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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41545 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 41545-h.htm or 41545-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41545/41545-h/41545-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41545/41545-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/cu31924013434802
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ORANGE GIRL
+
+by
+
+SIR WALTER BESANT
+
+Illustrated by Warren B. Davis
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead & Company
+1899
+
+Copyright, 1898,
+By Walter Besant.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "OVER THIS RURAL PLACE WE STRAYED AT OUR WILL."]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                             PAGE
+
+    PROLOGUE                                                    1
+
+
+    PART I
+
+    HOW I GOT INTO THE KING'S BENCH
+
+
+        I I AM TURNED OUT INTO THE WORLD                       15
+
+       II A CITY OF REFUGE                                     23
+
+      III A WAY TO LIVE                                        29
+
+       IV LOVE AND MUSIC                                       33
+
+        V WEDDING BELLS AND THE BOOK OF THE PLAY               40
+
+       VI A CITY FUNERAL                                       51
+
+      VII THE READING OF THE WILL                              58
+
+     VIII THE TEMPTATION                                       65
+
+       IX THE CLAIM AND THE ARREST                             72
+
+        X THE ARREST                                           79
+
+
+    PART II
+
+    OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE
+
+
+        I RELEASE                                              91
+
+       II HOW I GOT A NEW PLACE                                97
+
+      III THE MASQUERADE                                      103
+
+       IV WHO SHE WAS                                         116
+
+        V THE BLACK JACK                                      130
+
+       VI A WARNING AND ANOTHER OFFER                         143
+
+      VII JENNY'S ADVICE                                      156
+
+     VIII A SUCCESSFUL CONSPIRACY                             162
+
+       IX NEWGATE                                             170
+
+        X THE SAME OFFER                                      184
+
+       XI THE IMPENDING TRIAL                                 191
+
+      XII THE TRIAL                                           197
+
+     XIII THE COMPANY OF REVENGE                              213
+
+      XIV AN UNEXPECTED CHARGE                                225
+
+       XV THE FILIAL MARTYR                                   238
+
+      XVI THE SNARE WHICH THEY DIGGED FOR OTHERS              248
+
+     XVII THE CASE OF CLARINDA                                253
+
+    XVIII THE FALLEN ALDERMAN                                 261
+
+      XIX THE END OF THE CONSPIRACY                           267
+
+       XX THE HONOURS OF THE MOB                              273
+
+      XXI GUILTY, MY LORD                                     280
+
+     XXII FROM THE CONDEMNED CELL                             295
+
+    XXIII AN UNEXPECTED EVENT                                 308
+
+     XXIV COMMUTATION                                         316
+
+      XXV TRANSPORTATION                                      322
+
+     XXVI THE LAST TEMPTATION                                 336
+
+
+
+
+PROLOGUE
+
+
+On a certain afternoon in May, about four or five of the clock, I was
+standing at the open window of my room in that Palace to which Fortune
+leads her choicest favourites--the College, or Prison, as some call it,
+of the King's Bench. I was at the time a prisoner for debt, with very
+little chance of ever getting out. More fortunate than most of the
+tenants, I was able to carry on my business. For instance, all that
+morning I had been engaged in composing a song--it was afterwards sung
+with great applause at the Dog and Duck; and on the bed reposed the
+instrument with which I earned the greater part of my daily bread--my
+faithful violin.
+
+My window was on the ground-floor in the great building which was then
+new, for the Prison had been transferred from the other side two or
+three years before. This building contains more than two hundred rooms,
+and twice that number of prisoners. Many of the ground-floor rooms have
+been converted into shops--chandlers', grocers', mercers', hosiers'. You
+may buy anything in these shops, except a good book. I believe that
+there is no demand in the prison for such an article of commerce.
+Song-books and jest-books and cards on the other hand, are constantly
+called for. It was a day of bright sunshine. Outside, on the Grand
+Parade--otherwise called King Street--which is a broad footway flagged,
+strolled up and down in the sunshine an endless procession. They paced
+the pavement from East to West; they turned and paced it again from West
+to East. Among them were a few neatly attired, but by far the greater
+number, men and women, were slatternly, untidy, and slipshod. Their
+walk--nobody was ever seen to walk briskly in the Prison--was the
+characteristic scuffle easily acquired in this place; the men were
+mostly in slippers: some were in morning gowns: very few had their
+heads dressed: some wore old-fashioned wigs, rusty and uncombed: some,
+the poorer set, were bare-footed, and in such rags and tatters as would
+not be tolerated in the open streets. The faces of the people as they
+passed were various. There was the humorous face of the prisoner who
+takes fortune philosophically: there was the face always resentful: the
+face resigned: the face vacuous: the face of suffering: the face sodden
+with drink: the face vicious: the face soured: the face saddened: the
+face, like the clothes, ragged and ruined: everything but the face
+happy--that cannot be found in the King's Bench Prison. Children ran
+about playing and shouting: there were at this time many hundreds of
+children in the prison. Against the wall--'tis surely twenty-five feet
+higher than is needed--the racquet and fives players carried on their
+games: at the lower end of the Parade some played the game called Bumble
+Puppy: here and there tables were set where men drank and smoked pipes
+of tobacco and played cards, though as yet it was only afternoon. The
+people talked as they went along, but not with animation: now and then
+one laughed; but the merriment of the College is very near the fount of
+tears; it hath a sound hysterical. Some conversed eagerly with visitors:
+by their eagerness you knew that they were newcomers. What did they talk
+about? The means of release? Yet so few do get out. For the first three
+or four years of imprisonment, when visitors call, prisoners talk of
+nothing else. After that time visitors cease to call: and there is no
+more talk of release. A man in the King's Bench is speedily forgotten.
+He becomes dead to the world: dead and forgotten. Surely there is no
+more pitiless and relentless enemy than a creditor. Yet in church every
+Sunday he asks, and expects, that mercy from his God which he himself
+refuses to his debtor.
+
+On no other day in the year could the Prison look more cheerful. Yet as
+I stood at the window there fell upon me such sadness as belongs only to
+the Prison; it is a longing to be free: a yearning inconceivable for the
+green fields and the trees. Such moods are common in the Prison. I have
+seen men turn aside from their friends in the midst of a song, in the
+height of the revelry, and slink away from the company with drooping
+head and bowed shoulders. It is indeed difficult not to feel this
+sadness from time to time. I was young: I had few friends, for a reason
+that I shall tell you presently. For aught that I could see there was
+nothing before me but a life-long imprisonment. Nobody, I say, can
+understand the strength and the misery of this yearning for liberty--for
+air--that sometimes seizes the prisoner and rends him and will not let
+him go. Yet I was better off than many, because, though I could in no
+way pay the money for which I was imprisoned, I was not without the
+means of a livelihood. I had, as I have said, my fiddle. So long as a
+man has a fiddle and can play it he need never want. To play the fiddle
+is the safest of all trades, because the fiddler is always wanted. If a
+company is drinking they will call for the fiddler to lift up their
+hearts: if there are girls with them they will call for the fiddler to
+make them dance: if they would sing they want the fiddler to lead them
+off: if they are sitting in the coffee-room they call for the fiddler to
+enliven them. Grave discourse or gay; young people or old: they are
+always ready to call for the fiddler and to pay him for his trouble. So
+that by dint of playing every evening, I did very well, and could afford
+to dine at the two shilling ordinary and to drink every day a glass or
+two of ale, and to pay my brother-in-law for the maintenance of Alice
+and the boy.
+
+Among the prisoners were two who always walked together: talked
+together: and drank together. The others looked askance upon them. One,
+who was called the Captain, wore a scarlet coat which might have been
+newer, and a gold-laced hat which had once been finer. He was a tall,
+burly fellow, with the kind of comeliness one may see in a horse-rider
+at a fair, or a fellow who performs on a tight-rope; a man who carries
+by storm the hearts of village girls and leaves them all forlorn. He
+swaggered as he walked, and looked about him with an insolence which
+made me, among others, desirous of tweaking him by the nose, if only to
+see whether his courage was equal to his swagger. I have always, since,
+regretted that I lost the opportunity. Duels are not allowed in the
+College, and perhaps in an encounter with the simpler weapons provided
+by Nature I might have been equal to the Captain. His manners at the
+Ordinary were noisy and, if he had ever really carried His Majesty's
+Commission, as to which there were whispers, it must have been in some
+branch of the service where the urbanities of life were not required.
+Further: it was known that he was always ready to play with anyone: and
+at any time of the day: it was reported that he always won: this
+reputation, coupled with his insolent carriage, caused him to be shunned
+and suspected.
+
+His companion, commonly known as the Bishop, was dressed in the habit of
+a clergyman. He wore a frayed silk cassock and a gown with dirty bands.
+His wig, which wanted dressing, was canonical. His age might have been
+forty or more: his cheeks were red with strong drink: his neck was
+puffed: his figure was square and corpulent: his voice was thick: he
+looked in a word what he was, not a servant of the Lord at all, but of
+the Devil.
+
+At this period I had little experience or knowledge of the people who
+live by rogueries and cheats: nor had I any suspicion when a stranger
+appeared that he was not always what he pretended to be. At the same
+time one could not believe that the hulking fellow in a scarlet coat had
+ever received a commission from the King: nor could anyone believe that
+the hoglike creature who wore a cassock and a gown and a clergyman's wig
+was really in Holy Orders.
+
+Among the collegians there was one who pleased me, though his raiment
+was shabby to the last degree, by his manners, which were singularly
+gentle; and his language, which was that of a scholar. He scorned the
+vulgar idiom and turned with disgust from the universal verb (or
+participle) with which annoyance or dislike or disappointment was
+commonly expressed. And he spoke in measured terms as one who pronounces
+a judgment. I heard afterward that he wrote critical papers on new books
+in the _Gentlemen's Magazine_. But I never read new books unless they
+are books of music. When he could afford to dine at the Ordinary, which
+was about twice a week, he sat beside me and instructed me by his
+discourse. He was a scholar of some college at Cambridge and a poet. I
+sometimes think that it may be a loss to the world not to know its
+poets. There are without doubt some who regard poetry as musicians
+regard music. Now if the work of a Purcell or a Handel were to fall dead
+and unnoticed it would be a most dreadful loss to music and a
+discouragement for composers. So that there may be poets, of whom the
+world hears nothing, whose verse is neglected and lost, though it might
+be of great service to other poets or to mankind, if verse can in any
+way help the world.
+
+However, one day, when these two prisoners, the Captain and the Bishop,
+had left the Ordinary and were brawling in the tavern hard by for a
+bottle of Port, my friend the scholar turned to me.
+
+'Sir,' he said, 'the Prison ought to be purged of such residents. They
+should be sent to the Borough Compter or the Clink. Here we have
+gentlemen: here we have tradesmen: here we have craftsmen: we are a
+little World. Here are the temptations of the world': he looked across
+the table where some of the ladies of the Prison were dining. 'The
+tavern invites us: the gaming table offers us a seat: we have our
+virtues and our vices. But we have not our crimes. And as a rule we
+cannot boast among our company the presence of the Robber, the Forger,
+or the Common Rogue. We have, in a word, no representative, as a rule of
+the Gallows, the Pillory, the Stocks, the Cart-tail, and the Whipping
+Post.'
+
+I waited, for he did not like to be interrupted.
+
+'Sir,' he went on, 'I am a Poet. As a child of the Muses'--I thought
+they were unmarried but did not venture on that objection--'it is my
+business to observe the crooked ways of men and the artful ways of
+women, even though one may at times be misunderstood--as has once or
+twice happened. One may be the temporary companion of a Rogue without
+having to pick a pocket. I remember the faces of those two men--I saw
+them in a Thieves' Kitchen whither I was taken in disguise by one who
+knows them. The Captain, Sir, is a Highwayman, common and notorious. He
+is now five-and-twenty, and his rope is certainly long out, so that he
+is kept from Tyburn Tree by some special favour by Mr. Merridew the
+Thief-Taker. The other, whom they call the Bishop, is a Rogue of some
+education. He may last longer because he is useful and it would be hard
+to replace him. He was once usher in a suburban school at Marybone, and
+now writes lying, threatening or begging letters for the crew. He also
+concocts villainies. He threatens to set the house on fire, or to bring
+the householder into bankruptcy: or in some way to injure him fatally
+unless he sends a certain sum of money. He tells gentlemen who have been
+robbed that they can have their papers back, but not their money, by
+sending a reward. His villainy is without any pity or mercy or
+consideration. The Captain is a mere robber--a Barabbas. The Bishop is
+worse: he has the soul of a Fiend in the body of a man.'
+
+'But why,' I said 'are they here?'
+
+'They are in hiding. A sham debt has been sworn against them. From their
+dejected faces and from what I have overheard them saying, I learn that
+a true debt has been added for another detainer. But indeed I know not
+their affairs, except that they came here in order to be out of the way,
+and that something has happened to disconcert their plans. As honest men
+we must agree in hoping that their plans, which are certainly dishonest,
+may succeed, in order that their presence among us may cease and so we
+may breathe again. The air of the Prison is sometimes close and even
+musty, but we do not desire it to be mistaken for the reek of St.
+Giles's or the stench of Turnmill Street.'
+
+However, I troubled myself but little as to these two men. And I know
+not how long they were in the prison. Had I known what they would do for
+me in the future I think I should have brained them there and then.
+
+This afternoon the pair were talking together with none of the
+listlessness that belongs to the King's Bench. 'Might as well get out at
+once'--I heard fragments--'quite certain that he won't appear--no more
+danger--if she will consent,' and so on--phrases to which I paid no
+attention.
+
+Suddenly, however, they stopped short, and both cried out together:
+
+'She's come herself!'
+
+I looked out of my window and beheld a Vision.
+
+The lady was alone. She stood at the end of the Parade and looked about
+her for a moment with hesitation, because the scene was new to her. She
+saw the ragged rout playing racquets: drinking at their tables: leaning
+against the pumps at each of which there is always a little gathering:
+or strolling by in couples on the Parade. Then she advanced slowly,
+looking to the right and to the left. She smiled upon the people as they
+made way for her: no Queen could have smiled more graciously: yet not a
+Queen, for there was no majesty in her face, which was inspired by, and
+filled with, Venus herself, the Goddess of charm and grace and
+loveliness. Never was a face more lovely and more full of love. As for
+her dress, all that I can tell you is that I have never known at any
+time how this lady was dressed: she carried, I remember, an
+ivory-handled fan in her hand: she seemed to beholders to be dressed in
+nothing but lace, ribbons and embroidery. Her figure was neither tall
+nor short. Reasonably tall, for a woman ought not to be six feet high:
+so tall as not to be insignificant: not so tall as to dwarf the men:
+slender in shape and quick and active in her movements. Her eyes, which
+I observed later, changed every moment with her change of mood: one
+would say that they even changed their colour, which was a dark blue:
+they could be limpid, or melting, or fiery, or pitiful; in a word, they
+could express every fleeting emotion. Her features changed as much as
+her eyes: one never knew how she would look, until one had watched and
+known her in all her moods and passions: her lips were always ready to
+smile: her face was continually lit up by the sunshine of joy and
+happiness. But this woman wanted joy as some women want love. Her voice
+was gentle and musical.
+
+I speak of her as I knew her afterwards, not as she appeared on this,
+the first day of meeting. I make no excuse for thus speaking of her,
+because, in truth, the very thought of Jenny--I have too soon revealed
+her name--makes me long to speak of what she was. Out of the fulness of
+my heart I write about her. And as you will understand presently, I
+could love without wronging my wife, and as much as a woman can be
+loved, and yet in innocence and with the full approval of the other
+woman whom also I loved.
+
+At the sight of this apparition the whole Prison stared with open mouth.
+Who was this angel, and for what fortunate prisoner did she come? At the
+very outset, when I could not dream that she would ever condescend to
+speak to me, she seemed the most lovely woman I had ever beheld. Some
+women might possess more regular features: no one, sure, was ever so
+lovely, so bewitching, so attractive. It is as if I could go on forever
+repeating my words. The women of the Prison--poor tattered drabs, for
+the most part--looked after her with sighs--oh! to dress like that! Some
+of them murmured impudently to each other, 'Who gave her all that
+finery?' Most of them only looked and longed and sighed. Oh! to be
+dressed like her! To look like her! To smile like her! To put on that
+embroidered petticoat--that frock--those gloves--to carry that fan--to
+possess that figure--that manner! Well: to gaze upon the inaccessible
+may sometimes do us good. The sight of this Wonder made those poor women
+appear a little less slatternly. They straightened themselves: they
+tidied their hair: the more ragged crept away.
+
+As for the men, they followed her with looks of wonder and of worship.
+For my own part I understood for the first time that power of beauty
+which compels admiration, worship and service: when I am greatly moved
+by music that memory comes back to me. In looking upon such a woman, one
+asks not what has been her history: what she is: what she has done: one
+accepts the heavenly cheerfulness of her smile: the heavenly wisdom
+seated on her brow: the heavenly innocence in her eyes: the purity which
+cannot be smirched or soiled by contact with things of the world.
+
+I continued to gaze upon her while she walked up the Parade. To my
+surprise this angelic creature stopped before the pair of worthies--the
+bully in scarlet and the drunken divine. What could she want with them?
+They received her with profound salutations, the Bishop sweeping the
+ground with his greasy hat.
+
+'Madam,' he said, 'we did not expect that you would yourself condescend
+to such a place.'
+
+'I wished to see you,' she replied, curtly. I seemed to remember her
+voice.
+
+'May we conduct you, Madam,' said the Captain, 'to the Coffee-room for
+more private conversation. Perhaps a glass----'
+
+'Or,' said the Bishop, for she refused the proffered glass with an
+impatient gesture--could such a woman drink with such men? she refused,
+I say, with a shake of her head, 'for greater privacy to our own room.
+It is on the third floor. No one will venture to intrude upon us--and
+there is a chair. I fear that, in the neglect, which is too common in
+this place, the beds are not yet made,' He looked as if the morning wash
+had not been performed either.
+
+'What do I care, sir,' she asked, interrupting again, 'whether your beds
+are made or not? I shall stay here,' She withdrew a little nearer to the
+wall beside my window, so as to be outside the throng of people. 'We can
+talk, I suppose, undisturbed, and unheard, though, so far as I care, all
+the world may hear. Bless me! The people look as if a woman was a rare
+object here.' She looked round at the crowd. 'Yet there are women among
+your prisoners. Well, then, what have you got to say? Speak up, and
+quickly, because I like not the place or the company. You wrote to me.
+Now go on.'
+
+'I wrote to you,' said the Bishop, 'asking a great favour. I know that
+we have no reason to expect that or any other favour from you.'
+
+'You have no reason. But go on.'
+
+'We came here, you know'--his voice dropped to a whisper, but I heard
+what he said--'in order to escape a great danger.'
+
+'I heard. You told me. The danger was in connection with a gentleman and
+a post-chaise.'
+
+'A villainous charge,' said the Captain.
+
+'Villainous indeed,' repeated the Bishop. 'I could prove to you in five
+minutes and quite to your satisfaction that the Captain was engaged at
+Newmarket on the day in question, while I myself was conducting a
+funeral in place of the Vicar in a country village thirty miles on the
+other side of London.'
+
+'An excellent defence, truly. But I will leave that to the lawyers.
+Well, the debt was sworn against you by Mr. Merridew.' I pricked up my
+ears at this because this was the name of the man, as you shall hear,
+who swore a debt which never existed against me. Could there be two
+Merridews?
+
+'That was mere form. Unfortunately other detainers are out against both
+of us. I know not how they found out that we were here. Mr. Merridew
+refuses to take us out. He says that he thinks our time is up, and so he
+knows that we are safe.' He shuddered. Afterwards I understood why.
+'There is the danger that we may have to remain here till he takes us
+out. As for our present necessities--' He drew out his purse and dangled
+it--a long purse with a very few guineas in it. 'You see, Madam, to stay
+here, where there is no opportunity of honest work, is ruin and
+starvation.'
+
+'Honest work! Why, if you go out, you will only continue in your old
+courses.'
+
+'They are at least honest and even pious courses,' said the Bishop with
+a snuffle.
+
+'As you please. But there is still the former danger.'
+
+'No. The gentleman understands now that he only mislaid his pocket-book.
+Mr. Merridew found it for him. The drafts and notes were still in it,
+fortunately. The gentleman has redeemed the papers from Mr. Merridew. He
+will not take any further steps.'
+
+'If I take you out,' she spoke to the Captain, 'you know what will
+happen. Better stay here in safety.'
+
+'What else can a man do?' asked the Captain.
+
+'You might go abroad; go to America--anything is better than the Road
+and the certain end.' She made a gesture with her hand, easy to be
+understood.
+
+'If a man has a long rope, what else can he expect?'
+
+'And you?' she turned to the Bishop, 'what will become of you? Will you
+stay in London where you are known in every street?'
+
+'I have had thoughts of trying Ireland. A good many things can be done
+in Ireland. The Irish are a confiding people.'
+
+'Do what you please. It is nothing to me what becomes of both of you. I
+interfere because--oh! you know why. And as for your future--that, I
+suppose, will be arranged for you by your friend Mr. Merridew.
+
+Putting together what my friend the starveling poet told me and what
+they themselves confessed, they were clearly a pair of rogues, and she
+knew it, and she was going to help them. Charity covereth a multitude of
+sins. Yet, surely, it was remarkable that a gentlewoman should come to
+the King's Bench Prison in order to send two abominable criminals back
+to their old haunts.
+
+'Any place is better than this,' said the Captain.
+
+'Much better than this,' echoed the Bishop. 'Give me freedom while I
+live. A short life--' but he was certainly past forty--'and a free life,
+for me.'
+
+'How much is it, then, altogether, for the pair of you?'
+
+'The detainers, not counting Mr. Merridew's, amount to close upon
+seventy pounds. Then there are the costs and the fees.'
+
+'Oh!' she cried impatiently, 'what is the good of setting you loose
+again? Why should I let loose upon the world such a pair of rogues? Why
+not keep you here so that you may at least die in your beds?'
+
+The Bishop looked astonished at this outburst. 'Why,' he said, slowly,
+'we are what we are. That is true. What else can we be? Nobody knows
+better than you what we are. Come, now, nobody, I say, knows better than
+you what we are.'
+
+'Yes,' she replied with a sigh. 'I do know very well--I wish I did
+not.'
+
+And nobody knows better than you,' he went on, roughly, 'that what we
+are we must continue to be. What else can we do?'
+
+'Say no more,' she replied, sighing again. 'There is no help, I suppose.
+When I made up my mind to come here at all, I made up my mind that I
+would take you out--both of you. Yet--it is like walking over a grave, I
+shiver'--she did actually shiver as she spoke. 'I feel as if I were
+contriving a mischief for myself. These signs always come true--a
+mischief,' she repeated, 'to myself'--indeed she was, as you shall
+afterwards learn. 'As for the world you will certainly do as much
+mischief to that as you can.'
+
+'As we can, Madam,' said the Bishop with a smile--he was easy now that
+he knew her mind. Before, he was inclined to be rough. 'The world, on
+the other hand, is always trying to do a mischief to me.'
+
+'But mischief to you, Madam?' cried the captain, that mirror of
+gallantry. 'A soldier is all gratitude and honour. Mischief to you?
+Impossible!'
+
+'And a Divine,' added the other with a grin, 'is all truth, fidelity,
+and honesty. His profession compels these qualities.'
+
+'Quite so. Well, gentlemen of honour and truth, you shall once more
+return to the scenes and the pursuits and the companions that you love.
+Moll and Doll and Poll impatiently await you at the Black Jack. And I
+see, only a short mile from that hospitable place, another refuge--call
+it the Black Jug--where before long you will pass a few pleasant days of
+rest and repose before going forth in a glorious procession.'
+
+'If we go forth in that procession', murmured the Bishop with lowering
+face, 'there are other people quite as deserving, who will sit there
+beside us.'
+
+'Go,' she said. 'I have talked enough and more than enough with such as
+you. Go.'
+
+They bowed again and walked away.
+
+Now I heard this interview, half of which I did not understand, with
+amazement unspeakable. The lady was going to release this pair of
+villains--Why? Out of the boundless charity of her benevolent heart?
+
+She looked after the precious pair, standing for a moment with her hand
+shading her eyes. The light went out of her face: a cloud fell upon it:
+she sighed again: her lips parted: she caught her breath. Ah! Poor
+lady! Thy face was made for joy and not for sorrow. What thought, what
+memory, was it that compelled the cloud and chased away the sunshine?
+
+She turned her head--she moved away. I was still standing at my window
+looking on: as she passed she started and stopped short, her face
+expressing the greatest possible bewilderment and amazement.
+
+'It is not ...' she cried--'Surely--No--Yet the resemblance is so great.
+Sir, I thought--at first--you were a gentleman of my acquaintance. You
+are so much like him that I venture to ask you who you are?'
+
+'A prison bird, Madam. Nothing more,'
+
+'Yes, but you are so like that gentleman. May I ask your name?'
+
+'My name, at your service, Madam, is Halliday. My friends call me Will
+Halliday.'
+
+'Will Halliday. Are you a brother--but that cannot be--of Mr. Matthew
+Halliday?'
+
+'I am his first cousin.'
+
+'Matthew Halliday's first cousin? But he is rich. Does he allow you to
+remain in this place?'
+
+'It is not only by the sufferance of my cousin Matthew but by his desire
+that I am here.'
+
+'By his desire! Yes--I know something of your cousin, sir. It is by his
+desire. I discover new virtues in your cousin the more I learn of him. I
+suppose, then, that you are not on friendly terms with your cousin?'
+
+'I am not indeed. Quite the contrary,'
+
+'Can you tell me the reason why?'
+
+'Because he desires my death. Therefore he has caused my arrest--he and
+an attorney of the devil--named Probus.'
+
+'Oh! Probus! I have heard of that Probus. Sir, I would willingly hear
+more concerning this matter and your cousin and Mr. Probus, if you will
+kindly tell me. I must now go, but with your permission I will come
+again. It is not I assure you, out of idle curiosity that I ask these
+questions.'
+
+The next day, or the day after, the Captain and the Bishop walked out of
+the Prison. When they were gone open talk went round the Prison, perhaps
+started by the Poet, that one was a highwayman and the other a
+sharper--perhaps a forger--a contriver of plots and plans to deceive the
+unwary. I marvelled that they should have received the bounty of so
+fine a lady, for indeed, whether highwayman or sharper or honest men,
+they were as foul-mouthed a pair of reprobates--drunken withal--as we
+had in the prison.
+
+And then I remembered, suddenly, the reason why I recognised the lady's
+voice and why there was something in the face also that I seemed to
+know. I had been but once in my life to the Theatre. On that occasion
+there was an actress whose beauty and vivacity gave me the greatest
+possible delight. One may perhaps forget the face of an actress playing
+a part, because she alters her face with every part: but her voice, when
+it is a sweet voice, one remembers. The lady was that actress. I
+remembered her--and her name. She was Miss Jenny Wilmot of Drury Lane.
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+HOW I GOT INTO THE KING'S BENCH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+I AM TURNED OUT INTO THE WORLD
+
+
+In the year 1760 or thereabouts, everybody knew the name of Sir Peter
+Halliday, Merchant. The House in which Sir Peter was the Senior Partner
+possessed a fleet of West Indiamen which traded between the Port of
+London and Jamaica, Barbadoes, and the other English Islands, taking out
+all kinds of stuffs, weapons, implements, clothing, wine, silks, gloves,
+and everything else that the planters could want, and returning laden
+with sugar in bags, mahogany, arrack, and whatever else the islands
+produce. Our wharf was that which stands next to the Tower stairs: the
+counting-house was on the wharf: there the clerks worked daily from
+seven in the morning till eight at night. As a boy it was my delight to
+go on board the ships when they arrived. There I ran up and down the
+companion: into the dark lower deck where the midshipmen messed and
+slept among the flying cockroaches, which buzzed into their faces and
+the rats which ran over them and the creatures which infest a ship in
+hot latitudes and come on board with the gunny-bags, such as centipedes,
+scorpions, and great spiders. And I would stand and watch the barges
+when they came alongside to receive the cargo. Then with a yeo-heave-oh!
+and a chantey of the sailors, mostly meaningless, yet pleasant to hear,
+they tossed the bags of sugar into the barge as if they were loaves of
+bread, and the casks of rum as if they had been pint pots. Or I would
+talk to the sailors and hear stories of maroon niggers and how the
+planters engaged the sailors to go ashore in search of these fierce
+runaways and shoot them down in the mountains: and stories of shark and
+barra coota: of hurricanos and islands where men had been put ashore to
+starve and die miserably: of pirates, of whom there have always been
+plenty in the Caribbean Sea since that ocean was first discovered.
+Strange things these sailors brought home with them: coral, pink and
+white: preserved flying-fish: creatures put in spirits: carved
+cocoanuts: everybody knows the treasures of the sailor arrived in port.
+
+This, I say, was my delight as a boy: thus I learned to think of things
+outside the narrow bounds of the counting-house and the City walls.
+Marvellous it is to mark how while the Pool is crammed with ships from
+all parts of the world, the Londoner will go on in ignorance of any
+world beyond the walls of the City or the boundaries of his parish.
+Therefore, I say, it was better for me than the study of Moll's
+Geography to converse with these sailors and to listen to their
+adventures.
+
+Another thing they taught me. It is well known that on board every ship
+there is one, at least, who can play the fiddle. A ship without a
+fiddler is robbed of the sailors' chief joy. Now, ever since I remember
+anything I was always making music: out of the whistle pipe: the
+twanging Jews' harp: the comb and paper: but above all out of the
+fiddle. I had a fiddle: I found it in a garret of our house in Great
+College Street. I made a sailor tell me how to practise upon it:
+whenever one of our ships put into port I made friends with the fiddler
+on board and got more lessons; so that I was under instruction, in this
+rude manner for the greater part of the year, and before I was twelve I
+could play anything readily and after the fashion, rough and vigorous,
+of the sailors with whom strength of arm reckons before style.
+
+I belong to a family which for nearly two hundred years have been
+Puritans. Some of them were preachers and divines under Cromwell. Their
+descendants retained the strict observance of opinions which forbid
+mirth and merriment, even among young people. Although they conformed to
+the Church of England, they held that music of all kinds: the theatre:
+dancing at the Assembly: reading poetry and tales: and wearing of fine
+dress must be sinful, because they call attention from the salvation of
+the soul, the only thing about which the sinner ought to think. Why it
+was worse to let the mind dwell upon music than upon money-getting I
+know not, nor have I ever been able to discover. It will be understood,
+however, that ours was a strict household. It consisted of my father,
+myself, a housekeeper and five servants, all godly. We had long prayers,
+morning and evening; we attended the Church of St. Stephen Walbrook,
+instead of our own parish church of St. Michael Paternoster, because
+there was no organ in it: we went to church on Sundays twice: and twice
+in the week to the Gift Lectures, of which there were two. My father was
+a stern man, of great dignity. When he was Lord Mayor he was greatly
+feared by malefactors. He was of a full habit of body, with a large red
+face, his neck swollen into rolls. Like all merchants in his position he
+drank a great deal of port, of which he possessed a noble cellar.
+
+I have often wondered why it was never discovered that I practised the
+fiddle in the garret. To be sure, it was only at those hours when my
+father was on the wharf. When I had the door shut and the windows open
+the maids below thought, I suppose, that the sounds came from the next
+house. However that may be, I was never found out.
+
+Now this fondness for music produced an unfortunate result. The sight of
+a book of arithmetic always filled me with a disgust unspeakable. The
+sight of a book of accounts inspired me with loathing. The daily aspect
+of my father's clerks all sitting in a row on high stools, and all
+driving the quill with heads bending over the paper, made me, even as a
+child, believe theirs to be the most miserable lot that Fortune has to
+offer her most unhappy victims. I still think so. Give me any other kind
+of life: make me a bargee: a coal-heaver: a sailor before the mast: an
+apothecary: a schoolmaster's usher: in all these occupations there will
+be something to redeem the position: but for the accountant there is
+nothing. All day long he sits within four walls: his pay is miserable:
+his food is insufficient: when in the evening he crawls away, there is
+only time left for him to take a little supper and go to his miserable
+bed.
+
+Imagine, therefore, my loathing when I understood that at the age of
+sixteen I was to take my place among these unfortunates, and to work my
+way towards the succession which awaited me--the partnership held by my
+father--by becoming a clerk like unto these others whom I had always
+pitied and generally despised. From that lot, however, there was no
+escape. All the partners, from father to son, had so worked their way.
+The reason of this rule was that the young men in this way acquired a
+knowledge of the business in all its branches before they were called
+upon to direct its enterprise, and to enter upon new ventures. I daresay
+that it was a good practical rule. But in my own case I found it almost
+intolerable.
+
+I was unlike the clerks in one or two respects: I had good food and
+plenty of it. And I received no salary.
+
+I had a cousin, named Matthew, son of my father's younger brother and
+partner, Alderman Paul Halliday, Citizen and Lorimer, who had not yet
+passed the chair. Matthew, though his father was the younger son, was
+three or four years older than myself. He, therefore, mounted the
+clerks' stool so many years before me. He was a young man with a face
+and carriage serious and thoughtful (to all appearance) beyond his
+years. He had a trick of dropping his eyes while he talked: his face was
+always pale and his hands were always clammy. Other young men who had
+been at school with him spoke of him with disrespect and even hatred,
+but I know not why. In a word, Matthew had no friends among those of his
+own age. On the other hand, the older people thought highly of him. My
+father spoke with praise of his capacity for business and of his
+industry, and of the grasp of detail which he had already begun to show.
+As for me, I could never like my cousin, and what happened when I was
+about eighteen years of age gave me no reason to like him any better.
+
+I had been in the counting-house for two years, each day feeling like a
+week for duration. But the question of rebellion had so far never
+occurred to me. I could no longer practise in the garret while my father
+was in the counting-house. But I could get away, on pretence of business
+to the ships, and snatch an hour below with the fiddler. And in the
+evening sometimes, when my father was feasting with a City Company or
+engaged in other business out of the house, I could take boat across the
+river and run over to St. George's Fields, there to have half an hour of
+play with a musician, of whom you shall learn more, called Tom Shirley.
+After the manner of youths I never asked myself how long this would go
+on without discovery: or what would be the result when it was
+discovered. Yet I knew very well that no Quaker could be more decided
+as to the sinfulness of music than my father and my uncle. Had not the
+great and Reverend Samuel Halliday, D. D., preached before the Protector
+on the subject of the snares spread by the devil to catch souls by means
+of music?
+
+Now, one afternoon in the month of June, when the counting-house is more
+than commonly terrible, a message came to me that my father wished to
+speak with me.
+
+I found him in his own room, his brother Paul sitting with him. His face
+showed astonishment and anger; that of his brother presented some
+appearance of sorrow--real or not, I cannot say. My uncle Paul was, as
+often happens in a family, a reduced copy of his elder brother. He was
+not so tall: not so portly: not so red in the face: not so swollen in
+the neck: yet he was tall and portly and red and swollen. He was shaking
+his head as I entered saying, 'Dear! dear! dear! And in our family
+too--in our family!'
+
+'Son William,' said my father, 'I have heard a serious thing.'
+
+'What is that, Sir, if I may ask?'
+
+'I learn from my brother, who had it from Matthew----'
+
+'From Matthew,' my uncle interposed solemnly.
+
+'That you lose no opportunity of getting away from your desk to go on
+board our ships in the Pool, there to play the fiddle with the common
+sailors--to play the fiddle--the common fiddle--like a fellow with a
+bear--with the common sailors. I hear that our Captains and officers are
+all acquainted with this unworthy pastime of yours! I hear, further,
+that you have formed an acquaintance with a certain fellow named
+Shirley, now a prisoner in the Rules of the King's Bench, one who makes
+a sinful living by playing wanton music for lewd and wicked persons at
+what are called Pleasure Gardens, whither resort such company as no
+godly youth should meet. And I hear that you spend such time as you can
+spare under the tuition of this person.'
+
+He stopped. My uncle took up the word.
+
+'All these things I am assured by my son Matthew to be the case. I have
+informed Matthew that in my opinion it was right and even necessary that
+they should be brought before the notice of my brother.'
+
+'I wait thy reply, Will,' said my father.
+
+'It is all quite true, Sir.'
+
+'Quite true.' I felt a little sinking of the heart because of the
+disappointment and sadness in his voice. 'But,' he went on, 'what is the
+meaning of it? For my own part I see no good purpose to be gained by
+music. On the other hand my grandfather, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Halliday,
+hath clearly shown in his book of godly discourses, that music,
+especially music with dancing, is the surest bait by which the devil
+draws souls to destruction. People, I am aware, will have music. At our
+Company's feasts music attends: at the Lord Mayor's banquets there is
+music: at the Lord Mayor's Show there is music: at many churches there
+is an organ: but what hast thou to do with music, Will? It is thy part
+to become a merchant, bent on serious work: and outside the
+counting-house to become a magistrate. What hast thou to do with music?'
+
+He spoke, being much moved, kindly--because--alas! he loved his son.
+
+'Sir,' I said, 'it is all most true. There is nothing that I love so
+much as music.'
+
+'Consider,' he went on. 'There is no place for music in the life before
+thee. All day long learning thy work in the counting-house: some time to
+succeed me in this room. How is it possible for a young man who stoops
+to make music on catgut with a bow to become a serious merchant,
+respected in the City?'
+
+'Indeed, Sir, I do not know,'
+
+'How will it be possible for you to advance the interests of the
+House--nay, to maintain the interests of the House, when it is known
+that you are a common scraper in a crowd like a one-legged man with a
+Jack in the Green?'
+
+Now I might even then have submitted and promised and given up my fiddle
+and so pleased my father and remained in his favour. But this was one of
+those moments which are turning-points in a man's life. Besides I was
+young; I was inexperienced. And an overwhelming disgust fell upon my
+soul as I thought of the counting-house and the ledgers and the long
+hours in the dingy place driving the quill all day long. So without
+understanding what the words meant, I broke out impatiently:
+
+'Sir,' I said, 'with submission, I would ask your leave to give up my
+place in this office.'
+
+'Give up? Give up?' he cried, growing purple in the face. 'Does the boy
+know what he means?'
+
+[Illustration: "'GIVE UP!' HE CRIED, GROWING PURPLE IN THE FACE."]
+
+'Give up?' cried my uncle. 'Is the boy mad? Give up his prospects in
+this House--this--the soundest House in the whole City? Nephew Will,
+wouldst starve?'
+
+'I will make a living by music.'
+
+'Make a living--a living--make a living--by music? What? To play the
+fiddle in a tavern? To play in the gallery while your father is feasting
+below?'
+
+'Nay, sir; but there are other ways.'
+
+'Hark ye, Will; let this stop. Back to thy desk lest something happen.'
+My father spoke with sudden sternness.
+
+'Nay, sir; but I am serious.'
+
+'Ay--ay? Serious? Then I am serious, too. Understand, then, that I own
+no son who disgraces the City family to which he belongs by becoming a
+common musician. Choose. Take thy fiddle and give up me--this
+office--thine inheritance--thine inheritance, mind, or lay down the
+fiddle and go back to thy desk. There, sir, I am, I hope, serious
+enough.'
+
+He was. My father was a masterful man at all times; he was perfectly
+serious. Now the sons of masterful men are themselves often masterful. I
+walked out of the counting-house without a word.
+
+I am conscious that there is no excuse for a disobedient son. I ought to
+have accepted any orders that my father might choose to lay upon me. But
+to part with my fiddle, to give up music: to abandon that sweet
+refreshment of the soul: oh! it was too much.
+
+Moreover, no one knew better than myself the inveterate hatred with
+which my father and the whole of my family regarded what they called the
+tinkling cymbal which they thought leads souls to destruction. Had I
+seen any gleam of hope that there would be a relenting, I would have
+waited. But there was none. Therefore I cast obedience to the winds, and
+left the room without a word.
+
+Had I known what awaited me: the misfortunes which were to drag me down
+almost unto a shameful death, in consequence of this act of
+disobedience, I might have given way.
+
+But perhaps not: for in all my troubles there were two things which
+cheered and sustained me, I enjoyed at all times, so you shall learn,
+the support of love and the refreshment of music.
+
+Had my father known of these misfortunes would he have given way? I
+doubt it. Misfortune does not destroy the soul, but music does. So he
+would say and so think, and conduct his relations with his own
+accordingly.
+
+I walked out of the counting-house. At the door I met, face to face, the
+informer, my cousin Matthew, who had caused all this trouble.
+
+He was attired as becomes a responsible merchant, though as yet only a
+clerk or factor with the other clerks. He wore a brown coat with silver
+buttons: white silk stockings: silver buckles in his shoes: silver braid
+upon his hat: a silver chain with seals hanging from his fob: with white
+lace ruffles and neckerchief as fine as those of his father, or of any
+merchant on Change.
+
+He met me, I say, face to face, and for the first time within my
+knowledge, he grinned when he met me. For he knew what had been said to
+me. He grinned with a look of such devilish glee that I understood for
+the first time how much he hated me. Why? I had never crossed him.
+Because I was the son of the senior partner whose place I was to take
+and of the richer man of the two Partners. His would be the subordinate
+position with a third only of the profits. Therefore my cousin hated me.
