and the same grief for the loss of
+his friend, the pain he personally felt was aggravated by the belief
+that he had, in some degree, been made an instrument for the purpose
+of decoying him into the trap which had evidently been laid for him.
+That feeling, however, and the indignation which that feeling
+awakened, made him the more strongly determine never to abandon the
+search till he had discovered the murderer and brought him to justice.
+He resolved to devote time, and fortune, and life itself, if it should
+be necessary, to the pursuit; to trace the offender out with the
+pertinacity of a bloodhound, and to run him down as he would a wolf.
+
+Although, to a man of Manners's character and peculiar frame of mind,
+the very task of the avenger was a bitter and a dreadful one, yet
+there was another duty still more grievous which lay before him for
+execution--that of communicating to the family of his unhappy friend
+the painful facts he had discovered; and the thought of the tears of
+Marian, and the sterner grief of Mrs. Falkland, and the deep, deep
+sorrow of her daughter, all thrilled upon him as he contemplated the
+course he had to follow. But to such thoughts he gave but a few
+moments. No time was to be lost in long deliberation, if action were
+to be effectual; and as Manners was not more a man of real deep and
+noble feeling than he was a man of active energy, he turned instantly
+to the measures for detecting the murderer. His first step was to take
+the exact measurement of both the footprints, and the next, to note
+down precisely in his memorandum-book every thing that had occurred in
+the search.
+
+The man who had been seen watching his party from the wood he felt
+sure was implicated in the transaction, if he were not the principal;
+and among the gipsies were to be found, beyond all doubt, the
+accomplices of the murderer, if not the participators in the deed
+itself. After a brief conversation, then, with the servants concerning
+the discoveries they had already made, he proceeded to inquire what
+was the next village or town to the seat of Lord Dewry; and being
+informed by his late friend's servant, who was well acquainted with
+the county, that it was called Barholm, he went on to give further
+directions.
+
+"You, William," he said, "ride back to the sandpit, which you saw me
+examining just now on the top of the common; you will there find the
+tracks of wheels and feet going down the opposite road to that by
+which we came, indicating the direction the gipsies have taken. Follow
+them as fast as you can, making continual inquiries concerning them.
+Trace them out, step by step, till you have found them. Then hire any
+of the peasantry to keep watch upon them, night and day, paying
+whatever sum may be necessary in advance, and giving strict orders to
+follow them wherever they go. There is a note to pay the people. Do
+not spare either speed or money; and when you have taken these
+precautions, ride over to join me at Barholm, where I will be tonight.
+Quick! mount, and away!"
+
+The man obeyed, and Manners then turned to his own servant. "You,
+John," he said, "lead your horse down the bank to the road--then on to
+the village there, with all speed. Gather together as many stout men
+as ever you can, and mount them at any price. Establish corresponding
+patrols all round this wood, as we did at the wood beyond Montreal
+last year, and remember that the great thing is haste. There is money,
+and if you need more, refer the people to me at Morley House. When you
+have done that, and left the care of the patrol in the hands of the
+most intelligent fellow you can find, come back to me at the house."
+
+"Shall I tell the folks what is the matter, sir?" demanded the
+servant. Manners mused for some moments. "Yes," he said, at length,
+"yes; circumstances fully justify it; and the people, who must love
+Mrs. Falkland and her family, will work in the matter with the greater
+interest. Lose no time, John, lest the fellow get out of the wood
+before you can surround it. He will probably lie there for half an
+hour or so, till he thinks we are gone, and then will make an effort
+to escape. It will take at least four or five-and-twenty men to watch
+it properly, giving each of them half a mile; but I should think that
+in the village you can get together as many--at all events, do your
+best."
+
+The man bowed, and led his beast down the bank, while Manners,
+springing into the saddle, turned his horse's head back towards Morley
+House.
+
+With grief and reluctance he did so; and although he felt the
+necessity of promptitude in his own proceedings, and that he had no
+right to keep those so deeply interested in suspense, yet repugnance
+to his painful task certainly rendered his horse's pace slower in
+returning than it had been when he set out upon his search.
+
+"How is Miss De Vaux now?" he asked of the servant who presented
+himself to take his horse; and it was some relief to hear in reply
+that she had not come down. He then ascended the stairs towards the
+drawing-room, but in the anteroom he was met by Isadore, who had
+already become aware of his return. All the light gay spirit was gone
+from her eyes, and her countenance now expressed nothing but intense
+anxiety. "You look grave, Colonel Manners," she exclaimed, as soon as
+she saw him. "You look sad; for Heaven's sake, tell me what have you
+discovered?"
+
+"Nothing at all satisfactory," replied Manners, anxious to break the
+matter to her as gently as possible: "the whole business is certainly
+very strange; but I still hope and trust that--"
+
+"Hope and trust!" exclaimed Isadore, clasping her hands. "Oh, Colonel
+Manners, you know more than you say. Poor, poor Marian! But tell me, I
+beseech you, tell me all. Indeed, this suspense is worse than the
+truth."
+
+"I have very little to tell, my dear Miss Falkland," he replied; "but
+I must acknowledge that what I have to tell is not at all calculated
+to remove our apprehensions."
+
+"But the gipsies, Colonel Manners!" exclaimed Isadore; "have you seen
+the gipsies?"
+
+"No, I have not," he answered: "they had left the common before I
+arrived; but I found traces of the way they had taken, and have sent
+your cousin's own servant to pursue them."
+
+"Sent my cousin's servant, without attempting to follow them
+yourself!" cried Isadore; but then, instantly lighting upon the right
+conclusion, she added, "But, no, no, no, Colonel Manners, I know you
+better! You would never have sent my cousin's servant upon such an
+inquiry, unless you had discovered something to render your stay here
+more necessary. But here comes mamma from poor Marian's room. Now, for
+Heaven's sake, tell us all, Colonel Manners."
+
+"I hope Miss De Vaux is more composed," said Manners, turning to Mrs.
+Falkland as she entered.
+
+"She is asleep from the effect of strong opiates, my dear sir,"
+replied Mrs. Falkland gravely; "and, if I may judge from your
+countenance, it is happy for her that she is so. Now, Colonel Manners,
+tell me candidly what you have discovered--I require no preparation."
+
+"The facts are simply these, then," replied Manners, "and I will not
+attempt to conceal from you that I am deeply uneasy on account of De
+Vaux. When I reached the gipsy encampment all was vacant, and nothing
+to be found but the place where it had been, together with fresh
+tracks of wheels and feet, marking the direction which the great body
+of the gipsies had taken. However, in another part of the common we
+discovered footmarks, which De Vaux's servant positively asserts to be
+those of his master; and, of course, my first care was to follow those
+as far as possible. They led us, I am sorry to say, in the direction
+where shots had been heard in the wood."
+
+"Good God!" cried Isadore, the tears bursting from her eyes; "poor
+Edward! and still more unhappy Marian!"
+
+"Nay, do not weep so bitterly, Miss Falkland," said Manners, "or I
+fear I shall not be able to finish my account. Remember, however, that
+we have discovered as yet nothing at all certain, and that such
+appearances as we have discovered are often, very often, fallacious."
+
+"You must let her weep, Colonel Manners," said Mrs. Falkland: "men
+never understand how great a relief tears are to a woman; and often I
+regret that some severe sorrows have taken from me the power of
+weeping as once I could. Pray go on, too; let us hear the worst. Where
+did the steps lead to?"
+
+"To a high bank just above a turn in the road," replied Colonel
+Manners; "a little more than a mile on the other side of the village."
+
+"Indeed!" cried Mrs. Falkland, now extremely agitated; "the very spot
+where my poor brother was murdered."
+
+"Not exactly," answered Manners; "for that spot was pointed out to me
+by De Vaux as we came hither; and the place to which I now refer,
+though near it, is not precisely the same. At that bank, however, all
+traces of my poor friend's footsteps were lost, and I could only find
+those of another person going away from it."
+
+Isadore continued to weep in silence; but Mrs. Falkland, seeing that
+Manners paused somewhat abruptly, fixed her eye upon him with a look
+of keen inquiry. Manners glanced towards Miss Falkland, slightly
+raising his eyebrows, and shaking his head; and Mrs. Falkland,
+understanding his meaning, took Isadora's hand, saying, "Go, my love,
+and sit by your poor cousin: Colonel Manners may have business with me
+which we can better discuss alone."
+
+Isadore obeyed at once, and Mrs. Falkland then turned to Manners with
+firm composure, saying, "Now, Colonel Manners, tell me all; what more
+did you find?"
+
+"I am sorry to say, madam," he answered, "that I found a great deal of
+blood spilt upon the sand."
+
+Mrs. Falkland covered her eyes with her hands, and remained silent for
+several minutes. At length she looked up, and Colonel Manners
+proceeded:--"I have now, madam, related all that I have done, except
+some measures already taken for the apprehension of the persons
+implicated. Such appearances as those I have met with, I still say,
+are often fallacious; but, nevertheless, it is absolutely necessary to
+take the same steps as if they were perfectly certain. If you will
+give me the name of the nearest magistrate, I will write to him
+instantly to obtain his sanction for what I have already done, and his
+assistance in what we may yet have to do."
+
+"The nearest magistrate is old Mr. Arden," replied Mrs. Falkland; "an
+active and intelligent man, though somewhat severe. He is the same,"
+she added, while some tears came into her eyes--"he is the same who
+investigated with so much energy the circumstances attending the death
+of my poor brother."
+
+"To him, then, I will write at once, madam," replied Manners. "When I
+have done so, I have another task to perform which will lead me to
+some distance; but I will be back here to-morrow; for though I would
+not willingly intrude upon your family in such a moment of grief, yet
+I hold myself bound--"
+
+"Oh, do not call it intruding, Colonel Manners," cried Mrs. Falkland;
+"if you will have the great kindness to manage the whole of this sad
+business for me, to act as my representative in it, and to add my love
+for my poor nephew to your own friendship for him, as motives for
+ascertaining his fate and pursuing his murderers, you will confer the
+greatest of favours on me and mine. Oh no, Colonel Manners, you must
+not think of leaving us at such a moment as this, when we all want the
+assistance, advice, and support of one so well calculated to
+strengthen and to aid us. But do you know there is another task I am
+going to put upon you; and circumstances may render it very painful to
+you--De Vaux's father--I could wish these tidings broken to him. His
+whole soul was wrapped up in his son; and I am sure Colonel Manners is
+too generous not to forget, in moments of affliction, any offence
+that--"
+
+"I have already arranged, my dear madam," replied Colonel Manners, "to
+go over to Lord Dewry as soon as I have written to Mr. Arden. De
+Vaux's servant is to meet me at the village of Barholm; and believe me
+that the little dispute which occurred between the father of my friend
+and myself rests too lightly on my mind to be thought of for a moment,
+when I can, in any degree, blunt the first sharp edge of the sad
+tidings he must soon hear."
+
+"I see one cannot calculate too liberally on your good feeling," said
+Mrs. Falkland; "nor can I express what a relief it is to me to have
+you here, Colonel Manners, at such a trying moment. I cannot, indeed,
+in my present state of mind, attend to your comfort as I could wish;
+but let me beg you, at least, to take some refreshment ere you set out
+for my brother's."
+
+"None, I thank you, my dear madam," he replied; "I do not require it.
+But now do not let me detain you. I know that you, too, have the
+painful task of breaking the confirmation of our fears to her who will
+feel the pang more acutely than any."
+
+"Indeed, I hardly know how to do it," replied Mrs. Falkland. "To a
+casual observer, Marian may appear cold and indifferent by nature; but
+quite the reverse is known to be the case by those who have better
+opportunities of judging. Her heart is all warmth, and tenderness, and
+affection; and it is, perhaps, a consciousness of the very excess of
+such feelings that makes her put a stricter guard upon the expression
+of them. I fear that these tidings, if told entirely, will go far to
+kill her."
+
+"Then by no means tell them, my dear madam," replied Manners: "I am no
+advocate for concealments or pious frauds of any kind; and where the
+strength of the individual is able to bear them up, we should always
+speak the truth: but of course we must regulate our conduct by our
+knowledge of the person; and both from what I have seen to-day, and
+what you yourself say, I would strongly advise you--if you will excuse
+my doing so--to tell Miss De Vaux, merely, that I have not succeeded
+in my first search for my poor friend, and that I am still following
+the same object in a different direction."
+
+"I believe I must do even as you say," replied Mrs. Falkland, "and
+suffer Marian's mind to come to the sad conclusion, to which we have
+already come, by degrees. Though the suspense may be harrowing, yet it
+will not have so bad an effect on her as the sudden confirmation of
+her worst fears. Allow me, too, to hint, Colonel Manners, that you
+will find my brother less capable of bearing such tidings than you may
+imagine, from what you have seen of his demeanour. His love for his
+son was as ardent as his other passions."
+
+"Do not be afraid, my dear madam," replied Manners, taking her hand;
+"I will do nothing roughly, believe me."
+
+"I do, indeed," answered Mrs. Falkland--"I do, indeed, believe that it
+is not in the nature of Colonel Manners to act unkindly to anyone. At
+what time shall I order the carriage?"
+
+"Oh, not at all--not at all," he answered; "I will ride: it is always
+my custom; and as soon as I have written this letter, and my servant
+has returned, I will set out. Let me detain you no longer, and God
+grant that our fears may have magnified the proofs in their own
+support."
+
+
+
+                            END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE GIPSY;
+
+
+                               A TALE.
+
+
+
+
+                           BY THE AUTHOR OF
+
+
+                 "RICHELIEU," "MARY OF BURGUNDY," &c.
+
+
+
+
+   "Ah! what a tangled web we weave,
+    When first we venture to deceive."
+                            Sir Walter Scott.
+
+
+
+
+                           IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                               VOL. II.
+
+
+
+
+                               NEW YORK
+                    HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
+                           FRANKLIN SQUARE.
+                                1855.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              THE GIPSY
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Nothing shows us, perhaps, the utter blindness in which we are held by
+fate more completely, than the constant fallacy of our calculations in
+regard to even the smallest events over which we have not a personal
+and unlimited control. A letter is put into our hands in a writing
+that we know; and ere we have broken the seal, fancy, aided by the
+best efforts of reason, has laid out before us the probable contents:
+but as soon as the seal is broken, we find the whole as different
+therefrom as it is possible to imagine. A friend, or a stranger, comes
+to see us; and ere we can reach the room where he is waiting,
+imagination has done her work, and given us a full account of the
+person and his errand. We expect some pleasant meeting, or some glad
+tidings, and we go but to hear of some bitter loss or sad
+disappointment.
+
+Thus, as Lord Dewry walked towards the room to which he had directed
+the servant to conduct Colonel Manners, he did not fail to calculate
+the cause of his coming. "He is either here," thought the peer, "to
+apologize for his conduct, in which case I shall treat him with
+contempt, or he has come to proffer that personal satisfaction which
+he before refused. I hope the latter; and if so, I shall have a cause
+sufficient to assign for demanding Edward's immediate rupture with
+him."
+
+As he thus thought, he opened the door of the saloon in the midst of
+which Colonel Manners was standing, booted, and spurred, and dusty,
+from the road; but with that air of ease, composure, and calmness
+which spoke his character.
+
+"My lord," he said, as soon as the peer entered, "I am obliged very
+unwillingly to intrude upon you; and, of course, feel more
+uncomfortable in interrupting you at this unseasonable hour: but the
+business on which I come admits of no delay."
+
+"I am not aware, sir," replied the peer, frowning sternly, "what
+business can remain between us, after our last meeting, when you
+thought fit--"
+
+"My lord," interrupted Colonel Manners, anxious to put a stop to a
+revival of past grievances, which, at the present moment, could only
+aggravate the pain he had to inflict--"my lord, my present business is
+totally unconnected with the past; and extremely sorry I am that
+anything ever occurred between your lordship and myself to render my
+present visit disagreeable to you in itself."
+
+"Sir, your expression of sorrow," replied the peer, "as is usual in
+such cases, comes too late; but to your business, sir. Do not let me
+interrupt that. What is your business with me? for the sooner we
+settle it the better shall I be pleased."
+
+There was a pertinacity in Lord Dewry's rudeness that offended
+Manners; but he gave no way to his anger. There was a stronger feeling
+in his bosom; and pity for the childless old man not barely mastered
+every other sensation, but mastered all so completely, that he went on
+with as nice a calculation of the best and kindest means of breaking
+his loss to the peer, as if not a word had been said but those of
+welcome and civility. "My lord," he replied, "I come to you as one
+of the principal magistrates of this county, in your quality of
+lord-lieutenant--"
+
+"I wish, sir," interrupted the peer, "that you had sought some other
+magistrate to whom your presence would have been more welcome."
+
+"I might have done so, my lord," replied Manners, "had the business on
+which I had to seek a magistrate not been one so immediately affecting
+your lordship, that although, in the first instance, I wrote to the
+nearest justice of the peace that I could hear of--Mr. Arden--I
+thought it but right to ride over myself to request your co-operation
+in the measures we are taking."
+
+Manners observed a change of expression, and a slight degree of
+paleness pass over the countenance of his hearer; and, although he
+certainly did not attribute it to that consciousness of crime and
+consequent feeling of insecurity in which it really originated, he saw
+that the first step was gained; and that the peer was, in some degree,
+prepared to hear evil tidings. Lord Dewry, however, replied in a
+manner which had nearly forced the communication at once. "May I ask,
+sir," he said, in a tone grave but less bitter than that which he had
+formerly employed--"may I ask, sir, why, when business of importance
+concerning myself occurred, my son did not take upon himself the task
+of communicating with his father upon the subject, but rather left it
+to a person whose visit was certainly unsolicited?"
+
+"Because, my lord, your son was not capable of doing so," replied
+Colonel Manners, "from the fact of his being absent from Morley
+House."
+
+"Not at Morley House!" cried the peer. "Pray where is he, then, sir?"
+
+"I really cannot inform your lordship," replied Manners, "for I do not
+know."
+
+"Good God! this is very extraordinary," cried Lord Dewry, taking alarm
+more from the tone of Manners's voice, and the expression of his
+countenance, than from anything he had said. "For Heaven's sake,
+explain yourself, sir. Where is my son? What is your business? Sit
+down, sir, I beg! What is it you seek?"
+
+By the agitated manner in which the baron spoke, Manners saw that he
+must proceed cautiously.
+
+"May I ask you, my lord, if you have ever heard of a person named
+Pharold, a gipsy?" he demanded, intending by this question to lead his
+hearer's mind away, for a moment, from the real subject of
+apprehension; but, without at all wishing it, by that very inquiry he
+redoubled the agitation of the peer.
+
+For an instant the thoughts of Lord Dewry were all in confusion and
+uncertainty,--doubtful of the end to which Manners's interrogatory
+tended, and fearful that a man to whom he had given such just cause
+for anger had become acquainted with some of the dreadful secrets
+which oppressed his own bosom. His first impulse was to lift his hand
+to his head, and to gaze with some degree of wildness upon the
+countenance of his questioner; but almost instantly recalling his
+firmness, and recollecting the measures he had taken, and the schemes
+he had laid out, he recovered also his composure, and replied, with a
+forced smile, "You have alarmed me about my son, Colonel Manners; but
+you ask me if I know a gipsy of the name of Pharold. I do: my family
+have, I am afraid, too good reason to know him."
+
+"Then have you any cause to suppose that he bears an ill-will towards
+your family?" demanded Manners again.
+
+"I have, sir, I have!" replied Lord Dewry; "I have the strongest
+reasons to believe that he bears us ill-will,--that he has already
+injured us, and seeks but the opportunity to do more and more for our
+destruction."
+
+"Does his ill-will particularly point against your son, my lord?"
+asked Manners, deeply interested by an answer which to him was both
+mysterious and painful.
+
+"No, no!" exclaimed the peer, starting up from the chair into which he
+had cast himself when he had invited Manners to be seated--"no, no!
+certainly not! What is the meaning of this? You have some darker
+meaning, sir! What of Edward? Tell me, I beseech you, tell me, where
+is my son?"
+
+"My lord, I am grieved to repeat, that I cannot tell you where he is,"
+replied Manners; "and it is for the purpose of concerting means for
+discovering him that I now wait upon your lordship. He went out, it
+appears, to see this gipsy Pharold, and has never returned."
+
+Manners acted for the best; and having not the slightest idea of all
+that was passing in the bosom of De Vaux's father, he thought that by
+concealing for a few moments the proof he had obtained of his friend
+having been murdered, he would allow the mind of the unhappy parent to
+come by degrees, and less painfully, to a knowledge of the truth: but
+the result was by no means such as he anticipated; for to Lord Dewry
+the bare idea of his son having any communication whatever with the
+eyewitness of that dreadful deed which he had committed in other
+years, was agonizing in itself; and, without remembering that any one
+was present to remark the agitation to which he yielded, he clasped
+his hands together, and strode up and down the saloon, muttering,
+"Villain! scoundrel! it is all over!" Then, again, recollecting that
+he was observed, he found it necessary to curb his emotions, and to
+make anxiety for his son the apparent cause for that agitation which
+he had already displayed. "Colonel Manners," he said, "you alarm me
+much. For Heaven's sake, tell me the particulars! Something more than
+a temporary and ordinary absence must have occurred to excite
+apprehensions in an officer so much accustomed to danger as yourself.
+Nor is my sister a woman to yield to idle fears. Tell me, then, what
+has happened to my son, and why you are led to suppose that there has
+been any communication between him and a person in regard to whom I
+have more than suspicions of very terrible deeds--who is, I believe, a
+villain of the blackest character, and who would scruple at nothing to
+injure a race who were his first benefactors."
+
+"The facts are these, my lord," replied Manners: "but I trust we shall
+find that your son's absence is owing, notwithstanding its
+strangeness, to some accidental circumstance of no importance. As I
+was about to say, however, the facts are these:--It appears that last
+night De Vaux did not go to bed; that he left Morley House during the
+night, and that he has never returned during the day. He also, I find,
+mentioned yesterday to his cousin, Miss De Vaux, his intention of
+visiting a gipsy named Pharold, who had sent him a letter that
+morning; but his purpose, as he then stated it, was to go to Morley
+Down, where the gipsies were, to-day, and not during the night; and
+his prolonged absence has, of course, greatly alarmed Mrs. Falkland
+and her family."
+
+"But has no search been instituted? Have no traces been found?" cried
+Lord Dewry, his fears taking a new direction. "No time should be
+lost."
+
+"No time has been lost as yet, my lord," replied Manners: "I myself
+have been to the place where the gipsies were last seen; but they are
+there no more, and, to all appearance, must have either decamped in
+the night or early this morning. But it appears certain, from the
+evidence of Mr. De Vaux's servant, who was with me, that some
+footprints which we traced on the ground, in different parts of the
+common, were from my poor friend's boot; and in the same track are
+those of another person, who was apparently with him during the
+night."
+
+"But whither did they lead?" exclaimed the peer, whose agitation was
+becoming dreadful. "Speak out, sir, for God's sake! You call him your
+poor friend: you have discovered more. Whither did the footsteps lead?
+I can bear all."
+
+"They led, my lord," replied Manners, "to a high bank, overhanging a
+part of the road, about a mile or more to the west of Morley House,
+near a point of wooded land which causes the river to take a singular
+bend in its course."
+
+Lord Dewry shook in every limb; but, by a strong effort, he uttered,
+"Go on, sir; go on: let me hear the worst."
+
+"Thank God, my lord, I have little more to inflict upon your
+lordship," replied Manners. "At that bank the steps ended; but--"
+
+He paused, and the peer eagerly demanded, "But what--what found you
+more?"
+
+"It must be told," thought Manners. "We found, my lord," he added,
+aloud, "a good deal of blood spilled upon the sand."
+
+The peer groaned bitterly. "My poor boy! my poor boy!" he cried; but
+for some minutes he said no more.
+
+While Manners had been in the act of telling his tale, the conflict
+which had taken place in the bosom of Lord Dewry can better be
+conceived than described. Every moment produced a change of sensation;
+every word a new and different apprehension. Now he fancied his son
+made acquainted with his guilt; now feared that the very means he had
+taken to conceal it might have made the gipsy to wreak his vengeance
+on his unoffending child. That Pharold was capable of committing any
+or every crime was a conviction which had been brought about in the
+mind of the peer by one of those curious processes in the human heart
+whereby great guilt seeks to conceal its blackness from even its own
+eyes, by representing others in colours as dark as it feels that it
+itself deserves; and while at one moment he suspected that Pharold
+might have obtained information of the trap laid for him by the
+gamekeeper, and to avenge himself might have revealed his whole
+history to Edward de Vaux, at another he believed that the destruction
+of his son might have been the means which the gipsies had determined
+upon, in order to punish himself for his designs against them.
+
+As Colonel Manners concluded his account, however, the latter opinion
+predominated over all others; the peer's own heart acknowledged that
+the means they had taken was that which was the most fearfully
+effectual; and he beheld no other image than the heir of his name, the
+child of his love, murdered in cold blood, within sight of the very
+spot where his own hand had slain his brother. All his first emotions
+were consecrated to deep grief. He had loved his son; he had admired
+him; and affection and pride had united to give him the only green
+place in a heart that angry passions had left arid and desolate; and
+now he was alone in all the world. He had been hitherto like a mariner
+ploughing the waves in the midst of storms and darkness, with one
+small point of bright light in the wide dark vacancy before him; but
+now the clouds had rolled over that light for ever, and the past and
+the future were alike one lurid night. There was nothing left in life
+to live for; and during one moment all was despair: but the minute
+after, the most overpowering passion of human nature rose up, and
+rekindled with its own red and baleful light the extinguished torch of
+hope. Revenge became his thirst; and the remembrance that it was
+nearly within his grasp, and that another day would give it to him,
+was the only consolation that his mind could receive. It seized upon
+him at once; it compelled every other feeling and passion to its aid:
+grief gave it bitterness; pride gave it intensity; wrath lent it
+eagerness. "He has smitten me to the heart," he thought; "he has
+smitten me to the heart. But I will smite him still deeper, and he
+shall learn what it is to have raised his hand against a son of mine."
+It was but for one instant that he had given way to despair, and the
+next revenge took possession of his whole soul, and became almost more
+than a consolation--a joy. All its dark and cruel pictures, too, rose
+up before his mental vision, and he pleased himself with gazing forth
+into the future, and seeing him he most hated within the gripe of his
+vengeance. He painted to himself the agony which long and solitary
+imprisonment would inflict on a heart which he knew to be wild and
+free; he thought over all the tyrannical details of a trial in a court
+of justice; and he gazed even into the gipsy's bosom, and saw the
+burning indignation and despair that would wring his heart, exposed a
+public spectacle to the eyes of a race he detested, tried by laws he
+condemned and had abjured, and exciting the curiosity and the loud
+remark of the idle and the vulgar. He followed him in imagination to
+the scaffold, and saw him die the death of a dog; and only grieved
+that there revenge must stop, and that the cup contained not another
+drop of ignominy and suffering to pour upon the head of him who had
+destroyed his son.
+
+Occupied with these thoughts, he remained silent for several minutes;
+but his features worked, and his limbs even writhed, wrought
+unconsciously by the intensity of the emotions within. Colonel Manners
+saw the strong and painful degree of his agitation; but he had no key
+to the secret sources of feeling which, opened wide by the news of his
+son's loss, were gushing forth in streams of bitterness upon his
+heart. He attributed, then, all that he saw to deep grief; and
+although his application to the peer, in his magisterial capacity, had
+been but to bring about the disclosures he had to make as gently as
+possible, yet he still thought it best to continue the same course
+with which he had begun, in order to engage the unhappy nobleman in
+those personal and active exertions which might in some degree divert
+his mind from the sole and painful contemplation of his recent loss.
+
+"My lord," he said, feelingly, "believe me, no one feels more deeply
+and sympathizes more sincerely with your lordship than myself; but
+allow me to recall to your mind that great and instant exertions are
+necessary to ensure the arrest of the murderer; the pursuit of whom I
+have determined never to quit till I have seen him brought to
+justice."
+
+Lord Dewry, with his own burning hand, clasped warmly that of Colonel
+Manners, the object of his former hatred. The fact is, however, that
+circumstances had established between them two strong ties since the
+death of Edward de Vaux. The one was wholly composed of good feelings,
+and sprang from their mutual affection for the deceased,--affection
+which had, of course, risen in value in each other's eyes since death
+had hallowed it; and the other,--composed of feelings which, though
+noble and virtuous on the one part, were terribly mixed with evil on
+the other,--was the desire of bringing the murderer to justice. Lord
+Dewry then grasped Colonel Manners's hand, and said, "I have much to
+thank you for, sir, and I am afraid that I have somewhat to apologize
+for in the past; but--"
+
+"Do not mention it, I beg, my lord," replied Manners. "It is forgotten
+entirely; only let us bend our energies with a common effort to pursue
+this sad affair to an end, to discover, as far as Heaven shall enable
+us, what has really occurred, and above all, to ensure the immediate
+apprehension of this gipsy Pharold, whom every circumstance, hitherto
+apparent, points at as the murderer."
+
+A gleam of triumph broke over the thin sallow countenance of the peer.
+"If I am not very much mistaken, Colonel Manners," he said, "this very
+Pharold will be in our hands to-night. He and his gang are not famous
+alone for one sort of crime. My park-keepers at Dimden informed me a
+few days ago that they had discovered a plan which these gipsies had
+laid for robbing my park of the deer; and I immediately took measures
+to ensure the arrest of the whole of them in the very fact. Nor was
+my purpose alone to save my game, Colonel Manners, nor to punish
+deer-stealers," continued Lord Dewry, raising his head and speaking
+with determined firmness; "no, I had a weightier object in view; I had
+a more serious offence to avenge."
+
+The peer paused; for although he was anxious to make the charge which
+he had determined to bring against the gipsy, boldly and distinctly to
+as many private individuals as possible, before he urged it in a
+public court of justice, yet he felt a difficulty, a hesitation,
+perhaps we might say a fear, in pronouncing for the first time so
+false an accusation against a fellow-creature, which was to be
+supported, too, by so many dark, and tortuous, and deceitful
+contrivances. There was in his bosom a consciousness of the fallacy,
+of the futility, we might say, of all human calculations, which
+produced an undefined dread of rendering his schemes irretrievable by
+once making the charge to any one. It was to him the passing of the
+Rubicon; and that step once taken, he felt that he should be involved
+in a labyrinth of obscure and unknown paths, from which there would be
+no retreat, and which would conduct him whither he knew not. And yet
+he saw that it must be taken; that the gipsy's first act after his
+arrest would undoubtedly be, to charge him with the crime which he had
+committed; and that it was absolutely necessary, in order to give all
+his future proceedings a firm basis and a commanding position, to be
+the person to accuse rather than the person accused. He knew how
+inferior defence is to attack; how much more faith men are naturally
+inclined to give to a charge than they give to a recrimination; and
+from the first commencement of his reply to Colonel Manners he had
+determined to make it boldly; but when he came to the immediate point
+where it was to be spoken, he hesitated and paused irresolute.
+
+The next moment, however, he went on. "Colonel Manners," he said,
+resuming his firmness, "as I believe that the culprit may be
+considered in our power, and that therefore no indiscreet
+communication of my suspicions can give him warning to escape, I do
+not scruple to say that I have many, many reasons to suppose that this
+gipsy, this Pharold, is not only the murderer of my son, poor Edward,
+but that my brother's death also may be laid to his charge; and with a
+view of bringing him to justice for that offence it was that I, this
+very morning, took the surest measures for his apprehension, and not
+for any pitiful affair of deer-stealing, which might have gone long
+unpunished ere I exerted myself as I have done."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Manners, gazing upon the peer in much surprise.
+"How strangely do events sometimes come round!"
+
+"Perhaps you are not acquainted with the circumstances of my brother's
+death," replied the peer, marking some surprise in Manners's
+countenance, and in his anxiety to show the probability of the charge
+he had made, overcoming his repugnance to speak upon a subject of all
+others the most dreadful to him. "However, Colonel Manners," he
+continued, "he was killed by some one unknown many years ago; and the
+suspicions against this man Pharold were then so strong, that good Mr.
+Arden, the magistrate, would fain have had him committed, had not I
+foolishly interfered, from a weak conviction of his honesty. That
+conviction, however, has been since removed, and I may say that I have
+in my hands the most decided proofs of his guilt."
+
+Such was the explanation to which the apparent surprise of Colonel
+Manners led on the peer; but that surprise proceeded both from the new
+charge which the peer made against the gipsy being totally unexpected
+by his hearer, and from another cause which must be explained, as it
+touches upon some of those little weaknesses of our nature, which
+Colonel Manners possessed in common with other human beings.
+
+Through the whole affair, since he had discovered the traces of De
+Vaux's footsteps on the common, and the marks of bloodshed at the
+quarry, hope had offered to the mind of Charles Manners but one
+suggestion to diminish his apprehensions for the fate of his friend;
+and that suggestion, strange enough to say, was that the countenance,
+the demeanour, and the language of the gipsy Pharold were not those of
+a man familiar with guilt or designing evil. Colonel Manners was too
+much a man of the world, and too much a man of sense, to suffer such
+impressions to affect his conduct in the slightest degree. He knew
+that this earth contains every grade and every sort of hypocrisy; and
+that Satan himself will occasionally assume the form of an angel of
+light: but at the same time, although his behaviour was on all
+occasions guarded by what he had learned from experience, yet through
+life he had preserved his natural enthusiasm unblunted by the hard
+world in which we live; and there was thus in his character a rare
+mingling of ardent and energetic feelings with calm and well
+calculated actions, which formed the specific difference between him
+and the general herd with which he moved. During his conversation with
+Pharold he had remarked a dignity, not alone of manner, but of
+thought, in the gipsy, opposed to all the habits of his tribe, and
+which must have been difficult to retain among them at all, but still
+more difficult to assume, if it was not natural and habitual,--if it
+sprang not from a heart at ease in itself, and a consciousness of
+virtue and intellect superior to the things through which it passed.
+His countenance, too, had appeared to him open and frank, though wild
+and keen; and Manners wished much to believe that vice or crime, in
+general, more or less affect the expression of the human face. All
+this had struck him; and though, as we have said before, he suffered
+not these impressions to affect his conduct in the least, opposed as
+they were to known facts, and circumstances of great probability, yet
+hope still whispered, surely that gipsy was not a man either to plan
+or to commit so dreadful a deed as the indications he had met with
+would have naturally led him to suspect. It may well be supposed,
+then, that the numerous and dark charges brought forward so boldly by
+the peer startled Manners not a little; and as he had no cause to
+believe that Lord Dewry was instigated by any motive to prefer a false
+accusation against the gipsy, he could only conclude that he himself
+had been deceived in his estimation of Pharold's character by the most
+skilful and consummate hypocrisy.
+
+"I have heard some of the events to which your lordship alludes," he
+replied, as soon as the peer paused; "and was only surprised to hear
+such an unexpected aggravation of the suspicious circumstances which
+have already appeared against this man Pharold. I trust, too, that the
+measures which your lordship has taken may be successful for his
+arrest; but allow me to suggest, that the unhappy news which I have
+had the melancholy duty of communicating ought to point out more
+extensive operations for the apprehension of the offender, as it is
+not at all impossible that this new offence may have entirely changed
+the circumstances, and may have put a stop to the attack upon your
+lordship's park, of which you received intimation."
+
+Lord Dewry struck his hand upon the table, perceiving suddenly the
+probability of Colonel Manners's suggestion, and anticipating with
+rage and disappointment the possible escape of the gipsy, or at least
+his evasion till such time as the arrival of Sir William Ryder in
+England might render the schemes he had planned, if not entirely
+impracticable, at all events highly difficult of execution, and
+dangerous to himself in the attempt.
+
+"He shall be taken, if it cost me life and fortune," he exclaimed;
+"but how, how?--that is the question, Colonel Manners. What you say is
+true; the murder of my poor unhappy boy may have scared them away from
+the scene of their crimes, and most probably has done so ere this.
+What is to be done? how can we trace them? Pray, advise me, Colonel
+Manners, if you had any regard for your unhappy comrade."
+
+His agitation was dreadful; and Manners saw that the only way to
+tranquilize him was to give him fresh hopes of the apprehension of
+those who had been instrumental in the death of his son. "Most
+willingly will I give you any advice and assistance in my power," he
+replied; "but your lordship will be better able to judge what is most
+fitting to be done when you hear what I have already endeavoured to
+accomplish. My proceedings have been those of a soldier, but perhaps
+they may not be the less likely to be successful on that account."
+
+"The more, the more," cried Lord Dewry; "but let me beg you to give me
+the details."
+
+"In the first place, my lord," he replied, "I have sent my poor
+friend's own servant, who is a keen and active fellow, to trace out
+the gipsies, and to follow the tracks we discovered on the common as
+far as possible. I have furnished him also with money to hire
+assistance and to buy information; and I directed him, as soon as his
+object was accomplished, to join me at Barholm with all speed. He had
+not, however, arrived when I passed the inn, and I ordered him to be
+sent on here as soon as ever he appeared."
+
+"Thank you, thank you, sir," reiterated Lord Dewry; "but do you think
+there is any hope of his discovering the road the villains have
+taken?"
+
+"Every chance, my lord," replied Colonel Manners: "in the first place,
+the tracks of the wheels, and the feet going in one particular
+direction, was too evident to leave a doubt in regard to which path
+they had taken at first. That path, I find, leads down to a hamlet
+where they must have been seen, and where the servant will most
+probably obtain the means of tracing them farther. But my next step,
+my lord, is, I think, likely to produce the still more desirable
+result of placing in the hands of justice the particular individual
+whom we have the greatest reason to suspect. While we were examining
+the sandpit, where these gipsies had been assembled, we discovered
+some one apparently watching the common from the wood; and whether at
+first he mistook us for some of his own tribe or not, I cannot tell;
+but he advanced some way towards us. As soon as I saw he was again
+retreating to the wood, I galloped after him; and though I
+unfortunately had not time to overtake him, yet I had an opportunity
+of satisfying myself very nearly to a certainty that this was that
+very Pharold whom I had once before seen on another occasion. I took
+measures as soon as possible for having the wood surrounded by a
+mounted patrol of as many men as it was possible to obtain, and I
+directed that any one who was apprehended in coming out of it should
+be instantly carried before Mr. Arden, to whom I had written a concise
+account of all the circumstances."
+
+The peer mused; for, as in every dark and complicated scheme of
+villany, the slightest alteration in the events which he had
+anticipated was likely to produce the most disastrous results to the
+schemer. "If Pharold be carried at once before Mr. Arden," thought the
+peer, "the accusation which he has it in his power to bring against me
+may be made before I am aware of it, and that, too, to the very man
+who has the best means of comparing minutely, in the first stages of
+the proceeding, the present charge with the past circumstances. That
+the gipsy will ultimately tell his own tale, there can be no doubt;
+yet to make the first impression is the great object--to be the
+accuser rather than the accused--to attack rather than defend." With
+such views, the probability of the gipsy being carried before Mr.
+Arden ere he had been prepared was anything but agreeable to the peer;
+and for a moment the anguish occasioned by his son's death was
+forgotten, in apprehensions for the failure of his own deep-laid
+schemes.
+
+"I will write myself to Mr. Arden," he said, at length, after long
+thought--"I will write myself, and send off the letter this very
+night. Colonel Manners, excuse me for one moment. I have but a few
+lines to write, and will be back with you in a few minutes." Thus
+saying, he proceeded to his library, and with a hasty hand wrote down
+that bold and decided charge against the gipsy which was to bring the
+long apprehended struggle between them to an end at once. Nor did he,
+in this instance, feel any hesitation. The words had now been spoken
+to Colonel Manners--the charge had once been made; and it is wonderful
+the difference that exists between the first and the second time of
+doing anything that is wrong. He wrote, too, though without any effort
+at policy, yet with the most exquisite art--with that sort of
+intuitive cunning which much intercourse with the world, and its worst
+part, gives to the keen and unscrupulous. He referred, directly, to
+Mr. Arden's former opinion concerning the culpability of the gipsy; he
+took shame and reproach to himself for his own incredulity at the
+time; he declared that subsequent events had shown the wisdom and
+clear-sightedness of the worthy magistrate's judgment, and he finished
+his letter by directly accusing the gipsy of the crime which Mr. Arden
+had suspected, doubting not that vanity would establish in the mind of
+the magistrate such a prepossession against the object of his wiles as
+to give everything in the important first steps that were to ensue a
+strong tendency against Pharold.
+
+This done, he read the note over with satisfaction, sealed it, and
+sent it off, raised his head, and, gazing upon vacancy, thought, for a
+moment, over all the stern and painful circumstances that surrounded
+him, and then turned his steps back to the room where he had left
+Colonel Manners. He had now, however, made the course he was to pursue
+irretrievable; his son's death had been the only thing wanting to give
+all his determinations the energy of despair; he had chosen his path,
+he had passed the Rubicon, and never hereafter, through the course of
+this history, will be found in his character any of those fluctuating
+changes of feeling and resolution which we have endeavoured to depict
+while his fate was unfixed and his purpose undetermined. Deeply,
+sternly, from that moment, he pursued his way, driven at length to
+feel that one crime must be succeeded by many more to render it
+secure.
+
+"I have now, Colonel Manners," he said, as he entered the saloon, "to
+apologize for leaving you so unceremoniously; but you will, I am sure,
+make excuse for feelings agitated like mine. To guard against the most
+remote chance of Mr. Arden suffering this Pharold to escape, I have
+formally made a charge, which I shall be able to substantiate, I am
+sure, concerning the death of my poor brother; and next, let me beg
+you to give me your good advice in regard to what more should be done,
+in case the measures which you and I have separately taken should
+prove alike insufficient."
+
+"I would not wait, my lord," replied Manners, "to ascertain whether
+they were sufficient or not; but I would instantly take measures to
+guard against their insufficiency. You have, I think, only three
+contiguous counties here; had you not better send off messengers at
+once to the sheriffs and magistrates of those three, informing them of
+the circumstances, and begging them to stop any party of gipsies, or
+any person similar in appearance to this man Pharold? Your messengers,
+well mounted, will soon be far in advance of the murderer, or his
+accessories, whose mode of travelling cannot be very rapid."
+
+The suggestion was no sooner given than it was assented to; and with
+all speed the necessary letters were written by the peer, who took as
+active and energetic a part in the whole proceedings as if he had been
+in his prime of youth. But it was a part of his character to do so. He
+could feel deep grief, it is true--and did feel it for the loss of his
+son--but grief with him led not to languor and despondency, but, on
+the contrary, to hate and to revenge; and as hunger, instead of
+weakening, only renders the tiger and the wolf more ferocious and more
+tremendous, so sorrow, instead of softening, only rendered him more
+fierce and more vehement. The activity, the energy, and the fire he
+displayed in his whole proceedings not a little surprised Colonel
+Manners; and had he had time or inclination for anything like gayety,
+he might have smiled to think that he had refused, on account of age,
+to cross his sword with one who, in passions, at least, seemed
+anything but an old man. Ere the letters were sealed, however, it was
+announced that Mr. De Vaux's servant had arrived from Barholm, and
+inquired for Colonel Manners. With the peer's permission he was
+brought in; and bowing low to his master's father, by whom he was well
+known, he gave a full account of his search in answer to Manners's
+questions.
+
+"Well, William," demanded Manners, "have you been successful?"
+
+"Yes, sir," replied the man; "I believe I have seen the scoundrels
+housed, and have left those to watch them who will not watch them in
+vain."
+
+A glow of vengeful pleasure passed over the countenance of the peer,
+and nodding his approbation, he leaned his head oh his hand, listening
+attentively, while Manners proceeded. "Give us the particulars,
+William," he said. "How did you first discover the gipsies?"
+
+"Why, first, sir, I went back to the sandpit," replied the man, "and
+then I followed the tracks of wheels down to the bottom of the hill,
+by the road that leads to Newtown. At the bottom I found traces up the
+green lane, and I went on there for a mile, till I came to what they
+call Newtown Lone; but since I was there last, some one has built a
+cottage there; and I asked the woman in the cottage if she had seen
+any gipsies, and which way they had gone. She said yes, she had seen
+them that morning, just after daybreak; but that when they had found a
+cottage there, they had turned down by the other side of the lone,
+through the lane that leads but again upon the high-road beyond
+Newtown. So I followed them down there, and I tracked their carts
+across the high-road, up the other lane, till I came to where it
+splits in two, the one going down to the water-side, and the other
+sloping up the hill to the common at the back of Dimden Park. Here
+there were wheels and footmarks both ways; and, after puzzling a
+little, I took the way down by the water, thinking they might have
+gone to lie among the banks there, as they used to do when I was a
+young boy in that neighbourhood. But after looking about for an hour,
+I could find nothing of them."
+
+"Then where did you find them at last?" demanded the peer, growing
+somewhat tired of the servant's prolixity: to which, however, Manners,
+who knew how important every little particular is in obscure
+circumstances, had listened with patience and attention.
+
+"Why, my lord," replied the man, "I went back directly to the parting
+of the roads, and then took the one towards the common, above Dimden,
+which I had not chosen before; and there I rode on as hard as I could,
+with the cart ruts and footmarks before me, till I came within about
+twenty yards of the common. Thereabout, there is a bit of low coppice,
+with some tall trees in the hedgerow; and my horse picked up a stone,
+so I got off to clear his hoof; and as I was just going to mount
+again, I heard some one call in a low voice, 'William! William
+Butler!' so I looked round, but could see no one, and I said, 'Well,
+what do you want? come out of the coppice, if you want me.' So, then,
+from behind one of the tall trees, where he had planted himself on the
+lookout, comes Dick Harvey, your lordship's head park-keeper at
+Dimden; and he began asking after my health, and all I had seen in
+foreign parts. So I told him I would answer him another time: but I
+took leave to ask him in return what he was after, bush-ranging in
+that way; and he answered, 'Oh, nothing; he was only seeing that
+all was right.' So, then, I asked him again if he had seen e'er a
+set of gipsies in that direction; upon which he asked why, and I told
+him outright. 'Don't go any farther, then,' answered he, 'for the
+blood-thirsty rascals are lying down there, between the park wall and
+the common; and it is them that I am watching.' And he told me that he
+had discovered they were to steal the deer in the park that very
+night, and had laid a trap for them. However, I did not choose to come
+away without seeing them myself. So, asking Dick when they had come
+there, I told him he must get me a sight of them. He said that they
+had not been there much above an hour; and he took me into the coppice
+to where he had been standing himself. There I could see the whole
+party of them well enough, lying about three hundred yards farther
+down the park wall, some of them still putting out their tents, some
+of them sitting on the wall and looking over into the park."
+
+"Was the park-keeper alone?" asked Manners, as the servant paused.
+
+"He was alone just at that minute, sir," replied the man; "but he told
+me that he had five others within whistle, and that he had sent away
+the man who had been mounting guard where he then was to bring more.
+By this time, however, the sun was getting low; and Dick said he was
+sure enough the gipsies would not budge till they had tried for some
+of his deer. I told him not to let them go even if they had a mind;
+and he said to make my mind easy, for that before one o'clock in the
+morning, he would answer for having the whole party of them in what
+used to be called the strong-room at Dimden House. I thought,
+therefore, sir, that I could not leave the matter in better hands than
+his; and I came away here to report myself: but as the horse was very
+tired I thought it best to take my time."
+
+"You have done well, William," said Lord Dewry. "Now go down
+and get some refreshment.--It seems to me, Colonel Manners," he added,
+as the servant retired, a gleam of triumph lighting up his dark
+countenance--"it seems to me that these men are in our power--that
+they cannot escape us now. It may be unnecessary, therefore, to send
+the letters which I have written."
+
+"I think not," replied Manners. "If you will consider a moment, you
+will see that, although some of the gipsies have been seen in the
+neighbourhood of your park at Dimden, yet we have no reason to be sure
+that the very man we seek is with them. Indeed, from the resemblance
+of the person I saw in the wood to this Pharold, we have some cause to
+imagine that even if he have joined his companions since, he was not
+with them in the morning."
+
+"You are right, you are right," said the peer. "In such a business as
+this no precautions can, indeed, be superfluous, and I will send off
+the letters at once."
+
+The bell was accordingly rung, and the epistles despatched by mounted
+servants, who each had orders to spare no speed, but to ride all night
+rather than suffer the communication to be delayed; nor should we be
+unwilling to show how these directions were obeyed, and what sort of
+speed is commonly practised by persons on such errands,--how they all
+and several stopped to drink here, and to gossip there, and to feed at
+another place,--but that the regular matter of our history is now of
+some importance.
+
+As soon as the servants had been despatched, Lord Dewry bethought him
+that Colonel Manners might himself require some refreshment, and
+apologized for his previous forgetfulness. Manners, however, was
+fatigued, but not hungry, and he preferred some strong green
+tea--though not very soldier-like fare--to any thing else that the
+peer's house could afford. This was soon obtained, and by the time it
+had been brought and taken away, the clock struck ten.
+
+Manners then rose. "If your lordship does not expect news from Dimden
+to-night," he said, "I will now take my leave; but should anything
+occur in which I can be of the slightest assistance, if you will send
+a servant, you will find me at the little town of Barholm, where I
+have ordered rooms to be prepared for me at the inn."
+
+No two men that ever lived were more different in mind, in character,
+in tastes, and feelings, than Colonel Charles Manners and Lord Dewry;
+yet, strange to say, the peer did not like the idea of Manners's
+quitting him. Their views were as distinct as light and darkness; and,
+though for a moment they were pursuing the same object, could the
+hearts of both have been seen, how different would have been the
+spectacle presented--how different from those in the bosom of the
+other would have been all the springs, and motives, and designs, which
+actuated and guided each! And yet Lord Dewry felt uneasy when Manners
+proposed to go. A part of his uneasiness might arise in his dislike to
+be left alone, in the long, long hours of expectation which were to
+intervene ere he could hear of the first step, in all his dark and
+complicated designs, having been safely taken; but there was something
+more in it too. Manners had assisted him with zeal, and talent, and
+energy, in the very pursuit which he was following: by an
+extraordinary concatenation of circumstances, he, unbribed, unbiased,
+independent, upright, and noble, had been led to give his whole
+support to the very first object which the peer had in view; and for
+which he had already been obliged to hire and to intrigue with the
+low, and the mercenary, and the vile; and Lord Dewry felt a support
+and an encouragement in the presence and assistance of Colonel Manners
+which a thousand Sir Roger Millingtons could not have afforded. Had he
+had to explain his views and wishes to Colonel Manners as he had done
+to Sir Roger Millington, he would have shrunk from the task in shame
+and fear; but when Manners came willingly forward to aid him
+voluntarily, even for a few steps on the way he was pursuing, it
+seemed as if his actions were vouched and justified by the concurrence
+of so honourable a man.
+
+"I believe, Colonel Manners," said the peer in reply--"I believe that
+I am about to make a very extraordinary request; but I really cannot
+allow you to leave me: a room shall be prepared for you here
+immediately, and it will be a real consolation to me if you will stay
+I shall myself sit up till I hear from Dimden," he added, in a tone of
+hesitation, as if he would fain have asked Manners to do the same, had
+it been courteous; "but I am afraid that news cannot arrive till
+between one and two o'clock, and as you must be fatigued, I cannot ask
+you to be the partner of my watch."
+
+"I will be so most willingly, my lord," replied Manners; "for though I
+certainly am fatigued, still I am not sleepy, and I shall be anxious,
+too, to hear the news as soon as possible."
+
+They waited, however, longer than they expected: three, four o'clock
+came, and no tidings arrived. The moments, notwithstanding
+expectation, flew more calmly than might have been imagined. Lord
+Dewry, although he knew that there were few subjects on which he could
+speak with Colonel Manners without meeting feelings and opinions
+different from any that he now dared to entertain, knew also that
+there was one topic, and that one very near to his heart at the
+moment, on which he might discourse at ease. That topic was his son;
+and on that--with all his feelings softened, with every asperity done
+away, and with the pure natural welling forth of parental affection
+and grief over his deep loss--on that he conversed during the greater
+part of the night, effacing from the memory of his companion the rude
+and disagreeable impression which their first interviews had caused,
+and leaving little but grief, and sympathy, and regret.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER II.
+
+
+From sunset till about nine o'clock there had been a light refreshing
+rain--not one of those cold autumnal pours which leave the whole world
+dark, and drenched, and dreary, but the soft falling of light pellucid
+drops, that scarcely bent the blades of grass on which they rested,
+and through which, ever and anon, the purple of the evening sky,
+and--as that faded away--the bright glance of a brilliant star, might
+be seen amid the broken clouds. Towards nine, however, the vapours
+that rested upon the eastern uplands became tinged with light; and, as
+if gifted with the power of scattering darkness from her presence,
+forth came the resplendent moon, while the dim clouds grew pale and
+white as she advanced, and, rolling away over the hills, left the sky
+all clear. It required scarcely a fanciful mind to suppose that--in
+the brilliant shining of the millions of drops which hung on every
+leaf and rested on every bough--in the glistening ripple of the river
+that rolled in waves of silver through the plain--in the checkered
+dancing of the light and shadow through the trees, and in the sudden
+brightening up of every object throughout the scene which could
+reflect her beams--it required scarcely a fanciful mind to suppose
+that the whole world was rejoicing in the soft splendour of that
+gentle watcher of the night, and gratulating her triumph over the
+darkness and the clouds.
+
+It was a beautiful sight on that night, as, indeed, it ever is, to
+see the planet thus change the aspect of all things in the sky and on
+the earth; but, perhaps, the sight was more beautiful in Dimden Park
+than anywhere around. The gentleman's park is likewise one of those
+things peculiarly English, which are to be seen nowhere else upon the
+earth; at least, we venture to say that there is nothing at all like
+it in three out of the four quarters of this our globe: the wide
+grassy slopes, the groups of majestic trees, the dim flankings of
+forest-ground, broken with savannas and crossed by many a path
+and many a walk, the occasional rivulet or piece of water, the
+resting-place, the alcove, the ruin of the old mansion where our
+fathers dwelt, now lapsed into the domain of Time, but carefully
+guarded from any hands but his, with here and there some slope of the
+ground or some turn of the path bringing us suddenly upon a bright and
+unexpected prospect of distant landscapes far beyond--"all nature and
+all art!" There is nothing like it on the earth, and few things half
+so beautiful; for it is tranquil without being dull, and calm without
+being cheerless: but of all times, when one would enjoy the stillness
+and the serenity at its highest pitch, go forth into a fine old park
+by moonlight.
+
+The moon, then, on the night of which we have lately been speaking,
+within half an hour after her rise, shone full into the park, and
+poured her flood of splendour over the wide slopes, glittering with
+the late rain, along the winding paths and gravel-walks, and through
+between the broad trunks of the oaks and beeches. The autumn had not
+yet so far advanced as to make any very remarkable difference in the
+thickness of the foliage: but still, some leaves had fallen from the
+younger and tenderer plants, so that the moonbeams played more at
+liberty upon the ground beneath, and the trees themselves had been
+carefully kept so far apart that any one standing under their
+shadow--except, indeed, in the thickets reserved as coverts for the
+deer--had a view far over the open parts of the park; and, if the eye
+took such a direction, could descry the great house itself on one
+hand, or, on the other side, the park-keeper's cottage, situated on a
+slight slope that concealed it from the windows of the mansion. At the
+same time, though any one thus placed beneath the old trees--either
+the clumps which studded the open ground, or the deeper woods at the
+extremes--could see for a considerable distance around, yet it would
+have been scarcely possible for anybody standing in the broad
+moonlight to distinguish other persons under the shadow of the
+branches, unless, indeed, they came to the very verge of the wooded
+ground. This became more particularly the case as the moon rose
+higher, and the crossing and interlacing of the shadows in the
+woodland was rendered more intricate and perplexed, while the lawns
+and savannas only received the brighter light.
+
+At a little before eleven o'clock, then, by which time the moon had
+risen high in the heaven, a rustling and scraping sound might have
+been heard by any one standing near that wall of the park which
+separated it from the neighbouring common, and in a moment, after, the
+head and shoulders of a man appeared above the parapet. He gave a
+momentary glance into the walk which was immediately contiguous, and
+then swinging himself over, dropped at once to the ground. Pausing
+again, he looked round him more carefully; and then gave a low
+whistle. No one followed, however; and the intruder, who was
+apparently a lad of eighteen or nineteen, advanced cautiously across
+the walk, and was soon placed beneath the shadow of the tall elms.
+Every two or three minutes the lad paused to look around him; but as
+his eyes were more frequently bent upon the ground than raised, it
+appeared that he rather feared losing his way than apprehended the
+appearance of any other person in the place to which he had somewhat
+furtively introduced himself. Humming a tune as he advanced, he
+approached that part of the park from which, as we have before said, a
+view could be obtained both of the mansion and the park-keeper's
+house; and here, fixing his eyes upon the latter, he seated himself at
+the foot of a sturdy chestnut-tree at a little distance within the
+extreme edge of the wood.
+
+There was a wreath of white smoke still curling up from the chimney of
+the peaceful-looking dwelling of the park-keeper; and through two of
+the cottage casements a full yellow light was streaming, so that it
+was evident enough that some of the inmates were up and awake. For
+about half an hour the young man kept his post with perseverance and
+tranquillity, ceasing to hum the air with which he had amused himself
+as he came along, and apparently regarding nothing but the cottage of
+the park-keeper.
+
+At the end of that time, however, he rose, muttering, "I'll stay here
+no longer. I might as well have been with Lena all this while. If Dick
+would but wait till one o'clock, they would be all abed to a
+certainty;" and he walked two or three steps resolutely away. Ere he
+was out of sight, he, nevertheless, turned to look once more. The
+light was still burning; but as he was in the very act of resuming his
+retreat, it was totally extinguished, and nothing was to be seen but
+the dark outline of the cottage in the clear moonlight. He now paused
+again for a moment or two, to be sure of the facts; and then retracing
+his way as fast as possible to the particular part of the wall over
+which he had obtained ingress, he stopped, and whistled louder than
+before. For some minutes there was no reply, and he then whistled
+again, which instantly produced a corresponding signal from without,
+and a voice demanded, "Is all right?"
+
+"Ay, ay, Dick," replied the lad, carelessly; "all's right--come
+along." The moment after, another head and shoulders appeared above
+the wall; and the gipsy whom we have seen with the old woman called
+Mother Gray, scheming the destruction of the deer belonging to some of
+the neighbouring gentry, swung himself up to the top of the wall, and
+gazed round with a more anxious and careful face than that displayed
+by his younger comrade.
+
+"When he had satisfied himself by examination, he handed over two guns
+to his companion, who was within the park; and then, dropping down
+again on the inside, gazed round him with more trepidation than his
+bold and confident language would have led one to anticipate. He was
+not alone, however; for no sooner had he effected his descent than
+three others, each also armed with an old rude fowling-piece, followed
+from without; and a whispered consultation took place in regard to
+their further proceedings.
+
+"Where did you see the deer herding to-night, Will?" demanded their
+leader; "I mean at sunset."
+
+"Oh, those I saw were down at the far end of the park," replied the
+boy, "a mile off and more; up this wall will lead us."
+
+"The farther off the better," replied Dickon; "are all your guns
+loaded?"
+
+An answer was given in the affirmative; and, led by Dickon and the lad
+William, the party of gipsies crept stealthily along the walk that
+proceeded under the wall to the far extremity of the park. Once or
+twice the leader stopped and listened, and once he asked, in a low
+tone, "Did you not hear a noise? there to the left!" No sound,
+however, was heard by his companions, who paused as he paused, and
+gave breathless attention with bended head and listening ear. A light
+breeze stirred the tree tops, and a leaf would now and then fall
+through the branches, but nothing else was to be distinguished; and as
+they passed the end of many a vista and moonlight alley, and looked
+cautiously out, nothing which could excite the least apprehension was
+perceivable, and they walked on, gaining greater courage as every step
+familiarized them more to their undertaking. By the time they had
+reached the end of the park wall, they ventured to carry on their
+consultation in a louder tone; and they also turned more into the
+heart of the wood, following paths with which none of them seemed very
+thoroughly acquainted, and the perplexity of which often caused them
+to halt or to turn back, in order to reach the spot which they had
+fixed upon for the commencement of their exploits among the deer.
+
+The lad Will, however, who had apparently reconnoitred the park by
+daylight, at length led them right; and taking a small footway towards
+the east, they found themselves suddenly upon the edge of an opening
+in the wood, through the midst of which ran a stream of clear water. A
+space of about five acres was here left without a tree; but on every
+side were deep groves of old chestnuts, and to the east some thick
+coverts of brushwood. It became necessary now to ascertain the
+direction of the wind, lest the deer should scent their pursuers, and
+take another road; and for this purpose, wetting his finger in the
+water, Dickon held it up high, till he discovered by the coldness that
+ensued which side it was that the wind struck. As soon as this
+important point was known, he disposed his companions in separate
+stations, but each by one of the old chestnuts, in such a manner and
+at such distances as would render it impossible for the deer to cross
+the open space before them without receiving one or more shots from
+some of his party. The sort of sport in which he was now employed
+seemed not altogether unfamiliar to the gipsy Dickon, whose
+instructions, if oral rather than practical, must have been very
+accurate and minute, as he wanted none of the skill or knowledge of an
+old sportsman.