+He, I say, noted my discomfiture. Now, at that moment, I was in no mood
+for mockery.
+
+Something in my face stopped his grinning. He became suddenly grave: he
+dropped his eyes: he made as if he would pass by me and so into the
+house.
+
+'Villain and maker of mischief!' I cried. Then I fell upon him. I had
+but fists: he had a stick: I was eighteen: he was five-and-twenty: he
+was heavier and taller: well; there is little credit, because he was a
+poor fighter: in two minutes I had his stick from him, and in three more
+I had broken it over his head and his shoulders. However, had his wind
+and his strength equalled his hatred and desire that the stick should be
+broken over my shoulders instead of his, the result would have been
+different.
+
+'You shall pay--you shall pay--you shall pay for this,' he gasped, lying
+prostrate.
+
+I kicked him out of my way as if he had been a dog and strode off, my
+cheek aflame, my hand trembling and my limbs stiffened with the joy of
+the fight and the victory. Come what might, I had whipped my cousin,
+like the cur he was. A thing to remember.
+
+I have never repented that act of justice. The memory of it brought many
+woes upon me, but I have never repented or regretted it. And certain I
+am that to the day of his miserable death Matthew never forgot it. Nor
+did I.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A CITY OF REFUGE
+
+
+My last recollection of the counting-house is that of Matthew lying in a
+heap and shaking his fist, at me, while, behind, my uncle's face looks
+out amazed upon the spectacle from one door, and the clerks in a crowd
+contemplate the discomfiture of Mr. Matthew from another door. Then I
+strode off, I say, like a gamecock after a victory, head erect, cheek
+flushed, legs straight. Ha! I am always glad that I drubbed my cousin,
+just once. A righteous drubbing it was, too, if ever there was one. It
+hanselled the new life. After it, there was no return possible.
+
+And so home--though the house in College Street could no longer be
+called a home--I now had no home--I was turned into the street. However,
+I went upstairs to my own room--mine no longer. I looked about. In the
+cupboard I found a black box in which I placed everything I could call
+my own: my music; my linen and my clothes. On the wall hung the
+miniature of my mother. Happily she had not lived to see the banishment
+of her son: this I put in my pocket. The fiddle I laid in its case. Then
+with my cudgel under my arm and carrying the fiddle in one hand and the
+box on my shoulder I descended the stairs--now, I must confess, with a
+sinking heart--and found myself in the street.
+
+I had in my purse five guineas--the son of a most solid and substantial
+merchant, and I had no more than five guineas in the world. What could I
+do to earn a living? Since I had been for two years in my father's
+counting house I might be supposed to know something of affairs. Alas! I
+knew nothing. One art or accomplishment I possessed: and one alone. I
+could play the fiddle. Now that I had to depend upon my playing for a
+livelihood, I began to ask whether I could play well enough. At all
+events, I could play vigorously. But the die was cast. I had made my
+choice, and must make the best of it. Besides, had I not drubbed my
+cousin Matthew and that, as they say, with authority?
+
+You have heard how my father accused me of intimacy with a person named
+Shirley, a resident in the Rules of the King's Bench. That charge I
+could not deny. Indeed, the person named Shirley, by all his friends
+called Tom, had been of late my master. Every spare hour that I had was
+spent with him, practising with him and learning from him. He taught a
+finer style than I could learn from the sailors. When I went into the
+counting-house I had no longer any spare hours, except in the evening,
+and then my master was engaged earning his bread in an orchestra. Still
+I could manage to visit him sometimes on Sunday evenings when my father
+was generally occupied with friends who loved likewise to limit and make
+as narrow as they could the mercies of the Almighty.
+
+At this moment I could think of no one except Tom Shirley who could help
+me or advise me.
+
+I therefore lugged my box and my violin to the Three Cranes, and took
+boat across to Moldstrand Stairs, from which it is an easy half mile by
+pleasant lanes, Love Lane and Gravel Lane, past Looman's Pond to St.
+George's Fields where Tom Shirley lived.
+
+It was a little after noon when I arrived at the house. It was one of
+three or four cottages standing in a row, every cottage consisting of
+four or five rooms. They are pleasing retreats, each having a small
+front garden where lilacs, laburnums, hollyhock, sunflowers, tulips, and
+other flowers and bushes grow. In front of the garden flows languidly
+one of the many little streams which cross the fields and meadows of
+Southwark: a rustic bridge with a single hand-rail crosses the stream.
+
+The region of St. George's Fields, as is very well known, has a
+reputation which, in fact, is well deserved. The fact that it is covered
+with shallow ponds, some of which are little better than mere laystalls,
+causes it to be frequented on Sundays and on summer evenings by the rude
+and barbarous people who come here to hunt ducks with dogs--a horrid
+sport: some of them even throw cats into the water and set their dogs at
+them. The same people come here for prize fights, but they say that the
+combatants have an understanding beforehand how long the fight is to
+last: some come for quarter-staff practice: some come for hockey or for
+football. Outside the Fields there are many taverns and places of
+entertainment: on the Fields there is at least one, the notorious Dog
+and Duck. Every evening except in winter these places are full of people
+who come to dance and drink and sing. Every kind of wickedness is openly
+practised here: if a man would gamble, here are the companions for him
+and here are rooms where he can play: if he would meet women as deboshed
+as himself here they may be found.
+
+It is unfortunate for Southwark and its environs that everything seems
+to have conspired to give it a bad name. First of all, it was formerly
+outside the jurisdiction of the City, so that all the villains and
+criminals of the City got across the water and found refuge here. Next,
+the government of the place was not single, but divided by the manors,
+so that a rogue might pass from one manor into another and so escape:
+thirdly, the Sanctuary of Southwark tolerated after the Reformation at
+St. Mary Overies, grew to accommodate as great a number as that in
+Westminster where they only lately pulled down the gray old Tower which
+looked like a donjon keep rather than the walls enclosing two chapels. I
+know not whether there was such a tower at Montagu Close, but within my
+recollection no officer of the law dared to arrest any sanctuary man in
+Mint Street--their latest refuge: nor did any person with property to
+lose venture into that street. For first his hat would be snatched off:
+then his wig: then his silk handkerchief: then he would be hustled,
+thrown, and kicked: when he was permitted to get up it was without
+watch, chain, buckles, shoes, lace cravat, ruffles. Fortunate if he was
+allowed to escape with no more injury. The presence of these villains
+was alone enough to give the place a bad name. But there was more.
+Prisons there must be, but in Southwark there were too many. The King's
+Bench Prison: the Marshal-sea: the Borough Compter: the Clink: the White
+Lyon. So many prisons in a place so thinly populated produced a
+saddening effect. And, besides, there are those who live in the Rules,
+which are themselves a kind of prison but without walls. In another
+part, along the Embankment, the Show Folk used to live: those who act:
+those who write plays and songs: those who dance and tumble: mimes,
+musicians, buffoons: and those who live by the bear-baiting,
+badger-baiting, bull-baiting, and cock-throwing, which are the favourite
+sports of Southwark.
+
+These considerations are quite sufficient to account for the evil
+reputation which clings to the Borough. They do not, however, prevent it
+from being a place of great resort for those who come up from Kent and
+Surrey on business, and they do not for obvious reasons prevent the
+place from being inhabited by the prisoners of the Rules.
+
+When I arrived, Tom Shirley was playing on the harpsichord, his head in
+a white nightcap, his wig hanging on a nail. As he played, not looking
+at notes or keys, his face was turned upwards and his eyes were rapt. As
+one watched him his face changed in expression with the various emotions
+of the music: no man, certainly, was more moved by music than Tom
+Shirley. No man, also, could more certainly bring out the very soul of
+the music, the inner thought of the composer. He played as if he loved
+playing, which indeed he did whether it was a country dance, or a minuet
+or an oratorio or a Roman Catholic Mass. It was a fine face, delicate in
+outline; full of expression: the face of a musician: it lacked the
+firmness which belongs to one who fights: he was no gladiator in the
+arena: a face full of sweetness. Everyone loved Tom Shirley. As for age,
+he was then about five-and-twenty.
+
+I stood at the open door and looked in, listening, for at such moments
+he heard nothing. There was another door opposite leading to the
+kitchen, where his wife was engaged in some domestic work. Presently,
+she lifted her head and saw me. 'Father,' she cried. 'Here is Will!'
+
+He heard that: brought his fingers down with a splendid chord and sprang
+to his feet. 'Will? In the morning? What is the meaning--why this box?'
+
+'I have come away, Tom. I have left the counting-house for good.'
+
+'What? You have deserted the money bags? You have run away for the sake
+of music?'
+
+'My father has turned me out.'
+
+'And you have chosen music. Good--good--what could you have done better?
+Wife, hear this. Will has run away. He will play the fiddle in the
+orchestra rather than become an Alderman and Lord Mayor.'
+
+'I want to live as you live, Tom.'
+
+'If you can, boy, you shall.' Now it was the humour of Tom to speak of
+his own cottage and his manner of life as if both were stately and
+sumptuous. 'Very few,' he added proudly, 'can live as we live.' He
+looked proudly round. The room was about ten feet square: low, painted
+drab, without ornament, without curtains: there were a few shelves: a
+cupboard: a small table: two brass candlesticks, a brass pair of
+snuffers: four rush-bottomed chairs, and nothing more.
+
+Tom was dressed in an old brown coat with patches on the elbows, the
+wrists frayed and the buttons gone. To be sure he had a finer coat for
+the orchestra. His stockings were of worsted, darned in many places: a
+woollen wrapper was round his neck. Everything proclaimed poverty: of
+course people who are not poor do not live in the Rules. 'Few,' he
+repeated, 'are privileged to live as I live.' I have never known whether
+this was a craze or his humour to pretend that he fared sumptuously: was
+lodged like a prince: and received the wages of an ambassador. Perhaps
+it was mere habit; a way of presenting his own life to himself by
+exaggeration and pretence which he had somehow grown to believe.
+
+'You ask, Will, a thing difficult of achievement.'
+
+'But gradually--little by little. One would never expect it all at
+once.'
+
+'Ay, there we talk sense. But first, why hath Sir Peter behaved with
+this (apparent) harshness? I would not judge him hastily. Therefore I
+say, apparent.'
+
+'Because he found out at last--my cousin Matthew told him--that I came
+here to play the fiddle. So he gave me the choice--either to give up the
+counting-house or to give up the music. And I gave up the
+counting-house, Tom. I don't care what happens so that I get out of the
+counting-house.'
+
+'Good--lad--good.'
+
+'And I drubbed my cousin--I paid him with his own stick. And here I am.'
+
+He took my hand, his honest face beaming with satisfaction. At that
+moment, his sister Alice came back from making some purchases in the
+Borough High Street. 'Alice my dear,' he said, 'Will has been turned out
+of house and home by his father--sent out into the streets without a
+penny.'
+
+Alice burst into tears.
+
+When I think of Alice at that moment, my heart swells, my eyes grow
+humid. She was then fifteen, an age when the child and the woman meet,
+and one knows not whether to expect the one or the other. When Alice
+burst into tears it was the child who wept: she had always loved me with
+a childish unconsciousness: she was only beginning to understand that I
+was not her brother.
+
+You know how sweet a flower will sometimes spring up in the most
+unlovely spot. Well: in this place, close to the Dog and Duck, with
+prodigals and rakes and painted Jezebels always before her eyes, this
+child grew up sweet and tender and white as the snow. I have never known
+any girl upon whom the continual sight--not to be concealed--of gross
+vice produced so little effect: it was as if the eyes of her soul
+involuntarily closed to the meaning of such things. Such sweetness, such
+purity, was stamped upon her face then as afterwards. Never, surely, was
+there a face that showed so plain and clear to read that the thoughts
+behind it were not earthly or common.
+
+'It is the soul of music that possesses her,' said her brother once.
+'She has imbibed that soul day by day. Will, 'tis a saintly child.
+Sometimes I fear that she may be carried away like Elijah.'
+
+Well, when I saw those tears, I was seized with a kind of joyful
+compassion and, so to speak, happy shame, to think that those tears were
+for me. I drew her gently and kissed her.
+
+'Why, nothing better could have happened to him. Thou little simpleton,'
+said her brother. Warming up with his subject, he became eloquent. 'He
+shall do much better--far better--than if he had stayed in the
+counting-house. He shall not be weighed down with a load of riches: he
+shall have to work in order to live--believe me, Will, Art must be
+forced by necessity: where there is no necessity there is no Art: when
+riches creep in, Art becomes a toy. Because he must work, therefore he
+will be stimulated to do great things. He shall never set his mind upon
+growing rich: he shall remain poor.'
+
+'Not too poor,' said his wife gently. Indeed her poor shabby dress
+showed what she meant.
+
+'Peace, woman. He shall be poor, I say. Happy lad! He shall be poor. He
+shall never have money in a stocking, and he shall never want any. He
+shall live like the sparrows, from day to day, fed by the bounty of the
+Lord.'
+
+'Who loveth the Dog and Duck,' said his wife.
+
+The husband frowned. 'To sum up, Will, thy lot shall be the happiest
+that the world can give. What?' He lifted his hand and his eyes grew
+brighter. 'For the musician the curse of labour is remitted: for him
+there is no longing after riches: for him there is no flattery of great
+men: for him there is no meanness; for him there are no base arts: for
+him there is no wriggling: for him there are no back stairs: for him
+there is no patron.--In a word, Will, the musician is the only free man
+in the world.'
+
+'In the Rules, you mean, my dear.' This was his wife's correction.
+
+'Will,' said Alice, 'shall you really become like Tom?'
+
+'Truly, Alice, if I can.'
+
+'Wife,' said Tom. 'Will shall stay with us. He can sleep in the garret.
+We must find a mattress somewhere.'
+
+'Nay, but I must pay my footing. See, Tom. I have five guineas.' I
+showed this mine of wealth. He took one and gave it to his wife.
+
+'Aha!' he laughed. 'Buy him a mattress and a blanket, wife. And this
+evening we will have a bowl of punch. Will, we shall fare like Kings and
+like the Great ones of the Earth.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A WAY TO LIVE
+
+
+I think that Tom Shirley was the most good-natured man in the whole
+world: the most ready to do anything he could for anybody: always
+cheerful: always happy: partly, I suppose, because he looked at
+everything through spectacles of imagination. He joined, however, to his
+passion for music another which belonged to a lower world: namely, for
+punch. Yet he was not an intemperate man: he showed neither purple
+cheeks, nor a double chin, nor a swollen neck, nor a rubicund nose--all
+of which were common sights on Change and in the streets of London. The
+reason why he displayed no signs of drink was that he could seldom
+gratify his passion for punch by reason of his poverty, and that in
+eating, which, I believe, also contributes its share to the puffing out
+of the neck and the painting of the nose, such as may be seen on Change,
+he was always as moderate, although he thought every meal a feast, as
+became his slender means.
+
+I do not know how he got into the King's Bench, but the thing is so easy
+that one marvels that so many are able to keep out. They put him in and
+kept him there for a time, when he was enabled to obtain the privilege
+of the Rules. He was, as he boasted, always rich, because he thought he
+was rich. His wife took from him, every week, the whole of his wages,
+otherwise he would have given them away.
+
+At one o'clock Alice laid the cloth and we had dinner. Tom lifted the
+knife and fork and held it over the cold boiled beef as if fearing to
+mar that delicate dish by a false or clumsy cut. 'Is there anything,' he
+said, 'more delicious to the palate than cold boiled beef? It must be
+cut delicately and with judgment--with judgment, Will.' He proceeded to
+exercise judgment. There was a cabbage on the table. 'This delicacy,' he
+said, 'is actually grown for us--for us--in the gardens of Lambeth
+Marsh. Remark the crispness of it: there is a solid heart for you: there
+is colour: there is flavour.' All this was, I remember, the grossest
+flattery. 'Oat cake,' he said, breaking a piece. 'Some, I believe,
+prefer wheaten bread. They do wrong. Viands must not be judged by their
+cost but by their fitness to others on the table, and by the season.
+Remember, Will, that with cold boiled beef, oat cake is your only
+eating.' He poured out some beer into a glass and held it up to the
+light. 'Watch the sparkles: hear the humming: strong October this'--it
+was the most common small beer--'have a care, Will, have a care.' And so
+on, turning the simple meal into a banquet.
+
+His wife and sister received these extravagances without a smile. They
+were used to them. The latter, at least, believed that they were the
+simple truth. The poor girl was innocently proud of her humble home,
+this cottage on St. George's Fields, within the Rules.
+
+After dinner, we talked. As the subject was Music Tom was somewhat
+carried away; yet there was method in his madness.
+
+'I said, lad, that there would be no Art if there were no necessity.
+'Tis Poverty alone makes men became musicians and painters and poets.
+Where can you find a rich man who was ever a great artist? I am no
+scholar, but I have asked scholars this question, and they agree with me
+that riches destroy Art. Hardly may Dives become even a Connoisseur. He
+may become a general or a statesman: we do not take all from him: we
+leave him something--but not the best--that we keep for ourselves--we
+keep Art for ourselves. As for a rich merchant becoming a musician or a
+painter--it is impossible: one laughs at the very thought.'
+
+'Well, that danger is gone, Tom, so far as I am concerned.'
+
+'Ay. The reason I take it, is that Art demands the whole man--not a bit
+of him--the whole man--all his soul, all his mind, all his thoughts, all
+his strength. You must give all that to music, Will.'
+
+'I ask nothing better.'
+
+'Another reason is that Art raises a man's thoughts to a higher level
+than is wanted for Trade. It is impossible for a man's mind to soar or
+to sink according as he thinks of art or trade. You will remember, Will,
+for your comfort, that your mind is raised above the City.'
+
+'I will remember.'
+
+'Well, then, let us think about what is best to be done.'
+
+He pondered a little. Then he smiled.
+
+'Put pride in pocket, Will. Now what would you like?'
+
+'To write great music.'
+
+'A worthy ambition. It has been my own. It is not for me to say whether
+my songs, which are nightly sung at the Dog and Duck, are great music or
+not. Posterity may judge. Lad, it is one thing to love music--and
+another thing to compose it. The latter is given to few: the former to
+many. It may be that it is thy gift. But I know not. Meantime, we must
+live.'
+
+'I will do anything.'
+
+'Again--put pride in pocket. Now there is a riverside tavern at
+Bermondsey. It is a place for sailors and their Dolls. A rough and
+coarse place it is, at best. They want a fiddler from six o'clock till
+ten every night, and later on Saturdays.'
+
+I heard with a shiver. To play in a sailors' tavern! It was my father's
+prophecy.
+
+'Everybody must begin, Will. What? A sailors' tavern is no place for the
+son of a City merchant, is it? But that is gone. Thou art now nobody's
+son--a child of the gutter--the world is thine oyster--free of all
+ties--with neither brother nor cousin to say thee nay. Lucky dog! What?
+We must make a beginning--I say--in the gutter.'
+
+His eyes twinkled and smiled, and I perceived without being told that he
+meant to try my courage. So, with a rueful countenance and a foolish
+sense of shame, I consented to sit in the corner of a sanded room in a
+common riverside tavern and to make music for common sailors and their
+sweethearts.
+
+'Why,' said Tom, 'that is well. And now, my lad, remember. There are no
+better judges of a fiddle than sailors. They love their music as they
+love their lobscouse, hot and strong and plenty. Give it elbow, Will.
+They are not for fine fingering or for cunning strokes and effects--they
+like the tune to come out full and sweet. They will be thy masters. As
+for dancing, they like the time to be marked as well as the tune. Find
+out how they like to take it. There is one time for a hornpipe and
+another for a jig. As for pay----'
+
+I will not complete the sentence. For such as myself there must be a Day
+of Small Things. But one need not confess how very small these things
+have been.
+
+Thus it was that I found an Asylum--a City of Refuge--in the Rules of
+the King's Bench, when I was turned out by my own people. And in this
+way I became that despised and contemptible object, a Common Fiddler. I
+played, not without glory, every night, to a company as low as could be
+found. At least, I thought so at the time. Later on, it is true, I found
+a lower company still. And I dare say there are assemblies of men and
+women even lower. My fellows, at least, were honest, and their
+companions were, at least, what the men had made them.
+
+We settled the business that very afternoon, walking over to Bermondsey.
+The landlord said I was very young, but if I could fiddle he did not
+mind that, only it must be remembered in the pay. So I was engaged to
+begin the next day. In the evening I went with Tom to the Dog and Duck
+where he played first fiddle in the Orchestra, and sat in the
+musicians' gallery. About this place more anon. At twelve o'clock the
+music ceased and I walked home with Tom. I remember, it was then a fine
+clear night in September: the wind blew chill across the marshes: it had
+come up with the flow of the river: the moon was riding high: a strange
+elation possessed my soul: for my independence was beginning: four
+guineas in my pocket: and a place with so many shillings a week to live
+upon: nothing to do but to work at music: and to live with the
+best-hearted man in the whole world.
+
+We got home. Alice had gone to bed. Tom's wife was sitting up for us,
+the bowl of punch was ready for us, not too big a bowl, because Tom's
+weakness where punch was concerned was well known. He drank my success
+in one glass: my future operas and oratorios in the second: my joyful
+independence in the third: and my happy release in the fourth. That
+finished the bowl and we went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+LOVE AND MUSIC
+
+
+You need not be told how I lived for the next three or four years. I
+took what came. Pride remained in pocket. I fiddled a wedding-party to
+church and home again. I fiddled the Company of Fellowship Porters
+through the streets when they held their yearly feast. I fiddled for
+sailors; I fiddled at beanfeasts; I fiddled for Free Masons; I fiddled
+in taverns; I fiddled here and there and everywhere, quite unconcerned,
+even though I was playing in the gallery of a City company's hall, and
+actually saw my cousin sitting in state among the guests at the feast
+below, and knew that he saw me and rejoiced at the sight, in his
+ignorance of the consolations of music.
+
+Nothing in those days came amiss to me. One who makes music for his
+livelihood has no cause to be ashamed of playing for anyone. It does not
+seem an occupation such as one would choose, to spend the evening in a
+chair, stuck in a corner out of the way, in a stinking room, for rough
+fellows to dance hornpipes: the work does not lift up the soul to the
+level which Tom Shirley claimed for the musician. But this was only the
+pot-boiling work. I had the mornings to myself, when I could practise
+and attempt composition. Besides, at eighteen, the present, if one
+belongs to a calling which has a career, is of very little importance:
+the real life lies before: the boy lives for the future. I was going, in
+those days, to be a great composer like Handel. I was going to write
+oratorios such as his: majestic, where majesty was wanted: tender, where
+love and pity must be depicted: devout, where piety was called for. I
+would write, besides, in my ambition, such things as were written by
+Purcell and Arne: anthems for the church: songs and madrigals and rounds
+and catches such as those with which my patron Tom Shirley delighted his
+world.
+
+The profession of music is one which can only be followed by those who
+have the gift of music. That is the definition of any Art: it can only
+be followed by those who have the gift of that Art. In any other calling
+a man may serve after a fashion, who hath not been called thereto. Many
+men, for example, are divines who have neither learning nor eloquence
+nor--the Lord help them!--religion. Many lawyers have no love for the
+law. Many merchants hate the counting-house. But in music no one can
+serve at all unless he is a musician born. He who, without the gift,
+would try to enter the profession breaks down at the outset, seeing that
+he cannot even learn to play an instrument with feeling, ease, or
+judgment. Nay, there are distinct ranks of music, to each of which one
+is raised by Nature, as much as by study. Thus, you have at the bottom,
+the rank and file, namely, those who can play a single instrument: next,
+those who can compose and make simple music for songs, in which all that
+is wanted is a tuneful and spirited air with an ordinary accompaniment:
+next those who understand harmony and can make music of a higher
+character, such as anthems, part-songs, and so forth. Lastly, you have
+the composer in whose brains lies the knowledge of every instrument in
+the orchestra. He is the King of musicians: from him come the noble
+oratorios which delight our age and lift our souls to Heaven: from him
+come the masses which are sung--I have the scores of several--in
+Cathedrals of Roman Catholic countries. It is not for an Englishman to
+admire aught that belongs to Rome: but we must at least concede to the
+Roman Catholic the possession of noble music.
+
+This, then, was my ambition. For four years I continued to live with my
+friend Tom Shirley. I held no communication with my father or any of my
+own people. None of them made any attempt at reconciliation. I believe
+they were honestly ashamed of me. The new friends I made were good and
+faithful: musical people have ever kindly hearts, and are loyal to each
+other: they do not backbite: there is no room for envy where one man
+plays the fiddle and another the cornet: we are all a company of
+brothers.
+
+The time came when it was no longer necessary for me to play at taverns
+for the sailors: when I was no longer compelled to attend weddings. I
+obtained, one after the other, two posts, neither of which was a very
+great thing, but both together made it possible for me to live in some
+comfort. The first was that of organist at St. George's in the Borough.
+I had to attend the service and to play the organ twice on Sunday: the
+week day services and the Gift Lectures were conducted without any
+singing. The Church contains, I believe, the most fashionable
+congregation of South London, and therefore the most critical. I do not
+think, however, that, while I sat in the organ-loft, they had any reason
+to complain either of music or of choir. There sat with me in the
+organ-loft, Alice, who possessed a sweet, clear, and strong voice: her
+brother Tom, who brought into the choir an excellent tenor: Mr. Ramage,
+one of my father's clerks, who lodged behind the Marshal-sea, gave us a
+bass of indifferent quality, though he was now past fifty. Half a dozen
+boys and girls from the Charity School, of no great account for voices,
+made up our choir. I believe it was better than the average, and I think
+that people came on Sunday morning on purpose to hear the organ and the
+singing.
+
+Mr. Ramage, or Ramage, as he was called in the Counting-house, where no
+title is allowed to any below the rank of partner or partner's son, kept
+me acquainted with events in College Street and on the wharf. My father,
+it was understood, never mentioned my name: the business of the Firm was
+never more flourishing: Mr. Matthew was constantly called in for
+consultations. 'And oh! Master Will,' my old friend always concluded,
+'be reconciled. What is it--to give up playing the organ at Church?
+Why--it is nothing. Someone else will play while you sit in state in
+your red velvet pew below. Give way to your father. He is a hard man,
+but he is just.'
+
+It also appeared from Mr. Ramage's information that it was perfectly
+well known by the clerks and by Mr. Matthew, who doubtless told my
+father, the ways by which I had been making a living: I had been seen by
+one marching ahead of a sailor's wedding-party: by another fiddling in
+the Bermondsey Tavern: by a third in the Gallery of a City Company Hall.
+The Counting-house down to the messengers was humiliated: there was but
+one feeling among the clerks: I had brought disgrace upon the House.
+
+'They are sorry, Master Will, for your father's sake. It is hard for
+him: so proud a man--with so much to be proud of--a quarter of a
+million, some say. Think how hard it is for him.'
+
+'It is harder for me Ramage,' I replied, 'to be driven to fiddle for
+sailors, when all I ask is to be allowed to follow music in peace.
+However, tell the clerks that I am sorry to have disgraced them.'
+
+Disgraced the clerks! What did I say? Why, theirs is the lowest kind of
+work that the world can find for men. They were disgraced because their
+Master's son played the fiddle for a living. But I could not afford to
+consider their opinions.
+
+Ramage knew nothing about my other place, or his entreaties would have
+been more fervent. I had but one answer, however. I could not give up
+the only work that I cared for, even to be reconciled to my father. Why,
+I was born for music. Shall a man fly in the face of Providence, and
+scorn the gifts with which he is endowed?
+
+My other place was none other than second fiddle, Tom Shirley being the
+first fiddle, of the _Dog and Duck_.
+
+I have mentioned the Pleasure Gardens south of the River. There are, as
+Londoners know very well, a great many such gardens, all alike in most
+respects. That is to say, there is in every one of them an avenue or
+walk, lined by trees which at night are festooned by thousands of lights
+in coloured glass lamps hanging from tree to tree. There is also in most
+a piece of water with swans or ducks upon it, and all round it arbours
+where the company take tea or punch or wine. There is a tavern where
+drink may be had: suppers are served in the evening: there is a floor
+for dancing in the open air with a place for the band; and there is a
+Long Room with an organ at one end where the company promenade and
+listen, and where on hot nights the band and the singers perform. In
+many gardens there is also a bowling-green: there is sometimes a
+swimming bath, and in most there is a chalybeate spring the water of
+which is warranted to cure anything, but especially rheumatism, gout,
+and the King's evil.
+
+Every one of these gardens employs an orchestra, and engages the
+services of singers. The number of musicians employed is therefore
+considerable. There are certainly in the south of London alone more than
+a dozen Gardens large enough to have a band. Beside the _Dog and Duck_,
+there are the _Temple of Flora_: the Lambeth Wells: the Cumberland
+Gardens: Vauxhall Gardens: Bermondsey Spa: St. Helena Gardens: Finch's
+Grotto: Cupid's Gardens: Restoration Spring Gardens--is not that twelve?
+And there are more. So that it is not difficult for a young man who can
+play any instrument tolerably to get a place in the orchestra of some
+Garden.
+
+One would not choose such a position if Fortune gave one a choice. At
+the Dog and Duck there are visitors to whose pleasure we should be
+ashamed of ministering: people whose proper place is the House of
+Correction or Bridewell: they are allowed to attend these gardens with
+friends who should also be denied entrance: they make the company noisy
+and disorderly. We gave them music that was a great deal better than
+they deserved: it was thrown away upon the majority: we gave them songs
+that were innocent and tender--Tom Shirley wrote and composed them
+himself: we also had to give them other songs more suited to their gross
+and grovelling tastes.
+
+It was part of Tom's humour to speak of the audience at the Dog and Duck
+as the most polite, fashionable, and aristocratic assembly in the world.
+He declared that their taste in music was excellent: their attention
+that of a connoisseur: and their appreciation of his own songs all that
+he could desire. I asked him once how he reconciled these things with
+their delight in the comic songs which were also provided for them. 'The
+aristocracy,' he said, 'must from time to time, unbend: they must from
+time to time, laugh: they laugh and they unbend when we give them a song
+to which in their more polite moments they would refuse to listen.' I
+knew very well that the company was chiefly composed of deboshed
+profligates: prentices who daily robbed their masters in order to come
+to the gardens: young gentlemen from the country; prodigal sons from the
+Temple and Lincoln's Inn; and tradesmen who were dissipating their
+capital. If good music was played they talked and laughed: at the
+singing of good songs they walked about or left the open platform for
+the dark lanes of the garden. 'You are lucky, Will,' said Tom. 'To play
+for such an audience brings good luck, with name and fame and riches.'
+
+It brought me fifteen shillings a week. And as for name and fame I never
+heard of either.
+
+I did not propose to write my own history, but that of a woman to whom
+you have already seen me conversing. Yet my own history must be
+understood before hers can be related. You have been told how for my
+obstinate adherence to music I was turned out of my father's house: how
+I found a refuge: how I earned my livelihood by playing the fiddle. Now,
+before I come to the events which connected my fortunes with those of
+the lady whom I call my mistress--and that with my wife's consent--I
+must tell one or two events which befell me. The first of them was my
+courtship and my marriage. In the courtship there was no obstacle: the
+course of true love ran smoothly: in my marriage there were no regrets:
+no discords: always a full deep current of affection on both sides. A
+simple, plain story, in which nothing happened, so far: would to Heaven
+that nothing had happened, afterwards.
+
+When a young man and girl live under the same roof: when they share the
+same interests: when they have the same affections--Alice herself could
+not love her brother more than I did: when the home is happy in spite of
+poverty and its restrictions: when the hearts of the two go out to each
+other spontaneously, then the time must come when they will resolve upon
+becoming brother and sister or declared and open lovers.
+
+When I think of this time, this truly happy time, I sometimes feel as if
+we were too hurried over it. I sat beside Alice every morning at
+breakfast and at dinner: I played to her: I composed songs for her: I
+even wrote verses for the music--I have some of them still, and really,
+though I do not pretend to be a poet, there are things in them which I
+admire. Poets always speak of the warblers in the grove: so did I.
+Love, which rhymes to grove, always burns and flames--did so in my
+verses. As to the rhymes, I abolished the first and third, which was a
+great relief. Without the necessity of rhyming one could easily become a
+poet.
+
+I say that the situation being so pleasant and so happy, I might have
+prolonged it: but there comes a time when a man must take the last step.
+The uncertainty is sweet. Can she love me? Will she perhaps say nay? Yet
+the pleasing pain, the charming smart, the raptured flames--I quote from
+my own verses which were really like many that I have seen used in
+songs--become in time too much: one must perforce go on to secure the
+happiness beyond.
+
+In the morning, when the weather was fine, we would walk abroad among
+the fields and gardens that lie stretched out behind the river bank:
+some of them are pretty gardens, each with its hedge and bushes filled
+with flowers in the summer: garden houses stand about here and there:
+windmills vary the landskip: the lanes are shaded by trees: at the end
+of one is a great stone barn, formerly part of King Richard's Palace, of
+which not another stone is left. Beside the river are Lambeth Palace and
+Lambeth Church with a few fishermen's cottages. Over this rural place we
+strayed at our will, now among the lanes; picking wild flowers;
+recalling scraps of songs; listening to the skylark, while the fresh
+breeze coming up the river with the tide fanned Alice's cheek and
+heightened the soft colour which was one of her charms. Sometimes we
+left the fields and walked along the high Embankment watching the laden
+barges slowly going up or down and the sailing tilt-boats bound for
+Richmond: or the fishermen in mid-stream with their nets: or the
+wherries plying with their fares and the swans: admiring, in a word, the
+life and animation of the river at Westminster and above it. Chiefly,
+however, Alice loved the fields, where in the morning we were always
+alone save for a gardener here and there at work. Since the life that
+she saw around her was such as she saw--made up of debtors' prisons,
+noisy duck-hunters, prize-fighters and drunken profligates, what wonder
+if she loved to linger where she was apart from the vileness of men and
+women? To meditate: to muse: to sing all alone, for my companionship
+counted nothing: was her greatest joy. So it has continued: even now she
+loves to wander alone beneath the trees--they are other trees under
+another sky--and lift up her voice to Heaven, which answers by giving
+her thoughts, always new and always holy.
+
+It was in the middle of May, the poet's month, when we were thus roaming
+in the fields. Alice carried a handful of hawthorn. She sang as she
+went. Dear Heart! how she sang! Yet I know not what. It was Prayer: it
+was Praise: it was Adoration: it was Worship: I know not what she sang.
+The larks were dumb because they could not sing with her.
+
+It was the time of which I have spoken--the time of uncertainty. Never
+had Alice looked so heavenly sweet: she carried her hat by the strings:
+her hair fell about her shoulders--fair, soft hair, like silk, with a
+touch of gold in it: her eyes gazed upwards when the light clouds flew
+across the blue, as if they were things of this world trying to turn her
+eyes and thoughts away from the things of Heaven. I could endure the
+doubt no longer. I laid my arm about her waist: the song was troubled:
+her eyes dropped. 'Oh!' she said. 'What wilt thou?' I drew her closer.
+The song broke off. I kissed her head, her brow, her lips. We said
+nothing. She sang no more. But the larks began their hymns of joy: the
+clouds passed: the sun came out in splendour: the hedges seemed all to
+burst together into blossom.
+
+Thus it was--so easily--so sweetly--did we pass into the condition of
+lovers. Yet we had been lovers all the time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+WEDDING BELLS AND THE BOOK OF THE PLAY
+
+
+We were married without delay. Why should we wait? I should be no richer
+for waiting and time would be passing. We were married, therefore. It
+was impossible from time to time we should not be reminded of the lowly
+station in which we lived. When one of my cousins was married, what
+preparations! what feasts arranged and provided! What troops of guests!
+What a noble company in the Church! What crowds afterwards--the street
+filled with beggars come for the broken victuals: the butchers with
+their din unmusical of marrow-bones and cleavers: the band of music
+playing outside: the acclamation of the crowd when the bride was brought
+back from church: the rooms full of guests all with wedding favours: the
+loving-cup passing from hand to hand: the kissing of the bridesmaids:
+the merriment and coquetry over the bride-cake and the wedding-ring! All
+this I remembered and it made me sad for a moment. Not for long, for
+beside me stood a bride sweeter far than was any cousin of mine: and I
+was a musician; and I was independent.
+
+We walked over the Fields to St. George's Church and were there married
+at ten o'clock in the morning. Tom gave away his sister: Alice had no
+bridesmaids: I had no groomsmen: there was no crowd of witnesses: there
+was no loving-cup. We were married in an empty church, and after
+marriage we walked home again to Tom's cottage.
+
+He sat down and played a wedding march, of his own composition, made for
+the occasion. 'There!' he said, 'that is better than a wedding
+feast--yet there shall be a wedding feast and of the best.'
+
+It was served at noon: there was a duck pie: a pair of soles: a cowslip
+tart--a very dainty dish: and fried sweetbreads. After dinner there was
+a bottle of port.
+
+'Will,' said my brother-in-law, taking the last glass in the bottle,
+'who would be one of those unhappy creatures who cannot be married
+without crowds and noise and a great company? Here are we, contented
+with ourselves: we have been married: we have had a royal banquet--your
+sweetbreads, wife, were a morsel for a king. You are contented, Will?'
+
+'Quite.' For I was holding Alice by the hand.
+
+'You never regret the flesh-pots?'
+
+'Never--I have forgotten them.' This was not quite true, but it passed.
+
+'I have sometimes thought'--he looked from me to Alice and from Alice to
+me again--'that there might have been regrets.'
+
+'There can be none, now.'
+
+'Good. Hands upon it, brother. We shall miss Alice, shall we not, wife?
+But she will not be far off. So.' A tear stood in his eye while he
+kissed his sister. 'Now,' he said, 'enough of sentiment. The day is
+before us. I have got a man to take my place to-night and another to
+take yours. On such an occasion, Will, we must not spare and grudge. We
+will see the sights of London and then--then--none of your Pleasure
+Gardens--we will--but I have a surprise for you.'
+
+We sallied forth. Never was a wedding-day kept in so strange a fashion.
+We took oars at the Falcon Stairs to the Tower. Now Alice had spent all
+her life in or about the Rules of the King's Bench, but she had never
+seen London City or the Sights of London. To her everything was new. We
+showed her the Tower and the wild beasts and the arms and armour and the
+Royal Crown and Sceptre. After the Tower, we walked along Thames Street
+where are the Custom House and Billingsgate Market and the Steelyard and
+the Monument. We climbed up the Monument for the sake of the view: it
+was a clear day, and we could discern in the distance Lambeth Palace and
+the Church and perhaps even, one was not sure, the cottage which we had
+taken on the Bank. After this we went to see the Guildhall and the
+famous Giants: then the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange: we
+looked at the shops in Cheapside: they are the richest shops in the
+world, but the mercers and haberdashers do not put out in the window
+their costly stuffs to tempt the shoplifter. 'You must imagine, Alice,'
+I told her, 'the treasures that lie within: some time if we ever become
+rich you shall come here and buy to your heart's content.' Then we
+entered St. Paul's, that solemn and magnificent pile: here we heard part
+of the afternoon service, the boys in their white surplices singing like
+angels, so that the tears rolled down my girl's face--they were tears of
+praise and prayer, not of repentance. From St. Paul's we walked up the
+narrow street called the Old Bailey and saw the outside of Newgate. Now
+had we known what things we were to do and to suffer in that awful
+place, I think we should have prayed for death. But Heaven mercifully
+withholds the future.
+
+[Illustration: "WE TOOK OARS AT THE FALCON STAIRS TO THE TOWER."]
+
+It was then about five o'clock. We went to a coffee-house and took some
+coffee and ratafia. The animation of the place; the brisk conversation;
+the running about of the boys: the fragrant odour of the coffee: pleased
+us. There were coffee-houses in the High Street, but they lacked the
+vivacity of this on Ludgate Hill, where Templars, Doctors of Divinity,
+and the mercers and goldsmiths of Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street were
+assembled together to talk and drink the fragrant beverage which has
+done so much to soften the manners of the better sort.
+
+'And now,' said Tom, 'for my surprise.'
+
+He called a coach and we drove not knowing whither; he was taking us to
+Drury Lane.
+
+We were to celebrate our wedding-day by going to the Play.
+
+For my own part I had never--for reasons which you will understand--been
+allowed to go to the Play. To sober-minded merchants the Play was a
+thing abhorrent: a hot-bed of temptation: the amusements of Prodigals
+and Profligates. Therefore I had never seen the Play. Nor had Alice or
+her sister-in-law, while Tom, who had once played in the orchestra, had
+never seen the Play since his debts carried him off to the King's Bench.
+
+We found good places in the Boxes: the House was not yet half full and
+the candles were not all lighted: many of the seats were occupied by
+footmen waiting for their mistresses to take them: in the Pit the
+gentlemen, who seemed to know each other, were standing about in little
+knots conversing with the utmost gravity. One would have thought that
+affairs of state were being discussed: on the contrary, we were assured,
+they were arguing as to the merits or the blemishes of the piece, now in
+its third night.
+
+Presently the musicians came in and the cheerful sound of tuning up
+began: then the House began to fill up rapidly; and the orange girls
+made their way about the Pit with their baskets, and walked about the
+back of the boxes calling out their 'fine Chaney orange--fine Chaney
+orange.' Why do I note these familiar things? Because they were not
+familiar to me: because they are always connected in my mind with what
+followed.
+
+The play was 'The Country Girl.' The story is about an innocent Country
+Girl, an heiress, who knows nothing of London, or of the world. Her
+guardian wants to marry her himself for the sake of her money, though he
+is fifty and she is twenty: as he cannot do so without certain papers
+being drawn up, he makes her believe that they are married by breaking a
+sixpence, and brings her to London with him. How she deceives him,
+pretends this and that, makes appointments and writes love-letters under
+his very nose, wrings his consent to a subterfuge and marries the man
+she loves--these things compose the whole play.
+
+The first Act, I confess, touched me little. The young fellow, the
+lover, talks about the girl he loves: her guardian is introduced: there
+is no action: and there were no women. I felt no interest in the talk of
+the men: there was an old rake and a young rake; the soured and gloomy
+guardian, and the lover. They did not belong to my world, either of the
+City or of St. George's Fields.
+
+But in the second Act the Country Girl herself appeared and with her as
+a foil and for companion the town woman. Now the Country Girl, Peggy by
+name, instantly, on her very first appearance, ravished all hearts. For
+she was so lovely, with her light hair hardly dressed at all, hanging in
+curls over her neck and shoulders, her bright eyes, her quick movements,
+that no one could resist her. She brought with her on the stage the air
+of the country; one seemed to breathe the perfumes of roses and
+jessamine. And she was so curious and so ignorant and so innocent. She
+had been taken, the evening before, to the Play: she found the actors
+'the goodliest, properest men': she liked them 'hugeously': she wants to
+go out and see the streets and the people. Her curmudgeon of a guardian
+comes in and treats her with the barbarity of a natural bad temper
+irritated by jealousy. There was a charming scene in which the Country
+Girl is dressed as a boy so that she may walk in the Park without being
+recognised by her lover--but she is recognised and is kissed by the very
+man whom her guardian dreads. There is another in which she is made to
+write a letter forbidding her lover ever to see her again: this is
+dictated by the guardian: when he goes to fetch sealing-wax she writes
+another exactly the opposite and substitutes it. Now all this was done
+with so much apparent artlessness and so much real feminine cunning that
+the play was charming whenever the Country Girl was on the stage.
+
+It was over too soon.
+
+'Oh!' cried Alice. 'She is an angel, sure. How fortunate was the
+exchange of letters! And how lucky that he was made, without knowing it,
+to grant his consent. I hope that her lover will treat her well. She
+will be a fond wife, Will, do you not think?'
+
+And so she went on as if the play was real and the Country Girl came
+really from the country and the thing really happened. The name of the
+actress, I saw on the Play Bill, was Miss Jenny Wilmot. I am not
+surprised looking back on that evening. The wit and sparkle of her
+words seemed, by the way she spoke them, invented by herself on the
+spot. She held the House in a spell: when she left the stage the place
+became instantly dull and stupid: when she returned the stage became
+once more bright.
+
+We went back by water: it was a fine evening: a thousand stars were
+gleaming in the sky and in the water: we were all silent, as happens
+when people have passed a day of emotions. At my brother-in-law's
+cottage we made a supper out of the remains of the dinner, and after
+supper Alice and I went away to the house we had taken at Lambeth,
+beside the church. And so our wedded life began.
+
+There was another incident connected with my wedding which turned out to
+be the innocent cause of a great deal that happened afterwards.
+
+Among my former friends in the City was a certain Mr. David Camlet who
+had a shop in Bucklersbury for the sale of musical instruments. He
+allowed me the run of the place and to try different instruments; it was
+he who first taught me to play the harpsicord and suffered me to
+practise in his back parlour overlooking the little churchyard of St.
+Pancras. The good old man would also converse with me--say, rather,
+instruct me in the history of composers and their works. Of the latter
+he had a fine collection. In brief he was a musician born and, as we
+say, to the finger tips; a bachelor who wanted no wife or mistress; one
+who lived a simple happy life among his instruments and with his music.
+Whether he was rich or not, I do not know.
+
+He knew the difficulties which surrounded me: I used to tell him all: my
+father's prejudice against music: my own dislike of figures and
+accounts: my refuge in the highest garret when I wished to
+practice--only at such times when my father was out of the house: my
+beloved teacher in the King's Bench Rules: he encouraged me and warned
+me: he took the most kindly interest in my position, counselling always
+obedience and submission even if by so doing I was forbidden to practise
+at all for a time: offering his own parlour as a place of retreat where
+I could without fear of discovery practise as much as I pleased.
+
+When I was turned out of the house, I made haste to inform him what had
+happened. He lifted up his hands in consternation. 'What?' he cried.
+'You, the only son of Sir Peter Halliday, Knight, Alderman, ex-Lord
+Mayor, the greatest merchant in the City: the heir to a plum--what do I
+say? Three or four plums at the least: the future partner of so great a
+business: the future owner of a fleet, and the finest and best appointed
+fleet on the seas--and you throw all this away----'
+
+'But,' I said, 'I will be nothing but a musician.'
+
+'Thou shalt be a musician, lad. Wait--thou shalt have music for a hobby.
+It is good and useful to be a patron of music: to encourage musicians.'
+
+'But I would be a musician by profession.'
+
+'It is a poor profession, Will. Believe me, it is a beggarly profession.
+If you think of making money by it--give up that hope.'
+
+That day I had ringing in my ears certain glowing words of Tom Shirley
+upon the profession and I laughed.
+
+'What do I care about poverty, if I can only be a musician? Mr. Camlet,
+you have been so kind to me always, do not dissuade me. I have chosen my
+path,' I added with the grandeur that belongs to ignorance, 'and I abide
+by my lot.'
+
+He sighed. 'Nay, lad, I will not dissuade thee. Poverty is easy to face,
+when one is young: it is hard to bear when one is old.'
+
+'Then we shall be friends still, and I may come to see you sometimes
+when I am a great composer.'
+
+He took my hand. 'Will,' he said, with humid eyes, 'Music is a
+capricious goddess. It is not her most pious votary whom she most often
+rewards. Be a musician if she permits. If not, be a player only. Many
+are called but few are chosen. Of great composers, there are but one or
+two in a generation. 'Tis an eager heart, and an eager face. The Lord be
+good to thee, Will Halliday!'
+
+From time to time I visited this kind old man, telling him all that I
+did and hiding nothing. At the thought of my playing at the riverside
+tavern for the sailors to dance he laughed till the tears ran down his
+cheeks. 'Why,' he said, 'it was but yesterday that I looked in at
+Change, because it does one good sometimes to gaze upon those who, like
+the pillars of St. Paul's bear up and sustain this great edifice of
+London. Among the merchants, Will, I saw thy respected father. Truly
+there was so much dignity upon his brow: so much authority in his walk:
+so much mastery in his voice: so much consideration in his reception:
+that I marvelled how a stripling like thyself should dare to rebel. And
+to think that his son plays the fiddle in a sanded tavern for ragged
+Jack tars to dance with their Polls and Molls. I cannot choose but
+laugh. Pray Heaven, he never learn!'
+
+But he did learn. My good cousin kept himself informed of my doings
+somehow, and was careful to let my father know.
+
+'Sir Peter looks well,' Mr. Camlet went on. 'He is perhaps stouter than
+is good for him: his cheeks are red, but that is common: and his neck is
+swollen more than I should like my own to be. Yet he walks sturdily and
+will wear yet, no doubt many a long year. London is a healthy place.'
+
+Presently I was able to tell him that I was about to be married, being
+in a position which seemed to promise a sufficiency. He wished me hearty
+congratulations, and begged to know the happy day and the place of our
+abode.
+
+On the morning after our wedding, before we had had time to look around
+us in our three-roomed cottage--it was designed for one of the Thames
+fisherman: hardly had I found time to talk over the disposition of the
+furniture, I perceived, from the casement window, marching valiantly
+down the lane from St. George's Fields, my old friend Mr. David Camlet.
+The day was warm and he carried his wig and hat in one hand, mopping his
+head with a handkerchief.
+
+'He comes to visit us, my dear,' I said. 'It is Mr. Camlet. What is he
+bringing with him?'
+
+For beside him a man dragged a hand-cart in which lay something large
+and square, covered with matting.
+
+'He is the maker of musical instruments,' I explained. 'Alice, what
+if--in the cart----'
+
+'Oh, Will--if it were----'
+
+Know that my great desire was to possess a harpsichord, which for
+purposes of composition is almost a necessity. But such an instrument
+was altogether beyond my hopes. I might as well have yearned for an
+organ.
+
+He stopped where the houses began and looked about him. He made straight
+for our door which was open and knocked gently with his knuckles.
+
+Alice went out to meet him. By this time he had put on his wig and stood
+with his hat under his arm.
+
+'The newly married lady of my young friend, Master Will Halliday?' he
+asked. 'I knew it. In such a matter I am never wrong. Virtue, Madam,
+sits on thy brow, Love upon thy lips. Permit an old man--yet a friend of
+thy worthy husband'--so saying he kissed her with great ceremony. Then
+at length, the room being rather dark after the bright sunshine, he
+perceived me, and shaking hands wished me every kind of happiness.
+
+'I am old,' he said, 'and it is too late for me to become acquainted
+with Love. Yet I am assured that if two people truly love one another,
+to the bearing of each other's burdens: to working for each other: then
+may life be stripped of half its terrors. I say nothing of the blessing
+of children, the support and prop of old age. My children, love each
+other always,' Alice took my hand. 'For better for worse; in poverty and
+in riches: love each other always.'
+
+I drew my girl closer and kissed her. The old man coughed huskily. 'Twas
+a tender heart, even at seventy.
+
+Alice gave him a chair: she also brought out the wedding cake (which she
+made herself--a better cake was never made) and she opened the bottle of
+cherry brandy we had laid in for occasions. He took a glass of the
+cordial to the health of the bride, and ate a piece of bride cake to our
+good luck.
+
+'This fellow ought to be fortunate,' he said, nodding at me. 'He has
+given up all for the sake of music. He ought to be rewarded. He might
+have been the richest merchant on Change. But he preferred to be a
+musician, and to begin at the lowest part of the ladder. It is wonderful
+devotion.'
+
+'Sir, I have never regretted my decision.'
+
+'That is still more wonderful. No--no--I am wrong'--he laughed--'quite
+wrong. If you were to regret it, now, you would be the most
+thankless dog in the world. Aha! The recompense begins--in full
+measure--overflowing--with such a bride.'
+
+'Oh! Sir,' murmured Alice blushing.
+
+He took a second glass of cherry brandy and began a speech of some
+length of which I only remember the conclusion.
+
+'Wherefore, my friends, since life is short, resolve to enjoy all that
+it has to give--together: and to suffer all that it has to
+inflict--together. There is much to enjoy that is lawful and innocent.
+The Lord is mindful of His own--Love is lawful, and innocent: there is
+abiding comfort in love: trust in each other raises the soul of him who
+trusts and of him who is trusted: sweet music is lawful and innocent: if
+there is ever any doubt: if there is any trouble: if any fail in love:
+if the world becomes like a threatening sea: you shall find in music new
+strength and comfort. But why do I speak of the solace of music to Will
+Halliday and the sister of Tom Shirley? Therefore, I say no more.'
+
+He stopped and rose. Alice poured out another glass of cherry brandy for
+him.
+
+'I nearly forgot what I came for. Such is the effect of contemplating
+happiness. Will, I have thought for a long time that you wanted a
+harpsichord.'
+
+'Sir, it has been ever beyond my dreams.'
+
+'Then I am glad--because I can now supply that want. I have brought with
+me, dear lad--and dear blooming bride, as good an instrument as I have
+in my shop: no better in all the world.' He went out and called his man.
+We lifted the instrument--it was most beautiful not only in touch but
+also with its rosewood case. We set it up and I tried it.
+
+'Oh!' Alice caught his hand and kissed it. 'Now Will is happy indeed.
+How can we thank you sufficiently?'
+
+'Play upon it,' he said. 'Play daily upon it: play the finest music only
+upon it. So shall your souls be raised--even to the gates of Heaven.'
+
+Once more he drew my wife towards him and kissed her on the forehead.
+Then he seized my hand and shook it and before I had time or could find
+words to speak or to thank him, he was gone, marching down the hot lane
+with the firm step of thirty, instead of seventy.
+
+A noble gift, dictated by the most friendly feeling. Yet it led to the
+first misfortune of my life--one that might well have proved a
+misfortune impossible to be overcome.
+
+Then began our wedded life. For two years we continued to live in that
+little cottage. There our first child was born, a lovely boy. Every
+evening I repaired to the Dog and Duck, and took my place in the
+orchestra. Familiarity makes one callous: I had long since ceased to
+regard the character of the company. They might be, as Tom pretended,
+the most aristocratic assembly in the world: they might be the reverse.
+The coloured lamps in the garden pleased me no more: nor did the sight
+of those who danced or the pulling of corks and the singing of songs
+after supper in the bowers: the ladies were no longer beautiful in my
+eyes: I enquired not about the entertainment except for my own part: I
+never looked at the fireworks. All these things to one who has to attend
+night after night becomes part of the work and not of the entertainment
+and amusement of life.
+
+The musician is a being apart. He takes no part in the conduct of State
+or City: he is not a philosopher: or a theologian: he is not a preacher
+or teacher: he writes nothing either for instruction or for amusement:
+in the pleasures of mankind he assists but having no share or part in
+them. His place is in the gallery: they cannot do without him: he cannot
+live without them: but he is a creature apart.
+
+My mornings were my own. Sometimes I walked with Alice on the terrace of
+Lambeth Palace: or went down into the Marsh and walked about the
+meadows: we made no friends except among the humble fishermen to whose
+wives Alice taught cleanliness. Sometimes, after the child came, I would
+leave Alice for the morning and walk into the City. Perhaps I had a hope
+that I might meet my father. I never did, however. I looked for him on
+Change: I walked in Great College Street: but I never met him. I knew
+beforehand that my reception would be of the coldest--but I wanted to
+see him and to speak with him. I went down to Billingsgate Stairs and
+took boat and was rowed about the ships in the Pool. There I recognised
+our own ships: they might have been my own, but would never be mine,
+now. All these things I had thrown away--ships, wharf, trade, fortune.
+It made me proud to think so. Yet I would have spoken to my father had I
+met him.
+
+Once I met Matthew in the street and passed him touching shoulders. He
+looked me full in the face with the pretence of not knowing me. I
+commanded my temper and let him go without expostulation which would
+have led to a second fight, for which I had no desire.
+
+On two other occasions I saw him though he did not see me. The first was
+on a certain afternoon in October when it grows dark about five. I was
+strolling down Garlickhithe near Queenhithe. As I passed the Church of
+St. James's which stands a little back with steps I saw two figures
+conversing: one was a man whom I knew at once for my cousin by his
+shoulders and by the shape of his head. The other was a woman with a
+veil over her face. I knew the man next by his voice. Our Matthew had
+such a voice--oily and yet harsh. 'If you loved me,' he said, 'you
+would do this simple thing.'
+
+'I will never do it,' she declared, passionately. 'You have deceived
+me.'
+
+I would not be an eavesdropper, and I passed on. Matthew, therefore, had
+'deceived'--the word may mean many things--a woman. Matthew, of all men!
+However, it was no concern of mine.
+
+A third time I saw him--or heard him, because I did not see him. It was
+in one of those taverns where small square pews are provided with high
+walls so that one cannot be heard. I sat in one with Tom Shirley, taking
+a pint of wine. All round were the voices of people carrying on business
+in whispers and in murmurs. Suddenly I distinguished the voice of
+Matthew.
+
+'The security is good,' he said. 'There is no finer security in the
+City. I want the money.'
+
+'You can have some to-morrow night.' I was destined to hear a great deal
+more of that grating voice. 'And the rest next week, if I can get the
+papers signed. It is a confidential business, I suppose.
+
+'Nothing is to be said. Our House does not like to borrow money, but the
+occasion is pressing.'
+
+'Let us go,' I said to Tom. 'We shall learn presently all Matthew's
+secrets.'
+
+'Matthew? Your cousin Matthew?'
+
+'He is in one of the boxes. I have heard his voice. Come, Tom.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A CITY FUNERAL
+
+
+Thus we lived--humble folk if you please--far from the world of wealth
+or of fashion.
+
+This happiness was too great to last. We were to be stricken down, yet
+not unto death.
+
+The troubles began with the death of my father.
+
+One morning, when he ought to have been at his desk, my old friend
+Ramage came to see me.
+
+'Master Will,' he said, the tears running down his cheeks, 'Master
+Will--'tis now too late. You will never be reconciled now.'
+
+'What has happened?' I asked. But his troubled face told me.
+
+'My master fell down in a fit last night, coming home from the Company's
+feast. They carried him home and put him to bed. But in the night he
+died.'
+
+In such a case as mine one always hopes vaguely for reconciliation, so
+long as there is life: without taking any steps, one thinks that a
+reconciliation will come of its own accord. I now believe that if I had
+gone to my father and put the case plainly: my manifest vocation: my
+incapacity for business; if I had asked his permission to continue in
+the musical profession: if I had, further, humbled myself so far as to
+admit that I deserved at his hands nothing less than to be cut off
+without a shilling: he might have given way. It is a terrible thing to
+know that your father has died with bitterness in his heart against his
+only son. Or, I might have sent Alice, with the child. Surely the sight
+of that sweet girl, the sight of the helpless child, would have moved
+him. I reproached myself, in a word, when it was too late.
+
+'Sir,' said the clerk, 'I do not believe that Mr. Matthew, or his
+father, will send you word of this event, or of the funeral.'
+
+'They do not know where I live.'
+
+'Excuse me, Sir, Mr. Matthew knows where you live and everything that
+you have done since you left your home. Believe me, Mr. Will, you have
+no greater enemy than your cousin. He has constantly inflamed your
+father's mind against you. It was he who told my master that you were
+playing for sailors at a common tavern with a red blind and a sanded
+floor. He told him that you were playing in the orchestra at the Dog and
+Duck for all the 'prentices and the demireps of town: he told him that
+you had married--a----'
+
+'Stop, Ramage, lest I do my cousin a mischief. How do you know all
+this?'
+
+'I listen,' he replied. 'From my desk, I can hear plainly what is said
+in the counting-house. I listen. I can do no good. But sometimes it is
+well to know what goes on.'
+
+'It may be useful--but to listen--well--Ramage, is there more to tell?'
+
+'This. They do not intend to invite you to the funeral. Mr. Matthew will
+assume the place of the heir, and his father will be chief mourner.'
+
+'Oh! Do you tell me, old friend, when it is to take place, and I will be
+there.'
+
+So he promised, though it was worth his situation if he were found out
+to have held any intercourse with me. In the end it proved useful to
+have a friend in the enemy's camp. At the time, I laughed at danger.
+What had I to fear from Matthew's enmity?
+
+The manner of my father's death is common among Merchants of the City of
+London. Their very success makes them liable to it: the City customs
+favour feasting and the drinking of wine: the richer sort ride in a
+coach when they should be walking for health: it is seldom, indeed, that
+one may meet a citizen of Quality walking in the fields of which there
+are so many and of such a wholesome air round London, whether we go East
+to the fields of Mile End and Bow: or North where, not to speak of
+Moorfields, there are the fields this side of Islington: or on the West
+where are the fields of Westminster and Chelsea: or South where the
+whole country is a verdant meadow with orchards. I say that among the
+crowds who flock out on a summer evening to take the air (and other
+refreshments) in these fields, one may look in vain for the substantial
+merchant. He takes the air lolling in his coach: he feasts every day,
+drinking quantities of rich and strong wine such as Port or Lisbon: he
+stays too much indoors: the counting-house is too often but a step from
+the parlour.
+
+The consequence is natural: at thirty-five the successful merchant
+begins to swell and to expand: his figure becomes arched or rounded:
+perhaps his nose grows red: at forty-five his circumference is great:
+his neck is swollen; his cheek is red: perhaps his nose has become what
+is called a Bottle. Soon after fifty, he is seized with an apoplexy. It
+is whispered on Change that such an one fell down stepping out of his
+Company's Hall, after a Feast, into the road: that he never recovered
+consciousness: and that he is dead. The age of fifty, I take it, is the
+grand Climacteric of the London Merchant.
+
+On the day of the funeral, then, I presented myself, with Alice,
+properly habited, to take my place as chief Mourner. The house, within,
+was all hung with black cloth. The hall and the stairs were thus
+covered: it was evening at eight o'clock: candles placed in sconces
+feebly lit up the place: at the door and on the stairs stood the
+undertaker's men, mutes, bearing black staves with black plumes: within,
+the undertaker himself was busy serving out black cloaks, tying the
+weepers on the hats, distributing the gloves and the rosemary, and
+getting ready the torches.
+
+Upstairs, the room in which my father's body lay had been prepared for
+the ceremony. All the furniture--bed, chairs, everything--had been taken
+out: there was nothing at all in the room but the coffin on trestles:
+the wainscotted walls had been hung with black velvet, which looked
+indeed funereal as it absorbed the light of fifty or sixty wax tapers
+and reflected none. The tapers stood in silver sconces on the walls:
+they showed up the coffin, the lid of which, not yet screwed down, was
+laid so as to expose the white face of the deceased, grave, set, serious
+and full of dignity. I remembered how it looked, fiery and passionate,
+when my father drove me from his presence. The candles also lit up the
+faces of the mourners: in the midst of so much blackness their faces
+were white and deathlike. On the breast of the dead man lay branches of
+rosemary: on the lid of the coffin were branches of rosemary, of which
+every person present carried a sprig. On the lid of the coffin was also
+a large and capacious silver cup with two handles.
+
+Only one thing relieved the blackness of the walls. It was a hatchment
+with the family shield. Everyone would believe, so splendid is this coat
+of arms, that our family must rank among the noblest in the land. But
+the time has passed when the City Fathers were closely connected by
+blood with the gentry and the aristocracy of the country: of our family
+one could only point to the shield: where we came from, I know not: nor
+how we obtained so fine a shield: nor to what station of life my
+ancestors originally belonged. Family pride, however, is a harmless
+superstition: not one of us, I am sure, would surrender that coat of
+arms, or acknowledge that we were anything but a very ancient and
+honourable House.
+
+When I entered the house, accompanied by Alice, I found the hall and the
+steps, and even the street itself, which is but narrow, crowded with the
+humbler class of mourners. There was a whisper of surprise, and more
+than one honest hand furtively grasped mine. Well: there would be few
+such hands to welcome Matthew.
+
+I did not need to be told where the coffin lay. I led my wife up the
+stairs and so into my father's room, which was the best bedroom, on the
+first floor. I found the various members of the family already
+assembled, my Uncle Paul as I expected, with Matthew, usurping my place
+at the head of the coffin. My cousins, of whom there were
+five-and-twenty at least, including my Uncle Paul's wife and two
+daughters, showed signs of profound astonishment at the sight of the
+banished son. The Alderman, for his part, held up his hands in
+amazement, and looked up to Heaven as if to protest against this
+assertion of filial rights. The girls, who were as amiable as their
+brother Matthew, stared with more rudeness than one would expect even
+from a Wappineer, at Alice. They knew not, perhaps, that I had taken a
+wife: to a natural curiosity on such a subject they affected a contempt
+which they took no pains to disguise.
+
+There was a man standing behind my cousin whom I knew not: nor did I
+understand by what right he stood among us at all: a tall thin figure
+somewhat bowed with years: a lean and wrinkled face: his appearance
+filled me with distrust at the outset--let no one deny that first
+thoughts are best thoughts. He stooped and whispered something to my
+cousin--whose face seemed to show trouble of some kind, but not grief.
+Matthew started, and looked at me with astonishment.
+
+I stepped forward, drawing Alice with me. 'Uncle Paul,' I said, 'I take
+my place as my father's chief mourner.'
+
+My cousin glared at me, as if threatening to dispute the point, but he
+gave way and retired to my left hand. Thus, Alice beside me, my Uncle
+Paul at my right, and Matthew at my left, I waited the arrival of the
+funeral guests.
+
+Meantime, the ladies moaned and wailed. Outside, the women-servants on
+the stairs lifted up their lamentation. The crying of the women at a
+funeral hath in it little reality of grief: yet it penetrates to the
+soul of those who hear it. As each new guest arrived, the wail was
+raised anew: the louder in proportion to the rank of the arrival, in so
+much that when the Lord Mayor himself walked up the stairs the lament
+became a shriek.
+
+The undertaker whispered in my ear that all were present.
+
+I looked about me. 'Twas not in human nature to avoid a sense of honour
+and glory in looking upon so honourable a company. They proclaimed by
+their presence the respect with which they regarded my father. Here,
+beside our cousins, were the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the Sheriffs, the
+Town Clerk, the Recorder, the Common Sergeant, the Remembrancer, the
+Dean of St. Paul's, the Master and Wardens of his Company and many of
+the greatest merchants on Change. They were there to do honour to my
+father's memory, and I was there to receive them, as my father's son,
+despite the respect in which I had failed.
+
+It was not a time, however, for regrets.
+
+I lifted the great cup, I say, and looked around. The wailing ceased.
+All eyes were turned to me as I drank from the cup--it was hypocras, a
+drink much loved at City feasts. Then I handed it to Alice, who drank
+and gave it back to me. Then to my uncle the Alderman, after whom it
+went round. Down below, in the hall, there was the solemn drinking of
+wine. We drank thus to the memory of the dead: in old times, I am
+assured, the mourners drank to the repose of the soul just gone out of
+the body. For memory or for repose, it is an old custom which one would
+not willingly neglect.
+
+After the ceremony the ladies began once more their wailing and
+groaning. They make too much of this custom. It is not in reason that
+girls like my cousins Amelia and Sophia should be so torn and lacerated
+by grief as their wails betokened. Indeed, I saw them after the funeral
+talking and laughing as they went away.
+
+We then descended the stairs and waited below while the men went up to
+finish their work and to shut out the face of the dead man for ever from
+the world.
+
+They brought out the coffin. The housekeeper with one last wail of
+grief--one hopes there was some sincerity in it--locked the door of the
+death chamber: she locked it noisily, so that all might hear: she turned
+the handle loudly so that all might be sure that the door was shut: she
+had before put out the wax candles: out of respect for the late occupant
+the room would not be opened or used again for years: it would remain as
+it was with the black velvet hangings and the silver sconces. This is
+one of the privileges accorded to wealth--an empty honour, but one that
+is envied by those who cannot afford to spare a room. What can the dead
+man know or feel or care while the black velvet grows brown and shabby,
+and the silver sconces become yellow, and the sunbeams through the
+shutters slowly steal round the room, and except for the dancing of the
+motes in the sunlight there is no motion or sound or touch of life or
+light in the solitude and silence of the chamber? It is giving Death to
+Death--not the Life for which we pray, for which we hope and trust.
+
+The pall was of velvet with a gold fringe and gold embroidery. I knew it
+for the parish pall bequeathed by some pious person for the use of
+parishioners. When all was ready the undertaker marshalled the
+procession. First marched two conductors with staves and plumes: then
+followed six men in long black coats, two and two; then one bearing the
+Standard, with black plumes: then, eighteen men in long black cloaks as
+before, all being servants to the Deceased: then the Minister of the
+Parish: after him an officer of Arms carrying a knight's sword and
+target, helm and crest: with him another officer of Arms carrying the
+shield, both in their tabards or embroidered coats: then the Body, the
+pall being borne by six Merchants between men carrying the Shields of
+the City: of the Company: and of Bridewell, Christ's Hospital, St.
+Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's, of which the Deceased was a Governor.
+Then I followed as chief mourner with my wife: after me the Alderman my
+uncle and his lady. Then came Matthew. With him should have walked one
+of his sisters: but there stepped out of the crowd a woman in black
+holding a handkerchief to her face. Who she was I knew not. After them
+came the rest of the cousins. Then followed the Lord Mayor and the City
+Fathers; and, lastly, the clerks, porters, stevedores, bargemen, and
+others in the service of the House. In our hands we carried, as we went,
+lighted torches: a considerable number of people came out to see the
+funeral: they lined the street which by the flames of the torches was
+lit up as if by daylight. The faces at the windows: the crowds in the
+street: the length of the procession filled my soul with pride, though
+well I knew that I was but a castaway from the affections of the dead
+man whom these people honoured.
+
+The procession had not far to go: the parish church, that of St. Michael
+Paternoster Royal, is but a short distance down the street: it is the
+church in which Whittington was buried, his tomb and his ashes being
+destroyed in the Great Fire a hundred years ago. The Church, like the
+house, was hung with black and lit by wax candles and our torches. The
+Rector read the service with a solemnity which, I believe, affected all
+hearts. After the reading of that part which belongs to the Church we
+carried the body to the churchyard at the back--a very small churchyard:
+there we lowered the coffin into the grave--I observed that the mould
+seemed to consist entirely of skulls and bones--and when dust was given
+to dust and ashes to ashes, we dashed our torches upon the ground and
+extinguished the flames. Then in darkness we separated and went each his
+own way. I observed that the lady who walked with Matthew left him when
+the ceremony was over. The weeping of the women ceased and the whispers
+of the men: everybody talked aloud and cheerfully. No more mourning for
+my father: pity and regret were buried in the grave with him: they
+became the dust and ashes which were strewed upon the coffin. He had
+gone hence to be no more seen: to be no more wept over. But, as you
+shall shortly hear, the dead man still retained in his hands the power
+of doing good or evil.
+
+Matthew spoke to me as we left the Churchyard.
+
+'Cousin,' he said, with more civility than I expected, 'if you can come
+to the counting-house to-morrow morning you will learn your father's
+testamentary dispositions. The will is to be opened and read at ten
+o'clock.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE READING OF THE WILL
+
+
+'We will make him sell his Reversionary interest'--the voice was
+curiously harsh and grating--'and you will then be able to take the
+whole.'
+
+You know how, sometimes, one hears things in a mysterious way which one
+could not hear under ordinary circumstances. I was standing in the outer
+counting-house in the room assigned to the accountants. In the inner
+counting-house, I knew, my cousin was sitting. Without being told any
+thing more, I guessed that the voice belonged to the tall lean man who
+was present at the funeral, and that he was addressing Matthew, and
+that he was talking about me. And, without any reason, I assumed a
+mental attitude of caution. They were going to make me sell something,
+were they?
+
+When I was called into the room I found that I was so far right,
+inasmuch as the only two persons in the room were my cousin and the lean
+man who by his black dress I perceived to be an attorney.
+
+Now, I daresay that there are attorneys in the City of London whose
+lives are as holy as that of any Bishop or Divine. At the same time it
+is a matter of common notoriety that the City contains a swarm of
+vermin--if I may speak plainly--who are versed in every kind of
+chicanery: who know how to catch hold of every possible objection: and
+who spend the whole of their creeping lives in wresting, twisting, and
+turning the letter of the law to their own advantage, under the pretense
+of advantage to their clients. These are the attorneys who suggest and
+encourage disputes and lawsuits between persons who would otherwise
+remain friends: there are those who keep cases running on for years,
+eating up the estates: when they fasten upon a man, it is the spider
+fastening on a big fat fly: they never leave him until they land him in
+a debtor's prison, naked and destitute. I have observed that a course of
+life, such as that indicated above, presently stamps the face with a
+look which cannot be mistaken: the eyes draw together: the mouth grows
+straight and hard: the lips become thin: the nose insensibly, even if it
+be originally a snub, becomes like the beak of a crow--the creature
+which devours the offal in the street: the cheeks are no longer flesh
+and skin, but wrinkled parchment: the aspect of the man becomes, in a
+word, such as that of the man who sat at the table, a bundle of papers
+before him.
+
+I knew, I say, that Mr. Probus--which was his name--was an attorney at
+the outset. His black coat: his wig: his general aspect: left no doubt
+upon my mind. And from the outset I disliked and distrusted the man.
+
+The last time I had entered this room was to make my choice between my
+father and my music. The memory of the dignified figure in the great
+chair behind the table: his voice of austerity: his expectation of
+immediate obedience made my eyes dim for a moment. Not for long, because
+one would not show any tenderness before Matthew.
+
+With some merchants the counting-house is furnished with no more than
+what is wanted: in this wharf it was a substantial house of brick in
+which certain persons slept every night for the better security of the
+strong-room in the cellars below. The principal room, that which had
+been my father's, had two windows looking out upon the river: the room
+was carpeted: family portraits hung upon the walls: the furniture was
+solid mahogany: no one who worked in such a room could be anything but a
+substantial merchant.
+
+My cousin looked up and sulkily pointed to a chair.
+
+At this time Matthew Halliday presented the appearance of a responsible
+City Merchant. His dress was sober yet of the best: nobody had whiter
+ruffles at his wrist or at his shirt-front: nobody wore a neck-cloth of
+more costly lace: his gold buttons, gold buckles, and gold laced hat
+proclaimed him an independent person: he carried a large gold watch and
+a gold snuff-box: he wore a large signet-ring on his right thumb, his
+face was grave beyond his years: this morning it presented an appearance
+which in lesser men is called sulky. I knew the look well, from old
+experience. It meant that something had gone wrong. All my life long I
+had experienced at the hands of this cousin an animosity which I can
+only explain by supposing a resentment against one who stood between
+himself and a rich man's estate. As a boy--I was four or five years
+younger than himself--he would take from me, and destroy, things I
+cherished: he invented lies and brought false accusations against me; he
+teased, pinched, bullied me when no one was looking. When I grew big
+enough I fought him. At first I got beaten: but I went on growing and
+presently I beat him. Then, if he attempted any more false accusations
+he knew that he would have to fight me again; a consideration which made
+him virtuous.
+
+'Cousin,' he said coldly, 'this gentleman is Mr. Probus, the new
+attorney of the House. Mr. Littleton, his late attorney, is dead. Mr.
+Probus will henceforth conduct our affairs.'
+
+'Unworthily,' said Mr. Probus.
+
+'That is my concern,' Matthew replied with great dignity. 'I hope I know
+how to choose and to appoint my agents.'
+
+'Sir'--Mr. Probus turned to me--'it has ever been the business of my
+life to study the good of my fellow man. My motto is one taken from an
+ancient source--you will allow one of the learned profession to have
+some tincture of Latin. The words are--ahem!--_Integer vitæ scelerisque
+Probus_. That is to say: Probus--Probus, Attorney-at-Law; _vitæ_, lived;
+_integer_, respected; _scelerisque_, and trusted. Such, Sir, should your
+affairs ever require the nice conduct of one who is both guide and
+friend to his clients, you will ever find me. Now, Mr. Matthew, Sir, my
+honoured patron, I await your commands.'
+
+'We are waiting, cousin,' said Matthew, 'for my father. As soon as he
+arrives Mr. Probus will read the Will. The contents are known to me--in
+general terms--such was the confidence reposed in me by my honoured
+uncle--in general terms. I believe you will find that any expectations
+you may have formed--'
+
+'Pardon me, Sir,' interrupted the attorney. 'Not before the reading of
+the Will--'
+
+'Will be frustrated. That is all I intended to say. Of course there may
+be a trifle. Indeed I hope there may prove to be some trifling legacy.
+
+'Perhaps a shilling. Ha, ha!' The attorney looked more forbidding when
+he became mirthful than when he was serious.
+
+Then some of my cousins arrived and sat down. We waited a few minutes in
+silence, until the arrival of my uncle the Alderman with his wife and
+daughters.
+
+The ladies stared at me without any kind of salutation. The Alderman
+shook his head.
+
+'Nephew,' he said, 'I am sorry to see you here. I fear you will go away
+with a sorrowful heart--'
+
+'I am sorrowful already, because my father was not reconciled to me. I
+shall not be any the more sorrowful to find that I have nothing. It is
+what I expect. Now, sir, you may read my father's will as soon as you
+please.'
+
+In spite of my brave words I confess that, for Alice's sake, I did hope
+that something would be left me.
+
+Then all took chairs and sat down with a cough of expectation. There was
+no more wailing from the ladies.
+
+Mr. Probus took up from the table a parchment tied with red tape and
+sealed. He solemnly opened it.
+
+'This,' he said, 'is the last will and testament of Peter Halliday,
+Knight, and Alderman, late Lord Mayor, Citizen and Lorimer.'
+
+My uncle interposed. 'One moment, sir.' Then he turned to me.
+'Repentance, nephew, though too late to change a parent's testamentary
+dispositions, may be quickened by the consequences of a parent's
+resentment. It may therefore be the means of leading to the
+forgiveness--ahem--and the remission--ahem--of more painful
+consequences--ahem--at the hands of Providence.'
+
+I inclined my head. 'Now, sir, once more.'
+
+'This will was made four years ago when the late Mr. Littleton was the
+deceased gentleman's attorney. It was opened three months ago in order
+to add a trifling codicil, which was entrusted to my care. I will now
+read the will.'
+
+There is no such cumbrous and verbose document in the world as the will
+of a wealthy man. It was read by Mr. Probus in a harsh voice without
+stops in a sing-song, monotonous delivery, which composed the senses and
+made one feel as if all the words in the Dictionary were being read
+aloud.
+
+At last he finished.
+
+'Perhaps,' I said, 'someone will tell me in plain English what it
+means?'
+
+'Plain English, Sir? Let me tell you,' Mr. Probus replied, 'that there
+is no plainer English in the world than that employed by lawyers.'
+
+I turned to my uncle. 'Will you, Sir, have the goodness to explain to
+me?'
+
+'I cannot recite the whole. As for the main points--Mr. Probus will
+correct me if I am wrong--my lamented brother leaves bequests to found
+an almshouse for eight poor men and eight poor widows, to bear his name;
+he also founds at his Parish Church an annual Lecture, to bear his name:
+he establishes a New Year's dole, to bear his name, of coals and bread,
+for twenty widows of the Parish. He has founded a school, for twelve
+poor boys, to bear his name. He has ordered his executors to effect the
+release of thirty poor prisoners for debt, in his name. Is there more,
+Mr. Probus?'
+
+'He also founds a scholarship for a poor and deserving lad, to assist
+him at Cambridge. The same scholarship to bear his name and to be in the
+gift of his Company.'
+
+'What does he say about me?'
+
+'I am coming to that,' Mr. Probus replied. 'He devises many bequests to
+his nephews and nieces, his cousins and his personal friends, with
+mourning rings to all: there are, I believe, two hundred thus honoured:
+two hundred--I think, Mr. Paul, that it is a long time since the City
+lost one so rich and so richly provided with friends.'
+
+'But what does he say about me?' I insisted.
+
+'Patience. He then devises the whole of his remaining estate: all his
+houses, investments, shares, stocks: all his furniture and plate: to his
+nephew Matthew.'
+
+'I expected it. And nothing said about me at all.'
+
+'It is estimated that the remainder, after deducting the monies already
+disposed of, will not amount to more than £100,000, because there is a
+reservation----'
+
+'Oh!'
+
+'It is provided that the sum of £100,000 be set aside: that it be placed
+in the hands of trustees whom he names--the Master of his Company and
+the Clerk of the Company. This money is to accumulate at compound
+interest until one of two events shall happen--either the death of his
+son, in which case Mr. Matthew will have it all: or the death of Mr.
+Matthew, in which case the son is to have it all. In other words, this
+vast sum of money with accumulations will go to the survivor of the
+two.'
+
+I received this intelligence in silence. At first I could not understand
+what it meant.
+
+'I think, Sir,' Mr. Probus addressed the Alderman, 'we have now set
+forth the terms of this most important document in plain language. We
+ought perhaps to warn Mr. William against building any hopes upon the
+very slender chance of succeeding to this money. We have here'--he
+indicated Matthew--'health, strength, an abstemious life: on the other
+hand we have'--he indicated me--'what we see.'
+
+I laughed. At all events I was a more healthy subject, to look at, than
+my cousin, who this morning looked yellow instead of pale.
+
+'The span of life,' the attorney went on, 'accorded to my justly
+esteemed client, will probably be that usually assigned to those who
+honour their parents--say eighty, or even ninety. You, sir, will
+probably be cut off at forty. I believe that it is the common lot in
+your class. Above all things, do not build upon the chances of this
+reversion.'
+
+Suddenly the words I had heard came back to me. What were they? 'We
+will make him sell his reversion.' 'Sell his reversion.' Then the
+reversion must not be sold.
+
+Mr. Probus went on too long. You may destroy the effect of your words by
+too much repetition.
+
+'A shadowy chance,' he said, 'a shadowy chance.'
+
+'I don't know. Why should not my cousin die before me? Besides, it means
+that my father in cutting me off would leave a door for restitution.'
+
+'Only an imaginary door, sir--not a real door.'
+
+'A very real door. I shall live as long as I can. My cousin will do as
+he pleases. Mr. Probus, the "shadowy chance," as you call it, is a
+chance that is worth a large sum of money if I would sell my reversion.'
+Mr. Probus started and looked suspicious. 'But I shall not sell it. I
+shall wait. Matthew might die to-morrow--to-day, even--'
+
+'Fie, Sir--oh, fie!--to desire the death of your cousin! This indeed
+betokens a bad heart--a bad heart. How dreadful is the passion of envy!
+How soul-destroying is the thirst for gold!'
+
+I rose. I knew the worst.