+
+As soon as his men were all properly disposed, and he had likewise
+taken up his own position in the most favourable spot that the place
+afforded, he sought out upon the ground a beech-leaf, and having found
+one with some difficulty, bent it in the middle and applied it to his
+lips. A quick percussion of the breath upon the bent leaf instantly
+produced a sound exactly resembling the cry of a young doe. After
+calling thus once or twice, he ceased, and all was attention; but no
+noise followed to indicate that any of the horned dwellers in the wood
+had heard or gave attention to the sound. Dickon again made the
+experiment, and again waited in breathless expectation, but without
+avail. After a lapse of some minutes the beech-leaf was once more
+employed, and the next instant a slight rustling sound was heard among
+the bushes beyond. The poacher repeated his cry, and there was then
+evidently a rush through the brushwood; but the moment after all was
+again still, and he began to think that the buck had scented them and
+taken fright.
+
+In a minute more, however, not from the bushes, but from the opposite
+chestnut-trees, which the low wood joined, trotted forth, at an easy
+pace, a tall splendid deer, bearing his antlered head near the ground,
+as if trying to scent out the path of his mate, whose voice he had
+heard. The moment he came into the full moonlight, however, he stood
+at gaze, as it is called, raising his proud head and looking
+steadfastly before him. Then, turning to the right and to the left, he
+seemed striving to see the object that he had not been able to
+discover by the smell; but, as he was still too far distant for any
+thing like a certain shot, Dickon once more ventured a low solitary
+call upon the beach-leaf. Had it been loud, or repeated more than
+once, the poor animal was near enough to have detected the cheat; but
+as it was, he was deceived, and trotting on for fifty yards more,
+again stood at gaze, with his head turned towards the trees under
+which the poacher was standing. Dickon quietly raised his gun, aimed
+deliberately, and fired just as the buck was again moving forward. The
+ball struck the deer directly below the horns, and, bounding up full
+four feet from the ground, he fell dead upon the spot where he had
+been standing.
+
+All the gipsies were now rushing forward to see their prize, but
+Dickon called them back; and keeping still under the shade of the
+trees, he made his way round to them severally, saying, "We must have
+another yet. Let him lie there! let him lie! That one shot has not
+been loud enough to scare the rest, and I am sure there is a herd
+there down at the end of the copse: so we must have another at all
+events; and if we go making a noise about that one, we shall frighten
+them. You, Bill, go round under those trees for five or six hundred
+yards, and then come into the thicket, and beat it up this way."
+
+Bill did not undertake the task without grumbling and remonstrance;
+asserting that everything that was tiresome was put upon him, while
+Dickon and the rest had the sport. A little persuasion, however,
+overcame his resistance, and he set off accordingly to perform the
+part assigned to him. The others, in the meantime, resumed their
+places, and now had to wait a longer time than at first; for the
+youth, not very well inclined to the task, was anything but quick in
+his motions. At the end of a quarter of an hour, however, a rustle and
+then a rush was heard in the bushes; and then the bounding sound of
+deer in quick flight, and, in a moment after, the whole herd sprang
+into the moonlight, and crossed the open ground at the full canter.
+They came fairly within shot of two of the gipsies in their passage,
+and two guns were instantly discharged. Both took effect; but one of
+the deer was only wounded, and was struggling up again, when the whole
+body of poachers rushed forward and ended its sufferings with the
+knife.
+
+"Now, now!" cried Dickon, hastily recharging his gun, "we have got
+enough for once, I think; let us be off as soon as we can. We can
+hitch the venison over that nearest wall," and he turned to point in
+the direction to which he referred; but the sight that met his eyes at
+that moment almost made the powder-flask, with which he was in the act
+of priming, fall from his hands. Advancing from the chestnut-trees
+under which he himself had just been standing, was a party consisting
+of at least twelve strong men, apparently well armed, and he at once
+saw that all chance of escape for himself and his comrades, without a
+struggle, was over, as the keepers were coming up between them and the
+common, while on the other side lay the thick bushes from which the
+deer had issued, and in which his party must be entangled and taken if
+they attempted to fly in that direction, and to the westward, beyond
+the chestnut-trees, were the river and the park-keeper's house. Now,
+however, that the matter was inevitable, Dickon showed more resolution
+than he had hitherto done. "Stand to it, my men!" he cried: "they have
+nosed us, by----! there's no running now; we must make our way to that
+corner, or we're done."
+
+His companions instantly turned at his exclamation; and whatever might
+be their internal feelings, they showed nothing but a dogged
+determination to resist to the last. The man who had fired the last
+shot instantly thrust a bullet into his gun, which he had already
+charged with powder; and, giving up their slain game for lost, the
+poachers advanced towards the angle of the wood nearest to the
+park-wall, keeping in a compact body, and crossing the front of the
+other party in an oblique line. The keepers, however, hastened to
+interpose, and came up just in time to prevent their opponents from
+reaching the trees. Thus, then, at the moment that they mutually faced
+round upon each other, the left of the gipsies and the right of their
+adversaries touched the wood, but the odds were fearfully in favour of
+the gamekeepers.
+
+"Come, come, my masters, down with your arms!" cried Harvey, the head
+keeper; "it's no use resisting: do you not see we are better than two
+to one?"
+
+The first reply was the levelling of the gipsies' fowling pieces; and
+notwithstanding the superiority of numbers and the anticipation of
+resistance, the keepers drew a step or two back; for under such
+circumstances no one can tell whose the chance may be, and the thought
+of unpleasant death will have its weight till the blood is warm.
+"Stand off!" cried Dickon, boldly: "master keeper, let us go free, or
+take the worst of it. We leave you your venison, and a good half-ounce
+bullet in each buck to pay for our pastime; but be you sure that the
+guns which sent those bullets can send others as true, and will send
+them very speedily, if you try to stop us."
+
+"A bold fellow, upon my honour!" cried Sir Roger Millington,
+advancing, and standing calmly before the very muzzles of the gipsies'
+guns. "But hark ye, my good man, you came to get the venison; we came
+to get you; and, as we are rather more in number than you, it is not
+probable we shall let you escape. However, I will tell you what--to
+spare bloodshed, we will come to a compromise with you."
+
+"You are the spy of a fellow, are you not," cried Dickon, "who came
+this evening asking for Pharold? Well, my knowing cove, be you sure
+the first shot fired you shall have one."
+
+"But he speaks of a compromise, Dickon," cried one of his companions,
+lowering the gun a little from his shoulder; "better hear what he has
+to say."
+
+"Don't you believe a word," cried Dickon; "he's a cheat, and will only
+humbug you if you listen to him. We can bring four of them down, at
+all events, and then must take our chance with the but-ends of our
+pieces."
+
+"Yes, yes, listen to him," cried another of the gipsies. "What have
+you to say about a compromise?"
+
+"Simply this, my men," replied Sir Roger, who had still kept his
+place, unconcernedly, within a couple of yards of the gipsies'
+guns: "if you will lay down your arms and surrender, we will make a
+bargain with you, that we will let each one free on account of the
+deer-stealing against whom we cannot bring some other charge."
+
+Sir Roger's purpose was to catch Pharold: but he had not accurately
+calculated upon the state of a gipsy's conscience; and as each
+man present very well knew that something else--if not many other
+things--might be justly laid to his charge, the proposed arrangement
+was any thing but satisfactory to the poachers. Nor was it more to the
+taste of Harvey and the other keepers, who had not been empowered by
+their employer to make any such compromise.
+
+"No, no, sir," cried Harvey, aloud, "that won't do. My lord gave me no
+authority to make such a bargain. I dare say you came from him; for,
+indeed, no one else could tell you all about it: but, howsoever, I
+can't consent to that. No, no, I cry off. Damme, lay down your arms,
+my lads, or we will fire on you directly."
+
+"Take that, then!" cried Dickon, pulling the trigger of his gun, the
+report of which was followed instantly by those of the fowling-pieces
+in the hands of the other gipsies, though at the very same moment--or
+rather, indeed, before the guns were discharged--a loud voice was
+heard shouting from a distance, "Do not fire, villains! Dickon, I
+command you not to fire!"
+
+Sir Roger Millington and one of the keepers dropped instantly; and a
+good deal of confusion took place among their party, though a
+straggling and ill-directed fire was returned, which only wounded one
+of the gipsies slightly. In less than a moment, however, the keepers
+had recovered themselves; and, hurrying the wounded behind, were
+rushing on to close with their adversaries before they could reload,
+when a reinforcement of eleven or twelve strong men appeared behind
+the small party of the gipsies, and Pharold, rushing forward, thrust
+Dickon vehemently back, exclaiming, "Mad fool! you have ruined us all
+for ever!--Hold back!" he continued, addressing the keepers in the
+same stern and imperative voice--"hold back, fools! we are too many
+for you. Richard Harvey, when you plotted to entrap these poor foolish
+young men, you should have secured the means of taking them. But get
+you gone while you may! We are too many for you, I tell you; and you
+know of old I am not one to trifle with."
+
+"I know you of old, sure enough, Master Pharold," replied the head
+keeper, running his eye doubtfully over the group of powerful men who
+now stood before him--"I know you of old, and I know you now; and one
+thing more I know, that you will come to be hanged before the year be
+many weeks older: I know that, too, Master Pharold."
+
+"Lift me up! lift me up!" cried a faint voice behind. "Lift me up,
+fellows, I say! I want to see him!" and in compliance with this
+command, one or two of the men who had accompanied the keepers raised
+Sir Roger Millington in their arms, and brought him a little forward,
+so that he could obtain a sight of what was passing. He gazed intently
+upon Pharold, who was still standing prominent, waving the head keeper
+and his party back with the air more of a prince than of one in his
+station and class. But the knight was unable to continue his
+observation of what was passing for more than a moment, as the
+agony he seemed to be suffering--although he had sufficient power
+over himself to prevent any expression of pain from escaping his
+lips--caused him to writhe so dreadfully, that, after one brief stern
+glance at the gipsy, he slipped out of the arms of those who supported
+him, and fell again to the ground. The sight of what he suffered,
+however, was not without its effect upon the keepers. Had they known
+him, and been interested in his fate, it might, indeed, have stirred
+them up to greater exertions in order to avenge the injury he had
+sustained; but unknown and indifferent as he was to all of them, his
+situation but served as an example of what they might themselves
+encounter if they persisted in their attack of the gipsies; and
+Harvey, who was the best inclined of the party to undertake the risk,
+soon gathered from the countenances of his companions that he would be
+but feebly supported, if not abandoned, in any further attempt.
+
+Unwilling, however, to yield the task he had undertaken, and inspired
+as much by sincere hatred towards the gipsies as by hope of recompense
+from his lord, he lingered, still glaring upon Pharold and his
+companions; and every now and then, in the bitterness of his
+disappointment, uttering such words as were likely to draw the adverse
+party themselves on to the attack which he feared to make upon them.
+"You are a pretty set of blackguards!" he exclaimed. "It would do my
+heart good to see you all hanged up in a row: why can't you mind your
+kettles, and not come stealing other folks deer? You go kidnapping
+people's children, you do, you thieves of human flesh! Ah, you'll not
+go long unhanged, that's one comfort!"
+
+Pharold's lip gradually curled into a look of bitter scorn; and,
+turning to one of his elder comrades, he whispered a few words to him,
+and a movement was instantly made on the part of the gipsies
+themselves to evacuate the ground. They performed their retreat,
+however, slowly and in good order; four of the party, directed by
+Pharold, bringing up the rear, and facing round upon the keepers
+whenever they approached, so as to render their flight secure. Harvey,
+with several of his companions, followed, somewhat encouraged by the
+sight of a retreating enemy; but two or three of the more charitable
+remained with Sir Roger Millington and the wounded keeper, though the
+latter was only slightly injured. At every two or three steps, also,
+as the others advanced in the pursuit, either weariness of the
+business altogether, or the better part of valour, caused one or two
+of the head park-keeper's comrades to fall off, and return to the spot
+where they had left the wounded men. Thus, by the time the gipsies
+reached the park wall, only three persons followed Harvey; and
+Pharold, somewhat irritated by his close pursuit, turned round upon
+him with not the most placable expression in the world. In truth, he
+had been crossed and pained; and, for a moment, the evil spirit, which
+has a secret tabernacle in the heart of every one, came forth, and
+thought that the dominion was all his own. But the gipsy drove back
+the fiend; and restraining his inclination to take vengeance on the
+keeper, he merely commanded him, sternly, not to advance another step
+till all his people had cleared the wall. Harvey only replied by
+imprecations, and Pharold calmly proceeded to station four of the
+gipsies, who had guns, upon the top of the wall, to protect the
+retreat of the others. Then, one by one, the gipsies passed over,
+their leader following the last, and the keeper, after giving way to
+one or two bursts of impotent wrath, turned on his heel, and joined
+his companions.
+
+Pharold and his party proceeded in silence to their encampment, which
+was not far distant, when, to the surprise of those who had been
+engaged in the deer-stealing, they found everything prepared for
+instant departure. The horses were to their carts, the tents were
+packed up, and only one fire appeared lighted, beside which old Mother
+Gray and the other women, protected by only one man, were standing,
+watching with somewhat downcast countenances the solitary pot which
+was suspended above it. This group made instant way for Pharold and
+his comrades; and the former, advancing into the midst, folded his
+arms upon his breast, and bending his brows sternly upon the old
+woman, he said, after a bitter pause, "See, woman, what your
+instigations have produced,--strife, bloodshed, murder; and, very
+likely, ultimately, the death of this poor fool, who suffered himself
+to be led by your bad counsels--very likely his death upon the
+gallows!"
+
+"A very good death, too," muttered the beldam, sullenly and low. "His
+father died the same."
+
+"For you, Dickon," said Pharold, not noticing her speech--"for you,
+however ill you may have acted, your punishment is like to fall upon
+you soon; but you must hear my reproaches too. You have scorned
+authority throughout your life--you have forgotten the laws and habits
+of your fathers--you belong not to our people. Here we must all
+separate into small bodies, and take different ways, to avoid the
+consequences of your faults; but you shall go out from among us for
+ever, never to return. Answer me not, but hear! Had I not, by
+returning sooner than you expected, learned your errand, and hastened
+with the wiser and better of our people to stay your folly, and to
+bring you back--had I not come up in time, not, indeed, to prevent
+your crime, but to rescue you from the consequences, you would now
+have been lying, tied hand and foot, and waiting to be judged by those
+who hold us in hatred and contempt. From that you have been saved; but
+you must fly far, and conceal yourself well, to make such safety
+permanent. Go from us, then--go from us! and with whatever race of men
+you hereafter mingle--whether abjuring your people, as you have
+violated their rules, or whether seeking again some other tribe
+of the Romanicheel race--let the memory of all the evil that follows
+disobedience to those who have a right to command you, keep you from
+follies like those you have this night committed."
+
+Pharold paused, and one of the other gipsies whispered a word in his
+ear. "True!" he said, "true! as he has to wander far and long, he must
+not go unprovided. We will all contribute to help him."
+
+"No, no!" murmured Dickon, with his head sunk, and his eyes bent upon
+the ground--"no, no! I can do without." But the collection among the
+gipsies was made without giving any attention to his words. Each
+contributed something from the part he had received in the
+distribution of the preceding evening, and a considerable sum was thus
+collected. Pharold, perhaps, feeling that the boon from his hand would
+come poisoned, suffered one of his companions to give the money to the
+culprit, and then proceeded: "Go forth, Dickon! go forth! I warned you
+long ago; I counselled you while counsel might avail: you heeded not
+my warning--you rejected my counsel; the time is past; and I have only
+now to bid you go forth from among us for ever!"
+
+With his head still bent, and his eyes upon the ground, Dickon took
+two or three steps away from the rest. He then turned, and raising his
+head, fixed his eyes upon Pharold, apparently struggling to speak.
+Words, however, failed him: the stern glance of their leader met
+his--calm, but reproachful; and suddenly turning a look full of fury
+at the old beldam who had misled him, the unhappy young man shook his
+hand at her, with a loud and bitter curse, and bounded away over the
+common.
+
+"And now," said Pharold, turning to his companions, "let us separate
+quickly--to the east, and the west, and the north, and the south, in
+the same parties into which we had divided ourselves last night before
+the unfortunate accident made us change our plans. Let us travel
+rapidly and long, for be sure that we are followed by many and keen
+pursuers, who will spare neither gold nor speed to catch us. Let all
+of us that are alive meet this day three months at our old tryste on
+Cheviot; and we may then, perhaps, pursue our way in peace."
+
+While he spoke, a light hand was laid upon his coat; and, as he ended,
+he found the beautiful eyes of Lena looking up in his face, with a
+glance of mingled apprehension and irresolution, as if she wished but
+feared to speak. "What is it, Lena?" he demanded. "You, of course, go
+with me and mine."
+
+"But William!" said Lena, in a timid voice, "William!"
+
+Pharold's brow contracted. "He goes with Brown!" he said, sternly.
+"What is it to you?" She coloured highly, and cast down her eyes; but
+still replied, "Nothing, nothing! But where is he? I meant to ask. He
+went with Dickon and the rest--they made him go--and he has not
+returned."
+
+Pharold started, and looked round, anxiously searching with his eyes
+for the lad among the groups that stood near, over whose wild
+countenances and figures the declining moon and the half-extinguished
+fire were casting together a flickering and uncertain light.--"Where
+is William?" he exclaimed, at length, turning to one of the men who
+had accompanied Dickon on his predatory excursion against the deer; "I
+saw but four of you when I came up. Where was William then?"
+
+"Dickon had sent him round into the copse, a quarter of a mile off, to
+drive up the deer," replied the man; "but I am afraid they have caught
+him, for I heard a bit of a struggle in that direction, as we were
+making for the wall."
+
+Pharold clasped his hands in angry disappointment. "We must not leave
+the poor boy," he said: "I, for one, will stay at any risk, and try to
+help him."
+
+"And I, and I, and I!" cried all the gipsies.
+
+"Well, then," said Pharold, "we must take means to make them think
+that we are gone; so that the nearer we lie to them, the more
+completely will they be deceived. The wood on the other side of the
+common is thicker than anywhere else. Thither away, my men, on
+foot--all but five of you. Let those five take the carts down, by the
+back of the park, to the river. Turn them as if you were going down
+the road that leads along the bank. Then take out the horses, and
+carry the carts over the gravel to the ford, so that no wheel-marks be
+seen. Put the horses in again when that is done; but mind to fill up
+the hoof-prints with fresh gravel. Thus they will lose your track. You
+then take the ford, and cross the river. The water is low, and you can
+drive along the gravel-bank, on the other side, for near a mile,
+keeping in the water all the way. When it gets deep again, take the
+road, and, crossing back by the bridge, come round to the wood by
+Morley Road. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, yes; I do," replied the man he had called Brown. "I know the
+country well. But where go you, Pharold, yourself?"
+
+"I go back into the park to seek the boy," replied the gipsy, "and
+will join you all in the wood before daybreak. But, on your lives,
+keep to that wood behind us there; and go not near Morley Common or
+Morley Wood; for there are people on the watch there already. I should
+have been back in time to have prevented all this, had they not penned
+me in, in that very wood."
+
+"Well, well, we will do your bidding, Pharold," replied Brown. "You
+are a brave heart, and always take the danger upon yourself."
+
+"Quick, quick, then," replied the gipsy: "there is no time to be lost.
+Sarah Brown, take care of Lena; and see that that old woman," he
+added, sternly, pointing to Mother Gray, "works no more mischief among
+us. Bad has been the fruit which all the seed of her planting has
+hitherto borne. You lead them to the wood, Wilson, and light a fire,
+that I may see the smoke as I come back."
+
+So saying, he sought in one of the carts for a moment; and drawing
+forth what is called a cut-and-thrust sword, buckled it under his
+coat, took the path to the lowest part of the park wall, and, vaulting
+over, was lost to the sight of his companions.
+
+His orders, however, were now as promptly obeyed as if he had been
+present. Each of the gipsies who were destined immediately for the
+wood hastened to unload the carts as fast as possible. The women took
+their children on their backs, and large bundles in their hands; the
+men charged themselves with the heavier packages; and the carts,
+greatly lightened, having set off in the direction assigned to them,
+the rest of the party proceeded across the common towards the wood.
+They set off silently, and in straggling parties, that their footsteps
+might not betray their path; but they had not gone far ere the tongue
+of the old woman was heard, addressing one of the men who walked near
+her--at first in few words and a low tone, but gradually increasing in
+power and volubility as it became encouraged by its own sound.
+
+"He's a cruel, hard hand, that Pharold," said she, looking carefully
+round. But her companion made no reply, and she went on: "It's a hard
+thing for poor Dickon to be sent out to starve or be hanged, just
+because he was a spirity lad, and had different notions from that
+Pharold." Still the other was silent. "I often do wonder," she
+continued, "how a number of strong hearty men, every one a better man
+than Pharold, should submit to be led, and bullied, and ill-treated,
+by an ill-looking thief like that, only because he comes from our old
+dukes that are dead and gone.[5] It's all your own faults. If two or
+three of you were but to lay your heads together, and to say--"
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 5: The gipsies of all countries still hold the persuasion
+that they were originally led into Europe by persons whom they term
+Dukes or Lords of Upper Egypt.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"Come, come, you old rip," broke forth the man angrily, "none of such
+talk to me, if you have not a mind to be pitched into that pond. Hold
+your tongue, now, and give us no more of it. I am not one of your
+Dickons to be made a fool of; and if I hear you saying another word of
+such matters, I will have you sent after him you have got turned out
+from among us."
+
+Muttering a few words about "tame fools," Mother Gray slunk behind,
+and for a little while walked on in silence, only interrupted by
+occasional internal grunts and growls, expressive of her
+dissatisfaction and wrath. From time to time, however, she cast her
+eyes towards the straggling parties of her companions to the right and
+left; and for a while her attention seemed principally directed
+towards a group of two or three, who walked on immediately upon her
+right, and among whom was one of those who had accompanied Dickon in
+his unfortunate expedition. But on the left, again, was a line of four
+or five other gipsies, principally women, followed by Lena, two or
+three steps behind the rest, with a large handkerchief cast over her
+head, and tied beneath her chin, in a manner which would have
+concealed the greater part of her beautiful face, even if it had been
+day, but which now served to veil it entirely from all observation.
+Her head leaned forward, however: it was evident, too, that her eyes
+were cast upon the ground; and from these, and many another little
+symptom, the beldam, as she gazed upon her, concluded, and concluded
+rightly, that she was weeping. She hesitated no longer which of the
+two parties to join; but, dropping slowly behind, she sidled quietly
+up to Lena, almost unperceived by the girl herself. After walking on a
+step or two by her side in silence, she ventured to say, in a dolorous
+and sympathizing tone, "Poor Bill! only to think!" Lena started, and
+for a moment said nothing in reply; but after awhile she asked, "Do
+you think they have caught him, Mother Gray?"
+
+"Ay, ay, they must have grabbed him," replied the other; "else he
+would ha' been back 'afore this time. Poor Bill! he was as handsome a
+spirity young chick as ever I set eyes on."
+
+There was something in hearing him spoken of in the past tense, as of
+one gone for ever, that brought a deep sigh from Lena's bosom; and the
+old worker of mischief went on, satisfied that she was now, at least,
+upon the right track. "Ah, poor Bill!" she said; "there was only one
+that was fit to match with him among us, and she was snapped up by a
+kite before her right mate could come to her."
+
+Lena took no notice of her allusion, though it was sufficiently
+direct; but asked, "What do you think they will do to him, Mother
+Gray, if they have caught him?"
+
+"Hang him, perhaps," replied the old woman, "or at all events
+send him to what they call the colonies, to work their work like a
+slave--that's to say, if no one gets him out; but if he is so minded,
+Pharold, who is so sharp, will get him out fast enough."
+
+"If Pharold can get him out," replied Lena, rousing herself at the
+name of one whom she revered, if she did not love--"if Pharold can get
+him out, he will not be long in."
+
+"I dare say not," replied the old woman, "if it be not too dangerous,
+and cost too much time and trouble; and then Pharold, you know, will
+not like to risk the other people to save poor Bill, unless, indeed,
+some one coaxes him to do it."
+
+"But how can I speak to him about it?" demanded Lena, holding down her
+head; "he would only give me hard words if I did, as he did to-night."
+
+"But Lena might risk a little for poor Bill," rejoined the other; "I
+know Bill would risk his life for her." Lena was silent; and after a
+pause of some minutes the old woman went on, in a low voice almost
+sunk to a whisper. "Come, come, my pretty Lena," she said, "do try
+your hand with Pharold; else poor William may lie there for months in
+prison, with nothing to comfort him but songs about Lena--which he
+will sing sweetly enough, poor chap--and then may go to the gallows
+thinking of her. Do you think I do not see and know, my chick, all
+that is going on?"
+
+"Then you see and know, Mother Gray, that I want to do nothing wrong,"
+replied the girl, turning half round upon her.
+
+"Yes, but I saw you, Lena, when you stood by the park-wall this
+evening," replied the beldam, "talking to Will for half an hour; and
+do you think I do not know what is in your heart, my pretty Lena?"
+
+"Then why should I strive to get him out of prison at all?" said Lena,
+in a melancholy tone. "It is better that he were away; and I can tell
+you what, Mother Gray, it was I made Pharold determine to send him
+away with Brown's people rather than have him along with us."
+
+"And I can tell you what, too, Lena," replied the old woman, "I saw
+you standing together by the wall, and I saw him come away, and I am
+very sure that it was because you were unkind to him that he went with
+Dickon and his people after the deer; so that it was your fault that
+he went at all, and your fault that he got into prison; so you should
+but help him out of it."
+
+What Lena might have replied, Heaven knows; but at the moment she was
+about to speak, she was interrupted by the approach of others of the
+tribe; and the whole party shortly after entered the wood, and took up
+their camp in one of the deepest and most unfrequented spots that it
+contained.
+
+In the mean time Pharold had, as we have seen, entered the park;
+and here he spent the whole hours of moonlight that remained in
+searching for the youth who had accompanied Dickon and his companions.
+He searched, however, in vain; and although he often risked the
+low peculiar whistle which he knew would be recognised by his
+fellow-gipsy, yet no sound was returned from any quarter. Long and
+anxiously did he seek--the more anxiously, perhaps, because he felt
+that some undefined feelings of dislike and animosity had lately been
+rising in his bosom towards the unfortunate youth, who had now
+apparently become the sacrifice for the faults of others. With much
+disappointment and regret, then, he saw at length the morning dawn;
+and certain that, had the youth escaped, he would by this time have
+joined the rest, he prepared to quit a place in which any longer delay
+might prove dangerous to himself, and could be of no service to him he
+sought.
+
+There was, however, in his bosom a misdoubting in regard to the lad's
+fate, an apprehensive uncertainty, which moved him, perhaps, more than
+if he had been assured of his capture; and ere he quitted the park, he
+approached as near as possible to the mansion, to see if any such
+signs of unusual bustle were apparent, as might furnish information to
+a mind habituated to extract their meaning rapidly from every vague
+and transient indication that met his eyes. As he stood beneath the
+trees, the first thing he beheld was a boy run up the steps of the
+house, and Pharold instantly concluded that it was a messenger
+returned with some news. The moment after three or four men issued
+forth; but instead of taking any of the roads that led from the house,
+they began to traverse the lawn between the mansion and the nearest
+point of the park-wall. One man halted half-way between, the others
+went on; but at the first trees again another paused, and Pharold
+thought, "They have discovered me and think to surround me, but they
+will find themselves mistaken;" and with a quick, stealthy step, he
+glided through the wood towards the angle of the park next to the
+common. None of his senses, however, slept on such occasions; and ere
+he had emerged from the bushes his ear caught the sound of low voices,
+speaking in the very direction which he was taking, showing him that
+he had been discovered and pursued before he had perceived it, though
+the persons who were now before him must have come from the
+gamekeeper's house, and not from the mansion. Wheeling instantly, he
+retreated in a direction which led to one of the most open parts of
+the park; but Pharold was well aware of what he did, and knew the
+ground even better than those who followed him. As soon as he reached
+the savanna, he emerged at once from the trees, and with a quick step
+began to traverse the green. A man who had been stationed at the angle
+instantly caught sight of him, and gave at once the shout which had
+been appointed as a signal. The other keepers came up at a quick pace,
+narrowing the half circle in which they had disposed themselves, and
+penning the gipsy in between their body and the river. He scarcely
+hastened his pace, but allowed them to come nearer and nearer, till at
+length his purpose seemed to strike the head keeper suddenly, and,
+with a loud imprecation, he called upon the man nearest the water to
+close upon the object of their pursuit, adding, "He is a devil of a
+swimmer!" But Pharold had been suffered to go too far. He sprang
+forward at once to the bank, plunged in without a pause, and in a few
+strokes carried himself to the other side, where, amid thick brushwood
+and young plantations, he was perfectly secure from all pursuit.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER III.
+
+
+I know no reason why we--the readers and the writer--should not now
+quit those characters which have lately been occupying us, and return
+to others not less worthy of our care, till we have brought their
+actions and their feelings up to the same point of time whereunto we
+have conducted our other personages. The best form, perhaps I might
+say the most classical, in which a tale like the present can be
+related, with the exception of the autobiographical, is the dramatic;
+and holding strongly with the liberty accorded to British dramatists
+against the straight-waistcoat of Aristotelian unities, I believe that
+he who sits down to write a book like this has as much right to shift
+his scene and change his characters when he pleases as a playwright.
+
+The necessity of so doing exists in the very state of being in which
+we live in relation to one another. Everyday we find that in five or
+six families, the actions of each of which have mutually a great
+influence on the others, events are occurring, and words are being
+spoken, which bring about great and important results in the general
+fate and relative position of those five or six families, and, in
+fact, work out their united history, without one house knowing at the
+time what was doing in the other. The task, then, of the writer, if he
+would follow the best of guides, nature, is to take such a group of
+five or six families, whose fate some common bond of union has linked
+together; and, changing from house to house as soon as the interest of
+the events in each requires the scene to be shifted, to paint what he
+there sees passing; and thus, in a series of pictures, to give the
+general history of the whole. Stupid must be the man, and impotent the
+imagination, weak the judgment, and treacherous the memory, which
+cannot bear the change of scene without a long refresher in regard to
+the people about to be seen again, or the events of which the writer
+is once more going to take up the thread!
+
+Could not this change be made, the circumstances which were taking
+place at Morley House, and, what is still more important, the feelings
+which were thrilling in the bosoms of its inhabitants, would of
+necessity be all left untold, or be related in a long unnatural
+resume. In truth, the feelings of which we speak are worth some
+consideration; as feelings, indeed, always are: for, could one write
+the history of man's heart and its motives, how much more interesting,
+and instructive too, would the record be, than the brightest volume
+that ever was written upon man's actions!
+
+For some time after Colonel Manners quitted Morley House, Marian de
+Vaux continued to sleep under the influence of strong opiates, which
+the medical man had found it necessary to give her in the morning.
+Whether he did right or wrong--whether it would have been better to
+let her meet grief boldly face to face, or was better to shield her
+from the violence of its first attack--each must judge as he feels;
+but he had known her from a child, and he had a notion that hers was a
+heart which would be easily broken if sorrow was suffered to handle it
+too roughly. At all events, while this state continued, she enjoyed a
+cessation from grief and apprehension; but still, how different was
+her slumber from the calm and natural repose of a heart at ease! The
+dull poppy with its leaden weight seemed to keep down and oppress
+feeling and thought, not to relieve and refresh them; and in her
+beautiful face, even as she slept, there was something which told that
+the slumber was not natural. Oh! the sweet profound sleep of infancy,
+how beautiful it is! that soft and blessed gift of a heart without a
+stain or a pang, of a body unbroken in any fibre by the cares and
+labours of existence, of a mind without a burden or an apprehension.
+It falls down upon our eyelids like the dew of a summer's eve,
+refreshing for our use all the world of flowers in which we dwell, and
+passing calm, and tranquil, and happy, without a dream and without an
+interruption. But, alas! alas! with the first years of life it is
+gone, and never returns. We may win joy, and satisfaction, and glory,
+and splendour, and power--we may obtain more than our wildest ambition
+aspired to, or our eager hope could grasp; but the sweet sleep of
+infancy, the soft companion of our boyish pillow, flies from the
+ardent joys as well as the bitter cares of manhood, and never, never,
+never returns again.
+
+The apothecary had ventured on large doses of the drug, and Marian's
+slumber continued for many hours; but at length she woke, pale,
+languid, sick, with her ideas all confused, and yet her heart not the
+less ill at ease. "Is that Isadore?" she said, gazing towards the
+window at which some one was standing, and over which the shades of
+evening were coming dim and fast. Isadore approached her bed, and
+Marian asked eagerly, "What news?" She could not put her question in a
+distinct form, for her mind refused to fix itself precision upon
+anything; and besides, with the common self-cheatery of fear, she
+loved not to give her apprehensions voice.
+
+"I have no news, dear Marian?" replied Isadore, sitting down by her.
+"Sorry I am to say that Colonel Manners has returned without any
+tidings; and he has since gone over to my uncle's, to see whether
+anything may be known there in regard to these extraordinary
+circumstances."
+
+Isadore had framed her answer, with a view of alone hiding from Marian
+that anything had been discovered to confirm their fears, and of
+turning her mind from the search on which Colonel Manners had been
+employed: but the result went further than she had expected, or even
+wished; for it was her purpose only to break the force of grief, not
+to raise expectations which were likely to be disappointed. Hope,
+however, is the most adroit of diplomatists, and takes hold of the
+slightest word or circumstance in its own favour with skill and
+agility unparalleled. The words of Isadore, simple as they were,
+lighted again in a moment the half-extinguished flame in the bosom of
+her cousin. She remembered the suspicions concerning the illegitimacy
+of his birth, with which Edward had gone to visit the gipsies; she
+remembered his fiery and impatient nature, and the agitation into
+which even the apprehension had thrown him; and hope instantly
+suggested that he might have found his fears confirmed, and, wild with
+anger and distress, might have flown instantly to his father's house.
+
+It is true he was on foot; it is true he had quitted the house during
+the night; it is true that he was not likely to take such a step
+without writing to relieve her mind; but it is the quality of hope to
+trample on improbabilities, and Marian de Vaux obtained a momentary
+relief. Still she would fain have had her hopes confirmed by the
+opinion of others: but she could not expect to do so without
+explaining the reason why she entertained them; and that reason could
+not be explained without entering into some details in regard to
+Edward's communication with the gipsy, which she knew not whether she
+were justified in making. Her mind was so confused with the effect of
+the remedies employed to obtain sleep, that she was long in
+determining what was the best to do, and remained silent, while
+Isadore kindly and gently strove to suggest as many motives for
+consolation as she could imagine. At length, however, as Marian
+revolved all the probabilities in her mind, she recollected that other
+causes might render the disclosure of Edward's feelings and intentions
+necessary; that he might not be found at his father's house; that
+strict and immediate investigation might be required; and that, under
+those circumstances, a knowledge of all that her lover had proposed to
+do previous to his sudden disappearance might be requisite to those
+who were employed in searching for him, in order to render that search
+at all effectual; and although she shrunk from the idea of betraying,
+in the slightest degree, the confidence he had reposed in her, yet she
+felt it necessary to give every information in her power which might
+lead to the result they sought. She determined, then, at length, to
+speak of what had passed between De Vaux and herself on the preceding
+day; and only hesitated whether to relate it to her aunt or to her
+cousin. Mrs. Falkland's kindness and strong good sense were not to be
+doubted; but yet Marian knew Isadore thoroughly, and knew that there
+was more judgment and tact under her usual gayety than was apparent.
+She knew, too, that with her she should be able to relate and to keep
+back just as much as she thought proper; while her aunt's keen and
+rapid questions, she felt, might draw from her more than she was
+justified in communicating.
+
+"Do you know, Isadore," she said, at length, "I am in some hopes that
+Edward may be heard of at his father's house: it would not surprise me
+if he had gone thither."
+
+Isadore felt that she had a delicate part to play. She was glad to see
+that Marian was more composed than she could have expected; and, of
+course, she would have wished to maintain that state of composure,
+till apprehension gradually changed into grief, without any new shock
+to her feelings: but she still felt that she had no right to encourage
+hopes which must soon be broken; and she replied, "I am very happy,
+dearest Marian, that you do think so; but is it not strange that he
+should go thither, and be so long absent, without letting any one
+know, when he must have felt that so many would be uneasy?"
+
+"It is strange," replied Marian; "but I think I can account for that.
+I am about to tell you something, Isadore, which you must make what
+use of you think fit, in case Colonel Manners has not found poor
+Edward at Dewry Hall; but as it refers to matters which he might not
+wish told to any one, you must ask me no more than I am inclined to
+speak; and unless it be necessary, perhaps, had better not mention it
+to any one but my aunt."
+
+"I will obey you to the letter, dear cousin," replied Isadore; "but I
+foresee that you are going to speak of his visit to the gipsy, which,
+indeed, surprised us all."
+
+"It is the cause of that visit I am about to tell you," answered
+Marian; "for perhaps the facts connected with it may throw some light
+on the business, if Edward be not at his father's. But you remember,
+Isadore, that Colonel Manners went up yesterday morning to the
+gipsies--I believe, because you teased him about them."
+
+"Yes, indeed, I believe it was one of my silly jests," replied
+Isadore, with a sigh, "that made him go at all. I shall leave off
+jesting for the future, Marian."
+
+"Nay, nay! never, Isadore!" replied Marian, shaking her head.
+"However, Colonel Manners brought Edward down a letter from one of
+them called Pharold, which distressed him a great deal; for it told
+him things concerning our own family, and his part of it particularly,
+which would be very terrible if true. He determined, after speaking to
+me upon the matter, to go up to the common this morning, in order to
+investigate the whole; and if he found any reason to believe that the
+gipsy spoke the truth, his mind, I am sure, would be in such a state
+that he would hardly know what he was doing. Under these
+circumstances, it is very likely that he might go over at once to
+inquire more of his father, without thinking of anything else in the
+pain and anxiety of the moment."
+
+"No, Marian, depend upon it, he would think of you," cried Isadore,
+somewhat incautiously.
+
+"I could easily forgive him for not doing so," replied Marian,
+"notwithstanding all the pain I have suffered, if I could be sure that
+he is safe at the Hall."
+
+"Pray God it maybe so!" replied Isadore; "and if it be, we shall
+undoubtedly hear from Colonel Manners to-night."
+
+There was something so despairing in the tone with which Isadore
+pronounced--"Pray God it may be so!" that Marian took alarm.
+"Isadore," she said, looking at her steadily, "I hope you are not
+deceiving me. Your heart is not one to be so easily cast down; your
+lips, dear cousin, are not accustomed to such sad sounds. Tell me the
+truth, Isadore, I beseech you. Have you heard anything of Edward?"
+
+"No, indeed, Marian!" replied Isadore, glad that she had put her
+question in such a shape that she could give it a negative; and yet
+hesitating a little at the utterance of one word approaching
+insincerity, a vice that her mind had never known. "No, indeed," she
+said, "no one has heard anything of him as yet."
+
+Marian marked her hesitation, however, and replied, in a low voice, "I
+should always like to know the truth, Isadore; and I am sure you would
+tell it me, dear cousin. You know how I love Edward; and I think it no
+shame to acknowledge to you, Isadore, that I do not believe there ever
+was a human being that loved another as I have loved him." She paused;
+and though she knew that Isadore needed no new insight into her heart
+to see how totally that heart was given to Edward de Vaux, yet, as she
+spoke, the crimson came again into her cheeks, and mottled her brow
+and temples, even to speak her love in the hearing of one who already
+knew it so well. "Nevertheless, Isadore," she continued, "feeling
+afraid of my own heart, and my own great happiness, I have schooled
+myself to remember that the blessings of this world are anything but
+permanent, and have prepared myself to say, if God should require me
+to yield them, 'Thy will be done.' Of course, since Edward went into
+active service, I have felt it the more necessary to be always thus
+prepared; and though I have tried not to imbitter existence by
+apprehensions, nor to keep myself in continual fear, I have
+endeavoured never to forget that Almighty Wisdom may hourly require
+sacrifices, at which we must not repine."
+
+"You are indeed a sweet creature!" cried Isadore, casting her arms
+round her cousin's neck; "I wish that I were half as good!" Marian
+leaned her brow upon her cousin's shoulder; and when Isadore again
+looked at her, she found that Marian was weeping.
+
+In a few moments Marian wiped away her tears, and went on: "You will
+think that, after boasting of all this preparation, I ought not to be
+so overcome now--nor, indeed, so much as I was this morning; but the
+truth is, when Edward returned, half my fears vanished. I thought that
+all danger was over; and little remembered that he who had escaped
+from battle and from storm, might be snatched from me in the bosom of
+peace, and in his own home. But I am better now, Isadore, and firmer,
+and stronger; and therefore I will beg you and my aunt to let me hear
+at once everything that occurs; for though you are interested too, I
+know, deeply and sincerely, yet you can neither of you feel as I do."
+
+"Perhaps that is the very reason, dear Marian," replied Isadore, "why
+it would be better to keep from you all the rumours and reports, which
+could only rack all your feelings with alternate hopes and fears,
+without leading you even to any certain conclusion."
+
+"Oh, no!" said Marian; "no! let me hear all, Isadore! I am now again
+prepared. I do not say that I shall not weep--I do not say that I
+shall not be anxious--I do not say that I shall not tremble with hope
+and fear: but I do say, Isadore, that the knowledge of whose hand it
+is that guides the whole--and my firm, perfect, undoubting,
+unchangeable belief that His will is mercy, and His way is wise--will
+be my support and consolation to the end."
+
+"And I will never believe," said Isadore, warmly, "that He will leave
+such confidence unrewarded and unprotected."
+
+"Oh, no!" answered Marian; and she then added, in a sadder tone, "But
+He, seeing more wisely than we do, may yet think fit to afflict us,
+Isadore. However, I am still prepared, and will meet whatever may
+come, as little repining as I can."
+
+The conversation proceeded for some time in the same tone, nor was its
+effect small in soothing the mind of her who suffered; for, in moments
+of grief, the human heart forgets all the treasured consolations which
+reason, and philosophy, and religion have garnered up in years of
+tranquillity; and it is not till we examine the stores that we have
+gathered that we remember the sources of comfort which we ourselves
+possess.
+
+Marian then expressed her intention of rising, and begged Isadore to
+send her maid from the dressing-room. Her cousin would fain have
+dissuaded her; and proceeded to inform her mother of Marian's
+intention of coming down to the drawing-room; but Mrs. Falkland did
+not disapprove of the idea, especially when she learned from Isadore
+the state of her niece's mind. "We must endeavour," she said, "to keep
+any sudden tidings of evil from our poor Marian; but in other
+respects, perhaps, occupation of any sort may do her good; for I know
+too well, Isadore, that nothing can be worse than the fears and the
+pains with which our own imagination fills up the interval of
+suspense, when, alone and sleepless, we sit and watch away the weary
+hours, till doubt and fear have grown into the too painful certainty."
+
+Marian was not long in following her cousin to the drawing-room; and
+though a few tears rolled over her cheeks as Mrs. Falkland pressed her
+to her bosom, she soon regained at least the appearance of composure.
+By degrees she learned all that Colonel Manners had discovered, except
+the indications which most strongly tended to confirm his
+apprehensions for De Vaux; and she heard, also, all that he had done
+towards obtaining further and more certain information. Marian,
+however, inferred, from the measures that had been taken, that both
+her aunt and Manners did entertain serious fears; and her heart sunk
+to find her own alarm confirmed by that of persons so much more
+thoroughly acquainted with the world than herself. Soon after she
+had come down, the servant, who had been despatched to Mr. Arden,
+returned with the tidings that he was absent from his own house, and
+was not expected back till the next morning. Inquiries, too, were made
+by the people who had been left to guard the wood, whether it were
+necessary to keep up their patrol all night; and in Manners's absence,
+Mrs. Falkland ordered it to be done at any expense. Many a rumour,
+too, of many a likely and many an unlikely occurrence, reached the
+drawing-room through the old butler, who, with one other man-servant,
+had been retained in the house while the rest had been despatched to
+reinforce the people on watch round the wood.
+
+Thus passed the evening, but no tidings arrived from Colonel Manners;
+and as minute after minute and hour after hour went by after the
+period which they calculated might have brought them the news of De
+Vaux's being at his father's house, the hopes of all the party sunk
+lower and more low, and at a late hour Mrs. Falkland persuaded Marian
+again to go to bed.
+
+Sleep, indeed, visited Morley House but little during that night; and
+the next morning early, a note was received from Colonel Manners,
+informing Mrs. Falkland that nothing as yet had been heard of De Vaux.
+So far Mrs. Falkland communicated the tidings she had received to
+Marian, before she had risen; and, notwithstanding all the fortitude
+she had endeavoured to assume, and the most careful guard she had been
+enabled to put upon her heart, yet Marian had so far encouraged hopes
+which now suffered disappointment, that medical aid was again obliged
+to be called; and it was judged expedient once more to dull her sense
+of grief and fear by strong opiates. The latter part of Colonel
+Manners's communication, which spoke in plain terms of the murder of
+poor De Vaux, Mrs. Falkland did not, of course, read to her unhappy
+niece. In it, however, he informed her, that when he arrived at Dewry
+Hall, he had found measures already in progress for arresting the
+supposed murderers upon another charge, and had waited to know the
+result. They had proved, unfortunately, without effect, he said; as no
+one had been taken but a lad, from whom he was afraid little
+satisfactory information was likely to be gained: but still it was his
+purpose, he added, to go over to Dimden with Lord Dewry, previous to
+returning to Morley House, in order to hear personally what evidence
+could be extracted from the prisoner. In conclusion, he recommended,
+if Mr. Arden had not taken measures for searching the wood in which
+the gipsy had been seen, before his letter arrived, that such a step
+should be resorted to directly; as the messenger who brought the news
+of the affray at Dimden had not been able to say whether Pharold were
+present or not.
+
+After the receipt of this letter, Mrs. Falkland waited anxiously for
+the arrival of Mr. Arden; but it was late ere he came. He then asked
+eagerly what further discoveries had been made, and Mrs. Falkland
+communicated to him the substance of Colonel Manners's letter. The old
+gentleman, whose heart was warm and kind, notwithstanding a certain
+degree of severity of manner, and a persevering adherence to the
+letter of the law, which often made him appear harsh and unfeeling,
+sympathized truly with De Vaux's family; and spoke of Marian, and the
+state of bereavement and distress into which her cousin's loss must
+have cast her, with words of tenderness and pity which brought a
+bright drop or two even into his own eyes. He then touched as
+delicately as his nature permitted upon the subject of Lord Dewry's
+letter to him, which he had received that morning; and triumphed a
+little in the accuracy of the opinion he had formerly given in regard
+to Pharold the gipsy being the real murderer of Mrs. Falkland's late
+brother.
+
+Mrs. Falkland started, and combated the idea with various arguments,
+which had been satisfactory to her own mind at the time. Mr. Arden,
+however, informed her, that in his letter of that morning, Lord Dewry
+had asserted, that he had acquired positive proofs of the gipsy's
+guilt; and Mrs. Falkland was silent, but not convinced. That Pharold,
+either in some fierce dispute, or in some accidental affray, might
+have killed her unfortunate nephew, or that his companions might have
+done so, without his will or concurrence, Mrs. Falkland did not doubt:
+but she had heard too much of his character and behaviour in youth to
+believe that, twenty years before, when he was still a young man, he
+could have been so hardened in guilt as, for the purpose of paltry
+plunder, to take the life of the only man for whom, with the exception
+of his own tribe, he had shown affection. For Lord Dewry's fierce
+accusation on the present occasion, she accounted easily by a
+knowledge of his character, and conceived it very possible that the
+rage and hatred which he felt at the very idea of the gipsy having
+murdered his son, might make him regard as proof positive any slight
+additional suspicions which he had found cause to form against Pharold
+in regard to his brother's death. However, as she took no pleasure in
+speaking of her brother's weaknesses, she made no answer; and Mr.
+Arden began his proceedings for the purpose of causing the wood in
+which Colonel Manners imagined he had seen Pharold to be so thoroughly
+searched as to ascertain, beyond a doubt, whether the gipsy still
+remained in it or not.
+
+As all those who have attempted to search a wood must know the task is
+not an easy one; and before a sufficient number of people could be
+collected, and all the orders and directions could be given, it was
+late in the day. As the men, however, who had kept patrol for so many
+hours were now weary of the task, and there existed many doubts
+whether any inducement would make them undertake it during another
+night, there was no possibility of delaying the search till the
+following morning; and Mr. Arden accordingly set out, taking as many
+of Mrs. Falkland's servants with him as could by any means be spared,
+in order to make their proceedings as effectual as the short remaining
+space of daylight permitted.
+
+During his absence Mrs. Falkland and her daughter remained in that
+painful and exciting state of suspense in which every minute has its
+expectation, and every minute its fear; and as Marian still slept,
+Isadore walked out into the garden, in hopes of finding some
+refreshment in the cool air of the autumn evening. When she had passed
+about half through the garden, with her eyes turning mechanically from
+time to time upon the flowers, but with her thoughts far otherwise
+occupied, she perceived a boy of about ten years of age, who worked
+under the gardeners, approaching her, cap in hand.
+
+"Please, miss," he said, "I think I have found out something."
+
+"And pray, what have you discovered, Harry?" demanded Isadore, as he
+paused.
+
+"Why, ma'am," answered the boy, "I heard the gentleman yesterday, and
+all the folks, indeed, talking of footsteps, and asking where there
+were any to be seen, in sorts of unlikely places--"
+
+"And have you found any?" exclaimed Isadore, speaking eagerly, from
+some of those vague, and often fallacious anticipations which rush
+upon the mind in thousands when it is excited by any strongly-moving
+cause.
+
+"Why, yes, ma'am, you see," replied the boy; "the gardener, when he
+was going away to search the wood, sent me down to the other side of
+the park to cut some box for the borders; and by the little door close
+by the river, which has not been opened these two years, I saw the
+marks of a gentleman's foot in the gravel, which is softish down on
+that walk, and greenish, too, for it ha'nt been turned this autumn."
+
+"But how do you know it was a gentleman's foot?" demanded Isadore. "It
+might be either the gardener's, or the under-gardener's, or the
+gamekeeper's, for anything you know, Harry."
+
+"No, no, miss," answered the boy; "I know it was a gentleman's, for
+they have little feet, and this was not bigger than mine; and it was
+not a woman's foot, because the heel was different."
+
+"And a boy's?" said Isadore; "why might it not be a boy's?" The youth
+rubbed his head, saying, "It might be a boy's, miss; but I do not
+think it, miss, any how: I am sure it was a gentleman's--quite sure."
+
+Isadore endeavoured to discover the grounds of this certainty; but
+when people whose ideas are not very clear upon a subject are pressed
+by those who would fain help them to disentangle the ravelled skein of
+their thoughts, they not unfrequently take refuge in a sort of blank
+stolidity, which prevents others from finding out the causes that they
+themselves are not able to explain. Such was the case in the present
+instance, and the only answer that Isadore could obtain to her
+questions, shape them how she would, was, that he--the boy--was sure
+that the footmarks were those of a gentleman.
+
+With these tidings, however, with every willingness in the world to
+believe that they were true, and with a long train of phantom hopes to
+boot, Miss Falkland returned to her mother, taking the boy to the
+house with her. Mrs. Falkland listened with attention, and replied
+that it would be at least worth while to send down the old butler
+directly, to ascertain the facts more precisely.
+
+"Oh, for Heaven's sake, do not send him, mamma!" exclaimed Isadore.
+"He is so fond of miracles, that he will declare it is the foot of an
+elephant. We shall never come at the truth from him."
+
+"But whom can I send, then?" demanded her mother. "All the other
+servants are away; and both the gardener and under-gardener are with
+Mr. Arden."
+
+"I will go myself, mamma," replied Isadore. "I shall have plenty of
+time to get there and back before it is dark; and I will take the boy
+with me to show me the place."
+
+"You are right, Isadore," replied Mrs. Falkland: "the fact may be of
+no importance, but it may be of much; and, consequently, it is worth
+our own examination. I will go with you, my love, if Marian be still
+asleep. Wait one moment, and we will go and judge together."
+
+Mrs. Falkland was not long absent. Marian was still lying overpowered
+with the opium; and the two ladies, having joined the boy in the hall,
+set out upon the search. While her mother was absent, however, Isadore
+called her own maid, and stationed her at one of the windows, whence
+she could see the spot to which the boy referred, and the path leading
+to it. She gave her also directions to remain there, and, in case of
+either Mrs. Falkland or herself making a signal, to send or come down
+to them in all haste. "I feel a sort of presentiment," thought
+Isadore, as she gave the orders, "that this expedition will end in
+something of importance."
+
+Whatever it was likely to end in, the maid obeyed her orders as
+punctually as such orders generally are obeyed; that is to say, she
+remained two minutes at the window; and having seen Mrs. Falkland and
+Isadore walk about a hundred steps upon the path, she thought, "Dear
+me! I can just get the cap I was trimming, and be back again here long
+before they are at the other side of the park." But, as she crossed
+the hall, she met with the old butler, who detained her just to ask
+her where his mistress and Miss Falkland were gone; and then told her
+a story, which he had heard when he was young, and the incidents of
+which were very like those connected with the fate of poor Mr. Edward
+de Vaux. Every hair on the maid's head stood on end, and gave her so
+much occupation, that, ere she could get back to her post, it was too
+dark to trim the cap any further; she therefore, immediately and
+punctually, turned her eyes on the spot which her mistress had
+directed her to observe, and watched most carefully, now that she
+could see nothing at that distance.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+Isadore and Mrs. Falkland, in the meantime, took the little path
+towards the brink of the river, in the immediate neighbourhood of
+which lay the spot where the boy had remarked the footsteps. Mrs.
+Falkland had lived too long in the great school of disappointment,
+human life, to suffer her expectations to be greatly excited; but
+Isadore, with a spirit naturally more enthusiastic, and as yet
+unchastened by any deep sorrows, felt her heart beat high, and her
+hopes struggle up against her fears, as she set out to take a more
+active part than she had hitherto been able to assume in the search
+for her cousin. The path wound along through the park, meandering
+considerably, perhaps in conformity to the taste of some ancient layer
+out of parks, or perhaps in consequence of the usual roundabout and
+circuitous nature of man's paths. Isadore, like all ardent minds, was
+tempted to make a more direct way for herself across the lawns; but
+Mrs. Falkland, in a more practical spirit, remembered that the grass
+was damp, and that it was not worth while to wet her feet for the
+purpose of saving half a minute. She adhered, therefore, to the
+gravel; and, as her more venturous daughter met with a little swamp
+occasioned by a spring, which obliged her to go round, they arrived at
+the spot they sought about the same time.
+
+The spot itself, however, needs some description, and, indeed, it has
+been already described once before, with a special injunction to the
+reader to remember all the points and bearings which were then
+detailed. However, lest memory should be treacherous, we will once
+more take a view of the scene, as it was presented to the eyes of Mrs.
+Falkland and her daughter, who were at that moment looking exactly
+west-north-west. Before them was a little shrubbery of evergreens and
+indigenous plants, kept as low as possible, so as just to hide the
+wall of the park, against which it rested, and yet not to cut off from
+the windows of the house a beautiful rocky bank, which rose on the
+other side of the wall to the height of a great number of feet. This
+bank formed one of the faces of a small wooded promontory, or rather
+peninsula, which was joined on to the hills by a narrow neck, over
+which the high-road passed after having skirted the other wall of the
+grounds. It was surrounded everywhere but at that point by the river.
+The summit was covered with rich wood; and down the sides also, in
+every place where the rock did not rise up abrupt and bare, a thousand
+various trees and shrubs had rooted themselves in the clefts and
+crevices, or towered up like pinnacles from the top of every detached
+fragment, and overhung the calm, still bend of the river, which served
+as a mirror to all the beauties round about it. The setting sun, with
+his lower limb just resting on the western hills, was pouring a flood
+of splendour down the valley of the stream; and his full light
+bursting upon the face of the rock to the left of Mrs. Falkland and
+Isadore, found its way round in bright catches of purple light,
+illuminating every tree and angle of the rock that stood forward
+before the rest.
+
+Pouring on, too, the beams streamed down the little footway which--cut
+through the low shrubbery to a door in the wall--led out to another
+path running from the high-road to the river, between the park and the
+cliff; and by the clear light thus afforded it was easy to see the
+marks of which the boy had spoken. They seemed to have been made by
+some one coming from the grass on the side of the river upon the soft
+gravel of the path, and had turned suddenly towards the door, where
+they disappeared, as if the person had passed through. They were
+small, too, as the boy had described, and were evidently not a
+woman's; but neither Mrs. Falkland nor Isadore were sufficiently well
+acquainted with De Vaux's footprints to feel anything like certainty
+concerning them. It were vain to deny, however, that the hopes of both
+were raised, though Heaven knows those hopes were vague and indistinct
+enough. Had either Mrs. Falkland or Isadore been asked what they
+expected to find, they would probably have answered, "Edward de Vaux;"
+but had they been required to assign a reason for such expectations,
+to account for his absence, or to point out any principle upon which
+he could have abandoned the society of those he loved, and yet linger
+in their neighbourhood, they would have been embarrassed for a reply.
+But affection does not pause to argue. Hope, too, is ever most
+powerful when she triumphs over reason, and, though it may seem a
+paradox, expectation is never so vivid as when we know not what we
+expect. Hope, then, as bright as sunshine, but as vague and undefined
+as that sunshine when it streams through the morning mist, was lighted
+up by the sight of those footsteps. As Mrs. Falkland gazed on them,
+and traced them distinctly to the door, she exclaimed, "How very
+stupid it was of me not to bring the key!"
+
+"I have a key, ma'am," said the boy, groping in the pocket of his
+jacket; and producing it accordingly, he advanced to the door and
+opened it. Mrs. Falkland now looked eagerly for more traces; but none
+were to be seen close to the door, though the ground was composed of a
+reddish sort of sand, which would easily have taken the print of even
+a light foot. At the distance, however, of about five feet were to be
+seen two deep marks of the same kind, but close together, with the
+heels more profoundly indented in the sand than the front of the foot;
+and it became evident that some one had leaped from the top of the
+wall. This was made still clearer, when, turning back, Mrs. Falkland
+examined the door, on the top of the lock of which several patches of
+gravel had been left by the foot of some one who had taken that means
+to reach the summit of the wall. In the mean time Isadore was eagerly
+tracing on the footprints, which led straight from the deeper marks to
+the bank; and on one of the large stones close by the river, she soon
+found the impression of a foot in red sand stamped upon the green
+mould with which the fragment of rock was covered.
+
+"Here, mamma, here," cried Isadore. "He must have passed here, and
+that since the rain of last night, too; for if you look, the marks are
+quite sharp, while some old ones going down towards the water are
+nearly washed away. I should not wonder if he were here now."
+
+"Hark!" said Mrs. Falkland; "did you not hear a noise above there?"
+
+They listened, but all was silent; and at length Mrs. Falkland added,
+"We have done wrong, my love, in not bringing more people with us,
+even if they were but women. The wood is so small and so shut in by
+the river that it might be searched easily."
+
+"Send the boy back to the house, mamma!" cried Isadore, quickly: "he
+can bring down the butler, and probably some of the others may have
+returned. We can remain here, and watch till they come."
+
+"But, Isadore," said Mrs. Falkland, gravely, "it is growing dusk and
+late, and the place is lonely and obscure: I do not see any good that
+two women can do here alone."
+
+"Oh, Harry will be back in a moment, mamma," cried her daughter; "and,
+besides, nobody could hurt us. Any one on the high-road would hear a
+scream from this place."
+
+Mrs. Falkland still hesitated; but Isadore continued eagerly,--"I will
+tell you how we can manage it then, so that there can be no danger.
+Send him back for the people, and you go into the park to the little
+mound; there you can see the high-road quite across the point."
+
+"But I will not leave you here alone, my love," cried Mrs. Falkland,
+in some surprise at the proposal: "indeed I cannot think of doing
+that."
+
+"But, mamma, I have been here a hundred times alone before," replied
+Isadore; "and, besides, what I mean is, to get up to that little point
+where Marian and I have sat many a day. When I am there, you will be
+able both to see me and to hear me if I speak to you; and if any
+danger were really to happen, I could make the people with the cattle
+in the opposite meadow hear me, while you could also make them see or
+hear you from the house; and I set Charlotte at the window to watch."
+
+Mrs. Falkland still hesitated; but Isadore continued rapidly, "Run,
+Harry, up to the house as fast as ever you can go; bring down Mr.
+Gibson and any of the men you can find, and do not lose a minute."
+
+"I am afraid that this is not very prudent, Isadore," said Mrs.
+Falkland, as the boy ran off like lightning; "but I suppose your plan
+is the best one to follow now that he is gone. I will turn back to the
+mound then, while you go up there. But if the boy does not return
+before the twilight grows thicker, come down, by all means."
+
+"I will come down whenever you tell me, mamma," said Isadore; "and I
+can hear everything you say at the mound."