+
+'Do not,' Mr. Probus went on, 'give, I entreat you, one thought to the
+thing. Before your cousin's life lies stretched what I may call a
+charming landskip with daisies in the grass, and--and--the pretty
+warblers of the grove. It is a life, I see very plainly, full of
+goodness, which is Heavenly Wealth, stored up for future use; and of
+success on Change, which is worldly wealth. Happy is the City which owns
+the possessor of both!'
+
+The moralist ceased and began to tie up his papers. When his strident
+voice dropped, the air became musical again, so to speak. However, the
+harsh voice suited the sham piety.
+
+'Cousin Matthew,' I rose, since there was nothing to keep me longer.
+'Could I remember, in your seven-and-twenty years of life, one single
+generous act or one single worthy sentiment, then I could believe this
+fustian about the length of days and the Heavenly Wealth. Live as long
+as you can. I desire never to see you again, and never to hear from you
+again. Go your own way, and leave me to go mine.'
+
+The whole company rose: they parted right and left to let me pass: as
+the saying is, they gave me the cold shoulder with a wonderful
+unanimity. There was a common consent among them that the man who had
+become a fiddler had disgraced the family. As for Matthew, he made no
+reply even with looks. He did not, however, present the appearance of
+joy at this great accession to wealth. Something was on his mind that
+troubled him.
+
+My uncle the Alderman spoke for the family.
+
+'Nephew,' he said, 'believe me, it is with great sorrow that we see thee
+thus cast out: yet we cannot but believe the acts of my brother to be
+righteous. I rejoice not that my son has taken thine inheritance. I
+lament that thou hast justly been deprived. The will cuts thee off from
+the family.' He looked round. A murmur of approval greeted him. A
+disinherited son who is also a fiddler by profession cannot be said to
+belong to a respectable City family. 'We wish thee well--in thy lower
+sphere--among thy humble companions. Farewell.' I passed through them
+all with as much dignity as I could assume. 'Alas!' I heard him saying
+as I stepped out. 'Alas! that cousins should so differ from each other
+in grain--in grain!'
+
+[Illustration: "I PASSED THROUGH THEM ALL."]
+
+His daughters, my dear cousins, turned up their noses, coughed and
+flattened themselves against the wall so that I should not touch so much
+as a hoop--and I saw these affectionate creatures no more, until--many
+things had happened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE TEMPTATION
+
+
+One morning, about six weeks after the funeral, I was sitting at the
+harpsichord, picking out an anthem of my own composition. The theme was
+one of thanksgiving and praise, and my heart was lifted to the level of
+the words. All around was peace and tranquillity: on the river bank
+outside Alice walked up and down carrying our child, now nearly a year
+and a half old: the boy crowed and laughed: the mother would have been
+singing, but she would not disturb me at work. Can mortal man desire
+greater happiness than to have the work of his own choice; the wife who
+is to him the only woman in the world: a strong and lovely child: and a
+sufficiency earned by his own work? As for my chance of ever getting
+that huge fortune by my cousin's death, I can safely aver that I never
+so much as thought of it. We never spoke of it: we put it out of our
+minds altogether.
+
+I heard steps outside: steps which disturbed me: I turned my head. It
+was Mr. Probus the attorney. He stood hat in hand before Alice.
+
+'Mr. William's wife I believe,' he was saying. 'And his child? A lovely
+boy indeed, Madam. I bring you news--nothing less in short than a
+fortune--a fortune--for this lovely boy.'
+
+'Indeed, Sir? Are you a friend of my husband?'
+
+'A better friend, I warrant, Madam, than many who call him friend.'
+
+'He is within, Sir. Will you honour our poor cottage?' He stood in the
+open door.
+
+'Mr. Will,' he said, 'I have your permission to enter?'
+
+At sight of him the whole of the anthem vanished: harmony, melody, solo,
+chorus. It was as if someone was singing false: as if all were singing
+false. I put down my pen. 'Sir,' I said, 'I know not if there is any
+business of mine which can concern you.'
+
+'Dear Sir,' he tried to make his grating voice mellifluous: he tried to
+smile pleasantly. 'Do not, pray, treat me as if I was an adviser of the
+will by which your father deprived you of your inheritance.'
+
+'I do not say that you were. Nevertheless, I cannot understand what
+business you have with me.'
+
+'I come from your cousin. You have never, I fear, regarded your cousin
+with kindly feelings'--this was indeed reversing the position--'but of
+that we will not speak. I come at the present moment as a messenger of
+peace--a messenger of peace. There is Scripture in praise of the
+messenger of peace. I forget it at the moment: but you will know it.
+Your good lady will certainly know it.' Alice, who had followed him,
+placed a chair for him and stood beside him. 'I bear the olive-branch
+like the turtle-dove,' he continued, smiling. 'I bring you good tidings
+of peace and wealth. They should go together, wealth and peace.'
+
+'Pray, Sir, proceed with your good tidings.'
+
+Alice laid her hand on my shoulder. 'Husband,' she said, 'it would be no
+good tidings which would deprive us of the happiness which we now enjoy.
+Think well before you agree to anything that this gentleman, or your
+cousin, may offer.' So she left us, and carried the boy out again into
+the fresh air.
+
+'Now, Sir, we are alone.'
+
+He looked about him curiously. 'A pretty room,' he said, 'but small. One
+would take it for the cottage of a fisherman. I believe there are some
+of these people in the neighbourhood. The prospect either over the river
+or over the marsh is agreeable: the trees are pleasant in the summer.
+The Dog and Duck, which is, I believe, easily accessible, is a cheerful
+place, and the company is polite and refined, especially that of the
+ladies. No one, however, would think that a son of the great Sir Peter
+Halliday, ex-Lord Mayor and Alderman, West India Merchant, was living in
+this humble place.'
+
+'Your good tidings, Sir?'
+
+'At the same time the position has its drawbacks. You are almost within
+the Rules. And though not yourself a prisoner, you are in the company of
+prisoners.'
+
+'Again, Sir, your good tidings?'
+
+'I come to them. Scelerisque Probus is my motto. Probus, attorney at
+law, trusted by all. Now, Sir, you shall hear what your cousin proposes.
+Listen to me for a moment. You can hardly get on, I imagine, even in so
+small a way as this appears to be, under fifty pounds a year.'
+
+'It would be difficult.'
+
+'And in your profession, improperly hard and unjustly despised, it is
+difficult, I believe, to make much more.'
+
+'It is difficult to make much more.'
+
+'Ha! As your cousin said: "They must be pinched--this unfortunate
+couple--pinched at times."'
+
+'Did my cousin say that?'
+
+'Assuredly. He was thinking especially of your good lady, whom he
+remarked at the funeral. Well, your cousin will change all that. A heart
+of gold, Mr. William, all pure gold'--I coughed, doubtfully--'concealed,
+I admit, by a reserved nature which often goes with our best and most
+truly pious men, especially in the City of London. I do assure you, a
+heart of gold.'
+
+He played his part badly. His cunning eyes, his harsh voice, the words
+of praise so out of keeping with his appearance and manner--as if such a
+man with such a face could be in sympathy with hearts of gold--struck a
+note of warning. Besides, Matthew with a heart of gold?
+
+'Well, Sir,' I interrupted him, 'what have you come to say?'
+
+'In plain words, then, this. Mr. Matthew has discovered a way of serving
+you. Now, my dear Sir, I pray your attention.' He leaned back and
+crossed his legs. 'Your father showed a certain relenting--a disposition
+to consider you as still a member of the family by that provision as to
+survival which you doubtless remember.'
+
+'So I interpret that clause in the will.'
+
+'And with this view has put you in as the possible heir to the money
+which is now accumulating in the hands of trustees. Mr. Matthew, now a
+partner in the business, will, it is assumed, provide for his heirs out
+of the business. On his death your father's fortune will come to you if
+you are living. If you die first it will go to your cousin. In the
+latter event there will be no question of your son getting aught.'
+
+'So I understand.'
+
+'Your cousin, therefore, argues in this way. First, he is only a year or
+two older than yourself: next, he is in full possession of his health
+and strength. There is nothing to prevent his living to eighty: I
+believe a great-grandmother of his, not yours, lived to ninety-six. It
+is very likely that he may reach as great an age. You will allow that.'
+
+'Perhaps.'
+
+'Why then, we are agreed. As for you, musicians, I am told, seldom get
+past forty: they gradually waste away and--and wither like the blasted
+sprig in July. Oh! you will certainly leave this world at
+forty--enviable person!--would that I could have done so!--you will
+exchange your fiddle for a harp--the superior instrument--and your
+three-cornered hat for a crown--the external sign of promotion--long
+before your cousin has been passed the Chair.'
+
+'All this is very likely, Mr. Probus. Yet----'
+
+'I am coming to my proposal. What Mr. Matthew says is this. "My cousin
+is cut out of the will. It is not for me to dispute my uncle's decision.
+Still, what he wants just now is ready money--a supplement--a
+supplement--to what he earns."'
+
+'Well?' For he stopped here and looked about the room with an air of
+contempt.
+
+'A pleasant room,' he said, going back, 'but is it the room which your
+father's son should have for a lodging? Rush-bottomed chairs: no
+carpet ... dear me, Mr. William, it is well to be a philosopher.
+However, we shall change all that.'
+
+I waited for him to go on without further interruption.
+
+'In a word, Sir, I am the happy ambassador--privileged if ever there was
+one--charged to bring about reconciliation and cousinly friendship.'
+Again he overdid it. 'Your cousin sent me, in a word, to propose that
+you should sell him your chances of inheritance. That is why I am here.
+I say, Mr. William, that you may if you please sell him your chance of
+the inheritance. He proposes to offer you £3,000 down--£3,000, I
+say--the enormous sum of three--thousand--pounds--for your bare chance
+of succeeding. Well, Sir? What do you say to this amazing, this
+astounding piece of generosity?'
+
+I said nothing. Only suddenly there returned to my mind the words I had
+overheard in the outer counting-house.
+
+'We will make him sell his reversion.'
+
+What connection had these words with me? There was no proof of any
+connection: no proof except that jumping of the wits which wants no
+proof.
+
+'With £3,000,' Mr. Probus continued, 'you can take a more convenient
+residence of your own--here, or elsewhere: near the Dog and Duck, or
+further removed: you can live where you please: with the interest, which
+would amount to £150 a year at least, and what you make by your honest
+labour, you will be, for one of your profession, rich. It will be a
+noble inheritance for your children. Why, Sir, you are a made man!'
+
+He threw himself back in his chair and puffed his cheeks with the
+satisfaction that naturally follows on the making of a man.
+
+I was tempted: I saw before me a life of comparative ease: with £150 a
+year there would be little or no anxiety for the future.
+
+Mr. Probus perceived that I was wavering. He pulled a paper out of his
+pocket--he slapped it on the table and unrolled it: he looked about for
+ink and pen.
+
+'You agree?' he asked with an unholy joy lighting up his eyes.
+'Why--there--I knew you would! I told Mr. Matthew that you would. Happy
+man! Three thousand pounds! And all your own! And all for nothing! Where
+is the ink? Because, Sir--I can be your witness--that cousin of yours,
+I may now tell you, is stronger than any bull--sign here, then,
+Sir--here--he will live for ever.'
+
+His eagerness, which he could not conceal, to obtain my signature
+startled me. Again I remembered the words:
+
+'We will make him sell his reversion.'
+
+'Stop, Mr. Probus,' I said. 'Not so quick, if you please.'
+
+'Not so quick! Why, dear Sir, you have acceded. You have acceded. Where
+is the ink?'
+
+'Not at all.'
+
+'If you would like better terms I might raise it another fifty pounds.'
+
+'Not even another fifty will persuade me.' At that moment I heard Alice
+singing,
+
+    'The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
+    And lead me with a shepherd's care.'
+
+The Lord--not Mr. Probus. I took the words for a warning.
+
+'We shall not want any ink,' I said, 'nor any witness. Because I shall
+not sign.'
+
+'Not sign? Not sign? But Mr. William--Sir--surely--have a care--such an
+offer is not made every day. You will never again receive such an
+offer.'
+
+'Hark ye, Mr. Probus. By that clause in his will my father signified his
+desire, although he would punish me for giving up the City--to show that
+he was not implacable and that if it be Heaven's will that I should
+survive my cousin I should then receive his forgiveness and once more be
+considered as one of the family. Sir, I will not, for any offer that you
+may make, act against my father's wish. I am to wait, God knows I desire
+not the death of my cousin--I wait: it is my father's sentence upon me.
+I shall obey my father. He forgives me after a term of years--long or
+short--I know not. He forgives me by that clause. I am not cursed with
+my father's resentment.'
+
+'Oh! He talks like a madman. With £3,000 waiting for him to pick up!'
+
+'I repeat, Sir. In this matter I shall leave the event to Providence, in
+obedience to my father's wishes. Inform my cousin, if you please, of my
+resolution.'
+
+More he said, because he was one of those tenacious and obstinate
+persons who will not take 'No,' for an answer. Besides, as I learned
+afterwards, he was most deeply concerned in the success of his mission.
+He passed from the stage of entreaty to that of remonstrance and finally
+to that of wrath.
+
+'Sir,' he said, 'I perceive that you are one of those crack-brained and
+conceited persons who will not allow anyone to do them good: you throw
+away every chance that offers, you stand in your own light, you bring
+ruin upon your family.'
+
+'Very well,' I said, 'very well indeed.'
+
+'I waste my words upon you.'
+
+'Why then waste more?'
+
+'You are unworthy of the name you bear. You are only fit for the
+beggarly trade you follow. Well, Sir, when misery and starvation fall
+upon you and yours, remember what you have thrown away.'
+
+I laughed. His cunning face became twisted with passion.
+
+'Sir,' he said, 'all this talk is beside the mark. There are ways. Do
+not think that we are without ways and means.' Then he swore a great
+round oath. 'We shall find a way, somehow, to bring you to reason.'
+
+'Well Mr. _Integer Vitæ scelerisque Probus_,' I said. 'If you
+contemplate rascality you will have to change your motto.'
+
+He smoothed out his face instantly, and repressed the outward signs of
+wrath. 'Mr. Will,' he said, 'forgive this burst of honest indignation.
+You will do, of course, what you think fit. Sir, I wish you a return to
+better sense. I think I may promise you'--he paused and clapped his
+forefinger to his nose, 'I am sure that I can so far trespass on the
+forbearance of your cousin as to promise that this offer shall be kept
+open for three weeks. Any day within the next three weeks you shall find
+at my office the paper ready for your signature. After that time the
+chance will be gone--gone--gone for ever,' he threw the chance across
+the river with a theatrical gesture and walked away.
+
+What did it mean? Why did Matthew want to buy my share? We might both
+live for forty years or even more. Neither could touch that money till
+the other's death. He might desire my early death in which case all
+would be his. But to buy my share--it meant that if I died first he
+would have paid a needless sum of money for it: and that if he died
+first it would not be in his power to enjoy that wealth. I asked Ramage
+on the Sunday why Matthew wanted it. He said that merchants sometimes
+desire credit and that perhaps it would strengthen Matthew if it were
+known that this great sum of money would be added to his estate whenever
+either his cousin or he himself should die. And with this explanation I
+must be content. There was another possibility but that I learned
+afterwards.
+
+'We will make him sell his reversion.' What was the meaning of those
+words? Perhaps they did not apply to me. But I was sure that they did.
+Like a woman I was certain that they did: and for a woman's
+reason--which is none.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE CLAIM AND THE ARREST
+
+
+You have heard how my old friend David Camlet, musical instrument maker,
+of Dowgate Street, presented me--or my wife--on our marriage, with a
+handsome harpsichord. Shortly after my father's death, this good old
+gentleman also went the way of all flesh: a melancholy event which I
+only learned by receiving a letter from Mr. Probus. Imagine, if you can,
+my amazement when I read the following:
+
+     'Sir,
+
+     'I have to call your immediate attention to your debt of fifty-five
+     pounds for a harpsichord supplied to you by David Camlet of Dowgate
+     Street, deceased. I shall be obliged if you will without delay
+     discharge this liability to me as attorney for the executors--
+
+     'And Remain Sir,
+
+     'Your obedient humble Servant,
+
+     'EZEKIEL PROBUS'
+
+'Why,' said Alice. 'Mr. Camlet gave us the instrument. It was a free
+gift.'
+
+'It was. If Mr. Probus will acknowledge the fact.'
+
+'Mr. Probus? Is it that man with the harsh voice who talked lies to
+you?'
+
+'The same. And much I fear, wife, that he means no good by this
+letter.'
+
+'But Mr. Camlet gave us the harpsichord.'
+
+Had the letter been received from any other person I should have
+considered it as of no importance; but the thought that it came from Mr.
+Probus filled me with uneasiness. What had that worthy attorney said?
+'There are ways--we shall find a way to bring you to reason.'
+
+'My dear,' said Alice, 'since we have had the instrument for two years
+without any demand for payment, we ought to be safe. Better go and see
+the man.'
+
+It was with very little hope that I sallied forth. Not only was this man
+a personal enemy but he was an attorney. What must be the true nature of
+that profession which so fills the world with shuddering and loathing?
+Is it, one asks, impossible to be an honest attorney? This one, at all
+events, was as great a villain as ever walked. They are a race without
+pity, without scruple, without turning either to the right or to the
+left when they are in pursuit of their prey. They are like the weasel
+who singles out his rabbit and runs it down, being turned neither to one
+side nor the other. Their prey is always money: they run down the man
+who has money: when they have stripped him naked they leave him, whether
+it is in a debtor's prison or in the street: when he is once stripped
+they regard him no longer. Other men take revenge for human motives, for
+wrongs done and endured: these men know neither revenge nor wrath: they
+do not complain of wrongs: you may kick them: you may cuff them: it is
+nothing: they want your money: and that they will have by one way or
+another.
+
+I took boat from St. Mary Overies stairs. As I crossed the river a
+dreadful foreboding of evil seized me. For I perceived suddenly that,
+somehow or other, Mr. Probus was personally interested in getting me to
+sell my reversion. How could he be interested? I could not understand.
+But he was. I remembered the persuasion of his manner: his anxiety to
+get my signature: his sudden manifestation of disappointment when I
+refused. Why? Matthew was now a partner with a large income and the
+fortune which my father left him. Matthew had no expensive tastes. Why
+should Mr. Probus be interested in his affairs?
+
+Next, asked the silent reasoner in my brain, what will happen when you
+declare that you cannot pay this debt? This man will show no mercy. You
+will be arrested--you will be taken to Prison. At this thought I
+shivered, and a cold trembling seized all my limbs. 'And you will stay
+in the Prison till you consent to sell your reversion.' At which I
+resumed my firmness. Never--never--would I yield whatever an accursed
+attorney might say or do to me.
+
+Mr. Probus wrote from a house in White Hart Street. It is a small
+street, mostly inhabited by poulterers, which leads from Warwick Lane to
+Newgate market: a confined place at best: with the rows of birds
+dangling on the hooks, not always of the sweetest, and the smell of the
+meat market close by and the proximity of the shambles, it is a dark and
+noisome place. The house, which had a silver Pen for its sign, was
+narrow, and of three stories: none of the windows had been cleaned for a
+long time, and the door and doorposts wanted paint.
+
+As I stood on the doorstep the words again came back to me, 'We will
+make him sell his reversionary interest.'
+
+The door was opened by an old man much bent and bowed with years: his
+thin legs, his thin arms, his body--all were bent: on his head he wore a
+small scratch wig: he covered his eyes with his hand on account of the
+blinding light, yet the court was darkened by the height of the houses
+above and the dangling birds below.
+
+He received my name and opened the door of the front room. I observed
+that he opened it a very little way and entered sliding, as if afraid
+that I should see something. He returned immediately and beckoned me to
+follow him. He led the way into a small room at the back, not much
+bigger than a cupboard, which had for furniture a high desk and a high
+stool placed at a window so begrimed with dirt that nothing could be
+seen through it.
+
+There was no other furniture. The old man climbed upon his stool with
+some difficulty and took up his pen. He looked very old and shrivelled:
+his brown coat was frayed: his worsted stockings were in holes: his
+shoes were tied with leather instead of buckles: there was no show of
+shirt either at the wrist or the throat. He looked, in fact, what he
+was, a decayed clerk of the kind with which, as a boy, I had been quite
+familiar. It is a miserable calling, only redeemed from despair--because
+the wages are never much above starvation-point--by the chance and the
+hope of winning a prize in the lottery. No clerk is ever so poor that he
+cannot afford at least a sixteenth share in this annual bid for fortune.
+I never heard that any clerk within my knowledge had ever won a prize:
+but the chance was theirs: once a year the chance returns--a chance of
+fortune without work or desert.
+
+Presently the old man turned round and whispered, 'I know your face. I
+have seen you before--but I forget where. Are you in trade? Have you got
+a shop?'
+
+'No. I have no shop,'
+
+'You come from the country? No? A bankrupt, perhaps? No? Going to make
+him your attorney?' He shook his head with some vehemence and pointed to
+the door with his pen. 'Fly,' he said. 'There is still time.'
+
+'I am not going to make him or anyone else my attorney,'
+
+'You come to borrow money? If so'--again he pointed to the door with the
+feathery end of the quill. 'Fly! There is still time.'
+
+'Then you owe him money. Young man--there is still time. Buy a stone at
+the pavior's--spend your last penny upon it; then tie it round your neck
+and drop into the river. Ah! It is too late--too late--' For just then
+Mr. Probus rang a bell. 'Follow me, Sir. Follow me. Ah! That paving
+stone!'
+
+Mr. Probus sat at a table covered with papers. He did not rise when I
+appeared, but pointed to a chair.
+
+'You wish to see me, Mr. William,' he began. 'May I ask with what
+object?'
+
+'I come in reply to your letter, Mr. Probus,'
+
+'My letter? My letter?' He pretended to have forgotten the letter. 'I
+write so many, and sometimes--ay--ay--surely. The letter about the
+trifling debt due to the estate of David Camlet Deceased. Yes--yes, I am
+administering the worthy man's estate. One of many--very many--who have
+honoured me with their confidence.'
+
+'That letter, Mr. Probus, is the reason why I have called.'
+
+'You are come to discharge your obligation. It is what I expected. You
+are not looking well, Mr. William. I am sorry to observe marks--are they
+of privation?--on your face. Our worthy cousin, on the other hand, has a
+frame of iron. He will live, I verily believe, to ninety.'
+
+'Never mind my cousin, Mr. Probus. He will live as long as the Lord
+permits.'
+
+'When last I saw you Sir, you foolishly rejected a most liberal offer.
+Well: youth is ignorant. We live and learn. Some day, too late, you
+will be sorry. Now, Sir, for this debt. Fifty-five pounds. Ay.
+Fifty-five pounds. And my costs, which are trifling.'
+
+'I have come to tell you, Mr. Probus, that your letter was written under
+a misapprehension.'
+
+'Truly? Under a misapprehension? Of what kind, pray?'
+
+The harpsichord was a gift made by Mr. David Camlet. I did not buy it.'
+
+Mr. Probus lifted his eyebrows. 'A gift? Really? You have proof, no
+doubt, of this assertion?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Well, produce your proofs. If you have proofs, as you say, I shall be
+the first to withdraw my client's claim. But makers of musical
+instruments do not usually give away their wares. What are your proofs,
+Sir?'
+
+'My word, first.'
+
+'Ta--ta--ta. Your word. By such proof every debtor would clear himself.
+What next?'
+
+'The word of my wife who with me received the instrument from Mr.
+Camlet.'
+
+'Receiving the instrument does not clear you of liability--what else?'
+
+'The fact that Mr. Camlet never asked me for the money.'
+
+'An oversight. Had he, in a word, intended the instrument for a gift, he
+would have said so. Now, Sir, what other proofs have you?'
+
+I was silent. I had no other proof.
+
+He turned again to the book he had before consulted. It was the ledger,
+and there, in Mr. Camlet's own handwriting, firm and square, was an
+entry:
+
+'To Will Halliday--a Harpsichord, £55.
+
+In another book was an entry to the office that the instrument had been
+delivered.
+
+Of course, I understand now what the old man meant by the entry. He
+wanted to note the gift and the value: and unfortunately he entered it
+as if it was a business transaction.
+
+'Well, Sir?' asked Mr. Probus.
+
+I said nothing. My heart felt as heavy as lead. I was indeed in the
+power of this man.
+
+'There are such things as conspiracy,' he went on, severely. 'You have
+told me, for instance, that you and your wife are prepared to swear that
+the instrument was a gift. I might have indicted you both for a
+conspiracy, in which case Tyburn would have been your lot. For the sake
+of your excellent cousin and the worthy Mr. Peter, your uncle, Sir, I
+refrain from the indictment, though I fear I might be charged with
+compounding a felony. But mercy before all things: charity, mercy, and
+long suffering. These are the things that chiefly nourish the human
+soul, not guineas.'
+
+I remained still silent, not knowing what to do or to say, and seeing
+this abyss yawning before me.
+
+'Come Sir,' he said with changed voice, 'you owe fifty pounds and costs.
+If it were to myself I would give you time: I would treat you tenderly:
+but an Attorney must protect his clients. Therefore I must have that
+money at once.'
+
+'Give me time to consult my friends.' Alas! All my friends could not
+raise fifty pounds between them.
+
+'You have none. You have lost your friends. Pay me fifty pounds and
+costs.'
+
+'Let me see the executors. Perhaps they will hear reason.'
+
+'For what purpose? They must have their own. The long and the short of
+it, Mr. William Halliday, is that you must pay me this money.'
+
+'Man! I have not got so much money in the world.'
+
+He smiled--he could not disguise his satisfaction.
+
+'Then, Mr. William Halliday'--he shut the ledger with a slam--'I fear
+that my clients must adopt--most unwillingly, I am sure--the measures
+sanctioned by the law.' His eyes gleamed with a malicious satisfaction.
+'I only trust that the steps we shall have to take will not disturb the
+mind of my much-respected client, your cousin. You will have to choose
+your prison, and you will remain in the--the Paradise of your choice
+until this money, with costs, is paid. As for your choice, the situation
+of the Fleet is more central: that of the Bench is more rural: beyond
+the new Prison there are green fields. The smell of the hay perhaps
+comes over the wall. Should you find a lengthened residence necessary, I
+believe that the rooms, though small, are comfortable. Ah! how useful
+would have been that three thousand pounds which you refused--at such a
+juncture as this.'
+
+'If there is nothing more to be said----' I got up, not knowing what I
+said, and bewildered with the prospect before me.
+
+'Heaven forbid, Sir,' he continued sweetly, 'that I should press you
+unduly. I will even, considering the tender heart of your cousin, extend
+to you the term. I will grant you twenty-four hours in which to find the
+money.'
+
+'You may as well give me five minutes. I have no means of raising the
+sum.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear that for the sake of my clients. However, I can only
+hope'--he pushed back the papers and rose with a horrible grin of malice
+on his face--'that you will find the air of the Prison salubrious. There
+have been cases of infectious fever--gaol fever, lately: perhaps the
+King's Bench and the Fleet are equal in this respect. Small-pox, also,
+is prevalent in one: but I forget which. Many persons live for years in
+a Prison. I hope, I am sure, that you will pass--many--many--happy years
+in that seclusion.'
+
+I listened to none of this ill-omened croaking, but hastened to leave
+him. At the door I passed the old clerk.
+
+'Go to the King's Bench,' he whispered. 'Not to the Fleet where he'll
+call every day to learn whether you are dead. There is still time,' he
+pointed to his throat while he noisily opened the door. 'Round the neck.
+At the bottom of the River: the lying is more comfortable than in the
+King's Bench.'
+
+I had entered the house with very little hope. I left it with despair. I
+walked home as one in a dream, running against people, seeing nothing,
+hearing nothing. When I reached home I sat down in a kind of stupor.
+
+'My dear,' I said, presently recovering, 'we are lost--we are ruined. I
+shall starve in a Prison. Thou wilt beg thy bread. The boy will be a
+gutter brat.'
+
+'Tell me,' Alice took my hand. 'Oh! tell me all--my dear. Can we be lost
+if we are together?'
+
+'We shall not be together. To-morrow I shall be in the Prison. For how
+long God only knows.'
+
+'Since _He_ knows, my dear, keep up your heart. When was the righteous
+man forsaken? Come, let us talk. There may be some means found. If we
+were to pay--though we owe nothing--so much a week.'
+
+'Alice, it is not the debt. There is no debt. It is revenge, and the
+hope----'
+
+I did not finish--what I would have added was, 'The hope that I may die
+of gaol fever or something.' 'My dear, be brave and let us arrange.
+First, I lose my situation in the Church and at the Gardens. Next, we
+must provide for the child and for thyself outside the prison. No, my
+dear, if the Lord permits us to live any other way the child shall not
+be brought up a prison bird.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE ARREST
+
+
+In this distress I again consulted Tom, who knew already the whole case.
+
+'In my opinion, Will,' he said, 'the best thing for you is to run away.
+Let Alice and the boy come here. Run away.'
+
+'Whither could I run?'
+
+'Go for a few days into hiding. They will come here in search of you.
+Cross the river--seek a lodging somewhere about Aldgate, which is on the
+other side of the river. They will not look for you there. Meantime I
+shall inquire--Oh! I shall hear of something to carry on with for a
+time. You might travel with a show. Probus does not go to country fairs.
+Or you might go to Dublin or to York, or to Bath, and play in the
+orchestra of the theatre. We will settle for you afterwards--what to do.
+Meantime pack thy things and take boat down the river.'
+
+This seemed good advice. I promised I would think of it and perhaps act
+upon it. Some might think it cowardly to run away: but if an enemy plays
+dishonest tricks and underhand practices, there is no better way,
+perhaps, than to run away.
+
+Now had I been acquainted with these tricks I should have remained where
+I was, in Tom's house, where no sheriff's officer could serve me with a
+writ. I should have remained there, I say, until midnight, when I could
+safely attempt the flight. Unfortunately I thought there was plenty of
+time: I would go home and discuss the matter with Alice. I left the
+house, therefore, and proceeded across the fields without any fear or
+suspicion. As I approached the Bank, I saw two fellows waiting about.
+Still I had no suspicion, and without the least attempt to escape or to
+avoid them I fell into the clutches of my enemy.
+
+'Mr. William Halliday?' said one stepping forward and tapping my
+shoulder. 'You are my prisoner, Sir, at the suit of Mr. Ezekiel Probus,
+for the debt of fifty-five pounds and costs.'
+
+As I made no resistance, the fellows were fairly civil. I was to be
+taken, it appeared, first to the Borough Compter. They advised me to
+leave all my necessaries behind and to have them sent on to the King's
+Bench as soon as I should be removed there.
+
+And so I took leave of my poor Alice and was marched off to the prison
+where they take debtors first before they are removed to the larger
+prison.
+
+The Borough Compter is surely the most loathsome, fetid, narrow place
+that was ever used for a prison. Criminals and Debtors are confined
+together: rogues and innocent girls: the most depraved and the most
+virtuous: there is a yard for exercise which is only about twenty feet
+square for fifty prisoners: at night the men are turned into a room
+where they have to lie edgeways for want of space: there is no
+ventilation, and the air in the morning is more horrible than I can
+describe. My heart aches when I think of the cruelty of that place: it
+is a cruel place, because no one ever visits it, no righteous Justice of
+the Peace, no godly clergyman: there is no one to restrain the warder:
+and he goes on in the same way, not because he is cruel by nature, but
+because he is hardened by daily use and custom.
+
+I stayed in that terrible place for two nights, paying dues and garnish
+most exorbitant. At the end of that time I was informed that I could be
+removed to King's Bench at once. So I was taken to the Court and my
+business was quickly despatched. As a fine for being poor, I had to pay
+dues which ought not to be demanded of any prisoner for debt--at least
+we ought to assume that a debtor wants all the money he has for his
+maintenance. Thus, the Marshal demanded four shillings and sixpence on
+admission: the turnkey eighteen-pence: the Deputy Marshal a shilling:
+the Clerk of the Papers, a shilling: four tipstaffs ten shillings
+between them: and the tipstaff for bringing the prisoner from the Court,
+six shillings.
+
+These dues paid, I was assigned a room, on the ground-floor of the Great
+Building (it was shared with another), and my imprisonment began. It was
+Matthew's revenge and Mr. Probus's first plan of reduction to
+submission. But I did not submit.
+
+Thus I was trapped by the cunning of a man whom I believe to have been
+veritably possessed of a Devil. That there are such men we know very
+well from Holy Writ: their signs are a wickedness which shrinks from
+nothing: a pitiless nature: a constant desire for things of this world:
+and lastly, as happens always to such men, the transformation of what
+they desire, when they do get it, into dust and ashes; or its vanishing
+quite away never to be seen, touched, or enjoyed any more. These signs
+were all visible in the history of Mr. Probus, as you shall hear.
+Possessed, beyond a doubt, by a foul fiend, was this man whom then I had
+every reason to hate and fear. Now, I cannot but feel a mingled terror
+and pity when exemplary punishment overtakes and overwhelms one who
+commits crimes which make even the convicts in the condemned cell to
+shake and shudder. His end was horrible and terrible, but it was a
+fitting end to such a life.
+
+Tom Shirley came, with Alice, to visit me in my new lodging.
+
+He looked about him cheerfully. 'The new place,' he said, 'is more airy
+and spacious than the old prison on the other side of the road, where I
+spent a year or two. This is quite a handsome court: the Building is a
+Palace: the Recreation ground is a Park, but without trees or grass: the
+three passages painted green remind me somehow of Spring Gardens: the
+numbers of people make me think of Cheapside or Ludgate Hill: the shops,
+no doubt contain every luxury: the society, if mixed, is harmonious....'
+
+'In a word, Tom, I am very lucky to get here.'
+
+'There might be worse places. And hark ye, lad, if there is not another
+fiddler in the Bench, you will make in a week twice as much in the
+Prison as you can make out of it. Nothing cheers a prisoner more than
+the strains of a fiddle.
+
+This gave me hope. I began to see that I might live, even in this place.
+
+'There are one or two objections to the place,' this optimist
+philosopher went on. 'I have observed, for instance, a certain languor
+which steals over mind and body in a Prison. Some have compared it with
+the growth they call mildew. Have a care, Will. Practise daily. I have
+known a musician leave this place fit for nothing but to play for Jack
+in the Green. Look at the people as they pass. Yonder pretty fellow is
+too lazy to get his stockings darned: that fellow slouching after him
+cannot stoop to pull up his stockings: that other thrusts his feet into
+his slippers without pulling up the heels: there goes one who has worn,
+I warrant you, his morning gown all day for years: he cannot even get
+the elbows darned: keep up thy heart, lad. Before long we will get thee
+into the Rules.'
+
+He visited my room. 'Ha!' he said, 'neat, clean, commodious. With a fine
+view of the Parade; with life and activity before one's eyes.' He forgot
+that he had just remarked on the languor and the mildew of the Prison.
+'Observe the racquet players: there are finer players here than anywhere
+else, I believe. And those who do not play at racquets may find
+recreation at fives: and those who are not active enough for fives may
+choose to play at Bumble puppy. Well, Will, Alice will come back to me,
+with the boy. She can come here every morning if you wish. Patience,
+lad, patience. We will get thee, before long, within the Rules.'
+
+It is possible, by the Warder's permission, to go into the Rules. But
+the prisoner must pay down £10 for the first £100 of his debts, and £5
+for every subsequent £100. Now I had not ten shillings in the world.
+When I look back upon the memory of that time: when I think of the
+treatment of prisoners: and of the conduct of the prison: and when I
+reflect that nothing is altered at the present day I am amazed at the
+wonderful apathy of people as regards the sufferings of others--it may
+become at any time their own case: at their carelessness as concerns
+injustice and oppression--yet subject every one to the same oppression
+and cruelty.
+
+What, for instance, is more monstrous than the fact that a man who has
+been arrested by writ, has to pay fees to the prison for every separate
+writ? If he has no money he is still held liable, so that even if his
+friends are willing to pay his debts with the exorbitant costs of the
+attorney, there are still the fees to be paid. And even if the
+prisoner's friends are willing to release him there is still the warden
+who must be satisfied before he suffers his prisoner to go.
+
+Again what can be more iniquitous than the license allowed to attorneys
+in the matter of their costs? Many a prisoner, originally arrested for a
+debt of four or five pounds or even less, finds after a while that the
+attorney's costs amount to twenty or thirty pounds more. He might be
+able to discharge the debt alone: the costs make it impossible: the
+creditor might let him go: the attorney will never let him go: the
+friends might club together to pay the debt: they cannot pay the costs:
+the attorney abates nothing, hoping that compassion will induce the
+man's friends to release him. In some cases they do: in others, the
+attorney finds that he has overreached himself and that the prisoner
+dies of that incurable disease which we call captivity.
+
+At first sight the Parade and the open court of the Prison present an
+appearance of animation. The men playing racquets have a little crowd
+gathered round them, there are others playing skittles: children run
+about shouting: there are the shrill voices of women quarrelling or
+arguing: the crowd is always moving about: there are men at tables
+smoking and drinking: the tapsters run about with bottles of wine and
+jugs of beer. There are women admitted to see their friends, husbands
+and brothers, and to bring them gifts. Alas! when I remember--the sight
+comes back to me in dreams--the sadness and the earnestness in their
+faces and the compassion and the love--the woman's love which endures
+all and survives all and conquers all--I wish that I had the purse of
+Croesus to set these captives free, even though it would enrich the
+attorney, whose wiles have brought them to this place.
+
+One has not to look long before the misery of it is too plainly apparent
+above the show of cheerful carelessness. One sees the wives of the
+prisoners: their husbands play racquets and drink about and of an
+evening sit in the tavern bawling songs; the poor women, ragged and
+draggled, come forth carrying their babes to get a little air: their
+faces are stamped with the traces of days and weeks and years of
+privation. The Prison has destroyed the husband's sense of duty to his
+wife: he will not, if he can, work for his family; he lives upon such
+doles as he can extract from his family or hers. Worse still, men lose
+their sense of shame: they say what they please and care not who hears:
+they introduce companions and care not what is said or thought about
+them: things are said openly that no Christian should hear: things are
+done openly that no Christian should witness or should know. There are
+many hundreds of children within these accursed walls. God help them, if
+they understand what they hear and what they see!
+
+In the prison there are many kinds of debtors: there is the debtor who
+is always angry at the undeserved misery of his lot: sometimes his
+wrongs drive him mad in earnest: then the poor wretch is removed to
+Bedlam where he remains until his death. There is, next, the despairing
+debtor who sits as one in a dream and will never be comforted. There is
+the philosophical debtor who accepts his fate and makes the best of it:
+there is the meek and miserable debtor--generally some small tradesman
+who has been taught that the greatest disgrace possible is that which
+has actually fallen upon him; there is the debtor who affects the Beau
+and carries his snuff-box with an air. There is the debtor who was a
+gentleman and can tell of balls at St. James's; there is the ruffler who
+swaggers on the Parade, looking out for newcomers and inviting those who
+have money to play with him. As for the women they are like the men:
+there are the wives of the prisoners who fall, for the most part, into a
+draggled condition like their husbands; there are ladies who put on
+sumptuous array and flaunt it daily on the Parade: stories are whispered
+about them; there are others about whom it is unnecessary to tell
+stories; in a word it is a place where the same wickedness goes on as
+one may find outside.
+
+There is a chapel in the middle of the great Building. Service is held
+once a week but the attendance is thin; there is a taproom which is
+crowded all day long: here men sit over their cups from morning till
+evening; there is a coffee-room where tea and coffee can be procured and
+where the newspapers are read; this is a great place for the politicians
+of whom there are many in the Prison. Indeed, I know not where politics
+are so eagerly debated as in the King's Bench.
+
+The King's Bench Prison is a wonderful place for the observation of
+Fortune and her caprices. There was a society--call it not a
+club--consisting entirely of gentlemen who had been born to good estates
+and had suffered ruin through no fault of their own. These gentlemen
+admitted me to their company. We dined together at the Ordinary and
+conversed after dinner. One of them, born to an easy fortune, was ruined
+by the discovery of a parchment entitling him to another estate. There
+was a lawsuit lasting for twenty years. He then lost it and found that
+the whole of his own estate had gone too. Another, a gentleman of large
+estate, married an heiress. Her extravagancies ran through both her own
+fortune and her husband's. She lived with him in the Prison and daily,
+being now a shrew as well as a slattern, reproached him with the ruin
+she herself had caused. There was a young fellow who had fallen among
+lawyers and been ruined by them. He now studied law intending as soon as
+he got out to commence attorney and to practise the tricks and rogueries
+he had learned from his former friends. Another had bought a seat in the
+House of Commons and a place with it. But at the next election he lost
+his seat and his place, too. And another was a great scholar in Arabic.
+His captivity affected him not one whit because he had his books and
+could work in the Prison as well as out.
+
+With such companions, I endeavoured to keep aloof from the drinking and
+roystering crew which made the Prison disorderly and noisy. Yet, as I
+will show you directly, I was the nightly servant of the roysterers.
+
+You have heard of Tom Shirley's judgment that in every debtors' prison
+the collegians, if they do not, as many do, go about in filthy rags and
+tatters, are all slatterns: some can afford to dress with decency and
+cleanliness, not to speak of fashion, which would be, indeed, out of
+place in the King's Bench; even those care not to observe the customs of
+the outside world; the ruffles are no longer white or no longer visible;
+the waistcoat is unbuttoned; the coat is powdered; the wig is uncurled;
+those who wear their own hair leave it hanging over the ears instead of
+tying it neatly with a black ribbon behind. This general neglect of
+dress corresponds with the universal neglect of morals which prevails
+throughout the Prison. Everything conspires to drag down and to degrade
+the unfortunate prisoner: the hopelessness of his lot; the persecution
+of his enemies; the uncertainty about the daily bread; the freedom with
+which drink is offered about by those who 'coll it,' _i.e._, in the
+language of the place who have money; the temptation to do as others do
+and forget his sorrows over a bowl of punch; speedily contaminate the
+prisoner and make him in all respects like unto those around him. I have
+said already that if it is bad for men it is worse for women. Let me
+draw a veil over this side of the King's Bench. Suffice it to say that
+one who has written on the Prisons has declared that if Diana herself
+and her nymphs were to be imprisoned for twelve months in the King's
+Bench, at the end of that time they would all be fit companions for
+Messalina.
+
+It is not only from their rags that the poverty of the prisoners is
+betrayed; one may learn from their hollow cheeks, their eager eyes,
+their feeble gait, that many--too many--are suffering from want of food.
+It is true that the law of the land gives to every prisoner a
+groat--four-pence a day--to be paid by the detaining creditor: yet the
+groat is not always paid, and can only be obtained if the creditor
+refuses it by legal steps, which a man destitute of money cannot take.
+What attorney will take up the case of a man without a farthing? If the
+debtor wins his case how is he to pay the attorney and costs out of
+four-pence a day? If he wishes to plead in _formâ pauperis_, the law
+allows the warder to charge six shillings and eight-pence for leave to
+go to the Court and half a crown for the turnkey to take him there--what
+prisoner on the poor side can pay these fees? So that when a prisoner is
+really poor he cannot get his groats at all, for the creditor will not
+pay them unless he is obliged. Again there are other ways of evading the
+law. If a debtor surrenders in June there is no Court till November and
+the creditor need not pay anything till the order of the Court is
+issued. There are a few doles and charities; but these amount to no more
+than about £100 a year, say, two pounds a week or six shillings a day.
+Now there are 600 prisoners as a rule. How many of these are on the poor
+side? And how far will six shillings a day go among these starving
+wretches? There are also the boxes into which a few shillings a day are
+dropped. But how far will these go among so many? It is within my
+certain knowledge that many would die of sheer starvation every week
+were it not for the kindness of those but one step above them.
+
+If, for instance, one would understand what poverty may mean he must
+visit the Common side of the King's Bench Prison. Those who have visited
+the courts and narrow lanes of Wapping report terrible stories of rags
+and filth, but the people, by hook or by crook, get food. In the Prison
+there is neither hook nor crook: the prisoner unless he knows a trade
+which may be useful in that place: unless he can repair shoes and
+clothes: unless he can shave and dress the hair, cannot earn a penny.
+Look at these poor wretches, slinking about the courts, hoping to
+attract the compassion of some visitor; see them uncombed, unwashed,
+unshaven; their long hair hanging over their ears; a horrid bristling
+beard upon their chin; their faces wan with insufficient food, their
+eyes eagerly glancing here and there to catch a look of pity, a dole or
+a loan. If you follow them to the misery of the Common side where they
+are thrust at night you will see creatures more wretched still. These
+can go abroad even though skewers take the place of buttons; these have
+shoes--which once had toes; these have beds, of a kind; there are others
+who have no beds, but lie on the floor; who have no blankets and never
+take off their rags; who go bare-footed and bare-headed. Remember that
+their life-long imprisonment was imposed upon them because they could
+not pay a debt of a pound or two. Their pound or two, by reason of the
+attorney's costs and the warden's fees, has grown and swelled till it
+has reached the amount of £20 or £40 or anything you will. No one can
+release them; the only thing to be hoped is that cold and starvation may
+speedily bring them to the end--the long sleep in the graveyard of St.
+George's Church.
+
+I speedily found that I could manage to live pretty well by means of my
+fiddle. Almost every evening there was some drinking party which engaged
+my services. I played for them the old tunes to which they sang their
+songs about wine and women--bawling them at the top of their voices;
+they paid me as much as I could expect. By good luck there was no other
+fiddler in the place; a harpist there was; and a flute-player; we
+sometimes agreed together to give a concert in the coffee-room.
+
+I continued this life for about six months, making enough money every
+week to pay my way at the Ordinary. Perhaps--I know not--the prison was
+already beginning to work its way with me and to reduce me, as Tom
+Shirley said, to the condition of a fiddler to Jack in the Green.
+
+I had a visit, after some three months, from Mr. Probus. He came one day
+into the prison. I saw him standing on the pavement looking round him.
+Some of the collegians knew him: they whispered and looked at him with
+the face that means death if that were possible. One man stepped forward
+and cursed him. 'Dog!' he said, 'if I had you outside this accursed
+place, I would make an end of you.'
+
+'Sir,' said Mr. Probus, at whose heels marched a turnkey, 'you do me an
+injustice for which you will one day be sorry. Am I your detaining
+creditor?'
+
+The man cursed him again, I know not why, and turned on his heel.
+
+Then I stepped forward. 'Did you come here to gloat over your work, Mr.
+Probus?'
+
+'Mr. William? I hope you are well, Sir. The prison air, I find, is fresh
+from the fields. You look better than I expected. To be sure it is early
+days. You are only just beginning.'
+
+'You will be sorry to hear that I am very well.'
+
+'I would have speech in a retired place, Mr. William.'
+
+'You want once more to dangle your bribe before me. I understand, sir,
+very well, what you would say.'
+
+'Then let me say it here. Your cousin, I may say, deplores deeply this
+new disgrace to the family. He earnestly desires to remove it. I am
+again empowered to purchase an imaginary reversion. Mr. William, he will
+now make it £4,000. Will that content you?'
+
+'Nothing will content me. There is some secret reason for this
+persecution. You want--you--not my cousin--to get access to this great
+sum of money. Well, Mr. Probus, my opinion is that my cousin will die
+before me. And since I am firmly persuaded upon that point, and since I
+believe that you think so too, my answer is the same as before.'
+
+'Then,' he said, 'stay here and rot.' He looked round the prison. 'It is
+a pleasant place for a young man to spend his days, is it not? All his
+days--till an attack of gaol fever or small-pox visits the place. Eh?
+Eh? Eh? Then you will be sorry.'
+
+'I shall never be sorry, Mr. Probus, to have frustrated any plots and
+designs of yours. Be assured of that--and for the rest, do your worst.'
+
+He slowly walked away without a word. But all the devil in his soul
+flared in his eyes as he turned.
+
+'You do wrong,' said the turnkey who had accompanied him. 'Tis the
+keenest of his kind. Not another attorney in all London has brought us,
+not to speak of the Fleet and Newgate, more prisoners than Mr. Probus.
+For hunting up detainers and running up the costs he has no equal.'
+
+'He is my detaining creditor,' I said.
+
+The turnkey shrugged his shoulders.
+
+'Young gentleman,' he said, 'I see that you are a gentleman, although
+you are a fiddler--take advice. Agree with his terms quickly, whatever
+they are. He made you an offer--take it, before he lands you in another
+court with new writs and more costs.'
+
+In fact, the very next day, I heard that there was another writ in the
+name of one John Merridew, Sheriff's officer, for fifty pounds alleged
+to have been lent to me by him. As for Mr. John Merridew, I knew not
+even the name of the man, and I had never borrowed sixpence of anyone.
+
+I showed the writ to my friend the turnkey. He read it with admiration.
+
+'I told you so,' he said, 'what a man he is! And Merridew,
+too--Merridew! And you never borrowed the money, and never saw the man!
+What a man! What a man! Merridew, too, under his thumb! There's ability
+for you! There's resource!'
+
+I murmured something not complimentary. Indeed, I knew nothing, at that
+time, of Merridew.
+
+'Ah! He means to keep you here until you accept his offer. Better take
+it now, then he'll let you go for his costs. He won't give up the costs.
+What a man it is! And you've never set eyes on John Merridew, have you?
+What a man! He knows John Merridew, you see. Why, between them--'He
+looked at me meaningly, and laid his hand upon my shoulder. 'Take my
+advice, Sir. Take my advice, and accept that offer of his. Else--I don't
+say, mind, but Merridew--Merridew----'He placed his thumb upon the left
+side of my neck, and pressed it. 'Many--many--have gone that
+way--through Merridew. And Probus rules Merridew.'
+
+
+END OF BOOK I
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+RELEASE
+
+
+You have read how a certain lady came to the Prison: how she spoke with
+two prisoners of the baser sort in a manner familiar and yet scornful:
+and how she addressed me and appeared moved and astonished on hearing my
+name. I thought little more about her, save as an agreeable vision in
+the midst of the rags and sordidness of the Prison, now growing
+daily--alas!--more familiar and less repulsive. For this is the way in
+the King's Bench.
+
+She came, however, a second time, and this time she came to visit me. It
+was in the morning. Alice was in my room; with her the boy, now in his
+second year, so strong that he could not be kept from pulling himself up
+by the help of a chair. She was showing me his ways and his tricks,
+rejoicing in the wilfulness and strength of the child. I was watching
+and listening, my pride and happiness in the boy dashed by the thought
+that he must grow up to be ashamed of his father as a prison bird.
+Prison has no greater sting than the thought of your children's shame.
+For the time went on and day after day only made release appear more
+impossible. How could I get out who had no friends and could save no
+money? I had now been in prison for nearly a year: I began to look for
+nothing more than to remain there for all my life.
+
+While I was looking at the boy and sadly thinking of these things, I
+heard a quick, light step outside, followed by a gentle tap at the door.
+And lo! there entered the lady who had spoken with those two sons of
+Belial and with me.
+
+'I said I would come again.' She smiled, and it was as if the sunshine
+poured into the room. She gave me her hand and it was like a hand
+dragging me out of the Slough of Despond. 'Your room,' she said, 'is not
+so bad, considering the place. This lady is your wife? Madam, your most
+respectful.'
+
+So she curtseyed low and Alice did the like. Then she saw the child.
+
+'Oh!' she cried. 'The pretty boy! The lovely boy!' She snatched him and
+tossed him crowing and laughing, and covered him with kisses. 'Oh! The
+light, soft, silky hair!' she cried. 'Oh! the sweet blue eyes! Oh! the
+pretty face. Master Will Halliday, you are to be envied even in this
+place. Your cousin Matthew hath no such blessing as this.'
+
+'Matthew is not even married.'
+
+'Indeed? Perhaps, if he is, this, as well as other blessings, has been
+denied him,' she replied, with a little change in her face as if a cloud
+had suddenly fallen. But it quickly passed.
+
+I could observe that Alice regarded her visitor with admiration and
+curiosity. This was a kind of woman unknown to my girl, who knew nothing
+of the world or of fine ladies: they were outside her own experience.
+The two women wore a strange contrast to each other. Alice with her
+serious air of meditation, and her grave eyes, might have sat to a
+painter for the Spirit of Music, or for St. Cecilia herself: or indeed
+for any saint, or muse, or heathen goddess who must show in her face a
+heavenly sweetness of thought, with holy meditation. All the purity and
+tenderness of religion lay always in the face of Alice. Our visitor, on
+the other hand, would have sat more fitly for the Queen of Love, or the
+Spirit of Earthly Love. Truly she was more beautiful than any other
+woman whom I had ever seen, or imagined. I thought her beautiful on the
+stage, but then her face was covered with the crimson paint by which
+actresses have to spoil their cheeks. Off the stage, it was the beauty
+of Venus herself: a beauty which invited love: a beauty altogether soft:
+in every point soft and sweet and caressing: eyes that were limpid and
+soft: a blooming cheek which needed no paint, which was as soft as
+velvet and as delicately coloured as a peach: lips smiling, rosy red and
+soft: her hands: her voice: her laugh: everything about this heavenly
+creature, I say, invited and compelled and created love.
+
+You think that as one already sworn to love and comfort another woman, I
+speak with reprehensible praise. Well, I have already confessed--it is
+not a confession of shame--that I loved her from the very first: from
+the time when she spoke to me first. I am not ashamed of loving her:
+Alice knows that I have always loved her: you shall hear, presently, why
+I need not be ashamed and why I loved her, if I may say so, as a sister.
+It is possible to love a woman without thoughts of earthly love: to
+admire her loveliness: to respect her: to worship her: yet not as an
+earthly lover. Such love as Petrarch felt for Laura I felt for this
+sweet and lovely woman.
+
+She gave back the child to his mother. 'Mr. Will Halliday,' she said.
+'It is not only for the child that thou art blessed above other
+men'--looking so intently upon Alice that the poor girl blushed and was
+confused. 'Sure,' she said, 'it is a face which I have seen in a
+picture.'
+
+She was a witch: she drew all hearts to her: yet not, like Circe, to
+their ruin and undoing. And if she was soft and kind of speech, she was
+also generous of heart. She was always, as I was afterwards to find out,
+helping others. How she helped me you shall hear. Meantime I must not
+forget that her face showed a most remarkable virginal innocence. It
+seemed natural to her face: a part of it, that it should proclaim a
+perfect maidenly innocence of soul. I know that many things have been
+said about her; for my own part I care to know nothing more about her
+than she herself has been pleased to tell me. I choose to believe that
+the innocence in her face proclaimed the innocence of her life. And,
+with this innocence, a face which was always changing with every mood
+that crossed her mind: moved by every touch of passion: sensitive as an
+Aeolian harp to every breath of wind.
+
+She sat down on the bed. 'I told you that I would come again,' she said.
+'Do not take me for a curious and meddlesome person. Madam,' she turned
+to Alice, 'I come because I know something about your husband's cousin,
+Matthew. If you will favour me, I should like to know the meaning of
+this imprisonment, and what Matthew has to do with it.'
+
+So I told the whole story: the clause in my father's will: the attempt
+made to persuade me to sell my chance of the succession: the threats
+used by Mr. Probus: the alleged debt for his harpsichord: and the
+alleged debt to one John Merridew.
+
+She heard the whole patiently. Then she nodded her head.
+
+'Probus I know, though he does not, happily, know me. Of the man
+Merridew also I know something. He is a sheriff's officer by trade; but
+he has more trades than one. Probus is an attorney; but he, too, has
+more trades than one. My friends, this is the work of Probus. I see
+Probus in it from the beginning. I conjecture that Merridew, for some
+consideration, has borrowed money from Probus more than he can repay.
+Therefore, he has to do whatever Probus orders.'
+
+'Mr. Probus is Matthew's attorney.'
+
+'Yes. An attorney does not commit crimes for his client, unless he is
+well paid for it. I do not know what it means except that Matthew wants
+money, which does not surprise me----'
+
+'Matthew is a partner in the House of Halliday Brothers. He has beside a
+large fortune which should have been mine.'
+
+'Yet Matthew may want money. I am not a lawyer, but I suppose that if
+you sell your chance to him, he can raise money on the succession.'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'Probus must want money too. Else he would not have committed the crime
+of imprisoning you on a false charge of debt. Well, we need not waste
+time in asking why. The question is, first of all, how to get you out.'
+
+Alice clutched her little one to her heart and her colour vanished, by
+which I understood the longing that was in her.
+
+'To get me out? Madam; I have no friends in the world who could raise
+ten pounds.'
+
+'Nevertheless, Mr. Will, a body may ask how much is wanted to get you
+out.'
+
+'There is the alleged debt for the harpsichord of fifty-five pounds:
+there is also the alleged debt due to Mr. John Merridew of fifty pounds:
+there are the costs: and there are the fines or garnish without which
+one cannot leave the place.'
+
+'Say, perhaps in all, a hundred and fifty pounds. It is not much. I
+think I can find a man'--she laughed--'who, out of his singular love to
+you, will give the money to take you out.'
+
+'You know a man? Madame, I protest--there is no one, in the whole
+world--who would do such a thing.'
+
+'Yet if I assure you----'
+
+'Oh! Madame! Will!' Alice fell on her knees and clasped her hand. 'See!
+It is herself! herself!'
+
+[Illustration: "ALICE FELL ON HER KNEES AND CLASPED HER HAND."]
+
+'But why?--why?' I asked incredulous.
+
+'Because she is all goodness,' Alice cried, the tears rolling down her
+face.
+
+'All goodness!' Madame laughed. 'Yes, I am indeed all goodness. Get up
+dear woman. And go on thinking that, if you can. All goodness!' And she
+laughed scornfully. 'A hundred and fifty pounds,' she repeated. 'Yes, I
+think I know where to get this money.'
+
+'Are we dreaming?' I asked.
+
+'But, Will,' she became very serious, 'I must be plain with you. It is
+certain to me that the man Probus has got some hold over your cousin.
+Otherwise he would not be so impatient for you to sell your reversion.
+Some day I will show you why I think this. Learn, moreover, that the man
+Probus is a man of one passion only. He wants money: he wants nothing
+else: it is his only desire to get money. If anybody interferes with his
+money getting, he will grind that man to powder. You have interfered
+with him: he has thrust you into prison. Do not believe that when you
+are out he will cease to persecute you.'
+
+'What am I to do, then?'
+
+'If you come to terms with him he will at once cease his persecution.'
+
+'Come to terms with him?'
+
+'His terms must mean a great sum of money for himself, not for you--or
+for your cousin. Else he would not be so eager.'
+
+'I can never accept his terms,' I said.
+
+'He will go on, then. If it is a very large sum of money he will stick
+at nothing.'
+
+'Then what am I to do?'
+
+'Keep out of his way. For, believe me, there is nothing that he will not
+attempt to get you once more in his power. Consider: he put you in here,
+knowing that you are penniless. He calculates that the time will come
+when you will be so broken by imprisonment that you will be ready to
+make any terms. Nay--he thinks that the prison air will kill you.'
+
+'The Lord will protect us,' said Alice.
+
+Madame looked up with surprise. 'They say that on the stage,' she said.
+'What does it mean?'
+
+'It means that we are all in the hands of the Lord. Without His will not
+even a sparrow falleth to the ground.'
+
+Madame shook her head. 'At least,' she said, 'we must do what we can to
+protect ourselves.' She rose. 'I am going now to get that money. You
+shall hear from me in a day or two. Perhaps it may take a week before
+you are finally released. But keep up your hearts.'
+
+She took the child again and kissed him. Then she gave him back to his
+mother.
+
+'You are a good woman,' she said. 'Your face is good: your voice is
+good: what you say is good. But, remember. Add to what you call the
+protection of the Lord a few precautions. To stand between such an one
+as Probus and the money that he is hunting is like standing between a
+tigress and her prey. He will have no mercy: there is no wickedness that
+he will hesitate to devise: what he will do next, I know not, but it
+will be something that belongs to his master, the Devil.'
+
+'The Lord will protect us,' Alice repeated, laying her hand on the
+flaxen hair of her child.
+
+We stared at each other, when she was gone. 'Will,' asked Alice, with
+suffused eyes and dropping voice. 'Is she an angel from Heaven?'
+
+'An angel, doubtless--but not from Heaven--yet. My dear, it is the
+actress who charmed us when we went to the Play--on our wedding-day. It
+is Miss Jenny Wilmot herself.'
+
+'Oh! If all actresses are like her! Yet they say----Will, she shall
+have, at least, our prayers----'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Three or four days later--the time seemed many years--an attorney came
+to see me. Not such an attorney as Mr. Probus: a gentleman of open
+countenance and pleasant manners. He came to tell me that my business
+was done, and that after certain dues were paid--which were provided
+for--I could walk out of the prison.
+
+'Sir,' I said, I beg you to convey to Miss Jenny Wilmot, my
+benefactress, my heartfelt gratitude.'
+
+'I will, Mr. Halliday. I perceive that you know her name. Let me beg you
+not to wait upon her in person. To be sure, she has left Drury Lane and
+you do not know her present address. It is enough that she has been able
+to benefit you, and that you have sent her a becoming message of
+gratitude. But, Sir, one word of caution. She bids you remember that you
+have an implacable enemy. Take care, therefore, take care.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+How I got a new place
+
+
+So I was free. For twenty-four hours I was like a boy on the first day
+of his holidays. I exulted in my liberty: I ran about the meadows and
+along the Embankment: I got into a boat and rowed up and down the river.
+But when the first rapture of freedom was spent I remembered that free
+or within stone walls, I had still to earn a living. I had but one way:
+I must find a place in an Orchestra. At the Dog and Duck, where my
+brother-in-law still led, there was no place for me.
+
+There are, however, a great many taverns with gardens and dancing and
+singing places and bands of music. I set off to find one where they
+wanted a fiddle. I went, I believe, the whole round of them--from the
+Temple of Flora to the White Conduit House, and from Bermondsey Spa to
+the Assembly Rooms at Hampstead. Had all the world turned fiddler?
+Everywhere the same reply--'No vacancy.' Meantime we were living on the
+bounty of my brother-in-law whose earnings were scanty for his own
+modest house.
+
+Then I thought of the organ. Of course my place at St. George's Borough
+was filled up. There are about a hundred churches in London, however:
+most of them have organs. I tried every one: and always with the same
+result: the place was filled. I thought of my old trade of fiddling to
+the sailors. Would you believe it? There was not even a tavern parlour
+where they wanted a fiddle to make the sailors dance and drink. Had Mr.
+Probus been able to keep me out of everything?
+
+Alice did her best to sustain my courage. She preserved a cheerful
+countenance: she brushed my coat and hat in the morning with a word of
+encouragement: she welcomed me home when I returned footsore and with an
+aching heart. Why, even in the far darker time that presently followed
+she preserved the outward form of cheerfulness and the inner heart of
+faith.
+
+The weeks passed on: my bad luck remained: I could hear of no work, not
+even temporary work: I began to think that even the Prison where I could
+at least earn my two or three shillings a day was better than freedom: I
+began also to think that Mr. Probus must have all the orchestras and
+music-galleries in his own power, together with all the churches that
+had organs. My shoes wore out and could not be replaced: my appearance
+was such as might be expected when for most of the time I had nothing
+between bread and cheese and beer for breakfast, and bread and cheese
+and beer for supper. And I think that the miserable figure I presented
+was often the cause of rejection.
+
+Chance--say Providence--helped me. I was walking, sadly enough, by
+Charing Cross, one afternoon, being weary, hungry, and dejected, when I
+heard a voice cry out, 'Will Halliday! Will Halliday! Are you deaf?'
+
+I turned round. It was Madame, my benefactress, my patroness. She was in
+a hackney coach.
+
+[Illustration: "I TURNED AROUND; IT WAS MADAM."]
+
+'Come in,' she cried, stopping her driver. 'Come in with me.'
+
+I obeyed, nothing loth.
+
+'Why,' she said looking at me. 'What is the matter? Your cheeks are
+hollow: your face is pale: your limbs are shaking: worse still--you are
+shabby. What has happened?'
+
+I could make no reply.
+
+'Your sweet wife--and the lovely boy. They are well?'
+
+When a man has been living for many weeks on insufficient food: when he
+has been turned away at every application, he may be forgiven if he
+loses, on small provocation, his self-control. I am not ashamed to say
+that her kind words and her kind looks were too much for me in my weak
+condition. I burst into tears.
+
+She laid her hand on my arm, 'Will,' she said, as if she were a
+sister, 'you shall tell me all--but you shall go home with me and we
+will talk.'
+
+I observed that the coachman drove up St. Martin's Lane and through a
+collection of streets which I had never seen before. It was the part
+called St. Giles's; a place which is a kind of laystall into which are
+shot every day quantities of the scum, dirt, and refuse of this huge and
+overgrown city. I looked out of the window upon a crowd of faces more
+villainous than one could conceive possible, stamped with the brand of
+Cain. They were lying about in the doorways, at the open windows, for it
+was the month of September and a warm day and on the doorsteps and in
+the unpaved, unlit, squalid streets. Never did I see so many ragged and
+naked brats; never did I see so many cripples, so many hunchbacks, so
+many deformed people: they were of all kinds--bandy-legged, knock-kneed,
+those whose shins curve outward like a bow, round-backed, one-eyed,
+blind, lame.
+
+'They are the beggars,' said my companion. 'Their deformities mean
+drink: they mean the mothers who drink and drop the babies about.
+Beggars and thieves--they are the people of St. Giles's.'
+
+'I wonder you come this way. Are you not afraid?'
+
+'They will not hurt me. I wish they would,' she added with a sigh.
+
+A strange wish. I was soon, however, to understand what she meant.
+
+Certainly, no one molested us, or stopped the coach: we passed through
+these streets into High Street, Holborn, and to St. Giles's Church where
+the criminal on his way to Tyburn receives his last drink. Then, by
+another turn, into a noble square with a garden surrounded by great
+houses, of which the greatest was built for the unfortunate Duke of
+Monmouth. The coachman stopped before one of these houses on the East
+side of the Square. It was a very fine and noble mansion indeed.
+
+I threw open the door of the coach and handed Madame down the steps.
+
+'This is my house,' she said. 'Will you come in with me?'
+
+I followed marvelling how an actress could be so great a lady: but still
+I remembered how she spoke familiarly to those two villains in the
+King's Bench Prison. The doors flew open. Within, a row of a dozen tall
+hulking fellows in livery stood up to receive Madame. She walked
+through them with an air that belonged to a Duchess. Then she turned
+into a small room on the left hand and threw herself into a chair. 'So,'
+she said, 'with these varlets I am a great lady. Here, and in your
+company, Will, I am nothing but....' She paused and sighed. 'I will tell
+you another time.'
+
+I think I was more surprised at the familiarity with which she addressed
+me than with the splendour of the place. This room, for instance, though
+but little, was lofty and its walls were painted with flowers and birds:
+silver candlesticks each with two branches, stood on the mantelshelf
+which was a marvel of fine carving: a rich carpet covered the floor:
+there were two or three chairs and a table in white and gold. A portrait
+of Madame hung over the fireplace.
+
+'Forgive me, my friend,' She sprang from the chair and pulled the bell
+rope. 'Before we talk you must take some dinner.'
+
+She gave her orders in a quick peremptory tone as one accustomed to be
+obeyed. In a few minutes the table was spread with a white cloth and
+laid out with a cold chicken, a noble ham, a loaf of bread, and a bottle
+of Madeira. You may imagine that I made very little delay in sitting
+down to these good things. Heavens! How good they were after the
+prolonged diet of bread and cheese!
+
+Madame looked on and waited, her chin in her hand. When I desisted at
+length, she poured out another glass of Madeira. 'Tell me,' she said.
+'Your sweet wife and the lovely boy--are they as hungry as you?'
+
+I shook my head sadly.
+
+'We shall see, presently, what we can do. Meantime, tell me the whole
+story.'
+
+I told her, briefly, that my story was nothing at all but the story of a
+man out of employment who could not find any and was slowly dropping
+into shabbiness of appearance and weakness of body.
+
+'No work? Why, I supposed you would go back to--to--to something in the
+City.'
+
+'Though my father was a Knight and a Lord Mayor, I am a simple musician
+by trade. I am not a gentleman.'
+
+'I like you all the better,' she replied, smiling. 'I am not a
+gentlewoman either. The actress is a rogue and a vagabond. So is the
+musician I suppose.'
+
+I stared. Was she, then, still an actress--and living in this stately
+Palace?
+
+'You are a musician. Do you, then, want to find work as a fiddler?'
+
+'That is what I am looking for.'
+
+'Let us consider. Do you play like a--a--gentleman or like one of the
+calling?'
+
+'I am one of the calling. When I tell you that I used to live by
+fiddling for sailors to dance----'
+
+'Say no more--say no more. They are the finest critics in the world. If
+you please them it is enough. Why should I not engage you, myself?'
+
+'You--engage--me? You--Madame?'
+
+'Friend Will,' she laid her hand on mine, 'there are reasons why I wish
+you well and would stand by you if I could. I will tell you, another
+day, what those reasons are. Let me treat you as a friend. When we are
+alone, I am not Madame: I am Jenny.'
+
+There are some women who if they said such a thing as this, would be
+taken as declaring the passion of love. No one could look at Jenny's
+face which was all simplicity and candour and entertain the least
+suspicion of such a thing.
+
+'Nay, I can only marvel,' I said. For I still thought that I was talking
+to some great lady. 'I think that I must be dreaming.'
+
+'Since you know not where you are, this is the Soho Assembly and I am
+Madame Vallance.'
+
+I seemed to have heard of Madame Vallance.
+
+'You know nothing. That is because you have been in the King's Bench. I
+will now tell you, what nobody else knows, that Madame Vallance is Jenny
+Wilmot. I have left the stage, for a time, to avoid a certain person.
+Here, if I go among the company, I can wear a domino and remain unknown.
+Do you know nothing about us? We have masquerades, galas,
+routs--everything. Come with me. I will show you my Ball Room.'
+
+She led me up the grand staircase from the Hall into a most noble room.
+On the walls were hung many mirrors: between the mirrors were painted
+Cupids and flowers: rout seats were placed all round the room: the
+hanging candelabra contained hundreds of candles: at one end stood a
+music gallery.
+
+'Will,' she said, 'go upstairs and play me something.'
+
+I obeyed.
+
+I found an instrument, which I tuned. Then I stood up in the gallery and
+played.
+
+She stood below listening. 'Well played!' she cried. 'Now play me a
+dance tune. See if you can make me dance.'
+
+I played a tune which I had often played to the jolly sailors. I know
+not what it is called. It is one of those tunes which run in at the ears
+and down to the heels which it makes as light as a feather and as quick
+silver for nimbleness. In a minute she was dancing--with such grace,
+such spirit, such quickness of motion, as if every limb was without
+weight. And her fair face smiling and her blue eyes dancing!--never was
+there such a figure of grace: as for the step, it was as if invented on
+the spot, but I believe that she had learned it. Afraid of tiring her, I
+laid down the violin and descended into the hall.
+
+She gave me both her hands. 'Will,' she said. 'You will make my fortune
+if you consent to join my orchestra. There never was such playing. Those
+sailors! How could they let you go? Now listen. I can pay you thirty
+shillings. Will you come? The Treasury pays every Saturday morning. You
+shall have, besides, four weeks in advance. Spend it in generous food
+after your long Lent. Say--Will you accept?'
+
+'It is too much, Jenny.' I took her hand and kissed it. 'First you take
+me out of prison: then you give me the means of living. How can I thank
+you sufficiently? How repay----'
+
+'There is nothing to repay. I will tell you another time why I take an
+interest in you.'
+
+'When the most beautiful woman in the world----'
+
+'Stop, Will. I warn you. There must be no love-making.' I suppose she
+saw the irresistible admiration in my eyes. 'Oh! I am not angry. But
+compliments of that kind generally lead to love-making. They all try it,
+but it is quite useless--now,' she added with a sigh. 'And you, of all
+men, must not.'
+
+I made no reply, not knowing what to say.
+
+'There is another face in your home, Will, that is far more beautiful
+than mine. Think of that face. Enough said.'
+
+'I protest----' I began.
+
+She laid her hand upon my lips. 'There must be no compliments,' she
+said. Her voice was severe but her smiling eyes forgave.
+
+I left her and hastened home with dancing feet.
+
+I was returning with an engagement of thirty shillings a week: I had
+four weeks' pay in my pocket: Fortune once more smiled upon me: I ran in
+and kissed my wife with an alacrity and a cheerfulness which rejoiced
+her as much as it astonished her. I threw down the money. 'Take it, my
+dear,' I said. 'There is more to come. We are saved again. Oh! Alice--we
+are saved--and by the same hand as before.'
+
+'I have heard of Madame Vallance,' said Tom, presently. 'She comes from
+no one knows where: she keeps herself secluded: at the Assemblies she
+always wears a mask: the people say she is generous: some think she is
+rich: others that the expense of the place must break her.'
+
+'I hope she is another Croesus,' I said. 'I hope that the River of
+Pactolus will flow into her lap. I hope she will inherit the mines of
+Golgonda. I hope she will live a thousand years and marry a Prince. And
+we will drink her health in a bowl of punch this very night.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MASQUERADE
+
+
+I commenced my duties in the music gallery on one of the nights devoted
+to the amusement called the Masquerade. It was an amusement new to me
+and to all except those who can afford to spend five guineas, besides
+the purchase of a dress, on the pleasure of a single night. I understand
+the Masquerade has taken a great hold upon the fashionable world and
+upon those who have money to spend and are eager for the excitement of a
+new pleasure. 'Give--give' is the cry of those who live, day by day, for
+the pleasure of the moment.
+
+Truly in a Masquerade there is everything; the novelty or the beauty of
+the disguise: the music: the dancing: the revelry after supper: the
+gambling: the pursuit of beauty in disguise--it is wonderful to reflect,
+in the quiet corner of the earth in which I write, that, across the
+Atlantic, in London City, there are thousands who are never happy save
+when they are crowded together, seeking such excitement as is afforded
+by the masquerade, the assembly, the promenade and the pleasure garden.
+Here we have no such excitements and we want none: life for us flows in
+a tranquil stream: for them it flows away in waterfalls and cataracts,
+leaping to the sea.
+
+Madame managed her masquerades as she did everything, with the greatest
+care: she arranged everything: the selection of the music: the
+decorations: the supper: even the chalking of the floor. The doors were
+thrown open at eleven. Long before that hour the Square was filled with
+people, some were come to see the fashionable throng arrive--the fine
+dresses of the ladies and the masquerading of the men. Some were come to
+pick the pockets of the others. There was no confusion: the hackney
+coaches and the chairs were directed by Madame's servants, who stood
+outside, to arrive by one road and to depart by another. Thus, one after
+the other, without quarrelling or fighting, drove to the doors,
+deposited their company and departed. The same order was observed in the
+departure.
+
+For my own part, as there was nothing to do before eleven, I amused
+myself by going round and seeing the rooms all lit up with candles in
+sconces or by candelabra and painted with flowers and fruit and Cupids
+even to the ceiling, and hung with costly curtains. It is a large and
+spacious house, of commanding appearance, built by an Earl of Carlisle.
+There is a grand staircase, broad and stately: when a well-dressed
+Company are going up and down it looks like the staircase of a Palace:
+on the landing I found flowers in pots and bushes in tubs which gave the
+place a rural appearance and so might lead the thoughts of the visitor
+insensibly into the country. There are a great many rooms in the
+original House which has been very handsomely increased by the addition
+of two large chambers, one above the other, built out at the back, over
+part of the garden. One of these new rooms was the Ball Room which I
+have already mentioned. The other room below it, equally large but not
+so high, was used as the supper-room. It had its walls painted with
+dancing Satyrs and Fauns: gilded pilasters, raised an inch or so,
+relieved the flatness of the wall. This was the supper-room: for the
+moment it had nothing in it but long narrow tables arranged down the
+room in rows: the servants were already beginning to spread upon them
+the napery and lay the knives and forks for supper.
+
+On the ground-floor on the right hand of the entrance hall was a large
+room used as a card room. Here stood a long table covered with a green
+cloth for the players of those games which require a Bank or a large
+company. They are Hazard, Lansquenet, Loo, Faro, and I know not how many
+more. But, whatever their names, they all mean the same thing and only
+one thing, viz., gambling. Along the wall on either side were small
+tables for parties of two or four, who came to play Quadrille, Whist,
+Piquet, Ecarté, and the like--games more dangerous to the young and the
+beginner than the more noisy gambling of the crowd. Candles stood on all
+the small tables and down the middle of the great table: there were also
+candles in sconces on the wall. As yet none of them were lit.
+
+While I was looking round the empty room, Madame herself came in dressed
+in white satin, and carrying her domino in her hand.
+
+'I look into every room,' she said, 'before the doors are open: but into
+this room I look two or three times every evening.'
+
+'You come to look at the players?'
+
+'I have a particular reason for coming here. I will tell you some time
+or other--perhaps to-night, Will. If so, it will be the greatest
+surprise of your life--the very greatest surprise. Yes--I watch the
+players. Their faces amuse me. When I see a man losing time after time,
+and remaining calm and unmoved, I say to myself, "There is a gentleman."
+Play is the finest test of good breeding. When a man curses his luck;
+curses his neighbour for bringing him bad luck; bangs the table with his
+fist; and calls upon all the Gods to smite him dead, I say to myself,
+"That is a city spark."'
+
+'I fear I am a city spark.'
+
+'When I see two sitting together at a table quiet and alone I ask myself
+which is the sharper and which is the flat. By watching them for a few
+minutes I can always find out--one of them always is the sharper, you
+see, and the other always the flat. And if you watch them for a few
+minutes you can always find out. Beware of this room, Will. Be neither
+sharper nor flat.'
+
+She turned and went off to see some other room.
+
+Looking out at the back I saw that the garden had been hung with
+coloured lamps, and looked gay and bright. It was a warm fine evening:
+there would be many who would choose the garden for a promenade. Other
+rooms there were: the Blue Room: the Star Room: the Red Room: the
+Chinese Room: I know not what, nor for what they were all used.
+
+But the time approached. I climbed up the steep stairs and took my place
+in the music gallery, where already most of the orchestra were
+assembled: like them I tuned my violin, and then waited the arrival of
+the Company.
+
+They came by tickets which included supper. Each ticket cost five
+guineas, and admitted one gentleman or two ladies including supper. It
+seems a monstrous price for a single evening; but the cost of the
+entertainment was enormous. The ticket itself was a beautiful thing
+representing Venus with Cupids. They were gazing with interest upon a
+Nymph lying beside a fountain. She had, as yet, nothing upon her, and
+she was apparently engaged in thinking what she would wear for the
+evening. A pretty thing, prettily drawn. But five guineas for a single
+evening!
+
+As soon as the doors were thrown open, a line of footmen received the
+company, took their tickets and showed them into the tea-room where that
+refreshment was offered before the ball commenced. When this room was
+full, the doors leading to the ball-rooms and the other rooms were also
+thrown open, and the company streamed along the great gallery which was
+lined with flowering shrubs. Here was stationed a small string band
+playing soft and pleasing music. Then they crowded up the Grand
+staircase. When most of the masqueraders were within the Ball-room, and
+before they had done looking about them and crying out for astonishment
+at the mirrors and the candelabra and the lights, we struck up the music
+in the gallery, and as soon as order was a little restored, the minuets
+began.
+
+For my own part I love to look upon dancing. The country-dance expresses
+the happiness of youth and the gladness of life. The hey and jig are
+rustic joys which cannot keep still, but must needs jump about to show
+their pleasure. But the minuet expresses the refinement, the courtesies,
+the politeness of life. It is artificial, but the politeness of Fashion
+in the Civilized world must be acknowledged to be an improvement on
+mere Nature, which is too often barbarous in its expression and coarse
+in its treatment. I know not any of our music which could be played to
+such a dance of savages as the Guinea Traders report from the West Coast
+and the Bight of Benin.
+
+The company flowed in fast. All, except a few who kept about the doors
+and did not venture in the crowd, were in masquerade dress, and even
+those who were not carried dominoes in their hands. One would have
+thought the whole world had sent representatives to the ball. There were
+pig-tailed Chinese; Dervishes in turbans; American Indians with
+tomahawks; Arabs in long silken robes; negroes and negresses; proud
+Castilians; Scots in plaid; Monks and Romish Priests; Nuns and Sisters;
+milkmaids in dowlass; ploughboys in smocks; lawyers; soldiers and
+sailors: there were gods and goddesses; Venus came clad much like her
+figure in the books; Diana carried her bow; the Graces endeavoured to
+appear as they are commonly represented: Apollo came with his lyre; Mars
+with his shield and spear: Vulcan with his lame leg: Hercules with his
+club. There were dozens of Cupids: there were dozens of Queens;
+Cleopatra; Dido; Mary, Queen of Scots: and Queen Elizabeth. There were
+famous kings as Henry the Fifth; Henry the Eighth: Charles the First;
+and Charles the Second. There were potentates, as the Pope, the Sultan,
+the Grand Cham, Prester John, and the Emperor of China: there were
+famous women, mostly kings' favourites, as the Fair-Haired Editha: Fair
+Rosamund: Jane Shore, the most beautiful of London maidens: and merry
+Nell Gwynne, once an Orange Girl: there were half a dozen ladies
+representing Joan of Arc in armour: there was a bear-ward leading a man
+dressed as a bear who made as if he would hug the women (at which they
+screamed in pretended affright) and danced to the music of a crowd:
+there were gipsies and fortune-tellers: there were two girls--nobody
+knew who they were--one of whom danced on a tight-rope, while the other
+turned somersaults. There were Harlequin, Columbine, Pantaloon and
+clown, as if straight from Drury Lane: there was the showman who put his
+show in a corner and loudly proclaimed the wonders that were within:
+there was the Cheap Jack in another corner, who pretended to sell
+everything: there was the itinerant Quack who bawled his nostrums for
+prolonging life and restoring youth and arresting beauty: there was the
+orange girl, of Drury Lane, impudent and ready with an answer and a joke
+to anything: there were dancing-girls who ran in and out, cleared a
+space; danced: then ran to another place and danced again. I learned,
+afterwards, that the dancers and tumblers, with many of the masks, were
+actors, actresses, and dancing-girls, hired from the Theatre by Madame
+herself, in order to ensure vivacity and activity and movement in the
+evening. If these things were neglected or left to the masquers
+themselves, the assembly would fall quite flat, very few persons having
+the least power to play any part or keep up any character. Punchinello,
+for instance, trod the floor with a face like a physician for solemnity:
+the clown could not dance or laugh or make other people laugh: and so
+with the women: they thought their part was played as soon as they were
+dressed.