+
+Without more words, then, Mrs. Falkland hastened to take up her
+station at a little rising ground in the park, from the summit of
+which she could see, not only the whole of that part of the high-road
+which crossed the neck of the little promontory, but also the extreme
+angle of the cliff above the river. Isadore, in the meanwhile, climbed
+up by a steep and somewhat rugged path, which had been made at her
+request some years before, to a small point of rock which commanded a
+view both up and down the river, and afforded one of the most
+picturesque landscapes, on either side, that the country possessed.
+
+The height was not more than ten or twelve feet above the stream, and
+the distance from the mound in the park not a hundred yards, so that
+any one speaking in a loud voice could be heard from one spot to the
+other. The ascent, however, while it continued, was steep, and
+Isadore's heart beat when she reached the top--nor, perhaps, was it
+the exercise alone that made it palpitate. Although she had not
+displayed any fear, she was not without some slight degree of alarm;
+and felt not a little of that sort of excitement and agitation which
+is not indeed fear, but which often produces very similar effects. She
+looked back as soon as she reached the point of the rock, but Mrs.
+Falkland was not yet in sight. Another instant, however, brought her
+mother to the top of the mound, and Isadore demanded, "You can see the
+high-road, mamma, can you not?"
+
+Mrs. Falkland did not at first distinguish what her daughter had said,
+and Isadore repeated the question. Not that in this inquiry she was at
+all influenced by fear, although it might appear so; but, in truth,
+Isadore's eagerness to send back the boy for aid, and remain upon the
+watch, had originated in a little stroke of strategy which was not
+ill-conceived, considering that it sprang from the brain of a young
+lady.
+
+That there was some one in the wood above them Miss Falkland was quite
+convinced; and to ascertain who it was she knew was a great object at
+the time being. It had instantly struck her, therefore, that, by
+dividing their forces, her mother taking up a position on the little
+mound, whence she could see along the whole of the high-road, and down
+a considerable portion of the little lane under the wall, while she,
+Isadore, placed herself on the point which commanded a view of two
+other sides of the promontory, no one could well escape from the wood
+without coming under the eyes of one or the other of the fair
+watchers. She did forget, it is true, that, supposing the fugitive to
+be a man, and that man not her cousin Edward de Vaux, neither herself
+nor her mother were the least capable of making him stay, and that
+their hunt might very likely end, while the boy  was absent, like a
+famous hunt of yore, in the catching a Tartar. A vague sort of
+consciousness, it is true, that such might be the case, impressed
+itself upon her mind as she climbed to the little point above the
+river; but still her first question was directed to ascertain whether
+their line of watch was, as she hoped, secure and complete.
+
+She repeated her inquiry then, in a louder tone, and Mrs. Falkland
+replied, "Oh, yes, I can see to the river on the other side. But,
+indeed, Isadore, it is growing very dark. I can scarcely distinguish
+the house."
+
+Isadore still lingered, however; for the spot where she stood, looking
+eastward, caught more light than the rest of the scene. She thought
+she heard a slight rustling sound, too, above her, as of some one
+creeping through the bushes; and it must be confessed that her heart
+beat violently. Although, in truth, she now began to think her scheme
+a little rash, yet curiosity and anxiety for her cousin's fate still
+kept her where she stood. The next moment, however, she saw some one,
+indistinctly, pass through the bushes on the edge of the higher part
+of the bank, and imagination did much to persuade her that she
+recognised the figure.
+
+"Oh, mamma," she exclaimed, "I see him, I see him!" but the figure was
+instantly lost behind some more trees. It was evidently still passing
+on to the eastward, as if to escape in that direction, for the
+branches rustled as it forced its way through; and Isadore took two
+steps back to catch another sight of it as it passed before a bare
+facing of rock at the extreme point. At that moment there was a sudden
+rush through the brushwood; and ere Isadore could see that it was
+nothing more than a fragment of rock given way under the foot of the
+person above, she started back, thinking that it was he himself
+springing down upon her, lost her footing on the edge of the bank,
+and, with a shrill scream, fell over into the river.
+
+Mrs. Falkland shrieked also, and rushed forward to the stream; but the
+height from which Isadore had fallen had caused her instantly to sink,
+and nothing was to be seen by the mother's eye but the clear
+glistening expanse of the water, with the reflection of the cliffs,
+and trees, and banks, and of the fading purple of the sky, broken by a
+thousand rippling circles, where her child had disappeared. With the
+loud, piercing, thrilling cry of maternal agony, she shrieked again
+and again; and, as she did so, springing from rock to rock, with the
+swiftness and certainty of a wild goat, appeared the figure which
+Isadore had seen above her. He stood for a single moment on the spot
+whence she had fallen, and then exclaimed to Mrs. Falkland, below,
+"Where is she, woman? where is she?"
+
+"There, there!" cried Mrs. Falkland, pointing to the spot; but as she
+spoke a bit of white drapery floated up to the top of the water, a
+little farther down the stream. Pharold paused no longer, but leaped
+from the bank--sank--rose again--and in the next moment, with his
+left arm round the slender waist of Isadore Falkland, and her head
+thrown back upon his shoulder, he struck with his right towards the
+margin, where the soft, meadowy sloping of the park afforded an easy
+landing-place. There, springing on shore, he laid his fair burden on
+the grass, but she was pale, and moved not; and Mrs. Falkland gazing
+with agony on the colourless countenance of her daughter, wrung her
+hands, exclaiming, "Isadore! Isadore! she is dead! oh, she is dead!"
+
+"No, lady," said Pharold, kneeling down, and looking intently upon the
+fair face before him--"no, lady! she is not dead, nor has the water
+had any effect on her. That is not the face of a drowned person. She
+must have fainted through fear, and will soon recover."
+
+"For God's sake, then, help me, sir, to bear her to the house," cried
+Mrs. Falkland; "do not, do not hesitate. You who have rendered us such
+infinite service, do not pause there, but make it complete by bringing
+her to a place where she may be recalled to life."
+
+"What!" cried the gipsy, "to be taken and thrust into a prison! Do you
+not know that they are pursuing me on a charge of murder--pursuing me
+as if I were a wolf? Have you not, yourself, been sending out men to
+take the murderer Pharold?"
+
+Mrs. Falkland had forgot all other fears in her fears for her
+daughter; but as Pharold suddenly recalled them, she involuntarily
+drew a step back, and gazed on him with terror; but it required
+scarcely the thought of an instant to make her remember that he had
+saved the life--at least she trusted so--of her only child; that he
+had risked his own existence to rescue a perfect stranger, and she
+exclaimed, boldly, "No, no! I will never believe it! You are not--you
+cannot be guilty. But we waste time--we waste the moments that may
+save my child. For pity's sake, for God's sake, aid me to carry her
+home. I have sent, but I see no one coming--they may be long--she may
+be lost ere they arrive. If you will come," she added, seeing the
+gipsy still hesitate, "I promise you that you shall go free, and well
+rewarded,--you shall be as safe as if you were in your own house."
+
+"House!" exclaimed the gipsy; "I have no house! but I will believe
+you, lady--I will trust you;" and taking Isadore once more in his
+arms, he strode rapidly and powerfully forward, followed at the same
+quick pace by Mrs. Falkland.
+
+He took not the way across the green, however, believing that he might
+there be met by the servants, and his retreat cut off; but passing
+through the low shrubberies, which were almost as near, he walked on
+towards the house in silence. Every moment the light was becoming less
+and less, but he threaded the walks as if he had known them from
+boyhood, and took all the shortest cuts to abridge the way. At length,
+however, he paused for an instant, and turning to Mrs. Falkland, he
+said, in a low voice, "She revives! I feel her breath upon my face!"
+
+"Thank God! thank God!" replied her mother, in the same low tone; and
+the gipsy then abruptly added, as he resumed his way, "You believe me
+innocent, then."
+
+"I do, indeed," answered Mrs. Falkland; "I cannot believe a person
+guilty of a cool, deliberate murder, who could so boldly and
+generously risk his own life to save that of a fellow-creature,--it is
+not in human nature."
+
+"It is not, indeed," replied Pharold, still striding on; "but why then
+did you send out men to hunt me as you would a wolf?"
+
+"I sent them not out," she answered; "but when they went, I, too,
+thought that you might be guilty."
+
+"The memory of your brother," said Pharold, "the memory of him who
+loved me, and whom I loved as I have never loved any other man, should
+have made you think differently. Was he a man to love one whose nature
+led him to deeds of blood?"
+
+"He was not, indeed," answered Mrs. Falkland; "but they charge you
+with his death, too."
+
+"Ha!" cried Pharold, in a tone of unfeigned astonishment--"ha! that,
+then, is the well prepared, long-digested lie, is it? That they should
+accuse me of the gamekeeper's death I thought natural--though I would
+have given a limb to save him. That they suspected me of Edward de
+Vaux's, I heard without surprise; for men are always the fools of
+circumstances, and there were circumstances against me: but that,
+after twenty years, they should accuse me of the death of him that I
+loved more than any other thing but liberty, I did not think that
+villany and impudence could bring about,--and did you believe that,
+too?"
+
+"No," replied Mrs. Falkland, very willing, by speaking the exact
+truth, to sooth the irritated mind of a man who had just rendered her
+so inestimable a service--"no, I did not believe it; and as soon as
+the charge was made in my hearing, I expressed my disbelief of it
+entirely."
+
+"So, so!" said the gipsy, "there is some justice left! Lady, when you
+were four years old, I have carried you in these arms, as I now carry
+your daughter; and I thank you, at this late hour, for doing justice
+to one who was loved by those who loved you. No, no; I am not a
+murderer; and never believe it, whatever they may say."
+
+They were now coming near the house; and Mrs. Falkland, with fears for
+Isadore somewhat relieved, would fain have asked the fate of her
+nephew; but at that moment the gipsy spoke again; and though, from the
+shadow cast by the trees of the shrubbery, she could not see in which
+way his eyes were directed, the tone of his voice, as well as the
+words themselves, showed her that he was addressing her daughter. "Be
+not afraid, lady, be not afraid," he said: "you are quite safe, though
+in hands that you know not; your mother is behind: lean your head on
+my shoulder, and keep quite still."
+
+"Are you there, mamma?" said a faint voice, that went thrilling
+through all the innermost windings of Mrs. Falkland's heart. "Yes, my
+beloved Isadore; yes, my dearest child," replied the mother, "I am
+here, close beside you; and, thank God, you are quite safe!"
+
+"Hush!" said the gipsy, "hush! If I am seen, I am lost, remember; and
+keep silence, if you feel that I have served you."
+
+"Inestimably," replied Mrs. Falkland, in a low tone; and the gipsy,
+now emerging from the shrubbery, crossed a part of the lawn that lay
+between the angle of the wood and the house.
+
+In the gray of the evening, a party of two or three persons might now
+be seen, though indistinctly, following the open path, about half-way
+across the park towards the cliff. But though he turned his eyes in
+that direction, the gipsy took no further notice of them; and,
+approaching the house, directed his course towards a glass door which
+led out from a small breakfast-parlour upon the lawn. Mrs. Falkland
+took a step or two forward, and opened the door; and Pharold carried
+Isadore up the steps into the room, and placed her in safety upon a
+sofa.
+
+Her first action was to hold out her arms to her mother, with all that
+flood of gratitude, and tenderness, and joy flowing from her heart,
+which we feel on being restored to "this pleasing, anxious being,"
+after having thought that we were quitting for ever the warm precincts
+of the cheerful day. Mrs. Falkland caught her to her bosom, and,
+locked in each other's arms, they wept as if they had lost a friend.
+
+Well may philosophers say, that man never knows what joy is till he
+has tasted sorrow. Isadore and her mother had loved each other through
+life, without one of those petty rivalries, either for authority or
+admiration, without one of those jarrings of different purposes and
+opposing wishes which sometimes sap the affection of child and parent.
+They had loved each other through life dearly, and they knew it; but
+they did not know how dearly, till fate had nearly placed the barrier
+of the grave between them, and Isadore, safe and rescued, held her
+mother, weeping, in her arms. Who can explain such tears? Who can tell
+why the same drops which flow from pain or sorrow should be companions
+of the brightest joy? For who can trace the workings of the fine
+immortal essence within us, in its operations on the frail, weak
+tabernacle of earth in which it is enshrined?
+
+However, they wept, and wept in silence; for both felt the bosom too
+full for speech, and both, from the still oratory of the heart,
+offered up thanks to God for the joy and relief of that moment. Nor
+was their happiness unfelt by him to whom, under the Almighty, it was
+owing. The gipsy stood and gazed upon them, with his arms crossed upon
+his chest, and the light of internal satisfaction glistening in his
+eye. There was something in the scene before him, and in those who
+were the actors therein, which connected itself with the long, long
+past; which woke up the memories of many a year, and which called up a
+thousand thrilling sensations that long had slept. But he had neither
+time nor inclination to let his mind rest upon all that chaos of
+pleasures, and regrets, and wishes, and hopes, and sorrows, and
+disappointments, which, when memory, awakened from her sleep, draws
+back the veil from the past, is presented to the eyes of every one who
+has lived an energetic and stirring existence. While one might count a
+hundred, perhaps, he paused, and gazed upon Mrs. Falkland and her
+daughter, giving way to the purest feelings of human affection, and
+suffered his thoughts to wander wildly over the years gone by; but
+then, starting from his revery, he remembered that he must depart.
+
+"Lady, I go," he said. "May God bless you and yours, and send you
+ever, at your moment of need, one as willing and as able to help you
+as the gipsy has shown himself."
+
+"Stay, stay one moment," said Mrs. Falkland. "You must not, indeed,
+leave my house unrewarded for the infinite service you have rendered
+me."
+
+"I am rewarded already, lady," he said; "I am rewarded by what I have
+seen, I am rewarded by what I have felt, I am rewarded by knowing that
+there is one at least that can do justice, in her own heart, even to a
+gipsy. Lady, I must go: my stay is dangerous. Fare you well."
+
+At that moment, however, there was a powerful hand laid upon his
+shoulder, and as he turned quickly round, he found himself faced by
+Colonel Manners, who still kept his hold of the gipsy's collar and
+shoulder, notwithstanding the sudden jerk he gave himself.
+
+"You are my prisoner," said Manners, sternly. "Surrender at once, for
+resistance is in vain."
+
+"Doubtless, doubtless," answered the gipsy, bitterly. "I have fallen
+into the trap, and it is useless to writhe. Oh, God of heaven! how
+often have I sworn never again to do a service to any of these human
+worms; for, if not punished by their own base ingratitude, some other
+evil is sure to follow, as if thou hadst sworn vengeance on every one
+that did an act of kindness to their outcast race!"
+
+"You shall not suffer, however, for your service to me," said Mrs.
+Falkland, advancing. "I have pledged you my word, and I will redeem
+it.--Colonel Manners," she continued, "listen to me for one moment:
+this man has, within this quarter of an hour, saved my daughter's
+life, at the risk of his own."
+
+"Indeed!" cried Colonel Manners. "May I ask how? I trust Miss Falkland
+is not hurt."
+
+"No, not at all, I believe," replied Mrs. Falkland. "She fell from the
+bank into the stream--sunk before my eyes, Colonel Manners; and had it
+not been for his instant aid, she would have been now no more."
+
+"I am most delighted, indeed, to hear of her escape," replied Manners;
+"and would to God it had been my fate to render her the assistance,
+instead of this person, for I should then have avoided a most painful
+duty. But, indeed, my dear madam, as it is--"
+
+"Nay, say not a word more, Colonel Manners," interrupted Mrs.
+Falkland, "but hear my story out. He saved my daughter from the
+stream; he swam with her to land; but she was without sense or motion.
+I had nobody with me to help me, and I besought him, for the sake of
+Heaven, to do what my strength was, of course, not sufficient to
+perform, and to bear her home. He then told me his name; informed me
+that people were hunting him like a wolf among the woods; and asked if
+I could expect him to venture into the very midst of his enemies. I
+plighted my word for his safety--I promised him by every thing sacred
+that he should meet no impediment in quitting my dwelling; and upon
+that promise alone he came."
+
+"I am sorry, my dear madam," answered Manners, calmly, but gravely,
+"that such a promise can only be binding upon yourself. Did it involve
+merely an act of politeness, of friendship, or of personal sacrifice,
+I would do anything in my power to oblige you: but there is a higher
+duty calls upon me than either courtesy or friendship, and I must obey
+its voice. I have a duty to perform towards the laws of my country--I
+have a duty to my dead friend; and, at any risk and all risks, I must
+and will obey it. I wish, with all my heart, that I had met this man
+anywhere but here; but wherever I meet him, I am not only empowered,
+but bound, by every principle of law and justice, to arrest him."
+
+"Is there either law or justice, then, in arresting an innocent man?"
+demanded the stern voice of the gipsy.
+
+"Of your innocence or guilt the law has still to decide," replied
+Manners. "An accusation of the gravest kind has been made against you,
+circumstances of strong suspicion have already been discovered to
+justify the charge. If you be guilty, it is but fit you should be
+punished; and if you be innocent, doubt not that you shall have equal
+justice."
+
+"I did not expect this from you, Colonel Manners," said Mrs. Falkland,
+bitterly. "Have you no regard, sir, to my plighted word? Have you no
+consideration for my honour? I have used entreaties, sir; but I now
+insist that he shall go; and, if necessary, I will call my servants
+and make them set him free. He has saved my daughter's life, Colonel
+Manners; he has come hither in my service, at my prayer, and upon my
+promise of safety; and if he had killed my brother, he shall go hence
+unimpeded."
+
+"Madam, I believe you risk that supposition without a suspicion that
+it may be true," answered Manners. "But I must now inform you, that
+one of the principal charges against this man is the very fact of
+having murdered your late brother."
+
+"And the charge is false, Colonel Manners," answered Mrs. Falkland,
+vehemently. "Whatever he may be now,--whatever he may have become
+since,--he was not then a man to shed blood, much less the blood of
+his friend and benefactor. He could have no motive but lucre, and that
+motive was wanting; for from my brother he might have had whatever
+sums he required. Nay, more, I have often heard my brother declare,
+that he would not take what he offered. But, as I have said, Colonel
+Manners, all other considerations apart, my word is pledged, and he
+_shall_ go free."
+
+"Noble heart! noble heart!" cried the gipsy. "On my hand rests not one
+drop of innocent blood, as there is a God above the stars! Neither do
+I fear death nor dread inquiry; but my liberty is more than my life,
+and what should I do, for months, a prisoner among stone walls and the
+vermin of the earth! He talks boldly of arresting me now, when he has
+got me here with dozens at his back; but let him take me five hundred
+yards hence, where I was ere I carried your daughter hither,--let him
+take me to the wood, or the bare hill side, where there are no odds
+against me,--and then, strong as he thinks himself, let him arrest me
+if he can."
+
+Mrs. Falkland was going to speak again; and might, perhaps, have
+spoken angrily, for she was less calm than usual: but at that moment
+Isadore's voice made itself heard, though but faintly. "Colonel
+Manners," she said, "Colonel Manners, speak with me for a moment."
+Manners looked towards her as she lay on the sofa at the other side of
+the room; and he felt that to hear what she had to say distinctly he
+must, by going nearer, release the gipsy from the grasp which he still
+continued to maintain upon his collar. He felt also, what perhaps
+Isadore had at her heart felt too, that her voice was likely to have
+more effect with him than that of any one else; and as Manners had a
+strong inclination to do his duty rigidly, he somewhat feared her
+persuasions. However, he could not, of course, refuse to comply;
+but to guard against his prisoner's escape, he instantly locked both
+the doors of the little breakfast-room ere he approached her. He
+then--seeing the gipsy stand calmly with his folded arms, as if
+prepared to wait his decision--drew near, and bending down his head,
+"I am most happy, indeed," he said, "that you have not suffered any
+injury."
+
+"And yet you would ruin the person who saved me," said Isadore; "but
+do not reason with me, Colonel Manners, for I have neither strength
+nor wit to contend with you. I want to persuade, not to convince you."
+
+"That is what I am most afraid of," answered Manners with a smile.
+
+"Do not be afraid," said Isadore, "but listen. Do you think, Colonel
+Manners, that a man who could murder Edward de Vaux would risk his own
+life to save Edward's cousin?"
+
+"It is strange, certainly," answered Manners, "but--"
+
+"Do you think, then," continued Isadore, interrupting him, "that a man
+who felt himself guilty of murder would go voluntarily to the midst of
+the friends and relations of the person he had killed, solely for the
+purpose of carrying home a poor girl that he had just saved from
+drowning? Your murderers, Colonel Manners, must be curious
+characters."
+
+Could Isadore have beheld the face of her hearer distinctly, she would
+have seen that his cheek glowed a little with something like shame;
+but he answered, "I did not say, my dear Miss Falkland, that I thought
+him guilty. I only said, that the law required me to keep him a
+prisoner till he had proved his innocence."
+
+"Well, then, Colonel Manners," rejoined Isadore, "since you do not
+think him guilty--and I know you do not--since there is every reason
+to think him innocent--since mamma has plighted her word--since he has
+saved my life--since he came hither solely to aid me--you must let him
+go, indeed you must--"
+
+Manners hesitated, and looked doubtfully at the gipsy, as he stood,
+dark and shadowy, with his arms still crossed upon his bosom, and his
+eyes bent upon the ground. Isadore saw that a word more would conquer;
+and though her heart fluttered and her voice trembled to think how
+important that word might, perhaps, become at some future time, she
+made up her mind and spoke it, though in so low a tone that it fell on
+no other ear but his for whom it was intended. "Colonel Manners," she
+said, "you must let him go, indeed you must--" the words she added
+were, "for my sake!"
+
+Manners was embarrassed in every way. Who shall say what he would, or
+what he would not have done "for the sake" of Isadore Falkland? but
+that was not all--had he really believed the gipsy guilty, he would
+have had no hesitation; but he did not believe him guilty. The manner
+in which Mrs. Falkland repelled the idea of his being the murderer of
+her brother was enough to make Colonel Manners entertain many doubts
+on a subject where his convictions had never been very strong; and the
+fact of the gipsy having saved Isadore's life at the risk of his own,
+and carried her home at the risk of arrest, were so irreconcilable
+with his guilt, that Manners began to doubt too in regard to the
+murder of De Vaux. He knew, undoubtedly, that he himself was not the
+person called upon to judge; but still, of course, his conviction of
+Pharold's guilt or innocence made a great difference in the degree of
+eagerness with which he sought to apprehend him.
+
+But there were still several other motives for hesitation, when once
+he began to doubt. He felt that Mrs. Falkland was perfectly right in
+asserting, in every way, the inviolability of the promise she had made
+to the gipsy--he felt that the gipsy had a right to expect that it
+would be kept. He knew, also, that if Mrs. Falkland chose to call her
+servants, and order the liberation of the gipsy, in all probability
+any attempt to detain him would be in vain; and he was conscious, too,
+that in making the attempt, he was acting, at least, a very ungracious
+part. Still none of these motives, singly, would have restrained him,
+had he not felt the strongest doubts of the gipsy's guilt; but when a
+great many different motives enter into a conspiracy together to
+change a man's opinion, they are like smiths engaged in forging a
+piece of red-hot iron,--one gives it a stroke with his sledge-hammer,
+and another gives it a stroke, till, hard as it may be, it is moulded
+to their will. Manners, however,--although he might be led by many
+considerations to temper the stern rigidity of duty,--was not a man to
+abandon it altogether; and, therefore, he sought a mean which, as it
+was only at his personal risk, he thought himself justified in
+following, in order that Mrs. Falkland's promise might be held
+inviolate, and, perhaps, that Isadore might be obeyed.
+
+"Well!" he said, after a moment's consideration. "All this business
+has happened most unfortunately, that I should meet a man here whom I
+am bound to apprehend, and who yet is guarded by a promise of safety.
+However, Mrs. Falkland, although I cannot abandon my own duty, yet I
+must do what I can to reconcile it with the engagement under which
+this person came here. I think you said," he added, turning to
+Pharold, "that if I would take you to the wood, or the bare hill-side,
+with no odds against you, I might arrest you if I could--did you not?"
+
+"I did," said Pharold, "and I repeat it."
+
+"Then we are agreed," said Colonel Manners. "I will do so, although I
+am fatigued and exhausted."
+
+"Who has a right to be the most fatigued?"' cried the gipsy. "Have I
+not been hunted since the morning from wood to wood? Have I not had to
+double and to turn like a hare before the hounds? Have I not twice
+swam that quick stream? Have I had repose of mind or body, that you
+should talk of fatigue?"
+
+"Well, well," said Manners, "all this matters little. I accept the
+proposal which you have yourself made; and I thus specify the terms.
+Though accompanied by me, you shall go free from this place in any
+direction that you please for one quarter of an hour; a space of time
+fully sufficient to put you out of all danger of being overpowered by
+numbers. At the end of that time you are my prisoner."
+
+"If you can make me so," cried the gipsy: "if you can make me so."
+
+"Agreed," replied Manners: "that is what I mean, of course; otherwise
+our agreement would be of no use."
+
+"Colonel Manners," exclaimed Isadore, calling him back to her, for, in
+speaking, he had advanced a little towards the gipsy and Mrs.
+Falkland, "for God's sake, do not go. You do not know what may happen.
+Indeed, indeed, it is risking a valuable life most rashly. Let me
+persuade you not to go."
+
+She made Colonel Manners's heart beat more rapidly than ever it had
+done in his life; for to a man who felt as he did, and who had
+nourished the fancies that he had, to hear the voice of beauty, and
+worth, and gentleness pleading to him for his own safety, was
+something much more agitating than the roar of artillery, or the rush
+of charging squadrons. Isadore spoke, too, in a voice low, from an
+effort not to appear too much interested, and a little faint, too,
+perhaps, from late agitation and exhaustion; so that there was, in
+fact, a great deal more of tenderness in her tone than she at all
+wished or intended.
+
+"Nay, nay, Miss Falkland," answered Manners, who, in this instance,
+though gratified, could resist--"nay, nay, I have yielded as much as I
+can, indeed. I must either arrest this man here, or, out of respect to
+your mother's promise and to your entreaties, must let him depart to a
+spot where we may stand man to man, and then do my best to apprehend
+him there."
+
+"Oh, let him go altogether, Colonel Manners," said Mrs. Falkland; "the
+one charge made against him is false, depend upon it; and in regard to
+Edward de Vaux, surely his conduct in saving Isadore may be taken as a
+proof that he is innocent there also. Why should you risk your life in
+a struggle where you know not how many may come against you?"
+
+"Lady, you do me justice and injustice in the same breath," said the
+gipsy; "not one hand should be added to mine against his, if the whole
+world were inclined to assist the gipsy, instead of to oppress him.
+But at the same time, I tell him, as I have told you, that not a drop
+of innocent blood is upon this hand; that it is as pure as his own,
+and that I am more truly guiltless than those who boast their
+innocence and sit in high places."
+
+"I think," said Manners, turning to Mrs. Falkland, "that we must here
+end all discussion, my dear madam. My mind is perfectly made up as to
+what it is my duty to do. The risk, in this instance, is merely
+personal; and from such I will never shrink; and I feel very sure,
+also, that there is no chance of failure."
+
+"Be not too sure," said the gipsy.
+
+"But, Colonel Manners," urged Isadore, "if this person will give us
+what information he possesses--if he will tell us what has become of
+Edward--if he will explain all, in short, will it not be better to
+gain those tidings, and let him go quietly, than to hazard so much on
+a chance which may be productive of no results?"
+
+"But will he make such a confession?" said Manners; "will he give
+such information?"
+
+The gipsy was silent; but Mrs. Falkland anticipated his answer.
+"Doubtless he will," she said, "if you will undertake to let him go
+free when he has done."
+
+"Solely, if he can prove that Edward de Vaux is alive," answered
+Manners. "Words, my dear lady, can be of no use--I must have proof
+before I let him depart. He must not alone tell me what has become of
+my poor friend, but he must convince me that what he has told is true;
+otherwise I part not from him."
+
+"I know not well," replied the gipsy, "whether I have even a right to
+tell what I know; and how can I prove it, without remaining in your
+hands, and under the curse of a roof where I can scarcely breathe,
+till those come who would thrust me into a prison, one month of which
+were worse than a thousand deaths? No, no! I neither will speak to be
+disbelieved, nor stay to be tortured, if I can win liberty by facing,
+singly, a thing of clay like myself. If you will keep your word with
+me, keep it now. If you would not play me false, throw open your door,
+and go out with me to a place where you shall see whether, with God's
+free air blowing on my cheek, and God's pure sky above my head, any
+single arm on earth can stay me, if I will to go." As he spoke,
+however, two or three dim indistinct forms passed across the windows,
+which still admitted the faint lingering twilight of an autumn
+evening, and the gipsy, dropping his arms by his side, listened for a
+moment attentively. "It is too late," he exclaimed, at length--"it is
+too late. You have kept me till the bloodhounds have come back; and
+you shall have the joy of seeing them worry their quarry before you."
+
+"What is it you mean?" cried Manners. "Of what bloodhounds do you
+speak?"
+
+"He means what, I am afraid, is too true, Colonel Manners," said Mrs.
+Falkland, in a tone of bitter disappointment; "that Mr. Arden and the
+people sent to search the wood have just returned; and that,
+therefore, notwithstanding my word and your proposal, his apprehension
+in my house is the recompense he will receive for saving my daughter's
+life."
+
+"Do not be afraid, my dear madam," said Manners, "I will find means to
+keep my word with him; but let us be sure that it is as you suppose,
+before we risk going out into the park. I think I hear sounds in the
+hall also."
+
+Every one was silent; and the noise of distant footsteps and voices
+speaking was heard from the hall and vestibule; and in a moment after,
+some persons approached the very room in which Manners and the rest
+were standing.
+
+The steps passed on, however, to the library; and at the door thereof
+paused immediately after, while the voice of the old butler said, "She
+is not there, sir," and the feet returned. They then heard the door of
+the music-room, which lay on the opposite side, open; and the butler
+again said, "Nor there." The next moment a hand was laid upon the lock
+of the very door near which they were standing, and Manners held his
+finger to his lips in sign of silence. The old man made one or two
+ineffectual attempts to turn the lock, and then repeated, "Nor there
+either; for the door is locked for the night--though it is very odd
+the housemaid should take upon herself to lock up the rooms when I am
+out. I am sure I cannot tell where my mistress is, sir, nor Miss
+Falkland either, unless they have both been spirited away, like poor
+Mr. Edward; for they certainly are not up-stairs in either of the
+drawing-rooms, nor at the place where the boy told me he left them.
+But now I think of it, I should not wonder if they were in poor Miss
+Marian's room; and if you will walk up into the drawing-room, sir, I
+will send to see."
+
+"Do, do," said the voice of Mr. Arden; "but it is very strange that
+they should have left the spot so suddenly, when they sent for you to
+come to them. Why did you not search the wood directly? It is not
+bigger than my hand."
+
+"Oh, sir, I set the boy and the two others we had called to help us to
+search," replied the butler; "but I came back again, because it was
+not my place to search woods, sir; and, besides, I had a presentiment
+that your honour would be here."
+
+"The devil you had," said Mr. Arden; but what the worthy magistrate
+further replied was lost as he followed the butler up the stairs
+towards the drawing-room.
+
+"Now, my dear madam," said Manners, in a low voice, "let me advise you
+instantly to join Mr. Arden, and to keep him engaged till I can effect
+my retreat with our friend here; and you, my dear Miss Falkland, for
+God's sake do not forget yourself any longer; we have treated you very
+ill already, to keep you here so long in wet clothes. I am not very
+much accustomed to act as physician to ladies; but if I might advise,
+going to bed and warm negus would be my prescription."
+
+"Which I shall instantly follow, Colonel Manners," said Isadore; "but,
+for Heaven's sake, take care of yourself too. Let us see you gone
+before we open the door."
+
+"No, no," answered Manners; "yours must be the first party to march
+off: I cannot move till I have reconnoitred the ground." Thus saying,
+he turned the key and opened the door as silently as possible, and
+Mrs. Falkland and her daughter passed out into the corridor. Isadore
+paused for a single instant, as if she would have spoken either to
+Manners or the gipsy; but the former held up his finger, and gently
+closed the door that led from the breakfast-room into the interior of
+the house.
+
+"Now, then," he said in a whisper to the gipsy, "let me see that
+all is safe;" and opening the glass door, he gazed forth over the
+lawns. The twilight lay heavy over the whole scene, and the dim
+indistinctness of the day's old age rendered it impossible to see any
+distant object. There was no one, however, in the immediate
+neighbourhood of the house; and Manners, looking back into the room,
+beckoned the gipsy forward, saying, "Now, come with me."
+
+Pharold instantly complied; and Manners whispered, "While we are in
+the park, you remain under my guidance and protection. As soon as we
+are safe out of it, you take the lead which way you will."
+
+The gipsy nodded, and Manners took his way by the shortest cut to the
+trees. Then taking a walk which led up by some steps and a small
+rustic door into the garden, he crossed over, till they were both
+between the fruit-wall and a high holly hedge. Along this path he now
+walked rapidly, till they reached a spot half way between the house
+and the gate through which, with Isadore and Marian, and Edward de
+Vaux, he had once walked out into the woods. Here the gipsy halted for
+a moment, but then followed on without remark. The next instant,
+however, Manners heard in the bushes a noise of rustling, which the
+gipsy had before distinguished; and ere he had taken two steps
+farther, a man stood before him in the walk.
+
+"Are you the gardener?" said Manners, still advancing.
+
+"Yes," said the man. "What if I be?"
+
+"Why, then, go to the house," said Manners, "and if you find Mr.
+Arden, the magistrate, there, give him Colonel Manners's compliments,
+and tell him that if he will wait half an hour, I will be back with
+him, as I have matters of importance to speak to him about, but am
+obliged to go a little way with this good man ere I can attend to
+anything else."
+
+"I beg your honour's pardon," said the gardener; "I did not know you
+in this dark walk. That made me speak so rough; but if your honour be
+going out by that ere door, it's locked. I have just been locking it."
+
+"Well, open it again, then, gardener," said Manners, "and then make
+haste and give my message."
+
+"That I will, your honour," answered the gardener, walking on towards
+the door. "But did your honour say that this here man was along with
+you? He looks--"
+
+"Never mind what he looks," answered Manners, somewhat sternly. "He
+has matters of importance to arrange with me, or he would not be here;
+so make haste and open the door."
+
+The man obeyed, and only demanded further, whether he should leave the
+key. "No," said Manners; "I will return by the other gate.--Now go
+out, my good friend, and lead the way to the place you spoke of."
+Pharold proceeded through the open door; and Manners, bidding the
+gardener not forget his message, followed out into the road.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER V.
+
+
+"This is a strange business!" thought Manners, as he followed the
+gipsy into the road. "This is a strange business; and, on my part, not
+a very wise one, I believe. However, there seemed no other way to
+settle it; and having acted for the best, I must make the best of it;
+though, perhaps, I should have persisted in apprehending the fellow,
+where I had the means of doing so, at once."
+
+Such were the thoughts of the decided, energetic, acting Colonel
+Manners, who was known to the world at large as one of the most
+skilful and fortunate officers in his majesty's service; but the other
+Colonel Manners--the feeling, generous-hearted, somewhat imaginative
+Colonel Manners, who was only known to himself and a few very intimate
+friends, as a man both of the most gentlemanly mind and spirit, and of
+the most liberal and kindly disposition--had other thoughts. I have
+tried to explain this union of separate characters in the same bosom
+already; and I think it may be understood, for it is certain that it
+existed.
+
+The latter Colonel Manners--whose great principle was to keep out of
+sight, and who spoke so low that, though he generally, sooner or
+later, made himself obeyed, he was not always very distinctly heard at
+first, even by his fellow-denizen of the same noble bosom--now
+revolved the whole business in which he was engaged in a different
+manner; and although he could not help acknowledging that it was very
+strange and very silly to yield to doubtful inferences, in opposition
+to positive facts, yet he felt a strong conviction that the gipsy whom
+he followed was not guilty of the crimes laid to his charge.
+
+He wished much also that, by any other means than those of violence,
+he could obtain such evidence of Pharold's innocence, or at least such
+powerful motives for believing him innocent, as might justify in the
+severer eyes of understanding that course which was prompted by
+feeling and kindness. He saw no means of doing so, however, unless
+from the man's own lips he could draw some explanation of the many
+suspicious circumstances which existed against him. Yet how to begin
+such a conversation as might lead to that result, or how to shape his
+inquiries so as to draw the gipsy on to the point in question, without
+alarming him at an interrogation of which he did not see the end? It
+required some thought, and yet there was little time for reflection.
+
+Manners followed, therefore, in silence for some way, while the gipsy,
+with a quick step, took the path towards the hill. At the turn of the
+lane both Manners and Pharold looked back towards the gate of the
+garden, to see whether curiosity might not have tempted the gardener
+to follow; but though the light of day had now almost entirely left
+the sky, yet the distance was so short that the garden wall and the
+closed door were plainly to be seen, without any other object. A
+little farther on stood a cottage, with the warm fire and the single
+candle within flashing faintly through the dim small window, on the
+little bit of white railing before the door. Manners paused, and
+looked at his watch by the light; and then following the gipsy, he
+said, in a low and unconcerned tone, "There is an air of comfort even
+in an English cottage."
+
+His purpose was to begin a conversation by any means, trusting to
+chance for the rest; but the gipsy did not seem disposed to render it
+a long one. "Holes for rats, and for mice, and for snakes, and for
+foxes!" he said; "God's nobler sky for God's nobler creatures! that is
+the best covering."
+
+He spoke harshly, but still he did speak, which was all that Manners
+wanted; and he replied, "Do you think, then, that God gave men
+talents, and skill, and power in many arts, without intending him to
+make use of them?"
+
+"Not to build up molehills out of dust and ashes!" said the gipsy.
+
+"But how is he to defend himself, then, against the storm and the
+tempest?" demanded Manners; "against the midday heat of summer or the
+chill wintry wind?"
+
+"He needs no defence!" answered the gipsy. "Were he not the creature
+of luxury rather than of God, the changing seasons would be as
+beneficial to his body as they are to those of the beasts of the
+field, and to the earth of which he and they are made. And as to storm
+and tempest, the searching blade of the blue lightning will strike him
+in the palace as surely as on the bare hill or the barren moor; and
+the hurricane that passes by the wanderer on the plain will cast down
+their painted rubbish on the heads of the dwellers in cities."
+
+Manners saw that, as the lines of their ideas set out from the same
+point in directions diametrically opposite, they might be projected to
+all eternity without meeting; and therefore he at once brought the
+conversation nearer to the real subject of his thoughts. "We differ,"
+he said, "and of course must differ, on every subject connected with
+the manners and habits of mankind; but there is one point on which, I
+trust, we shall not differ."
+
+"I know none," said the gipsy, abruptly. "What is it?"
+
+"It is, that the creatures of the same God," Manners exclaimed, "are
+bound to assist and comfort each other!"
+
+"If such be your thoughts," answered the gipsy, turning round upon
+him--"if such be your opinions, then, why do you seek to torture me?
+Or is it that you think a gipsy not a creature of the same God as
+yourself?"
+
+"I seek not to torture you," answered Manners. "Were I to see any
+one torture you, my hand would be the first raised to defend you.
+Nothing that you see of me now--nothing that you saw of me when last
+we met--should make you suppose that I would torture you, even if I
+had the power."
+
+"I tell you," answered the gipsy, sternly, "that to live one day in
+the brightest saloon that the hands of folly ever decked for the abode
+of vice, would be torture to me! What, then, would be a prison?"
+
+"Whatever your own feelings might make it," answered Manners. "My
+purpose in seeking to place you in one, could only be to fulfil the
+laws of my country, and to bring the guilty to justice; but not to
+torture you. Nor, in this, can you accuse me of looking upon you not
+as a fellow-creature; for, of whatever race the offender had been, you
+know I would have done the same under any circumstances; though your
+peculiar feeling respecting liberty might, indeed, make me more
+scrupulous in arresting you than I should be in regard to a person of
+another race."
+
+"And have you been so scrupulous, then?" demanded the gipsy, bitterly.
+"Have you examined so carefully whether you have any real right to
+suspect me of the charges brought against me? Have you inquired
+whether those appearances on which the charges were grounded might not
+be all false and futile? Have you asked and searched out diligently
+whether some of those men who witness against me have not hatred and
+fear of me at their hearts? Have you done all this, before you sought
+to give me up to the hands of those whose enmity and whose prejudices
+would all forbid justice to be done me?"
+
+"I am not the judge," answered Manners; "and a judge alone can make
+such inquiries."
+
+"Are you, then, a tipstaff, or a bailiff, or a turnkey?" demanded the
+gipsy, "that you should pursue me, as if the warrant were placed in
+your hands for execution!"
+
+"I am neither of those persons you mention," Manners replied; "but
+every subject of this land is empowered and called upon to apprehend a
+person against whom a warrant on a charge of murder is known to have
+issued. But to return to what I was saying: in construing the power
+thus placed in my hands, I should always be more scrupulous to a
+person of your class--or nation, if you like the word better--because
+I know how galling the loss of liberty must be to one who spurns even
+the common restraints of cities; and could I have any positive proof
+that the warrant had issued against you on a false charge, I certainly
+should not attempt to execute it."
+
+"On what charge did it issue?" demanded the gipsy, turning for a
+moment to ask the question, ere he again strode on.
+
+"You are aware that there are many charges against you," replied
+Manners; "but the precise one to which you allude is, I believe, the
+having murdered my poor friend Edward de Vaux."
+
+The gipsy laughed aloud. "Were that all," he said, "it were soon
+disproved. His blood is not upon my hand."
+
+"Disprove it, then!" exclaimed Manners, who, from the whole tenour of
+the gipsy's conversation, felt more and more convinced of his
+companion's innocence at every step they took. "Disprove it, then!
+Other charges have been brought since; but I know nothing of them,
+except that one of them, as far as I can judge, is certainly false.
+Therefore, if you can but show me that the blood of my poor friend De
+Vaux does not stain your hand, I will leave you directly to follow
+what course you please; but if you cannot do so, we are now upon the
+bare hill-side, where there is none to aid either you or me; and you
+shall go no further, if I can stop you."
+
+A man may be a very clever man, and not able to calculate all the
+curious turns of another's character; and it so unfortunately happened
+that Manners, after having led the gipsy very nearly to the point he
+wished, overthrew at once everything he had accomplished by the threat
+with which he concluded. He was sorry for it as soon as it had passed
+his lips, as he instantly felt it might do harm; but he did not at all
+calculate upon its producing so great effect as it did.
+
+The gipsy took two steps forward, and then turning round, stood with
+Manners face to face. "Colonel Manners," he said, "not one drop of
+your friend's blood stains my hand!--I swear it by yon heaven, and by
+the God who made it! I could prove it, too; but I will not prove it
+for any man's threats. You say I shall not go, if you can stop me! I
+am not bound yet, thank God! with cords or chains. I am not laid in
+one of your dungeons. I am not shut in with bolts and bars. I will not
+tell you what I know! I will not give you proof of any kind; and I bid
+you take me, if you can." As he thus defied him, and announced his
+determination, Manners expected every moment to see Pharold turn to
+use the speed for which his limbs seemed formed; and although the
+gipsy was, as we have said, two paces in advance of him, he did not
+doubt that he should be able to seize him before he could effect his
+escape. The ground on which they were standing was a small flat space
+on the side of the hill, with the road, taking a steep ascent four or
+five paces beyond, and having a deep descent on one side, and a rapid
+acclivity on the other. Thus, if the gipsy attempted to fly along the
+road, Manners saw that he must necessarily turn to do so, and thus
+delay his flight; while, if he took any other way, he must come within
+reach. To Colonel Manners's surprise, however, the gipsy did not move
+from his place; but remained with his arms folded, in an attitude of
+determination, which very plainly spoke the resolution of bringing the
+affair to a personal struggle. Manners smiled as he perceived his
+intention, very confident that his superior muscular strength would at
+any time enable him to overpower two such antagonists.
+
+"My good fellow," he said, "this is really very foolish; for even if
+you suppose yourself stronger than I am, I could disable you in a
+moment, if I thought fit, with my sword. As you seem determined to
+resist, however, I will make myself even with you in point of arms,
+and lay aside my sword, which I cannot draw upon an unarmed man; but
+it must be remembered--"
+
+"Keep your sword, Colonel Manners," said the gipsy--"keep your sword,
+and draw it! I am not so much unarmed as I look:" and, as he spoke, he
+drew from beneath his long loose coat the weapon with which, as we
+have seen, he had provided himself in the morning.
+
+Now there was not exactly at that moment what Sir Lucius O'Trigger
+calls very good small-sword light. The sun was down completely; and
+though the last gray gleam of parting daylight that lingered still in
+the western extremity of the valley, and was reflected from the
+windings of the glassy stream, fell, with all the force it had left,
+upon the spot where Manners and his antagonist were standing--though
+two or three stars were early looking through the mottled clouds, and
+the coming moon threw some light before her--still, his powers of
+vision must have been strong who could see, as clearly as is
+desirable, the playing of an adversary's point round his sword-blade.
+Manners, however, did not hesitate. He was becoming a little irritated
+at the tone of bitter and, in some degree, scornful defiance which the
+gipsy assumed; and although it was not in his nature to be very much
+moved by any thing of the kind, yet he went so far as to think, "Well
+he shall soon find that a gipsy is not quite so all-accomplished a
+genius as he imagines! I have had a droll fate here, certainly;
+to be called out by my friend's father, and to fight a duel with a
+gipsy!--The consequences be upon your own head, my good friend!" he
+added, aloud, bringing round the hilt of his sword, and drawing it
+from the scabbard. "I do not wish to hurt you, but you force me to do
+so."
+
+"Be it on my head!" said Pharold; and their blades crossed.
+
+There are two sorts of brave men--one which gets warm and impetuous in
+action and danger, and one which gets calm and cool. Manners was of
+the latter sort. Perhaps there never was upon the face of the earth a
+man whose heart applied to itself the idea of danger less than his;
+and, consequently, he acted as if he were a spectator, even where
+peril to himself was most imminent. In the present instance, he soon
+found that he had much underrated the skill of his opponent; for, if
+he had not a very _theoretical_, Pharold had at least a very
+_practical_, knowledge of the use of his weapon; and his singular
+agility and pliancy of muscle added many an advantage. Manners was
+sincerely sorry to find that such was the case: not that he imagined
+for a moment that all the gipsy's skill or activity would suffice to
+injure him, but he wished and designed to master his opponent without
+hurting him; and this he felt would be very difficult, if not
+impossible. He strove for it pertinaciously, however, for some time;
+and hazarded something himself in order to obtain that object. At
+length, however, he became weary of the contest, and saw that he must
+soon bring it to a termination somehow, although he still felt an
+invincible disinclination to risking such a lunge as might deprive his
+adversary of life. He determined, then, to play a game hazardous to
+himself, though merciful to his opponent; and, aided by his superior
+strength and height, he pressed the gipsy back against the hill as
+vehemently as he could. In his haste, he barely parried a lunge, and
+the gipsy's sword went through the lappels of his coat: but the
+advantage was gained; and at once disarming his adversary, he closed
+with him, cast him to the ground, and set his knee upon his chest.
+
+The contest, in all, had continued for some time; but the last
+struggle was over in a moment; and ere Pharold well knew what had
+occurred, he found himself on the ground, with the sword of the
+British officer at his throat. He lay there, however, calm, still,
+stern, without making even one of those instinctive efforts to shield
+his bosom from the weapon, from which a less determined spirit could
+not have refrained.
+
+"Now!" cried Manners--"now, will you give me the explanation I seek?"
+
+"Never!" answered the gipsy, in a low but firm voice--"never!"
+
+Manners hesitated for a moment; but then, withdrawing his knee from
+the gipsy's breast, he returned his sword into the scabbard. "I will
+try other means!" he thought--"I will try other means!"
+
+Through the whole of the events which had lately passed, Manners had
+been gradually gaining a deeper insight into the character of the
+gipsy, and had learned to appreciate him better than at first; but
+still there was much to be considered, much to be calculated; and many
+a conflicting opinion, and many an opposite feeling, crossed Manners's
+bosom in the short space of time that was allowed for thought. He did
+not forget the various circumstances which had led him to believe that
+his friend had been murdered by the gipsy, and all of which remained
+unexplained; but he remembered, also, how fallacious circumstantial
+evidence often is; and he set against those circumstances of suspicion
+the positive fact, that the gipsy had saved the life of Isadore
+Falkland at the peril of his own, and had carried her to her mother's
+house at the imminent risk of being arrested. The high character which
+Mrs. Falkland said he had borne in the past, the regard which she had
+hinted that her deceased brother had felt towards him, all tended to
+show that he was a man of no ordinary qualities; and although, in the
+absence of such knowledge of his character. Manners might have judged
+his obstinate refusal of all explanation as a proof of his guilt, yet,
+seeing that in every thing else his motives and his actions were
+different from those of ordinary men, he judged that it might be the
+same in this instance also. "I will try extraordinary means with him,
+too," thought Manners; "and perhaps I may gain more by it than by
+following the dictates of rigid duty to the letter."
+
+"Why will you not explain?" he added, aloud. "It would save both you
+and me from many a painful occurrence."
+
+"Because I will not be compelled to any act under the sun!" answered
+the gipsy, who had only taken advantage of the degree of freedom which
+he now possessed to raise himself upon his arm.
+
+"Then you shall not be compelled!" answered Manners, to whom his
+answer had given the right key to his obduracy--"then you shall not
+be compelled! but you shall be persuaded. Stand up, Pharold, and
+listen to me, as to one who does not feel towards you as you would
+make yourself believe that all our race do towards yours. You have
+seen my conduct--you see it now; and you must judge of me better than
+you lately did."
+
+The gipsy hung his head. "You have kept your word with me," he
+answered. "You have brought me to a place where no odds could be found
+against me; and you have vanquished with your own weapons at your own
+trade. What more?"
+
+"I have spared you when I might have hurt you," replied Manners; "and
+now I let you go free when I might make you a prisoner--"
+
+"You let me go free!" cried the gipsy, in a tone of
+astonishment--"you let me go free! and without conditions, too?"
+
+"Without any conditions," answered Manners, "but such as your own
+heart shall lay upon you, when you have heard all that I have to say
+to you."
+
+"Then you, too, are one of the few noble hearts," answered the gipsy,
+rising; "and I have done you injustice."
+
+"There are more noble hearts in the world," Manners rejoined, "than
+you know of, my friend. But listen to me, and let me see if yours be a
+noble heart too. Edward de Vaux is, or was, my friend and my companion
+in arms. We have stood by each other in battle; we have attended each
+other in sickness; we have delivered each other in danger; and, had he
+been my brother, I could not have loved him better. I find that, the
+night before last, he left his home when all the family were at rest;
+that he went to visit one with whom he had no known acquaintance or
+business; and that he never returned to those he most loved. Was it
+not natural for me to search for him with all the rapidity in my
+power?"
+
+"It was! it was!" answered the gipsy; "and I have judged you harshly."
+
+"I did search for him," continued Manners; "and I found, by footmarks
+in the earth, that he had gone with the stranger whom he had visited
+to a lonely quarry, and that from that spot his footsteps are not to
+be traced. This afforded some cause for suspicion and apprehension;
+but when the place where his steps disappeared was all stained and
+dabbled with blood, what was I to think?--what was I to do?"
+
+"To think that he was murdered, and to pursue the murderer," answered
+Pharold, boldly; "and I have done you wrong: but the habit of
+suffering injustice and indignity from your race irritates ours into
+believing that you are always unjust; and, in this instance, the
+consciousness of my own innocence, too, hid from my eyes one-half of
+the appearances against me."
+
+"You judge wisely, and you judge well," answered Manners. "There were
+strong appearances against you; and there were also many minor facts
+which swelled those appearances into proof so positive of my friend's
+death and of your guilt, that I should have been unworthy of the name
+of his friend--unworthy of the name of a man--if I had not pursued you
+as I have done."
+
+"You would!" answered the gipsy.
+
+"And yet, notwithstanding all this," continued Manners, "I tell you,
+honestly, that I believe you innocent. I may be foolish to do so--the
+prepossession may be false--the motives for such belief may be slight;
+but yet that belief is strong. With powerful evidence against you I
+felt convinced of your innocence; and, with the power to take you, I
+let you go free."
+
+Manners paused for a moment, and the gipsy, with his hands clasped and
+his eyes bent upon the ground, remained silent, buried, apparently, in
+deep thought. "Now," continued Manners, after suffering him to revolve
+what he had said for a few moments--"now, I have spoken to your
+understanding, and I have shown you that my conduct in pursuing you
+has been fully justifiable, and that I am not one of those unjust and
+ignorant fools who entertain a base prejudice against the whole of
+your race, which but serves to drive them on to acts of reckless evil.
+I have treated you generously--I have not consulted even rigid duty;
+and leaving you free to act, I now speak to your heart."
+
+"Speak on! speak on!" said the gipsy. "You speak language that I love
+to hear."
+
+"I have told you," said Manners, "how I esteem Edward de Vaux; I have
+told you how intimate have been the bonds that united us--how dear the
+friendship that we felt; judge, then, of my feelings now, as I stand
+before you, not knowing whether he be dead or alive, well or ill,
+murdered or in safety. But hear me further.--There is every reason to
+believe him lost for ever; and in that belief, not only I, his friend,
+must remain, but all who loved him--all to whom he is bound by the
+dearest ties; and I leave you to conceive the agony of suspense which
+they now endure. Mrs. Falkland--her daughter, whose life you have so
+lately saved--De Vaux's father, Lord Dewry--"
+
+The gipsy started, clenched his white teeth, and shaking his hand
+furiously towards the sky, exclaimed, "May the vengeance of God fall
+like a thunderbolt on his head, and wither his heart to ashes!"
+
+"Well, well!" said Manners, seeing that he had struck a wrong chord,
+"pass him by; for there are others more interested than he, than I,
+than any of us. There is a young lady, fair, and gentle, and delicate,
+beloved by all who know her, blessed by the poor and the afflicted,
+the ornament of her house, the delight of her friends; and to her own
+immediate family, the cherished, the beloved relic of a noble, a
+generous, a feeling parent early snatched away--of a parent whom I
+have heard that you yourself esteemed and loved--of the late Lord
+Dewry, I mean; for the lady I refer to is Miss De Vaux."
+
+"What of her? what of her?" demanded the gipsy eagerly: "but I guess!
+I guess!"
+
+"It is easy for you to imagine what she must feel," said Manners. "She
+has been, as probably you know, engaged to her cousin De Vaux for
+several years, and they have loved each other through life. Their
+affection has grown up with them from childhood, and has been
+strengthened by every tie, till at length their marriage, which was
+appointed to take place in a few weeks, was to have united them for
+ever. Judge, then--judge what must be her feelings now; but I will not
+attempt to tell you what those feelings are--I will only tell you in
+what situation she now is, and leave you to judge for yourself. This
+very evening, the medical man who is attending her, assured me that
+the anxiety and apprehension which she has suffered on account of her
+cousin, have already seriously impaired her health; and that great
+fears, even for her life itself, are to be entertained, if this state
+of mental agony is not soon put an end to by certainty of some kind."
+
+"That alters the whole," cried the gipsy--"that alters the whole! But
+let me think a moment--let me think!"
+
+"Yes!" said Manners; "think of it,--and think well!--think what must
+be the feelings of a young and affectionate heart, which, early
+deprived of the sweet relationships of parent and child, had fixed
+all its best and warmest affections upon one who well deserved its
+love,--had concentrated upon him alone all those feelings of
+tenderness and regard which are generally divided among a thousand
+other objects; and which had so lately seen him return from scenes of
+danger and strife to peace and quietness, and, as all fancied, to love
+and domestic happiness;--think what must be the feelings of such a
+heart, when the object of all her thoughts and hopes is suddenly and
+strangely torn from her--when every trace of him is lost, but such as
+naturally and strongly lead the mind to conclude that death of a
+bloody and violent nature is the cause of his prolonged and
+extraordinary absence.--Think--think well what must be the feelings of
+Miss De Vaux, his promised bride--think what must be my feelings, as
+his companion and friend; and, if your heart be other than of stone,
+sure I am that you will instantly afford the means--if you possess
+them--of removing all these cruel doubts and fears, and relieving our
+anxiety, at least by certainty of our friend's fate."
+
+"You need say no more!" said the gipsy--"you need say no more! I will
+remove your fears upon easy conditions.--I had not foreseen all this.
+Like a fool, I had not remembered that events, which seemed to me all
+simple and clear, because I was an actor in them and saw them all,
+would produce such anxiety and fear to those who saw no more than the
+result; but I have been moved by many another feeling, and occupied by
+many another event. I have seen men bring ruin on their own heads and
+mine, by following their own wilful follies rather than my counsel and
+command; and I have seen a thoughtless and innocent boy entrapped into
+becoming the sacrifice for the guilty and the obstinate. I have been
+called upon to punish the offenders, and to endeavour to rescue the
+innocent; and I have been hunted through this livelong day like a wild
+beast;--so that I may well have forgot that circumstances, very simple
+in themselves, might fill others that knew not all, with strange fears
+and suspicions; but besides that--besides that--I had other motives
+for not telling what I knew.--Those motives are now shaken by stronger
+ones; and for the sake of Marian de Vaux, I will say what I would not
+have said for the sake of my own life; but it must be on certain
+conditions."
+
+"Name them," said Manners; "and if they be not very hard to fulfil,
+doubt not that I will undertake them."
+
+The gipsy paused, and thought for several minutes, and he then
+replied, "I will, as I have said, put you in the way of finding your
+friend, Edward de Vaux; and you will find him--if not well--at least
+in kindly hands. But now mark me. The person with whom he is has
+lately come over from America with private views and purposes of his
+own, yet doubtful and unresolved whether he will proceed with them or
+not. Were his residence in England known to any one, it might force
+him either to execute the designs with which he came sooner than he
+intended, or perhaps prevent him from changing those designs, though
+other circumstances may render such a change necessary; or still
+further--"
+
+"In short," said Manners, "he is desirous of remaining concealed; and,
+as far as I know, has every right to do so, without my inquiring at
+all into his motives. But you forget, my good friend, that there is as
+little chance of my knowing this person of whom you speak, as of my
+betraying him if I did."
+
+"You are wrong," said the gipsy; "there is every chance of your
+knowing him; you have seen him I know, and esteem him I am sure; and,
+what I have to require is this, if, by my means, you find Edward de
+Vaux, and recognise the person now kindly tending him, you shall not,
+upon any pretence, or to any person whatsoever, reveal his real name
+and character. You shall recognise him merely as the person that he
+chooses to call himself, and speak of him as none other."
+
+"Of course! of course!" answered Manners; "he shall keep the
+incognito, for anything that I may do to the contrary, as long and as
+strictly as he likes."
+
+"But, one thing more," said the gipsy, "one thing more,--you shall, on
+no account whatever, lead--or give such information as may lead--the
+father of Edward de Vaux to the place where his son is."
+
+"That is somewhat extraordinary," said Manners; "but I suppose, of
+course, that this person to whom you allude is Lord Dewry's enemy."
+
+"He was once his friend," said the gipsy, "and, perhaps, now that lord
+may speak of him as such, for there is no knowing by what terms his
+deep and crafty spirit may designate the people whom he most hates.
+Not a week ago he gave me gold, and would fain have made me think he
+loved me; but I knew him to the heart, and I saw the serpent in his
+eye."
+
+Whatever Manners might think of the evident hatred, strong and
+reciprocal, which existed between the peer and the singular person
+with whom he now stood, he did not judge it expedient to risk the
+advantages he had gained by defending Lord Dewry, especially as
+circumstances placed the power of dictating the conditions in the
+hands of the gipsy. "My acquaintance with De Vaux's father," he said,
+"has been too short to acquire any knowledge of his real character."
+
+"It would require years, long years," said the gipsy, "to know his
+character as I know it--long, long years!--or one of those lightning
+flashes of nature that sometimes, whether men will or not, burst from
+the darkness in which they shroud themselves, and show at once the
+deep secrets of their spirit."
+
+"At all events," said Manners, "common humanity leads me to wish much
+to inform the unhappy father of his son's safety, and doubtless your
+conditions do not imply that I should refrain from such proceeding, as
+soon as I have, with my own eyes, seen my poor friend's condition."
+
+"In that respect, you shall be guided by him to whom I send you,"
+answered Pharold. "It is sufficient for me to ensure, that the
+confidence he has placed in me will be betrayed by no fault of
+mine--that compassion for a gentle and innocent girl does not lead me
+to risk defeating the plans of a man who trusts me. I know that when
+you have pledged your word, you will hold it sacred. Your actions have
+spoken for you! Will you accept the conditions?"
+
+"I will!" answered Manners; "and only beg of you to conclude the
+matter as fast as possible."
+
+"Well, then!" said the gipsy, pointing through the valley towards the
+line of the distant hills; "you see yon moon, just raising her golden
+round behind the thin trees upon the upland. When she has risen ten
+palms breadths upon the sky, you shall find me here again, and I will
+lead you to him you seek."
+
+"Nay, but," said Manners, "I thought you were about to conduct me
+thither now."
+
+"Doubt me not," said the gipsy, sternly, discovering at once that
+suspicions, slight indeed, but newly awakened by the proposed delay,
+were coming over the mind of his companion. "Doubt me not. By the God
+that I worship, by the heavens his handiwork, by the life he gave me,
+by the liberty I value more, I will not fail you. You have spared me
+when you might have thrust me into a dungeon, and I would not deceive
+you even by a thought."