+
+Meantime, the music played on without stopping. After the minuets, we
+proceeded to the country dance. But you must not think that at the
+Masquerade we conducted our dancing with the same order and form as an
+ordinary assembly. I looked down upon a scene which was quite unlike the
+ordinary assembly, and yet was the most beautiful, the most animated,
+the most entrancing that I had ever witnessed. The room was like a
+flower-bed in July filled with flowers of every colour. It was enough,
+at first, to look at the whole company, as one might look upon a garden
+filled with flowers. Presently I began to detach couples or small
+groups. First, I observed the fair domino who lured on the amorous
+youth--dressed, perhaps, as a monk--by running away and yet looking
+back--a Parthian Amazon of Love. She must be young, he thought, with
+such a sprightly air and so easy a step: she must be beautiful, with
+such a figure, to match her face: she must be rich, with such a
+habit--with those gold chains and bracelets and pearls. Presently the
+young fellow caught his goddess: he spoke to her and he led her to a
+seat among the plants where they could sit a little retired and apart.
+But from the gallery I could see them. He took her hand: he pressed her,
+saying I know not what: presently she took off her domino: and disclosed
+loveliness: the youth fell into raptures: she held him off: she put on
+her domino again: she rose: he begged for a little more discourse--it
+was a pretty pantomime--she refused: she went back to the general
+company: they remained together all the night: when they went away in
+the morning he led her out whispering, and one hopes that this was the
+beginning of a happy match. The removal of the domino to let the
+gentleman see the masked face was, I observed, very common, yet it was
+not always that the little comedy ended, as they say, happily. Sometimes
+the lady, after showing her face, would run away and exchange a
+kerchief, or a mantle, with a friend so as to mystify and bewilder her
+pursuer who could not tell what had become of his lovely partner.
+
+Such were the little comedies performed before the eyes of the
+spectators from the music gallery. As for the rest, the mountebanks
+pranced, and the dancing-girls and the tumbling-girls capered, and they
+all laughed and sang and gave themselves wholly to the mirth and
+merriment of the moment.
+
+Some of the men I observed were drunk when they arrived: others
+pretended to be drunk in order that they might roll about and catch hold
+of the girls. It has always been to me a marvel that women do not mark
+their displeasure, at the intrusion upon their pleasures, of men who are
+drunk. They mar all the enjoyment of society whether at the theatre, or
+at such assemblies as this, or in the drawing-room. Ladies of fashion
+have it in their power to put an end to the habit at a stroke of the
+pen, so to speak: namely, by forbidding the presence at their assemblies
+of gentlemen in liquor: they should be refused admission however great
+their position, even if their breast is ablaze with stars.
+
+There were many stars present, and with them ladies whose head-dresses
+were covered with diamonds. It was rumoured that Madame retained in her
+service for these occasions, a body of stout fellows on the watch for
+any attempt upon the jewels. It was also rumoured that there were R--l
+P--s present at the Masquerade: the young D-- of Y--k, for instance, it
+was said positively, was among the company, but so disguised that none
+could recognise him. Some of the ladies wore no dominoes; but these
+persons, I observed, did not leave their partners and took no share in
+the merriment. Indeed, they seemed, for the most part, not to laugh at
+the fun: I suppose they found it somewhat low and vulgar. In our gallery
+they were well known. 'That is the Duchess of Q-- with the rubies: the
+lady with the diamond spray in her hair is Lady H--: the lady with the
+strings of pearls round her neck and arms is the Lady Florence D--,' and
+so forth--with scandalous stories and gossip which belonged, I thought,
+more to the footmen in the hall than to the music gallery. We had no
+such talk at the Dog and Duck. Perhaps, however, the reason for our
+reticence in that favourite retreat and rendezvous of the aristocracy
+was that there were no women at the Dog and Duck whose lives were not
+scandalous. The stories, therefore, would become monotonous.
+
+At one, a procession was formed for supper. There was no order or rank
+observed because there were plenty of persons who masqueraded as
+noblemen, and it would take too long to examine into their claims. The
+small band of stringed instruments, of which I have spoken, headed the
+procession, played the company into the supper-room, and played while
+they were taking supper. There was not room for more than half in the
+supper-room: the rest waited their turn.
+
+'It is a rest for us,' said the First violin, 'we shall get some supper
+downstairs. Eat and drink plenty, for what we have done already is a
+flea-bite compared with what we have to do.'
+
+It was, indeed. They came back, their cheeks flushed, their eyes bright
+with wine. Some of them too tipsy to stand, rolled upon the rout seats,
+and so fell fast asleep.
+
+I observed that the great ladies and the gentlemen with them did not
+return after supper: their absence removed some restraint: and the
+gentlemen who had arrived without a masquerade dress did not come back
+after supper. The company was thinner, but it was much louder: there was
+no longer any pretence of keeping up a character: the Quack left off
+bawling his wares: the showman deserted his show: the fortune-tellers
+left their tents: the Hermit left his cell: the dancing and tumbling
+girls joined in the general throng: there were many sets formed but
+little regular dancing: all were broken up by rushes of young men more
+than half drunk: they caught the girls and kissed them--nothing loth,
+though they shrieked: it was a proof that the gentlewomen had all gone,
+that no one resented this rudeness--either a partner or the girl
+herself: the scene became an orgy: all together were romping, touzling,
+laughing, shrieking, and quarrelling.
+
+Still the music kept up: still we played with unflinching arm and all
+the spirit which can be put into them, the most stirring dance tunes. At
+last they left off trying to dance: some of the women lay back on the
+rout seats partly with liquor overcome and partly with fatigue: men were
+sprawling unable to get up: bottles of wine were brought up from the
+supper-room and handed round. The men grew every minute noisier: the
+women shrieked louder and more shrilly--perhaps with cause. And every
+minute some slipped away and the crowd grew thinner, till there were
+left little more than a heap of drunken men and weary women.
+
+At last word came up that it was five o'clock, the time for closing.
+
+The conductor laid down his violin: the night's work was over: we would
+go.
+
+The people below clamoured for more music, but in vain. Then they, too,
+began to stream out noisily.
+
+As I passed the supper-room I saw that half a dozen young fellows had
+got in and were noisily clamouring for champagne. The waiters who were
+clearing the supper took no notice. Then one of them with a bludgeon set
+to work and began to smash plates, glasses, dishes, bottles, windows, in
+a kind of a frenzy of madness or mischief. Half a dozen stout fellows
+rushed at him: carried him out of the supper-room and so into the Square
+outside. It was a fitting end for the Masquerade.
+
+While I was looking on, I was touched on the arm by a mask. I knew her
+by her white satin dress for Madame.
+
+I had seen her from time to time flitting about the room, sometimes with
+a partner, sometimes alone. She was conversing one moment with a
+gentleman whose star betokened his rank, and the next with one of her
+paid actors or actresses, directing the sports. I had seen her dancing
+two minuets in succession each with a grace and dignity which no other
+woman in the room could equal.
+
+'A noisy end, Will, is it not? We always finish this way. The young
+fellow who smashed the glass is Lord St. Osyth. To-morrow morning he
+will have to pay the bill. 'Tis a good-natured fool. See: they are
+carrying out the last of the drunken hogs. Faugh! How drunk they are!'
+
+'I have watched you all the evening, Madame. Believe me, there were none
+of the ladies who approached you in the minuet.'
+
+'Naturally, Will. For I have danced it on the stage, where we can at
+least surpass the minuet of the Assembly. What do they understand of
+action and carriage, and how to bear the body and how to use the arms
+and how to handle the fan? But it was not to talk about my
+dancing--Will--I said that perhaps I should be able to show you
+something or to tell you something--that might astonish you. Come with
+me: but first--I would not have you recognised, put on this
+domino'--there were a good many lying about--'So--Now follow me and
+prepare for the greatest surprise of your whole life.'
+
+In the hall there were still many waiting for their carriages and
+chairs. Outside, there was a crowd now closing in upon the carriages,
+and now beaten back by Madame's men who were armed with clubs and kept
+the pickpockets and thieves at bay. And there was a good deal of
+bawling, cursing, and noise.
+
+Madame led the way into the card-room. Play had apparently been going on
+all night: the candles on the table were burning low: the players had
+nearly all gone: the servants were taking the shillings from under the
+candlesticks: at the long table, two or three were still left: they were
+not playing: they were settling up their accounts.
+
+A young fellow got up as we came in. 'What's the good of crying, Harry?'
+he said, to his companion. 'I've dropped five hundred. Well--better luck
+to-morrow.'
+
+'Poor lad!' said Madame. 'That morrow will never come. 'Tis a pretty
+lad: I am sorry for him. He will end in a Debtors' Prison or he will
+carry a musket in the ranks.'
+
+They were settling, one by one, with the player who had held the Bank
+for the evening. There were no disputes: they had some system by means
+of which their loses or gains were represented by counters. The business
+of the conclusion was the paying or receiving of money as shown by their
+counters which were accepted as money. For instance, if a person took so
+many counters he incurred so much liability. But, I do not understand
+what were the rules. The man who held the Bank was, I heard afterwards,
+one of those who live by keeping the Bank against all comers. He was an
+elderly man of fine manners, extremely courtly in his behaviour and his
+dress. One by one he received the players, of whom there were a dozen or
+so, and examined their liabilities or their claims. There was left but
+one of the players, a man whose back was turned to me.
+
+'Sir,' he said politely, 'I am grieved indeed to keep a gentleman
+waiting so long. Let me now release you. I hope, Sir, that the balance
+will prove in your favour. It pleases me, believe me, that a gentleman
+should leave my table the winner. So, Sir, thank you. I perceive, Sir,
+that your good fortune has deserted you for this evening. I trust it is
+but a temporary cloud. After all it is a trifle--a bagatelle--a mere
+matter of one hundred and fifty-five guineas--one hundred and
+fifty-five. Your Honour is not, perhaps, good at figures, but, should
+you choose to verify----'
+
+The other man whose back and shoulders were still the only part of him
+presented to my view, snatched the paper and looked at it and threw it
+on the table.
+
+'It is right, Sir?'
+
+'I suppose it is right. The luck was against me, as usual; the luck
+never is for me.'
+
+I knew the voice and started.
+
+Madame whispered in my ear softly. 'The greatest surprise of your life.'
+
+'One hundred and fifty-five guineas,' said the gentleman who kept the
+Bank. 'If you are not able to discharge the liability to-night, Sir, I
+shall be pleased to wait upon you to-morrow.'
+
+'No! No! I can pay my way still--pay my way,' He pulled out a long purse
+filled with guineas.
+
+'Your luck will certainly turn, Sir, before long. Why I have seen
+instances----'
+
+'Damn it, Sir, leave me and my affairs alone. My luck never will turn.
+Don't I know my own affairs?'
+
+The voice could be none other than my cousin Matthew's. I was startled.
+My head which had been filled with the noise of the music and the
+excitement of the revelry became clear at once and attentive and
+serious. My cousin Matthew. Impossible not to know that voice!
+
+He poured out the guineas on the table and began to count them, dividing
+them into heaps of ten. Then he counted them over again, very slowly,
+and, at last, with greatest reluctance passed them over to the other
+player, who in his turn counted them over, taking up the pieces and
+biting them in order to see if they were good.
+
+'I thank you, Sir,' he said, gravely. 'I trust that on a future
+occasion----'
+
+Matthew waved his hand impatiently. The other turned and walked down
+the room. The candles were mostly out by this time; only two or three
+were left on the point of expiring: the room was in a kind of twilight.
+Matthew turned his head--it _was_ my cousin: he seemed not to see us: he
+sank into a chair and laid his head in his hands groaning.
+
+No one was left in the room except Madame, Matthew and myself.
+
+Madame stepped forward: the table was between her and my cousin. As for
+me I kept in the background watching and listening. What might this
+thing mean? Matthew, the sober, upright, religious London citizen!
+Matthew the worthy descendant of the great Puritan preacher! Matthew the
+denouncer of wicked musicians! Matthew the scourge of frivolity and
+vice! Matthew, my supplanter! Matthew in a gaming room! Matthew playing
+all night long and losing a hundred and fifty-five guineas in a single
+night! What was one to believe next?
+
+Jenny bent over the table: she still kept on her domino.
+
+'Mr. Matthew Halliday,' she said.
+
+He lifted his head, stupidly.
+
+'I congratulate you, Mr. Matthew Halliday,' she went on. 'You have
+passed a most pleasant and profitable evening. A hundred and fifty-five
+guineas! It is nothing, of course, to a rich merchant like yourself.'
+
+'Who are you?' he asked. 'What concern is it of yours?'
+
+'I am one who knows you. One who knows you already, and too well.'
+
+He stood up. 'I am going, Mistress,' he said--'unless you have something
+else to say.'
+
+'Mr. Halliday--you lost two hundred guineas last night, and on Sunday
+you lost four hundred.'
+
+'Zounds, Miss or Mistress, how do you know?'
+
+'I know because I am told. You are a very rich man, Mr. Halliday, are
+you not? You must be to lose so much every night. You must be very rich
+indeed. You have whole fleets of your own, and Quays and Warehouses
+filled with goods--and you inherited a great fortune only two years
+ago.'
+
+He sank back in a chair and gazed stupidly upon her. 'How speeds your
+noble trade? How fares it with your fleets? How much is left of your
+great fortune?' He growled, but made no reply. Curiosity and wonder
+seized him and held him. Besides, what reply could he make?
+
+'Who are you?' he asked.
+
+'I will tell you, perhaps. How do you stand with Mr. Probus?'
+
+He sprang to his feet again. 'This is too much. How dare you speak of my
+private affairs? What do you know about Mr. Probus?'
+
+'How long is it, Mr. Halliday, since you agreed with Mr. Probus that
+your cousin should be locked up in a Debtors' Prison there to remain
+till he died, or sold his birthright?'
+
+He answered with a kind of roar, as if he had no words left. He stood
+before her--the table between--half in terror--half in rage. Who was
+this woman? Besides, he was already very nearly beside himself over the
+long continuance of his bad luck.
+
+'Who are you?' he asked again. 'What do you know about my cousin?'
+
+'I will tell you, directly, who I am. About your cousin, Matthew, I warn
+you solemnly. The next attempt you make upon his life and liberty will
+bring upon your head--yours--not to speak of the others--the greatest
+disaster that you can imagine, or can dread. The greatest disaster,' she
+repeated solemnly, 'that you can imagine or can dread.' She looked like
+a Prophetess, standing before him with hand raised and with solemn
+voice.
+
+'This is fooling. What do you know? Who are you?'
+
+'I cannot tell what kind of disaster it will be--the greatest--the worst
+possible--it will be. Be warned. Keep Mr. Probus at arm's length or he
+will ruin you--he will ruin you, unless he has ruined you already.'
+
+'You cannot frighten me with bugaboo stories. If you will not tell me
+who you are. I shall go.'
+
+She tore off her glove. 'Does this hand,' she said, 'remind you of
+nothing?'
+
+On the third finger of the white hand was a wedding-ring which I had
+never seen there before.
+
+He stared at the hand. Perhaps he suspected. I think he did. No one who
+had once seen that hand could possibly forget it.
+
+She tore off her domino. 'You have doubtless forgotten, Matthew, by this
+time, the face--of your wife.'
+
+He cursed her. He stood up and cursed her in round terms. I don't know
+why. He accused her of nothing. But he cursed her. She was the origin
+and cause of his bad luck.
+
+I would have interfered. 'Let be--let be,' she said. 'The time will
+surely come when the ruin which I have foretold will fall upon him. Let
+us wait till then. That will be sufficient punishment for him. I see it
+coming--I know not when. I see it coming. Let him curse.'
+
+He desisted. He ran out of the room without another word.
+
+She looked after him with a deep sigh.
+
+'I told you, Will, that I had a surprise for you--the greatest surprise
+of your life. I will tell you more to-morrow if you will come in the
+afternoon. You shall hear more about Matthew, my husband Matthew. Get
+you gone now and home to bed with all the speed you may. Good-night,
+cousin Will--cousin Will.'
+
+I left her as I was bidden. I walked home through the deserted streets
+of early morning. My brain was burning. Matthew the gambler! Matthew the
+husband of Jenny! Matthew the gambler. Why--everything shouted the word
+as I passed: the narrow streets of Soho: the water lapping the arches of
+Westminster Bridge: the keen air blowing over the Bank; all shouted the
+words--'Matthew the gambler! Matthew the husband of Jenny! Matthew the
+gambler!' And when I lay down to sleep the words that rang in my ear
+were 'Matthew my husband--Cousin Will!--Cousin Will!'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WHO SHE WAS
+
+
+'You now know, Will,' said Jenny, when I called next day, 'why I have
+been interested in you, since I first saw you. Not on account of your
+good looks, Sir, though I confess you are a very pretty fellow: nor on
+account of your playing, which is spirited and true; but because you are
+my first cousin by marriage.'
+
+She received me, sitting in the small room on the left of the Hall. The
+great house was quite empty, save for the servants, who were always
+clearing away the remains of one fête and arranging for another. Their
+footsteps resounded in the vacant corridors and their voices echoed in
+the vacant chambers.
+
+'Jenny, I have been able to think of nothing else. I could not sleep for
+thinking of it. I am more and more amazed.'
+
+'I knew you would be. Well, Will, I wanted to have a long talk with you.
+I have a great deal to say. First, I shall give you some tea--believe
+me, it is far better for clearing the head after a night such as last
+night, than Madeira. I have a great deal to tell you--I fear you will
+despise me--but I will hide nothing. I am resolved to hide nothing from
+you.'
+
+Meantime the words kept ringing in my ears. 'Matthew a gambler! The
+religious Matthew! To whom music was a snare of the Devil and the
+musician a servant of the Devil! The steady Matthew! The irreproachable
+Matthew!'
+
+Yet, since I had always known him to be a violator of truth; a slanderer
+and a backbiter, why not, also, a gambler? Why not also a murderer--a
+forger--anything? I was to find out before long that he was quite ready
+to become the former of these also, upon temptation. Yet the thing was
+wonderful, even after I had actually seen it and proved it. And again,
+Matthew married! Not to a sober and godly citizen's daughter, but to an
+actress of Drury Lane Theatre! Matthew, to whom the theatre was as the
+mouth of the Bottomless Pit! Who could believe such a thing?
+
+As for what follows, Jenny did not tell me the whole in this one
+afternoon. I have put together, as if it was all one conversation, what
+took several days or perhaps several weeks.
+
+'You think it so wonderful, Will,' Jenny said, reading my thoughts in my
+face. 'For my own part it is never wonderful that a man should gamble,
+or drink, or throw himself away upon an unworthy mistress. Every man may
+go mad: it is part of man's nature: women, never, save for love and
+jealousy and the like. Men are so made: madness seizes them: down they
+go to ruin and the grave. It is strong drink with some: and avarice with
+some: and gaming with some. Your cousin Matthew is as mad as an Abram
+man.'
+
+She was silent for a while. Then she went on again. I have written it
+down much as if all that follows was a single speech. It was broken up
+by my interruptions and by her pauses and movements. For she was too
+quick and restless to sit down while she was speaking. She would spring
+from her chair and walk about the room; she would stand at the window,
+and drum at the panes of glass: she would stand over the fireplace; she
+would look in the round mirror hanging on the wall. She had a thousand
+restless ways. Sometimes she stood behind me and laid a hand on my
+shoulder as if she was ashamed for me to look upon her.
+
+It was a wonderful tale she told me: more wonderful that a woman who had
+gone through that companionship should come out of it, filled through
+and through, like a sponge, with the knowledge of wickedness and found
+in childhood with those who practise wickedness, yet should be herself
+so free from all apparent stain or taint of it. Surely, unless the face,
+the eyes, the voice, the language, the thoughts, can all lie together,
+this woman was one of the purest and most innocent of Heaven's
+creatures.
+
+It is not always the knowledge of evil that makes a woman wicked. Else,
+if you think of it, there would be no good woman at all among us.
+Consider: it is only a question of degree. A child born in the Mint; or
+in Fullwood's Rents; or in St. Giles's: or in Turnmill Street learns,
+one would think, everything that is vile. But children do not always
+inquire into the meaning of what they hear: most things that they see or
+hear may pass off them like water from a duck's back. Their best
+safe-guard is their want of curiosity. Besides, it is not only in St.
+Giles's that children hear things that are kept from them: in the
+respectable part of the city, in Cheapside itself, they can hear the low
+language and the vile sayings and the blasphemous oaths of the common
+sort. Children are absorbed by their own pursuits and thoughts. The
+grown-up world: the working world, does not belong to them; they see and
+see not; they hear and hear not; they cannot choose, but see and hear:
+yet they inquire not into the meaning.
+
+'Will,' she said, 'I would I had never heard your name. It has been an
+unlucky name to me--and perhaps it will be more unlucky still.' I know
+not if she was here foretelling what certainly happened, afterwards.
+'Your cousin, Matthew, is no common player, who carries a few guineas in
+his pocket and watches them depart with a certain interest and even
+anxiety and then goes away. This man is a fierce, thirsty, insatiable
+gambler. There is a play called 'The Gamester' in which the hero is such
+an one. He plays like this hero with a thirst that cannot be assuaged.
+He plays every night: he has, I believe, already ruined himself: yet he
+cannot stop: he would play away the whole world and then would stake his
+soul, unless he had first sold his soul for money to play with. Soul? If
+he has any soul--but I know not.'
+
+'You amaze me, Jenny. Indeed, I am overwhelmed with amazement. I cannot
+get the words out of my head, "Matthew a gambler! Matthew a gambler!"'
+
+'Yes--Matthew a gambler. He has been a gambler in a small way for many
+years. When he got possession of your father's money and the management
+of that House, he became a gambler in a large way. I say that I believe
+he is already well-nigh ruined. You have seen him on one night, Will; he
+is at the same game every night. I have had him watched--I know. His
+luck is such as the luck of men like that always is--against him
+continually. He never wins: or if ever, then only small sums as will
+serve to encourage him. There is no evening in the week, not even
+Sunday, when he does not play. I have reason to know--I will tell you
+why, presently--that he has already lost a great fortune.'
+
+'The fortune that my father left to him. It should have been mine.'
+
+'Then, my poor Will, it never will be yours. For it is gone. I learned,
+six months ago, that his business is impaired: the credit of the House
+is shaken. Worse than this, Will'--she laid her hand on my arm--'he had
+then, already, borrowed large sums of Mr. Probus, and as he could not
+pay he was borrowing more. There is the danger for you!'
+
+'What danger?'
+
+'You musicians live in the clouds. Why does Matthew continue to borrow
+money? He pretends that he wants to put it into the business. Really, he
+gambles with it. Why does Probus continue to lend him money? Probus does
+not suspect the truth. In the hope that he will presently have such a
+hold over Matthew that he will get possession of the business, become a
+partner and turn out Matthew and your uncle. It looks splendid. All
+these ships: the wharf covered with goods: but the ships are mortgaged
+and their cargoes are mortgaged: and the interest on Probus's loans can
+only be paid by borrowing more. In a very short time, Will, the bubble
+will burst. The situation is already dangerous; it will then become full
+of peril.'
+
+'Why dangerous to me? I have borrowed no money.'
+
+'You are a very simple person, Will. They put you into the King's Bench.
+Yet you don't understand. I do. Matthew wanted to borrow money on the
+security of that succession. Probus would have lent him money on that
+security. Probus would have had another finger in the pie. He did not
+know, then, what he will very soon find out, that all the money he has
+already advanced to his rich client is lost. Then it was a mere
+temptation to Matthew to put you under pressure: now it will become a
+necessity to make you submit: a necessity for both, and they are a pair
+of equal villains.'
+
+'Last night you warned Matthew. Jenny, your words seemed to be no common
+warning. You know something or you would not have pronounced that solemn
+warning.'
+
+'Every woman is a prophetess,' she replied, gravely. 'Oh! I can
+sometimes foretell things. Not always: not when I wish: not as I wish.
+The prophecy comes to me. I know not how it comes: and I cannot expect
+it or wait for it. Last night, suddenly, I saw a vision of villainy, I
+know not what. It was directed against you and Alice--and the
+villains--among them was Matthew--were driven back with whips. They fled
+howling. Will, this Vision makes me speak.'
+
+This kind of talk was new to me: I confess it made me uneasy.
+
+'Well, you now know the truth. Your cousin has defamed and slandered
+you: without relenting and without ceasing. So long as it was possible
+to do you a mischief with your father he did it: he has robbed you of
+your inheritance: well: you can now, if you please, revenge yourself.'
+
+'Revenge myself? How?'
+
+'You will not only revenge yourself: you may make it impossible for your
+cousin to do you any further injury.'
+
+'Does he wish to do me any further injury?'
+
+'Will, I suppose that you are a fool because you are a musician. Wish? A
+man like that who has injured you as much as he could and as often as
+he could will go on: it is the nature of such a man to injure others:
+his delight and his nature: he craves for mischief almost as he craves
+for gambling.'
+
+'You are bitter against--your husband, Jenny.'
+
+'I am very bitter against him. I have reason.'
+
+'But about the revenge. Of what kind is it?'
+
+'You may do this. His father, the Alderman, has withdrawn from any
+active partnership in the business, which is conducted entirely by
+Matthew. He passes now an idle life beside Clapham Common, with his
+gardens and his greenhouses. Go to this poor gentleman: tell him the
+truth. Let him learn that his son is a gambler: that he is wasting all
+that is left to waste: that his losses have been very heavy already: and
+that the end is certain bankruptcy. You can tell your uncle that you saw
+yourself with your own eyes Matthew losing a hundred and fifty-five
+guineas in the card-room of a Masquerade: this will terrify him, though
+at first he will not believe it: then he will cause the affairs of the
+House to be examined, and he will find out, if accountants are any use,
+how much has been already wasted. Mind, Will, I invent nothing. All this
+I know. The House is well-nigh ruined.'
+
+'How do you know all this, Jenny?'
+
+'Not by visions, certainly. I know it from information. It is, I assure
+you, the bare truth. The House is already well-nigh ruined.'
+
+'I fear I cannot tell my uncle these things.'
+
+'It would be a kindness to him in the end, Will. Let him learn the truth
+before the worst happens.'
+
+I shook my head. Revenge is not a pleasing task. To go to my uncle with
+such a tale seemed a mean way of returning Matthew's injuries.
+
+'I do not counsel revenge, then,' she went on, again divining my
+thoughts. 'Call it your safety. When you have alarmed your uncle into
+calling for an explanation, go and see the man Probus.'
+
+'See Probus? Why?'
+
+'I would separate Probus from his client. Go and tell the man--go and
+tell him without reference to his past villainies that his client
+Matthew is an incurable gambler, and that all the money Probus has lent
+to him has been lost over the gaming table.'
+
+'Tell Probus?' The thought of speaking to Probus except as to a viper
+was not pleasant.
+
+'I have made inquiries about Probus,' She knew everything, this woman!
+'He is of the tribe they call blood-suckers: they fasten upon their
+victim, and they never let go till such time as there is no more blood
+to suck. There is some blood left. Probus will never think of you while
+he is saving what he can of his own. Tell the money-lender this, I say,
+and what with Probus on the one hand, maddened by his loss, and his own
+father on the other, well-nigh terrified to death, Matthew will have
+enough to do.'
+
+'Would you like me to do this, Jenny?'
+
+'I should like it done,' she replied, turning away her face.
+
+'Would you like to do it yourself, Jenny?'
+
+'I am a woman. Women must not do violent things.'
+
+'Jenny, there is more revenge than precaution in this.'
+
+'There may be some revenge, but there is also a good deal of prudence.'
+
+'I cannot do it, Jenny.'
+
+'Are you afraid, Will? To be sure, a musician is not a
+sold--so--no--Will, forgive me. You are not afraid. Forgive me.'
+
+'I shall leave them to work out their destruction in their own way,
+whatever way that may be.'
+
+'But that way may be hurtful to you, my poor Will--even fatal to you,'
+
+'I shall leave them alone: their punishment will surely fall upon them,
+they will dig a trap to their own undoing.'
+
+'Will, I have heard that kind of talk before. I have used those words
+myself upon the stage.' She threw herself into an attitude and declaimed
+with fire.
+
+    'Think not, Allora, that I dread their hate:
+    Nor hate, nor vile conspiracy shall turn me--
+    Still on their own presumptuous heads shall fall
+    The lightning they invoke for mine; for lower
+    Hangs yon black thunder cloud; and even louder
+    I hear the rumbling of the angry earth.
+    Wait but a moment: then the flash shall shoot;
+    Then shall the thunder roar; the earth shall gape;
+    And where they stood there shall be nothingness.'
+
+'That is your position, Will. For my own part, if I were you, I should
+prefer safety, and I should not object to revenge.'
+
+'It is true, Jenny.'
+
+'Perhaps. For my own part, I have known a monstrous number of wicked
+people on whom no lightnings fell, and for whom the earth did never
+gape. Nothing has happened to them so long as they were gentlemen. With
+the baser sort, of course, there is Tyburn, and I dare say that feels at
+the end like the gaping of the earth and the flash of lightning and the
+roar of the thunder, all together. Even with them some escape.'
+
+I would have quoted the Psalmist, but refrained, because by this time I
+had made the singular discovery that Jenny seemed to have no knowledge
+of religion at all. If one spoke in the common way of man's dependence
+she looked as if she understood nothing: or she said she had heard words
+to that effect on the stage: if one spoke indirectly of the Christian
+scheme she showed no response: had I mentioned the Psalmist she would
+have asked perhaps who the Psalmist was, or where his pieces were
+played. She never went to church: she never read any books except her
+own parts. She was sharp and clever in the conduct of affairs: she was
+not to be taken in by rogues: how could such a woman, considering our
+mode of education and the general acknowledgment of Christianity, even
+in an atheistical age, that prevails in our books, escape some
+knowledge, or tincture, of religion?
+
+'Do not call it revenge,' she insisted. 'In your own safety you should
+strike: and without delay. I repeat it: I cannot put it too strongly
+before you. There is a great danger threatening. When Probus finds that
+the money is really gone, he will become desperate: he will stick at
+nothing.'
+
+'Since he knows, now, that nothing will persuade me to sell that chance
+of succession, he will perhaps desist.'
+
+'He will never desist. If you were dead! The thought lies in both their
+minds. If you were dead! Then that money would be Matthew's.'
+
+'Do you think Mr. Probus will murder me?'
+
+'Not with his own hands. Still--do you think, Will, that when two
+villains are continually brooding over the same thought, villainy will
+not follow? If I were you I would take this tale to the Alderman first,
+and to Probus next, and I should then keep out of the way for six months
+at least.'
+
+'No.' I said. 'They shall be left to themselves.'
+
+Perhaps I was wrong. Had I told my uncle all, the bankruptcy would have
+been precipitated and Probus's claim would have been treated with all
+the others, and even if that large sum had fallen it would have been
+added to the general estate and divided accordingly.
+
+It was in the afternoon: the sun was sinking westward: it shone through
+the window upon Jenny as she restlessly moved about the room--disquieted
+by all she had to tell me. I remember how she was dressed: in a frock of
+light blue silk, with a petticoat to match: her hair hung in its natural
+curls, covered with a kerchief--the soft evening sunlight wrapped her in
+a blaze of light and colour. And oh! the pity of it! To think that this
+divine creature was thrown away upon my wretched cousin! The pity of it!
+
+'Tell me, Jenny,' I said, 'how you became his wife?'
+
+'Yes, Will, I will tell you,' she replied humbly. 'Don't think that I
+ever loved him--nor could I endure his caresses--but he never offered
+any--the only man who never wanted to caress me was my husband--to be
+sure he did not love me--or anyone else--he is incapable of love. He is
+a worm. His hand is slimy and cold: his face is slimy: his voice is
+slimy. But I thought I could live with him, perhaps. If not, I could
+always leave him.'
+
+She paused a little as if to collect herself.
+
+'Every actress,' she went on, 'has troops of lovers. There are the
+gentlemen first who would fain make her their mistress for a month:
+those who would make her their mistress for a year: and those who desire
+only the honour and glory of pretending that she is their mistress: and
+then there are the men who would like nothing better than to marry the
+actress and to live upon her salary--believe me, of all these there are
+plenty. Lastly, there is the gentleman who would really marry the
+actress, all for love of her, and for no other consideration. I thought,
+at first, that your cousin Matthew was one of these.'
+
+'How did you know him?'
+
+'He was brought into the Green Room one night by some gambling
+acquaintance. I remarked his long serious face, I thought he was a man
+who might be trusted. He asked permission to wait upon me----'
+
+'Well?' For she stopped.
+
+'I thought, I say, that he was a man to be trusted. He did not look like
+one who drank: he did not follow other actresses about with his eyes: I
+say, Will, that I thought I could trust him. He came to my lodging. He
+told me that he was a rich City merchant: he asked me what I should like
+if I would marry him and he promised to give it to me--that--and
+anything else----'
+
+'If you did not love him--Jenny----'
+
+'I did not love him. I will tell you. I wanted to get away from the man
+I did love; and so I wanted, above all, to be taken away from London and
+the Theatre into the country, never to hear anything more about the
+stage. Had he done what he promised, Will, I would have made a good wife
+to him, although he is a slimy worm. But he did not. He broke his word
+on the very morning when we came out of church----'
+
+'How?'
+
+'He began by saying that he had a little explanation to offer. He said
+that when he told me he was a rich merchant--that, indeed, was his
+reputation: but his position was embarrassed: he wanted money: he wished
+not to borrow any: he therefore thought that if he married an
+actress--that class of persons being notorious for having no honour--his
+very words to me, actually, his very words an hour after leaving the
+church--he intended to open a gaming-house at which I was to be the
+decoy. Now you understand why I call him a villain, and a wretch, and a
+slimy worm.'
+
+'Jenny!'
+
+'I left him on the spot after telling him what he was--I left him--I
+left the Theatre as well. I had a friend who found me the money to take
+this place under another name. I have seen the man many times here--last
+night--and once I called upon him and I made him give me the money to
+get you out of the Prison, Will.'
+
+'Matthew found that money?'
+
+'Of course, he did. I had none--I went to him and reminded him that he
+had contributed nothing to the maintenance of his wife, and that he must
+give me whatever the sum was. He was obliged to give it, otherwise I
+should have informed the clerks of the Counting-house who I was.'
+
+I laughed. 'Well, but Jenny, there was another man----'
+
+'You are persistent, Sir. Why should I tell you? Well, I will confess.
+This man protested a great deal less than the others. He was a noble
+Lord, if that matters. He was quite different from all the rest: he
+never came to the Green Room drunk: he never cursed and swore: he never
+shook his cane in the face of footman or chairman: he was a gentle
+creature--and he loved me and would have married me: well--I told him
+who and what I was--I will tell you presently--that mattered nothing. He
+would carry me away from them all. I would have married him, Will: and
+we should have been happy: but his sister came to see me and she went on
+her knees crying and imploring me to refuse him because in the history
+of their family there had never been any such alliance as that with an
+actress of no family. Would I bring disgrace into a noble family? If I
+refused, he would forget me, and she would do all in her power for me,
+if ever I wanted a friend. It was for his sake--if I loved him I would
+not injure him. And so she went on: and she persuaded me, Will--because,
+you see, when people pride themselves about their families it is a pity
+to bring the gutter into it--with Newgate and Tyburn, isn't it?'
+
+'Jenny, what has Newgate got to do with it?'
+
+'Wait and I will tell you. I gave way. It cost me a great deal,
+Will--more than you would believe--because I had never loved anyone
+before--and when a woman does love a man----' The tears rose in her
+eyes,--'and then it was that your cousin came to the Theatre.'
+
+Poor Jenny! And she always seemed so cheerful, so lively, so happy! Her
+face might have been drawn to illustrate Milton's 'L'Allegra.' How could
+she look so happy when she had this unhappy love story and this unhappy
+marriage to think upon?'
+
+'Will,' she cried passionately, 'I am the most unhappy woman in the
+world.'
+
+I made no reply. Indeed I knew not what there was to say. Matthew was a
+villain: there can be few worse villains: Jenny was in truth a most
+injured and a most unhappy woman.
+
+It was growing twilight. What followed was told, or most of it, because
+I have set down the result of two or three conversations in one, by the
+light of the fire, in a low voice, a low musical voice--that seemed to
+rob the naked truth of much of its horrors.
+
+'I told my Lord, Will,' she said, 'what I am going to tell you
+because I would not have him ignorant of anything, or find out
+anything--afterwards--but there was no afterwards--which he might think
+I should have told him before. He has a pretty gift of drawing: he
+makes pictures of things and people with a pencil and a box of
+water-colours. I made him take certain sketches for me. He did so,
+wondering what they might mean.' Here she rose, opened a drawer in a
+cabinet and took out a little packet tied up with a ribbon. 'First I
+begged him to sketch me one of the little girls who run about the
+streets in Soho. There are hundreds of them: they are bare-footed:
+bare-headed: dressed in a sack, in a flannel petticoat: in anything:
+they have no schooling: they are not taught anything at all: their
+parents and their brothers and sisters and their cousins and their
+grandparents are all thieves and rogues together: what can they become?
+What hope is there for them? See,' she took one of the pictures out and
+gave it to me. By the firelight I made out a little girl standing in the
+street. In her carriage there was something of the freedom of a gipsy in
+the woods: her hair blew loose in the wind, her scanty petticoat clung
+to her little figure: she was bare-legged, bare-footed, bare-headed.
+'Can you see it, Will? Well--when I had got all the pictures together, I
+asked the artist to sit down, as I have asked you to-day. And when he
+was sat down, I had the bundle of pictures in my hand, and I said to
+him, "My Lord, this is a very pretty sketch--I like it all the better
+because it shows what I was like at that age." "You, Jenny?" "Yes, my
+Lord, I myself. That little girl is myself." "Well!" he cried out on the
+impossibility of the thing. But I assured him of the truth of what I
+said. Then I took up the next picture. It represented the entrance of a
+court in Soho. Round this entrance were gathered a collection of men and
+women with the most evil faces possible. "These, my Lord," I said, "are
+the people who were once my companions when they and I were young
+together." "But not now?" he asked. "Not now," I told him, "save that
+they all remember me and consider me as one of themselves and come to
+the Theatre in order to applaud me: the highwaymen going to the pit; the
+petty thieves and pickpockets and footpads to the gallery." Well, at
+first he looked serious. Then he cleared up and kissed my hand: he loved
+me for myself, he said, and as regards the highwaymen and such fellows,
+he would very soon take me out of their way.'
+
+'But, Jenny----'
+
+'Will, I am telling you what I told his Lordship. Believe me, it does
+not cost me to tell you half as much as it did to tell that noble
+heart. For he loved me, Will, and I loved him.' Again her eyes glistened
+by the red light of the fire.
+
+She took up a third picture. It represented a public-house. Over the
+door swung the sign of a Black Jack: the first story projected over the
+ground-floor, and the second story over the first: beside the
+public-house stood a tall church.
+
+'This,' I told my Lord, 'is the Black Jack tavern. It is the House of
+Call for most of the rogues and thieves of Soho. The church is St.
+Giles's Church. As for my own interest in the house, I was born there:
+my mother and sister still keep the place between them: it is in good
+repute among the gentry who frequent it for its kitchen, where there is
+always a fire for those who cook their own suppers, and for the drinks,
+which are excellent, if not cheap. What is the use of keeping cheap
+things for thieves? Lightly got, lightly spent. There is nothing cheap
+at that House. My mother enjoys a reputation for being a Receiver of
+Stolen Goods--a reputation well deserved, as I have reason to believe.
+The Goods are all stowed away in a stone vault or cellar once belonging
+to some kind of house--I know not what.'
+
+I groaned.
+
+'That is how my Lord behaved. Then he kissed my hand again. "Jenny," he
+said, "it is not the landlady of the Black Jack that I am marrying, but
+Jenny Wilmot." He asked me to tell him more. Will you hear more?'
+
+'I will hear all you desire to tell me, Jenny.'
+
+'Once I had a father. He was a gipsy, but since he had fair hair and
+blue eyes, he was not a proper gipsy. I do not know how he got into the
+caravan with the gipsies. Perhaps he was stolen in infancy: or picked up
+on a doorstep. However, I do not remember him. My mother speaks of him
+with pride, but I do not know why. By profession he was a footpad
+and--and'--she faltered for a moment--'he met the fate that belongs to
+that calling. See!' She showed me a drawing representing the Triumphal
+March to Tyburn. 'My mother speaks of it as if it was the fitting end of
+a noble career. I have never been quite able to think so too, and Will,
+if I must confess, I would rather that my father had not been----'
+
+'Not formed the leading figure in that procession,' I interposed. 'But
+go on, Jenny.'
+
+She took up another picture and handed it to me. It was a spirited
+sketch representing a small crowd; a pump; and a boy held under the
+pump.
+
+'I had two brothers. This was one. He was a pickpocket. What could be
+expected? He was caught in the act and held under a pump. But they kept
+him so long that it brought on a chill and he died. The other brother is
+now in the Plantations of Jamaica.'
+
+She produced another picture. It represented an Orange Girl at Drury
+Lane. She carried her basket of oranges on her arm: she had a white
+kerchief over her neck and shoulders and another over her head: her face
+was full of impudence, cleverness and wit.
+
+'That, Will, is the first step upwards of your cousin's wife. From the
+gutter to the pit of Drury Lane as an Orange girl. There was a step for
+me! Yes. I looked like that: I behaved like that: I was as shameless as
+that: I used to talk to the men in the Pit as they talk--you know the
+kind of talk. And now, Will, confess: you are heartily ashamed of me.'
+
+'Jenny!' Like the noble Lord, I kissed her fingers. 'Believe me, I am
+not in the least ashamed of you.'
+
+'The next step was to the stage. That, Will, was pure luck. The Manager
+heard me imitating the actors and actresses--and himself. He saw me
+dancing to please the other girls--I used to dance to please the people
+in the Black Jack. He took a fancy in his head that I was clever. He
+took me from among the other girls: he gave me instruction: and
+presently a speaking part. That is the whole history. I have told you
+all--I never told these things to Matthew--why should I? But to my Lord,
+I told all----'
+
+'Yes--and he was not ashamed.'
+
+'No--but he did not like the applause of the rogues, and the orange
+girls. While the highwaymen applauded in the pit and the pickpockets in
+the Gallery, the Orange Girls were telling all the people that once I
+was one of them with my basket of oranges like the rest--and so it was
+agreed that I was to leave the stage and go away into the country out of
+the way of all the old set.'
+
+'And then.'
+
+'Then I could no longer oblige my Lord. I left it to oblige myself and
+to marry Matthew.'
+
+She sat down and buried her face in her hands. 'But I loved my Lord,'
+she said. 'I loved my Lord.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE BLACK JACK
+
+
+Jenny finished her story, much as you have heard it, though some has
+been forgotten.
+
+'And now,' she said, 'I will take you to the very place where I was
+born. You shall see for yourself the house, and my mother and my sister
+and the company among whom I was brought up. Wait for a moment while I
+change my dress. I cannot go like this. And I do not want all of them to
+learn where I now live.'
+
+She returned in a few minutes dressed in the garb of an orange girl of
+Drury. Everybody knows how these girls are attired; a frock of the
+commonest linsey-woolsey; a kerchief over her head tied under her chin:
+another kerchief round her neck and bosom; her sleeves coming down to
+her elbows; on her arm a round deep basket filled with oranges. But no
+orange girl ever had so sweet a face; so fine a carriage; hands and arms
+so white. Nor could any disguise deprive this lovely creature of her
+beauty or rob her face of its pure and virginal expression. That such a
+being should come out of the Black Jack! But then we find the white lily
+growing beside a haystack or a pigsty and none the less white and
+delicate and fragrant.
+
+The tavern called the Black Jack stands over against the west front of
+St. Giles's Church, at the corner of Denmark Street, with a double
+entrance which has proved useful, I believe, on the appearance of
+constables or Bow Street runners. The Church which is large and
+handsome, worthy of better parishioners, stands in the midst of a
+quarter famous for harbouring, producing and encouraging the most
+audacious rogues and the most impudent drabs that can be found in the
+whole of London. As for the Church, of course they never enter it: as
+for religion, they have never learned any: as for morals, they know of
+none; as for the laws, they defy them; as for hanging, whipping and
+imprisonment, they heed them no more than other folk heed the necessity
+of death or the chances of pain and suffering, before death releases
+them.
+
+Every man must die, they say. Few people among them live naturally more
+than forty years or so. Fever, small-pox, ague, carry off most of their
+class before forty. If, therefore, one takes part in the march to Tyburn
+at five-and-thirty one does but lose two or three years of life. Then,
+again, there is the punishment of the lash--that seems very terrible.
+But every man, rich or poor, has to endure pain; very often pain worse
+than that of the lash. Certainly, the agony of the whip is not worse
+than that of rheumatism or gout: it is sooner over: it makes no man any
+the older: it does not unfit him for his work: after a day or two, he is
+none the worse for it. As for imprisonment; a prison, if your friends
+look after you, may be made, with the help of a few companions, as
+cheerful a place as the kitchen of the Black Jack with drinking and
+singing and tobacco. This kind of talk is the religion of Roguedom, and
+since it is so, we may cease to wonder why these people are not deterred
+by the severity of their punishments. For no punishment can deter when
+it is not feared: that is beyond question: and since after punishment,
+the rogue is still regarded as a rogue, whom no one will employ,
+punishment does not convert. Nor does the prison chaplain effect any
+miracles in conversion, because no one listens to his exhortations.
+
+Over against the church of St. Giles's, the tavern of the Black Jack
+lifts its shameless head: the projecting upper windows bend threatening
+brows against the west end of the Church with its pillars of white
+stone: the house has villainy written large over all the front: it is
+covered with yellow places breaking away in lumps and showing the black
+timbers behind: the roof, of red tiles, is sunken in parts: many of the
+windows are broken and stuffed with rags.
+
+The ground floor consists of a long low room: at one end is a bar with a
+counter, behind it casks of beer and rum and shelves with bottles
+containing cordials: there is a door behind the bar opening to a cellar
+staircase: and is said to communicate with a subterranean passage
+leading one knows not whither. It is also rumoured that the cellar, into
+which no one but the landlady of the Black Jack and her daughter has
+ever penetrated, is a large stone vault with pillars and arches, the
+remains of some Roman Catholic building. The kitchen, or public room, is
+on the ground floor about twelve inches below the level of the street:
+it is entered by two steps: the window is garnished with red curtains,
+which on wintry evenings give the place a warm and cheerful look: the
+bright colour promises a roaring fire and lights and drink. Both in the
+summer and winter the place is always cheerful because it is always
+filled with company.
+
+Three or four candles in sconces light up the room, and, in addition, a
+generous fire always burning every night, adds to the light of the
+place. The fire is kept up partly for warmth: partly for the convenience
+of those who bring their suppers with them and cook them on the fire.
+Also, for their convenience, frying-pans and gridirons are lying ready
+beside the fireplace: and for the convenience of the punch-drinkers a
+huge kettle bubbles on the hob. Two tables stand for those who take
+their supper here. As the food principally in favour consists of
+bloaters, red herrings, sprats, mackerel, pig's fry, pork, fat bacon,
+beefsteak and onions, liver and lights and other coarse but savoury
+dishes, the mingled fragrance makes the air delightful and refreshing.
+As the windows are never open the air is never free from this fragrance,
+added to which is the reek, or stench of old beer, rum, gin, and rank
+tobacco taken in the horrid manner of the lower classes, by means of a
+clay pipe, not in the more courtly fashion of snuff. Nor must one forget
+the--pah!--the company--the people themselves, the men and women, the
+boys and girls who frequent this tavern nightly. Taking all into
+account, I think it would be difficult, outside Newgate, to find a more
+noisome den than the kitchen or bar-room of the Black Jack.
+
+All round the room ran a bench: the company sat on the bench, every man
+with a pipe of tobacco and a mug of drink: the walls were streaming: one
+felt inclined to run away--out into the fresh air for breath. The space
+in the middle was mostly kept open for a fight, perhaps: for a dance,
+perhaps, if a fiddler could be found. Every evening, I believe, there
+was a fight either between two men, or between two women: or between two
+boys. What would an Englishman of the baser sort become if he were
+forbidden to fight?
+
+I describe what I saw after we entered. When Jenny pushed open the door
+and the breath of that tavern ascended to my nostrils I trembled and
+hesitated.
+
+'Strong, at first, isn't it?' said Jenny. 'Cousin Will, to stand here
+and breathe the air that comes up carries me back to my childhood. You
+are ready to face it? After a little one grows accustomed. They like it,
+the people inside.' She stood with the handle of the half opened door in
+her hand. 'Now,' she said. 'You shall visit the Rogues' Delight: the
+Thieves' Kitchen: the Black Jack: the favourite House of Call for the
+gallows bird. You shall see what manner of woman is the old lady my
+mother: and what sort of woman is the young lady my sister.'
+
+'I am ready, Jenny,' I replied, with an effort. One would join a forlorn
+hope almost as readily.
+
+'Don't mind me. Take no notice whatever I say or do,' she whispered. 'I
+must humour the wretches. It is more than twelve months since I have
+been among them. They may resent my absence. However, you keep quiet,
+and say nothing. Call for drink if you like, and pretend to be an old
+hand in the place.'
+
+Jenny threw up her head: opened her lips: laughed loudly and impudently:
+looked round her with an impudent stare: became, in a word, once more,
+one of the brazen young queans who sell oranges and exchange rude jokes
+with the gentlemen in the Pit of Drury Lane Theatre. It was a wonderful
+change. I saw a girl who would perhaps be beautiful if she had preserved
+any rags or the least appearance of feminine modesty: as for Jenny's
+sweet and attractive look of innocence, that had vanished. She had, in
+fact, resumed her former self, and more than her former self. I saw her
+as she had been. Was there ever before known such a thing that a girl
+who had never been taught what was meant by feminine modesty should be
+able to assume, at will, the look of one brought up in a convent--all
+innocence and ignorance--and, at will, be able to put it off and go back
+to her former self? No--it is impossible: the innocence of Jenny's face
+proclaimed the innocence of Jenny's soul.
+
+'Follow me,' she said. 'Keep close, or expect a pewter plate or a pot
+hurled at your head. They love not strangers.'
+
+She pushed open the door: she descended the steps: I followed. The room
+was quite full, and the reek of it made me sick and faint for a moment.
+But to the worst of stinks one quickly grows hardened.
+
+'By----!' cried a voice from out of the smoke. 'It's Madame.'
+
+'Lawks, Mother'--this was a girl's voice-''tis Jenny. Why, Jenny, we
+all thought you was grown too proud for the Black Jack.'
+
+'Good-evening all,' she cried with a loud coarse laugh; she added, as a
+finishing stroke of art, a certain click or choking in the middle of the
+laugh such as one may hear among the lowest sort of women as they walk
+along the street. 'How are you, mother? You did not expect me to come in
+to-night, did you? How's business? How are you, Doll? Adding up the
+figures on the slate as usual? How are you, boys? I haven't seen any of
+you at the Theatre for a spell. That's because I've been resting.
+Actresses must rest sometimes. Where have I been? That's my business.
+Who with? That's my business, too. Now'--she brandished her basket, and
+walked about among them shaking her petticoats in the way of the
+impudent orange girls--'choose a fine Chaney orange! Choose a fine
+Chaney orange! One for your sweetheart, my curly boy? Here is a fine
+one: pay me when I come again. Doll, chalk up to the gentleman an orange
+for his girl. One for this pretty country girl? Take it, my beauty. I
+will tell your fortune presently--a lover and a pile of gold and babies
+as sweet as this orange.' So she got rid of her oranges, offering and
+presenting them here and there with the impudence of the craft she
+assumed, yet with something of her own inimitable grace which she could
+not quite put off. Then she turned to me. 'Sit down here,' she ordered.
+'Lads,' she said, 'I've brought you a friend of mine. He's a fiddler by
+trade. If you like he will fiddle for you till he puts fire into your
+toes and springs into your heels.'
+
+'Who is he?' cried a voice. Through the smoke I now recognised the
+Bishop, formerly of the King's Bench Prison. The reverend gentleman's
+face was redder and his cheek fuller than when last I saw him. He
+seemed, however, in better case: he had gotten a new cassock: his bands
+and his cuffs were of whiter hue: his wig was better shaped and better
+dressed: it came, I make no doubt, from some place where are deposited
+the wigs snatched from the passengers in hackney coaches or even in the
+streets. His looks, however, were certainly more prosperous than when I
+had seen him last. He did not recognise me, which was as well. Beside
+him sat the Captain, also more prosperous to all appearance. He wore a
+purple coat and a fawn-coloured waistcoat: he had rings on his fingers,
+and his hat was laced with gold: he wore gold buckles: buttons silver
+gilt and white silk stockings. He looked what he was--a ruffian, a
+robber, and a swashbuckler. He had a girl on his knee, and one arm round
+her waist: she was a handsome, red-faced wench dressed up in all kinds
+of finery, somewhat decayed and second hand. A pipe was between the
+gallant Captain's lips and a glass of punch was in his right hand. 'Twas
+a picture of Rogues' Paradise: warmth, light, fire, clothes, drink,
+tobacco, good company, and a fine girl. What more can a man want?
+
+'Who's your man?' repeated the Bishop. 'We are not going to have
+strangers here spying on us for what we do. Who is he?'
+
+'Who is he? What's that to you? I shall bring anybody I like to the
+Black Jack. If you don't like your Company, Bishop, get up and go.' He
+growled, but made no attempt to rise. 'If'--she appealed to the Company
+generally--'I choose to bring my fancy man here, am I to ask the
+Bishop's leave?' Then before there was time for a reply: 'Mother, bustle
+about. Let every man call for what he wants. Score it to me. This
+evening I pay for all.'
+
+Her mother, a fat old woman of fifty, red faced, with the look of
+callous indifference that belongs to such a woman, sat behind the Bar, a
+piece of knitting in her hand. She got up grumbling.
+
+'Oh! ay,' she said. 'When Jenny comes you must all get drunk at her
+expense. She'd better give me the money to keep for her. Well--what
+shall it be? Doll, stir about: stir about--you leave it all to me. Ask
+the gentlemen what they will take. And the ladies too. Whatever they
+like. Jenny pays to-night. Whatever they like--that's Jenny's
+way--whatever they like so that it ruins my poor girl.'
+
+Doll, the other daughter, made no response. She was continually occupied
+with the slate, and I suppose she was slow at calculation for she kept
+adding up over and over again, wiping out with her wet finger and adding
+up again. The Black Jack refused credit as a rule: most of the company
+had to pay for what they called for on the spot; but there were a few to
+whom limited credit was granted, as a privilege.
+
+The girl called Doll, I remarked, was not in the least like her sister.
+She had black hair and a somewhat swarthy complexion and appeared to
+belong, as indeed she did, to the people called gipsies. The mother had
+also the same black hair and dark skin. Strange, that a girl of Jenny's
+complexion with her fair hair, blue eyes, and peach-like skin, should
+come of the same stock. I sought in vain for any likeness between Jenny
+and this girl. I thought that she might present the same features with a
+difference: debased: but I could find none. She wore a red kerchief tied
+round her head, a red ribbon tied round her neck: a red scarf tied round
+her waist. In her way she was a handsome girl: in her manners she showed
+no inclination to oblige the company or to be civil to them. She paid no
+heed when her mother bade her stir about. On the contrary, she went on
+with her sums on the slate.
+
+It was Jenny who ran round laughing and joking with the men, ordering
+punch for one and gin for another. Most of the company regarded her with
+bewilderment. It was long since she had been among them: they knew
+something about her: she was the daughter of the house: she had been an
+orange girl at Drury: she had been an actress at the same theatre: some
+of them had seen her there: then she disappeared, and no one knew where
+she was.
+
+One young fellow there was who sat on the bench with hanging head. He
+had apparently no friends among the company. 'Here,' cried Jenny, 'is a
+lad half awake. What art doing here, friend?' The lad shook his head
+mournfully. 'Hast any money?' He shook his head again. Jenny pulled out
+a piece of silver. 'Go,' she said. 'Get food, and'--she whispered--'come
+back here no more. Go--get thee home again.' And so, let me believe, she
+saved one lad that night from the gallows. For he got up slowly and
+walked out.
+
+There was another lad also from the country whose fresh cheek and
+country dress betokened the fact. He sat sheepishly, as a new comer.
+
+Jenny stopped before him. 'And pray what do they call thee, Sirrah?
+Jack? 'Twill serve. What lay is it, Jack? Oh! Shop-lifting?' He nodded.
+'For Mr. Merridew?' she whispered. He nodded again. 'Drink punch, Jack,
+and forget thyself awhile.'
+
+Some of the men were dressed like the Captain, but not so fine: the
+buttons had been cut off their coats and their shoes had lost the
+buckles. There were boys among them: boys who had none of the innocence
+of childhood; their faces betrayed a life of hunting and being hunted:
+they were always on the prowl for prey or were running away and hiding.
+They had all been whipped, held under the pump, thrown into ponds,
+clapped in prison. They were all doomed to be hanged. In their habits of
+drink as in their crimes, they were grown up. In truth there were no
+faces in the whole room which looked more hopeless than those of the
+boys.
+
+The women, of whom there were nearly as many as there were men, were
+either bedizened in tawdry finery or they were in rags: some wearing no
+more than a frock stiffened by the accumulation of years, black leather
+stays, and a kerchief for the neck with another for the head: their hair
+hung about their shoulders loose; and undressed: it was not unbecoming
+in the young, but in the older women it became what is called rats'
+tails. With most of the men, their dress was simple and scanty. Shirts
+were scarce: stockings without holes in them were rare: buttons had
+mostly vanished.
+
+Most of them, I observed further, had an anxious, hungry look: not the
+look of a creature of prey which has always in it something that is
+noble: but the look of one insufficiently fed. I believe that the
+ordinary lot of the rogue is, even on this earth, miserable beyond
+expression: uncertain as to food: cruelly hard in cold weather in the
+matter of raiment.
+
+In a little while they were all happy: happier, I am sure, than they had
+been for a long time. While they drank and while they talked, I observed
+among them a veritable brotherhood. The most successful rogue--he in
+gold lace--was hail fellow with the most ragged. And although the
+successful rogue stood the nearest to the gallows, and he knew it and
+the other rogue knew it, yet the beginner envied the success of his
+brother as a soldier envies the successful general. They drank and
+laughed: they drank more and they laughed more. Then the Captain called
+silence for a song.
+
+'Now, you fiddler!' he cried with a curse. 'Sit up, man, and show us how
+you can play.'
+
+The tune, the Captain told me, was 'The Warbling of the Lark.' I struck
+up that air which every frequenter of Vauxhall, or even the Dog and
+Duck, knows very well, and the Captain began his song.
+
+Now in such a company I expected a song in praise of Roguery and
+Robbery; or at least something of the kind introduced in Gay's Opera. On
+the contrary, the song which the Captain gave us was a sentimental
+ditty which you may hear at any Pleasure Garden on a summer evening: it
+was all about the flames of love which could only be extinguished by
+Chloe: and a broken heart: and darts and groves, and, in fact, a song
+such as would be sung in a concert before a party of ladies. The fellow
+had a good voice, and rolled out his lovesick strains to the admiration
+of the women, some of whom even shed tears. This is the kind of song
+they like: not the song in praise of a Highwayman's life, because in
+matters of imagination these women are but poorly provided, and they
+always see the reality beyond the words, and if they love the man his
+certain end makes them unhappy. But hearts, and flames and love! That,
+if you please, which is unreal, seems real.
+
+When he finished, Jenny sprang to her feet. I will dance for you, lads.'
+She turned to me. 'Play up--the Hey.'
+
+She ran into the middle of the room, bowed to the people as if she had
+been on the stage, and danced with such grace and freedom and simplicity
+that it ravished my heart. Her sister, I observed, went on adding up
+figures on the slate without paying the least attention to the
+performance.
+
+'Ah!' said her mother growing confidential. 'Thus would she dance when
+she was quite a little thing on the stones in front of the church, when
+the fiddler played in the house. A clever girl, she was, even then, a
+clever girl! You are her friend. I hope, Sir, that you are going to
+behave handsome by my girl. You look like one of the right sort. Make
+over, while there is time. I will keep the swag for you--you may trust
+the poor girl's mother. Many a brave fellow she might have had: many a
+brave fellow: they come and go----I wish you a long rope young man, if
+so be you're kind to my girl. Life is short--what odds, so long as 'tis
+merry? Where do you work, if I may ask?'
+
+'Jenny will tell you, perhaps,' I replied.
+
+'I don't know, I don't know. Since she left off the orange line, Jenny
+hasn't been the same to her old mother: not to tell her things, I mean,
+and to take her advice. I should have made her rich by this time if she
+had taken my advice.'
+
+'Many people like to have their own way, don't they?'
+
+'They do, Sir--they do--to their loss.' She took another pull at the
+punch and began to get maudlin and to shed tears--while she enlarged
+upon what she would have done had Jenny only listened to her. I gathered
+from her discourse that the old gipsy woman, like the whole of her
+tribe, was without a gleam or a spark of virtue or goodness. Her nature
+was sordid and depraved through and through. With such a mother--poor
+Jenny!
+
+Suddenly the old woman stopped short and sat upright with a look of
+terror.
+
+'Good Lord!' she murmured. 'It's Mr. Merridew!'
+
+At sight of the new-comer standing on the steps a dead silence fell upon
+the whole Company. All knew him by name: those who knew his face
+whispered to each other: all quailed before him; down to the meanest
+little pickpocket, they knew him and feared him. Every face became
+white; even the faces of the women who shook with terror on account of
+the men. I observed the girl on the Captain's knee catch him by the hand
+and place herself in front of him, as if to save him. Then his arm left
+her waist and she slipped down and sat humbly on the bench beside her
+man. Thus there was some human affection among these poor things. But
+the Captain's face blanched with terror and the glass that he was
+lifting to his lips remained halfway on its journey. The Bishop's face
+could not turn white, in any extremity of fear, but it became
+yellow--while his eyes rolled about and he grasped the table beside him
+in his agitation. Doll, I observed, after a glance to learn the cause of
+the sudden silence went on sucking her fingers, rubbing out the figures
+on the slate and adding them up again.
+
+'Who is it?' I whispered to Jenny.
+
+'Hush! It's the thief-taker: they are all afraid that their time has
+come. If he wants one of them he will have to get up and go.'
+
+'Won't they fight, then? Do they sit still to be taken?'
+
+'Fight Mr. Merridew? As well walk straight to Tyburn.'
+
+The man was a large and heavy creature, having something of the look of
+a prosperous farmer. His face, however, was coarse and brutal. And he
+looked round the terrified room as if he was selecting a pig from a
+herd, with as much pity and no more! This was the man whose perjuries
+had added a new detainer to my imprisonment. I could have fallen upon
+him with the first weapon handy, but refrained.
+
+He came into the room. 'Your place stinks, Mother,' he said, 'and it's
+so thick with tobacco and the steam of the punch that a body can't see
+across.'
+
+'To be sure, Mr. Merridew,' the old woman apologised. 'If we'd known you
+were coming----'
+
+'There would have been a large company, would there not?'
+
+'Well, Sir, you see us here, as we are, as orderly and peaceful a house
+as your Worship would desire.'
+
+The fellow grinned. 'Orderly, truly, mother. It is a quiet and a
+well-conducted company, isn't it? These are quiet and well-conducted
+girls are they not?' He chucked one of the girls under the chin.
+
+'As much as you like--there,' said the girl, impudently, 'so long as you
+keep your fingers off my neck.'
+
+At this playful allusion to his profession, that of sending people to
+the gallows, Mr. Merridew laughed and patted the girl on the cheek. 'My
+dear,' he said, 'if you were on my list you should get rich and you
+should have the longest rope of any one.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+'The man,' Jenny told me afterwards, 'is the greatest villain in the
+whole world. He is a thief-taker by profession.'
+
+'You mean, he informs and takes the reward.'
+
+'Yes: but he makes the thing which he sells. He lays traps for
+pickpockets and such small fry and while he has them in his power he
+encourages them to become bigger rogues who will be worth more to him.
+Do you understand? A highwayman is worth about eighty pounds' reward to
+him: a man returned from transportation before his time is worth no more
+than forty. He does not therefore give up the returned convict until he
+has returned to his highway robberies. All those fellows you saw last
+night are in his power. The Captain is a returned convict whose time
+must before long be up, for Merridew only allows a certain amount of
+rope. He says he cannot afford more. As for the Bishop, he will go on
+longer: he is useful in many other ways: he can write letters and forge
+things and invent villainies: he persuades the young fellows to take to
+the road. I think he will be suffered to go on as long as his powers
+last.'
+
+'Why was your mother so terrified?'
+
+Jenny hesitated. 'Because--I told you, but you do not
+understand--because she, too, is in his power for receiving stolen
+goods. My mother is what they call a fence. Oh!' she shook herself
+impatiently: 'they are all rogues together. I wonder I can ever hold up
+my head. To think of the Black Jack and the Company there!'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Captain sprang to his feet with an effort at ease and politeness.
+'What will your Honour think of us?' he cried. 'Gentlemen, Mr. Merridew
+is thirsty and no one offers him a drink. Call for it, sir--call for the
+best this house affords.'
+
+'Punch, mother,' the great man replied. 'Thank you, Captain.'
+
+Then the Bishop, not to be outdone, got up too. 'Gentlemen,' he said,
+'let us all drink to the health of Mr. Merridew. He is our truest
+friend. Now, gentlemen. Together. After me.' He held up his hand. They
+watched the sign and all together drank and shouted--hollow shouts they
+were--to the health of the man who was going to sell them all to the
+hangman. I wondered that they had not run upon him with their knives and
+despatched him as he stood before them, unarmed. But this they dared not
+do.
+
+Mr. Merridew acknowledged the compliment. 'Boys and gallant riders,' he
+said, 'I thank you. There was a friend of ours whom I expected to find
+here, but I do not see him.' He looked round the room curiously. I think
+he enjoyed the general terror. 'No matter, I shall find him at the
+Spotted Dog.'
+
+Every one breathed relief. No one, then, of that company was wanted. The
+Captain sat down and drank off a whole glass of punch: the rest of the
+men looked at each other as sailors might look whose ship has just
+scraped the rock.
+
+'I like to look in, friendly, as it might be,' Mr. Merridew went on,
+'especially when I don't want anybody--just to see you enjoying
+yourselves, happy and comfortable together, as you should be. There's no
+profession more happy and comfortable, is there? That's what I always
+say, even to the ungrateful. Plenty to eat: no work to do: no masters
+over you: girls, and drink, and music, and dancing, every night. Find me
+another trade half so prosperous. Mother, I'll take a second glass of
+punch. I drink your healths--all of you--Bless you!' The fellow looked
+so brutal, and so cunning that I longed to kill him as one would kill a
+noxious beast.
+
+'A long rope and a merry life,' he went on. 'It is not my fault,
+gentlemen, that the rope is not longer. The expenses are great and the
+profits are small. Meantime, go on and prosper. You are all safe under
+my care. Without me, who knows what would happen to all this goodly
+company? A long rope, I say, and a merry life.'
+
+He tossed off his glass and went out.
+
+When he was gone, the talk began again, but it was flat. The mirth had
+gone out of the party. It was as if the Angel of Death himself had
+passed through the room.
+
+I played to them, but only the boys would dance: Jenny asked them to
+sing, but only the girls would sing, and, truth to say, the poor
+creatures' efforts were not musical. They drank, but moodily. The
+Captain took glass after glass, but his arm had left the girl's waist:
+she now sat neglected on the bench beside him. The Bishop, sobered by
+the fright, said nothing, but sat with his eyes fixed upon the sanded
+floor, shuddering. He thought his time had come, and the shock made him
+for the moment reflect. Yet what was the good of reflecting? They were
+in the hands of a relentless monster: he would sell them when it was
+worth his while to put younger men in their place. They tried to forget
+this, but from time to time, his presence, or the absence of one of
+their Company, reminded them and then they were subdued for a time. It
+filled me with pity: it made me think a little better of them that they
+should be capable of being thus affected.
+
+Jenny touched my arm. 'Come,' she said. 'Let us be gone.' So without any
+farewells she led the way out. The old woman, by this time, was sound
+asleep beside her half finished glass: and Doll was still adding up the
+figures on her slate, putting her finger in her mouth, rubbing out and
+adding up again.
+
+Outside, the tall white spire of St. Giles's looked down upon us. In the
+churchyard the white tombs stood in peace, and overhead the moon sailed
+in splendour.
+
+Jenny drew a long breath: she caught one of the rails of the churchyard
+and looked in curiously.
+
+'Will,' she said shuddering, 'I am ashamed of myself because the manners
+and the talk come back to me so easily. Once I am with them, I become
+one of them again. I tremble when the man Merridew appears. It is as if
+he will do me, too, a mischief some day. I cannot forget the old times
+and the old talk. Yet I know how dreadful it is. Look at the graves,
+Will. Under them they sleep so quiet; they never move: they don't hear
+anything: and beside them every night collects this company of
+gaol-birds and Tyburn birds. Why, they don't shiver and shake when Mr.
+Merridew looks in.'
+
+'Let us get back, Jenny.' I shuddered, like all the rest.
+
+'Will, I have seen that man--that monster--that wretch--for whom no
+punishment is enough--three times. Each time I have felt that, like the
+rest of those poor rogues, my own life was in his hands. Do you think he
+can do me a mischief? Why do I ask? I know that he will. I am never
+wrong.'
+
+'What mischief, Jenny, could he do?'
+
+'I don't know. It is a prophetic feeling. But who knows what such a
+villain may be concocting? Good-night, you happy people in the graves.
+Good-night.'
+
+I drew her away, and walked with her to her own door in the Square.
+
+'Will?' she asked, 'what do you think of me now?'
+
+'Whatever I think, Jenny, I am all wonder and admiration that you
+are--what you are--when I see--what you might have been.'
+
+She burst into tears. She flung her empty basket out into the road.
+'Oh,' she cried, 'if I could escape from them! If I could only escape
+from them for ever! I should think nothing too terrible if only I could
+escape from them!'
+
+A month or two later I remembered those words. Nothing too terrible if
+only she could escape from them!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A WARNING AND ANOTHER OFFER
+
+
+As soon as we had once more found the means of keeping ourselves we went
+back to our former abode under the shadow of Lambeth Church on the Bank
+looking over the river on one side and over the meadows and orchards of
+Lambeth Marsh on the other. The air which sweeps up the river with every
+tide is fresh and strong and pure; good for the child, not to speak of
+the child's mother, while the people, few in number, are generally
+honest though humble: for the most part they are fishermen.
+
+Here I should have been happy but for the thought, suggested by Jenny,
+that my cousin and his attorney Probus were perhaps devising some new
+means of persecution, and that the man Merridew, who had perjured
+himself concerning me already, whose sinister face I had gazed upon with
+terror, so visibly was the mark of Cain stamped upon it, was but a tool
+of the attorney.
+
+Yet what could they devise? If they swore between them another debt, my
+patron Jenny promised to provide me with the help of a lawyer. What else
+could they do? It is a most miserable feeling that someone in the world
+is plotting your destruction, you know not how.
+
+However, on Sunday afternoon--it was in November, when the days are
+already short, we had a visit from my father's old clerk, Ramage.
+
+He was restless in his manner: he was evidently in some anxiety of mind.
+After a few words he began:
+
+'Mr. Will,' he said, 'I have much to say. I have come, I fear, to tell
+you something that will make you uneasy.'
+
+'I will leave you alone,' said Alice, taking up the child.
+
+'No, Madam, no, I would rather that you heard. You may advise. Oh!
+Madam, I never thought the day would come that I should reveal my
+master's secrets. I eat his bread; I take his wages: and I am come here
+to betray his most private affairs.'
+
+'Then do not betray them, Mr. Ramage,' said Alice. 'Follow your own
+conscience.'
+
+'It ought to be your bread and your wages, Mr. Will, and would have been
+but for tales and inventions. Sir, in a word, there is villainy
+afloat----'
+
+'What kind of villainy?'
+
+'I know all they do. Sir, there is that sum of one hundred thousand
+pounds in the hands of trustees, payable to the survivor of you two.
+That is the bottom of the whole villainy. Well, they are mad to make you
+sell your chance.'
+
+'I know that.'
+
+'Mr. Matthew, more than a year ago, offered Mr. Probus a thousand pounds
+if he could persuade you to sell it for three thousand.'
+
+'That is why he was so eager.' This was exactly how Jenny read the
+business.
+
+'Yes, he reported that you would not sell, he said that if it was made
+worth his while, he would find a way to make you.'
+
+'That is why he put me in the King's Bench, I suppose?'
+
+'That was agreed upon between them. Sir, if ever there was an infamous
+conspiracy, this was one. Probus invented it. He said that he would keep
+you there till you rotted; he said that when you had been there four or
+five months you would be glad to get out on any terms. You were there
+for a year or more. Probus sent people to report how you were looking.
+He told Mr. Matthew with sorrow that you were looking strong and hearty.
+Then you were taken out. They were furious. They knew not who was the
+friend. An attorney named Dewberry had done it. That was all they could
+find out. I know not what this Mr. Dewberry said to Mr. Probus, but
+certain I am that they will not try that plan any more.'
+
+'I am glad to hear so much.'
+
+'Mr. Will, there is more behind. I know very well what goes on, I say. A
+little while after the death of your father, when the Alderman retired
+and Mr. Matthew was left sole active partner, he began to borrow money
+of Mr. Probus, who came often to see him. I could hear all they said
+from my desk in the corner of the outer counting-house.'
+
+'Ay! Ay! I remember your desk.'
+
+'Sitting there I heard every word. And I am glad, Mr. Will--I ought to
+be ashamed, but I am glad that I listened. Well. He began to borrow
+money of Mr. Probus at 15 per cent, on the security of the business.
+Anyone would lend money to such a house at 10 per cent. He said he
+wanted to put the money into the business; to buy new ships and to
+develop it. This made me suspicious. Why? Because our House, in your
+father's time, Sir, wanted no fresh capital; it developed and grew on
+its own capital. This I knew. The business wanted no new capital. What
+did he borrow the money for then?'
+
+'I know not, indeed.'
+
+'He bought no new ships: he never meant to buy any. Mr. Will, to my
+certain knowledge'--here his voice deepened to a whisper, 'he wanted for
+some reason or other more ready money. I am certain that he has got
+through all the money that your father left him: I know that he has sold
+some of the ships: he has mortgaged the rest; the business of the House
+decays and sinks daily; he has got rid of all the money that Mr. Probus
+advanced him. It was £25,000, for which he is to pay 15 per cent. on
+£40,000. 'Tis a harpy--a shark--a common rogue!'
+
+'How has he lost this money?' I pretended not to know: but, as you have
+heard, I knew, perfectly well.
+
+'That, Sir, I cannot tell you. I have no knowledge how a man can, in
+three years, get through such an amazing amount of money and do so much
+mischief to an old established business. But the case is as I tell you.'
+
+'This is very serious, Ramage. Does my uncle know?'
+
+'He does not, Sir. That poor man will be a bankrupt in his old age. It
+will kill him. It will kill him. And I must not tell him. Remember that
+most of what I tell you is what I overheard.'
+
+'I think that my uncle ought to know.' I remembered Jenny's advice. Here
+was another opportunity. I should have told him. But I neglected this
+chance as well.
+
+'I cannot tell him, Sir. There is, however, more. This concerns you, Mr.
+Will. Yesterday in the afternoon Mr. Probus came to the counting-house.
+He came for the interest on his money. Mr. Matthew told him, shortly,
+that it was not convenient to pay him. Mr. Probus humbly explained that
+he had need of the money for his own occasions. Now Mr. Matthew had been
+drinking; he often goes to the tavern of a forenoon and returns with a
+red face and heavy shoulders. Perhaps yesterday he had been drinking
+more than was usual with him. Otherwise, he might not have been so
+plain-spoken with his creditor. "Mr. Probus," he said, "it is time to
+speak the truth with you. I cannot pay you the interest of your
+money--either to-day or at any other time."
+
+'"Cannot ... cannot ... pay? Mr. Halliday, what do you mean?"
+
+'"I say, Sir, that I cannot pay your interest ... and that your
+principal, the money you lent me--yes--your £25,000--is gone. You'll
+never get a penny of it," and then he laughed scornfully. I heard Mr.
+Probus's step as he sprang to his feet, I heard him strike the table
+with his open hand. His face I could not see.
+
+'"Sir," he cried, "explain. Where is my money?"
+
+'"Gone, I say. Everything is gone. Your money; my money; all that I
+could raise--my ships are sold; the business is gone: the creditors are
+gathering. Probus, I shall be a bankrupt in less than three months. I
+have worked it out; I can play one against the other, but only for three
+months. Then the House must be bankrupt."
+
+'"The House--bankrupt?--this House--Halliday Brothers? You had a hundred
+thousand of your own when you succeeded. You had credit: you had a noble
+fleet: and a great business. And there's your father's money in the
+business as well. It _can't_ be gone."
+
+'"It is gone--I tell you--all gone--my money, Probus--_integer
+vitae_--that's gone: and your money, old Scelerisque Probus. That's gone
+too. All gone--all gone." To be sure he was three parts drunk. I heard
+Mr. Probus groan and sink back into his chair. Then he got up again.
+"Tell me," he said again, "tell me, you poor drivelling drunken
+devil--I'll kill you if you laugh. Tell me, where is the money gone?"
+
+'"I don't know," his voice was thick with drink, "I don't know. It's all
+gone. Everything's gone."
+
+'"I lent you the money to put into the business--it must be in the
+business still."
+
+'"It never was in the business. I tell you, Probus--it's all gone."
+
+'There was silence for a few minutes. Then Mr. Probus said softly, "Mr.
+Halliday, we are old friends--tell me that you have only been playing
+off a joke upon me. You are a little disguised in liquor. I can pass
+over this accident. The money is in the business, you know; in this fine
+old business, where you put it when you borrowed it."
+
+'"It's all gone--all gone," he repeated. "Man, why won't you believe? I
+tell you that everything is gone. Make me a bankrupt at once, and you
+will share with the creditors: oh! yes, you will be very lucky: you will
+divide between you the furniture of the counting-house and the empty
+casks on the Quay."
+
+'Then Mr. Probus began to curse and to swear, and to threaten. He would
+throw Mr. Matthew into prison and keep him there all his life: he would
+prosecute him at the Old Bailey: he called him thief, scoundrel,
+villain: Mr. Matthew laughed in his drunken mood. He would not explain
+how the money was lost: he only repeated that it was gone--all gone.
+
+'Mr. Will--I know that he was speaking the truth. I had seen things
+done--you cannot hide things from an old accountant who keeps the books:
+cargoes sold at a sacrifice for ready money: ships sold: our splendid
+fleet thrown away: there were six tall vessels in the West India trade:
+one was cast away: the underwriters paid for her. Where is that money?
+Where are the other five ships? Sold. Where is that money? Our coffers
+are empty: there is no running cash at the Bank: the wharf is deserted:
+clerks are dismissed: creditors are put off. I know that what Mr.
+Matthew said was true: but for the life of me I cannot tell what he has
+done with the money unless he has thrown it into the river.
+
+'Then I think that Mr. Matthew took more drink, for he made no more
+reply, and Mr. Probus, after calling him hog and beast and other names
+of like significance, left him.
+
+'When he came out of the counting-house he was like one possessed of a
+devil: his face distorted: his eyes blood-shot: his lips moving: his
+hands trembling. Sir, although he is a villain I felt sorry for him. He
+has lost all that he cared for: all that he valued: and since he is now
+old, and can make no more money, he has lost perhaps his means of
+livelihood.'
+
+Ramage paused. Alice brought him a glass of beer, her own home-brewed.
+Thus refreshed, he presently went on again.
+
+'After two days Probus came again to the counting-house. Mr. Matthew was
+sober.
+
+'"Probus," he said, "I told you the other day when I was drunk what I
+should have kept from you if I was sober. However, now you know what I
+told you was the truth."
+
+'"Is it all true?"
+
+'"It is all true. Everything is gone."
+
+'"But how--how--how?" I heard his lamentable cry and I could imagine his
+arm waving about.
+
+'"This way and that way. Enough that it is all gone."
+
+'"Mr. Matthew," I think he sat down because he groaned--which a man
+cannot do properly--that is to say movingly, unless he is sitting--"I
+have been thinking--Good God! of what else could I think? You can keep
+yourself afloat for three months more, you say--Heavens! Halliday
+Brothers to go in three months! And my money! Where--where--where has it
+gone?"
+
+'"In about three months--or may be sooner, the end must come."
+
+'"Mr. Matthew," he lowered his voice, "there is one chance left--one
+chance--I may get back my money--by that one chance."
+
+'"What chance? The money is all gone."
+
+'"If we can make your cousin part with his chance of the succession, we
+can raise money on it before the bankruptcy--we can divide it between
+us."
+
+'"Put it out of your thoughts. My cousin is the most obstinate
+self-willed brute that ever lived. You couldn't bend him with the King's
+Bench Prison. You cannot bend him now."
+
+'"I will try again. He is still poor. He plays the fiddle at some
+wretched gardens I believe. He lives where he did before--I know where
+to find him. I will try again. If I succeed we could raise say £50,000
+upon the succession, it should be more but you are both young. Let me
+see, that will be £40,000 for me; £6,000 interest due to me: that makes
+£46,000 for me and £4,000 for you."
+
+'"No, friend Probus. You have lent me £25,000. That you shall take and
+no more. If you are not content with that you shall have none. Remember
+that the money must be raised by me for my own use, not by you. Get him
+to sign if you can--and you shall have back all your money, but without
+any interest. If you think you are going to get all this money for
+yourself, let me tell you that you are mistaken."