+
+"I believe you," answered Manners; "I believe you--only this, I am
+very anxious, ere I return to Morley House, to be enabled to give some
+account of him I seek; to be enabled, in short, to afford some comfort
+to Edward de Vaux's family. Can we not proceed then at once?"
+
+"No!" answered the gipsy. "I must think of my own race too. By the
+unhappy occurrences of last night, my people have been scattered and
+have fled for concealment, while I remained to see whether I could
+find, or could deliver, the unfortunate prey, which those who laid the
+trap for us had found in the snare. My companions know not yet where I
+am; and I know not whether they are safe. Thus, ere I go farther, I
+must see what have been the events of this day to those whom I am
+bound to protect and guide."
+
+"Be it so then," answered Manners; "but, at all events, you will allow
+me to give De Vaux's family the assurance that he is living and is
+safe."
+
+"As far," said the gipsy, "as you dare to trust to my most solemn
+assurance, he is living, and safe also, if you mean by that word that
+he is free from restraint, and from any risk of injury; but that he is
+well, you must not say; for he is ill in body and sick at heart; and
+it may be long ere he is cured of either."
+
+"That is bad enough, indeed," answered Manners; "but it is so much
+better than the events, which we had reason to believe had occurred,
+that the bare fact of his being in a state of security will be an
+infinite relief to those who love him. I will trust to your word
+entirely, and both give the consolation which you have afforded to
+those who will feel it most deeply, and be here at the time you
+name, though I am not very much accustomed to calculate hours by
+hands-breadths of the sky; and you must remember that, from Morley
+House, the moon is seen in a different position from that in which she
+appears here." The gipsy smiled, with a slight touch of contempt at
+Manners's inexpertness in a mode of calculating the time, which was to
+him familiar. "Well, well," he said, "be here in just two hours, and
+you shall find me waiting you. In the meantime, rest at ease regarding
+your friend, and speak securely the words of hope and comfort to his
+family; and God be with you in your errand of peace. You have acted a
+noble part to-night, and there is one that blesses those who do so."
+
+Thus saying, he sprang down the bank to the spot where the sword,
+which Manners's superior skill and strength had wrenched from his
+grasp, was lying under a low bush. Pharold snatched it up, and was
+about to return it to the sheath; but some sudden thought seemed to
+cross his mind, and holding it up, he gazed upon it for a moment or
+two in silence. "Accursed be thou!" he cried at length, in a bitter
+tone. "Accursed be thou, false friend and faithless servant! to leave
+thy master's hand at the moment of need!" and breaking the blade
+across his knee, he cast the fragments down the hill, and strode away,
+scarcely appearing to notice that Colonel Manners still stood gazing
+at his wild and vehement behaviour.
+
+Manners smiled as he turned to retread his steps; and perhaps that
+smile might be occasioned by seeing the gipsy wreak his indignation at
+the failure he had met with in their struggle upon the senseless
+object which his hand had not been able to retain. Perhaps, too, he
+might remark how all uncultivated people resemble children; but, at
+all events, the tidings that he had heard of his friend's safety, and
+his conviction that those tidings were true, had certainly given him a
+much greater inclination to smile than he had felt when he came to
+that spot.
+
+As he thought, however, over all the circumstances, while bending his
+way back once more to Morley House, he did not certainly find that his
+situation was, in every respect, a very pleasant one. He had to
+remember that the gipsy, Pharold, was charged with two other crimes
+besides the assumed death of Edward de Vaux. In regard to the first of
+these two, that of having been an accessary, or principal, in the
+murder of the late Lord Dewry, Manners had but Mrs. Falkland's opinion
+upon the subject to support his own doubts of the man's guilt. In
+regard to the second, that of having participated in the outrage at
+Dimden Park, and having fired the gun by which Sir Roger Millington
+was wounded, Manners, after leaving the peer at Dimden, as we shall
+almost immediately have occasion to show more particularly, had
+visited the keeper who had been wounded in the affray, and from him
+had learned sufficient to satisfy his mind that Pharold was guiltless
+of any share in that unfortunate transaction. On that point,
+therefore, his mind was satisfied; but, in regard to the other charge,
+he did not feel at all sure that he was not liable to severe
+animadversion for the lenity he had shown towards the gipsy.
+
+"I do not know the laws of the land," he thought, with a half smile,
+"quite well enough to be sure whether they may not make me out an
+accessary after the fact, if ever this Pharold should be found guilty
+of slaying his benefactor; but, at all events, if the good gossiping
+world were to get hold of my having taken two or three moonlight walks
+with him, and having let him escape when I had the power to apprehend
+him, it would make a pretty story of it." However. Colonel Manners was
+a man who had too much confidence in his own motives, and too much
+reliance on what he called his good fortune, though others named it
+his good judgment, to care much what the world said; and this was
+probably one of the reasons why that world was well satisfied to load
+him with praise and honour. He took his way back to Morley House,
+therefore, tolerably satisfied with what he had done, thinking, "I
+must now, however, try to soften down Mrs. Falkland's wrath and
+indignation at my persevering rudeness this evening; but, doubtless,
+the tidings I bring will prove no small propitiation."
+
+To these thoughts he endeavoured to limit himself, though imagination
+strove hard to lead him into a thousand rambling fancies concerning
+the causes of De Vaux's disappearance. Manners, however, had a habit
+of keeping his thoughts under proper discipline, and always prepared
+to repel whatever force might attack them. Thus, as he knew, or at
+least trusted, that a few hours would give him a thorough insight into
+the real situation of Edward de Vaux, he would not give way on that
+point, and tried to think of something else. But the light brigades of
+fancy are like a troop of Cossacks, and the moment they are beaten off
+at one spot, they wheel and attack another. When imagination found,
+then, that Manners would not be drawn from his intrenchments by the
+thoughts of De Vaux, she tried what she could do with the image of
+Isadore Falkland; but Manners was prepared there, too, and had
+reproached himself so bitterly with some slight beatings of his heart,
+which had occurred during his last meeting with that fair lady, that
+he resisted all thought upon the subject with the heroism of Leonidas.
+
+Having thus reached Morley House in safety, Manners's first inquiry
+was for Mr. Arden; but the old butler, with a look of solemn
+importance, informed him that the magistrate had been gone about half
+an hour, leaving a message, however, for Colonel Manners, to the
+effect that, having some other business of much importance awaiting
+his return, he could not have the honour of staying till Colonel
+Manners arrived, but would come back early the following morning.
+
+"That will do quite as well," answered Manners; and seeing that the
+cloud of self-importance upon the old man's brow had not as yet quite
+disgorged itself of its contents, he paused in order to hear what
+next, and the butler proceeded: "Please, sir, Miss Marian--that is to
+say, Miss De Vaux, but we always call her Miss Marian, to distinguish
+from Miss Isadore--but Miss Marian sent her maid down just now to say,
+that when you come back she wishes very much to see you herself, for
+she desires to speak with you."
+
+The man spoke in as mysterious a tone as if he were communicating a
+state secret, but Manners who hated nothing on earth so much as
+mystery, answered rather sharply, "Well, as you see I have returned,
+you had better call Miss De Vaux's maid to take me to her mistress."
+
+"Oh, Miss Marian, sir, is in the little drawing-room," replied the
+butler: "she has been there these ten minutes, though Mrs. Falkland
+does not know it, because she is with Miss Isadore, who fell into the
+water, and wet her clothes, and had nearly been drowned, they do say;
+but--"
+
+Manners waited for no further information on subjects with which he
+was already acquainted; but, walking up stairs, proceeded to what was
+called the little drawing-room, and opened the door. Marian de Vaux
+was sitting on a sofa, with her fair rounded cheek, grown many a shade
+paler since Manners last saw it, leaning on her hand, and her arm
+again resting on the table. Her head was slightly bent, and the hand
+on which it leaned curved round at the wrist, with the fingers
+dropping languidly under her cheek, and with weary hopeless anxiety in
+every line. Her eyes, when Manners entered, were cast down, with a
+drop like a diamond struggling through the long dark lashes; and the
+light, falling from above, threw the greater part of her beautiful
+face into shadow; but it fell clear and soft on her fair open
+forehead, and on her brown hair, which, to save the trouble of much
+dressing, was braided back behind her ears, but which still, by many a
+wavy line and struggling bend across her brow, showed its natural
+tendency to fall into ringlets round her face. An open book was on the
+table before her; but it looked not as if she had been reading, for it
+was turned in such a way that her eye could not possibly have
+deciphered its contents.
+
+She did not hear the door open; but Manners's first step in the room
+caught her attention, and she raised her eyes. "Oh, Colonel Manners,"
+she said, as soon as she saw him, "I am very glad you have come, for I
+very much wished to speak with you; but I am afraid you are fatigued,
+and perhaps may not have time to spare."
+
+"Not at all," answered Manners, with a smile, which he intended to
+prepare the way for better tidings. "Indeed, I think, Miss De Vaux,
+that if you had not sent me an invitation, I should have sent to
+petition one."
+
+"The fact is, Colonel Manners," said Marian, "I wish to know the
+truth. My dear aunt and my cousin, with the very kindest intentions,
+keep the truth from me--at least, so I am led to believe by what my
+maid has told me. Now, indeed, it would do me less harm, though they
+do not think so, to tell me the whole at once; and I am sure, Colonel
+Manners, that you will be kind enough to do so, when I assure you that
+I am far better able to bear even the worst tidings than this
+terrible, awful state of suspense."
+
+Manners took her hand, and gazed in her face with a smile full of
+kindness and hope, for he feared to make the change from grief to joy
+too sudden, by speaking the happier news he now had to bear; but even
+that was too much, and Marian's heart, as she read his smile aright,
+beat with fearful violence; and, pale as ashes with emotion, she sunk
+down again on the sofa, from which she had partially risen to speak to
+him.
+
+"I see that your fortitude is not half real," said Manners, seating
+himself near her; "but let me entreat you to hear me calmly, my dear
+Miss De Vaux."
+
+"Oh, I will! I will, indeed!" cried Marian. "But, for Heaven's sake,
+speak, Colonel Manners: you smile; and I know you would not smile on
+one so wretched, if you had not some hope to give! Is it not so?"
+
+"It is," answered Manners; "and delighted I am that now, for the very
+first time, I can give it. But, indeed, you must be calm; for the
+intelligence I have obtained is not so entirely good as to warrant our
+indulging in any very great joy, though it may do away our worst
+apprehensions."
+
+"That is enough! that is enough!" cried Marian. "If they have not
+murdered him, I can bear almost anything else with fortitude: but now,
+for Heaven's sake, tell me all, for you see I can bear it with
+calmness and composure."
+
+"First, let me defend Mrs. Falkland and your cousin," replied Manners,
+wishing, by a little delay, to give his fair hearer's mind time to
+habituate itself to a change of feeling; for neither her look nor her
+manner served at all to confirm the assurances of calmness and
+composure which she gave him. "Let me defend Mrs. Falkland and your
+cousin: they really could give you no precise information, for till
+within the last half-hour none has been obtained."
+
+"Oh, but they knew more than they let me know," cried Marian; "at
+least, if my maid has told me true: but I trust it is not true; for I
+cannot believe that Edward can be safe, if she spoke correctly; she
+said you had found his footsteps, and blood, Colonel Manners, and the
+place where he must have fallen." As she spoke, her countenance filled
+with horror at the ideas she recalled, and she clasped her hands over
+her eyes, as if to shut out some fearful sight.
+
+Colonel Manners thought that the sooner such a lady's-maid was
+discharged the better; but as he could not contradict the story the
+woman had so imprudently told, he left it as it was, and replied, "Do
+not, my dear young lady, call up such painful images, when I assure
+you that there is no foundation for the supposition that your cousin
+has suffered in the way our fears led us to imagine. My information,
+as yet, is scanty; and, till tomorrow, you must not ask me even how I
+have obtained it; but I have the most positive assurances that De Vaux
+is safe, though ill."
+
+"Thank God! thank God, for his safety, at least!" cried Marian; "but
+are you sure, Colonel Manners--are you quite sure? I do not wish to
+put any questions that you may not like to answer; but only tell me if
+you yourself are quite sure of Edward's safety?"
+
+"I am perfectly and thoroughly convinced," answered Manners, "that,
+whatever may have been the accident which may have prevented his
+return home, he is both in security, and attended with care and
+kindness. Indeed, my very telling you the fact should make you feel
+quite sure that my own conviction is firm; for, indeed, Miss De Vaux,
+no inducement would make me hold out a hope to you, were I not sure of
+that hope having a good foundation."
+
+"Thank you! thank you!" replied Marian; and, with one of those sudden
+bursts of tenderness which--springing from some secret action, either
+of memory or imagination, without one spoken word or external
+circumstance to call them forth--sometimes overpower us, when least we
+expect it, she gave way to a gushing flood of tears, and, for a moment
+or two, let the bright drops flow unrestrained. "You have not seen
+him, then, Colonel Manners?" she said at length, wiping her eyes, and
+looking up with a glance in which apprehension still contended a
+little against joy.
+
+"Not yet," Manners answered; "but I have received a solemn promise
+that I shall be conducted to the place where he is this very night."
+
+"Oh, let me go with you!" cried Marian, starting up.
+
+"Nay, nay, I am afraid that would not do," answered Manners, smiling.
+"Think what the world would say, my dear Miss De Vaux, if you were to
+go wandering about, no one knows whither, through a long autumn night,
+with no other escort than a colonel of dragoons."
+
+Marian was won even to a smile; and, while it was yet playing round
+her lips, and sparkling in her eyes, Mrs. Falkland entered the room,
+not knowing by whom it was tenanted. "Marian! Colonel Manners!" she
+exclaimed; "and both laughing, too! then some very happy change must
+have come over our affairs."
+
+"Oh, most happy, my dear aunt!" cried Marian: "Colonel Manners--and I
+know not how to thank him--has discovered where Edward is, and that he
+is safe."
+
+"God be praised!" cried Mrs. Falkland; "but let me hear all about it,
+for this is news indeed."
+
+"In the first place," said Manners, willing, if possible, to escape
+any very close cross-examination till he could speak with more
+security on the many points of De Vaux's situation, which were still
+doubtful--"in the first place, I have to apologize, my dear madam, for
+some want of courtesy to-night when last we met; but you must remember
+that I am but a rude soldier, and accustomed to think far more of what
+I consider my duty than of what is polite; and I am sure that my good
+news will gain me your forgiveness."
+
+"If your perseverance have gained tidings of my poor nephew," answered
+Mrs. Falkland, "my forgiveness for much graver offences--could Colonel
+Manners commit them--would be but a poor recompense."
+
+"I hope Miss Falkland has not suffered at all," continued Manners. But
+Mrs. Falkland exclaimed, with a smile, "Not at all, I trust! but,
+Colonel Manners, I will not be put off without an answer. You shall
+not keep all your good news for Marian, and refuse to let me share.
+What have you discovered?"
+
+"Why, my dear madam," answered Manners, "I will tell you the candid
+truth. I have discovered very little beyond the bare fact, that De
+Vaux is in safety, though not well; and you must ask me no more
+questions till I can give you satisfactory answers. I am to be
+conducted to him, however, this very night, and within an hour of this
+time. Miss De Vaux wished to go with me, and we were smiling to think
+what sort of story the world would make of her taking a midnight walk
+over the moors, and through the woods, with the ugliest colonel of
+dragoons in his majesty's service."
+
+"But are you obliged to go alone?" asked Mrs. Falkland.
+
+"I rather think that is part of my compact," answered Manners; "and I
+believe it must be on foot, too."
+
+"And you were fatigued an hour ago," replied Mrs. Falkland; "and
+though I, selfishly, cannot make up my mind to ask you to put off your
+expedition till to-morrow, yet I must prevail on you to take some
+refreshment." So saying, she rang the bell, and then went on: "I need
+not ask who was your informant; and I feel equally certain that the
+tidings are true, because you give them credit, and because you
+derived them from him."
+
+"Now, I am in the dark," said Marian, "both in regard to this person
+you speak of and to Isadore. What made you believe she had suffered
+from any accident, Colonel Manners, as you inquired of my aunt just
+now?"
+
+"I am afraid that the whole story would be too long to tell you at
+this moment," answered Manners, while a footman appeared, and Mrs.
+Falkland ordered some refreshments to be brought immediately,
+"especially as you see I have to sup before I go; nor will I deny that
+I need my supper, for, to tell the truth, I have not dined. But Mrs.
+Falkland will relate our whole story of this evening when I am gone;
+will tell you how your cousin escaped drowning by a miracle; and how
+Colonel Manners behaved in a very rude and uncivil manner; and how at
+length a compromise was entered into, which reflected more honour upon
+his obstinacy than upon his politeness."
+
+"No, no, Colonel Manners, I will not tell her such stories," answered
+Mrs. Falkland. "I will tell her, perhaps, that Colonel Manners's duty
+as an officer, and his feelings as a man, clashed with her aunt's duty
+as a person of her word, and her feelings as a woman; that her aunt
+did what she seldom does,--lost her temper; and that Colonel Manners
+ended the matter wisely and well, and by his perseverance obtained
+joyful tidings without a breach of faith."
+
+"You are both speaking in mysteries to me," said Marian, rising; "so I
+will go and make Isadore tell me the whole in less enigmatical
+language. Where is she, my dear aunt?"
+
+"She is in bed," answered Mrs. Falkland, "but not likely to go to
+sleep."
+
+"In bed!" exclaimed Marian; "then, indeed, it is time that I should go
+and see her, for I do not ever remember Isadore having been in bed at
+nine o'clock before, and something must be the matter."
+
+Thus saying, she quitted the room; and left Colonel Manners to take
+some refreshment, and to relate, the while, to Mrs. Falkland, as much
+as he had time and inclination to tell of his adventure with the
+gipsy.
+
+"I fear no danger," he concluded, when he had ascertained by his watch
+that the time appointed for his return was approaching--"I fear no
+danger, and have every confidence in the extraordinary man who is to
+be my guide; but, at the same time, it is always well to be prepared;
+and, therefore, I shall not only exchange these heavy riding-boots for
+something more fit for walking, but I will take the liberty of adding
+a brace of pistols to back my sword in case of need." He then took
+leave of Mrs. Falkland; and, after making the alteration he proposed,
+once more sallied out, like the knight of La Mancha, with a heart
+scarcely less chivalrous, though guided by a mind which happily had
+power to restrain and direct the operation of his feelings. Here,
+however, the thread of his adventures must be broken off for a while,
+in order that we may leave no longer unfilled that void in his history
+which now exists between the moment at which we last left him in
+conversation with Lord Dewry, and that of his sudden reappearance at
+Morley House.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+At the end of the first chapter of this volume, it may be remembered,
+that we left Lord Dewry sitting in the saloon of Dewry Hall with
+Colonel Manners. Night had become morning before the messengers for
+whom he waited arrived from Dimden; and when they did so, they brought
+the tidings that his lordship's well-laid scheme had failed; that no
+one had been taken by the keepers but a gipsy boy; and that Sir Roger
+Millington, as well as one of the keepers, had been wounded--the first
+seriously, the second but slightly. Manners had expected and believed
+that the peer would both be disappointed and shocked; but a variety of
+emotions naturally sprang from such tidings, in the situation in which
+Lord Dewry had placed himself, which could not be understood or
+calculated by any one unacquainted with all the dreary secrets of his
+heart. He was disappointed, it is true, that Pharold had not been
+taken; but he trusted that, with all the means employed against him,
+the gipsy would not be able to escape.
+
+Far from either shocked or sorry was he, however, that blood had been
+spilt in the affray between the keepers and the gipsies, or that death
+might ensue; for he saw that his grasp upon Pharold would thereby be
+strengthened, though he could have wished, certainly, that the shot
+which had been fired had found any other bosom than that of Sir Roger
+Millington, from whom much good service remained still to be derived.
+Such feelings, of course, produced some effect upon his behaviour,
+especially as Colonel Manners's cordial co-operation in his plans,
+without making him entirely forget the different principles upon which
+they acted, had, in some degree, thrown him off his guard in regard to
+the minor points of demeanour. The effect, indeed, was not so striking
+as to lead Manners to suspect anything like the truth; but it was
+sufficiently marked to call his attention--to appear strange and
+unpleasant--and to make him think, "This is one of those pampered sons
+of luxury, who only feel where their own immediate comforts are
+concerned. He seems to care no more for the people who have been
+wounded in his service than if they were things of wood."
+
+After a few short comments on the means to be next employed, Manners
+retired to the chamber prepared for him, and lay down to rest. He
+rose betimes, however: but it was long ere the peer made his
+appearance; for, exhausted with activity, and watching, and contending
+passions--the most wearing of all the many assailants of life and
+strength--he fell into a deeper slumber than he had known for many
+years. At length he came, and at a late hour set out with Colonel
+Manners for Dimden; but since the preceding night a change had come
+over his feelings towards his companion. Then, in agitation, and
+horror, and anxiety, he had clung to any one for the sake of society;
+and more especially to one whose character and reputation gave him
+confidence, and whose warm co-operation afforded support. Now,
+however, he was going to hear from his agents the progress of dark and
+subtle plans of which Colonel Manners knew nothing--to examine and
+speak with persons whom he had engaged in proceedings equally cunning
+and unjustifiable; and he could very well have dispensed with the
+presence of one whose bold good sense was likely to search and see
+further than might be at all convenient.
+
+These feelings influenced his demeanour also; and although he could
+not be absolutely rude to a person he had so lately courted, and who
+was so perfectly independent of him in every respect, yet his manners
+were throughout the journey sufficiently cold and repulsive to make
+Manners determine to bring their companionship to a close as speedily
+as possible. On their arrival at Dimden, the gipsy lad was sent for,
+and a few casual questions asked him by the peer, which he repelled by
+either obdurate silence or sullen monosyllables. This, however, was
+what Lord Dewry for the present desired; but Colonel Manners was
+resolved, if possible, to hear more, and he plied the prisoner with
+every question which he judged likely to elicit some information
+concerning his poor friend De Vaux. Little satisfactory news did he,
+indeed, obtain; and, in fact, received no reply to the greater part of
+his interrogations. Still the impression upon his mind, from one or
+two occasional words which the lad was induced to speak, was strong,
+that he at least was ignorant that De Vaux had been murdered, and
+thence arose in Manners's mind the first reasonable hope that his
+friend might still be living.
+
+After the space of nearly an hour thus spent, the youth was removed.
+The peer made no comment; but after looking out of the window, called
+some of the servants, and inquired after Sir Roger Millington. The
+reply was, that the knight suffered considerable agony, and that the
+surgeon was with him still.
+
+"Colonel Manners, you must excuse me for half an hour, while I visit
+my unfortunate friend," said Lord Dewry, with a frigid bow. "My poor
+son's death," he added, while his quivering lip, at the very mention
+of his son's name, betrayed that on that subject, at least, his heart
+was painfully sensible--"my poor son's death, of course, weighs
+heavily upon me; but I must not forget my wounded friend. I do not
+contemplate being detained longer than half an hour, and then I will
+have the honour of setting you down at Morley House as I drive home."
+
+"Do not hurry yourself, my lord," answered Manners, calmly: "I have
+some inquiries to make concerning my poor friend, and the means that
+have been taken to discover anything of his fate; and therefore, as I
+sent my horse over to Morley House this morning, I will walk thither.
+I wish you good-day."
+
+As it was not the peer's wish or intention to deprive himself
+altogether of Colonel Manners's influence and support in his further
+measures against the gipsy--although he heartily desired his absence
+for the time--he changed his tone in some degree, and pressed Manners
+to stay; but took care, at the same time, to add such inducements as
+he knew were not very likely to have any weight with him, assuring him
+that the distance was full five miles, and the road fatiguing and
+hilly.
+
+Manners, however, as the peer expected, persisted in his design; and,
+taking leave, he walked out into the park, while Lord Dewry left the
+room, as if to proceed to the apartment of Sir Roger Millington.
+Before following him, however, it may be as well to say, that Manners
+did not direct his steps, in the first instance, to Morley House; but
+thinking, "His lordship, in his concern for this Sir Roger Millington,
+seems entirely to have forgotten the poor keeper they talked of," he
+stopped at the gate, and inquired whither the wounded man had been
+carried. The old woman at the lodge gave him the necessary direction;
+and proceeding to the cottage which she described, Manners entered
+with that sort of frank good feeling that stands on no ceremonies
+where the object is humane.
+
+He found the wounded keeper still suffering considerably; and he found
+also, as he had been inclined to suspect, that the attention of the
+surgeon having been hitherto occupied by the patient of higher rank,
+the keeper had been entirely neglected. He was consequently more ill
+and feverish than the nature of his wound would otherwise have
+accounted for; and Manners, knowing, from much experience in such
+occurrences, that if proper care were not taken, a slight injury might
+have a fatal termination, instantly despatched a messenger for the
+surgeon who was attending Miss De Vaux, and kindly waited his arrival.
+
+In conversation with the keeper, he learned that Pharold had not been
+present when the guns were fired, and from him, also, he heard the
+particulars of the affray in Dimden Park, the wound the man had
+received not having been sufficiently severe to deprive him of the
+power of observing everything that occurred around him afterward. By
+the whole of his narrative the character of Pharold rose in Manners's
+opinion, and his hopes of De Vaux's safety were strengthened: but
+still he determined to act as if such hopes did not exist; and
+accompanying the surgeon on his late return to the village near Morley
+House, he prepared to pursue the search for the gipsy as ardently as
+ever. What followed his arrival we have already seen.
+
+In the mean while Lord Dewry proceeded through the long and somewhat
+dreary galleries of Dimden House to a distant apartment, but not to
+the chamber in which the participator in his dark schemes lay on a bed
+of agony and distress. The room he sought was solitary; and, ringing
+the bell, he ordered Harvey, the head keeper, to be sent to him. The
+man was already in the house, waiting his orders, and somewhat
+apprehensive of his lord's displeasure at the failure of his plans.
+But as long as Pharold was alive and free, there was a demon of fear
+in the bosom of Lord Dewry that cowed the more violent passions of his
+nature in the presence of those whom he used as his tools. The
+consciousness of the designs in which he employed them made him treat
+them gently, from vague but anxious surmises that, notwithstanding all
+his care, they might suspect the motives of the plans they mingled
+with.
+
+Although, then, in his heart, he could have felled the keeper to the
+earth for letting Pharold escape him. In addressed him mildly when he
+presented himself. "Why, how is this, Harvey?" he said: "you have let
+the game escape us. There must have been a fault somewhere."
+
+"The fault was in the cursed cowardice of the fellows that were with
+me, my lord," replied the keeper; "if they would but have followed me,
+we should have taken the blackfaced villain any how. Two or three of
+us might have got wounded, but no matter for that; we should have had
+him safe here, if they would but have come on. But one fell back, and
+another fell back; so that when I had got them up against the wall
+there were but two with me, and two could do nothing against a good
+dozen."
+
+"Let me hear how the whole business took place," said the peer:
+"remember that I have no full account of it from any one; and we must
+try to remedy what has gone wrong."
+
+The park-keeper was, of course, glad enough to tell his story in the
+way that best suited him; and he related the events which we already
+know according to his own particular version. The first error, he
+declared, was, that several of the men whom he had hired for the
+purpose of capturing the gipsies were too late at the rendezvous, and
+several did not come at all. These disappointments, and the delay they
+occasioned, had prevented his taking advantage of the moment when the
+gipsies' guns were discharged after the slaughter of the deer, and, as
+time lost is never regained, had caused the ultimate failure of his
+whole plan. He assured the peer, however, that Pharold had been one of
+the party engaged in the destruction of the game; and that he had been
+active in the affray wherein Sir Roger Millington and the keeper had
+been wounded. Some of the other men, he said, were not very clear
+about these facts, but he was ready to swear to it. He then related
+how the boy William had been seized by two of his party, who had been
+detached for that purpose; and he added a long account of the measures
+which he had taken in order to trace the gipsies in their flight.
+
+"Is the keeper badly wounded?" demanded the peer, thoughtfully.
+
+"He did not seem bad at first, my lord," replied the man; "but they
+say he is much worse this afternoon, and his wife is afraid he will
+die."
+
+The peer muttered something between his teeth, which might be, "So
+much the better;" but this sound reached Harvey's ears but
+imperfectly, and Lord Dewry went on in a louder tone, "Poor fellow!
+have you seen him, Harvey?"
+
+"Not myself, my lord," answered the keeper; "but his wife came up to
+see if the doctor could go down, and I spoke with her for a minute."
+
+"Poor fellow!" said the peer; "but we must take care that his murderer
+does not escape, Harvey. Have you thought of no way by which we can
+catch him?"
+
+"Why, he is a keen hand, that Pharold, my lord," replied the keeper;
+"but I do think we can manage it, if your lordship likes to try."
+
+"Try!" said Lord Dewry: "I will make him a rich and happy man, Harvey,
+who brings that villain to justice. But how do you think it can be
+managed?"
+
+"Why, I scarcely know as yet, my lord," answered the keeper; "I have
+had sure eyes upon some of the gipsy folks, and think I can make out
+whereabouts they have gone to; but Pharold knows better than to go
+with them. Besides, he was in the park there, not many hours ago, in
+the broad daylight."
+
+"Impudent villain!" cried the peer; "but what in the name of Heaven
+could bring him there? Are you sure it was he?"
+
+"I saw him with my own eyes, my lord," replied the keeper; "and had
+nearly caught him with my own hands; for we had him pinned in between
+seven and eight of us and the river: but without minding us more than
+if we had been rabbits, he took to the water like a hard-run fox, and
+swam the river outright."
+
+Lord Dewry paused; for there was something in the daring hardihood of
+the gipsy congenial to the bold and fearless spirit which had animated
+himself in early years; and he felt a sort of stern admiration which
+even hatred could not quell. At length, however, he repeated, "But
+what could bring him here? He could not be fool enough to come for the
+sole purpose of daring his pursuers."
+
+"No, no, my lord," answered Harvey. "He came after this boy that we
+caught, I dare say. The boy may be a bit of a relation, or, at all
+events, a friend; and they did not know what had become of him, for
+he was taken apart. Now, my lord, I was thinking--if, might be so
+bold--that one might, perhaps, turn this boy to some account, and get
+him--do you see, my lord?"
+
+The mind of the peer had been so long habituated to revolve dark and
+tortuous schemes, that it was apt and ready to comprehend the
+significant word, or half-spoken hint, which often forms the language
+of those who are afraid to give their purposes full utterance. Thus he
+gained an instant insight into the nature of the plan which the keeper
+had conceived, although he saw not the details; and he answered, "I do
+see, Harvey, I do see! That is to say, I see what you mean; but I do
+not see how it is to be managed. If the boy had any means of
+communicating with his own gang, he might, perhaps, lure the chief
+villain of the whole into our net; but we know not where they are, and
+he, in all probability, is still more ignorant."
+
+"I know well enough where a part of them are," answered the keeper.
+"Some went down towards the water, and I cannot trace them: but some,
+for a certainty, went across the common to the Dingley wood, where
+they are still, I am sure; and I should not wonder if the others soon
+joined them, for it is uncommon what a fancy those gipsies have for
+sticking to each other, especially in misfortune; and I should not
+wonder if they were to hang about here till they hear what becomes of
+this lad. He may be Pharold's son, for any thing I know."
+
+"Would that he were! would that he were!" cried the peer, vehemently,
+the memory of his own son crossing the confused crowd of other
+thoughts that pressed upon his brain. "Would that he were! I would
+find the means to wring his heart. But still," he added, after pausing
+for some moments on the pleasant thoughts of revenge--"but still the
+boy is cut off from all communication with them."
+
+"But we can let him have some, if your lordship pleases," said the
+keeper. "If your lordship remembers, I told you of a man named Harry
+Saxon, who always has a good deal to do with poachers and such like,
+and who put these gipsies up to the deer-stealing. Now we could let
+him get speech of the boy; and if any one heard of it, we would say it
+was only to see whether he could swear to the youth, and he would soon
+take any message to his people for him."
+
+"But will he undertake the task? and can we depend upon him?" asked
+the peer.
+
+"Why, ye--s, my lord, I think we may," answered Harvey, thoughtfully.
+"He's a good sort of a man enough; and besides, I rather think I could
+send him across the water to Botany, if I liked, for something I saw
+him do one day, and he knows it too; and so he is always very civil
+and obliging to me."
+
+"Well may he be so," replied the peer, with a curling lip. "But can
+you get at him soon? There's no time to be lost in such a business."
+
+"I can get at him in a minute," answered the keeper; "for he came up
+to my house about an hour ago; and he is in a bit of a fright about
+all this bad business of the shooting. So I told him to stay there
+till I had seen your lordship, and I would tell him how things went
+when I came back."
+
+"Go and bring him then," said the peer quickly--"go and bring him--yet
+stay a moment, Harvey. Let me consider what is to be done when he does
+come. He is to be admitted to speech of this gipsy lad; and what
+then?"
+
+"Why, my lord, I dare say the boy can be frightened into sending a
+message to Pharold to come down and help him out."
+
+"No, no, no," said the peer, "it must be better arranged than that.
+Let me see. The windows of the strong room look out into the close
+wood, and any one from the outside could saw away the iron bars. Yes,
+that will do. But the lad himself must be tutored in the first place.
+Quick, then, Harvey, go and bring your friend; and in the meantime I
+will see the boy alone. Do not come in till you hear that I have sent
+for you."
+
+The keeper retired, and the peer again rang the bell, to direct that
+the young gipsy should be brought before him once more. His orders
+were promptly obeyed, and two stout fellows appeared, with the
+prisoner between them.
+
+"Leave him with me," said the peer, as soon as they had brought him
+two or three steps forward in the room. The men, who had calculated on
+enjoying all the pleasures of a cross-examination, and who had even in
+their hearts formed the aspiration that they hoped his lordship would
+pump him well, stared with some mortification at being excluded from
+witnessing the mental torture of their fellow-creature; but Lord
+Dewry, who read something of the kind in their countenances, not only
+repeated his command, but bade them wait at the end of the adjoining
+passage till they were joined by Harvey, the head keeper. There was no
+resource; and therefore they obeyed, shutting the door, and leaving
+the peer face to face with the captive.
+
+The gipsy youth might be eighteen or nineteen years of age; that
+season of life when enjoyment is in its first freshness; when all the
+world is as bright, and as sweet, and as sparkling as a summer
+morning; when imagination and passion are setting out hand in hand
+upon the ardent race that soon wearies them, and when memory follows
+them quick, gathering up the flowers that they pluck and cast away as
+they go, but not as yet burdened with any of the cares, or sorrows, or
+disappointments which they are destined to encounter in the end: he
+was, in fact, at that age when life is the sweetest. His form was full
+of nascent vigour, and his face was fine; but his whole countenance,
+though speaking, by its variety and play of feature, active
+imagination, and perhaps a degree of enterprise, betrayed a sort of
+uncertain, undecided expression, which is never to be seen in the face
+of the firm and the determined. The peer gazed on him for a moment,
+seeing all, and calculating all, in order to work upon his prisoner's
+mind by both his circumstances and his weaknesses.
+
+"You are very young," he said at length, in a tone of stern
+gravity--"you are very young to be engaged in crimes like these. What
+is your age?"
+
+That sort of dogged sullenness, half shyness, half hatred, which a
+contemned and separate race are from their infancy taught by nature to
+display towards their oppressors, was the only source of resistance in
+the character of the young gipsy, whose powers of resolution were
+naturally small, and whose mind was unfortified by firm and vigorous
+principles of any kind. It was sufficient in the present instance,
+however, to keep him silent; and he stood, with his dark eyes fixed
+upon the ground, and his arms hanging by his side, apparently as
+unmoved as if the peer had addressed him in a language that he did not
+comprehend.
+
+"You are very young," repeated Lord Dewry, after waiting some time in
+vain for an answer--"you are very young to be engaged in crimes like
+these. Life must be sweet to you: there must be a thousand pleasures
+that you are just beginning to enjoy, a thousand hopes of greater
+pleasures hereafter; there must be many friends that you grieve to
+part with--and some," he added, seeing the youth's lip quiver--"and
+some that, doubtless, you love beyond anything on earth."
+
+A tear rolled over the rich brown cheek of the gipsy boy, and betrayed
+that he not only understood what was said to him, but felt every word
+at his heart's core, as the peer, with barbarous skill, sought out
+every fresh wound in his bosom, and tearing them open one by one,
+poured in the rankling poison of insincere commiseration. "Ah!"
+continued Lord Dewry, "it is sad and terrible, indeed, to think of
+being--at the very moment when one is the happiest--at the very moment
+when one loves one's friends the best--at the very moment, perhaps,
+when all our hopes are about to be fulfilled--to think of being cut
+off from them all, and to die a horrid and painful death! and yet such
+must be your fate, my poor boy; such must be inevitably your fate, as
+a punishment for the murder committed in my park last night."
+
+"I murdered no one," cried the youth, with a convulsive sob, that
+nearly rendered what he said unintelligible. "I murdered no one."
+
+"But your companions did," answered the peer, glad to have forced him
+into breaking silence. "You were not present, it is true; but you
+trespassed on my park for evil purposes with those who did commit
+murder, and are therefore an accessary to the deed. Banish all hope,
+poor boy; for to-morrow I must certainly commit you to the county
+jail, from which you will only go to trial and to execution. I am
+sorry for you, I grieve for you, to think that you must never see
+again those you love; that you must be cut off in the prime of youth
+and happiness--I grieve for you, indeed."
+
+"Then why do you not let me out?" cried the lad. "If you grieve for
+me, let me run away."
+
+"That is impossible," answered the peer; "but perhaps I may do
+something to make your fate less bitter. Death you must undergo; but
+in the mean time I may soften the strictness of your imprisonment. Is
+there any one whom you would wish to see--any of your friends and
+companions who might comfort you by coming to visit you?"
+
+"What is the use, if I must die?" said the gipsy, sullenly, dropping
+his tearful eyes to the ground, and clenching tighter his clasped
+hands together; but Lord Dewry saw that there was something more
+working in his mind, and warily held his peace. "There is none I
+should like to see but Lena," said the gipsy at length, with a deep
+sigh; "and Pharold would not let her come, even if I were to ask."
+
+"And why not?" demanded the peer, affecting as much unconcern as it
+was possible for him to assume when coming near the very subject of
+his wishes. "Why would any one prevent her from coming, if it would
+comfort you? He must be very cruel to deny you, when you have so short
+a time to live."
+
+"No, he is not cruel," said the youth; "he is hard, but not cruel; but
+he would not let her come, do you see, because a year ago I was to
+have had Lena for my wife--at least so Mother Gray always told me: but
+then Pharold loved her; and though her own love did not lie that way,
+her mother, when she was dying, herself gave Lena to him, because he
+was better able to take care of her than any one else. And he does not
+love to see Lena speak to me, I know."
+
+"So he took your bride from you," said the peer, not a little
+delighted to hear tidings which promised so fairly for success; "he
+took your bride from you, and now he is jealous of you. Well, then,
+listen to me, and mark well what I am about to say. Your fate is in
+your own hands. You are left to choose between life and death!"
+
+The youth gazed dully in his face for a moment, as if he did not
+comprehend his words at first; but the next instant he burst forth,
+"Life, life, life, then!" cried he, clasping his hands together, and
+raising his eyes beaming with new hope: "life, oh, I choose life!"
+
+"There is but one way, however," replied the peer, "by which you can
+obtain it. This Pharold, this very man who took away your bride, I
+have every reason to believe killed my brother and murdered my son."
+
+"Then that is the way he gets money, no one knows how," cried the
+youth.
+
+"Most probably it is," answered Lord Dewry; "but mark me, if you can
+contrive a means to get him into my power, you shall not only go free,
+but have a large reward. This is your only chance for life."
+
+The lad's countenance fell in a moment. He was young, and the better
+spirit was the first to act. "No, no," he cried; "I hate Pharold, but
+I will not betray him."
+
+"Then you must die," said the peer, sternly.
+
+The better spirit was still predominant: no image presented itself to
+the youth's mind but that of betraying the chief of his tribe. He
+thought not for the moment of the loveliness of life, he thought not
+of the horrors of death, he remembered not either love or hate, in the
+strong impression of a duty which had been fixed in his heart from
+childhood; and he answered in a low sad tone, "Then die I will."
+
+"But think," said the peer, who had anticipated the first effect of
+his proposal, and reserved every stronger inducement, every palliating
+argument, to tempt and to excuse the unhappy youth, when the immediate
+impression was over--"think what it is you choose--imprisonment in a
+close room by yourself for several days; then trial and condemnation,
+and then death upon a gibbet, with nobody to comfort you, nobody to
+speak to you; but you must go through the horror, and the agony, and
+the shame all alone and unsupported." The boy shuddered, and the peer
+proceeded, changing the picture, however:--"This is what you choose.
+Now what is it you cast away?--life, and happiness, and more wealth
+than ever you knew, and most probably the possession of the girl you
+love best upon the earth."
+
+The peer was experienced in temptations; for he had undergone and
+yielded to them himself, and he knew, by the dark histories of his own
+heart, all the wiles and artifices by which the fiend lures on
+successfully even the firm and the determined to acts at which they
+have shuddered in their days of innocence.
+
+The young gipsy listened, and hesitated, and felt all his resolutions
+give way; but so fearful was the struggle in his bosom, that his limbs
+trembled and his teeth chattered as if he had been shaken by an ague.
+The keen eye that was upon him, however, did not fail to mark and
+understand his emotion; and Lord Dewry proceeded, "Well may Lena think
+you love her but little, when you scruple, by a few words, to break
+the hateful bonds that tie her to this murderer Pharold, and when you
+have the power to make her your own, yet refuse to use it."
+
+"But I tell you," cried the boy, vehemently, "that Lena would never
+consent; that even if she were to know that I had done such a thing
+she would hate me and curse me; that I should be driven forth from my
+people, and never see her more."
+
+"But neither she nor any one else," replied the peer, "need ever know
+one circumstance about it. If you will undertake to do what I wish, I
+will tell you a plan by which it may be accomplished, without any
+being on the earth knowing it but you and I."
+
+"But if Pharold should be innocent," said the youth, "the guiltless
+blood would be upon my hand, and it would curse me."
+
+"But if Pharold be innocent, his blood shall not be shed," replied the
+peer: "let him prove his innocence, and he shall go as free as you;
+but he cannot prove his innocence, for he is guilty; and you, in
+delivering him up, do but what is right and good; you do but avenge
+the innocent blood he has shed, though at the same time you gain for
+yourself life, and liberty, and happiness, and the girl that you
+love."
+
+"Well, well, well!" cried the boy, "tell me what it is I am to do."
+
+"Will you undertake it?" demanded the peer, eagerly.
+
+"If," answered the gipsy--for probably there was never yet a crime
+committed, in regard to which the criminal did not propose some
+palliating motive, in order to deceive his own heart at the time, and
+to calm the anticipated reproaches of his conscience thereafter--"if
+you will promise, by God and the heavens, that, if Pharold is
+innocent, you will let him go free."
+
+Lord Dewry paused for an instant. It is strange, but no less true than
+strange, that the mind not only habituates itself to evil, but
+habituates itself to a particular course of evil, and the same person
+who will boldly reiterate a crime to which he is accustomed, will
+start at a much less heinous offence, if it be new to his habits.
+Thus, Lord Dewry paused for an instant ere he swore to a promise which
+he intended to evade; but he soon remembered that, in the course which
+he was pursuing, there was no halting at so airy a thing as an oath;
+and he replied, "By all that is sacred, he shall go free, if he proves
+himself innocent."
+
+"Well, then," said the youth, "I will do what you wish; but, oh, if
+you deceive me!"
+
+"Deceive you in what?" demanded the peer. "I have promised that, if he
+prove himself innocent, he shall of course go free: it is but just."
+
+"But it was not of that I spoke," said the gipsy: "I thought if you
+were to deceive me into trapping Pharold, and then not to let me go
+myself!"
+
+"On my honour! on my soul!" cried the peer, with a ready vehemence,
+which convinced the youth more easily than would have been possible,
+if he had known how often men pledge their honour and their soul when
+the real jewels are no longer theirs--when their true honour has been
+lost for years, and their soul pawned deeply to an eternal foe.
+
+"Well, well," he answered, "I will do it. Tell me how it is to be
+done."
+
+"Tell me first," said the peer: "this Pharold--he is jealous of you,
+it seems?" The boy smiled faintly. "Will he, then, take sufficient
+interest in your fate to attempt to rescue you, if he thinks there is
+a probability of success?"
+
+"That he will!" answered the youth; "besides, if I could get at Lena,
+she would persuade him. But how can I get at her? She will not come
+here, and I cannot go to her."
+
+"But do you think that if you were to send a message to her," demanded
+Lord Dewry, "that she would try to persuade him to attempt your
+rescue, and that she has influence enough to work him to her purpose?"
+
+"That she has, that she has," answered the gipsy: "Pharold often gives
+her a cross word; but when she likes to try, she can always get her
+own way, for all that. But how can I send a message to her? I know not
+where she is, nor where Pharold is; though once, as I looked out
+through the bars of the window this morning, I thought I saw him
+through the gray mist, standing under the distant trees, and watching
+the house. But they may have gone far before this time; yet, if you
+were to let me out for a few hours, I would soon find them."
+
+"We will seek a better way," answered the peer, without taking any
+further notice of the simple cunning with which the youth spoke. "I
+hear from my gamekeepers that a man from one of the neighbouring
+villages has been inquiring for you, and most likely he knows where
+your friends and companions are. Now, as you promise to do what I ask,
+he shall be admitted to see you, and you must send to Lena whatever
+message you think will induce her to persuade Pharold to come to your
+rescue."
+
+"Yes," said the boy; "but I must first know how he can rescue me, for
+Pharold will never come unless he thinks it likely. Ay, and the story
+must be a clever one, too; for he is as cunning as a sentinel-crow,
+and smells powder at a mile's distance."
+
+"I must leave you to frame the story as you think best," replied the
+peer; "but you can tell your fair Lena that if Pharold will come to
+your prison-window with a sharp file or a sledge-hammer, he can easily
+set you free by breaking the bars of iron that cross the opening. You
+may add, that there is never any one on that side of the house all
+night, and so that he will be perfectly safe."
+
+The lad hung down his head; and the hot blood of shame, as he thought
+of what he was undertaking, rushed from his heart to his cheeks. There
+was again a momentary struggle, but the good had been conquered once
+already; and the thought of life, and Lena, and happiness, and freedom
+from the oppressive terror that weighed down his heart in his prison,
+got the better of everything besides; and he replied, "But what shall
+I do if they thrust the file and the sledge-hammer through the bars to
+me, and bid me work for myself?"
+
+Lord Dewry instantly saw the validity of the youth's objection, and
+the probability that Pharold, instead of coming himself, would send
+some woman or some child with the implements which might be necessary
+for setting the prisoner at liberty. "You must tell them," he said,
+after some minutes' thought, "that you are so tied that you cannot cut
+through the bars for yourself."
+
+"But the man who gives them the message will see that I am not tied,"
+replied the youth; and, after pausing for a few moments, he added,
+"No, no; I have thought of a better way. I will not trust him with any
+particulars: I will bid him ask Lena and Mother Gray to work Pharold
+to get me out; but, at all events, for some one of them to come down,
+and speak with me through the bars to-night, and then I can make them
+do what I want. But you must let them go, remember!" he exclaimed.
+"You must not stop the women if they come."
+
+"I shall certainly stop none but Pharold," answered the peer: "the
+rest may come and go as they like. But only do not you trifle with me;
+for be you sure that you shall not only not have your liberty, but
+that, if Pharold be not in my power before to-morrow night is over,
+you shall be sent to the county-jail for instant trial."
+
+"And how," said the youth, whose shyness was fast wearing away--"and
+how am I to get my liberty when Pharold is in your power?"
+
+"The door shall be set open," answered the peer, "and you shall go out
+freely."
+
+"But how can I be sure of that?" he demanded again.
+
+"You may keep us both, for aught I know. Will you write it down? for I
+have heard that you Englishmen are more bound by what is written than
+by what is said."
+
+Lord Dewry again paused for a moment, somewhat embarrassed; but after
+revolving the probable consequences in his mind for some time, he
+replied, "I will write it down, if you require it."
+
+"Do--do, then," said the youth; and the peer, ringing the bell,
+ordered writing-materials to be brought. As soon as they arrived, he
+sat down, and drew up a promise, artfully couched in such terms as he
+felt sure could not, in the slightest degree, implicate his character
+or betray his real views, if ever it should be produced against him.
+
+"As the prisoner," so the writing ran, "now in custody at Dimden,
+is apparently only an accessary, and not a principal, in the crime
+lately committed at this place, I hereby promise him, on condition of
+his placing in the hands of justice the notorious felon Pharold,
+against whom various warrants have issued, at present unsuccessfully,
+that he shall be immediately set at liberty, as soon as he has
+accomplished the same. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my
+hand, this---- day of ----," &c. &c.
+
+The youth's eyes sparkled as he read; and the prospect of liberty and
+safety which opened before him blotted out at once from memory the
+dark and villanous step which he must take to reach them. "I will do
+it! I will do it!" he cried; "but you must let me do it my own way,
+for I must not let anyone in the whole world know that it is my doing.
+It must seem that he is taken by accident, while helping me, and that
+I have made my escape in the meantime; and then I shall be free, and
+Lena will be mine!" And the youth clapped his hands in the vehemence
+of reawakened hope.
+
+"Well, well," said the peer, his anxiety for his ultimate object
+coming eagerly upon him as soon as his immediate purpose was
+accomplished--"well, well, the man I spoke of shall have admittance to
+you immediately. But, remember, you must lose no time; for the longest
+space I can afford you is this night and to-morrow night."
+
+"Some of the women will come to me to-night," answered the youth; "and
+to-morrow night, fear not, Pharold shall stand under the window of the
+prison-room, some time between the rising of the moon and the sun. So
+watch well, and if you take him not it is your own fault."
+
+"So be it, then," said the peer; "and now you must return to speak
+with the person I mentioned, who shall soon be sent to you." Thus
+saying, Lord Dewry called back the two men who had brought the young
+gipsy thither; and, after bidding them take him back to the strong
+room, told them, in his hearing, as an earnest of his good-will, to
+let him have everything that could render him comfortable in strict
+imprisonment. As soon as the men appeared, the boy resumed his look of
+sullen shyness; and, hanging his head, followed them in silence from
+the room.
+
+The moment he had departed, the peer sent to inquire for the keeper,
+who had not yet returned, however; and Lord Dewry was kept for a short
+time under the irritation of his own impatient spirit. At length
+Harvey appeared, followed by his confederate, Harry Saxon; and it
+would have given sincere pleasure to a disciple of Lavater to see how
+well this worthy's countenance corresponded with his actions.
+
+He was a man of about five-and-forty, and what many people would call
+a good-looking man; that is to say, he had a fresh country complexion,
+a high large nose, with small nostrils, a capacious mouth, furnished
+with white and regular teeth, a small keen black eye, under a very
+overhanging and observing brow, a forehead low, but broad, and
+surmounted with a layer of fine jet-black hair, smoothed down, and
+polished with the most careful and scrupulous precision. His dress,
+without being exactly that of a gamekeeper, had a sufficient portion
+of the style usually attributed to that class to show his hankering
+after the beasts of the field. His coat was green, and on the buttons
+thereof appeared, not alone the fox, that most sagacious animal, but a
+variety of birds and beasts, so comprehensive in their number, and so
+limited in their kind, that his garment formed a very excellent
+hieroglyphical abstract of the game act. Leathern gaiters, with small
+round leathern buttons, cased a pair of sturdy legs, and defended them
+from the brambles of those paths he most frequented; and a pair of
+hedger's gloves upon his hands seemed well calculated to grope for
+springes and gins amid the thorny ways of life.
+
+The peer surveyed him, as he entered, with the keen eye of worldly
+experience, and saw that he was a man to be depended on by those who
+could pay him well. After a brief question or two, to which the other
+replied with sly significance, the peer explained to him the
+ostensible object he had in view; namely, that of securing the
+apprehension of a gipsy felon called Pharold, by the instrumentality
+of the boy they had taken on the preceding night, and asked him if he
+were willing to undertake the part he was to play, and to perform it
+carefully.
+
+"You are, I hear," he added, with some degree of irony, "in some way
+acquainted with these gipsies, and may, therefore, not like to bring
+one of them to justice. If it be so, speak, and we will find some
+other person."
+
+"No, no, my lord," answered the man. "A gipsy! why, I hate a gipsy!
+they come in and spoil every thing like the regular trade. No, no,
+hang 'em all for me."
+
+Lord Dewry did not pause to inquire what Harry Saxon called the
+regular trade; but replied, "Well, if such be your opinion, go in and
+speak to this lad. Do not let him know that you have had any
+conversation with me upon the subject; but offer to do anything for
+him that you can; and when you have heard what he has to say, come
+back and let me know the result."
+
+The peer added an injunction to be quick; and Harry Saxon was
+conducted, by his worthy associate Harvey, to the strong room in which
+the gipsy lad had been confined.
+
+The chamber would have been in every respect a comfortable one, had
+not the doors and windows been furnished on the outside with those
+appurtenances, obnoxious to all comfort, called bolts and bars. The
+house had been constructed when population was much thinner than at
+present, and when it was necessary that the dwelling of a magistrate,
+if situated far from any great town, should be provided with some
+place in which a prisoner might be confined for a few hours; for this
+purpose the room we speak of had been selected and fitted up, both on
+account of the distance at which it lay from the more frequented parts
+of the building, and of its proximity to a large old hall, which
+formed the extreme wing of the house, and topped the bank overhanging
+the river. This hall had often served, in cases of necessity, as a
+justice-room in the olden times; and though many years had elapsed
+since it had been employed on any very important occasion, yet even of
+later days it had been used for the meeting of magistrates and county
+functionaries, when anything caused them to assemble in that part of
+the country.
+
+The strong room, however, had never been intended for anything but
+temporary purposes, and was not at all calculated for securing a
+strong and determined prisoner for any length of time, as the windows,
+which opened into the park, were only closed by iron bars, which, as
+the peer had hinted, might easily be filed away from within, or forced
+off from without. These bars the boy took care to examine minutely as
+soon as he was taken back to the place of his confinement; and he then
+turned his eyes to the park beyond, to ascertain how far the plan he
+had to propose to Pharold would be recommended by the probability of
+its success.
+
+A grove of old oaks and chestnuts came up nearly to the windows, so
+that there was plenty of shade to conceal any one who approached,
+except in the full light of day. But as he gazed, the boy's thoughts
+were soon drawn away from the dark scheme which the peer had suggested
+to him by the sight of the world beyond his prison. Through the wide
+spaces between the trees the lawns and savannas of the park were to be
+distinguished, with other woods and groves beyond. The soft evening
+sunshine was sleeping upon the slopes and glistening on the river; and
+the deer were seen walking calm and free through the long dry autumn
+grass, while the call of the partridge sounded from some distant
+fields, and everything spoke of liberty, and happiness, and peace. The
+influence of the scene sank deep into his heart, as he stood separated
+from his people, barred in from the free and beautiful world, and, for
+the first time in his existence, confined to the close atmosphere of
+one small solitary room. It sank deep into his bosom; but, like the
+fabled amreeta cup of one of our truest poets, many of the sweetest
+things on earth are productive of good or evil according to the lip
+that tastes them. While he gazed, the passionate love of wild
+unrestrained liberty, and of nature, in which his heart had been
+nurtured from infancy, grew overpowering. To be free--to bound away
+over those sunny fields--to cast bars and bolts behind him--became a
+passion and burning thirst: better principles were wanting to teach
+him to endure; and had the price of liberty, at that moment, been a
+parricide, he would have dipped his hands in parental blood. Nerved by
+the passionate desire, he seized the bars of iron in his hands, and
+strove to tear them open; but their strength resisted all his efforts,
+and he burst into tears to think that he must remain another day in
+bondage.
+
+His eyes were still wet when the door opened, and the insidious
+prompter of the enterprise which had deprived him of his liberty
+entered the room. The youth, however, was, like the rest of the
+gipsies, ignorant that they had been betrayed; and although he had
+only seen the man once, he now received him gladly as an acquaintance
+and a friend.
+
+Their conversation lasted about ten minutes, and at the end of that
+time the emissary returned to the peer to report what had just passed.
+
+"Well, well," demanded Lord Dewry, "with what message has he charged
+you?"
+
+"A very short one, my lord," answered the man: "he bade me seek out
+old Mother Gray, or some of the women, and tell them to come down to
+speak with him at the window to-night; so, I take it, that won't suit
+your lordship's purpose."
+
+"Yes, it will," answered the peer. "He will, probably, employ the
+women to work upon the men."
+
+"Ay, ay, plough with the heifer," answered the other; "but I may as
+well, if your lordship has no objection, set them on the right track
+myself; and I will answer for it, I get them to persuade old Pharold
+to come down himself."
+
+"There is a very large reward offered," answered the peer, dryly, "to
+any one who will contribute to place him in the hands of justice; and
+if you are successful in the attempt you shall not lose the reward.
+But do you think you can find these gipsies?"
+
+"Why, from what Dick Harvey says, my lord," he replied, "I think there
+can be no doubt that I can find the women part of them, though, most
+likely, the men are hiding away--and no bad job either; for they might
+fancy I had some hand in the last night's job--but, howsomever, if I
+can find the women, they'll make the men do what they like easy
+enough. So, if your lordship will keep a good watch round the strong
+room, without letting the folks show themselves till they are sure of
+their man, I think we may calculate upon Master Pharold pretty
+certain."
+
+"In which case your reward is certain, too," answered the peer; "but
+now make haste upon your errand, my good man, for the sun will soon be
+going down, and you have but little time."
+
+"Oh, I don't dislike a walk in the twilight," replied the fellow; and,
+bowing low, but with a somewhat too familiar grin, he took his leave
+and retired.
+
+Lord Dewry immediately proceeded to give orders for a strict watch to
+be kept upon the windows of the strong room during the two following
+nights; and took measures that an ambush should be laid in the
+immediate vicinity, in such a manner that any person approaching could
+not escape; but, at the same time, he carefully directed that if none
+but women appeared, they should be permitted to go as they came, not
+only without molestation, but with every precaution to prevent the
+least appearance of unusual watch.
+
+This being done, he turned his steps towards the chamber of Sir Roger
+Millington, for whose life the unfavourable opinion of the surgeon
+gave him no slight apprehension.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The person against whom so many subtle contrivances were directed, on
+leaving Colonel Manners, as we have described in a foregoing chapter,
+turned his steps towards the wood in which his own companions had
+sought refuge after the unfortunate events of the preceding night. If
+the reader will cast his eye upon the county map, he will see that,
+avoiding Morley Down, he skirted along the hill, the summit of which
+it crowned; and then, after following for a little way that part of
+the high-road which traversed the little isthmus, in the neighbourhood
+of which he had saved the life of Isadore Falkland, he struck soon
+after into the forest on the right. As he came not from the same side
+on which his comrades had entered the wood, his search for them was
+not without difficulty; but it is wonderful with what keen tact
+persons accustomed to such scenes and circumstances take advantage of
+slight and apparently insignificant indications to guide them on their
+way. A branch brushed aside, a trodden-down flower, the sight, or even
+the smell of smoke, the least sound of the human voice, will each aid
+them in their search; and by means of this kind Pharold, ere long,
+discovered the little glen in which his whole party had found an
+asylum.
+
+At the moment he approached, had his keen mind not been engaged with
+many another thought, he might have remarked that there was some
+degree of bustle and consultation among the gipsies, which ceased as
+he came up. All, however, appeared glad to see him safe; and all
+crowded round to express the anxiety they had felt during his absence,
+and to question him as to the events which had befallen him. Lena hung
+upon his arm with evident pleasure at his return; but the fondness she
+displayed was more like that of a child towards a parent than that of
+a wife for a husband.
+
+In answer to the inquiries of the whole party, Pharold--after having
+seated himself in the midst, and demanded some refreshment, which was
+speedily procured--related, briefly, all that had occurred as far as
+his own perils went. Of Colonel Manners he spoke as of a stranger, and
+neither noticed their encounter nor his promise of again meeting him,
+though he told the group around that ere an hour was over he must
+again set forth on matters of import not to be delayed.
+
+"Well, I hope, at all events, that you are going to get poor Will
+out," said the old woman we have so often mentioned. "Poor boy! he has
+a hard fate."
+
+"I hope," said Lena, seeing that Pharold made no answer--"I hope--" but
+then she stopped, as if afraid of offending him.
+
+"And what do you hope, Lena?" said Pharold, gravely, but not so
+sternly as was often his wont.
+
+"I hope," she said, more boldly, but with the colour coming up in her
+brown cheek--"I hope that some means will be found to set the poor boy
+free, for I am sure he was not the guilty person."
+
+As she spoke Pharold gazed on her with such grave earnestness that her
+latter words faltered; and even after she had concluded he still kept
+his eyes fixed upon her in silence, till one of the men, who had
+accompanied Dickon on the deer-stealing expedition, joined into
+corroborate her words.
+
+"No, no," said the man, "he was not so guilty as any of us. Dickon
+persuaded the rest of us, and we persuaded him; but it was a hard
+matter to do so; and then, after all, he never fired a gun."
+
+"Well," said Pharold, "I have done my utmost to free him: but he is in
+the hands of our enemies, who are keen, and vigilant, and many; and I
+see no way of delivering him from them but by force, which I will not
+employ, first, because it would fail; and next, because it would be
+sacrificing many of the innocent to deliver one who, though less
+guilty than others, is still culpable. I see no other way."
+
+"Ay, but there is another way, Pharold," said the old woman: "they say
+that he is confined in what they call the strong room."
+
+"They say!" exclaimed Pharold, hastily--"they say! Some one has been
+with you: speak, who has been here? or has any one gone forth when I
+forbade it?"
+
+The old woman only grinned at having betrayed herself, as Pharold
+looked sternly round upon the circle; but Lena cast herself upon his
+bosom, saying, "Tell him the truth! Oh, tell him the truth! It is
+always better to tell him the truth! Well, if no one else will, I
+will. Some one has been here, Pharold--some one who has seen the poor
+boy in prison; and he told us all how wretched he is, and also he said
+that William himself had sent him to us to say, that if any one would
+come down to-night or to-morrow night to the window of the room where
+he is lying, they could easily wrench off the iron bars that kept him
+in, and set him free at once."
+
+"And who was the person that he sent?" demanded Pharold, sternly.
+
+"Why, it was just Harry Saxon, the game-sneaker," answered the old
+woman; "who else should it be?"
+
+"A dastardly villain!" said Pharold, hastily; "fit to betray us all:
+speak no more of it. I know that man of old, and would not trust him
+with the life of a child, if he could gain by its destruction."
+
+"He seemed honest enough in this business," said the man called Brown;
+"for he told us all how he had got in to see the lad, and how he had
+traced us hither. He took some blame to himself, too, in the business
+of the deer-stealing, for he was to have bought the venison from
+Dickon; and that was the reason why he went to see poor Will in
+prison, and was willing to do what he could to get him out. Now I
+would not promise to go till I knew what you thought of it, Pharold;
+but if you like, I will go down to-night, for, as to the man betraying
+us, you see I have no fear, because, if he had liked, he could have
+brought people to nab us all here. So I will go and try what I can
+do."
+
+"But did not Will say particularly," cried the shrill tones of the old
+woman, "that it must be some one who knew the place well, or they
+would get into a mess? If you go, Brown, you'll only get caught
+yourself, and spoil a hopeful plan for setting poor William free.
+There is no one that knows the place well but Pharold and I, because
+we know it of old; and as Pharold is afraid to go any more, I would go
+with all my heart, if I were strong enough to get the bars off: I
+could have done it once, as well as the best man among you; but I am
+an old woman now. As for that, Pharold knows the place better than I
+do a great deal, for he lived in that very house for many a month,
+and--"
+
+"Hold your peace, hold your peace, woman," interrupted Pharold. "The
+boy said to-night or to-morrow, did he not?"
+
+"Yes, to-night or to-morrow," answered Brown; "but to-night were best,
+for who knows what may happen before to-morrow?"
+
+"To-night I cannot go," answered Pharold, "for I have pledged my word
+to be elsewhere, and I do not break my word: but to-morrow I will go;
+and I think that, perhaps, after all, I may be able to set him free.
+In the meantime, however, you, Mother Gray, shall go down this very
+night, to reward you for all the share you have had in the matter.
+You know the strong room window, just in the angle, by the great hall.
+Get ye down thither at midnight; and tell the boy that I will come
+to-morrow night: bid him keep a good watch; and if he sees any one
+lurking about, as if watching, let him sing some of the songs that he
+sings so well, to warn me. You look out well, too, and mark everything
+about you, to tell me when I come back. You were never the wisest or
+the best, but I do not think you such a devil as to betray one
+wilfully."
+
+He looked sternly and keenly at her, but the beldam only answered in a
+jeering tone, "No, no, Pharold, though I love you as much as a young
+sparrow loves a cuckoo poult, I'll not betray you, man."
+
+"Go, then," said Pharold, "as soon as it is midnight: examine
+everything well; and tell the boy, through the bars of the window,
+that, although he deserves to suffer the consequences of his fault,
+yet we will do our best to rescue him for his youth's sake."
+
+It is always some consolation to those who lie under the command of a
+superior mind to be permitted to sneer at what they dare not disobey;
+and the old woman, while she listened, gave way to all those grins,
+and winks, and nods, the boldness of which she fancied might
+counterbalance, in the opinion of those around, her degradation in
+submitting quietly to the orders of one who treated her with such
+unceremonious censure. She was secured, however, by Pharold's scorn,
+against any notice of her malice, as far as he himself was concerned;
+and without seeming to observe the affectation of contempt with which
+she heard him, he turned to the rest, and gave directions for
+immediately removing their encampment to another spot.
+
+"Quarter of a mile farther," he said, "you will come to a clear
+stream, broad but not deep, flowing from the heart of the wood, over a
+bed of sand and small clear stones. You can drive the carts up through
+the water till you reach a place where the banks are flat; and there,
+under the oaks and among the hazel-bushes, you will find plenty of
+room and shelter. You, Brown, take every precaution you can to prevent
+the slightest trace being left of the course you have followed; make
+the people wade along the water--it is not deep enough to cover their
+ankles; send them, too, by different parties and in different ways;
+for remember that, because one of our number has killed two deer, the
+whole world, that hated us before, will now think themselves justified
+to hunt us down like foxes.--I can stay with you no longer, for the
+hour I named is near at hand--I am wearied and sad, and I feel as if
+the end were coming; but still I must keep my word, and do as I have
+done to the last."
+
+Some tears, from mixed emotions that would have defied analysis, had
+filled the eyes of the beautiful girl that reclined by his side; and
+as Pharold rose to depart, he saw them still glistening there. Taking
+her hand, he beckoned her with him, saying, "Come with me for a
+moment, Lena: I would speak with you."
+
+She followed, and for about a hundred yards he led her on in silence;
+and then, turning round, he pressed a kiss upon her lips:--"Remember
+me, Lena," he said, "when I am dead. Ever, at this hour, whatever may
+happen to you, whatever changes may befall, think of Pharold for a
+few short minutes; and mark what I tell you, each time you think of
+him--whatever you may feel now;--you shall regret him more, till, on
+your dying day, you shall love Pharold as Pharold now loves you.
+Remember, Lena, remember, remember!" and, turning away, he left her
+with her bright eyes dropping fast unwonted tears.
+
+Alas, alas! the constancy and resolution of youth, what frail things
+they are! and how fast the ephemeral feelings and purposes of the hour
+give place to others as frail and vain! When Lena turned away from
+Pharold, she had believed that for no boon on earth would she do aught
+that could offend him; but ere many minutes were over, she was
+listening to the persuasions of the old woman, that had led all those
+wrong who had confided in her, and was combating faintly and more
+faintly the arguments which age and cunning used to induce her to
+visit that night the place where her unhappy lover was confined. Lena
+listened and resisted, till she listened and yielded; and midnight
+found her standing with the old woman under the window of the strong
+room in Dimden Park.
+
+In the mean while Pharold pursued his way to rejoin Colonel Manners;
+but there seemed to be some bitter feeling sitting heavy at his heart.
+The light and agile step had become slow; the quick, keen eyes were
+bent thoughtfully upon the ground; more than one sad sigh burst from
+his bosom; and the spirit and the heart seemed to mourn. It might be
+that Pharold perceived that he was not loved; it might be that he felt
+he had set the whole fortunes of his being upon a hazardous chance;
+but as we have not paused to trace his love, we shall not dwell long
+upon his disappointment. Other feelings, too, such as, more or less
+modified by circumstances, will cross the mind of every imaginative
+and sensitive man, now rushed upon him, rendered tenfold more strong
+in his case than in that of others, by the prejudices of his people,
+and the wild and varying habits of his race. Feelings of superstition,
+and vague, rambling, fanciful speculations upon all those indications
+of human destiny, gathered from external objects, in which his tribe
+believe, now mingled themselves with jealous doubts and apprehensions,
+and appealed to his own heart for belief or rejection in his own
+individual instance.
+
+"I am coming to the crosses," he murmured, as he walked along--"I am
+coming to the crosses of life; and the end is not far off! I have seen
+those who obeyed me once, rise up against my will. I have been
+persecuted and hunted for faults not my own: I have been overcome by a
+creature like myself, with no odds against me; and I have learned to
+doubt those I love. Ah! and that she, too, should think of another!
+Woman, woman! Care, instruction, and kind reproof but offend thee!
+love and tenderness but spoil thee! Affection, and worth, and honour
+are to thee but as nothing! In danger thou clingest to us! In peace
+and security thou leavest us! The things which attract thee are the
+lightest of qualities and the vainest of transitory things; and with
+what cords shall we bind thee, even when once thou art caught? Vain,
+vain, empty butterfly! indifference and reckless carelessness are the
+things which win thee the most surely, and which most truly thou
+meritest."
+
+Such were the first outpourings of a heart jealous of affection; but
+as Pharold walked on, the belief that Lena's love might be given to
+another was softened by reflection, and he began to think he had done
+her wrong. He remembered the tears he had seen in her eyes; he thought
+of many a testimony of girlish regard which she had displayed towards
+him: he called to mind many of the finer traits of her heart and mind
+which had first attracted him, and which he had striven to cultivate;
+and he again began to trust that she would not suffer one thought to
+stray from him who had become her husband. The feeling of that vast
+disparity of age which existed between them did, indeed, ever mingle
+with such hopes, and, as it had often done before, disturbed his peace
+of mind by apprehension and doubt. "She will be the sooner free," he
+thought bitterly: "she will be the sooner free! God only knows how
+soon! for I feel a weight upon me, and a gloom, as if fate were coming
+near to me, and its shadow rested dark upon my thoughts. She will be
+free, and wed another, and be happy, and forget me, till pain, and
+sorrow, and anxiety come, till she wants the hand that used to protect
+her, till she requires the mind that used to guide her, and then she
+may think of Pharold, and grieve to think that he is lying beneath the
+cold and crumbling mould of earth, whence neither prayers nor wishes
+shall bring him back to her side again. Then she may remember, and
+perhaps weep for him who is lost to her for ever."
+
+With such sad and gloomy reflections Pharold amused the way, as,
+retreading the steps he had lately taken, he proceeded to fulfil his
+appointment with Colonel Manners. He was a man who gave, perhaps, as
+few thoughts to self and selfish considerations as most men. He was
+one of those who, in other circumstances and in other ages, would have
+as willingly devoted himself a sacrifice for his friend, or for his
+country, as any Greek or Roman that ever lived. But he was a gipsy,
+and born in an age when patriotism and friendship were equally
+considered as mercantile commodities; when men, having cast behind
+them the heroism of ancient Greece and Rome, and the chivalry of
+ancient France and England, were just beginning to dip themselves in a
+spirit of cold and selfish calculation, which, like the waters of the
+Carian fountain, emasculates all that is noble and energetic in human
+nature; and it is not possible to live among such times without
+feeling their chilling influence. Their influence, however, upon him
+was different from that which it had upon others; for his race, and
+state, and habits, all placed him without the circle of ordinary
+thoughts and sensations common to the rest of men. That he was moving
+among cold and selfish beings, he felt; that he was acting upon
+principles different from theirs, he could not but know; and he
+despised them because he did know it, hating them the more because he
+was one of a scorned and injured race, to which he clung with the
+greater tenacity because it was scorned and injured. But when he met
+with a spirit congenial to his own, when he found that he could love
+and could trust, all the deep, the noble, the generous feelings of his
+original nature burst through every band of times, and circumstances,
+and nation, and habit; and he was no longer the gipsy, the sullen
+hater of every race except his own, but a creature endowed with noble
+powers of mind, and gifted above all with that gem from heaven, an
+upright and enthusiastic heart, which would have honoured any land, or
+age, or people. The direction which it took might sometimes be wrong,
+the reasonings that guided it might wander upon wild, and prejudiced,
+and eccentric theories; but the principle was always good, and the
+purpose was always generous.
+
+Thus, although he thought for some part of the way upon himself, and
+upon the cares and griefs that thronged around him, his mind soon
+turned to other objects; and the desire of serving and of soothing
+others was strong enough even to withdraw his thoughts from the
+powerful grasp of individual sorrows, always far more potent in their
+selfishness than joys.
+
+As he approached the spot where his unsuccessful struggle had taken
+place with Colonel Manners, he felt, it is true, some sort of
+bitterness of heart, to think that he had been overcome. Vanity will
+have her share in all; and happy it is--ay, even more than we can
+expect--when she changes not the pain of her wound into hatred of
+those who have inflicted it. Manners was already on the spot, and the
+first words of the gipsy were those of human kindness. "How is she?"
+he asked, abruptly. "How is the young lady? You have seen--you have
+told her all is well, of course?"
+
+"I have," answered Manners, "and her heart is greatly lighter, though
+she will remain still anxious and unsatisfied till I have with my own
+eyes seen her cousin, and can report to her the state of his health."
+
+"Fear not, fear not," answered the gipsy; "I have promised to take you
+to him, and there is not that power under the heavens which should
+ever induce me to break my word, while I am capable of performing it."
+
+"I do not fear, in the least," answered Manners: "I knew perfectly
+that you would keep your promise, and confidently assured the family
+at Morley House that you would lead me to De Vaux this night. I need
+hardly tell you how much joy that assurance gave them, and how much
+gratitude they felt to him who made the promise."
+
+"Speak not of gratitude!" answered the gipsy--"speak not of gratitude!
+I only regret that from the first I had not foreseen what pain might
+fall on some of the good and kind, and that I did not assure myself of
+how I ought to act. But if you knew, gentleman, what a life I have led
+for the last three days, you would easily make excuse for some
+forgetfulness of others--a life so different from that to which we are
+accustomed. We come in sunshine, and pitch our dwelling in the warm
+bosom of nature, with beauty all round us, and neither care nor strife
+among ourselves; but now we have been hunted, and sought, and had to
+change our dwellings from place to place; and in order to provide that
+we left no traces of our way, we have been forced to double like a
+poor hare before the accursed hounds, to think every footstep the
+signal of an enemy, and every rustle of the leaves to look upon as the
+indication of an ambush. I fear me, too, I fear me that their
+persecutions are not yet over. But let us on: here lies our road."
+
+"I trust," said Manners, following him--"I trust that as you are able
+to clear yourself in this business of my friend De Vaux, all the other
+suspicions against you will be found equally groundless; and then you
+may follow your way of life once more in peace."
+
+"No, no," answered the gipsy, "he would persecute me still. Once he
+has made a false accusation against me, and he will never abandon it
+as long as he and I are on the face of the same earth--never, never! I
+know him too well."
+
+"I do not clearly understand of whom you speak," answered Manners,
+keeping by the side of the gipsy, although the pace at which he had
+set off seemed accelerated at every step by the angry feelings that he
+was stirring up in his own bosom. "You do not name the person. Whom do
+you mean?"
+
+"Whom should I mean?" answered the gipsy, sharply. "Whom but him who,
+born with violent passions and a haughty nature, was bred a lawyer, in
+order that dark cunning should be added to a bold spirit and a shrewd
+mind. I speak of Lord Dewry; and I tell you that he will never cease
+to persecute me. Does he not now hold in fast confinement a boy of our
+people whom he well knows to be innocent?"
+
+"There is, certainly," answered Manners, "a gipsy-boy confined at
+Dimden, for I saw him there this morning; but Lord Dewry, as well as
+all the people of the neighbourhood, informed me that he had been
+taken in an attempt to steal the deer in the park."
+
+"He was not present," said the gipsy: "he saw not the beast
+slaughtered by the mad-headed fools that did it, any more than I did.
+But he keeps him because he is a gipsy-boy, not that he thinks him
+guilty. And so, you saw him, did you?" continued Pharold, striving,
+with a slight mingling of the artful cunning of his people, to
+discover what Manners knew of the situation of the young gipsy--"so,
+you saw him? and, doubtless, he is to be sent soon to the county-jail,
+to die of imprisonment and despair at losing his blessed freedom."
+
+"I did not hear any mention of such an intention," answered Manners.
+"Every one present joined in accusing the youth of direct
+participation in the deer-stealing; and he himself kept so obstinate a
+silence, that there was no possibility of drawing from him even a word
+that might exculpate himself."
+
+"And do you call it obstinate silence to refuse to answer either the
+subtle or the idle questions of his enemies?" demanded the gipsy.
+
+"There is the mistake into which your people fall too often, and with
+too fatal an effect," answered Manners. "You consider us, on all
+occasions, as your enemies, and act towards us as if we were such,
+instead of endeavouring to make us your friends, which might often be
+accomplished--always, I might say, with good men, were your actions to
+tend to that purpose. In the instance you speak of, the principal
+questions were addressed to your young companion by myself. Their
+object was solely to elicit some news of my friend De Vaux; and, had
+he answered them frankly, he would have made a friend who might have
+rendered him service."
+
+"And he refused to answer?" demanded the gipsy.
+
+"Not exactly refused," replied Manners; "but answered only by an
+unmeaning monosyllable, or kept a profound silence."
+
+"He did right!" cried the gipsy; "he did right! The boy is more
+deserving than I thought him; he merits an effort."
+
+"We judge very differently," answered Manners: "I thought he did very
+wrong; and had he given me the information I sought, it is more than
+probable that I should have met you with very different feelings from
+those with which I at first saw you this night."
+
+"He did right, he did right!" cried the gipsy. "Would you have had him
+betray secrets intrusted to him? or was he to judge what I might think
+fit to be revealed? No, no: silence was his best security against
+discovering, through fear or through folly, those things, the value of
+which he knew not. He has shown both more prudence and more resolution
+than I thought he possessed. However, he could have told you nothing,
+for he knew nothing--not even the path we are now treading."
+
+"Well, then, his candour would only have served to give a favourable
+opinion of himself," Manners rejoined, "without injuring you, or
+betraying your confidence."
+
+"How can you tell that?" cried the gipsy--"how can you tell that? how
+could he tell it either? Might you not have led him on to other
+things? Might you not have wrung from him, if he had spoken candidly,
+as you call it, one admission after another, till you had discovered
+all that he could tell. Oh, we know your artful ways, your
+examinations and cross-examinations, which would make an angel of
+truth and wisdom seem like a liar and a fool. We know your skill in
+making men reveal what they would not, and speak two apparently
+opposite truths, without allowing them to give the explanation; so
+that they seem to contradict themselves at every word. We know you;
+and we have one way, and only one, to disappoint you, which is
+silence. You can make naught of that."
+
+Manners saw that, where both the principles and the course of the
+reasoning were so different, discussion was of very little use; and he
+consequently made no reply to the gipsy's tirade, feeling, however, at
+the same time, that there was a portion of truth in what he said,
+which it would be difficult to separate from the great mass of
+prejudice with which it was combined. Pharold, however, wished the
+conversation prolonged upon the same topic; for with all the frank
+generosity of his individual nature, the habits and the character of
+the gipsy still modified and influenced the other qualities of his
+heart and his mind. His character, as a man, was open and candid; but
+the gipsy often acted, to render it stubborn and sullen when
+oppressed, or even wily and artful when some peculiar object was to be
+gained.
+
+He now greatly desired to obtain from Colonel Manners, as a sincere
+and independent person, some information concerning the exact
+situation of the boy William, both in order to guide more surely any
+efforts made for his liberation, and to correct the report of the old
+beldam, whom he had sent down to inquire, and of whose purposes and
+views he entertained many a doubt. He did not choose, however, to let
+his design become apparent, and therefore approached his object with a
+careful art, which was not a part of his natural, but rather of his
+acquired character.
+
+"Poor boy!" he said, as soon as he perceived that Manners did not
+reply--"poor boy! I am sorry for him. He has never known anything but
+liberty, and the enjoyment of all the free, wide, beautiful world; he
+has never known what it is to have fetters on his young limbs, or to
+be shut from the air and light of heaven, in some dark and gloomy
+dungeon."
+
+"You must not let your imagination draw such a picture of his
+situation," answered Manners, who, having nothing to conceal, was
+easily led in the direction the gipsy wished. "The boy is not and
+cannot be in such a state as you suppose. He has no fetters upon his
+limbs, and, in all probability, is as well treated as a proper regard
+for his safe custody will permit."
+
+"It will be pain and grief enough," rejoined the gipsy, "for one who
+has never in his life been debarred from turning his steps in
+whatsoever direction he thought fit--who has never been cutoff from
+the sight of nature, and the breath of the free air, since his eyes
+were first opened upon God's heaven and earth, and the breath of life
+was breathed into his nostrils--it will be pain and grief enough for
+him to be thrust into some dark and gloomy dungeon, perhaps under
+ground, or, at all events, looking into some dull stone-built court,
+where he can see nothing on any side but the hateful walls that keep
+him in, and the sly, dastard faces of those that watch him."
+
+"Of course," answered Manners, "as I am nearly unacquainted with this
+part of the country and with Dimden Hall, I cannot be aware of the
+nature of the place in which the lad is confined. A dungeon it is not,
+certainly; for such things are now, thank God, quite out of the
+question. It appeared to me, too, that there was no such thing as a
+court to the dwelling-house; and that, therefore, wherever he may be
+placed, he will be able to see the face of nature, which you love so
+much. But you yourself--at least, all I have heard would lead me to
+suppose so--must know Dimden Hall far better than I do, and perhaps
+may be aware of where the strong room is; for it was to it that I
+heard Lord Dewry direct him to be taken, after we had in vain tried to
+gain any information from him."
+
+"If he be there, he may do well," answered the gipsy; "but probably
+they will remove him to the county-jail, and there he will have sad
+and bitter hours enough."
+
+"I should certainly think that they will not do so," answered
+Manners, "if what you tell me in regard to his innocence of all
+participation in the actual slaughter of the deer be correct. The
+magistrates will, of course, investigate the matter, and seek full
+evidence of the facts, before they either commit the boy, or even send
+him off to the jail, which, I understand, is many miles distant; so
+that it is much more probable that he will remain where he is for the
+present."
+
+The gipsy saw well that Manners spoke without disguise, and that he
+had, in fact, nothing more to tell in regard to the situation of the
+prisoner. However, he had gained at least the certainty that the lad
+was confined in the strong room, which he knew well; that he was not
+likely to be speedily removed, and that he was not encumbered with
+fetters to impede his escape. Lest he might have been so secured,
+Pharold had entertained some fear, as he knew that blood had been shed
+in the encounter between the deer-stealers and the keepers, and
+thought it more than likely that the peer would strive to prove the
+lad William to have been an actual participator in that part of the
+unfortunate affair, and would treat him accordingly. His next anxiety
+was to know what was the state of the men who had been wounded, and
+what was the exact charge against himself, in regard to the affray in
+Dimden Park, as well as what evidence had been given to inculpate him.
+
+He had found so much frankness in the replies of Colonel Manners to
+his former inquiries, however, that he now quitted the artful path
+which he had taken, and spoke more boldly of his own situation. "I
+would fain know," he said, after he had walked on about two hundred
+paces farther in silence--"I would fain know how I stand in regard to
+that false accusation which my enemy brought against me, respecting
+the slaughter of his pitiful deer. As I passed through the country
+this morning, after quitting his park, I gained some tidings; but when
+I first met you, gentleman, to-night, you told me that though I might
+be guilty of other things, you knew me to be innocent of that. If you
+be, as you seem to be, a friend to justice and humanity, you will tell
+me how you know that charge to be false, that I may prove it so, too,
+by some proof that will be better received than the mere oath of my
+own people."
+
+"I can have no objection whatever," Manners answered, "to tell you at
+once how I was led to the conclusion that you mention. There were two
+persons wounded in that unfortunate affair--one a gentleman who is now
+lying at Dimden, and another a keeper, who was removed from the park
+to his own cottage. As I found that the surgeon had confined his
+attention to the person at Dimden, whose wound is far the most
+dangerous, I went down to the cottage of the keeper to inquire how he
+was going on--"
+
+"Good and kind, good and kind!" interrupted the gipsy, with one of
+those bursts of vehement feeling to which he at times gave way. "Ah, I
+see and understand it all! The mercenary manufacturer of diseases and
+maker of men's ills remained with the gentleman, who could pay him for
+his fancied skill, and left the poor man to do the best for himself;
+and you went down to comfort him whom the other had neglected."
+
+"Not exactly so," answered Manners: "the wound of the one was much
+more severe than that of the other, and the surgeon staid where his
+presence was most necessary. I went down, however, and sat with the
+poor fellow some time; and he distinctly informed me, not only that
+you had not been present when the deer were killed, but that you were
+coming up and calling to the others not to fire at the moment that the
+guns went off. He said, too, that if it had not been for your
+interference, there would have been far more bloodshed; and I strongly
+advise you, should there ever be any investigation of this business,
+to call the keeper Jones as a witness to establish your innocence."
+
+"While I can keep my liberty," said the gipsy, "they shall never hold
+me in their gripe. Besides, he would find witnesses enough to swear
+away my life, if he were to bribe them with half his fortune. But the
+wounded men--are they likely to die, did you say?"
+
+"I trust not," answered Manners; "and with care and attention, the
+wound of the keeper will not prove even dangerous. The other gentleman
+I did not see, but I hear he is much more severely hurt."
+
+"What is his name?" demanded the gipsy.
+
+"Sir Roger Millington, I think, was the name," answered Manners; "but
+I did not pay it any particular attention."
+
+"Sir Roger Millington!" repeated the gipsy, musing--"Sir Roger
+Millington! I do not know him; and yet it sounds in my ears like a
+word spoken in a dream. Oh yes, yes--I remember now: it was to him
+that the money was owing."
+
+"What money?" demanded Manners, in some surprise.
+
+"Never mind," answered the gipsy; "but, be sure, if that man dies, my
+enemy will find means to make me out his murderer. Mark that,
+gentleman, and remember hereafter."
+
+"It is impossible that he can do so," answered Manners, whose
+confidence in British justice was much stronger than that of the
+gipsy. "I understand that there were eight or nine people present. One
+of them, who has suffered severely, has already borne witness to your
+innocence; and, depend upon it, that among the rest, you would find
+plenty more to do the same. But it strikes me as extraordinary, I do
+confess, that you should seem to apprehend much more evil from an
+affair in which you can easily exculpate yourself, than from a charge
+which, referring to matters long gone, and to circumstances of which
+there could be but few witnesses, must be much more difficult to be
+met in a satisfactory manner--I mean the charge of having killed the
+late Lord Dewry."
+
+"I will tell you why, I will tell you why," answered the gipsy. "In
+regard to this business, he can prove something against me: that I was
+in his park without right--at a suspicious hour--when persons were
+committing an unlawful act; and those people my own nation, and my own
+comrades. He may make out a plausible tale, and a little false
+swearing would easily do the rest. But in regard to the other, I
+laugh him to scorn; for why? because, when I will, I can blow the
+cloud away, like the west wind when it sweeps the mist from the
+valleys--because I can dispel it all, and prove my own innocence
+beyond a doubt, by proving who it was that did do the deed!"
+
+"Do that," answered Manners, eagerly--"do that, and, beyond all doubt,
+Lord Dewry will forbear every other proceeding against you."
+
+"Would he, indeed!" cried the gipsy, with a contemptuous laugh--"would
+he, indeed! Yet, perhaps, he might: but I will tell you, gentleman, if
+I did do so, I should not stand in need of his forbearance. But I will
+not do it; no, never! not if they were to cast a mountain upon me, it
+should not crush that secret from my heart till the right hour be
+come."
+
+"Indeed!" said Manners; "that is a strange determination; but,
+however, you act and reason upon principles so different from those
+that influence ordinary men, that it is useless to inquire why you run
+great risks yourself, with motives apparently very slight."
+
+"I do it because it is written in the book of that which I am to do,"
+answered the gipsy. "But you say right; we do act and we do think upon
+different principles; and it is useless to inquire into mine, for you
+would not understand them; and yet I hold you to be a good man--better
+than most--braver--wiser than the great part of your fellows. Had you
+not been both brave and wise, you would never have learned from me
+what you are to know to-night--the fangs of tigers would not have torn
+it from me by any other means."
+
+"I hope," answered Manners, with a smile, "that the secret will not be
+kept much longer unrevealed; for we have already walked several miles,
+and our fair friend, the moon, is going down to rest, as if she were
+as tired as I am."
+
+"And who that sees her sink," said the gipsy, turning round as Manners
+spoke, and gazing for a moment on the setting orb--"and who that sees
+her sink shall dare to say that he will ever see that calm and
+splendid sight again? She goes, we know not whither, travelling alone
+upon her oft-trodden path--the path that she has walked in majesty
+through many a long century, looking unmoved upon the strifes and joys
+of nations who now have left us nothing but their ruins and their
+tombs. She saw my people live and rule in other lands.[6] She has
+seen them bow the necks of proud and haughty enemies beneath their
+chariot-wheels. She has seen them fall day by day, till they are but a
+scattered remnant, dashed like the foam of a broken wave over the
+lands around, while their temples and their palaces, their homes and
+their altars, are the dwellings of the wolf and the jackal, that howl
+beneath her light. She has seen them--mighty and nothing; and,
+perhaps, when our bones are whitening beneath her beams, in the long
+wide vacancy of after times, she may also see the despised nation
+reinstated in its glory, and forgetful of the rod of the oppressor;
+but you mind not such things--you look upon us merely as wandering
+outcasts of some unknown race."
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 6: All the various tribes of gipsies, scattered throughout
+different parts of Europe, undoubtedly possess a tradition of the
+former greatness of their people; and whenever they can be brought to
+speak upon the subject, adhere strictly to the story told by the first
+of their nation that appeared in Europe, and maintain that their
+original country was Egypt; some calling it _Lower_ Egypt, some
+_Upper_ Egypt--a distinction worthy of remark, as it seems to evince a
+real knowledge of the land that they claim as their own. The learned
+have endeavoured to trace them to the Indian caste of Parias; and Sir
+William Jones, I think, has pronounced many of the words in their
+language to be pure Sanscrit, which fact would afford the strongest
+proof that they are not of Paria origin. Besides this, I have been
+assured by a learned friend, who passed many years in India, that
+gipsies are sometimes to be met with in Hindostan, and appear there as
+much a race distinct and separate from any of the native tribes as
+they do among the nations of Europe.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+"No, indeed," answered Manners; "you do me wrong. I have always looked
+upon your people with much interest and curiosity. There is a sort of
+mystery in their history and their fate that will not let any one, who
+thinks and feels, regard them with indifference."
+
+"There is a mystery," answered the gipsy--"there is a mystery; but it
+matters not. This is not the time to solve it;" and--as every person
+who has ever conversed with one of the more intelligent and better
+informed of the gipsies must have remarked as their invariable custom
+when spoken to either upon their language or history--he suddenly
+turned the conversation to other things, content with the vague hints
+of brighter times and more extended power, which he had already given.
+Manners endeavoured more than once to bring him back to the subject,
+but the gipsy pertinaciously avoided any approach to it. Nor was his
+companion more successful in an endeavour to lead him to the subject
+of De Vaux, in regard to whom Pharold pointedly refused to answer any
+questions. "You will know very soon all that you can know about the
+matter," he replied; "and I do not choose to speak at all on subjects
+where I might speak too much."
+
+Manners pressed the question no further, and followed in silence. They
+had some time before crossed the summit of the rise above Morley
+House, skirting along the woods, and had descended into a valley on
+the other side, which, though not so deep as that in which the
+principal events we have related took place, sunk sufficiently below
+the level of the neighbouring hills to render a considerable ascent on
+the other side necessary ere the travellers could be said to have
+passed the chain of high grounds which separated that county from the
+next. This eminence, also, they had surmounted, when, as Manners had
+observed, the moon might be seen sinking below the dark line of the
+distant horizon. The aspect of the country was here very different
+from that on the other side of the hills; and although the light of
+the setting orb was not sufficient to display distinctly the various
+objects in the landscape, yet the long lines of light and shade that
+varied the wide extent below their feet gave Manners the idea of a
+rich and softly-undulating country, spreading for many miles without
+any considerable eminence. From the spot where they then stood the
+road, which they had now gained, wound through some young plantations
+down towards the plain; but ere they had finished the descent the moon
+was lost below the horizon, and the eye could no longer trace any but
+the objects in its immediate vicinity. Manners remarked, however, that
+along the young plantings were neat trimmed hedges, and that clean
+shining white gates gave entrance into the fields which they skirted.
+A dry raised footpath, too, rendered walking easy; and ere long he
+passed one of those friendly milestones wherewith most civilized
+governments have condescended to solace the longings of the weary
+traveller, as he plods on, anxious to know his distance from the
+expected rest. Just at the same moment, too, a village clock, with its
+kindly bell, tolled the hour, sounding clear and calm upon the still
+night air; and Manners, though without any great object in doing so,
+paused to make out the inscription of one hundred and some miles from
+London, and to count twelve, struck distinctly on the bell of the
+clock.
+
+"Will not this be a very late hour," he asked, turning to the gipsy,
+who had paused also--"will not this be a very late hour to visit my
+poor friend, especially if he be ill as you say in body and in mind?"
+
+"We will see that presently," answered the gipsy: "if he sleep, so
+much the better. You can wait till tomorrow. My part of the errand
+must be done to-night, or never; for something at my heart tells me
+that I shall not long be able to walk whither I will throughout the
+world."
+
+Now, although Colonel Manners, with the firm determination of pursuing
+the adventure to the end, whatever might come of it, had gone on with
+the gipsy boldly, and had conversed with him as calmly as if they had
+both been in a drawing-room, yet it is by no means to be supposed that
+he refrained from speculating upon the place and circumstances into
+which his enterprise might lead him; as in this instance he saw the
+necessity of letting imagination range free, so long as she had reason
+for her guide, in order that he might be prepared for all. While they
+were on the hill, and near the woods, Manners imagined that he would
+most likely find his sick friend under the care and attendance of some
+separate party of gipsies; and, of course, fancy employed herself in
+thinking what could be the train of events which had brought about so
+strange a result. But as they descended into a more highly cultivated
+and evidently well-peopled track, he began to doubt whether it was
+such a spot as gipsies would choose for their habitation, and,
+consequently, whether De Vaux would be found in the hands of any of
+Pharold's tribe. Imagination had now, of course, a wider, field than
+before; and his surprise--or whatever the feeling may be called which
+is excited by circumstances we cannot account for--was still greater,
+as they began to pass through the scattered houses and small neat
+enclosures which mark the approach to an English country town.
+
+At length the gipsy stopped at a gate, opened it, and bade his
+companion pass in. Manners did as he was desired, and found himself
+standing on a neat gravel walk, with a shrubbery on either hand,
+plentifully provided with laurels, hollies, and many another
+evergreen. The gipsy followed; and the walk, skirting for a couple of
+hundred yards round a trim, smooth, shaven green, brought them in
+front of a neat house, built of brick, and evidently modern in all its
+parts. Plate-glass, a-well-a-day! did not in those times decorate even
+the houses of the greatest in the land; and the dwelling before which
+they now stood, although it was clearly the abode of affluence, had no
+pretensions to be any thing more than a handsome house of the middle
+rank. It might be the new-built rectory of some wealthy parish, or the
+place of retirement of some merchant who had had wisdom enough to seek
+repose at the point where competence stops short of riches; but it had
+no one circumstance which could entitle it to affect the name of the
+Mansion, or the Hall, or the Abbey, or the Castle; and in those days
+the word cottage had never yet been applied to designate a palace. It
+had its little freestone portico, however, and its two low wings, in
+the windows of each of which there were lights. It was evident,
+therefore, if this was the place where Manners was destined to find De
+Vaux, that, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, there were other
+persons awake in the house besides those who might be supposed to
+watch in the chamber of an invalid.
+
+As they came near the gipsy advanced a step before his companion, and
+rang the bell. A few minutes elapsed without any one appearing to
+answer the summons; but just as Pharold was about to repeat it, the
+door was opened by a servant, carrying a light, which was almost
+instantly extinguished by the gust of wind which rushed into the
+unclosed door. There had been time enough, however, for the man to
+recognise Pharold, and to bid him come in, as if his visit were a
+thing of course; and in the moment that the light had remained
+unextinguished, Colonel Manners could distinguish the countenance of
+the servant, the features of which, he felt convinced, were not
+unknown to him.
+
+"Come in, sir," said the gipsy.--"Is there any one in the parlour,
+John?" he added, turning to the man as Manners entered.
+
+"No one, Mr. Pharold," answered the servant, intones that were still
+more familiar to Manners's ear than his features had been to his eye.
+"My master is in the little room beyond."
+
+"Then walk in here, sir, and wait for me one moment," said the gipsy;
+and Colonel Manners, without question, walked into the dark room, of
+which Pharold had opened the door, and waited patiently to see how all
+the strange affair in which he was engaged would end.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+The room was, as we have said, quite dark, with the exception of a
+narrow line of light, which found its way under a door on the opposite
+side of the chamber; and by the time that Manners had been there two
+minutes he heard voices speaking in that direction. What was said by
+the first speaker, whom he concluded to be Pharold, did not make
+itself heard in the apartment where Manners stood; but the moment
+after another voice was distinguished, saying, in a louder tone, "You
+have done wrong, you have done wrong, Pharold. My mind was still
+undecided; and this will force me to act whether I will or not."
+
+Pharold's voice replied at considerable length, and was apparently
+still going on, when the other exclaimed, hastily, "But, good God, did
+you not let her know? Did you not send her the note I despatched to
+you for that purpose?"
+
+"What note? When did you send?" demanded Pharold, eagerly, "I had no
+note."
+
+"This is most unfortunate," replied the other. "I sent up a note to
+you, intended to be conveyed to her for the purpose of putting her
+mind at ease; and it should have reached you beyond all doubt; for I
+gave it, with my own hand, to the youth Dickon, yesterday morning,
+when he came with the message from you."
+
+"Ay, that is it, that is it," answered the gipsy. "I chose him as my
+messenger to keep him out of evil; but ere I could get back to my
+people, I found that, on some pretence, strangers on horseback were
+watching for us on the common, and I betook me to the wood again. But
+they set a watch round the wood; and it was long ere I could slip
+through unseen; and when I did so, and got to the tents under Dimden
+wall, I found that this very Dickon had seduced several others to go
+and shoot the deer in the park. Deer were killed, the keepers were
+met, blood was shed, and I drove the offender out from among us, that
+he might not lead others again into evil, and draw down the rage of
+the powerful upon us. Thus I saw him but for a moment, and he went
+without giving me your letter."
+
+Now Manners, although he could not help hearing what was passing, had
+a great objection to so doing; and he had therefore from the very
+beginning contrived to make as much noise as possible, by every means
+that suggested itself, in order both to render the sounds which
+reached him indistinct, and to make the speakers aware that their
+conversation might be overheard. Their first eagerness, however,
+prevented them from taking warning; but at length their tone was
+lowered, and for the next five minutes Manners heard nothing further
+than a low indistinct murmur, which sufficiently showed that the
+conference was continued, but did not betray the matter thereof.
+
+At length, however, the second voice spoke louder, in the sort of
+marked manner with which one ends a private conversation, by words
+which have little meaning to any ear but that of the person to whom
+they are addressed. "Well, well, it is time that such a state should
+be put an end to! As to this other business, there is nothing to fear
+from Colonel Manners: I know him well, as I told you before; and were
+I to choose any man in whom to confide, it would be him. Now rest you,
+Pharold; rest you while I go and speak with him. Would to God that you
+would quit this wandering life, and now in your age wisely accept from
+me what you foolishly rejected in your youth from one long dead; but
+rest you, as I have said, and I will return in a few minutes to hear
+out your account."
+
+Pharold's reply was not distinct; but the next moment the door opened
+between the two rooms, and Manners was joined by a gentleman whom we
+have seen once, and only once, before in the course of this history.
+It was, in short, the same hale, handsome old man whom we last heard
+of conversing with the gipsy Pharold, in the beginning of the first
+volume of this book, who now advanced with a light into the dark room
+in which Manners had been left. He could not be less than sixty-three
+or four years of age; but his frame appeared as vigorous as if twenty
+of those years had been struck off the amount. His figure was tall and
+upright, and his step had in it a peculiar bold and firm elasticity,
+that spoke the undiminished energy of both mind and body. He was, in
+short, a person whom, once seen, it would be difficult to forget; and
+although the light he carried dazzled Manners's eyes a little, yet the
+instant he entered the room his visiter advanced towards him, holding
+out his hand, and exclaiming, "My dear Sir William Ryder, I am
+delighted to meet you again, and to meet you in England."
+
+"Not less delighted than I am to see you, Manners," answered the
+other, "although we meet under somewhat strange circumstances, and
+though I am obliged to bid you, for a short time, forget that I am Sir
+William Ryder, without forgetting that I am a sincere friend. My name,
+for the present, is Mr. Harley; and now, having introduced myself as
+such, let us sit down, and talk over old stories."
+
+"But, first, my dear sir," said Manners, "a word or two of new
+stories, if you please. I am most anxious to inquire after my poor
+friend De Vaux, though no longer anxious in regard to his situation,
+now that I find he is in hands so kind and so skilful as yours.
+Indeed, the first sight of your servant, though I caught but a glimpse
+of him, set my mind at ease regarding my poor friend, as far as it can
+be at ease till I hear how he is, and what is the matter with him."
+
+"He is better, he is better," answered Sir William Ryder; "and so far
+banish all anxiety, for he will do well. I know such affairs of old;
+and as he has been neither scalped nor tomahawked by any of my
+children of the Seven Nations, I will answer for his recovery. But I
+dare say you wonder at his being here with me; and, indeed, it is
+altogether an odd coincidence, for I can assure you that it is by no
+plot or contrivance of mine that I have got you and him once more
+under my roof together, when the last time we so met was in my wigwam
+on the very farthest verge of the inhabited world."
+
+"But first tell me what is the matter with him," said Manners; "and
+then I will put all sorts of questions to you, which you shall answer
+or not as you think fit."
+
+"What is the matter with him!" cried Sir William Ryder; "did not my
+friend Pharold tell you that he had got a pistol-shot in his side,
+which had broken two of his ribs?"
+
+"Good God! no," cried Manners: "I am excessively sorry to hear it; but
+how did it occur--in a duel?"
+
+"No," answered the other; "no: he did it himself; but understand
+me--not intentionally--he is not such a fool. However, he will do
+well: the ball has been extracted; he has very little fever: no organ
+important to life has been touched, and all promises fairly."
+
+"But, indeed, my dear Sir William, you must tell me more," said
+Manners. "How did this happen? for though I have seen accidents enough
+of different kinds, yet I cannot understand this affair at all."
+
+"Why, I do not very well know how to explain it," said the other,
+musing, "without entering into unnecessary particulars. However, the
+fact is this: he went out at night, it seems, to see my friend
+Pharold, who, I need not tell you, is no ordinary person. However,
+your friend did not know his character or his worth, and he placed a
+brace of horse-pistols in his bosom. He must certainly have had one of
+them cocked, too, though he will not acknowledge it: but the end of
+the matter was, that he heard some very bad news; and being, like all
+his race, subject to violent fits of passion, he cast himself down
+like a madman, the pistol went off, and the shot was within a few
+inches of his heart. Pharold, who was present and alone, did not very
+well know what to do with him; but carrying him in his arms as far as
+he could, he called some of his own people, bound up the poor boy's
+wounds as well as circumstances admitted, and brought him here,
+knowing that in other years I was upon terms of intimacy with his
+father, and loved him still, notwithstanding one or two little causes
+of misunderstanding between us."
+
+Manners listened in silence, and he certainly did not forget the terms
+in which Lord Dewry had spoken of the very person who now alluded so
+mildy to him; but as he was by no means fond of making mischief upon
+any pretence, and knew that Sir William Ryder was not a man in whom
+personal fear would act as any check upon resentment, he felt no
+inclination to mention one word of the peer's vituperation of his
+former friend. At the same time, the kindly tone in which Sir William
+Ryder spoke did not at all lead Manners to believe that he was the
+person in fault. The thoughts which crossed the gallant officer's
+mind, however, must have had some visible representatives in his
+countenance; for his companion looked at him with a smile, adding, "I
+know well what you are thinking--that probably Lord Dewry does not
+speak so gently of Sir William Ryder as Sir William Ryder does of him.
+I have heard so before. Nevertheless, Manners, I shall not call him
+out, and amuse the world with two men of sixty fighting a duel. Nor is
+Colonel Manners one to think the worse of me for acting as I do, nor
+to doubt my motives, though my conduct be a little eccentric. Is it
+not so, my friend?"
+
+"It is, indeed," answered Manners; "and be you quite sure, my dear
+sir, that so firm is my confidence in your honour and integrity,
+from personal knowledge--which is better than all the gossip in the
+world--that I would never hear the name of Sir William Ryder mentioned
+with disrespect without taking the liberty of resenting it."
+
+"I believe you, I believe you, Manners, from my soul," answered his
+companion: "but to return to our poor friend De Vaux--as soon as he
+was brought here, I of course sent for the best advice that was to be
+procured, the ball was extracted, and, as I have said, he is better.
+He is at present, I am happy to say, in a sound and comfortable sleep;
+but if you will take up your abode with me till to-morrow, you shall
+see him, and judge of his condition for yourself. A room shall be
+prepared for you immediately."
+
+"I will willingly lie down to take a little rest," answered Manners.
+"But let me beg you, my dear sir, to have me called as soon as De Vaux
+wakes, and is willing to see me; for I left a poor young lady, his
+cousin--and there are ties of affection stronger than those of mere
+relationship between them--waiting anxiously to hear some tidings of
+him; for until this very night we have all imagined him murdered."
+
+"Ah, poor girl, poor girl!" said Sir William Ryder, in a tone of deep
+sympathy. "She must have suffered dreadfully, I am afraid; but I can
+assure you that her having been kept even an hour in suspense is
+neither to be attributed to me nor to her cousin. His first thought
+was of her, his first words, after he saw me, were to beg that I would
+instantly write to her, in order to tell her what had occurred, and to
+sooth her mind as far as possible. Nay, more, though suffering much
+pain till the ball was extracted, he insisted upon writing a few words
+with his own hand, to comfort her as far as possible. Though I would
+fain have prevented an exertion which might injure him, I loved him
+for his obstinacy, Manners. The note was sent to Pharold, with
+directions to forward it to her; but neither note nor directions, it
+seems, ever reached the gipsy."
+
+Manners could not refrain from saying, "It would have been better to
+have sent it direct to herself, Sir William. You must remember, my
+excellent friend, that you are no longer among your children, as you
+call them, the Indians, and that you will meet with another class of
+vices and virtues also here. What you would trust to a Mohawk, if he
+promised to perform it, and feel convinced that nothing but death
+would prevent its execution, is not at all to be confided to a common
+messenger in England, and--"
+
+"I know all that, my friend, I know all that," interrupted his
+companion; "but I had no choice. At that time I was not at all certain
+whether I should let any one know that I was in England or not; and
+had I sent the note direct to Morley House, such a communication must
+have been opened as would instantly have put an end to my incognito.
+One messenger might have failed me as well as another, and it was
+owing to an accident which no one could foresee that the note was not
+delivered. So much for your rebuke, Manners," he continued, smiling;
+"but now tell me how the poor girl is; for the first question of my
+patient, when he hears that you are here, will be, How is Marian de
+Vaux?"
+
+"Alarm and agitation had rendered her seriously ill," answered
+Manners; "so much so, indeed, that the medical man found it necessary,
+during the whole of yesterday and this morning, to keep her feelings
+deadened, as it were, by laudanum--to the great risk of her health, as
+he acknowledged--but it was the lesser of two evils."
+
+"Sad, sad, indeed!" cried Sir William Ryder, rising from his seat, and
+walking backwards and forwards in some agitation--"sad, sad, indeed!
+and I am afraid that I have had something to do with the whole
+business; but I trust she is better now--poor girl! I am grieved,
+deeply grieved. But say, Manners, how was she when you left her?"
+
+"Infinitely better, I am happy to say," answered Manners; "for your
+friend Pharold permitted me to inform her that De Vaux was safe at
+least, though he tied me down to strict conditions. That piece of
+news, of course, relieved her greatly; but not so much so as to set
+her mind at ease, till she hears tidings from me of her cousin's exact
+situation, which I trust to be able to give her early to-morrow."
+
+"Undoubtedly, undoubtedly," answered Sir William Ryder. "Nay, if you
+think it would be any great comfort to her, we will send off a man on
+horseback this very night, to calm her with further assurances."
+
+"Unless," answered Manners, "I may be permitted to say that you will
+give herself and Mrs. Falkland a welcome to visit De Vaux in person, I
+think that I had better not send, but wait till I can communicate some
+further information myself."
+
+Sir William Ryder hesitated. "I am afraid," he said--"I am afraid that
+will be impossible, just at present. But she will believe your
+assurance, of course; and I think that you may venture to tell her
+that her cousin is under kind and careful hands, by which nothing will
+be neglected to promote his speedy recovery."
+
+"I will certainly give the fullest assurances of that fact," answered
+Manners. "But what reason am I to assign for her being debarred from
+seeing and attending her cousin, when I have been admitted? She will
+certainly think it mysterious."
+
+"As you do, Manners," said Sir William, with a smile. "But listen to
+me, and I will tell you several of the many reasons which have brought
+me back to a land which I have abandoned for long years; and out of
+those reasons you shall see whether you can find a motive to assign to
+Miss De Vaux for my mysterious conduct. In the first place, I, like
+most men, have some friends and relations; and I was seized with a
+longing to see them, to assure myself with my own eyes of their fate
+and their happiness, ere I laid my head down upon its last pillow in
+another land. The same longing seized me about twelve years since, but
+then I resisted; for long ago I had met with a sad and severe blow in
+my private happiness, which led me to forswear, in the bitterness of
+my heart, any of those ties and affections which are but so many cords
+to bind us to sorrow and disappointment. In various matters, about
+that time, I had acted wrong; and I felt that a voluntary expatriation
+was a good atonement. When I went, therefore, I resolved never to
+return; and when, as I have said, twelve years ago, the longing to see
+friends and relations, and scenes that I once loved, seized me, I
+resisted, strengthened, in so doing, by a feeling that my return to
+England might be painful to some whom I did not desire to pain, and
+would only re-awaken, in my own bosom, feelings that had better sleep.
+Now, however, many other motives have been added to this longing,
+which returned upon me this spring with more force than ever. I wished
+eagerly to raise such a sum as would purchase a large tract of land on
+which to settle for ever, without danger of molestation, the remnant
+of a nearly-destroyed tribe of Indians, who, after having been
+massacred and ill-treated by every other white man they met with, at
+length attached themselves to me, and were living round me like my
+children, as you saw."
+
+"I did, indeed," answered Manners; "and I trust that you will let me
+aid in your noble design."
+
+"I do not know that it will be necessary now, for I am likely to take
+other measures," answered Sir William. "My own private income was not
+sufficient, though I had saved out of a thousand a year, which was all
+that I possessed, sufficient to lay a good foundation; but I also
+wished the British government to interfere for the more general and
+powerful protection of the Indians, and this was one reason of my
+coming. I longed too, as I have said, to see many of my relations and
+friends; but I wished to do so privately. There were two persons,
+especially, of whom I was desirous of bearing more than I could in
+America. One--over whom I hold some power, from various transactions
+in the past--I wished to watch closely for a short time, and treat him
+according to his merits. The other--who, though more independent of
+me, I could raise up or cast down as I pleased--I desired to sift
+thoroughly, to examine every trait in his character, to probe every
+feeling in his heart, with the resolution of leaving him, ultimately,
+to happiness, if I found him noble and true; but at the same time to
+give him a severe lesson, which might crush early some failings; some
+peculiar evils in his disposition, that would, if suffered to remain,
+lead hereafter to misery, to himself and others. Various occurrences
+have taken place since to alter or derange these plans; and, as we are
+from day to day the creatures of circumstances over which we have no
+control, I am now waiting for some decisive event to determine for me
+a line of conduct which I find some difficulty in determining for
+myself."
+
+"I am afraid, Sir William," answered Manners, "that even if I were to
+explain all this in your own words to Miss De Vaux, she would still be
+as much perplexed as ever; and I have often remarked, that in the
+minds of the timid--especially where there is real cause for
+uneasiness--everything that is doubtful and mysterious is interpreted
+into afresh cause of apprehension and alarm. Besides, according to my
+contract with your acquaintance Pharold, and the stipulations which
+you have yourself implied, with regard to your name, so far from
+explaining all these motives, I am not even to disclose that I have
+seen you."
+
+Sir William Ryder paused for a moment or two in deep thought; and
+Manners, seeing that he was embarrassed, added, "Perhaps, Sir William,
+the best way for me to act will be, to give Miss De Vaux a true
+account of the state of her cousin's health; to tell that I have seen
+him, but to add that, from particular causes, which I must explain
+hereafter, I can neither inform her where he is, nor enable her to see
+him. I have always found it best, wherever I have been embarrassed
+with any mystery of my own--which, thank God, has been seldom the
+case--to meet the matter at once, and say, _I will not tell_, without
+entangling myself in half explanations, which do me no good, and only
+serve those, whose curiosity or feelings are interested, as materials
+for imagination to build up visionary castles withal."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said Sir William: "but stay yet a moment!
+A word or two more with our friend in the next room--I mean the
+gipsy--may decide my conduct."
+
+Manners smiled at the sort of counsellors by whom he had found his
+friend surrounded in both hemispheres. When first he met Sir William
+Ryder, he had seen him every day in deep consultation with Indian
+chiefs; and now his principal reliance seemed to be upon gipsies: but,
+at present, that somewhat eccentric personage was disappointed in his
+purpose of calling Pharold to his councils; for when he opened the
+door--which led into a small neat study, with a table covered with
+papers, money, and lights, in the midst thereof--he found the room
+untenanted by any living thing.
+
+"I had forgot," he said, turning back with a smile--"I had forgot that
+one half-hour in the air of a close room is too much for Pharold's
+endurance. He is gone, and I must send for him when I want him."
+
+"You seem to place more reliance on him," said Manners, pointing to
+the heaps of gold and papers on the table, "than most Englishmen would
+upon one of his race."
+
+"I would trust him, I may well say, with untold gold," answered Sir
+William Ryder; "as you would, Manners, if you knew him as I do. He has
+corresponded with me in America for twenty years; and one might be
+glad if, in the highest ranks, one could find so exact, so true, and
+so punctual a correspondent." The reader, who has already received
+much information concerning things of which Manners was ignorant, may
+easily understand some of the motives of a correspondence between two
+persons so different in station. Manners also had by this time
+discovered that his friend's acquaintance with the gipsy was certainly
+not of yesterday; yet there was still sufficient matter, both new and
+strange, in what he heard, to make him, not only feel surprised, but
+look it also. Sir William Ryder, however, who probably did not wish to
+give any further explanation, instantly led the conversation away,
+saying, "But to return to what we were speaking of, Manners. I must
+soon come to some determination; and, perhaps, I have been weak in not
+forming one already: but there are spots of weakness in every one's
+heart, as there are spots of madness in every one's brain; and I have
+my share, of course, of both. However, I will limit myself to a time;
+and when you return to Morley House, you may tell the poor girl, that
+though it is judged expedient that she should not see her cousin
+to-morrow, yet on the next morning the old gentleman with whom he
+is--Mr. Harley, remember--will be very happy to receive her here,
+together with her aunt, as I suppose she will be afraid to venture on
+such an expedition alone. If," he added,--"if I should find reason to
+change my present purpose, I can but affect the barbarian, and be
+absent when the ladies come."
+
+"Such tidings will, indeed, give joy and peace," answered Manners:
+"but before I go to-morrow, I must take care to ascertain where your
+dwelling stands; for, coming hither at night, and across the country,
+I am totally ignorant of everything concerning the spot where I now
+am, except that it is more than a hundred miles from London, which I
+found out by a mile-stone on the road."
+
+"We are in the environs of the little town of ----," replied his
+companion; "and by the road about seven miles from Morley House. I saw
+that this little place was to be let, as I passed by one day,
+immediately after my return, and took it at once, on various accounts,
+although I did not know how much it might prove of use to poor De
+Vaux. And now, Manners, to your rest; for, although I am a late
+watcher, you look fatigued, and are in need of repose."
+
+"I am somewhat fatigued," answered Manners, "although I have not had
+any very great cause; but the fact is, the mind is sometimes like a
+hard rider, and knocks up the body before it is aware. I have been all
+this morning either with Lord Dewry, examining a gipsy boy--taken last
+night in a sad deer-stealing affray at Dimden--in order to ascertain
+whether I could discover poor De Vaux, or pursuing somewhat fiercely
+your friend Pharold, against whom, by-the-way, warrants have been
+issued on three different charges."
+
+"On three charges, did you say?" demanded Sir William Ryder: "on
+three! He only mentioned directly one charge against himself, that of
+having murdered this poor lad, which must now, of course, fall to the
+ground."
+
+"The other charges were," answered Manners, "first, that he had been
+engaged in the deer-stealing, wherein, I am sorry to say, blood was
+spilt--but in regard to that I pointed out to him a means of proving
+his innocence; and, secondly, that many years ago he was either a
+principal or an accessary in the murder of the late Lord Dewry, who
+was killed by some unknown person at a spot not far from Morley
+House."
+
+It would be difficult to describe the effect that these few words
+produced upon the countenance of Sir William Ryder. His eye flashed,
+his brows contracted, and he bit his lip hard, till at length some
+feeling of contempt seemed to master the rest, and his emotion ended
+in a bitter and a meaning laugh. "And pray," he asked, "who is it that
+has brought this last charge against him?"
+
+"None other than the brother of the murdered man, Lord Dewry,"
+answered Manners: "he says he has proofs of the gipsy's guilt."
+
+"They have been long in manufacturing!" answered Sir William Ryder,
+sternly: "I will tell you more, Manners,--as there is a God of heaven,
+the gipsy is innocent, and he shall be proved so, let the bolt light
+where it may. Proofs! Out upon him! Falsehoods and villany! But he
+shall learn better; for I will not stand by and see the innocent
+oppressed, for any remembrances that memory can call up."
+
+"You speak more harshly than ever I heard you, my dear Sir William,"
+answered Manners; "but perhaps you have cause which I do not know of,
+and into which I certainly shall not pry. However, this nobleman is,
+as you know, De Vaux's father, and, ere we part for the night, you
+must tell me how I am to act towards him; for the gipsy stipulated
+that I was to tell him nothing concerning his son's situation, without
+your consent. May I tell him where De Vaux is, and under whose care?"
+
+Sir William Ryder paused, and he thought for several moments, with the
+same bitter smile which Manners's information had called up still
+hanging upon his lip. "Yes," he said at length--"yes, you may tell him
+where his son is; and you may tell him to come and see him and me as
+speedily as he thinks fit: but call me still Mr. Harley, for there
+might be something unpleasant to his ears in the name of William
+Ryder, which might prevent his coming. Say that Mr. Harley, the old
+gentleman to whose house De Vaux was conveyed after the accident he
+met with, will be happy to see him at any time he may name."
+
+"I am most delighted to have your permission so to do," answered
+Manners; "for, to tell the truth, it would have placed me in rather an
+awkward position in regard to Lord Dewry, had you refused to let me
+give him full tidings of his son."
+
+"He will not much thank you," said Sir William Ryder--"he will not
+much thank you! But, nevertheless, let him come, let him come!
+Perhaps, after all, this is the best way we could have devised of
+bringing an unpleasant affair to an end."
+
+"I trust it may prove so," answered Manners; "and that the time may
+speedily come when you will find it not unpleasant to unravel all the
+mysteries which have been crowding lately so thick upon me, that I
+begin to feel confused among them, and hardly know who are friends and
+who are enemies."
+
+"Though I have the clew in my hands," answered Sir William, pursuing
+more the direction of his own thoughts than that of Manners's last
+observation--"though I have the clew in my own hands, there is one
+thing puzzles me as much as the rest seems to do you: it is that a
+youth so full of high and noble feelings as Edward de Vaux should be
+the son of such a man as his father; yet, thank God, he has many a
+goodly fault too, or I should begin to doubt that he were his son."
+
+"It not unfrequently happens," rejoined Manners, "that where the heart
+is originally good, the errors of the fathers serve as examples or as
+landmarks to the children; as the masts of some wrecked vessel often
+serve to warn mariners of the shoal on which she perished."
+
+"And _his_ heart was originally good too, I do believe," answered Sir
+William Ryder: "I mean the father's," he added, thoughtfully. "Well,
+indeed, may his example serve to show to what, step by step, we may
+reduce ourselves, as one vice lashes on to another."
+
+Manners smiled. "Nay, nay, Sir William," he said, "you are doing the
+worthy lord somewhat less than justice, I think. I never heard of his
+being troubled with any of what the world calls vices: pride, indeed,
+and wrath, and irascibility, he is not without: but, setting aside
+these gentlemanly peccadilloes, I never heard of any vices; and from
+what I have seen of him, I should say that, whatever he may have been
+in the days past, he has now sunk down into a very disagreeable old
+gentleman--that is all."
+
+"That is all!" cried Sir William Ryder, starting up, and laying
+his hand upon Manners's arm, while he fixed his eyes intently upon
+him--"that is all!" but suddenly breaking off, he resumed a calmer
+look and tone, and added, "But we have not time, to-night, to discuss
+characters. I am but keeping you from your rest."
+
+Manners did not endeavour to carry on the conversation; for, in all
+such matters, it was his rule to let people go on just as far as they
+liked, but to press them no further; and although he certainly was not
+without some feeling of curiosity in regard to the connection between
+Sir William Ryder and the father of his friend De Vaux, yet he well
+knew that the only way to come honestly at a secret is to be totally
+careless about it. The bell was now rung, and Manners was conducted to
+a room which the servant who had given him admission, and who was an
+old acquaintance, had with laudable foresight prepared for his use,
+looking upon it as certain that a visiter who arrived at twelve
+o'clock at night was not likely to depart before the next morning.
+
+Everything had been carefully provided that he could want or desire;
+and Colonel Manners, who enjoyed, perhaps more than most men, that
+inestimable blessing of a heart at ease in itself, lay down to rest,
+and was soon in a deep slumber.
+
+His repose was not disturbed till the gray of the next morning, when
+he was roused with the intelligence that Captain De Vaux was awake,
+and would be very glad to see him. He was not long in obeying the
+summons; and, after a soldier's toilet hastily made, he rang for the
+servant, and was conducted to the apartment where his wounded friend
+lay.
+
+There is something always melancholy in entering a sick-room in the
+early morning, even when it is to see returning health coming back
+into a cheek we love. The cheerful light of the young day, finding its
+way through the chinks of the shutters, and mingling with the faint
+but inextinguishable glare of the night-lamp, the pale and sleepy
+guardian of the sick, the book with which she has striven to while
+away the hours of watching, and scare off sleep, half-open on a table
+loaded with drugs and fever-cooling drinks, the warm, close
+atmosphere, and the drawn curtains, all bring home to our own hearts
+that painful conviction of our weak and fragile tenure upon health and
+comfort, and all that makes life pleasant, which we forget in the
+bright and hopeful light of day.
+
+In the small dressing-room, through which Manners ducted to the
+chamber of his friend, he found a surgeon who had been brought from
+London, and who had passed the preceding night in close attendance
+upon the patient. He was luckily one of those men who can form an
+opinion, and will venture to speak it; and in answer to Colonel
+Manners's inquiries respecting De Vaux's real situation he replied at
+once, "There is no danger, sir. He will do perfectly well. I should
+advise, however, as little conversation as possible, and that of as
+cheerful a kind as may be, for it may retard recovery, if it do not
+produce more serious evil."
+
+Manners promised to observe his caution, and entered the room. De Vaux
+smiled faintly when he saw him, and held out his hand, though he moved
+with evident pain.
+
+"This is a sad accident, indeed, De Vaux," said Manners, sitting down
+by his bedside; "but I am delighted to hear from the surgeon that it
+is likely to have no bad consequences, and to be speedily remedied."
+
+"I should be ungrateful to say that I am sorry he thinks so," answered
+De Vaux, in a melancholy tone; "and yet I can hardly make up my mind
+to rejoice."
+
+"Nay, nay," said Manners, "I will not hear you say so, my friend. You
+can have heard no tidings, you can be placed in no situation, De Vaux,
+which should make you forget that you are surrounded by people who
+love you for yourself, and are worthy of your love--who would love you
+still, under all or any circumstances--that you have friends,
+relations, ties of every dear and intimate character that can make
+health and life a blessing, if you are willing to receive it as such.
+Nor should you forget that there are others who may well be dear to
+your heart, and whose whole happiness for life is staked upon yours."
+
+"Oh yes, poor Marian," said De Vaux: "I am, indeed, ungrateful; for
+such a treasure as that should compensate for everything. But tell me
+how she is. Tell me all about her, Manners. When did she hear of this
+accident? and how has she borne it?"
+
+Manners, though it can scarcely be said that he was puzzled how to
+answer, yet felt that, with a man of De Vaux's character, it was
+somewhat a delicate task, especially as, from what the surgeon had
+said, it might be expedient not to tell his friend the full extent of
+what Marian had suffered. He was too well aware of De Vaux's
+fastidiousness not to let him know that Marian had felt as deeply on
+his account as he could possibly think she ought to have done; and yet
+Manners did not wish to pain and alarm him by telling him how much she
+really had undergone.
+
+"You ask me to tell you a long story, De Vaux," he answered, after a
+moment's thought, "longer, I am afraid, than your worthy surgeon will
+consent to your hearing at present; but the truth is, in consequence
+of some other accident or mistake, we never did hear of what had
+occurred to you at all."
+
+"Good God!" cried De Vaux, "when with my own hand I wrote to Marian as
+much as I could write. I do think that servants and messengers were
+made for the very purpose of breaking people's hearts, or teasing them
+to death by carelessness."
+
+"In this instance, however," said Manners, "it seems that there were
+various causes which prevented the delivery of your note; and the
+consequence was, that, from your unexplained absence, and several
+other accidental facts which came to our knowledge, we were led to
+conclude that you had been murdered. I, of course, instantly took arms
+to avenge you, as in duty bound, and, backed by warrants and gentlemen
+of the quorum, I have been galloping about the country ever since; so
+that, in fact, I have seen scarcely any thing of the family at Morley
+House, and less than all of your fair cousin Miss De Vaux, whose very
+first apprehensions rendered her so unwell that she has kept her room
+almost ever since."
+
+"Good God!" cried De Vaux: "how she must have suffered! Poor dear
+Marian! Would to God that I could go to her--but I am afraid that I
+could not ride."
+
+"Ride! Do not think of it for an instant," cried Manners, "and make
+yourself easy about Miss De Vaux. Last night, I, for the first time,
+obtained news of your safety, which did her more good than all that
+the god of medicine himself could have done. Nay, I do believe that
+she would have walked over here with me in the middle of last night,
+if it had not been that her own ideas of propriety, or, perhaps, her
+fears of your notions thereof, prevented her from undertaking such a
+task under such an escort."
+
+De Vaux smiled. "You are severe upon my fastidiousness, Manners," he
+said; "but that is one bad quality which, I trust, I shall be able to
+cast away with many others. I have had some hard lessons lately,
+Manners, enough to bow down the pride of him of the morning star; and,
+perhaps, I may have more yet to undergo: but, at all events, my vain
+fastidiousness is gone for ever; so that one good is gained by
+misfortune."
+
+"As it often is, my friend," answered Manners: "nevertheless, I think
+Miss De Vaux was very right to stay where she was; especially as she
+herself was far from strong, and I did not know whither I was about to
+go; for my friend the gipsy, who conducted me hither, is a man of
+mysteries. However, you owe him thanks for one service that he has
+rendered to another fair cousin of yours, Miss Falkland, whom he saved
+from drowning, at the risk of his own life."
+
+De Vaux had drawn his hand over his eyes when first Manners mentioned
+the gipsy; but he removed it again, and looked up with pleasure at the
+tidings of Isadore's escape, though he asked no account of the
+accident. "Poor Isadore," he said, "and poor Marian, too, for God
+knows what we may both be called upon to suffer. Manners, my brain is
+in such a whirl, with various doubts, and fears, and anxieties, which
+I can neither explain to others nor unravel myself, that I must,
+indeed, endeavour to banish all thought of my own situation, and of my
+future prospects, if I wish to recover."
+
+"Well, then, by all means banish all thought," answered Manners. "It
+is seldom that I can be accused of giving such advice; but for a man
+in your situation I think it absolutely a duty to cast from him every
+memory, and every reflection, which may tend to impede his recovery,
+trusting and believing that, in those circumstances where we have no
+power to deliver ourselves, the Almighty Disposer of all things will
+act for us far better than we could act for ourselves."
+
+"I must e'en think so," answered De Vaux, in whom corporal weakness
+and exhaustion had deadened the first sense of misfortune. "Sir
+William Ryder, indeed, bids me hope, and tells me that things must and
+will go better than I anticipate: but we speak to each other in
+enigmas; and till my mind and body are capable of clearer thought and
+greater exertion, I must, I suppose, rest satisfied with assurances,
+the foundation for which I can in no degree perceive."
+
+Manners, now anxious to lead his thoughts away from any more painful
+subject, gave him a brief, light sketch of his own proceeding in
+search of him, and all that had occurred since he had left Morley
+House: but, warned by what had already passed concerning the gipsy, he
+kept a watchful and a friendly eye upon the countenance of his friend,
+skilfully turning to some other part of the same subject as soon as he
+perceived that what he said was beginning to produce the slightest
+uneasiness. He was surprised to find, however, on how many points De
+Vaux was susceptible of pain. The mention of his own father affected
+him as strongly as the mention of the gipsy; and many a casual word,
+which seemed in itself to be innocent or kind, made him shrink as if
+some one had laid a rough hand upon his wound. Beginning at length to
+fear that his conversation was doing his friend more harm than good,
+Manners rose, adding, "And now, my dear De Vaux, I think I have
+remained as long with you as friendship can require, or gallantry
+permit, considering that there is a fair lady, very dear to you,
+watching anxiously till I shall return and tell her that I have seen
+you with my own eyes, and that you are living, not dead; recovering,
+not dying. The good people here, for various reasons, will not hear of
+her coming to you to-day, but they assure me that to-morrow you will
+be able to see her: so that I think I can then promise you a visit;
+and hope to find that you have in the interval regained much of the
+health and strength that you have lost."
+
+"I will not ask you to stay longer, Manners," said De Vaux; "for I am
+too confident of my dear Marian's affection not to feel sure that the
+tidings of my probable recovery will be the best consolation she can
+receive; and tell her, Manners, I beg, that the only happiness I
+anticipate in life and health is that of seeing her again."
+
+"I will tell her how happy it will make you," answered Manners; "but
+without any of the melancholy adjuncts, if you please, De Vaux. I will
+not spoil the best tidings I have had to tell for some time by such a
+number of unpleasant negatives as you attach to them; and so, fare you
+well for the present."
+
+"Manners, Manners," said the voice of De Vaux, ere his friend reached
+the door, "there is one thing which I had forgot. Do not on any
+account let Marian think that this wound which I have received was the
+consequence of any intentional act of my own hand. Bid her be sure
+that, whatever may have occurred, I was not fool enough or cruel
+enough to her to think of such a thing. Explain to her the accident as
+I dare say you must have heard it, and tell her that though they say
+the pistol must have been cocked when I put it in my bosom, I have not
+the slightest remembrance of its having been so."
+
+"I will tell her all," answered Manners; "but do not fancy that she
+will ever dream that you did do it intentionally. If you were a
+forlorn and solitary being like myself, destined to go through life in
+single unblessedness, people might suspect you; but with so many ties
+at present, and so much happiness to look forward to, you would be
+worse than a madman to throw away, not only the crown of life, but all
+the jewels with which fate has adorned it for you."
+
+De Vaux gave him a melancholy look, but only added, "You do not know
+all, Manners!" and suffered him to depart. As he was crossing the hall
+in search of some one who could inform him whether Sir William Ryder
+was yet awake, he met the object of his search, booted and spurred, as
+if returned from riding. "You keep your old habits, I see, Sir
+William," said Manners, as they met. "You must have been up and out
+full early, indeed."
+
+"Mr. Harley; remember, my dear colonel, Mr. Harley I am for the
+present," replied the other. "I never sleep before one, nor after
+five--a habit which was acquired in sorrow and in bitterness, but
+which I would not now lose for half an empire. But have you seen our
+poor friend?"
+
+"Yes, I have," answered Manners; "and find him better in body, at
+least, than I had even hoped. In mind, however, he is very much
+depressed; and without inquiring, or wishing to inquire, my dear sir,
+into the connection which may exist between your affairs and his,
+allow me to say, as some connection does certainly exist, that I am
+sure whatever will sooth and quiet his mind will tend more than
+anything to restore him to health. Whatever, on the contrary,
+depresses him, as he now is, will not only greatly retard his
+recovery, but may, I am afraid, have, remotely, very bad results upon
+his constitution. I hope that I do not take too great a liberty with
+your friendship," he added, seeing a cloud come upon his auditor's
+brow.
+
+"Not in the least, Manners, not in the least," answered Sir William:
+"I was only thinking what I could do to relieve the poor youth's mind.
+I am afraid I somewhat mistook him, Manners, when I saw him with you
+in America; I am afraid I did not half see the nobler and finer
+qualities of his mind, concealed, as they were, under an exterior of
+frivolous fastidiousness. But I can assure you, that anything on earth
+I can do to set his mind at ease I will do; and I will go and assure
+him thereof directly and solemnly."
+
+Manners detained him for a single moment, to borrow a horse, and to
+explain the motives of his early departure for Morley House; and then
+suffering him to proceed, in order to sooth and calm the mind of his
+wounded friend, he himself took his way to Mrs. Falkland's, glad to
+bear tidings to those who stood so much in need of them.
+
+Marian was watching at the window as he galloped up; and there was
+something in the rapid pace at which he came, in the light and agile
+motion with which he sprang to the ground, and flung the rein to
+the servant, which spoke joyful tidings. Manners was soon in the
+drawing-room; and the news he bore was not long in telling. He related
+all that he had seen, and all that he had heard of her cousin's
+accident and situation; and although we cannot deny that he softened a
+little the pain he suffered, and the grief which seemed to oppress
+him, Manners told her the truth, though he told it kindly.
+
+Marian's face was alternately the abode of smiles and tears during his
+narrative, and during the manifold answers which he gave to her
+questions, and again and again she thanked him for all his energetic
+interest and feeling kindness, and prayed Heaven sincerely that De
+Vaux and herself might have some opportunity of returning it as he
+deserved.
+
+Manners only interrupted a conversation which was not without interest
+to himself, and was so deeply interesting to her, in order to inquire
+for her cousin, and to put many a question concerning Miss Falkland's
+health, after the accident of the preceding night. He was still in
+full career, when she herself entered, somewhat paler but not less gay
+than ever; and although she declared, and persisted in the
+declaration, that she was bound by every rule of propriety to fall in
+love with the gipsy who had rescued her, and to tender him her hand
+and heart, Manners felt sincerely rejoiced that Pharold had been the
+person to come so opportunely to her aid. Isadore, indeed, as she
+recollected one or two words which had been spoken on the preceding
+evening, coloured more than once when Manners addressed her; but she
+knew him to be a generous man, and she determined to trust to his
+generosity for the result.
+
+Mrs. Falkland soon after joined the party; and the house of mourning
+was changed into a house of joy. Nothing more remained but to write to
+Lord Dewry, informing him of his son's safety; and this Manners
+undertook and executed, keeping in mind the engagement he had come
+under to Sir William Ryder, regarding the concealment of his name. A
+servant was instantly despatched to Dewry Hall with the note: but on
+reaching that place he found that the peer had returned early that
+morning to Dimden, and thither he then bent his steps; but arrived too
+late to give Lord Dewry even the option of visiting his son that
+night.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Dimden Park--a spot which had been hated and avoided by Lord Dewry
+ever since it fell into his possession, on account of its many
+memories--some painful in themselves, some painful in their
+associations--had, by this time, not alone been revisited by its
+master, but had been occupied by him, with a part of his general
+household, as if for the purpose of longer residence. Such a state of
+things had been in no degree contemplated by the peer, either when
+Manners left him, or when he himself terminated his conversation with
+the gipsy boy who had become his prisoner; but another conversation
+had succeeded with another person, to whose chamber we must now
+follow.
+
+The first object of Lord Dewry being to get the gipsy Pharold into his
+power--trusting to his previously arranged schemes to work his will
+with him when he had him there--it was natural that he should turn his
+whole efforts to accomplish his capture before he attended to anything
+else. The moment, however, that all the means had been employed for
+that purpose which circumstances permitted, his attention instantly
+returned to the plans which he had concerted in order to prove the
+object of his hatred and his fear guilty of the crime imputed to him,
+when he should be ultimately taken. The execution of these plans
+materially depended upon Sir Roger Millington; and for his safety and
+recovery the peer's next aspirations were consequently raised. As
+soon, then, as he had dismissed the affair of the boy, and had seen
+the treacherous scoundrel he thought fit to employ for the purpose of
+inveigling the gipsy to his destruction set out upon his errand, Lord
+Dewry turned his steps towards the chamber of the wounded man,
+sincerely grieved for the accident which had happened to him, and most
+anxious concerning its ultimate result. Calculating, however, with
+nice acumen, the irritable selfishness of sick people, he trusted not
+to the personal vexation which he really felt to give his air and
+countenance the appearance of grief and sympathy; but as he walked
+slowly up the stairs, he thought over every point of the part he was
+to play, in order to cover his individual motives from the eye of the
+wounded man, and make him believe that sincere interest in his fate
+and sufferings was the sole emotion which affected his friend and
+benefactor.
+
+At the door of the chamber to which Sir Roger had been conveyed, the
+peer paused for a moment; and then laying his hand upon the lock,
+turned it, and entered with as noiseless a step as possible. The
+windows were darkened; but there was still enough light in the room
+for the eye to distinguish the table covered with surgical instruments
+and bloody bandages, and all those appliances and means for saving
+life which man so strangely combines with the most skilful and
+persevering activity in taking it. There was the bed, too, and the
+half-drawn curtains, and the gentleman in black, sitting by the
+bolster, while a young prim assistant walked about on tiptoe, for the
+soothing dose or the cooling drink. A deep groan was sounding through
+the room as the peer entered; and although he was, and always had
+been, a man of nerve, without any corporal terror at the thought
+either of pain or death, there was something in that sound, and all
+the accessory circumstances around, that made a sort of shudder pass
+over his frame. It were difficult to guess in what feelings that
+shudder took its rise. It might be, alone, the natural repugnance of
+the human heart to anguish and dissolution--it might be that he
+thought of his son--it might be that he remembered his brother, for
+there were chords of association between the fate of each, and the
+situation of the man he came to visit, which, like the strings of the
+Eolian harp, might well be moved to a thousand vague and melancholy
+sounds by the slightest breath that stirred them.
+
+He advanced, however, lightly towards the bed, and stood by the chair,
+whence the surgeon rose as he approached, ere the wounded man was
+aware of his presence. Sir Roger Millington was lying on his left
+side, with his face turned away, and his right hand cast over the
+bed-clothes; and it was not difficult, from the slow clenching of
+his hand, and the rocking motion of his head, to see the intense
+agony he suffered. The peer paused, and gazed for a moment with
+some emotion--not, indeed, without a mingling of better
+feelings--compassion, and sympathy, and disinterested grief, such as
+he had not known for many years. It was better than all the acting in
+the world; and when Sir Roger, whom no persuasion of the surgeon could
+induce to lie still, turned round with the quick and irritable
+movement of high fever and excessive pain, he saw the peer standing by
+him, with an expression of sincere sorrow which could not be mistaken.
+
+A groan and a fearful contortion followed the change of position; but
+when the first agony was over, he looked pleased to see the
+countenance of Lord Dewry; and said, in a voice wonderfully strong and
+firm, considering his situation, "Your lordship is very kind--I am
+badly hurt, I am afraid--those accursed gipsies took too good an
+aim--damn me, if I do not think the shot must have been red hot, it
+gives one such torture. I have been wounded before, but never felt
+anything like this. Do you think I shall die, my lord, ey?"
+
+"Heaven forbid," cried the peer, sitting down; "on the contrary, I
+trust the very pain you suffer evinces that you are in no danger; for
+I have always heard that mortal wounds are generally the least
+painful. Is it not so, Mr. Swainstone?"
+
+"Yes, exactly so, my lord," replied the surgeon, who would probably
+have confirmed anything on earth that the peer said to sooth his
+patient. "I had told the gentleman so before your lordship arrived."
+
+"You never told me so," cried Sir Roger, looking up at him angrily.
+
+"Yes, indeed, sir, I told you that I hoped and trusted you would
+recover," answered the surgeon; "and one of my reasons for thinking so
+was the very pain you suffer; for, as his lordship very justly and
+wisely observes, wounds which--"
+
+"But that damned parson," cried Sir Roger, "told me I should certainly
+die--a foul-mouthed, old, hooded crow!"
+
+"What parson?" demanded the peer, in some surprise and dismay at the
+very idea of Sir Roger Millington being brought in contact in his
+dying hours with any one who might lead him on to dangerous
+disclosures; "what parson does he mean?"
+
+"Oh, only good Dr. Edwards, my lord, the rector," answered the
+surgeon. "He came to give the gentleman religious consolation; but he
+did not exactly say that he would certainly die. He said that he would
+certainly die at some time; and that even, if he were spared at
+present, it would be better for him to turn his thoughts to serious
+things, so that, if he recovered, the wound might prove salutary to
+his mind at least."
+
+"Yes, yes; but he thought, and he meant me to think, too," cried Sir
+Roger, "that I was dying, and that I could not recover. I knew well
+enough what he meant--the canting old crow; but I'll live, curse me if
+I do not, if it be but to pay those hellish gipsies for this torture
+to which they have put me. I beg your pardon, my lord, for being
+somewhat violent; but I am in agony, perfect agony."
+
+"I grieve most deeply and sincerely, my dear friend, to see you suffer
+so much," answered the peer; "and I will take care that no such
+fanatical irritation be intruded upon you again. Dr. Edwards is a very
+good and well-intentioned man, I dare say; but I will not have a sick
+and wounded friend tormented for any rector on the face of the earth.
+In the mean time, however, I trust that this state of anguish is not
+likely to be of long endurance. What do you think, Mr. Swainstone? Can
+nothing be done to alleviate it?"
+
+"I have done as much as I could, my lord, to effect that purpose,"
+answered the surgeon, with a very significant shrug of the shoulders;
+"and I doubt not, in a few hours, the gentleman will feel the pain
+begin to subside."
+
+"That is the best news I have heard from you yet, doctor," said the
+wounded man. "But do you not think you can extract the ball? I do not
+believe I shall be easier as long as that remains in me, burning like
+a coal."
+
+"O yes, you will," answered the surgeon; "and it is necessary to let
+the first irritation subside, before I make the attempt again. Were I
+to try it now, it might increase all you suffer, and prolong it,
+perhaps, for many hours."
+
+"Then you shall not touch it, depend upon that," cried Sir Roger; "I
+suffer quite enough already."
+
+"In the mean time, Mr. Swainstone," demanded the peer, "let me inquire
+whether a little quiet conversation with a friend is likely to injure
+your patient; for I would even deny myself the pleasure of remaining
+with him, though I much desire it, if you thought it would prove in
+any degree hurtful."
+
+"Not in the least, my lord," answered the surgeon; "a little cheerful
+and interesting conversation, such as your lordship's must always be,
+would, most likely, withdraw his mind from himself, and rather do him
+good than otherwise."
+
+"Then I will relieve you in your attendance upon him for half an
+hour," rejoined the peer: "and your assistant can wait in the next
+room, in case Sir Roger may want any surgical aid. But, remember," he
+added, in a louder tone, "in case I do not see you again, I beseech
+you to give your whole time and attention up to my friend here, and
+shall esteem it the greatest favour that any one can confer upon me,
+if you bring him safely and speedily through this unfortunate affair."
+
+The surgeon bowed; and promising to do his best, proceeded to quit the
+apartment with his assistant. The peer then, suddenly seeming to
+remember something, followed into the anteroom, and, closing the door,
+beckoned him back. "I wish to know, Mr. Swainstone," he said, in a low
+but emphatic tone, "your real opinion of my friend's case. You said
+just now that the pain would subside in a few hours: do you think that
+likely to be really the case? for I see that you have spoken under
+some restraint."
+
+"It will certainly be the case, my lord," replied the surgeon,
+gravely; "but only from the coming on of mortification, which cannot
+be long ere it occurs."
+
+"Good God! then you think he will die?" cried the peer, in real alarm.
+
+"I do think so, my lord," answered the surgeon, "without there
+existing in my mind one hope of being able to prevent it. The fact is
+this, my lord: the ball entered his right side; and passing directly
+through the muscles of the back, was only stopped by the articulations
+of the ribs and the vertebrae, both of which have been so much
+fractured and injured, that there is neither any possibility of
+extracting the ball, nor any chance of its remaining there innocuous,
+as is sometimes the case."
+
+"Then how long do you think life may be protracted?" asked the peer,
+anxiously.
+
+"It is impossible to say to a day or two, my lord," answered the
+surgeon. "It may be over in a week; and, on the contrary, he may
+linger ten days or a fortnight."
+
+"Then you do not think that there is any chance of immediate
+dissolution?" demanded Lord Dewry.
+
+"None, none whatever, my lord," replied the surgeon. "All hemorrhage
+has ceased long. First mortification will ensue, and then--"
+
+"Spare me the description," said the peer; "but tell me, in case of
+its being necessary to transact any business of importance with this
+unfortunate gentleman, when do you think will be the moment in which
+it can best be done?"
+
+"Why, I should say, in the beginning of the mortification," the
+surgeon replied. "All his faculties will be clear and active, and the
+great bodily pain which he is now suffering will have abated."
+
+"Well then, Mr. Swainstone," rejoined Lord Dewry, "I shall trust you
+to give me notice of the precise moment at which you judge it
+expedient that this poor gentleman's declaration, on oath, regarding
+the transactions in which he has suffered, should be taken down. At
+the same time, let me caution you not to alarm him, or suffer him to
+be alarmed, by the thought of death; but keep his spirits up, as far
+as possible, till it shall become absolutely necessary to let him know
+that all hope is past."
+
+Thus saying, the peer returned into the room of the wounded man; and
+the surgeon withdrew, wondering who Sir Roger Millington could be,
+towards whom the cold and proud Lord Dewry displayed so much courtesy
+and warm regard.
+
+The peer, in the meantime, approached the bed of the sufferer with a
+more cheerful countenance; and assured him, in answer to some rather
+anxious questions, that the real opinion of the surgeon was more
+favourable than he had even expected. "I have given orders, too,"
+added Lord Dewry, "that no more fanatics be admitted to you. There are
+a crowd of those weak fools about the country, who haunt sick-rooms;
+and very often, by depressing the mind and spirits, cause those
+persons to die who would otherwise have recovered."
+
+"Oh, I'll not die for any of them," answered Sir Roger; "I'll live to
+have revenge on those gipsies. They marked me out especially; and I
+will live long enough to show that, though I was so badly hurt, I
+could mark them too, and remember them to their cost."
+
+"Did you see Pharold, then, among them?" demanded the peer, eagerly.
+"Was it he who fired the shot?"
+
+"I saw Pharold plainly," answered Sir Roger; "and can swear that he
+was among them. So can the man that held me up in his arms, after I
+was wounded; for he pointed him out to me, and I will swear to him
+anywhere."
+
+Joy glistened in the eyes of the peer while he listened. He had had
+doubts, he had had apprehensions, lest the testimony of his keeper
+against the gipsy should remain unsupported by other authority; and he
+had not left unremarked Harvey's implication that some of the other
+persons present differed with him in their account of the affair. But
+the assertion of Sir Roger Millington was conclusive; as he well knew,
+from his own former experience as a lawyer, what an effect the dying
+declaration of a murdered person always has upon a jury.
+
+During the last twenty-four hours he had sometimes doubted whether he
+had or had not somewhat too intricately complicated his plans, in his
+eagerness to snatch at every thing which gave an additional chance of
+security; but now he congratulated himself that he had acted as he had
+done, and fancied that if he confidently and boldly pursued them, his
+mind was sufficiently acute to guide each of the schemes he had
+engaged in to the same great end and object,--the ensuring his own
+security by crushing those who could destroy it.
+
+He now felt armed at all points. By the transactions of the preceding
+day he could prove the impossibility of his having committed the crime
+which he believed that Pharold would cast back in his teeth; and from
+the events of the preceding night he felt secure that if the gipsy
+should even be cleared of the murder of his brother and of his son,
+the last charge, in regard to the violence in Dimden Park, would be
+made good against him, and lay his dangerous lips in the silence of
+the grave. But in his eagerness to secure this advantage beyond the
+power of fate, Lord Dewry somewhat outran discretion. Without giving
+either himself or Sir Roger time to pause, he exclaimed, eagerly,
+"Will it not be better, my dear Sir Roger, at once to make a
+declaration, upon oath, of your recollections concerning the affair of
+last night?"
+
+Sir Roger Millington looked at him suspiciously. "Do you think me
+dying, or do you not. Lord Dewry?" he demanded; "for if I am not
+dying, but likely to recover, I shall have plenty of time to make the
+declaration when I am not in such pain, or give the _viva voce_
+evidence, which is much better in a court of justice. So let me know
+the truth, my lord."
+
+Lord Dewry saw that it was in vain to hope he would make the
+declaration he desired unless he believed himself to be dying; but the
+peer had a keen knowledge of human nature, and saw all the dangers
+which would attend the disclosure of his real state to Sir Roger
+Millington. He knew that men who have confronted the chance of death a
+thousand times, and, if one may use the expression, have bearded "the
+lean, abhorred monster" in his most angry moods, will writhe and
+flutter like a scared bird when he has got them in his inevitable
+grasp, and when they know that they cannot escape. He knew that these
+are the moments "that make cowards of us all;" and he feared lest some
+lingering notions of crime, and repentance, and another world should
+tempt Sir Roger Millington to an endeavour towards atoning past
+errors, by the confession of all those evil designs which were still
+in their passage between the past and the future, between the
+revocable and the irretrievable; and he would not have risked the
+chance for a world. He saw, however, that he had already created a
+doubt which might be dangerous; but, he extricated himself
+dexterously.
+
+"God forbid, my dear Millington," he said, "that anything should be
+even likely to prevent your giving evidence when the trial of these
+gipsies comes on; but my only reason for wishing you to make the
+declaration was, that it might be produced at once before the
+magistrates, whom I shall request to meet here to-morrow or the day
+after, either to take measures for pursuing the villains vigorously,
+if they have not been arrested before that time, or to investigate the
+matter if they have, which I trust may be the case, as I have already
+set half the county on their track. Now what I wish is, that this
+Pharold may be committed directly; and you know that among a number of
+country magistrates there is always some prating, troublesome fellow,
+who throws difficulties in the way; and in this instance, it must be
+remembered, some of the people did not recognise Pharold, so that your
+evidence is of vital importance."
+
+"Let them come to me," said Sir Roger, vehemently--"let them come to
+me, and I will give such evidence as would hang him half a dozen times
+over. I should like to be but a quarter of an hour in the same room
+with the scoundrel with two good small-swords. Only to think, my lord,
+of me--who have made the daylight shine through many a pretty man as
+one would wish to see--being hurt in this way by a stinking yellow fox
+of a gipsy, that is only fit to be hunted down by a good pack of
+hounds!"
+
+"I trust we shall catch him," said the peer, who saw that it was vain
+to press the wounded man any further upon the subject of the
+declaration.
+
+"Catch him!" cried Sir Roger, who was working himself up into a state
+of vehement excitement--"catch him! you cannot miss catching him, if
+you take proper means. By Jupiter, if you miss him, I'll undertake,
+for a small sum, to catch him myself as soon as I am well; or rather,
+I should say, catch the whole of them, for curse me if I know which of
+them it was that fired the shot."
+
+"Indeed!" cried Lord Dewry; "I am sorry for that; I thought you were
+certain it was Pharold."
+
+"I daresay it was," answered the knight, "for I saw him standing in
+front, when they picked me up. It was either he himself or a young
+fellow who stood near, and who bullied a great deal beforehand. But as
+those that bully never act, I dare say it was Pharold himself."
+
+"I wish to heaven your recollection would enable you to swear that it
+was Pharold," said the peer in a low but distinct voice.
+
+"Oh, I can swear that it was he who did it, to the best of my belief,"
+answered Sir Roger, who, notwithstanding all his sufferings, could not
+but feel, that, in the peer, he had obtained a friend whom it might be
+inexpedient to lose, and whose care and attention, under his existing
+circumstances, might well make some impression upon him, although he
+even did doubt the motives which produced such conduct--"I can swear
+it was he who did it, to the best of my belief," he repeated, with
+some emphasis on the last words; and then added, in the peevish tone
+of pain, "You seem to have a goodly dislike towards this Pharold, my
+lord."
+
+The peer did not wish, of course, that his personal hatred to Pharold
+should be too apparent, even to those whom he employed as tools; but
+he still less wished that that personal hatred should be so far
+without plausible motive as to lead men to turn their thoughts towards
+remote causes, in order to seek out some probable reason for such
+persisting enmity. Nor, indeed, was a sufficient motive wanting; for
+the terrible news he had heard the night before from Colonel Manners
+had awakened feelings towards the gipsy which, though blending with
+ancient hatred, were yet sufficiently powerful in themselves to stand
+forth, even in his own mind, as the great incentive to his designs
+against Pharold, as one great stream, joining others, mingles its
+waters with theirs, and gives its name to all.
+
+"I have good cause to hate him," he said, bending down over the
+wounded man, with the expression of all his dark and bitter feelings
+frowning unrestrained upon his brow--"I have good cause to hate him,
+Sir Roger--judge if I have not, when I tell you that his hand has not
+only been dipped in my brother's blood, but also in the blood of my
+only son."
+
+He spoke in a low and agitated voice: but Sir Roger caught his meaning
+distinctly; and, with an involuntary movement of real horror, started
+up upon his elbow. He fell back again instantly, with a groan of
+agony; and the big drops rolled from his forehead. The peer paused for
+a few minutes, seeing that the sudden movement had renewed all the
+sufferings of the wounded man: but he had yet much more to say, and
+when the knight had in some degree recovered, he began again with
+expressions of sympathy and kindness:--"I am sorry to see you suffer
+so terribly," he said: "you seemed easier just now; and I was in hopes
+that the change for the better, which the surgeon prognosticated, was
+already coming on."
+
+"I was better, I was better," said the knight, peevishly; "but that
+cursed start that you made me give, by telling me about your son, has
+torn me all to pieces again. You should not tell one such things so
+hastily."
+
+"Were my son out of the question," replied Lord Dewry, with every
+appearance of frankness and sincerity--"had this Pharold never shed
+one drop of my kindred blood, I would pursue him and his tribe to the
+last man, for what they have made you suffer."
+
+There is no calculating, however, the turns which the irritability of
+sickness will take; and whether Lord Dewry overcharged the expression
+of his regard or not, Sir Roger murmured to himself, in a tone too
+indistinct for the peer to distinguish his words,--"I dare say you
+think so, now that you have your own purposes to answer too--I am not
+to be blinded. Well, my lord," he continued aloud, somewhat
+apprehensive, perhaps, that the peer's present kindness might render
+him the obliged person, instead of the conferer of the obligation, and
+thus deprive him of many a profitable claim for the future--"well, my
+lord. I am very much obliged to you for your kindness; but I trust you
+will not allow my having suffered, in an attempt to serve you, so
+greatly as to render me for the time incapable of doing all that I
+could wish--I hope that you will not allow this fact, I say, to alter
+your lordship's kind intentions in my favour."
+
+The peer understood very clearly, although Sir Roger was rendered
+peevish and somewhat imprudent by pain and sickness, yet that with
+habitual rapacity he now wished to tie him down to the fulfilment of
+all that had been promised on the former evening, lest the opportunity
+should slip, and the gipsy be convicted of other crimes by other
+means. Confiding, however, in the assurance of the surgeon, that the
+unhappy knight must die, he felt that he could be liberal as the air
+in promises, without any dangerous result; and he therefore replied at
+once, "Fear not, fear not, Sir Roger; not only will I do all that I
+said, when you were first kind enough to give me your assistance, but
+it shall not be my fault if I do not find means to do more. Set your
+mind, therefore, at ease upon the subject, and do not allow any
+thoughts for the future to give you apprehension, or delay your
+recovery. Since, however, you have spoken of the subject yourself,
+there are some things in those papers which we were looking over last
+night which I should much like to see again. Have you them here?"
+
+Sir Roger, however, was not to be deceived; and his present views were
+directly opposed to those which he perceived or suspected in his noble
+companion. In the first arrangement of the affair, indeed, when he had
+been suddenly raised from apprehensions of the most gnawing want to
+hopes of competence and ease, when he believed that the peer could not
+ultimately act without him, and that he had it always in his power to
+enforce, by a few gentle hints of publicity, the performance of all
+that had been promised, he would have given the papers out of his own
+hands without fear. Under those circumstances, too, the peer had
+thought it better that the knight should keep them, that their
+production might take place more naturally.
+
+Now, however, the position of each was changed. Lord Dewry looked upon
+Sir Roger as a dying man, whose life could not be protracted to the
+completion of all they designed, and who might be worked upon by the
+fear of death, or the irritability of sickness, to take a very
+different view of the life he was leaving, from that which he had
+hitherto entertained. Sir Roger, on his part, saw that, tied down to a
+bed of pain, through, a long and tedious convalescence, no opportunity
+could possibly be afforded him of superintending and directing the
+proceeding in which he had been engaged; and, therefore, that his
+great hold upon the peer was to be found in the papers which they had
+altered together. Both, therefore, wished to possess them; and Sir
+Roger, in the apparently casual question of Lord Dewry, perceived at
+once the object he proposed. "No, my lord," he answered, somewhat
+abruptly, "I have them not with me; I left them at your house, at
+Dewry Hall. I wish to God I had them with me."
+
+The peer was somewhat startled by the eagerness of his tone; for it is
+impossible for men to confederate in villany without being more or
+less suspicious of each other. "Cannot I find them for you. Sir
+Roger?" he demanded. "If you will intrust me with the key of your
+valise, I will bring them over with me to-morrow."
+
+A grim smile checkered the expression of pain on the countenance of
+the wounded man, and he replied, "Your lordship is very good; but as I
+shall require a number of things contained in my valise, I think it
+would be better if your lordship were to have the goodness to order
+some of your servants to send me over every thing which I left in the
+apartment assigned me at Dewry Hall."
+
+"Certainly, certainly," answered the peer, who saw that he must press
+the matter no farther--"certainly, it shall be done this very night.
+But do you not think, Sir Roger," he continued, with renewed
+apprehension lest the unhappy man, if left unwatched by his own eye,
+should discover his real situation, and be persuaded to make
+inconvenient confessions--"do you not think, Sir Roger, that you
+yourself might bear removal to the hall? I do not like your remaining
+in this damp old house, which has not been inhabited for many years,
+and in which there is but little that can render you comfortable,
+during your convalescence. If you could bear the motion--"
+
+"Impossible, my lord," replied Sir Roger sharply; "I wonder you do not
+see that I can bear no motion at all. This place will do very well: I
+have lain in worse quarters; and if you will order my valise to be
+sent, it is all I want. To tell the truth," he added, "I am somewhat
+tired, and am afraid that to speak much more would injure me."
+
+"Then far be it from me," replied the peer, "to prolong our
+conversation, Sir Roger. I shall take care that everything that
+circumstances admit be done for your accommodation, and that you be
+not again teased by our fanatical rector, as you were this morning."
+
+There was a degree of anger in his tone which, had it not been
+repressed by many a potent consideration, might have flashed forth in
+a very different manner; but it was still sufficiently perceptible to
+make the wounded man add some deprecatory sentences, which the peer
+received in good part, and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Sir
+Roger Millington placed his hand over his eyes, and gave way to
+thoughts of a very mixed, but all of a melancholy character.
+
+"His compassion and his regard," he thought, his mind turning to the
+crafty man who had just left him--"his compassion and his regard are
+all false and affected, that is clear enough. To think of his wishing
+to move me fourteen or fifteen miles in this terrible state! I should
+like to know what his object is. He has some deep object, beyond
+doubt. Can he be afraid of my betraying him? Perhaps he may. His
+schemes are villanous ones enough, that is certain: but he knows that
+if I were to peach, I should lose the annuity from him, and get
+nothing from any one else; so he cannot be afraid of that." Then came
+a long interval of confused and rambling speculations on the motives
+of the peer, which had something of delirium in their vague and
+unconnected whirl; but then a more terrible image rose before the mind
+of the sick man. "Can he think me dying?" he asked himself. "Can the
+surgeon have told him that I am dying? No, I won't believe it. I feel
+as strong as ever, notwithstanding all this pain! I cannot be dying!
+No, no, I will live to revenge myself upon those cursed gipsies.
+Doctor," he continued aloud, as the surgeon now re-entered the room,
+"are you sure that you are not deceiving me about my condition? Are
+you sure that I am not in danger?"
+
+The surgeon was a good but an easy-tempered man; not indifferent to
+religion; but still not very certain, at all times, in regard to the
+precise line of conduct which it dictated. Although he thought it
+wrong, as a general principle, to depress the spirits of a patient, by
+telling him his danger, yet he had conceived that the clergyman had
+done but his duty, as a man of religion, in letting the wounded knight
+know what he, as a medical man, had thought it his duty to conceal.
+The arguments and injunctions of the peer, however, coming in support
+of his own opinion, he maintained his first assertion to Sir Roger,
+telling him that, although it was impossible to answer for
+contingencies, and that he could not exactly tell what might be the
+ultimate result of his wound till he had examined it on the following
+day, yet he saw no reason whatever to apprehend any _immediate_
+danger.
+
+With this assurance Sir Roger satisfied himself, and passed a feverish
+and painful night, in murmurs at the agony he suffered, in curses and
+imprecations upon the whole race of gipsies, and in vague speculations
+upon the motives and views of Lord Dewry, in his conduct of that
+morning. At times his mind seemed to ramble a little; and he would
+mutter vague sentences, referring to many a different object, which
+would excite both the attention and wonder of the medical man, and
+make him believe that his patient wanted the aid of religion more than
+he had imagined at first. When spoken to, however, his replies became
+instantly clear and precise, and all his faculties appeared again as
+perfect as ever.
+
+In the mean while, the peer, after leaving such directions as the
+circumstances and his own particular plans required, placed himself
+once more in his carriage, and returned to his usual abode; but he
+determined that on no consideration should the wounded man be left
+longer in Dimden House without his presence. "Those meddling priests,"
+he thought, "think themselves privileged to obtrude and to persevere
+in their obtrusion; but I do not think the rector will presume to set
+his foot within the doors of Dimden while I am there, without my
+especial desire; and if he do, he shall soon be disposed of. I dare
+say, however, that Sir Roger himself said enough to prevent his speedy
+return; but that surgeon, that Swainstone, is a weak fellow, and I
+will trust nothing to circumstances."
+
+There were other things, however, to be accomplished, which required
+no small skill and cunning to bring about; but the mind of Lord Dewry
+was all activity and eagerness, now that the strife had actually
+commenced, and that he felt that the struggle between him and the only
+witness of the crime he had committed was so far advanced that it
+could only end in the destruction of one or the other. There was no
+more hesitation now--there was no more fear or doubt--there was none
+of that wavering between many feelings and many emotions. He had
+plunged in, and he was resolved to make his way through. The news of
+his son's death had decided him; and the burning longing for revenge
+went hand in hand with all his other motives. He had hesitated at the
+first step; but that irretrievable first step was now taken, and he
+did not regret it. He had chosen his path; he had begun the contest,
+and his whole thoughts and mind were bent to take advantage of every
+circumstance in order to terminate it in his own favour.
+
+Again and again, as the carriage rolled on, he revolved in his own
+mind the various means that could be used to induce the dying man to
+make such a declaration of what he had witnessed during the affray in
+Dimden Park as would give an irresistible grasp of Pharold; and yet
+how accomplish this purpose without letting Sir Roger know that he was
+dying, and that the crimes to which he was making himself a party
+would soon appear in the dreadful account against his disembodied
+spirit? It was a difficult task, and yet he thought he could
+accomplish it, if he were for any long time present in the knight's
+sick-room; but on another point he saw, and saw with a glow of
+triumph, that he could turn the very refusal of the papers, which for
+a moment he had considered as detrimental, to the very best account.
+
+Although it was late, and he had not dined, yet he ordered the
+carriage, ere it proceeded home, to pass through the neighbouring
+village, and stop at the vicarage. It was an honour which the proud,
+cold, irreverent peer had seldom paid to the poor minister of a
+religion that condemned him; and with some surprise the vicar beheld
+him enter his little study. But the struggle in which he was engaged,
+like all other struggles of base interest, whether they be for the
+purposes of political ambition or of private avarice, was one that
+mightily tamed pride, and rendered coldness warm and affable. He was
+anxious to buy golden opinions from all sorts of men: and although he
+had a further purpose at present in view, he addressed the clergyman
+with that sort of courtesy which his situation prompted him to use
+towards every one whose word might be of value in the opinion of the
+world.
+
+"My dear sir," he said, "I come to you for the purpose of requesting a
+favour." The vicar, who neither loved nor approved the man who spoke
+to him, answered coldly that he should be happy to do any thing to
+serve his lordship; and the peer proceeded to explain.
+
+"The fact is," he said, "that last night, in a terrible deer-stealing
+affray, which took place at Dimden, a poor friend of mine was severely
+wounded, and is not expected to live from hour to hour. Among his
+baggage, which remains here at the hall, he tells me that there are
+papers of great importance; and, indeed, he wished me to bring them to
+him; but as his mind is not itself, and his faculties wander from time
+to time, I do not conceive I should be justified in placing papers of
+importance at his disposal. At the same time, of course, I cannot
+presume to examine them, and I wish much to seal them up in your
+presence, if you have time to get into my carriage with me, and
+accompany me to the hall. It is for this purpose that I have now
+called here as I passed from Dimden on my way home."
+
+The vicar thought that the matter might have been more simply
+arranged; but as there was nothing in the peer's request which was
+unreasonable, he consented to accompany him; and in few minutes they
+were at the door of the mansion. Leaving the cook to fret over his
+delayed ragouts, the peer instantly ordered sealing-wax and lights to
+be brought; and, accompanied by the clergyman, proceeded to the
+apartments which Sir Roger Millington had occupied for so short a
+time, and in which various articles of apparel were still lying about.
+The valise, however, firmly locked, was in one corner of the room; and
+what was still more pleasing in the sight of the peer, there appeared
+on one of the tables a small portable letter-case, in which, beyond
+all doubt, the knight had placed the papers which were of so much
+consequence to Lord Dewry.
+
+Lord Dewry took the wax, and bidding the servant who brought it hold
+the taper, he sealed first the letter-case, and then the valise, and
+requested the vicar to do the same with his own seal. "I am induced,"
+he said, in a frank tone, "to take all these precautions, by a
+conversation which I had with my poor friend this morning, in which he
+spoke of these things as of the most vital importance. It might be the
+mere rambling of delirium, but it might be more correct; and,
+therefore, as this caution costs me nothing but the wax, and you, my
+dear sir, nothing but the loss of a few minutes' time--though I know
+your time is valuable--I thought it best not to neglect a line of
+conduct, which I might regret not having pursued hereafter."
+
+"I think your lordship is quite right," replied the vicar, placing his
+seal also on the cases. "In matters of worldly prudence, and in our
+religious duties, where there is any thing to be done which may
+produce good, and cannot produce evil, to neglect it is, in the one
+case, a folly, and in the other, a sin."
+
+The peer repressed the sneer that began to curl his lip; and, perhaps,
+felt at his heart that the good man's words were true, though through
+life he had neglected the rule they taught. He then bade the servant
+close up the apartment, and lock the door, till the death of the
+unhappy knight should render the things that it contained the property
+of others; and descending the stairs with the vicar, he begged that he
+would favour him by remaining to dinner, which was about to be placed
+upon the table. The clergyman replied that he had long dined; and in
+answer to the offer of the peer's carriage to take him back to the
+vicarage, he answered that he would rather walk.
+
+"He is stern and repulsive!" thought the peer as the clergyman left
+him: but there was still a lingering gleam of better feeling, which
+occasionally lighted up his darkened heart, and he added, almost
+instantly, and aloud; "but he is loved by the poor, and he is a good
+man; and I would rather have such a one near me than a pampered
+voluptuary."
+
+"Sir!" said the servant, who was standing by.
+
+"Pshaw! nothing!" replied the peer, and walked back to his
+dressing-room.
+
+Early the next morning he returned to Dimden, where he received, as we
+have seen, the tidings which Colonel Manners sent him of the security
+of his son, which, though it poured some balm into his heart, came too
+late to effect any change in his purposes against the gipsy.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER X.
+
+
+"The time was," thought the gipsy, as he climbed the hills once
+more, after leaving Colonel Manners at the house of Sir William
+Ryder,--"the time was when these limbs would have undertaken double
+the toil that they have undergone this day, as a matter of sport. But
+now they are weary and faint, like those of some sickly dweller in
+cities--of some slave of effeminate and enfeebling luxury. Age is
+upon me: the breaker of the strong sinew--the softener of the hard
+muscle--the destroyer of vigour, activity, and power has laid upon me
+that heavy hand, which shall press me down into the grave. But it
+matters not--it matters not. I have outlived my time; I have changed,
+and the things around me have changed also; but we have not changed in
+the same way. They have sprung up, new and young, while I have grown
+weary and old; and, in the midst of the world, I am like a withered
+leaf of the last year among the green fresh foliage of the spring. It
+is time that I should fall from the bough, and give place to brighter
+things."
+
+As he thus thought, whether from corporal weariness, or from the
+listlessness of the dark melancholy which oppressed him, he turned
+from the high-road into the first plantation that he met with; and
+without such care for personal comfort as even a gipsy usually takes,
+cast himself down under the trees, and sought to refresh himself by
+sleep. Gloomy ideas, however, still pursued him long; and, with the
+superstitious imaginations of his tribe heightening the universal
+propensity to superstition in our nature, he fancied that the
+melancholy which disappointment, and anxiety, and difficulty, and
+failure, had produced, was but some supernatural warning of his
+approaching fate. The bravest, the wisest, the best, as well as the
+most hardened and the most skeptical, have felt such presentiments,
+and have believed them; and very often, also, either by the desponding
+inactivity of such belief, or by rash struggles to prove that they did
+not believe, have brought about the fulfilment of that which
+originally was but a dream.
+
+Sleep, however, came at length; and it was daylight the next morning
+ere the gipsy awoke. He rose refreshed; and his dark visions, perhaps,
+would have vanished, if he would have let them: but there is nothing
+to which one so fondly clings as superstition; and to have cast from
+him as untrue a presentiment in which he had once put faith, Pharold
+would have held as treason to the creed of his people. He rose, then;
+and, pursuing the paths through the plantations and the woods,
+avoiding all public ways, and never venturing farther from the covert
+than to follow the faintly-marked track through some small solitary
+meadow, he mounted the remaining hills, and bent his steps towards the
+thick wood in which he had left his companions, revolving, as he went,
+what might be the probable fate of those to whom he had so
+perseveringly clung, when he, himself, should be no more.
+
+He found the other gipsies all on foot, and busied about the various
+little cares of a fresh day, with the light and careless glee of a
+people to whom the sorrows of the past week are as a half-forgotten
+tradition. The old were talking and laughing at the entrances of
+their tents, the young were sporting together by the stream, and the
+middle-aged were employed in mending this or that which had gone wrong
+about their carts and baggage, and whistling as lightly at their work
+as if there were no such thing as grief in all the world.
+
+"And thus will it be," thought Pharold, as he approached--"thus will
+it be with them all, ere I am a week beneath the earth. But it matters
+not, it matters not. So be it. Why should I wish tears shed or hearts
+bruised for such a thing as I am?"
+
+He believed that he did not wish it; yet where is the man so steeled
+by nature or philosophy as to look forward to the grave, and not to
+hope that some kind bosom will sigh, some gentle eye give a tear to
+his memory when he is gone? and though Pharold believed that he did
+not wish it, he deceived himself. At the door of his own tent sat she
+on whom, in this his latter day, he had bestowed the better part of
+all his feelings; whom he loved, at once, with the tenderness of a
+father and the tenderness of a husband,--a union of feelings that
+never yet produced aught but sorrow, for it never can be returned in
+the fulness of its own intensity.
+
+She was looking lovelier, too, than ever he had seen her; and though,
+heaven knows, her beauty owed but little to richness of dress, yet
+there was a something of taste and elegance in her attire, rude as it
+was in quality, that pleased the eye of one who had acquired a
+knowledge of what constitutes beauty in other times and circumstances.
+She had twined a bright red handkerchief through the profuse masses of
+her jetty black hair, and had brought a single fold partly across her
+broad clear forehead. Her full round arms were bare up to the
+shoulders; and, as if in sport, she had cast her red mantle round her,
+like the plaid of a Scottish shepherd, contrasting strongly, but
+finely, with the drapery of a blue gown beneath. Her head was bent
+like the beautiful head of Hagar, by Correggio; and her dark eyes,
+their long lashes resting on her sunny cheek, were cast down, well
+pleased, upon one of the children of the tribe, who, leaning on her
+knees, was playing with the silver ring that circled one of the taper
+fingers of her small brown hand.
+
+Lena did not hear the approach of any one till Pharold was within
+fifty paces; but the moment his well-known step met her ear, she
+started up and ran to meet him, with smiles that were, perhaps, the
+brighter because she felt that she had something to atone for, weighty
+enough to be concealed, and yet not to oppress her very heavily.
+Pharold pressed her to his bosom; and whatever he might try to
+believe, he felt--felt to his heart's inmost core--that there was at
+least one person on the earth that he should wish to remember him,
+after the stream of time had washed away his memory from the hearts of
+others.
+
+He gave but one moment to tenderness, however; and the next, turning
+to the rest of the gipsies, he inquired, "What news of the boy?" The
+old woman was instantly called from one of the tents, and came
+willingly enough to make her report to Pharold, though she grumbled
+audibly all the way at being hurried, and at such tasks being put upon
+her at her years.
+
+"Well, Pharold, I have done your bidding," she said, in a tone both
+cajoling and self-important--"I have done your bidding, and have seen
+the lad. Poor fellow, his is a hard case, indeed; and such a fine,
+handsome boy, too, and so happy a one as he used to be--"
+
+"But what said he, woman?" interrupted Pharold, sternly. "Keep your
+praises of him till he be here to hear them, and thank you for them;
+for, doubtless, he is the only person who will do so. Tell me what he
+said of his situation."
+
+"What he said!" replied the beldam; "why, what should he say, but that
+if he be not got out to-morrow night--that is, this night that is
+coming,--he will be sent away to the county jail, and hanged for the
+murder of that fellow that is dying or dead up at the house? That's
+what he said."
+
+"But did he say how he was to be delivered?" asked Pharold. "That is
+the question."
+
+"Yes, to be sure he did," answered the old woman. "Do you think I went
+there for nothing? He may be delivered easy enough, if folks like to
+try. You know the windows of that there strong room, Pharold, well
+enough, and I know them too, for I was in there for half a day or
+more, when old Dick Hodges swore to my nimming his cocks and hens. He
+lies in the churchyard now, the old blackguard, for that was in the
+old lord's time. But, as I was saying, you know the windows well
+enough. When they had you up at the house, and wanted to make a
+gentleman of you, but found they had got hold of the wrong stuff--"
+
+Pharold's brow grew as dark as a thundercloud. "On, woman, on with
+your story," he cried, "and turn not aside to babble of the past. What
+have you or I to do with the past? You were the same then that you are
+now, only that the vices and follies of youth have given place to the
+vices and follies of age."
+
+"Well, well, I'm sure I'm telling my story as quickly as it can be
+told," replied Mother Gray; "but as I was saying, you know the windows
+well enough, and know that any one that is at all strong could knock
+off two or three of the bars, and let the boy out in a minute. Any one
+could do it."
+
+"Oh, but he said that nobody but Pharold must come," cried Lena,
+eagerly, forgetting for the moment all caution, and then reddening,
+like the morning sky, as soon as she had spoken.
+
+"Ha!" cried Pharold, turning his keen dark eyes full upon her, "said
+he so? and how know you that he did say so, Lena? Ha!"
+
+The poor girl turned redder and redder, and looked as if she would
+have sunk into the ground, while Pharold still gazed sternly upon her,
+as if waiting an answer; but the ready cunning of the old woman came
+to her aid with a lie. "How does she know that he said so?" cried the
+beldam: "how should she know it but by my telling her?"
+
+Lena heard the falsehood more willingly than she would have spoken it,
+though by her silence she made it her own, as much as if her lips had
+given it utterance.
+
+"'Tis well, 'tis well," said Pharold, with a bitter smile curling his
+lip,--"'tis well. So he said that none but Pharold should come? Now
+tell me, woman, if your tongue be not so inured to falsehood that it
+cannot speak truth,"--Lena burst into tears, and crept back to her
+tent, while Pharold went on,--"tell me why this boy said that none but
+Pharold must come, when any one else could remove the bars as well?"
+
+"Because he said that any one else who did not know the park might
+make some mistake," replied the old woman, "and so ruin both himself
+and poor Will."
+
+Pharold mused for a moment or two and then asked, "Was all quiet when
+you went?"
+
+"As quiet as a dead sheep," answered the old woman, with a grin.
+
+"And no one stirring in the house or in the park?" demanded Pharold.
+
+"In the park all was dark and solitary," she replied: "I saw nothing
+but some fine fat deer, and an owl that came skimming along before us
+in the long walk; and on the outside of the house all was quiet enough
+too: but there were two rooms above where there were lights; and I
+waited awhile to see if they would be put out: but they were so long,
+that I made up my mind, as all the rest was still, to creep on; and I
+got close under the boy's window and called his name, and he told me
+that the lights were in the room where the man is dying."
+
+Pharold mused again; but the man whom we have heard called by the name
+of Brown, a powerful gipsy of about forty years of age, took a step
+forward, and laid his hand kindly upon Pharold's arm. "I will tell you
+what, Pharold," he said, "this seems to me a doubtful sort of
+business. I do not think the boy would do any thing willingly to trap
+one of us: but he may have been taken in somehow; and it does seem as
+if there was something strange about it; so I'll tell you what, I'll
+go, and the old woman shall show me the way."
+
+"No, Brown, no," said Pharold; "I would put upon no man what I was
+afraid to do myself,--if I could be afraid to do any thing. If there
+be no treachery, there is nothing to fear: and if there be treachery,
+I should be base, indeed, if I let any of my people fall into what was
+meant for myself. No, no, I will go: no man can avoid his hour, Brown.
+We all know that when fate has fixed what is to happen, we may turn
+which way we will, but we shall not escape it. I will go; and if there
+be treachery, let it light upon the heads of those that devised it. It
+is my fate--I will go."
+
+"No, no, Pharold," said the other; "let me go. To me they can do
+nothing. Me they cannot charge with any crime, even unjustly; for I
+was not in the park at all when the man was shot. You and all the
+others were, though you went there to prevent it; and so, if they
+catch you, they may send you to prison: but if they catch me, they can
+do nothing with me. They can but say I came to speak with the poor boy
+through the bars."
+
+Pharold, however, persisted. It had ever been his habit among his
+fellows to take upon himself the execution of any thing difficult or
+dangerous, and he regarded it almost as a privilege, which he clung to
+the more, in the present instance, from a superstitious conviction
+that fate was leading him on, and that it was useless to struggle
+against its influence. "There yet remains the whole day before us," he
+said, when he had silenced opposition, "and but little remains to be
+done. Call all the people round me, Brown, for I am going to speak
+with them,--perhaps it may be for the last time."
+
+The gipsies who already surrounded him saw well that a presentiment of
+approaching death weighed upon the mind of him who had been so long
+their leader, and it is but doing them justice to acknowledge, that
+most of them grieved sincerely to observe that such was the case.
+None, however, offered comfort or consolation; for their belief in
+their own superstitious traditions was far too strong for any one to
+dream even that such a presentiment might prove fallacious. The rest
+of the tribe were soon called together; and, stretching themselves out
+in various groups around, with the clear forest stream bubbling and
+murmuring through the midst, and the bright sun streaming through the
+oaks and beeches upon the bank on which they lay, they waited in
+silence for what Pharold had to say. The tone he assumed was simple
+and calm, perhaps less marked and emphatic than that which he
+generally affected. "My friends," he began, "I am going this night
+upon a matter more dangerous than any that I have ever yet
+attempted,--at least so, for many reasons, I am led to think; in it I
+may probably be taken by men who hate and persecute us; and if I be so
+taken, do not deceive yourselves--I shall never return among you
+alive. I feel it, I know it; and, therefore, if by the first light of
+to-morrow's sun I have not returned, look upon me as among the dead,
+take up your tents, and go as far as you may. When you are so far from
+this place that they cannot follow you to persecute you, seek out what
+has become of the clay that I leave behind. Lay me in the earth, in
+some green wood, but where the summer sun may shine upon me, and the
+winter snow may fall: turn my face to the eastward, and put one hand
+upon my heart, and let not the earth that covers me be more than four
+palms deep.[7] When you have done all this, forget me; but forget not
+what I am going to say. Remember, ever before all things, that you are
+a nation apart, and mingle not with the strangers among whom you
+dwell. Let them follow their way, and you follow your way. Give
+obedience to their laws, but maintain your own liberties: bend to
+their power, but preserve the customs of your fathers. Shut, them out,
+too, as far as may be, from among you: let them not learn either your
+history, or your language, or your knowledge; for if they do they will
+make these the means of softening and enslaving, under the pretence of
+civilizing and improving you. Forget not that you have been, and that
+you shall yet be, a great people; nor ever think that there are too
+few of you left for the time of your greatness to come. Look at this
+acorn: it fell from a great tree, that has been cut down; and though
+now it be smaller than the egg of a wren, it shall be as great as the
+mightiest of the forest. So is it, and so shall it be, with you. None
+of you can ever gain so much as I could have gained by abandoning my
+people; but I would not do it. I refused wealth, and ease, and honour,
+and I chose poverty, and wandering, and persecution, because I was
+born of the gipsy race, and would not belie the blood of my fathers,
+by mingling with the persecutors of our people--because I would not be
+chosen from among them for a plaything and an experiment. I learned
+their knowledge, though they learned not ours, and I returned to mine
+own as true in heart as when I left them. Thus let it be with you all;
+and if, after I am gone, the name of Pharold is ever mentioned, let it
+be as an example of how true our people should be to the ways of their
+fathers."
+
+
+---------------------
+
+[Footnote 7: The gipsy tribes throughout Europe are so like one
+another in their habits, that it is extraordinary so great a
+difference should exist in their manner of burying their dead as has
+been observed among them, especially when they attach much importance
+to the method they each pursue. Among the greater part of the
+continental gipsies the habit of burying their dead under water
+prevails, but to other tribes, again, the forest affords a place of
+sepulture; and to others, I have heard, the summits of high
+mountains.]
+
+---------------------
+
+
+He paused, and there followed among those who surrounded him the
+low murmur of people who draw their breath deep after a long and
+eager attention, but no one spoke; and in a few minutes Pharold
+proceeded:--"If I return no more, there will be some one wanting to
+lead and direct you all aright. My choice falls upon you, Brown, as
+the calmest, and the wisest, and the bravest, with years sufficient to
+ensure experience, and yet with vigour unimpaired by age. Do you
+consent, my brothers, that he shall be your Ria?"
+
+The choice was one which all anticipated, and with which all were
+pleased, except, perhaps, two or three, who, feeling that they ought
+to be satisfied though they were not, and that they must submit
+whether they liked it or not, yielded with the rest, or, perhaps, gave
+more clamorous approval. "I have now," continued Pharold, turning
+towards Lena, who, since the people had been called round him, had
+remained near in silent tears while he had been speaking,--"I have now
+spoken to you of all things save one. I leave among you my wife, then
+a widow; and as Heaven knows I have dealt justly with you all, so, I
+beseech you, deal justly and kindly by her. Be unto her as brethren
+and sisters. I supplied unto her the place of parents that are dead;
+you supply unto her, I beseech you, my place when I am dead also. Let
+her share with the rest in what you gain, until she shall choose out
+some one to be to her a support and a husband. Let her choice depend
+upon herself, but oh, let her choice be good; let it not fix upon a
+fair form or a smooth tongue, but upon a strong mind and a noble
+heart."
+
+He spoke firmly, but, perhaps, somewhat bitterly; and Lena, though she
+raised her eyes for a moment with a look of imploring deprecation,
+said nothing, but wept on in silence. "And now," continued Pharold, "I
+will have done, my friends, with but one more injunction, which is,
+keep together. Let not the people of the land separate you, but be ye
+true among yourselves."
+
+Thus saying, he rose from the bank on which he had been leaning, and
+the rest sprang upon their feet also. His scanty auditory then
+dispersed to their several occupations again, though some lingered for
+a few minutes, gazing upon him as on one they might never see more
+after that day was over; and Pharold, after speaking a few words in a
+gentler tone to Lena, laid his hand upon the arm of the man Brown, and
+walked with him slowly down the course of the stream.
+
+Their conversation was long: many were the sage and prudent maxims
+that Pharold gave to him whom he had pointed out as his successor,
+many the wild and singular cautions which he suggested. It was, in
+fact, his lesson of political economy and good government; but, as it
+would not suit any other world but the little world for which it was
+intended, it were useless to repeat it here. He did not, until the
+end, refer again to himself in any way; but, after having spent
+nearly two hours in giving instructions respecting the rule and
+protection of the tribe, he added, "I need not tell you, Brown, that I
+feel the flame going out--not that it is weaker, not that it is less
+bright--the broadest blaze of the fire is often the last, but it is
+near its end; and if it be not to-morrow or the next day, in the
+manner that I apprehend, or in the way my enemies seek to make it, yet
+death will come soon, in his own time, and by his own path. Look
+there!" and he spread out before his comrade his broad palm, traversed
+with the many lines and marks which are usually to be found there. The
+other gipsy gazed on it for a moment, gravely, but made no reply; and
+Pharold went on:--"Nevertheless, as I have heard the ignorant and the
+conceited declare, that people often do things themselves to bring
+about a fate that is foretold them, I will neglect nothing that can
+turn aside mine. If, then, by dawn to-morrow, I have not returned to
+you, send instantly a trusty messenger to the small village of ----,
+where I have sent several times before, to the House of Mr.
+Harley--many of the people know it--bid them tell him for me, that I
+am in prison, on a false accusation which he knows of, and that if he
+would save me, he must come over to Dimden soon. See that it be done
+rightly, Brown; for were anything to happen to me without his
+knowledge, he would say that I had used him unkindly, or had not
+confidence in his honour."
+
+"I will do it myself, Pharold," replied the gipsy: "I will take one of
+those that have been over, to be sure of the place, and will see the
+man myself, if it be possible."
+
+"Oh, he will see you," answered Pharold; "he has learned bitter
+lessons in life, and knows that a better heart may beat under a
+gipsy's bosom than under the robes of peers and princes. Now, then, I
+have said all, Brown: and fare you well, my friend. You at least will
+not forget me."
+
+"Never!" answered the other; and they parted. During the rest of the
+day a degree of gloom naturally hung over the party of gipsies; and
+wherever Pharold turned, there were eyes looking at him, with some
+degree of superstitious awe, as one in whom approaching fate was
+already visible. Evening, however, came at length, and night began to
+fall; and, ere the first twinkling star could claim full possession of
+the sky, a thin whitish autumn mist rose up from the valleys, and came
+drifting with the wind through the trees, and down the course of the
+little stream by which the gipsies' tents were pitched. Pharold
+remarked it with satisfaction, exclaiming, "May it last, may it last.
+With such a mist as that, and a dark autumn night, he were a keen man,
+indeed, that could take me in Dimden Park."
+
+As far as the continuance of the mist went, he was gratified to his
+wish; for it not only remained, but increased in density to that
+degree, that even round the gipsies' fires the dark faces lighted by
+the red glare appeared dim and phantom-like to those who sat on the
+other side of the blaze. Pharold himself remained from sunset till
+nearly midnight in his tent; and Lena had not appeared at all from the
+time he had spoken to the tribe in the morning. At length Pharold came
+forth; and the gipsies, who were still congregated round the fires,
+thinking that he was about to join them for a time ere he went, made
+room for him among them; but he glided on past them all, merely
+saying, in a low voice as he came near the spot where Brown was
+placed, "I go! do not forget!"
+
+He then walked rapidly on, threaded the most intricate mazes of the
+wood, traversed the common above the park, leaped the park wall, near
+the spot where Dickon and his party had entered on the ill-starred
+deer-stealing expedition, and paused for a moment to look around him,
+and consider his further proceedings. The mist, which lay heavy on the
+common and the lawns, was still more dense and dark amid the covered
+walks and narrow paths of Dimden Park; but the obscurity proved of but
+little inconvenience to one so much accustomed to wander in the night
+as Pharold. Long habit of the kind seems, indeed, to give another
+sense, and to enable persons who are possessed of it to distinguish,
+as it were instinctively, obstacles in their way which the eye could
+not have detected.
+
+Thus he walked on, through the thick trees and among the narrow paths
+of the park, without ever either taking a wrong direction, or running
+against any of the massy trunks round which the small footway turned.
+Ever and anon, however, he stopped, to listen, but all was still:
+there was not a voice, a footstep, a rustle, a sound of any kind to be
+heard, till he entered one of the principal alleys leading towards the
+house, when a distant clock struck a quarter to twelve, and, as if
+roused by the sound, the owl poured forth her long melancholy cry, and
+flitted slowly across Pharold's steps, stirring slightly the foggy air
+with the scarcely heard wave of her light wings.
+
+Pharold marked its voice, and felt it flap past him; and, in that mood
+when the heart connects every external thing with its internal gloom,
+he muttered, "Hoot no more, bird of ill omen! I am prepared and
+ready!"
+
+The end of the alley which he had chosen opened upon the side of the
+lawn, at the distance of perhaps a hundred yards from the house. But
+the fog was too thick for even the bare outline of the mansion to be
+visible; and the only thing that indicated its proximity was the
+appearance of two or three rays of light, pouring from the apertures
+in some window-shutters, and streaming through the white mist, till
+they lost themselves in the night. Pharold paused and gazed; and
+emotions as mingled, but less painful, affected his bosom, as those
+which had been experienced by Lord Dewry when he had last looked
+towards the same building. All was silent around; he felt himself
+secure in the obscurity; he was in no haste to go on; and as he stood
+and gazed towards the dwelling where two years of the happiest part of
+life had been spent, his mind naturally reverted to the past. He
+called up those boyish days, the pleasures he had then enjoyed, his
+friendship with one noble-minded youth, and the injuries he had since
+received from the other companion of his boyhood. He thought of what
+he had been, and of what he might have been; of the promises held out
+to him by those who would have kept them; of the prospects that were
+open before him, if he had chosen to follow them; he thought of the
+life of honour, and respect, and fortune, which might have been his;
+and he compared it with the life of wandering, and persecution, and
+anxiety, which he had led from the day he quitted that mansion to the
+hour that he stood there again, in the sear and yellow leaf of years,
+in the close of man's too brief existence. It was a melancholy
+retrospect, and he could not but feel it as melancholy; but there was
+a proud, stern satisfaction mingled with it all, enhanced even by the
+magnitude of the sacrifice he had made. He felt a deep gladness in
+knowing, now that life lay behind him as a past journey, that he had
+adhered to his persecuted people, in spite of every temptation that
+could have led him to abandon them; that voluntarily and perseveringly
+he had made their fate his fate, in preference to a more splendid
+destiny than hope herself could have led him to expect. He felt proud,
+too, and justly, that those feelings and principles which had won him
+the strong affection of the noble and good in another class, and among
+another people, had never been forgotten amid dangers, and perils, and
+sorrows, and temptations; and that he could lay his hand upon his
+heart, as he gazed up towards the mansion, and say, I have been as
+noble in poverty and wandering as if I had never quitted the shelter
+of those once lordly walls.
+
+He stood and gazed for near ten minutes; and then ending his revery,
+as all deep contemplations end, with a sigh, he turned slightly from
+the path he had been pursuing, skirted round the edge of the wood,
+and, without crossing the open space, approached through the trees
+that part of the building called the justice-room, which lay, as we
+have seen, contiguous to the chamber in which the boy was confined.
+Since he had been there, however, the river had encroached so much
+upon the bank, that no one less active and expert than himself would
+have found space to pass between the walls of the high old chapel-like
+projection, so called, and the edge of the bank above the water. He
+accomplished it, however, though with some difficulty; and then,
+turning the angle of the building, approached the window of the strong
+room. Raising himself on a ledge of ornamental stonework, which ran
+along the basement, he put his hand through the bars to feel whether
+the inner window was closed or not, and finding that it was shut, he
+knocked gently on the glass with his knuckles. The moment after, it
+was opened, and the voice of the youth demanded, "Who is there?"
+
+"It is I, William," said Pharold; "are your limbs free?"
+
+"They are free of cords," answered the lad in a voice that trembled
+with agitation, and, perhaps, with remorse--"they are free of cords,
+but I cannot get out."
+
+"I will open the way for you, then," answered Pharold; "but when I
+have picked out the mortar from these bars, you use your strength to
+force them out from within."
+
+The boy made no answer, but listened to hear if those who lay in wait
+had taken the alarm; and a hope did cross his mind that they might
+have neglected their watch on that dark and chilly night, and that
+Pharold might give him the means of escape, without the consummation
+of the treachery to which he had yielded. The hope increased, as
+Pharold, with a small crow bar, gradually loosened the iron from its
+socket in the stone, and yet no one appeared; and as soon as it was
+practicable, the boy, using his whole strength from within, forced out
+the lower end of the bar. The space, however, was not yet large enough
+to give a passage to his shoulders, and the gipsy instantly applied
+himself again to loosen the neighbouring bar. "Oh make haste, make
+haste," cried the youth, with almost frantic eagerness--"make haste,
+Pharold, make haste!"
+
+"Hush!" cried Pharold, sternly, and turned hastily to listen; but at
+the same instant two men sprang upon him. The gipsy struggled to cast
+them off, but his foot slipped, and they both fell with him to the
+ground. Ere he could rise, two more were added to the assailants; and
+finding resistance vain, Pharold instantly abandoned the attempt,
+suffered his arms to be pinioned with a burning heart, and followed
+whither they led him.
+
+Several lights and several figures appeared at the small backdoor to
+which they conducted their prisoner; and more than one lantern was
+raised to his face, and more than one inquisitive countenance stared
+into his, as he was taken through some long stone passages towards the
+very room from which he had been endeavouring to liberate his
+treacherous young companion. The four men who had seized him hurried
+him on, keeping close together, as if afraid that, notwithstanding all
+their efforts, he might still escape. At the door of the strong room
+they paused; and one, producing a key, proceeded to apply it to the
+lock, and to undraw the heavy bolts and bars. Pharold spoke not a
+word; but the moment the door was open, and the light, from some
+lanterns behind, flashed in through the aperture, his eyes sought the
+unhappy youth, whose face was covered with tears.
+
+Pharold had only time to ask himself, "Is he guilty, or is he
+innocent?" when, springing past him and those that conducted him, the
+lad made straight towards the door. One of those behind instantly
+stopped him, exclaiming, "Holla, my lad, where are you going so fast?"
+
+The one who had opened the door, however, turned round almost at the
+same time, crying, "Let him go, let him go; now we have got this one,
+we do not care for the other. Let him be off as fast as he will."
+
+The gipsy's doubts were cleared up in a moment. He saw himself
+betrayed by one of his own people, whom he was in the very act of
+rescuing; he saw himself delivered up by one for whom he had been
+risking so much; he saw his most generous feelings made use of as
+snares to take him; and he believed that she whom he loved more than
+anything on earth was a party to the infamous treachery by which he
+had been entrapped. Oh, how he hated the whole human race!
+
+So deep, so powerful was the agony that he suffered, that, without a
+word, without a movement, he stood upon the spot to which his captors
+thrust him forward, his dark eyes bent upon the ground, his pinioned
+hands clasped together, as if they had been riveted with iron, his
+limbs as motionless as if they had been stone. The people round gazed
+at him, but he saw them not; they taunted and they sneered, but his
+ear was dull. He felt not at that moment the insolent gaze, the brutal
+jest, the loss of liberty, the very hands that wrung his muscles. He
+felt alone that he was betrayed, that his love and his confidence had
+been cheated and dispised. All the rest was nothing. That, that was
+the iron that entered into his soul! Ere he had been there a minute,
+the keeper Harvey, who had not been among those that took him, pushed
+through the gaping crowd, to assure himself that the report which had
+reached him was true. But there was something in the gipsy that the
+man felt and feared, with feelings full of hate, indeed, but nearly
+akin to awe; and when he saw him stand there like a statue, in the
+stern bitterness of utter despair, a faint conception of his
+sensations thrilled even through the coarse mind of the keeper; and
+after a hasty glance, without proffering a word, he made the rest
+retire, and following them himself, locked and barred the door.
+
+At about three o'clock in the morning, those who watched in the gipsy
+encampment were roused by a hasty step, and in a moment after the boy
+William, all panting and wild, stood by the fire. "What news? what
+news?" cried one of the men, eagerly; "where is Pharold?"
+
+"Bad news!" answered the youth, gazing round him with a look of
+bewildered consciousness: "they have caught Pharold as he was helping
+me out of the prison."
+
+"Brown," cried one of the men, approaching a neighbouring
+tent--"Brown, here is bad news; they have caught Pharold, and here is
+Will come back."
+
+Brown instantly started from the hut and came out to the fire: but he
+was not the only one; for Lena's sleepless ear had caught the tidings,
+and she too rushed out, with many others that the noise had awakened.
+Wild apprehension and distress were in her eyes; but she spoke not,
+while Brown proceeded rapidly to question the lad on what had
+occurred. The trembling tone in which he answered might proceed from
+fatigue and agitation at his escape, the varying colour on his cheek
+might be the flash of the newly stirred up blaze; but there was a
+rambling and inconsistent character about the story that he told
+concerning his own escape and the capture of Pharold that raised doubt
+in many. "You rushed past the people," said Brown, after many other
+questions, "and got out even after they had taken Pharold. Did no one
+try to stop you?"
+
+"Yes," answered the lad; "one man did; but I got away from him, too,
+and ran as hard as I could. But why do you look at me so, Lena?" he
+added, unable to bear any longer the keen, fierce glance which she had
+never withdrawn from his face for one moment from the time she had
+first come forth.
+
+"Why do I look at you so?" said the girl, stepping forward boldly
+towards him, and casting back the jetty hair from her forehead while
+she spoke, with a burning cheek and flashing eye, and almost frantic
+vehemence of tone--"why do I look at you so? Because, base traitor,
+you have betrayed him that came to save you--and you know it
+well!--because you have cheated me into persuading him to go;--and oh,
+if such a foolish thing as love for me had any hand in what you have
+done--and I say boldly before them all that I believe it had--may that
+love stay by you to curse you to your latest day! For think not you
+will prosper in your villany--I hate you! I abhor you! I spit upon
+you! and I call God and the heavens to witness, that if there were not
+another man in all the earth I would die sooner than be your wife!
+Cast him out from among us, Brown, cast him out! Dickon was but a
+child in villany to him; Dickon was wilful and violent, but he was not
+base and false; Dickon might be a rebel, but he was never a traitor.
+Cast him out, Brown, cast him out; for the blood of my husband is upon
+him; and I will not dwell in the same tents with him. He cannot deny
+it; his face speaks it; his tale is not even like truth. Oh, my heart
+misgave me when he used so many vows and protestations last night that
+he would not have Pharold put in danger for the world. Truth is more
+simple; and he is a traitor, and the seller of his friend's blood!"
+
+She spoke with all the energy of passion and indignation: her eyes
+flashed, her arms waved, her very form seemed to increase in size with
+the wild vehemence of her feelings; and the unhappy youth in the
+meantime stood before her, with bent head and averted glance, like a
+convicted criminal before his judge.
+
+"You are guilty, William," said Brown, gazing on him with pity,
+mingling a drop or two of milder feeling with the sternness of his
+abhorrence for a crime almost unknown among them,--"you are guilty."
+
+The youth made no answer; and after a pause the other went on:--"You
+must go out from among us, for we cannot shelter a traitor. And yet I
+grieve for you, William, that anything should have tempted you to
+commit such a crime. But still you must go out from among us; for if
+we be not all faithful to each other, in whom can we trust? Yet I
+would not cast you alone upon the world, so that one fault might bring
+on a hundred; and therefore I will send you down to the north country,
+where, on the side of Cheviot, you will find more of our people, among
+whom I have a brother: seek him out, and tell him I sent you to him."
+
+"I will not go there," answered the youth, doggedly--"I will not go
+there, to have this story thrown in my teeth every hour; I will rather
+go and seek out Dickon, and rove with him."
+
+"No, no, Billy, my chick," cried the old woman Gray--"no, no, go down
+to the Yetholmers, as Brown says--a merry set they are, and a free,
+and I will go with you, my lad. I dare say Dickon has gone thither
+already; and, do you hear, Bill, I dare say among the bold young lads
+thereabouts we may be able to get up as fresh a band as this is; and I
+have got a good penny under my cloak, and I will be a mother to you,
+my boy. Then who knows when you are a smart young fellow, with a
+goodly band of your own, whether this young minx here, who has flown
+at you like a wild cat, about that Pharold, who is no great loss any
+how--perhaps she may be sorry enough that she was not more civil."
+
+"I shall be sorry," said Lena, in a less violent, but not less
+determined, tone than she had before used--"I shall be sorry if ever I
+hear the name of such a base and cowardly thing as he is upon this
+earth again."
+
+"Well, well, scornful mistress Lena, you may rue," replied the beldam.
+"What say you, Will, will you take me with you?"
+
+The youth at first had shown no very strong liking for the old woman's
+company; but the hopes of better fortunes which she had held out to
+him, the boldness with which she had taken his part, the stern and
+reproachful looks of all around, and the feeling that he was parting
+for ever from all those with whom his life had hitherto been spent,
+made him willing to cling to any fragment of familiar things which
+would remain with him to soften the breaking of all accustomed ties.
+His conscience, too, reproached him bitterly with what he had done;
+and the company of any one would have been preferable to solitude with
+his own heart. Willingly, therefore, he caught at her proposal; and
+drawing himself up, prepared to steel himself against the contempt of
+his comrades, while the old woman went to make her brief preparations:
+but he saw nothing around but the stern, cold looks of persons who, in
+hatred and scorn, were waiting to see his departure. It was more than
+he could bear; and, calling to the old woman to follow him down the
+stream, he turned sullenly away, and walked slowly on without a word
+of adieu to any one.
+
+"Brown," said Lena, laying her hand upon the gipsy's arm--"Brown, I
+know what I am going to ask is in vain, for Pharold, when he went,
+felt the shadow of death upon him, and I am a widow; but did he not
+tell you any way to rescue him, if he should be taken? He spoke with
+you long, and he said to me, too, that there was some way that might
+deliver him, though he spoke not clearly. Oh, if it be so, and he have
+told you how, lose no time, spare no exertion; for though, God knows,
+I was deceived by that base villain's artful speeches, and believed
+that my husband was safe, yet I feel--although I know my innocence of
+thought, or word, or deed--I feel as if I were guilty of his death."
+
+"No, no, Lena, no, no. We all know that you are not," answered Brown,
+in a kindly tone; "but go you to your tent, poor girl, and trust to me
+to do every thing to rescue Pharold that can be done. First, I will
+try the only means that he himself pointed out. I will follow his
+directions to the letter. Then, if that should fail, I will try what
+strength of arm can do; for I will not let him be lost if I can save
+him. He was a good man, and a wonderful man, Lena. We shall never see
+his like among us."
+
+Lena burst into tears: they were the first that she had shed, but they
+were too bitter for any restraint; and turning to her tent, she gave
+way to them in solitude. In the mean time Brown turned to call one of
+the younger gipsies, who, on more than one occasion, had been
+Pharold's messenger, to inquire after Edward de Vaux; but ere the
+young man had joined him, Mother Gray, as she was called, tottered up,
+with a bundle on her arm, to bid him adieu.
+
+"Fare ye well, Brown," she said; "fare ye well. I hope you may make a
+better head of the people than Pharold has been: a pretty mess he has
+got us all into here. I hope you may do better; but I doubt it, for
+you were great cronies, and would never listen to what I advised. So I
+am going to people who know how to manage matters better."
+
+"Get ye gone, then, old mischief-maker," answered Brown; "get ye gone,
+and the sooner your back is turned upon us the better. I have seen
+nothing prosper yet with which you had any thing to do; and I dare
+prophesy that those people will never know peace or happiness where
+you are suffered to meddle. So get you gone, and Heaven send you a
+better heart and judgment. And now," he continued, speaking to the
+young man who had come up, "tell me, Arral, have you not been for
+Pharold to a house on the other side of the hill--the house of one
+Harley?"
+
+"To be sure," answered the young man, "I have been four times."
+
+"Then come with me thither, now," answered Brown, "and lead me by the
+shortest way, for I would be there, if possible, before day-break."
+
+"That is not possible, Brown," answered the other; "for it wants less
+than an hour of the light, and go as you will it will take two hours
+and a half."
+
+"We must do our best," answered Brown, "and can do no more. Go on.
+Keep together, my lads," he continued, turning to the rest of the
+gipsies,--"keep together till I come back, which will be before the
+sun is more than half-way up. But have everything ready to go in case
+of need."
+
+Thus saying, he followed his guide; and pursuing very nearly the path
+by which Pharold had returned, he arrived in about two hours and a
+half at the same house to which Colonel Manners had been conducted. By
+this time, however, the sun had been long above the horizon; and when,
+after walking through the little shrubbery, they approached the door
+of the dwelling, a carriage and four smoking horses, with two servants
+in Mrs. Falkland's livery, were seen standing before the house. The
+gipsies, however, made their way boldly on, and rang the bell. This
+intimation was instantly answered by the servant, and, while they
+were still speaking to him, a shrill cry--evidently from a woman's
+lips--rang through the passage. Ere the servant could ask their
+business, a door on the right was thrown open, and the fine head of
+Sir William Ryder appeared, exclaiming, "Henry, Henry! Bring water!
+She has fainted!"
+
+A few moments of bustle and confusion succeeded, during which the
+gipsies were allowed to remain with the door open, and without any of
+those suspicious precautions which the very fact of their race would
+have excited against them in any other dwelling. At length the servant
+returned; and Brown's first question was, "Is the gentleman who was
+hurt worse?"
+
+"No, much better!" answered the servant, "and you may tell Mr.
+Pharold--"
+
+"I can tell him nothing," interrupted Brown, "for that is what I have
+come here to say--that his enemies have caught him; and that, if Mr.
+Harley would save him, he must bestir himself speedily."
+
+"Indeed!" said the servant, "indeed! that will not be good news to my
+master's ear; but I must break in upon him to tell it nevertheless.
+Wait a minute, my friends, and I will go and see what he says."
+
+The servant then entered the room where his master was, and from which
+proceeded the sounds of eager voices speaking. A moment or two after
+the door again opened, and the gipsies were joined by the person they
+sought. Their story was soon told, and easily understood; and the brow
+of their auditor knit into more than one deep wrinkle, as they spoke.
+
+"I will bestir myself," he said, in answer to Brown; "I will bestir
+myself, and that instantly too. So rest satisfied in regard to your
+friend's fate; for, be assured, that I can break the net in which
+they have entangled him as easily as I could a spider's web; and I
+will do it, too, with less remorse than I would the toils of the
+hunter-insect. I will not lose a moment. Henry, have horses to the
+carriage, and let me know when it is here."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+"Has the parson come?" demanded the low faint voice of Sir Roger
+Millington, as he turned round from a brief and half-delirious doze,
+on the morning after Pharold's capture: "has the parson come?"
+
+"Not yet, sir," answered a sick-nurse, who was now the only person
+left to attend him. "It is not ten minutes ago since you first told me
+to send for him."
+
+"I thought it had been much longer," said the dying man. "But what is
+all that noise in the house? They seem as if they were making all the
+disturbance that they could, on purpose to kill me with the headache."
+
+"I dare say, sir, it is some of the other magistrates come, sir,"
+answered the nurse; "for last night it seems they caught the gipsy,
+Pharold; and, when I went down to send for Dr. Edwards, his lordship
+was sitting in the great parlour with Mr. Arden, waiting for two other
+magistrates to make examination, as I think they call it. I should
+scarcely have dared to send else--that is, if I had not known he had
+his hands full for many a good hour, because you see, sir, he forbade
+any one to let Dr. Edwards see you, whether you wished it or not."
+
+"Ah! did he so?" said the dying man, bitterly; and then, after a long
+pause, he added, "but he would not care about it now, my good woman.
+That declaration that he teased me into making last night, was all
+that he wanted; and now I may die when I like--with or without benefit
+of clergy?" and he groaned faintly and sadly at his bitter jest upon
+himself. "But do you think I am dying, woman?" He went on, "I have
+lost all the pain; but I am fearfully weak; and my legs and feet have
+no feeling in them. Do you think I am dying? Ha, nurse, what does the
+doctor say?"
+
+"He says you are very bad, sir; but he hopes--" replied the nurse.
+
+"Pshaw!" interrupted the other; "you have been tutored too. I wish the
+parson would come; he would tell me the truth."
+
+"I am sure I wish he would too," cried the woman; "for he knows better
+than I what ought to be said to you, sir."
+
+"Ah, I see how it is, I see how it is," cried the unhappy man; "I am
+dying, and they have kept it from me till they had got all that they
+sought;" and, like the stricken king of Israel, he turned his face to
+the wall, while one or two hot and bitter drops scorched his eyelids,
+and trickled over his cheeks. After a long silence, however, he again
+turned towards the woman, saying, "He is very long; I wish to God he
+would come! I have a great deal that lies heavy at my heart; and I
+would fain hear some words of comfort before I die. You do not think
+he will be frightened away by what that rascally lord has said?"
+
+"Ah! no, sir; no fear!" answered the nurse; "Dr. Edwards is not a man
+to be frightened away by any body or any thing, so long as he thinks
+he's doing his duty. He is not one of that sort, sir. Why, last year,
+when the terrible catching fever was raging down in the village, and
+every one that took it died, he was night and day at the bedsides of
+the poor people that had it, although the doctor told him a thousand
+times that he was risking his own precious life: but he saw that it
+gave them more comfort than any thing to see him; and so he went at
+all hours, and into all places."
+
+"I wish he would come," groaned the dying man; "I wish he would come."
+
+Almost as he spoke, there was a cautious step in the anteroom, and the
+lock of the door turned under the quiet noiseless hand of one
+evidently accustomed to the chambers of the sick. The next moment the
+clergyman entered, and advanced closely towards the bed, although his
+heated brow and quick breathing showed that he had lost no time in
+obeying the summons he had received. He was a man between sixty and
+seventy, with scanty white hair covering thinly a high broad forehead,
+across which the cares and sorrows of others, more than his own, had
+traced two or three deep furrows. His countenance was grave, but mild;
+and his eyes full of both the light of feeling and the light of sense.
+
+The nurse rose up from the chair in which she had been sitting at the
+pillow of the dying man, and Dr. Edwards quietly took her place,
+without appearing to see that Sir Roger Millington was eying him from
+head to foot; and, notwithstanding his situation, was comparing the
+person before him with the prejudiced image of a _parson_, which
+habits of vice had alone enabled his imagination to draw.
+
+"I am much obliged to you for admitting me, my dear sir," said the
+rector, in a kindly tone. "How do you feel yourself? Are you in less
+pain than when I last saw you?"
+
+"Yes, I am in less pain, sir," answered the other; "but I rather
+believe that is no good sign. At least they told me, when I was in
+torture, that pain was a good omen for my recovery; and now I am in no
+pain at all, I suppose it is a bad one."
+
+"I am not sure that it is a good one," answered the clergyman gravely;
+"but at all events it has this good with it, that it leaves your mind
+and faculties perfectly free to consider fully your situation, and to
+take whatever measures, temporal or spiritual, may be necessary for
+your comfort and consolation."
+
+"Ay, that is what I want to come to, Dr. Edwards," answered Sir Roger,
+"and I am glad you have come to it at once. But first tell me--and I
+adjure you by Heaven to tell me true, for these people deceive me--am
+I dying, or am I not?"
+
+"I would have answered you truly without any adjuration," answered the
+clergyman. "None can, sir, or ought to say to another that it is
+impossible he can recover; for God can and does show us every day the
+fallacy of our judgment in the things that we best comprehend: but I
+do believe that you are in such a situation that it were wise to
+prepare yourself for another world without loss of time."
+
+"Then I am dying," said Sir Roger, solemnly.
+
+"I am afraid you are," answered the clergyman. "To deceive you would
+be a crime: your surgeon has himself told me that human skill can do
+nothing for you."
+
+Sir Roger Millington drew his hand over his eyes, and groaned heavily;
+but after a brief pause he withdrew the white colourless fingers
+again; and looking steadfastly at the clergyman, said, "It is a
+terrible thing to die, sir; more terrible than I thought. I have
+fought in more than one battle, sir, and have had my single affairs
+too; but I never found out how terrible a thing death is till I came
+to lie here, and see life flow away from me drop by drop."
+
+"Because in no other case had you time for thought," answered Dr.
+Edwards; "but, believe me, oh! believe me, that the very time for
+thought which you seem to regard as an evil, is the greatest mercy of
+Heaven. Few, even of the very best of us, if any, can keep his heart
+and mind in such a condition of preparation, as to be ready to pass
+from this state of mortal sin into life eternal, and to the immediate
+presence of a pure and perfect Being, who, though he is merciful, is
+likewise just, and will by no means leave the impenitent transgressor
+unpunished. No man, my dear sir, when he has years and days before
+him, should trust to the efficacy of a deathbed repentance--a moment
+which perhaps may not be granted to him; but when a man has gone on in
+thoughtless neglect, through the vigour of careless existence, and
+unexpectedly finds himself at the end of life with only a few short
+hours between him and that judgment-seat, where nothing can be
+concealed and nothing palliated, he may then take unto himself the
+blessed hope that repentance never comes too late, that our Saviour
+himself showed upon the cross that the last hour, the very last
+minute, of human life may yet obtain forgiveness of all the offences
+of the past, by evincing true repentance, founded on true faith."
+
+"But how can I show either true repentance or true faith?" exclaimed
+the dying man, with a peevish movement of the hand. "All I can do
+is, to say I am very sorry for everything I have done wrong; and
+that I believe the religion in which I was educated to be the true
+one--although I have thought very little about it, since I was a boy
+at school. But it is no use! it is no use talking!" he added, seeing
+the clergyman about to reply; "I have done many a thing, especially
+lately, that cannot be forgiven--for which I shall never forgive
+myself; and so, how can I expect God to forgive them, who is better
+than I am, and who never knew what it was to be tempted as I have
+been?"
+
+"You _can_ expect God to forgive them, _because he is_ better than you
+are, and because we have an intercessor at his throne, who has known
+what it is to be tempted, even as we are; because we have a mediator
+in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was rendered subject to
+temptation a thousand-fold more terrible than any that we can endure,
+in order that he might obtain forgiveness for even the greatest of
+sinners, who truly repents him of the evil he has done. Indeed,
+indeed, you greatly err in your ideas of God's mercy. But we had
+better, I think be left alone;" and he made a sign to the nurse, who
+immediately retired into the anteroom.
+
+"I am sure," said the wounded man, feeling, in some degree, the effect
+of such consolatory hopes--"I am sure I do most sincerely repent of
+some things that I have done within this last week, and indeed all
+that I have done throughout the course of my life that is evil; and I
+do think, now that it is too late to mend it, that if I had taken a
+different course, and acted in another manner on many occasions, I
+should not only have been more comfortable now, but a happier man
+altogether."
+
+"Doubt it not! doubt it not!" said the clergyman. "Those that sow in
+sin shall reap in bitterness: but still have good hope: the very
+conviction of the magnitude of your sins which you seem to entertain,
+is the first great step to sincere repentance; and sincere repentance
+once obtained, the atonement is already prepared in heaven--the
+abundance of God's mercy is ready to blot out our iniquity from before
+his sight."
+
+"Ah, but there are many things very heavy on my heart and my
+conscience!" said the other. "Tell me, Doctor Edwards, tell me," he
+added, in a gloomy and anxious tone, "tell me, can a man who has said
+that and done that, which can take away the life of another upon a
+false charge, hope to be saved?"
+
+The clergyman half started from his seat; and the other, sinking down
+again on the bed from which he had partially raised himself, exclaimed
+bitterly--"I see how it is! I see how it is--no hope for me--and so I
+will die as I have lived, boldly, without thinking about it."
+
+"You greatly mistake me," cried the clergyman; "I wished to imply
+nothing of the kind."
+
+"No, no," said Sir Roger, "say no more--I saw it in your face. I can
+easily imagine that a man may be pardoned for running another through,
+when they were hand to hand--I remember many people in the Bible that
+did the same--and I doubt not that many another little sin might be
+forgiven; but for taking a man's life that never hurt one, by a
+cold-blooded cowardly lie--I dare say that there is no forgiveness for
+that!" and as he spoke he drew his breath hard, and set his teeth, as
+if working himself up to meet the worst.
+
+"God makes no such distinctions, as far as he has revealed himself to
+us," answered Dr. Edwards. "Murder, whether committed with the steel,
+or the poison, or the falsehood, is equally murder in his eyes. I was
+indeed surprised to hear you charge yourself with such a crime; but I
+repeat what I said before, that for that, as for every other sin,
+there is abundant mercy in heaven for him that sincerely repents him
+of the evil--"
+
+He paused; but the knight made no reply, and remained with a
+contracted brow, a muttering lip and a wandering eye, struggling
+between two opposite states of feeling,--the habitual daring which
+despair had again called to his aid, and the fear of death, and
+judgment after death. "Let me urge you," continued the clergyman, when
+he perceived that he did not make any reply--"let me urge you to
+consider for one moment what must be the state of him who, under the
+circumstances which you have named, neglects the only opportunity
+allowed him for repentance, and suffers the few short moments granted
+mercifully for that purpose to escape unemployed. Remember, sir, that
+death is not sleep! that the moment the eyes are closed on this world
+they open on another! Remember that the disembodied spirit, freed from
+the frailties and the motives of the flesh, must of necessity feel, in
+all their bitterness and blackness, the crimes which here we can
+palliate to ourselves, as well as conceal from others!--Remember that,
+with feelings thus heightened, with eyes thus unblinded, the man who
+has committed the crime which you mention, and has neglected to repent
+of it fully, must go into the presence of the omniscient Creator, to
+meet, in the face of thousands of worlds, the being whom his falsehood
+and his baseness had destroyed--that he must hear his crimes
+proclaimed in the ears of all, must listen to his eternal
+condemnation, and must bear unceasing punishment, the never-dying
+consciousness, not only of the crime that he has committed, but of
+having neglected the opportunity of repentance--of having castaway the
+mercy offered even to the last hour of life. Think, think of his
+horror and his shame, and his torture, and his remorse, and, oh!
+choose the better path, and, even at the eleventh hour, repent and be
+saved!"
+
+The dying man writhed under the picture of the future presented to his
+mind, a picture which he had ever contrived to shut out from his own
+eyes; but now, as the reality was about to present itself,--as but few
+short hours, he felt too well, only intervened between him and the
+fulfilment of all,--the conviction of its truth and its awfulness
+forced itself upon his heart, even to agony; and with clasped hands,
+as the clergyman concluded, he cried out, almost in the words of the
+Jewish lawyer, "What shall I do to be saved?"
+
+"Repent sincerely," answered Dr. Edwards; "and as the first great
+proof of your repentance, make whatever atonement you can yet make for
+the very horrible crime with which you charge yourself--"
+
+"I can, I can make atonement!" cried the dying man, raising himself
+joyfully on his hand as the thought was suggested to his mind; "I
+can--I can make atonement, and I feel that then I shall die in peace.
+I can save the innocent,--I can punish the guilty,--and I will do
+both, if God gives me two hours more of life."
+
+"Such indeed will be the earnest of a true repentance," cried the
+clergyman, "and it is thus that a deathbed repentance can alone be
+confided in as efficacious. I wish not to pry into the secrets of your
+heart, sir, any further than may be necessary for the purpose of
+affording you advice and consolation. We believe that the ear of God
+is ever open to our confessions as to our petitions, and therefore
+that to him they should be made; but if I can aid you in carrying into
+effect your purpose of full atonement, command me; and be sure that no
+earthly consideration of either fear or hope will induce me to pause
+or waver in the execution of my duty. I say what I have just done,
+because an evident desire has been shown by those who should know
+better, to hold you back from the only true way to peace of mind. God
+forgive me! if my suspicions wrong any man; but before I came to-day,
+I thought the conduct pursued towards me strange; and now that I have
+heard so much from your own lips, I think it more than strange."
+
+"And you think right," said Sir Roger. "It is more than strange, but
+it is all part of a plan. I see it all now--I see it all. He--he--Lord
+Dewry concealed from me at the first that I was dangerously hurt. He
+would not let me see you or any one else who would have dared to tell
+me so, because he was afraid I should blab. He would not let me have
+my papers over from Dewry Hall, pretending they had been forgotten;
+because he was afraid that I should destroy those we had manufactured
+between us; and last night, when I was half delirious, and would have
+signed away my soul for an hour's quiet and rest, he tormented me till
+I made a declaration before witnesses, that I had received a note from
+a man who never gave it me, and that this gipsy Pharold, whom they
+have now got below, was one of those who fired when I was wounded;
+though in truth I believe he did not come up till after."
+
+"This is horrible, indeed!" said the clergyman, not a little agitated
+by the very painful tidings that he heard. "But let me beg you, sir,
+as you hope for pardon and eternal life in that world to which you
+must soon depart--let me beg you instantly to take measures to remedy
+the evil that you have been seduced into committing."
+
+"Yes, yes, I will do my best to remedy it," answered the dying
+man, whose passions were now excited against the seducer who had led
+him forward to crimes from which even his mind had shrunk, all
+accustomed as it was to evil of a less glaring kind. "Yes, I will do
+my best.--Ay, and he affected to feel so much pity and friendship for
+me too, till he got what he wanted, and now he has not been near me
+all day. Ay, ay! and he promised me every thing on earth that could
+make life happy to me, when he knew that I was dying:--but he shall
+not triumph in his villany. No, no!"
+
+Although the clergyman was very willing that justice should be done,
+yet even that consideration was secondary in his mind to the wish of
+leading the unhappy man before him into a better train of feeling ere
+he passed to things eternal. "By all means," he said, "let us proceed
+as fast as possible to make the atonement that you speak of, and to
+secure justice to the oppressed and innocent man you mention; but in
+doing so, my dear sir, do not forget for one moment your present
+situation. Let not wrath, or disappointment, or irritation, influence
+you. Let your sole motive be, as far as human nature is capable of
+controlling and purifying its motives, the desire of showing, by full
+atonement, that repentance which, with faith in the merits of your
+Saviour, may be effectual to salvation."
+
+"Well, well, I will do my best!" answered the dying man. "But let us
+make haste, for I am beginning to feel faint; and there is a dimness
+comes occasionally across my eyes, and a rush like water in my ears,
+that disturbs me. How shall we set about it, Dr. Edwards?"
+
+"The best way will be to call in witnesses," answered the clergyman,
+"and to draw up before them a complete statement of everything that
+you think proper to reveal, therein setting forth that you are
+perfectly aware of your situation, and that you are in a competent
+state of mind for making such a declaration. I myself am a magistrate,
+although I seldom act; and will give the document every formality in
+my power."
+
+"Ay, but the witnesses! the witnesses, sir!" said Sir Roger; "I am
+afraid that he may come in every minute and disturb the whole."
+
+"There is no fear of that, I believe," answered the clergyman. "In the
+first place, I would not permit such an interruption, were he a
+monarch; and in the next place, I was told that he and several
+magistrates were assembled to examine some prisoners before
+committal."
+
+"Ay, it is Pharold, the object of all his hate, that they have got
+hold of," replied Sir Roger; "and they will have him off to jail on
+the very things I stated against him."
+
+"Then, indeed, no time is to be lost!" answered Dr. Edwards. "The
+surgeon was to follow me here very soon; for I left him in the
+village. His assistant and the nurse are in the next room; and I am
+not sure that I did not hear his step also come in a moment ago. Thus
+we shall have sufficient witnesses, and one who can testify to your
+mind being clear and unbiassed. Shall I call them in?"
+
+Sir Roger gave a sign of assent; and gazed eagerly towards the door to
+which the clergyman proceeded, as if he feared that some one else
+might be without. No one was in the anteroom, however, but the
+surgeon, his assistant, and the nurse; and Dr. Edwards having called
+them in, and briefly stated his object, they approached the bed, and
+the assistant, having obtained writing materials, seated himself as
+near the sick man as possible, to take down his exact words. Sir Roger
+was about to begin, but the clergyman interposed:--"One moment, my
+friend," he said mildly; "we must not forget our care for your eternal
+salvation, under any other consideration. Let us pray to God that the
+spirit under which this declaration is made may be the spirit of
+truth, divested by his grace of human passions and frailties, that the
+repentance of which it is the fruit may be pure and sincere, and may
+be accepted;" and kneeling down, he offered a short but emphatic
+prayer, so full of simple and unaffected piety, that Sir Roger
+Millington found feelings springing up in his heart which he had not
+known for years, and which made the warm drops rise into his eyes.
+
+The knight then proceeded in a voice, faint and agitated indeed, but
+nevertheless one which, in the profound silence that reigned around,
+could be distinctly heard. He took up his tale in years long back; he
+related how, in better times and circumstances, he had won a large sum
+from Sir William Ryder and the Honourable Mr. De Vaux. The first, he
+added, had always the character of a frank, open-hearted, but gay and
+thoughtless young man; the latter that of one whose keen shrewdness
+would have ensured him the highest fortunes, if the violence of his
+passions had not on many occasions marred his best-laid plans. The
+day, he said, had been fixed for the payment of the money, and it had
+been shrewdly suspected that there would be difficulty in procuring
+it; but the very day previous to that appointed for the discharge of
+the debt, Mr. De Vaux's brother was murdered; and, consequently, that
+gentleman succeeding to his title and estates, the payment was made
+without delay.
+
+He then passed over at once the twenty succeeding years, and briefly
+but distinctly recapitulated all that had taken place since; he had
+come down from London, in the hope of mending his broken fortunes by
+an application to the wealthy peer.
+
+All this, however, has been already detailed, and needs not
+repetition, though it caused more than one glance of surprise and
+grief to pass between the clergyman and the surgeon. Nevertheless, for
+the time, they made no comment, but suffered the dying man to proceed
+uninterrupted as long as he seemed inclined to go on. When he paused,
+however, and looked round feebly towards the clergyman, as if to
+ask,--"Have I done enough?"--Dr. Edwards rejoined, "If you will permit
+me, sir, I will ask you one or two questions, to which, of course, you
+will answer or not, as you think fit. This young gentleman will take
+them down, however. They shall be short," he added, seeing a look of
+impatience cross the sick man's face; "may I ask, did his lordship
+assign any reason for the enmity he showed towards the gipsy Pharold,
+and for taking such unjustifiable steps to destroy him?"
+
+"He said that he was sure that he, Pharold, had been the real murderer
+of his brother," answered Sir Roger; "but I have my own thoughts upon
+the subject." He paused, as if hesitating whether to proceed or not;
+and the clergyman paused too, for the mind of every one present had
+been led towards a suspicion so dreadful, that each felt a degree of
+awe at the thought of hearing his own doubts confirmed by those of
+another. At length, however, Sir Roger Millington raised himself upon
+his elbow, as if he had made up his mind to a painful effort, and
+fixing his dim and hollow eyes upon the clergyman, he said, in slow
+but solemn tone, "That was what he told me; but, as I am going into
+the presence of the Almighty, and casting away all malice against the
+man, I declare, that I believe he himself was the murderer of his
+brother, that Pharold knows it, and that such is the cause why he
+persecutes him even to death. Write that down, young man, for although
+I cannot discover all the links in the chain, nor all the motives of
+his cunning heart, yet it is fit they should be inquired into, and
+that the innocent should be delivered."
+
+The assistant wrote, and read what he had written, and the knight made
+an impatient sign for the paper and the pen. When they were given to
+him, he scrawled his name faintly at the bottom. "And now, doctor," he
+said, looking towards the surgeon, "you certify there, that this
+declaration was made by me, when I had all my senses about me as fully
+as if I were in perfect health; and you, Dr. Edwards, certify that, at
+the time I made it, I knew that I was dying, and did it as the only
+proof I could give of my sincere repentance for many sins, of which
+the paper he wrung from me last night was not among the least. You may
+well say that I know I am near my end," he continued, "for I believe
+that I am nearer it than any one thinks."
+
+"Take a little wine and water, Sir Roger," said the surgeon, looking
+at him, and remarking that strange and awful grayness, which generally
+precedes dissolution, coming like the shadow of some unseen cloud over
+the sick man's face; "take a little wine and water. It can do you no
+harm."
+
+"I know that too well!" answered the other, in a hollow voice,
+drinking the draught which the nurse handed him. "It can neither do me
+harm nor good--for it is all passing away." The wine seemed, however,
+to revive him for a moment, and he eagerly besought the clergyman to
+take the paper which had just been signed to the magistrates assembled
+below. "Let them not pursue their injustice even so far," he said, "as
+to send an innocent man to jail. I have been in a jail myself, and
+know what it is."
+
+"I think," answered Dr. Edwards, "that perhaps I maybe of more service
+with you here; for now that you have proved your repentance really,
+let me strive to assure you all the comforts thereof. I have much to
+say to you--much consolation and hope yet to hold out to you, if you
+will permit me."
+
+"Oh! yes; stay, stay, by all means," said the wounded man; "do not you
+leave me. He can take it to them: for he can do this wretched carcass
+no good now: let him take it;" and he pointed with his finger towards
+the nurse, though, beyond doubt, it was the surgeon he intended to
+designate, distinctly showing that his sight had failed, though his
+power of hearing still remained.
+
+"Perhaps you will have the kindness to do so," said Dr. Edwards,
+speaking to the surgeon; "but take care that it does not get into the
+hands of any one who may suppress it; for though we can all bear
+witness to the contents, yet the document itself is most valuable. I
+think I heard that Mr. Simpson was among the magistrates below. If so,
+give it into his own hand; for, though a calm and quiet man, he has
+much good sense and much firmness. But let us fold it up and seal it
+first."
+
+The surgeon undertook the task, though, it must be confessed, not very
+willingly, for he loved not to do any thing to any one that might
+afford matter of offence. He spent some time in inquiring where the
+magistrates were, and some time in consulting with a constable at the
+door of the great hall whether it would be proper for him to go in. In
+short, at length, as he had just made up his mind, and had his hand
+upon the lock, the nurse whom he had left with the sick man, and who
+thought it absolutely necessary that he should be present at a
+patient's death, came eagerly to tell him that the unhappy Sir Roger
+Millington was in the last agonies. It was too good an excuse for
+shifting upon another an unpleasant duty to be lost; and, putting the
+paper into the constable's hand, he bade him go in and deliver it
+directly into the hands of Mr. Simpson the magistrate. The man
+received the commission as a matter of course, and proceeded to
+execute it, while the surgeon returned to the sick room. He opened the
+door--all was still--the assistants stood holding back the curtain,
+and gazing fixedly in--the clergyman was kneeling by the bedside, with
+his eyes raised towards heaven.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+While the dark and solemn scene of death had been passing above, with
+half-closed windows and a darkened apartment, events scarcely less
+painful had been taking place below, in the broad light of a clear
+autumn day.
+
+Six magistrates, whom Lord Dewry, with the usual overacting of
+conscious guilt, had invited, in order to give every appearance of
+impartiality and justice to his unjust designs, dropped in one by one,
+and were ushered into the chamber where the peer sat waiting with
+burning impatience for the arrival of the whole. Totally indifferent
+to the business themselves, each as he came in tortured the baron with
+light and impertinent gossip,--of the weather, of the harvest, of the
+prospects of the country, of the new fashion of dress swords, and the
+exquisite effect of Marechal hair-powder; and forced him into
+conversation while his heart was full of deep stern thoughts, that
+abhorred the idle topics on which he was expected to speak. Some,
+however, mentioned his son, and congratulated him on the rumour of his
+safety, which had already spread over the county: and here alone the
+peer found matter on which he could converse feelingly; for the news
+of his child's safety had come to him, in the midst of the fiery
+passions that were agitating his bosom, like the thought of a drop
+of cold water to Dives in the midst of his torments. Each of his
+visiters wished to know more than general rumour had already told, and
+many were the inquiries in regard to how Captain de Vaux had been
+wounded, and who Mr. Harley could be, who had lately taken the house
+at Little ----. Of all this, however, Lord Dewry could tell them
+nothing. Colonel Manners's letter had been as laconic as possible;
+and, therefore, the peer could merely reply, that it appeared the
+wound had been received by accident, but that he intended to go over,
+in order to hear more, as soon as they had concluded the business on
+which they were assembling.
+
+At length the number was complete; and Lord Dewry, having asked the
+servant who ushered in the last tardy magistrate if all were prepared,
+proposed that they should proceed to the old justice-room, where they
+would find everything ready for them.
+
+"The old justice-room!" cried bluff Mr. Arden; "I have not been in
+there for many a year, my lord. But I have seen many a thing done
+there, in my young days, that we should not dare to do now. They did
+not mince the matter in those times; and I remember in the year
+forty-five--now some three or four-and-twenty years ago--it was quite
+enough to be _strongly suspected_ for a man to find his way to prison
+very soon, without all these examinations and investigations. But they
+are cutting down our powers every day, gentlemen. 'Pon my soul, I
+think, when they have cut off every other part of my magisterial
+rights, they will cut off the tails of my coat, for the _better
+protection of the subject_, as they call it."
+
+A loud laugh followed; and thus with mirth and merriment they
+proceeded along the passages of a house, where despair and indignant
+grief waited anxiously in one room, and suffering, remorse, and death
+tenanted another. Preceded by two or three regular constables, they
+reached the little vestibule before the door of the justice-room,
+where fifteen or sixteen persons were assembled, anxious to witness
+the proceedings. They had not, however, been admitted without
+selection; and among them were to be seen none but small tenants and
+dependants of the lord of the mansion. The little crowd drew back as
+the magistrates approached; and, the folding-doors being thrown open,
+they entered the large old-fashioned hall, which had been prepared for
+their reception. It formed, as has been before said, a long
+parallelogram at the extreme of the building, built out upon the high
+bank to the west, and had probably been designed originally for a
+chapel. Four tall windows on either side rendered the aspect of the
+whole light and cheerful; and from the south-east the sun, as bright
+and warm as in the height of summer, was pouring a flood of glorious
+light, which streamed in long oblique rays of misty splendour across
+the perspective of the hall. A table, covered with the various
+implements for writing, crossed the farther extremity of the
+apartment; and beyond it was an array of chairs for the magistrates,
+while at each end was a seat for the clerks; and a smaller table,
+also, under one of the south-east windows, was furnished with paper
+and pens for another secretary. The windows on that side were open,
+and the warm soft breath of the southerly wind was felt fanning the
+cheek, and breathing of nothing but peace, and gentleness, and
+tranquillity.
+
+The magistrates proceeded to their places, and each taking a seat,
+left the chair in the centre vacant for the peer; but he, however,
+declined it, and begged Mr. Arden, as the senior, to preside at their
+proceedings.
+
+"Nay, nay, my lord," replied the bluff old squire; "your official
+station in the county, as much as your rank, gives you the
+precedence."
+
+"In the present instance, however, my dear sir," replied Lord Dewry,
+"I must appear before you as a private individual, as I am here in
+some sort as the accuser, and if you find cause to commit the
+prisoner, I must become the prosecutor. Therefore, I will sit here
+beside you, but without exercising any official authority in a matter
+where I am in a degree a party."
+
+"The prisoner cannot say that your lordship has not every disposition
+to give him impartial justice," answered Mr. Arden, taking the vacant
+chair. "You would have him let off before, when I would certainly have
+committed him; and now you will not exercise your authority where he
+is concerned. Let him be brought in, however. Constables, bring in the
+prisoner." Two men instantly departed from the farther end of the hall
+for that purpose, and while they were gone some formal business was
+transacted, the clerks received their instructions, and one or two of
+the magistrates looked into Blackstone's new work, the volumes of
+which had been scattered about upon the table. At length a murmur and
+the sound of footsteps were heard, and the doors being again opened,
+the constables re-entered, followed by the persons who had been
+waiting without, reinforced by several of the servants of the peer, as
+well as by the footmen and grooms who had accompanied the magistrates
+thither. The principal object of the whole group, however, was of
+course the prisoner Pharold, and on him every eye was instantly fixed.
+Walking between the two constables, who did not attempt to hold him,
+he advanced boldly up the middle of the hall, and with a slight
+contraction of the brow, and curl of the lip, gazed on the party
+assembled to interrogate him with stern and fearless calmness. His
+wrists were handcuffed, but no other restraint was put upon him; and
+when he had advanced within a few yards of the table at which the
+magistrates were seated, he paused of his own will, and waited as if
+in expectation of what was to follow, merely turning round to some of
+the crowd who followed, saying, sternly, "Do not press upon me; you
+are near enough."
+
+Mr. Arden put on his spectacles, and after gazing for a moment or two
+at the prisoner, he turned towards Lord Dewry, and said, "My lord,
+will your lordship be good enough to state the charge against this
+man; as of course that part of the business referring to the murder of
+your son must be dropped, since it fortunately turns out that he is
+alive. There are, however, I think, still two serious charges to be
+disposed of, and probably our best plan will be to examine into them
+separately: by separately, I mean, distinct from each other, though,
+as many of us have come some distance, we had better go into both ere
+we depart."
+
+Lord Dewry paused for several minutes ere he replied; and looked over
+some papers which he had laid upon the table before him; but in truth
+a momentary feeling of doubt and embarrassment crossed his mind. He
+had determined most positively to urge against the gipsy the death of
+his brother; he had arranged all his plans for that purpose; he had
+matured them perfectly; he had secured, as far as human ingenuity
+could go, every link of the chain; and nothing remained but to cast it
+boldly round his victim; and yet, at the very moment of execution, a
+doubt and apprehension, a sort of prophetic hesitation, seemed to
+seize him, and he wished that it had been possible to abandon the
+charge of the murder of his predecessor, and to confine his accusation
+to the deer-stealing and the death of Sir Roger Millington, which was
+now, as he well knew, so near, as to effect all that could be wished,
+by rendering the charge against Pharold capital.
+
+He wavered for a moment, then, but he saw that the very wish to give
+up an accusation so boldly made would appear suspicious, if any one
+discovered it; and turning to Mr. Arden with a faint smile, he asked,
+"With which of these charges had I better commence, my dear sir? The
+one which is susceptible of the most immediate proof is that referring
+to the recent offence."
+
+"No, no, my lord," replied the magistrate, "take them in the order of
+their dates. Let us get rid of the ancient business before we begin
+the other. 'Tis well to be off with the old love before we be on with
+the new, my lord."
+
+"As you think fit," answered the peer, somewhat disappointed at the
+magistrate's decision, but determined, as he must proceed, to proceed
+boldly. "Well, then, my charge is as follows:--that the prisoner
+Pharold, now before you, did, on the 18th day of May, in the year
+17--, feloniously and with malice aforethought put to death my
+unfortunate brother, the late Lord Dewry, in or near that part of the
+road from Morley village to Green Hampton, which crosses the wood
+called Morley Wood; and I am now ready to produce sufficient evidence
+to induce you to commit the prisoner to the county jail for trial."
+
+While he spoke, the gipsy's eye rested on him with a glance so stern,
+so keen, so searching, that he felt as if the dreadful secret of his
+bosom--all its motives and all its feelings, its doubts, its
+apprehensions, its remorse, its complicated plans and subtle
+contrivances, were undergoing, one by one, the examination of that
+dark, fixed regard. Though he looked towards the prisoner as little as
+possible, yet the gipsy's eye was a load upon him, that oppressed and
+would have confused a less powerful mind than his own. Even as it was,
+however, he could not bear it without emotion, and turning abruptly to
+Mr. Arden, he went on,--"I trust, Mr. Arden, that you have brought
+with you the notes of the former examination."
+
+"Everything! everything, my lord," replied the magistrate; "prepared
+as I was for the case, I brought every memorandum that could at all
+bear upon it; and I think my clerk had better read the depositions
+made at the time, and then you can proceed with any new facts which
+may have since come to your knowledge."
+
+The peer bowed his head, and the clerk, under Mr. Arden's
+instructions, proceeded to read a variety of documents relating to
+facts with which the reader is already acquainted. It is unnecessary,
+therefore, to repeat them; but the demeanour of the two persons
+principally interested in the details was in itself sufficiently
+singular to attract the attention of some of the magistrates, though,
+if they sought in their own minds for the motives, they were mistaken
+in the conclusions at which they arrived. During the reading of all
+the formal and immaterial part of the depositions, the gipsy remained
+with his eyes fixed upon the ground, and his head slightly bent, with
+the aspect of one who hears a thing with all the details of which he
+is too familiar to give it any deep attention. But when the clerk came
+to his own deposition, and read the declaration which he had made of
+having seen the murder committed, and marked the murderer so
+particularly as to be able to swear to him if he ever saw him again,
+his lip curled with a bitter and a biting sneer, and, raising his
+head, he fixed his eyes upon his accuser, with a gaze that might well
+have sunk him to the earth.
+
+Lord Dewry, however, encountered not his glance. He felt that the
+gipsy's look must be then upon him; and, though he kept his own eyes
+steadfastly on the papers before him, he turned deadly pale under the
+consciousness of his own guilt, and the knowledge of what must be
+passing in the bosom of the innocent man he had accused.
+
+"This is your declaration, made twenty years ago, prisoner!" said Mr.
+Arden, examining the gipsy's countenance through his spectacles.
+
+"I know it is," answered the gipsy; "and it is truth, which twenty
+years cannot change as they have done you and me, hard man!"
+
+"Egad, he's right there!" cried the magistrate; "twenty years have
+worked a woful change both in my eyes and in my teeth; but, thank God,
+I can ride as fresh as any man after the hounds, and shirk neither
+fence nor gate."
+
+"Have you anything to add to your declaration, prisoner!" asked Mr.
+Simpson, in a milder tone. "Nothing," answered Pharold. "Let me ask
+you, however," continued the other, "whether you have ever, by any
+chance, seen the murderer since the events which you have detailed in
+this paper?"
+
+"More than once!" answered the gipsy.
+
+"Then, why did you not point him out for apprehension?" demanded Mr.
+Simpson.
+
+"Because no one asked me," replied Pharold. "I told yon hard old man,
+that I would point the murderer out if he were set before me; but I
+never promised any of you to be as one of your hounds, and seize the
+game for your sport or advantage."
+
+"Then if the murderer were brought before you," asked another
+magistrate, "would you point him out, and swear to him?"
+
+The inquiry was taking a turn unpleasing to the peer; for although he
+felt well convinced that Pharold would, sooner or later, retort the
+accusation upon him, and was ready to meet it boldly and calmly, yet
+he was not a little anxious to conclude his own statement of the case
+first, and to bring forward every circumstance which could criminate
+the gipsy, in order to take all weight from the testimony of his
+adversary, and make the magistrates pass it over with contempt.
+
+"I think," he said, rising ere the gipsy could reply--"I think,
+gentleman, if you will now permit me to proceed with what I have
+further to adduce, you will find the matter very much simplified, and
+can then examine the prisoner in whatever manner you think fit."
+
+"Certainly, my lord! certainly!" said some of the more complaisant of
+the party; but the magistrate who had put the question was less easily
+turned aside; and he replied,--
+
+"Permit the prisoner, my lord, to answer my question in the first
+place. My memory is bad," he added, dryly, "and before we got to the
+end I might forget it. Now, answer me, prisoner,--that is, if you do
+not object--there is no compulsion, remember,--if the murderer were
+brought before you, could you and would you point him out, and swear
+to him!"
+
+"That I could do so," answered Pharold, "I have already said; but that
+I would do so, I do not know. It would depend upon circumstances."
+
+Lord Dewry looked suddenly up, and their eyes met, but there was
+nothing in Pharold's glance at that moment but cold stern
+indifference; and those who saw the look he gave the peer could not
+have distinguished that he was moved towards him by any other feelings
+than those which might well exist between the accused and the accuser.
+Lord Dewry paused, and a momentary feeling of remorse for that which
+he was engaged in crossed his bosom, now that he saw even persecution
+would hardly make the gipsy violate his word so far as to betray his
+fearful secret. But he had gone too far to recede, and he crushed the
+better feeling. He called up the image of Sir William Ryder returning
+to England, and supporting a charge against him by the testimony of
+the gipsy; he recalled the state of feverish apprehension in which he
+had lived for twenty years; and he went on with the work he had begun,
+resolved that the struggle should be commenced and ended now for ever,
+in the vain hope that thus his latter days might pass in peace!
+
+"Now, my lord," said the magistrate, when the gipsy had replied--"now,
+my lord, I beg pardon for having detained you."
+
+"Well, then, sir," answered Lord Dewry, with some of his haughty
+spirit breaking out even then--"well, then, if it quite suits your
+convenience, I will proceed. I must give a slight sketch of some
+events long passed, gentlemen; and the clerks had better take it down
+as my deposition, which may be sworn to hereafter. Not very long after
+my brother's death, gentlemen, I had some money transactions to settle
+with an honourable friend of mine, one Sir Roger Millington; and I
+went to London for the purpose. I found him just returned from
+Ireland; and he told me that, in the neighbourhood of Holyhead, he had
+met with an accident by which one of his finest horses had nearly been
+killed; but that he had obtained a secret from a gipsy there by which
+the animal had been completely cured. You may easily suppose I gave
+the anecdote but little attention at the time. In settling our
+accounts, however, Sir Roger had to give me, in change for a larger
+sum, several smaller notes, on which he wrote his name. I took no
+great notice of these bits of paper till I returned to the country,
+when, on looking them over, I found, to my surprise, that one of them
+was marked with my brother's own name, in his own handwriting. This
+led to further examination; and in this banker's book, and also in
+these memoranda, I found, by the dates and numbers of the notes, that
+the very note in question must have been drawn by my poor brother from
+his bankers the day before his death. The next thing to be discovered
+was, where Sir Roger Millington had obtained it; but, as that
+gentleman was continually moving about from place to place, some time
+elapsed ere I could see him again. When I did so, however, I found
+that he had received this very note from a gipsy called Pharold, at
+Holyhead, in change for a larger one given him in order to purchase
+the secret by which the worthy knight's horse had been cured."
+
+"A most singular coincidence!" cried Mr. Arden. "Murder will out,
+gentlemen!"
+
+"For a long time no trace could be discovered of the gipsy," continued
+Lord Dewry; "but at length he suddenly reappeared in this
+neighbourhood; and one of my keepers obtained information that he and
+his gang had laid a plan for robbing my park of the deer. On his
+telling me this, I ordered him to take such measures as he thought
+expedient for seizing the whole of them in the fact; much more
+anxious, indeed, to capture my brother's murderer than to punish the
+deer-stealers. It so happened, that just at the same time Sir Roger
+Millington came down to pay me a visit; and on hearing that the
+culprit was likely to fall into our hands that very night, he insisted
+upon coming over here, both to direct the operations of the keepers,
+and to satisfy himself that this gipsy Pharold is the same from whom
+he received the note. I would fain have persuaded him that it was a
+wild scheme; but he was a soldier, gentlemen, and accustomed to
+contemn all dangers. The unhappy result you know. He was mortally
+wounded, and is now lying in a state of delirium, if he be not already
+dead. Last night, however, I took advantage of a time when his mind
+was quite clear and rational, to obtain from him this declaration in
+the presence of competent witnesses; and herein you will find that he
+positively states that the man Pharold, whom he saw with the gipsy
+deer-stealers in Dimden Park, was the same from whom he received this
+note."
+
+"Foul, hellish liar!" exclaimed Pharold, starting abruptly from the
+state of calm and apparently indifferent thought in which he had been
+standing, with his eyes fixed upon the handcuffs on his wrists, and
+his head bent down. "Foul, hellish liar! He never either gave me
+aught, or had aught from me! I cured his noble beast for nothing; and
+not for his sake either; but he gave me naught, nor would I have taken
+his gold if he had offered it."
+
+"What, then," cried Mr. Arden, "you acknowledge that you did see this
+gentleman at Holyhead, and did cure his horse by some nostrum in your
+possession! Clerk, take that down carefully."
+
+"Ay, and take down that, if in dying he say he either gave me aught or
+received aught from me," continued Pharold, vehemently, "he goes to
+the place appointed for liars and false witnesses, if the great God of
+all the universe be a God of justice and righteousness."
+
+"Do you know, gentlemen," said Mr. Arden, turning round and rubbing
+his hands, "I think that quite enough has been elicited to justify us
+in committing the prisoner without further ceremony."
+
+"We might perhaps be justified," said Mr. Simpson; "but I think there
+is something more required of us than that, both by our own
+consciences and our precise duties. It lies with us to prepare the
+case as far as possible for superior functionaries; and, therefore, I
+should propose that we proceed at once to collect every information
+that is to be procured, and that we do not think of committing the
+prisoner till we have done so. A great deal more still remains to
+be--"
+
+Here one of the constables advanced from the other end of the hall,
+and passing quietly round the table, interrupted the magistrate by
+handing him a sealed packet, which he instantly opened, and proceeded
+to read the first lines. While he did so, the constable advanced to
+the spot where the peer sat, and spoke a few words in a low tone of
+voice, while another magistrate, taking advantage of Mr. Simpson's
+silence, proposed that they should adjourn to the bedside of Sir Roger
+Millington, and receive his deposition officially.
+
+"I am sorry to say," answered Lord Dewry, with as grieved and
+melancholy an air as he could assume, under circumstances which were
+in reality satisfactory--"I am sorry to say, gentlemen, that the wise
+and judicious proceeding just suggested cannot be executed, as the
+constable has this moment informed me that my poor friend is no more.
+His dissolution occurred a few minutes ago; and though I grieve for
+the loss of my friend, it would be vain to say that I am sorry that an
+event which was inevitable should have taken place so soon, when every
+hour of prolonged existence was an hour of torture."
+
+"I trust, then, that the declaration which he made last night," said
+the same magistrate, "was in every respect such as to be admitted in
+evidence. Will your lordship permit me to examine it?" The paper was
+handed to him, and he cast his eyes over it without any comment. Mr.
+Simpson, however, was evidently strongly affected by the packet he had
+just received. He returned more than once to several of the passages
+it contained; and when he had satisfied himself of the precise terms,
+he let the hand which held the paper fall over the arm of the chair;
+and with a pale cheek and a look of deep thought, continued gazing at
+vacancy for several moments.
+
+The first thing that seemed to rouse him was a renewal of Mr. Arden's
+proposal for the instant committal of the prisoner, when, turning
+round abruptly, he said, "No, Mr. Arden! no! we have not half gone
+through the case; and something has just been put into my hand which
+gives a very different aspect to the business altogether. This is a
+very painful paper, gentlemen; and the task put upon me is a very
+painful one, but, however, our duty must be done; and I will not
+shrink from mine. However, let me beg your lordship in the first
+instance to remark that this thing is no seeking of mine. For many
+members of your lordship's family I have the utmost respect and
+regard, and I would not willingly do anything to hurt any of your
+house; but, as I have said, my duty must be done."
+
+While he spoke, the gipsy's eye lighted up anew, but the countenance
+of the peer fell. His colour varied twenty times in a minute; but ere
+the magistrate had done speaking, he had recovered his self-command,
+and determined on his course, whatever might be the nature of the
+communication which Mr. Simpson had received. "To what end, may I
+ask," he said, haughtily, "to what end does all this tissue of idle
+words lead, sir? Let me beg you to explain yourself, for I can
+conceive no circumstances under which your professed regard for my
+family should interfere in any way with the execution of your duty."
+
+"You shall hear, my lord, you shall hear," answered Mr. Simpson, with
+more mild dignity than the peer had imagined he could assume.
+"Constables, clear the hall there."
+
+"Shall we take away the prisoner, sir?" demanded one of the men who
+stood by his side.
+
+The magistrate paused, and then replied, after a moment's thought, "He
+has a right to hear anything that may benefit himself. He is here
+before us without legal advice or assistance of any kind; and he must
+not be shut out from a knowledge of facts which he may have to
+communicate to his counsel hereafter. You, constable, however, retire
+to the door. I think we are enough to manage one handcuffed man should
+he prove turbulent."
+
+None of the other magistrates interfered: the hall was cleared; and
+Pharold was left standing in the midst, with no other witnesses but
+the magistrates and their clerks. Restraining all his feelings by a
+mighty effort, the peer sat sternly gazing upon the speaker, with the
+violent passions that were working within, discernible only in the
+starting sinews of the thin clenched hand which he had laid upon the
+papers before him.
+
+"What I have to read, gentlemen," continued Mr. Simpson, "has just
+been sent me by the excellent rector of this parish, Dr. Edwards; and
+it is entitled The dying declaration of Sir Roger Millington, knight.
+It is, gentlemen, to the following effect;" and he proceeded to read
+the confession which fear and repentance had induced the dying man to
+make. The agitation of the peer was dreadful; but it was alone
+internal; and all that was externally perceptible were those signs of
+passion and indignation which an innocent man might feel at a false
+accusation. At length, however, when, in conclusion, the unhappy Sir
+Roger charged him boldly as the murderer of his brother, Lord Dewry
+started up, exclaiming,--
+
+"The raving madness of a delirious and dying man! How can you,
+gentlemen, sit and listen to such trash! But I will soon bring you
+proof of what state the man was in, when that canting old fanatic saw
+him and he turned towards the door.
+
+"Sit down, my lord!" said Mr. Simpson, sternly. "I cannot allow you to
+leave the room."
+
+"Sit down! not allow me!" cried the peer, turning upon him with all
+the dark and haughty spirit of his heart flashing forth. "Do you dare,
+sir, to use such terms to me in my own mansion?"
+
+"Anywhere, Lord Dewry!" replied the magistrate. "I say, sit down! or I
+must give you in custody to one of the officers, _I_ will show you,
+gentlemen, in what state of mind was the deponent when he made this
+declaration. Here is the attestation of the surgeon and his assistant,
+that Sir Roger Millington was, at the moment he signed this paper,
+perfectly sane and rational; that he did it under the full knowledge
+that he was a dying man; and that every word here written was exactly
+used by himself. Gentlemen, this requires immediate investigation; for
+every word here written must greatly affect the prisoner before us."
+
+Lord Dewry had cast himself down again in his chair; but wrath in the
+present instance supported hypocrisy; for it was anger and indignation
+he sought to assume, and the former at least, in the present instance,
+required no acting. He folded his arms upon his breast, he rolled his
+dark eye over the form of the magistrate, and he set his teeth in his
+nether lip till the blood almost started beneath the pressure. In the
+mean while there was a confused and murmuring conversation among the
+magistrates, some standing, some sitting, and all talking together. At
+length Mr. Arden exclaimed, in a loud voice that overpowered the
+rest,--
+
+"Well, well; this matter requires much consideration. Let us at all
+events remand the gipsy for four or five days, while we inquire into
+the rest. Here, he might be tampered with; but let us remand him to
+the cage at Morley."
+
+"Remand me!" cried the gipsy, in a tone that called instant attention,
+while his deep black eyes seemed flashing with living fire. "Remand
+me! remand a man that you know to be innocent! Are these your boasted
+laws? is this your English equity? Have you no more freedom in your
+hearts than this? Did ye but know what real freedom is, ye would feel
+that nothing upon earth,--neither gold, nor wealth, nor friends, nor
+pleasures, nor health, nor life itself, to the freeman,--is half so
+dear as liberty! If ye take his gold, ye call it robbery; if ye take
+his life, ye call it murder; but I tell you, that every minute and
+every hour of liberty is more than gold or life; and yet, base
+hypocritical tyrants, without scruple and without remorse, you take
+from your fellow-creatures, on the slightest pretence, the brightest
+possession of man, the noblest gift of God. Ere you know whether your
+fellow-creature be guilty or not ye doom him to the worst of
+punishments, ye confine him in dungeons, ye fetter his free limbs with
+iron, ye deny him God's light and God's air, ye make him the companion
+of devils and fiends, and then ye find that he is innocent, and send
+him forth into the world degraded, corrupted, vile as ye are
+yourself,--punished without guilt, and robbed of many a long day of
+golden liberty by those who pretend to dispense justice, and who talk
+of equity. Out upon ye, I say! and out upon your laws! If there were
+such things as liberty and justice in the land, the very rumour that a
+fellow-creature was deprived of his freedom for an hour, would gather
+together half the land to see justice done; and he who dared unjustly
+to deprive a freeman of his liberty would be punished as a traitor
+against the rights conferred by God. Then would not this bright and
+beautiful land bear the multitude of prisons that darken the sunshine
+in every town and village; and speedily the very use for them would be
+forgotten; for man's heart, ennobled by freedom, would forget crime;
+or crime, punished on the spot, would be a lesson far more awful. Now
+ye debase yourselves and your fellow-creatures, and expect them to act
+nobly; ye punish the innocent with the worst of punishments, and
+expect them to refrain from guilt. If I am innocent of the crime with
+which I am charged,--and God knows, and ye all know, that I am,--let
+me go free. If I be guilty, punish me with death, but take not away my
+liberty. Death were light, but one other night in a dungeon would
+crush my very soul!"
+
+There was something so strong, so fiery, so impetuous, in the whole
+tone and manner of the gipsy, that the magistrates, taken by surprise,
+sat silent and attentive, till he had concluded an appeal which they
+certainly had not expected. "There is some reason in what you say,"
+answered Mr. Simpson, mildly, "and, perhaps, if we had tasted a few
+hours' imprisonment ourselves, we should not be so ready to send
+others to that fate, as we are found too often. However, now answer
+me, prisoner: you have declared that if the murderer of the late Lord
+Dewry were set before you, you could recognise him, and swear to him.
+I ask you, therefore, do you see him now?"
+
+A powerful emotion, which he could not resist, made the peer suddenly
+turn away, as the magistrate thus addressed the gipsy; and Pharold's
+dark keen eyes fixed sternly upon him. For several long, terrible,
+anxious moments the gipsy was silent, and many were the strong and
+agitating passions which struggled in his heart, and threw their
+alternate shadows over his countenance; but at length he replied, in a
+low but solemn and distinct voice, "I have said that I could tell, but
+I have not said that I would; and I now say that, come what will to
+myself, I will accuse no man."
+
+The magistrates gazed at each other for a brief space, both surprised
+and perplexed; but at that moment there was heard the sound of
+chariot-wheels, the step of a carriage violently thrown down, and a
+considerable bustle and speaking in the passages beyond. The next
+instant the door of the hall was thrown open, and a gentleman entered,
+with his hat still on his head, and a large fur cloak cast round him,
+as he had got out of his carriage.
+
+"I really must have the hall kept clear," exclaimed Mr. Simpson. "We
+are here in private deliberation, and no one must be admitted."
+
+The stranger, however, without paying the slightest attention, walked
+straight up the middle of the hall; and laying his hand upon the
+gipsy's arm, as he passed the spot where he stood, "I have come," he
+said, "to deliver an innocent man." The next moment he advanced to the
+table; and taking off his hat gazed round upon the magistrates.
+
+The effect produced upon several persons present was no less strange
+than sudden. The peer, with a countenance as pale as ashes, a
+quivering lip and haggard eye, staggered up from his seat, grasped the
+arm of the intruder, and holding him at arm's length, gazed in his
+face, with an expression of doubt, and surprise, and horror. Mr. Arden
+rubbed the glasses of his spectacles, exclaiming, "Good God! good God!
+This is very strange! It can't be--no, it can't be!"
+
+"It is! it is!" exclaimed the peer, falling back into his chair, and
+covering his eyes with his hands. "It is! it is! thank God! oh! thank
+God!" and the deep groan which accompanied his expression of joy, far
+from lessening its force, seemed to speak that the load of worlds was
+taken off his heart.
+
+"In the name of Heaven, sir, who are you?" exclaimed one of the
+younger magistrates.
+
+"Who is he?" exclaimed the gipsy, "who should he be, but William Lord
+Dewry. There are plenty here who must know him well."
+
+"And none better than myself," cried Mr. Arden. "My Lord, are you
+living or dead?"
+
+"Living, sir," replied the person whom we have hitherto known by
+the name of Sir William Ryder. "Had I not believed, gentlemen, that
+in this hall I have as much right as any one, I should not have
+intruded upon your deliberations; but as I learned this morning
+that my friend Pharold here, to whom I owe my life, was brought
+before you on a charge of taking it, I felt myself bound to interfere.
+You must, therefore, permit me to be present at your further
+deliberations.--Edward," he continued, turning to his brother, "you
+had better retire. We have matter for much thought and for much
+emotion between us, which were as well confined to ourselves alone."
+
+"But, my lord'. but, my lord!" exclaimed Mr. Arden, "here is an
+accusation made formally against your brother, also, of the same crime
+with which the gipsy was charged."
+
+"Who made it?" exclaimed Lord Dewry, looking somewhat reproachfully at
+Pharold.
+
+"Not I," answered the gipsy,--"I bring a false accusation against no
+man."
+
+"At all events, sir," rejoined the peer, turning to Mr. Arden, "it
+must be sufficiently evident to all, that my brother, whatever may
+have been our personal differences, cannot be guilty of my murder, as
+I am here alive and well. I say again, therefore, that you had better
+retire, Edward, and leave me to conclude this business as I see fit;
+unless, indeed," he added--"unless you are inclined to contest either
+my identity or my rights."
+
+"No, no, no!" cried the other, starting up vehemently, and clasping
+his hands together, while the burning tears of intense emotion rolled
+rapidly over his cheeks. "No, no! So help me God, I would not lose the
+knowledge that you are living for the highest rank and noblest fortune
+that the earth could give; and I tell you, William, that to lay down
+at your feet that which I have wrongfully possessed, to give up to you
+wealth and station, and retire to poverty and obscurity, will be the
+happiest act of my whole life. It will! it will! as there is truth
+in Heaven, whatever my conduct heretofore may have caused you to
+believe--and now I leave you."
+
+"That is one step at least," said the peer. "Fare you well for the
+present. I will join you soon.--And now, gentlemen," he continued,
+turning to the magistrates, as his brother, with a slow and faltering
+step, quitted the hall--"and now let us proceed, as quickly as
+possible, to render justice to a man who has been erroneously accused,
+and subjected already to some loss of liberty,--a loss which I know is
+more bitter to him than the loss of life would be."
+
+"Why, my lord, one would think you had turned gipsy yourself," said
+Mr. Arden, "you speak so exactly the same sentiments which he has
+himself expressed."
+
+"I have mingled much with persons who feel the same ardent love for
+uncontrolled liberty," replied the peer somewhat dryly, "and it is
+therefore that I wish at once to proceed to those matters which may
+instantly set this good and honest man at liberty. It is evident,
+gentlemen, that the charge against him must instantly be discharged,
+and therefore it may be better to order those unworthy handcuffs to be
+taken instantly from his wrists."
+
+"Not so fast, my lord," said Mr. Arden, who was not well pleased with
+the tone in which the peer replied to him, and who had also a strong
+disposition to commit every one who was committable. "Although your
+sudden, miraculous, and very strange reappearance must of course put
+an end to all proceedings relative to a murder which has not taken
+place, yet there is another charge of a nature equally grave against
+the prisoner, which renders it impossible to discharge him in the
+summary method which you seem inclined to urge. There is a charge of
+deer-stealing followed by murder, in both of which crimes it is pretty
+evident that the prisoner has taken part. I should like to know, too,
+before I part with him, whether the whole story that he told of your
+being shot by a man on horseback had any foundation, or was a mere
+invention."
+
+"In regard to the last point I will satisfy you at once," replied Lord
+Dewry, "as far as I ever intend to satisfy any one. I was met by a man
+on horseback, as I believe the gipsy told you, who demanded money of
+me, and on my refusing it, somewhat harshly indeed, he did fire at and
+wound me. My horse took fright, and plunged into the river; I fell
+from the saddle, deprived of all sense; and had not that good man,
+Pharold, leaped into the stream, dragged me out, and given me into the
+hands of those who tended me with kindness and wisdom, my fate would
+not have been doubtful for a moment. In regard to my after-conduct,
+private motives determined it, into which no one has any right to
+inquire. They were such as satisfied my own heart and my own
+understanding, and that is sufficient."
+
+"And pray, my lord," demanded Mr. Arden, "were you acquainted with the
+person who wounded you? Could you swear to him?"
+
+"I am not making a charge before you as a county magistrate," replied
+Lord Dewry; "but telling you an anecdote as an old acquaintance; and
+let me add, that my story is done. In regard to any further charge
+against Pharold, there is, I think, by this time sufficient evidence
+collected at the hall door to prove that he took no part either in the
+destruction of the deer or the violence offered to the gamekeepers. If
+you will order the persons who were present to be called in you will
+soon be satisfied."
+
+"I beg your pardon, my lord," said Mr. Simpson: "I am most happy to
+see you once again, when such a thing appeared impossible; but still I
+am afraid the course you suggest cannot be pursued."
+
+"And why not, sir?" demanded Lord Dewry: "I believe that I have the
+pleasure of speaking to Mr. Simpson, though time has somewhat altered
+his features: if so, I address both a humane and reasonable man; and I
+ask why cannot the plain and straightforward course I propose be
+pursued at once?"
+
+"Let them have their way, William de Vaux! Let them have their way!"
+cried the gipsy, whose dark features had been working under the
+influence of many a contending passion since his friend had appeared.
+"Let them have their way! One and all they are set in their own hearts
+to do injustice. What, indeed, are they there for, but to dispense
+that kind of injustice that you call law? Let them have their way!
+They are but working out the inevitable will of fate; and though they
+bring the curse of innocent blood upon their head, they needs must do
+it."
+
+"If your lordship, during your long absence, have not forgot entirely
+the customs of this country," replied Mr. Simpson, as soon as he could
+make himself heard, "you will perceive at once, that, as one of the
+unfortunate victims of this deer-stealing affray has died in this very
+house, not half an hour ago, it is our bounden duty not to discharge a
+prisoner against whom a charge upon oath of participation in the crime
+has been made by an eyewitness, until the coroner shall have sat upon
+the body, and returned a verdict; nor have we, I believe, any right to
+take the matter out of the coroner's hands, by previously examining
+the witnesses, which must afterward appear before his jury. I am
+grieved to oppose you, I am grieved to inflict further imprisonment on
+a man of whose innocence I do not entertain any strong doubts; but
+Harvey, the head keeper, has sworn that the prisoner was present,
+aiding and abetting, when Sir Roger Millington was wounded, and we
+should not be justified even in receiving bail till the coroner's jury
+have returned their verdict."
+
+Lord Dewry bit his lip, and remained silent for a few moments, while
+Mr. Arden rubbed his hands, and elevated his eyebrows with the air of
+a man who considers all opposition as silenced; and the gipsy eyed the
+bench of magistrates with a look in which scorn was the only
+expression that tempered hatred and indignation. "Pray, sir, how long
+must it be ere the coroner can be summoned?" demanded the peer. "You
+know not what you are inflicting upon a man as honest as any one
+present. To him every hour of his freedom is more than life; and I
+could give you fully sufficient proof to show that while his innocence
+of the crime charged against him is clear, the punishment inflicted on
+him by imprisonment cannot be estimated by the feelings of other men
+under such circumstances."
+
+"The coroner cannot even be summoned to-day, my lord," replied Mr.
+Arden; "and, consequently, it must be to-morrow or the next day ere
+the gipsy can be liberated, even if the result be as favourable to him
+as you expect. But what are two or three days spent in a snug warm
+room to a man who has never known any thing better than a hovel in a
+sandpit? Where is the great hardship? I see no very severe
+infliction."
+
+"To him it is the most severe," replied Lord Dewry; "and if it be
+possible--"
+
+"Cease, cease, William," cried Pharold, in a bitter and earnest tone;
+"you degrade those noble lips by pleading in vain to men who can
+neither understand your heart nor mine. Besides, it matters not, it
+matters not. The long weary line of life has come to its end with me.
+All that I had to do is done. I have seen you break through all your
+good and wise designs, all your humane and generous scruples, for
+the purpose of defending and delivering me; I have seen you return to
+your home, and claim your own; and so far I have seen my utmost
+desire. But hear what I have seen more," he continued with a rising
+tone, while his eye flashed, his dark cheek flushed, and his brows
+knit together--"hear what I have seen more, William de Vaux, and then
+see whether I ought to care for anything else after. I have seen my
+people mock my care, and refuse my counsels! I have seen one of my own
+tribe betray me, in order to liberate himself! I have seen the wife of
+my bosom take part in the scheme for delivering me over to
+imprisonment and death, by the means of my best affections! I have
+spent a whole bright autumn night in a prison! I come forth into the
+day with bonds upon my hands, and I hear myself condemned, without
+crime, to the torture of a longer slavery in chains and stone walls!"
+As he went on, he spoke more and more rapidly, and his eye rolled over
+the magistrates, as he lashed himself into phrensy, by a
+recapitulation of his sufferings and his wrongs. "But think not," he
+continued furiously, "think not that bolts, or bars, or walls shall
+keep me in another night, in the living tomb into which ye have thrust
+me! No, no, there is always a way for a bold heart to set itself free!
+Thus, thus I spurn your chains from me!" and by one great effort of
+skill and strength he slipped his hands out of the handcuffs, which
+were somewhat too large, and dashed them down into the midst of the
+hall.
+
+"Constables! constables!" shouted Mr. Arden.
+
+"You call in vain, hard, stone-hearted man," cried Pharold, shaking
+his clenched hand at him, "you call in vain;" and bounding to the side
+of the hall on which the tall windows had been thrown open, he set one
+foot upon the secretary's table, and with a single spring reached the
+high window sill, catching with his hand the small stone column on
+which the casements hung. There he paused for one moment; and turning
+his head, exclaimed, "William de Vaux, noble William de Vaux,
+farewell,--for ever, and ever, and ever, farewell."
+
+He let go his hold: he sprang forward, and was lost to the sight. The
+next moment the dull heavy splash of a large body falling into the
+water rose up and was carried by the wind through the open windows
+into the justice-room.
+
+"Run round, run round," cried Mr. Arden to the constables, who were
+now hurrying in; "he has escaped through the window; run round there
+by the outside."
+
+One or two instantly followed these directions; but another sprang up
+to the window to mark the course of the fugitive, and point it out to
+the pursuers.
+
+"He must have jumped into the stream, gentlemen," said the man,
+turning to speak to the magistrates, as soon as he had reached the
+spot where Pharold had stood the moment before. "He must have jumped
+into the stream, for there is not footing for a mouse."
+
+"He did, he did: we heard him," answered Mr. Arden. "Look out, and see
+where he comes to land. My lord, why do you cover your face with your
+hand? you seem more sorry for the prisoner's escape than I
+anticipated."
+
+"It is because I know him better than you do, sir," answered the peer;
+"and I fear that you have driven him further than you imagine."
+
+"I can see nothing on the river, gentlemen," cried the constable, "but
+the bubbles and the eddies where he must have gone down. There's a
+shoulder, there's a shoulder, I do believe; and his long black hair as
+I live:--it is gone again; he is down--I see no more of it."
+
+Lord Dewry started up and rushed out; but it was in vain that every
+effort was made to find the gipsy living or dead. The constables who
+had run round the justice-room declared that they had never seen
+anything rise. The other, who had watched from the window, soon became
+very doubtful in regard to the reality of the objects he had seen
+floating down the stream. An old labourer, who had been working at a
+distance, stated that he had remarked something fall from the window
+of the justice-room into the water, but had seen nothing come to land.
+The peer, with as many people as he could collect, followed the course
+of the river for some way; and the constables, though with different
+views, pursued the same course. In the meanwhile, the magistrates
+continued in deliberation, as it is called; although it must be
+acknowledged that their conversation referred much more particularly
+to, and rested much more pertinaciously upon, the strange return of
+Lord Dewry, the various circumstances which could have given occasion
+to his absence, and the various events to which his re-appearance
+would give rise, than even to the disappearance of the prisoner, and
+the after-measures to be adopted.
+
+The matter, however, was quite sufficiently interesting to make three
+quarters of an hour pass unnoticed; and at the end of that time a
+servant appeared to inform them that, as the body of the unhappy gipsy
+could not be found, Lord Dewry did not intend to intrude upon them
+again, and that he had only to request that due information of the
+death of Sir Roger Millington might be given to the coroner.
+
+The magistrates received the message--probably as it was intended--as
+a hint that their further presence at Dimden was not desired. Mr.
+Arden laughed, and declared that he would take care to tease his
+lordship for his want of courtesy, by asking him unpleasant questions
+whenever he met him; but Mr. Simpson, on the contrary, looked grave
+and sad, and as he parted with his fellow-magistrates declared his
+intention of withdrawing from his official duties. "I should never,"
+he said, "be able to remove from my mind the impression of that
+unfortunate gipsy's fate, and I should fear that it might have some
+effect upon the execution of my duty in future."
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Day had waned, night had overshadowed the world several hours, and
+Mrs. Falkland, with Marian, had long left the house in which Edward de
+Vaux lay ere any sounds intimated that the master of the mansion had
+returned. Anxious, bewildered, and impatient, De Vaux lay sleepless
+till ten o'clock, when the rapid rush of rolling wheels, and the quick
+footfalls of the horses, as they passed his window, told him that he
+whom he expected had arrived.
+
+A few minutes elapsed without his appearance in the sick man's room,
+however, and, with his characteristic impatience, De Vaux concluded
+that "the fools had said he was asleep," and was sending to declare
+the contrary, when the door was quietly opened, and the person he
+wished for approached his bedside.
+
+"I am most happy to see you, my dear sir," said De Vaux, looking up in
+the fine bland countenance that was bent over him, "for I cannot
+sleep--I cannot rest--till I ask you who, who is it that I see?"
+
+"Ah! I perceive that your aunt has betrayed me," said Lord Dewry. "She
+recognised me instantly this morning; but I laid strict injunctions
+upon her, for many reasons, to keep my secret with you till I
+returned. But I expected more than was reasonable. There is a proverb
+against a woman keeping a secret."
+
+"No, no," said De Vaux: "she did not exactly betray you. She let a few
+words accidentally fall, that only served to rouse my curiosity, which
+she then refused to satisfy."
+
+"And what said Marian?" demanded the other, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, she said nothing on the subject," replied De Vaux, "but she
+looked happier than I ever beheld her; and that too seemed to confirm
+some vague surmises which my aunt's words had called up. But yet I
+cannot believe it--it is impossible--I knew you myself as Sir William
+Ryder in America--every one knew you by that name there--and I cannot
+believe the wild fancy that has taken possession of me."
+
+"It is nevertheless true," replied the peer. "Sir William Ryder has
+slept for more than twenty years in a village churchyard in Ireland,
+and I am--what I suppose you suspect--your uncle. Agitate yourself
+with this matter no more to-night, my dear boy: suffice it," and he
+pressed his nephew's hand kindly in his own, "suffice it that I am
+proud to have Edward de Vaux for my nephew, and shall rejoice to
+acknowledge him as my son."
+
+The words were oil and wine to the heart of Edward de Vaux, but still
+there was something wanting. "Thank you, thank you," he replied, still
+holding his uncle's hand in his own; "but yet one word more before you
+go:--that dreadful story that the gipsy told me--that story that drove
+me almost mad--it is not, it cannot be true. My father did not--could
+not--"
+
+"Edward," replied his uncle, gravely, "on no account must I do wrong
+to the memory of a noble-hearted man. The gipsy told you true, as far
+as he knew the truth. Nay, do not shudder: there are many palliating
+circumstances which he did not know, but which I will relate to you
+hereafter, in order to calm and tranquilize your mind. In the meantime
+be satisfied with knowing that, as far as I am concerned, all that was
+painful in the past shall be forgotten and buried in oblivion for
+ever. Nor, indeed, would I, even to you, so far withdraw the veil from
+things gone as to give any explanation, had it not been by my
+authority and directions--under a mistaken view of your character and
+heart--that the gipsy related to you as much as you already know. Your
+knowledge of thus much renders it necessary for your own peace that
+you should know more; which I will tell you as soon as you are well.
+Rest assured, however, that all which you have yet to hear is good and
+not evil, and will tend to alleviate and soften what is past."
+
+With such information Edward de Vaux was forced to rest contented
+during the whole of the following week, for he could draw no more from
+his uncle; and he feared, by questioning any one else upon the
+subject, to raise suspicions which he trusted were as yet quiet in the
+minds of all others. The rest of the little world, however, in which
+these events had taken place, were not so soon satisfied. The
+immediate neighbourhood of Dimden and of Morley House was, of course,
+more agitated than the rest of the county; for there it may be said
+that the stone had dropped into the water, and though the rippling
+circles that it made extended far and wide around, yet each eddy was
+fainter and fainter, of course, as it became farther removed from the
+centre. In the immediate vortex, however, not only for nine days, but
+nearly for nine months, all was gossip, and rumour, and confusion.
+Every one had his own distinct report of the transactions which had
+taken place in regard to the return of the old Lord Dewry; every one
+had his own version of the story; and as neither the peer himself, nor
+any of his family, gave either encouragement or refutation to any of
+the statements, but held a stern and rigid silence upon the whole
+affair, every one was left to enjoy his own version undisturbed, and
+to make himself sure that it was the right one, by any logic that he
+thought proper to use.
+
+There is no such diffusible a substance in nature as truth; for though
+an infinitely small piece of gold can be spread over a wire that might
+girdle the great earth, yet a much less portion of truth will serve to
+gild a much greater quantity of falsehood. Thus, in all the stories
+that were current, it is more than probable that some portion of truth
+existed; and many of them, aided by curious inquiry and shrewd
+conjecture, came very near the real facts of the case.
+
+The good-natured world of course anticipated all the disagreeable
+things that were to happen. Lawsuits innumerable were prognosticated;
+Lord Dewry was to compel his brother to refund the long enjoyed rents
+of his estates; the brother was to deny his claim and rights
+altogether; the marriage between Edward de Vaux and his cousin was to
+be broken off; and some persons even anticipated that the lover would
+shoot himself, and the lady die of consumption.
+
+None of these events, however, did really take place. Lord Dewry
+showed himself in no hurry to take possession of his estates either at
+Dimden or at Dewry Hall, but his title was not the less generally
+recognised and his rights undisputed. His brother, indeed, lay for
+many weeks ill at Dimden House; and, under the influence of feelings,
+which those around him did not rightly comprehend, besought Lord Dewry
+not to visit him till his strength was recovered, or till his death
+was near.
+
+Edward de Vaux still remained at his uncle's cottage at the little
+town of ----, tended by its owner with all the care and affection of a
+father. His recovery was somewhat tedious indeed; and it was long ere
+the surgeons permitted him to rise. From that period, however, his
+convalescence proceeded more rapidly, and the kind tone of all his
+uncle's conversation--the hope, the cheerfulness, the sunshine, that
+beamed through it all--tended to sooth his mind, and turn it from
+everything that was painful in his situation. At length it was
+announced that he might with safety drive over to Dimden to see his
+father: and on the day preceding that on which he went, as soon as the
+short twilight of winter was over, Lord Dewry ordered his doors to be
+closed against all the world; and walking up and down the room--as was
+his custom when he spoke on matters of deep interest--while his nephew
+lay on the couch beside him, he entered into the long promised
+explanation of his past conduct.
+
+"I need not recapitulate, my dear boy," he said, "all that you have
+already heard, nor tell you how bitterly I suffered from a loss, the
+pain of which can never be wholly forgotten. At the time it nearly
+drove me mad. At all events it made me look upon everything in nature
+through a false medium, made me hate mankind, loath even the society
+of my best and dearest friends, and find agony rather than consolation
+in the sight of the infant which my lost angel had left me, and which
+to a more sane and less impatient spirit would have been a source of
+joy and comfort to my latest hour. It was under these circumstances,
+and with these feelings, that I suddenly met my brother in the
+neighbourhood of Morley House, while I was riding over to the county
+town, with the purpose of giving him such a sum as I could spare at
+the time, but of refusing the greater part of the assistance he
+demanded. I had many other causes for dissatisfaction in regard to his
+conduct besides his boundless extravagance; but of those causes we
+need not speak. I acknowledge that I treated him harshly; and that,
+not contented with rejecting his demand, I rejected it in that stern
+and peremptory tone which was in some degree cruel, for grief had
+hardened me for the time against all those things to which at other
+moments I yielded most willingly. He pleaded more earnestly, more
+humbly, than could have been expected from one who had no small share
+of pride; but I refused to hear, and only repeated my determination.
+Words of great bitterness passed between us; and at length he drew
+forth a pistol, saying that nothing was left him but death or
+dishonour, and that he preferred the former. I remember not the exact
+words of my reply; but they were galling, bitter, and ungenerous; and
+as I spoke them, I spurred on my horse. The next moment there came a
+loud report, a giddiness of my eyes, and I felt myself reel in the
+saddle. For the moment my powers over my horse were lost; and taking
+fright at the sound, he plunged down the bank, lost his footing, and
+slipped into the river. Nay, Edward, look not so distressed, remember
+the shot might be accidental; my brother was following me eagerly at
+the time, with the weapon in his hand which he had threatened to raise
+against his own life: a plunge of his horse, a false step, an
+accidental movement, might discharge the pistol without his will. I am
+willing to believe it so; and I have never inquired further. If you
+are wise, Edward de Vaux--if you are wise, you will inquire no further
+either. There are few situations in which doubts are preferable to
+certainty, but there are some, and this is one. Suffice it that,
+whatever your father's intention was, he was driven at that moment,
+both by despair and by a brother's harshness, to a state of mind in
+which he could hardly be held responsible for his own actions. I
+forgive him from my heart for that deed, though others have taken
+place lately which I fear I cannot forgive--at least not as yet. But
+of these no more: I seek not to be your father's accuser. I would
+rather exculpate him as far as possible."
+
+De Vaux sighed deeply, and still kept his hands clasped over his eyes,
+for he could not but feel that his uncle willingly deceived himself,
+in order to palliate the actions of his father. "Let me now turn,"
+continued Lord Dewry, "to my own fate and conduct. The wound I had
+received, though not dangerous--having passed obliquely along the back
+of my head and neck, only slightly grazing the bone--was sufficient to
+stun and confuse me; and although in the plunge into the water I was
+thrown free of the horse, I should certainly have been drowned, had it
+not been for the activity and courage of the gipsy Pharold. I knew
+little that passed till I found myself lying on the moss, in the thick
+wood above Morley Point, with two gipsies standing by me, one of whom
+was my deliverer. I was still bleeding profusely; and Pharold was in
+the very act of sending his comrade for help to bear me home. My first
+words, however, were directed to stop him; and I besought the
+companion of my boyhood to have me carried to the tents of his people,
+and to conceal my escape from every one. The very first impulse on
+recovering my recollection had been to execute a plan, which had often
+occurred to me within the last few weeks previous to that time, of
+abandoning state, and station, and society altogether, and wasting
+away the rest of my days in grief and mourning. Had I been a Roman
+Catholic at my wife's death, I should certainly have devoted myself to
+the cloister; and the only consideration which had prevented me from
+quitting England and all my former connections, had been the thought
+of the inquiries and the search that would be made for me, and the
+annoyance to which such proceedings might subject me. Now, however,
+the opportunity was before me. I easily gathered, or rather divined
+from the circumstances in which I found myself, that no one was
+acquainted with my being still in life but the gipsy and his comrade:
+I knew that my child, with an ample fortune and numerous connections,
+would be well protected and cherished by my sister; and I resolved
+instantly to seize the only opportunity I might ever have of quitting
+without inquiry or pursuit, scenes that were full of painful memories,
+and society which I detested. The rest was easily arranged. I felt
+that I was but slightly wounded. Pharold would have done whatever I
+chose to dictate on earth; and I was borne to the gipsies' tents, and
+tended with as much care and skill as if I had lain in a palace,
+surrounded by friends and servants.
+
+"None knew me personally but Pharold himself; and he pledged himself
+solemnly to conceal the fact of my existence from every one. It was
+agreed that his tribe should instantly remove to a distance, carrying
+me with them; while he remained, in order to watch the subsequent
+proceedings of my family, and give me information thereof. He was
+absent for several days; and when at length he rejoined his people, I
+found that he had been himself arrested, and in some degree suspected
+of having murdered me. He told me, however, that my brother had been
+the first to assert his innocence, and to effect his liberation. This
+conduct pleased me; and I resolved to linger in England some time
+longer, in order to mark your father's after proceedings. Through the
+exertions of Pharold, I learned all that took place. I found that,
+however he might have acted in other circumstances, my brother acted
+nobly towards my child; and I took some pleasure, the first that I had
+known for months, in viewing the emotions of his heart through the
+conduct to which they led. The pleasure, however, was of a very
+mingled nature; and at length I prepared to set out for Ireland, with
+the intention of proceeding thence to America. At Holyhead I removed
+from the tents of the gipsies, with whom I had hitherto continued,
+because I was aware that Sir William Ryder, an old acquaintance both
+of my brother's and my own, was to visit Pharold on Edward's account,
+in order to ensure more perfectly the gipsy's silence. He came at
+length, but in coming his horse took fright, threw him, and nearly
+killed him on the spot. He likewise was borne into the gipsies' tents,
+and for some days hovered between life and death. I saw him often,
+without being seen, and many a time as I stood in the shadow, while
+Pharold conversed with him, I heard him express bitter sorrow and
+repentance for all the follies into which he had been led, and depict
+vividly the writhings of a noble spirit under the consciousness of
+having dipped deeply in vice and become a participator in crime. I
+became interested in him, and determined in other lands--for he also
+was following exactly the same track towards America as myself--to let
+him know of my existence; which would at least relieve a part of the
+load under which he suffered. He partially recovered, and proceeded to
+Ireland; but he never reached America; for ere he could embark, the
+consequences of the injuries he had received in his fall assumed a
+severe character, and at a small inn, in a small and wretched Irish
+port, I found him dying and alone. His surprise on seeing me had
+nearly killed him; but he soon regained composure, and I remained with
+him till his last hour.
+
+"By his advice, and authorized by his own hand, I took his name; and
+by means of papers which he gave me at his death, have received ever
+since the annuity of a thousand per annum, which my brother had
+settled upon him; nor did I think myself unjustified in either of
+these actions, for I only assumed a rank inferior to my own, and
+received money which to all intents and purposes was mine. However, as
+Sir William Ryder had a numerous acquaintance, it became necessary to
+fix my abode in such a spot as would remove every chance of my assumed
+name being questioned. My feelings too at this time led me to seek
+solitude, and an entire change, not only of scene, but of all the
+circumstances of life. Thus I retired to the spot where you found me,
+during the late war; and there, in the midst of savage life, and
+various sources of interest and excitement, I gradually recovered
+calmness and peace. Of my life in America I need give you no picture,
+as you have seen how it passed; and I have now only to explain further
+the motives of my return.
+
+"Every human thing is weak in its resolves, and I not less than
+others; but still, in some degree, it is happy that it should be so;
+for our determinations are always the children of circumstances, and
+upon circumstances also must their execution ever depend. Like a
+madman and a fool, I had fancied that in Marian's mother I had found
+imperishable happiness; and when she was suddenly snatched from me, my
+whole feelings, my very soul, seemed turned into bitterness and
+disappointment. In bitterness and disappointment, then, I had resolved
+never to love another human being, and to cast off every tie that
+could bind me to human affections: but time brought resignation and
+consolation; and a longing, a thirst to see my child and my native
+land often came upon me with overpowering force. I sought not to
+resume wealth or station. I sought not to mingle again in cultivated
+society; but the yearning of the heart of a father and a man towards
+my daughter and my country were sometimes hardly to be resisted. That
+my child was well, happy, and protected, I learned from the constant
+correspondence which I kept up with the gipsy Pharold; and, at the
+same time, the interest which I took in the wild tribes around me, and
+the love they evinced towards me, acted as a strong tie to the land in
+which I had settled. I wavered often, but I resisted long; till, at
+length, I became acquainted with your admirable friend Manners, and
+through him first personally knew yourself. Your very name was full of
+interest to me; but how much was that interest increased when, by some
+casual words which passed between you and your friend, I learned that
+you were destined to become the husband of my only child. All the
+faults of your father's character rose up before my imagination his
+very faults towards your mother were remembered and when I pictured to
+myself my dear Marian suffering under similar conduct, my heart was in
+an agony of doubt and apprehension. From that moment I watched your
+every word and action with eager anxiety, striving to judge your mind
+and heart. I did judge you, Edward, and I judged you wrongly. There
+was a fastidiousness, an irritability, an impatience, a degree of
+pride, that put me strongly in mind of your father; and although I
+thought I saw some nobler traits, yet I was anxious, doubtful, ill at
+ease; and I determined, at any risk, at any cost, to try you to the
+uttermost, ere you received the fate of my child into your hands. I
+did try you, Edward, and somewhat too severely; and both for having
+mistaken your nature, and made you suffer deeply, I now ask your
+forgiveness. At the time you left me, I was engaged in negotiating the
+purchase of a large tract of land to be reserved for certain tribes of
+Indians, but a larger sum was required than I could command; and this,
+with the other circumstances I have mentioned, hastened my return to
+England. I arrived in my native country even before you did; but a
+thousand difficulties surrounded me which I had not foreseen; and my
+anxiety and eagerness made me act with less caution than I should have
+done. I had no agent in whom I could confide but the gipsy Pharold;
+and although he wrought in every thing exactly under my directions,
+yet a thousand circumstances, over which we had no control, turned our
+actions from their course, and led to results that neither of us
+anticipated. My intention was not to claim either my name or my
+estates, if I found that you were worthy of my child: but I have been
+forced forward, from step to step, as if by the strong hand of fate,
+till at length it became an imperative duty to disclose myself, in
+order to deliver the innocent from persecution. One satisfaction,
+however, I have obtained, which is, that I can now feel unbounded
+confidence in the man to whom I leave the happiness of my child in
+charge. Remember also, Edward, that I have resumed my own rights,
+without compromising the honour or reputation of your father--"
+
+"Indeed! indeed!" cried De Vaux, starting up, and grasping his uncle's
+hands. "Thanks, thanks, my dear sir! That is a blessed relief indeed!
+But will not people suspect--"
+
+"They cannot do so reasonably," replied Lord Dewry. "The secret, my
+dear boy, remains with you and me alone, and never to a living
+creature shall it pass my lips, as I hope for happiness hereafter."
+
+"But the gipsy!" cried De Vaux, "the gipsy!"
+
+"The gipsy is no more!" replied his uncle, a shade coming over his
+countenance. "Persecution and severe laws have driven him to despair,
+and despair to death. And now, Edward, to-morrow you are about to
+visit your father; in regard to letting him know what information you
+possess, act as you shall think fit. Were I in your circumstances, if
+possible, I should conceal from him that I knew aught beyond common
+report; but if you do communicate to him the knowledge you have
+obtained, add that for all and every fault towards myself I forgive
+him from my heart and soul, but that his conduct towards Pharold the
+gipsy rests dark upon my mind; and that, perhaps, it would be better
+if we did not meet again till time had softened the remembrance.
+Present him, Edward, with this packet also. It contains a deed
+which will prevent him from feeling any great change of fortune
+from my return."
+
+De Vaux coloured as he took it; and his uncle added,--"You must not
+again make me deem you proud, Edward."
+
+"No, no, my dear sir," replied De Vaux. "What I have suffered has not
+only been a trial, but will, I trust, prove a cure; for the errors
+that you saw and justly feared, were fully as real as apparent. I
+cannot but feel pained, however, that we should have so small a right
+to expect--to expect--" He paused, hesitated a moment, and then
+added,--"to expect bounty at the hand which now bestows it."
+
+"Call it not bounty, my dear Edward," answered his uncle, "nor couple
+yourself with others in any shape, for in this deed you are in no
+degree interested. The fortune which Marian inherits from her mother
+will render you independent, till my death renders you wealthy. And
+now to conclude, ere I wish you good-night:--I have been forced to
+speak to you long of your father. In doing so, though I have tried not
+to spare my own faults, I have been obliged to dwell for long upon
+his; but I have done so once for all, and I never more mention them
+again, either to his son or to any one else. It has been as painful
+for me to speak, as for you to hear. It is over; and now, good-night!"
+
+We might dwell longer upon the feelings of Edward de Vaux; but we have
+only space left for his actions. The next morning early he set out to
+visit his parent, and it was late ere he returned. When he did so,
+however, he announced to his uncle that, although still unwell, his
+father had quitted Dimden, and removed a few stages on his journey to
+a remote part of the country, in which he had determined to fix his
+residence.
+
+"Of course, my dear sir," he added, "every inducement, but one, would
+lead me to remain here, in the scenes wherein I have been brought up,
+which are full of sweet recollections, and which contain her I love
+the best on earth. Nevertheless, he is my father; and I cannot suffer
+him to linger through the hours of sickness, in sorrow, dejection, and
+solitude, when, perhaps, the society of his son may give him
+consolation, or, at least, afford some diversion to his thoughts.
+To-morrow, therefore, I will see Marian; and then, if the surgeons
+will let me, will set off to follow my father. As soon as his illness
+is terminated," and he spoke with a look of pain and apprehension, "I
+will return, and claim a promise which is more valuable to me than
+life; and, in the meantime, I know that none who are dear to me will
+think the worse of me for having in this instance preferred duty to
+happiness."
+
+Lord Dewry made no opposition to his purpose, and it was accordingly
+executed. Two months elapsed without any event of importance. Lord
+Dewry took possession of his rights again; and rumour and gossip, at
+every fresh incident in our drama, revived more and more faintly, till
+at length they died away, and gave place to newer things. The body of
+the gipsy Pharold was never found; and a vague report spread over the
+country that he was not dead, but had returned to his people, and had
+been seen in several places by persons who were acquainted with his
+person; but the origin of this report could not be traced; and certain
+it is, that The Gipsy never again presented himself before any of the
+family of De Vaux. The tribe which he had led disappeared from the
+country; and whither their wanderings conducted them, or what was
+their fate, the writer of this book cannot tell, though it appears
+that Mr. Arden, that indefatigable magistrate, pursued them with his
+usual vigour, on the charge of deer-stealing and murder, but was
+unsuccessful in the attempt to identify any of the parties. In the
+meanwhile two inducements led Lord Dewry to establish his permanent
+residence at Dimden, rather than at the newer mansion which his
+brother had inhabited; first, that it was full of memories that he
+loved; and, secondly, that it was near those who were the dearest to
+him on earth. Colonel Manners, for his part, had prolonged his stay at
+Morley House for some time; but he then returned to London, promising
+faithfully to renew his visit, when the same cause which had brought
+him first into that part of England was again urged as a plea for
+revisiting it. To the surprise of all his military acquaintances,
+however, shortly after his arrival in the capital, Colonel Manners
+resigned the command of his regiment, and retired upon half pay.
+Various causes were assigned for this proceeding; but the real motive
+lay hidden in his own bosom, deeper than he liked to own even to
+himself.
+
+While these events were passing, Edward de Vaux wrote often to his
+uncle, and still more frequently to Marian; but at the end of two
+months the peer received a letter in which his brother's handwriting
+was faintly to be traced. It was short, and to the following effect:--
+
+
+"My Lord,
+
+"I am dying; and a few days are all that remains to me of life; I
+therefore venture to ask that you would see me once more before we
+part--perhaps for ever. I would fain receive your forgiveness from
+your own lips. I would fain tell you how that remorse--which led me on
+to new crimes and more intense sufferings at every step, while it was
+the companion of terror and despair--has conducted me to repentance
+and consolation, now that the burden has been lightened by your
+return. I have not only wronged you, but I have fearfully wronged
+others, and I acknowledge it with sorrow and with shame. Nor will I
+attempt to excuse or palliate any part of my conduct; for you, whose
+life has passed without spot, cannot tell the goading power of that
+fiery scourge with which one great crime drives us on to a thousand
+more, in order to conceal it. My cruel, I might almost say insane,
+persecution of an unhappy man who, as I hear, is now no more, had such
+feelings for its cause; but I know too well that if my deep and bitter
+repentance be not accepted by the Almighty, it will be no vindication
+of a great crime to urge that it was the consequence of another. In
+regard to my offences towards yourself, I have been punished by twenty
+years of those torments which have been assigned to hell itself--the
+worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. But this is
+not enough; and if I did not trust that the deep repentance which I
+feel may obtain some better expiation of my offences than my own
+sufferings can afford, I should die without hope. I do hope, however,
+that mercy may be found; and oh, my brother, let me beseech you to
+encourage that trust, by seeing me, and assuring me of your full
+forgiveness, ere I go to another world."
+
+
+The peer lost not a moment, and arrived at his brother's bedside
+before the last scene was over. He found in him, however, scarcely a
+trace of what he had been even three months before. At that time,
+intense mental exertion and activity had apparently given him power to
+bear up under all the load that pressed upon his heart; but the sudden
+re-appearance of his brother, and the events which accompanied it,
+seemed to have broken, in a moment, the staff under his hand, and he
+had fallen at once into age, decrepitude, and decay.
+
+Lord Dewry and Edward de Vaux returned not after to Dimden Hall in
+deep mourning; and though joy certainly sparkled in the lover's eyes
+as he once more held Marian to his heart, yet for many weeks he was
+grave and sad, and only recovered his cheerfulness by degrees. Nor
+indeed even then did Edward de Vaux ever resume the same demeanour
+which he had formerly borne. Sorrows, anxieties, and humiliation had
+rendered him grave; but they had nevertheless in no degree made him
+less amiable in the eyes of those that loved him. On the contrary,
+whatever had been frivolous, or fastidious, or irritable in his
+nature, had been removed; and in the trials he had undergone he had
+cast away the impatient pride, which was the worst quality he had
+possessed, and had obtained a calm dignity, which had a better and a
+nobler foundation. Marian de Vaux did all she could to sooth, to
+comfort, and console him; and in the end, if there was anything on
+earth of which he was proud, it was of the love and the conduct of her
+he was shortly to call his bride. As soon as De Vaux urged the
+fulfilment of the engagement between Marian and himself, he met with
+no opposition; and the day was fixed. Manners was immediately informed
+of the fact; and, according to the invitation he received, came down
+to Morley House a fortnight before the time appointed for the
+marriage. Even six or eight months will work their change in every
+one; and Isadore Falkland remarked that Colonel Manners neither seemed
+in such good health nor such good spirits as when last she had seen
+him: but ere the ceremony took place, in the air of the country and
+the cheerful society which he now enjoyed, he had recovered both; and
+only now and then gave way to a moment or two of absent thought.
+
+All was now gayety and cheerfulness: and as nothing occurred either to
+delay the wedding again, or to imbitter the after lives of Edward and
+Marian de Vaux, we shall pass the whole over with the fewest possible
+words--they were united and were happy.
+
+But one scene more, and we have done. On the day succeeding that of
+the wedding, there was, according to the custom of that time, a grand
+and solemn dinner given at Morley House to all the grave and reverend
+seniors in the neighbourhood. It was now the height of summer; and
+though men sat long and drank deep in those days, yet people who were
+sufficiently reasonable to condemn the practice, and sufficiently firm
+to contemn an idle sneer, could rise from table when they liked, even
+then. Thus, about an hour after the ladies had retired, and just as
+the sun's lower rim touched the horizon, Colonel Manners, who had been
+strangling a whole generation of yawns, rose and sauntered to the
+window. Mr. Arden, who had sat next to him, instantly seized the
+decanter, and exclaimed, "Come, come, colonel; your glass is charged."
+
+"Thank you," answered Manners; "I do not drink any more."
+
+"Poo, poo," cried the magistrate; "no flinching, colonel; your glass
+is charged--charged to the muzzle; and a gallant soldier like you will
+never refuse to fire it off."
+
+"I am on half-pay," answered Manners, with a smile; and moving towards
+the door, notwithstanding all Mr. Arden's objurgations, he left the
+room.
+
+In the drawing-room he found the ladies scattered in various parties,
+and engaged in various occupations. Mrs. Falkland was paying such
+attention to her guests as the circumstances required; but Isadore, as
+if she had quite forgotten them, was standing at the far bay window,
+looking at the setting sun and thinking--
+
+Manners advanced as quietly as possible to the same spot, and spoke a
+few words to Miss Falkland, which she answered in the same tone. It
+was a low one. The conversation might thus have gone on for a long
+time without disturbing any one; but Lady Margaret Simpson, who sat at
+the other side of the room, was fond of being a third; and in about
+five minutes she crossed over and joined them.
+
+"Well, Colonel Manners," she said, "I have not been able to speak a
+word to you all dinner-time, and I wanted to talk to you about the
+wedding. Has not this been a very fortunate termination to all that
+bad business?"
+
+"Most satisfactory, indeed," answered Manners, with a glance towards
+Isadore, who looked vexed and provoked. "I doubt not that De Vaux and
+his fair bride are fully of your opinion."
+
+"Oh, they of course think so," rejoined Lady Margaret; "and there can
+be no doubt that marriage is a very right and very proper thing, when
+fortune, and rank, and all that agree. Do you not think so, my dear
+Miss Falkland?"
+
+"Certainly, madam," answered Isadore, in a tone which argued a doubt
+whether she should laugh or cry; "I dare say it is a very proper
+thing."
+
+"Then now tell me," cried Lady Margaret, in a gay and happy tone of
+raillery--"then now tell me, why you--who I know have had three very
+good offers indeed--why you yourself do not marry? Tell me the truth,
+now."
+
+"Oh, certainly I will," answered Isadore, half gayly, half pettishly.
+"It is, I suppose, because I do not think it worth while to marry
+without love; and if the man that I could love does not choose to
+propose to me, it is quite impossible, you know, that I can propose to
+him."
+
+God knows whether the colour that spread over Isadore's face came from
+within or without,--whether it was a rush of warm blood from some deep
+source in her heart, or the warm beams of the setting sun reflected
+from the damask curtain on her cheek. However that might be, she felt
+that the crimson was growing too deep, and turning round, upon some
+light excuse, she left the room. Manners remained for a moment or two
+to hear some more of her ladyship's pleasantries; and then declaring
+that he could not abandon, even for the pleasure of her society, his
+sunset walk in the garden, he strolled out through the anteroom, which
+was not the way that Isadore had taken. When he reached the lobby,
+however, he remembered that there was a certain music-room, of which
+he had remarked that Isadore Falkland had lately become extremely
+fond, and as he had by this time acquired a strong liking for the
+things that she liked, he turned his steps thither instead of to the
+garden.
+
+No sooner did he open the door, than he beheld Miss Falkland seated
+near the window, with a handkerchief in her hand, engaged in the
+somewhat sad occupation of wiping tears from her eyes. "Good God,
+Colonel Manners!" she exclaimed, as soon as he appeared, "leave me,
+leave me, I beg."
+
+But Manners did not obey. On the contrary, advancing rapidly towards
+her, he took her hand, saying, "Miss Falkland, I am either the most
+happy or the most miserable of men. I have broken through all my
+resolutions; I have exposed myself to love, where I have no right to
+entertain a hope; I love for the first time, deeply, passionately,
+sincerely, and it is for you to say whether that passion shall be my
+curse or my blessing."
+
+Isadore replied not, but her tears burst forth more vehemently than
+before; and the hand that Manners had taken remained trembling in his.
+Manners pressed her to his heart; and Isadore ended her flood of tears
+upon his bosom.
+
+It was nearly three months after this event ere Isadore Falkland again
+met Lady Margaret Simpson; and then her ladyship's first exclamation
+was, "Goodness, my dear Miss Falkland, they tell me you are going to
+be married to Colonel Manners! Well, I do declare, when you are so
+very handsome, it is a great pity that he is so ugly."
+
+"Ugly!" cried Isadore. "Ugly! Lady Margaret! He is the handsomest man
+in all the world!" and she continued to think so to her dying day.
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gipsy (Vols I & II), by
+G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford) James
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GIPSY (VOLS I & II) ***
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