+
+'Mr. Matthew can be as hard as--as your father, sometimes. He was hard
+now. Well, the pair wrangled over these terms for a long time. At last
+it was arranged that if Mr. Probus can persuade you to sign the paper
+which he is to bring you he is to take £25,000 and interest on that and
+not on the alleged £40,000, at 15 per cent. And Mr. Matthew is to pay
+you the sum required to buy out. When they had completed this
+arrangement Mr. Probus started another line of discourse. Now listen to
+this, Mr. Will, because it concerns you very closely.
+
+'"If," he said, "your cousin were to die--actually to die----"
+
+'"He won't die. I wish he would."
+
+'"I said--If he were to die--you would then immediately take over
+£100,000 together with the interest at 5 per cent. already accumulated
+for three years, namely, about £115,000. That would put all square
+again. You could get back some of your ships and your credit."
+
+'"What's the use? Man, I have told you--my cousin is a selfish,
+unfeeling, obstinate Brute. He won't die."
+
+'"I said. If he were to die. That is what I said. If he were to die."
+
+'Then there was silence for a space.
+
+'"Probus," said Mr. Matthew, "I believe you are a devil. Tell me what
+you mean. We can't make him die by wishing."
+
+'"I was only supposing: If he were to die--strange things have
+happened--would you be disposed to let me take the half of that
+money--say £55,000?"
+
+'"If he were to die," Mr. Matthew repeated. "Have you heard, by
+accident, that he is ill? Has he taken small-pox, or gaol fever? I did
+hear that was gaol fever in Newgate some time ago."
+
+'"No: on the contrary, I believe that he is in perfect health at
+present. Still, he might die. Anybody may die, you know."
+
+'"Why do you say that he may die?"
+
+'"I only put the case. Anybody may die. What do you say about my
+proposal?"
+
+'"You call it a proposal--Man--you look like a murderer--are you going
+to murder him?"
+
+'"Certainly not. Well--what do you say?"
+
+'"Well--if you are not going to murder him, what do you mean?"
+
+'"Men die of many complaints, besides murder. Some men get themselves
+into the clutches of the law----"'
+
+When Ramage said this, I became suddenly aware of a great gulf opening
+at my feet with a prospect of danger such as I had never before
+contemplated. I thought that the man might swear upon me some crime of
+which I was innocent and so bring it home to me by a diabolical artifice
+that I should be accused, found guilty, and executed. I reeled and
+turned pale.
+
+Alice caught my hand. 'Have faith, my dear,' she said.
+
+Yet the thought was like a knife piercing me through and through. I
+could not afterwards shake it off. And I made up my mind--I know not
+why--that the charge would take the form of an accusation of forgery.
+
+'"Probus," said Mr. Matthew, "I will have nothing to do with this----"
+
+'"Sir, you need not. Give me your word only, your simple word that if
+your cousin refuses to sign the paper I shall lay before him, so that
+you cannot raise money on that succession--and if within two months of
+this day your cousin dies, so that you will succeed before you are
+bankrupt, I am to take half that money in full discharge of all my
+claims. That is all. I will leave you now, to think the matter over."
+
+'He went away. The next day he returned, bringing with him a man whom I
+had never seen before.
+
+'"Mr. Matthew," he said, "I have brought you a gentleman whose
+acquaintance with our criminal law is vast--probably unequaled. His
+name, Sir, is Merridew."
+
+'"His honour says no more than what is true," said Mr. Merridew. "I know
+more than most. I understand you want me to advise you on a little
+matter of prosecution. Well, Sir, I can only say that if you want a
+friend put out of the way, so to speak, nothing is easier, for them that
+knows how to work the job and can command the instruments. It is only a
+question of pay." Then they talked in whispers and I heard no more. When
+they were gone Mr. Matthew began to drink again.
+
+'That is all, Mr. Will. But have a care. You now know what to expect,
+sir; there will be no pity from any of them. Have a care. Go away. Go to
+some place where they cannot find you. Sir, the man Probus is mad. He is
+mad with the misery of losing his money. There is nothing that he will
+not do. He is a money-lender: his money is all in all to him: his
+profession and his pride and everything. And he has lost his money. Go
+out of his way.'
+
+'Is that all, Ramage?'
+
+'Yes, Sir. That is all I had to say.'
+
+'Then, my old friend, you have come just in time, for if I mistake not
+there is Mr. Probus himself walking across the meadow with the intention
+of calling here. You could not have chosen a better time.' Indeed, that
+was the case. The man was actually walking quickly across the Marsh.
+'Now, Ramage,' I said, 'it would be well for you to hear what he has to
+say. Go into the kitchen and wait with the door ajar--go. Alice, my
+dear, stay here with me.'
+
+'Remember, Will,' she said, 'it was your father's last command. To sell
+it would be to sell your father's forgiveness--a dreadful thing.'
+
+The man stood at the open door. Ramage was right. He looked truly
+dreadful. Anxiety was proclaimed in his face, with eagerness and
+courage: he reminded me of a weasel, which for murderous resolution is
+said to surpass the whole of the animal creation. He came in blinking
+after the light and offered me his hand, but I refused it.
+
+'Fie!' he said. 'Fie, Mr. Will! This is ill done. You confuse the
+attorney's zeal for his clients with an act of hostility to yourself.
+Put that out of your thoughts, I pray.'
+
+'Why do you come here, Mr. Probus?'
+
+'I said to myself: It is not easy to catch a man of Mr. William's
+reputation at home, his society being eagerly sought after. I will
+therefore visit him on Sunday. Not in the morning, when he will be
+lifting the hymn in Church: but in the afternoon. I came here straight
+from St. George's, Borough, where I sometimes repair for morning
+service. A holy discourse, Mr. William, moving and convincing.' His eyes
+kept shifting to and fro as he spoke.
+
+'Very likely. But we will not talk about sermons. Look ye, Mr. Probus,
+your presence here is not desired. Say what you have to say, and
+begone.'
+
+'Hot youth! Ah! I envy that fine heat of the blood. Once I was just the
+same myself.'
+
+He must have been a good deal changed, then, since that time.
+
+He went on. 'I will not stay long. I am once more a peacemaker. It is a
+happy office. It is an office that can be discharged on the Sabbath.
+Sweetly the river flows beneath your feet. Ah! A peacemaker. I come from
+your cousin again.'
+
+'To make another offer?'
+
+'Yes, that is my object. I am again prepared to offer you terms which, I
+believe, no one else in the world would propose to you. Mr. William, I
+will give you the sum of four thousand pounds down--equivalent to an
+annual income of two hundred pounds a year if you will sell your
+reversion.'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Mr. Matthew can use the money to advantage: while it lies locked up it
+is of no use to anyone.'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Such obstinacy was never known before, I believe. Why, Sir, I offer you
+an annual income of two hundred pounds a year--two hundred pounds a
+year. You can leave this wretched little cottage overhanging a marsh:
+you can move into a fashionable quarter, and live like a person of
+Quality: you can abandon your present mode of life, which I take to be
+repellent to every person of virtue--that of musician to the Dog and
+Duck or some other resort of the profligate. Oh, we know where you are
+and what you do! Instead of servant you will be master. You, Madam, will
+no longer be a household drudge: you will have your cook, your maids,
+your page to carry your Prayer-Book to church.'
+
+'No.'
+
+He hesitated a little, the sham benevolence dying out of his face, and
+the angry look of baffled cunning taking its place. Mr. Probus was a bad
+actor.
+
+He took out a parchment. 'Sign it, Mr. William--here.' He unrolled it
+and indicated the place. 'Let us have no more shilly shally, willy nilly
+talk. It is for your good and for my client's.'
+
+'And yours, too, Mr. Probus.'
+
+'My dear,' said Alice, 'do not exchange words any longer. You have said
+No already. It is my husband's last word, Sir.'
+
+There I should have stopped. It is always foolish to reveal to an enemy
+what one has discovered. I think that up to that moment Mr. Probus was
+only anxious: that is to say, he was crazy with anxiety, but he could
+not believe that his money was all gone, because he had no knowledge or
+suspicion in what way it had gone. Things that appear impossible cannot
+be believed. I think that he would have assured himself of the fact in
+some other way before proceeding to the wickedness which he actually had
+in his mind. He would have waited: and I could have eluded him some way
+or other. As it was, the mere statement of Matthew drunk drove him half
+mad with fear: but there was still the chance that Matthew sober would
+have spoken differently.
+
+'No,' according to Alice, was my last word.
+
+'Not quite the last word,' I said. 'Hark ye, Mr. Probus. The sum waiting
+for me when Matthew dies, is one hundred thousand pounds with
+accumulations of interest, is it not? If he were to die to-morrow--to
+be sure it is not likely--but he may be murdered, or he may put himself
+within the power of the Law and so be executed----' Mr. Probus turned
+ghastly white and shook all over. 'Then I should come in for the whole
+of that money, which is much better than four thousand pounds, whereas
+if I were to die to-morrow--either by the operation of the law or by
+some other manner, Matthew would have the whole and you would get back
+the twenty-five thousand pounds you have lent my cousin with a noble
+addition. If you do get it, that is--Mr. Probus, I think that you will
+not get it. I think you will never get any more of your money back at
+all.'
+
+'I don't know, Sir, what you mean: or what you know,' he stammered.
+
+'I know more than you think. I know where your money has gone.'
+
+'He jumped up. 'Where? Where? Where? Tell me.'
+
+'It has gone into the bottomless gulf that they call the gaming table,
+Mr. Probus. It has been gambled away: the ships of my father's fleet:
+the cargoes: the accumulated treasures: the credit of the business: the
+private fortune of my cousin: your own money lent to Matthew: it has all
+gone: irrecoverably gone----'
+
+'The gaming table!' he groaned. 'The gaming table! I never thought of
+that. Sir, do you know what you mean--the gaming table?'
+
+No one but a money-lender knows all that may be meant by the gaming
+table.
+
+'I know what I say. Matthew told you the truth. Everything has gone:
+ruin stares him in the face----Your money is gone with the rest.'
+
+'The gaming table. And I never suspected it.... The gaming table!' He
+fell into a kind of trance or fit, with open mouth, white cheeks, and
+fixed eyes. This lasted only for a few moments.
+
+'Mr. Probus,' I went on, 'I cannot say that I am sorry for your
+misfortunes; but I hope we shall never meet again.'
+
+He got up, slowly. His face was full of despair. I confess that I pitied
+him. For he gave way altogether to a madness of grief.
+
+'Gone?' he cried. 'No--no--no--not gone--it can't be gone.' He threw
+himself into a chair and buried his face in his hands. He sobbed: he
+moaned: when he lifted his head again his features were distorted. 'It
+is my all,' he cried. 'Oh! you don't know what it is to lose your all. I
+can never get any more--I am old: I have few clients left--I get no new
+ones: the old cannot get new clients: my character is not what it was:
+they cry out after me in the street: they say I lend money at cent. per
+cent.--why not? They call me old cent. per cent. If I lose this money I
+am indeed lost.'
+
+'We cannot help you, Mr. Probus.'
+
+'Oh! yes, do what I ask you. Sell your chance. You will never outlive
+your cousin. You will save my life. Think of saving a man's life. As for
+your cousin, let him go his own way. I hate him. It is you, you, Mr.
+William, I have always loved.'
+
+'No.'
+
+He turned to Alice and fell on his knees.
+
+'Persuade him, Madam. You are all goodness. Oh! persuade him--think of
+your child. You can make him rich with a stroke of a pen--think of that.
+Oh! think of that!' The tears ran down his cheeks.
+
+'Sir, I think only of my husband's father. And of his wishes, which are
+commands.'
+
+'Enough said'--there was too much said already--'your money is gone, Mr.
+Probus.'
+
+'Gone?' he repeated, but no longer in terms of entreaty. He was now
+fallen into the other extreme; he was blind and mad with rage and
+despair. 'No--no--it's not gone. I will get it out of you. Those who
+threw you into prison can do worse--worse. You have brought it on
+yourself. It is your ruin or mine. Once more----' With trembling fingers
+he held out the paper for me to sign.
+
+'No.'
+
+He stayed no longer: he threw out his arms again: it was as if his
+breath refused to come: and he turned away. He looked like a broken-down
+man, crawling, bent, with hanging head, along the road.
+
+As soon as he was gone, Ramage opened the door and came out cautiously.
+
+'Mr. Will,' he cried. 'For Heaven's sake, sir. For your dear lady's
+sake: for the child's sake: get out of the way. Nothing else will serve.
+He is desperate; and he is as cunning as the Devil himself. To get back
+his money he will shrink from nothing.'
+
+'Indeed, Ramage,' I said, 'I think you are right. I will take a holiday
+for awhile.'
+
+'When the bankruptcy comes,' he said, 'there will be no more danger,
+because all the money would be divided among the creditors. Better to
+run away than to be ruined.'
+
+I promised to think of flight. Indeed, my mind was shaken. I was not
+afraid of open villainy, but of that which might be concealed and
+designed in secret. It would perhaps be best to go where the man could
+not find me.
+
+So Ramage departed. When he saw me again, it was in a very different
+place.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The bell of Lambeth Church began to toll. It seemed to me like a funeral
+knell, though it was the bell for the afternoon service. The wind came
+up from the river chilled with the November air. My heart sank.
+
+'My dear,' said Alice, 'let us go to Church. Oh! the mark of the Evil
+Spirit is stamped upon the unhappy man's forehead. Let us pray not for
+ourselves, but for God's mercy upon a wandering soul.'
+
+I followed her as she led the way, carrying the child. Alas! How long
+before I could sit with her again to hear the prayers of the church
+among godly folk!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JENNY'S ADVICE
+
+
+After this plain warning: after knowing the nature of the design against
+me: after the savage threats of the man Probus: I ought to have
+hesitated no longer: I should have taken Alice and the child to her
+brother Tom, and should then have retired somewhere until the inevitable
+bankruptcy relieved me from fear of conspiracy. Once before, I had
+suffered from delay: yet had I not learned the perils of
+procrastination. I had formed in my mind an idea that they would try in
+some way to fix upon me the crime of forgery, and I thought that this
+would take time: so that I was not hurried: I confess that I was
+disquieted: but I was not hurried.
+
+On Monday morning I repaired to Soho Square and laid the whole business
+before Jenny.
+
+'Will,' she said, after hearing all and asking a few questions, 'this
+seems a very serious affair. You have to deal with a man driven frantic
+by the loss of all his money: the money that he has spent his life in
+scraping together. He throws out hints about your possible death in the
+counting-house, and makes a bargain in case you die: he threatens you
+with some mysterious revenge.'
+
+'I believe he will trump up some charge of forgery.'
+
+'He is quite unscrupulous. Now, I will tell you something. The man
+Merridew's perjury about your alleged debt put me on the scent. Probus
+works through Merridew. First of all Merridew owes him money--more than
+he can pay. This debt goes on rolling up. This puts Merridew in his
+power. What Probus orders Merridew must do.'
+
+'Is there always behind every villain a greater villain?'
+
+'I suppose so. The greater the rogue the safer he is. Merridew goes to
+the shopkeepers and offers to return them stolen goods--at a price. It
+is one of his ways of making money. Then he finds out their necessities.
+Most shopkeepers are always in want of money. Then Merridew takes them
+to Probus who lends them money. Oh! at first there was never such a kind
+friend--on the easiest terms: they can pay when they please: then they
+want a little more: and so they go on. When their debt has risen to half
+the value of their stock, Probus wants to be paid. Then he sells them
+up. The father of the family becomes bankrupt and goes into a prison for
+the rest of his days: what becomes of the children I know not--no one
+knows. I dare say some of them go to St. Giles's.'
+
+This is what Jenny told me. I know not if it is true, but I think it
+must be.
+
+'Well, you see, that Probus pulls the strings and sets Merridew's arms
+and legs at work, and Merridew has all the rogues under his thumb. Now
+you understand why the position is serious.'
+
+She considered for a few minutes. 'Will,' she said, 'for sure they will
+talk it over at the Black Jack. When anything is arranged it is
+generally done in the kitchen and in the morning.' She looked at the
+clock. 'It is now nearly one. If I were to go round!' She considered
+again. 'Doll will be there. They may be there too. But this time they
+must not recognise me. Wait a bit, Will.'
+
+She left me and presently came back dressed, not as an Orange Girl, but
+as a common person, such as one may see anywhere in St. Giles's. She had
+on a linsey woolsey frock: a dirty white apron all in holes: a kerchief
+round her neck: another over her head tied under her chin: a straw hat
+also tied under her chin: and woollen mittens on her hands. One cheek
+was smudged as by a coal, and her left eye was blackened: no one would
+have recognised her. On her arm she carried a basket carefully covered
+up.
+
+'Now,' she said, 'I'm a woman with a basket full of stolen goods for
+Mother Wilmot.'
+
+I let her out by the garden-door which opened on to Hog's Lane.
+Presently she returned: from what she told me, this was what passed.
+
+She found her mother nodding over knitting, and her sister Doll busy
+with the slate. The kitchen was well-nigh empty because most of the
+frequenters were abroad picking up their living. Like the sparrows they
+pick it up as they can from pockets and doorways and from shop bulks.
+
+'Doll,' she whispered. 'Pretend not to know me. Turn over the things in
+the basket.'
+
+'What is it, Jenny?'
+
+She looked round the room. There were only two or three sitting by the
+fire. 'No one who knows me,' she said. 'Tell me, Doll. Has Mr. Merridew
+been here--and when?'
+
+'Why, he's only just gone. Him and the Bishop--and the Captain--and
+another one--a gentleman he looked like. All in black.'
+
+'All in black? Was he tall and thin and stooping? So?'
+
+'Yes. They've been talking over it all the morning.'
+
+'What is it, Doll? You've got ears like gimlets. I sometimes think it
+must be pleasant to be able to hear so much that goes on.'
+
+'I can hear a thing if I like. The Bishop don't like it, Jenny.' She
+dropped her voice. 'It's business for getting a man out of the way.
+They'll have to give evidence at the Old Bailey, and he's afraid.'
+
+'How is the man to be put out of the way?'
+
+'I don't know. There's money on it. But they're afraid.'
+
+'Why are they afraid?'
+
+'Because they're going to make a man swing. If he doesn't swing, they
+will.'
+
+'I suppose it's an innocent man, Doll.'
+
+'How should I know? It isn't one of themselves. If the case breaks down
+they'll have to swing. Mr. Merridew promised them so much, for I heard
+him. He means it, too--and they know it. I heard him. "If you do break
+down," he says, "after all, you will be no worse off than you are at
+present. For your time's up and you know it, both of you. So, if you
+break down, you will be arrested for conspiracy and detained on my
+information on a capital charge." After which--he made so----' with her
+finger on her neck.
+
+'Well, what did they say, Doll?'
+
+'The Bishop said it would be easier and quicker to knock him on the head
+at once. Mr. Merridew wouldn't hear of it. He said if they obeyed him
+they should have two years' more rope. If not, they knew what to expect.
+So they went away with him, looking mighty uneasy.'
+
+'When is it to be, Doll?'
+
+'Lord, sister, you are mighty curious. 'Tis no affair of yours. Best
+know nothing, I say. Only a body must hear things. And it makes the time
+pass knowing what to expect.'
+
+'Can you find out when it is to be?'
+
+'If I learn, I will tell you. It's all settled, I know that. We shall
+have the pair of them giving evidence in the Old Bailey.' Doll laughed
+at the thought. 'All St. Giles's will go to the Court to hear--all them
+that dare.'
+
+'So they went away with Mr. Merridew,' Jenny repeated, thoughtfully.
+
+'Yes, after a mug of purl, but the Bishop went away shaking. Not on
+account of the crime, I suppose, but with the thought of being
+cross-examined in the Old Bailey, and the terror that he might be
+recognised. But the only London Prison that knew him was the King's
+Bench.'
+
+Jenny took up her basket and went away. Just outside the door she met a
+young country fellow: he had come up from some village in consequence of
+trouble concerned with a girl: Jenny had had speech with him already, as
+you have heard, at the Black Jack.
+
+'Jack,' she said, 'you don't remember me: I was at the Black Jack some
+time ago in the evening. They called me Madam. Now you remember.'
+
+'Ay----' he said, looking at her curiously. 'But I shouldn't know you
+again. You are dressed different.'
+
+'Jack, why don't you go home?'
+
+'A man must live,' he replied.
+
+'You'll be hanged. For sure and certain, one of these days, you'll be
+hanged. Now, Jack, I'll give you a chance. Let us sit here by the rails,
+and talk--then people won't suspect. You've seen Mr. Merridew to-day. I
+thought so. He told you that he might want you on some serious job. I
+thought so. Your looks are still innocent, Jack. Now tell me all about
+it--and I'll give you money to take you home again out of the way and
+safe.'
+
+Jack had very little to tell. He had been in the kitchen that morning.
+Mr. Merridew called him--bade him not to go away: said that he should
+want him perhaps for a good job: so he waited. Then a gentleman came in:
+he was in black--a long, and lean figure. Jack would know him again; and
+they all four--but not Jack--talked very earnestly together. Then the
+gentleman went away and presently Mr. Merridew also went away, with the
+Bishop and the Captain.
+
+'Very good, Jack. I will see you to-morrow morning again--just in the
+same place. Don't forget. If anything else occurs you will tell me. Poor
+Jack! I should be sorry to see so proper a fellow hanged,' so she nodded
+and laughed and pressed his hand and left him.
+
+She came home: she joined me again. There was something hatching; that
+was certain.
+
+'Perhaps,' she said, 'the plot is not directed against you. Merridew is
+always finding out where a house can be broken or a bale of stuff
+stolen.'
+
+'Then what did Probus want there?'
+
+'The long, lean man in black was not Probus, perhaps.'
+
+She considered again.
+
+'After all, Will, I think the best thing is for you to disappear. They
+are desperate villains. Get out of their way. Your friend Ramage gave
+you the best advice possible. If all he says is true, Matthew cannot
+hold out much longer. Once he is bankrupt, your death will no longer
+help Probus. Where could you go?'
+
+I told her that I thought of Dublin, where I might get into the
+orchestra of the theatre. So after a little discussion, it was settled.
+Jenny, always generous, undertook to provide for Alice in my absence,
+and gave me a sum of money for present necessities.
+
+I stayed there all day. In the evening I played at a concert in the
+Assembly Room. After the concert I took supper with Jenny.
+
+During supper Jenny entertained me with a fuller description of the
+wretches from whose hands she was trying to rescue me. There was no turn
+or trick of villainy that Jenny did not know. She made no excuses for
+knowing so much--it was part of her education to hear continually talk
+of these things. They make up disguises in which it is impossible to
+recognise them: they arrange that respectable people shall swear to
+their having been miles away at the time of the crime: they practise on
+the ignorance of some: on the cunning of others. They prey upon mankind.
+And all the time, behind every villain stands a greater villain. Behind
+the humble footpad stands the Captain: behind the Captain stands the
+thief-taker: behind the thief-taker stands the money-lender himself
+unseen. It would surely be to the advantage of the Law could it tackle
+the greater villains first. A cart-load of gentlemen like Mr. Probus on
+its way to Tyburn would perhaps be more useful than many cartloads of
+poor pickpockets and hedge-lifters. Sometimes, however, as this history
+will relate, Justice with tardy step overtakes a Probus, and that with
+punishment so dreadful that he is left incapable of any further
+wickedness.
+
+'Now,' she said, 'when Probus wants money, he squeezes Merridew. Then he
+lays information against some poor wretch who expected a longer rope. In
+order to get at these wretches he has to encourage them to break the
+law. So you see, if he has to make a payment to Probus, he must
+manufacture criminals. As I said, there cannot be many things worse than
+the making of criminals for the satisfaction of the money-lender.'
+
+I hardly understood, at the time, the full villainy of this system. In
+fact, I was wholly absorbed in my own particular case. What was going to
+be done?
+
+About midnight I bade this kindest of women farewell.
+
+'Remember, Will,' she said, 'trust nothing to chance. Take boat down the
+river before daybreak. There is sure to be a Holyhead coach somewhere
+in the morning. In a month or two you can come back again in safety.'
+
+Yes--I was to come back in safety in that time, but not as Jenny meant.
+I shouldered my trusty club and marched off.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+A SUCCESSFUL CONSPIRACY
+
+
+My way home lay through Dean Street as far as St. Ann's Church: then I
+passed across Leicester Fields: and through Green Street at the
+south-east angle of the Fields into St. Martin's Lane. All this part of
+the way is greatly infested at night by lurking footpads from the choice
+purlieus of Seven Dials and Soho. Of footpads, however, I had very
+little fear: they are at best a cowardly crew, even two or three
+together, and a man with a stout cudgel and some skill at a
+quarter-staff or single-stick need not be afraid of them: generally, two
+or three passengers will join together in order to get across the Fields
+which are especially the dangerous part: on many nights it was so late
+when I left the Square that even footpads, highwaymen, pickpockets and
+all were fairly home and in bed before I walked through the streets.
+
+This evening by bad luck, I was alone. I found no other passengers going
+my way. But I had no fear. I poised my cudgel and set out, expecting
+perhaps an encounter with a footpad, but nothing worse. And it was not
+yet late, as hours go, in London: there were still people in the
+streets.
+
+What had happened was this. As soon as Probus learned the truth about
+the gaming-table--a fatal thing it was to disclose my knowledge--he
+understood two things: first, that his money was irrevocably gone: and
+second, that if I revealed the truth to the Alderman in his suburban
+retreat, he must needs investigate the position of things in which case
+Bankruptcy would be precipitated. After that, whether I died or signed
+the agreement, or refused to sign it would matter nothing to him.
+Whereas, on the other hand, if my signature could be obtained before the
+bankruptcy, then money could be raised upon the succession: and if I
+were to die, then the whole of the money would be paid on the day of my
+death to Matthew. Whatever was done must therefore be done as soon as
+possible.
+
+Therefore, he resolved that the plot should be carried into execution on
+the very Monday evening. He caused the cottage to be watched by one of
+the girls who frequented the Black Jack: she followed me all the way
+from Lambeth to Soho Square: and she carried intelligence where to find
+me to the tavern, where Probus himself with Merridew, the Bishop, and
+the Captain, was now waiting.
+
+They understood that I was playing at a concert: they therefore sallied
+out about the time when the concert would be finishing and waited for me
+in the Square: at eleven o'clock I sallied forth: I walked down Dean
+Street: they ran down Greek Street to meet me at the other end, where
+there are fewer people: but (I heard this afterwards) changed their
+minds and got over the Fields into Green Street behind the Mews, where
+they resolved to wait for me. The Bishop posted himself on one side: the
+Captain on the other: Mr. Probus and Mr. Merridew waited a little
+further down the street. It was a dangerous plot that they were going to
+attempt: I am not surprised that neither the Bishop nor the Captain had
+much stomach for the play. At this place, which has as bad a reputation
+as any part of London, there are seldom any passengers after night-fall;
+after midnight, none. It is dark: the houses are inhabited by criminal
+and disorderly people--but all this is well known to everybody.
+
+I walked briskly along, anticipating no danger of this kind. Suddenly, I
+heard footsteps in front of me and behind me: there was a movement in
+the quiet street; by such light as the stars gave, I saw before me the
+rascally face of the Bishop: I lifted my cudgel: I half
+turned:--crash!--I remember nothing more.
+
+When I came to my senses, or to some part of my senses, I found myself
+lying on a sanded floor: my head was filled with a dull and heavy pain:
+my eyes were dazed: to open them brought on an agony of pain. For awhile
+the voices I heard were like the buzzing of bees.
+
+I grew better: I was able to distinguish a little: but I could not yet
+open my eyes.
+
+The first voice that I recognized was that of Mr. Probus--the rasping,
+harsh, terrifying voice--who could mistake it?
+
+'A bad case, gentlemen,' he was saying, 'a very bad case: it was
+fortunate that I was passing on my way, if only to identify the
+prisoner. Dear me! I knew his honoured father, gentlemen; I was his
+father's unworthy attorney. His father was none other than Sir Peter
+Halliday. The young man was turned out of the house for misconduct. A
+bad case----Who would have thought that Sir Peter's son would die at
+Tyburn?'
+
+Then there was another voice: rich and rolling, like a low stop of the
+organ--I knew that too. It was the voice of the Bishop.
+
+'My name, Mr. Constable, is Carstairs; Samuel Carstairs; the Rev. Samuel
+Carstairs, Doctor of Divinity, Sanctæ Theologiæ Professor, sometime of
+Trinity College, Dublin. I am an Irish clergyman, at present without
+cure of souls. I was walking home after certain godly exercises'--in the
+Black Jack--I suppose--'when this fellow ran out in front of me, crying
+"Your money or your life." I am not a fighting man, Sir, but a servant
+of the Lord. I gave him my purse, entreating him to spare my life. As he
+took it, some other gentleman, unknown to me, ran to my assistance, and
+knocked the villain down. Perhaps, Mr. Constable, you would direct his
+pockets to be searched. The purse contained seventeen guineas.'
+
+I felt hands in my pocket. Something was taken out.
+
+'Ha!' cried the Doctor. 'Let the money be counted.'
+
+I heard the click of coin and another voice cried 'Seventeen guineas.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Probus, 'there cannot be much doubt after that.'
+
+'I rejoice,' said the Doctor, 'not so much that the money is
+found--though I assure you, worthy Sir, I could ill afford the loss--as
+because it clearly proves the truth of my evidence--if, that is to say,
+there could be any question as to its truth, or anyone with the
+hardihood to doubt it.'
+
+At this point, I was able to open my eyes. The place I knew for a Round
+House. The Constable in charge sat at a table, a book before him,
+entering the case: Mr. Probus stood beside him, shaking his virtuous
+head with sorrow. The Doctor was holding up his hands to express a good
+clergyman's horror of the crime: Mr. Merridew was standing on the other
+side of the Constable, and beside him the Captain, who now stepped
+forward briskly.
+
+'My name,' he said, 'is Ferdinando Fenwick. I am a country man from
+Cumberland. I was walking with this gentleman'--he indicated Mr.
+Merridew. 'We were walking together for purposes of mutual protection,
+for I have been warned against this part of London, when I saw the
+action described by this pious clergyman. The man ran forward raising
+his cudgel. I have brought it with me--You can see, Sir, that it is a
+murderous weapon. I saw the gentleman here, whose name I did not
+catch----'
+
+'Carstairs--By your leave, Sir--Samuel Carstairs--The Rev. Samuel
+Carstairs--Doctor of Divinity--Sanctæ Theologiæ Professor.'
+
+'Thank you, Sir. I saw him hand over his purse. The villain raised his
+cudgel again. I verily believe he intended to murder as well as to rob
+his victim. I therefore ran to the rescue and with a blow of my stick
+felled the ruffian.'
+
+The Constable looked doubtfully at Mr. Merridew, whom he knew by sight,
+as everybody connected with the criminal part of the law certainly did:
+he knew him as Sheriff's officer, nominally: thief-taker by secret
+profession: thief-maker, as matter of notoriety at the Courts. From him
+he looked at Mr. Probus, but more doubtfully, because he knew nothing
+about him except that he was an attorney, which means to such people as
+the Constable, devil incarnate. He also looked doubtfully at the
+Captain, whose face, perhaps, he knew. Considering that the Captain had
+been living for eight years at least in and about St. Giles's, and
+robbing about all the roads that run out of London, perhaps the
+Constable did know him by sight.
+
+'Well,' he said, 'I suppose Sir John will look into it to-morrow. As for
+this gentleman who says he is----I remember----'
+
+Here Mr. Probus slipped something into his hand.
+
+'It is not for me,' the worthy Constable added, 'to remember anything.
+Besides, I may be wrong. Well, gentlemen, you will all attend to-morrow
+morning at Bow Street and give your evidence before Sir John Fielding.'
+
+So they went away and I lay on the floor still wondering stupidly what
+would happen next.
+
+Just then two watchmen came in. One was leading, or dragging, or
+carrying a young gentleman richly dressed but so drunk that he could
+neither stand nor speak: the other brought with him a poor creature--a
+woman--young--only a girl still--dressed in rags and tatters;
+shivering: unwashed; uncombed; weak and emaciated: a deplorable object.
+
+The Constable turned to the first case.
+
+'Give the gentleman a chair,' he said. 'Put him before the fire. Reach
+me his watch and his purse. Search his pockets, watchman.'
+
+'Please your honour,' said the watchman, 'I have searched his pockets.
+We came too late, Sir. Nothing in them.'
+
+'The town is full of villains--full of villains,' said the officer, with
+honest indignation. 'Well, put him in the chair. A gentleman can send
+for guineas if he hasn't got any guineas. Did he assault you, watchman?
+I thought so--Well--Let him sleep it off. Who's this woman?'
+
+The watchman deposed to finding her walking about the deserted streets
+because she had nowhere to go.
+
+'Has she got any money? Then just put her in the strong room--and carry
+this poor devil in after her. If that story holds--well--lay him on the
+bench--and take care of his head.'
+
+They pushed the girl into the strong-room: carried me after her: laid me
+down on a wide stone bench without any kind of pillow or covering. Then
+they went out locking the door behind them.
+
+I suppose that I should have suffered more than I did had it not been
+for the stupefying effect of the blow upon my head. I have only a dim
+recollection of the night. The place was filled with poor wretches, men
+and women, who could not afford to bribe the Constable. In this land of
+freedom to be a poor rogue is hanging matter: to be a rogue with money
+in pocket and purse is quite another thing: that rogue goes free. The
+rogue runs the gauntlet: first, he may get off by bribing the watchman:
+if he fails to do that, he may bribe the constable: or if the worst
+happens, he may then bribe the magistrate. I understand, however, that
+this has been changed, and that there are now no Justices who take
+bribes. Now, if the watchman brings few cases to the constable, and
+those all poor rogues, he may lose his place: and if the constable
+pockets all the bribes and brings the magistrate none, he may lose his
+place. So that it is mutually agreed between the three that each is to
+have his share. All mankind are for ever seeking and praying for
+Justice, and behold, this is all we have got in the boasted eighteenth
+century. I suppose, however, that in such a case as mine, a charge of
+highway robbery, in which the prisoner was taken red-handed, no
+constable would dare to take a bribe.
+
+From time to time in the night we were disturbed by the grating of the
+key in the lock as the door was opened for the admission of another poor
+wretch. Then these interruptions ceased, and we were left in quiet.
+
+When the day broke through the bars of the only window, I could look
+round upon the people, my companions in misfortune. There were three or
+four women in tawdry finery--very poor and miserable creatures who would
+be happier in the worst prison than in the way they lived: two or three
+pickpockets and footpads: one or two prentices, who would be sent to
+Bridewell and flogged for being found drunk. There was very little talk.
+Mostly, the wretches sat in gloomy silence. They had not even the
+curiosity to ask each other as to the offenses with which they were
+charged.
+
+As the light increased the women began to whisper. They exhorted each
+other to courage. Before them all, in imagination, stood the dreadful
+whipping-post of Bridewell. Some of them have had an experience of that
+punishment.
+
+'It takes but two or three minutes,' they said. 'Then it soon passes
+off. Mind you screech as if they were murdering you. That frightens the
+Alderman, and brings down the knocker. Don't begin to fret about it.'
+They were talking about their whippings in Bridewell. 'Perhaps Sir John
+will let you go. Sometimes he does.' My head pained, and I closed my
+eyes again.
+
+At about eight o'clock the doors were flung wide open. Everyone started,
+shuddered, and stood up. 'Now, then,' cried a harsh voice, 'out with
+you! Out, I say.'
+
+I was still giddy with last night's blow: my hair was stiff with blood:
+my head ached, but I was able to walk out with the others. The
+constables arranged us in a kind of procession, and put the handcuffs on
+every one. Then we were marched through the streets two by two, guarded
+by constables, to Bow Street Office, the Magistrate of which was then
+Sir John Fielding.
+
+There was some slight comfort in the thought that he was blind: he could
+not be prejudiced against me by my appearance, for my face was smeared
+with blood: my hair was stiff with blood. There was blood on my coat,
+and where there was not blood there was the mud of the street in which I
+had lain senseless.
+
+The business of the Court was proceeding. The Magistrate sat at a table:
+his eyes were bandaged. The eyes of Justice should be always bandaged.
+Over his head on the wall hung the Lion and the Unicorn: the prisoners
+were placed in a railed space: the witnesses in another, those in my
+case, I observed, were in readiness and waiting: three or four Bow
+Street runners were standing in the Court: there was a dock for the
+prisoner facing the magistrate.
+
+The cases took little time. There is a dreadful sameness about the
+charges. The women were despatched summarily and sent off to Bridewell:
+they received their sentences with cries and lamentations, which stopped
+quickly enough when they found that they could not move the magistrate:
+the pickpockets were ordered to be whipped: the other rogues were
+committed to prison. They were destined, for the most part, to
+transportation beyond the seas. It is useful for the country to get rid
+of its rogues: it seems also humane to send them to a country where they
+may lead an honest life. Alas! the humanity of the law is marred by the
+execution of the sentence, for though the voyage does not last more than
+six or eight weeks, the gaol fever taken on board the ship; the sea
+sickness; the stench; the dirt; the foul air of the ship, commonly kill
+at least a third of the poor creatures thus sent out. As for those who
+are left, many of them run away from their masters: make their way to a
+port, get on board a ship, and are carried back to London, where they
+are fain to go back to their old companions and resume their old habits,
+and get known to Mr. Merridew and his friends, and so at last find
+themselves in the condemned cells.
+
+My case came on, at last. I was placed in the dock facing the
+magistrate. The clerk read to him the notes of the case provided by the
+chief constable.
+
+'Your name, prisoner?' he asked.
+
+'I am William Halliday,' I said, 'only son of the late Sir Peter
+Halliday, formerly Lord Mayor of London. I am a musician now in the
+employment of Madam Vallance, Proprietor of the Assembly Rooms in Soho
+Square.'
+
+The Magistrate whispered to his clerk.
+
+Then the evidence was given. One after the other they manfully stood
+up: kissed the book: and committed perjury. Sir John Fielding asked the
+Doctor several questions. He was evidently doubtful: his clerk whispered
+again: he pressed the doctor as to alleged profession and position.
+However, the man stuck to his tale. The fact that the purse was found in
+my pocket was very strong. Then the Captain told his story.
+
+Mr. Merridew did not attempt any disguise: he was too well known
+in Court: he stated that he was a Sheriff's officer--named
+Merridew--everybody in the court gazed upon him with the greatest
+curiosity, the women whispering and looking from him to me. 'Who is he?'
+they asked each other. 'What has he done? Do you know him--do you?' The
+surprise at the appearance of a stranger in the dock charged on the
+evidence of the worthy sheriff's officer caused general surprise.
+However, Mr. Merridew took no notice of the whispering. He was
+apparently callous: he took it perhaps as proof of popularity and
+admiration: he gave his evidence in the manner of one accustomed to bear
+witness, as indeed he was, having perhaps given evidence oftener than
+any other living man. He stated that he had joined a stranger to walk
+from the Tottenham Court Road to Charing Cross, each carrying a cudgel
+for self-defence: that he observed the action described by the worthy
+and learned Doctor of Divinity from Ireland: that his companion, this
+gallant young gentleman, rushed out to the rescue of the clergyman, and
+so forth. So he retired with a front of iron.
+
+Mr. Probus added to the evidence which you have already heard the
+statement that he came accidentally upon the party and after the
+business was over: that he happened to have been attorney to the late
+Sir Peter Halliday: that he recognized the robber as the unnatural son
+of that good man, turned out of his father's home for his many crimes
+and vices: and that in the interest of justice and respect for the laws
+of his country he went out of his way, and was at great personal loss
+and inconvenience in order to give this evidence.
+
+The Magistrate put no questions to him. He turned to me and asked if I
+had anything to say or any evidence to offer.
+
+I had none, except--that I was no highwayman, but a respectable
+musician, and that this was a conspiracy.
+
+'You will have the opportunity,' said Sir John, 'of proving the fact.
+Meantime, in the face of this evidence, conspiracy or not, I have no
+choice but to commit you to Newgate, there to remain until your trial.'
+
+They set me aside and the next case was called.
+
+So you understand, there are other ways of compassing a man's death
+besides simple murder. It is sufficient to enter into a conspiracy and
+to charge him with an offence which, by the laws of the country, is
+punishable by death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+NEWGATE
+
+
+A man must be made of brass or wrought-iron who can enter the gloomy
+portals of Newgate as a prisoner without a trembling of the limbs and a
+sinking of the heart. Not even consciousness of innocence is sufficient
+to sustain a prisoner, for alas! even the innocent are sometimes found
+guilty. Once within the first doors I was fain to lay hold upon the
+nearest turnkey or I should have fallen into a swoon; a thing which,
+they tell me, happens with many, for the first entrance into prison is
+worse to the imagination even than the standing up in the dock to take
+one's trial in open court. There is, in the external aspect of the
+prison: in the gloom which hangs over the prison: in the mixture of
+despair and misery and drunkenness and madness and remorse which fills
+the prison, an air which strikes terror to the very soul. They took me
+into a large vaulted ante-room, lit by windows high up, with the
+turnkey's private room opening out of it, and doors leading into the
+interior parts of the Prison. The room was filled with people waiting
+their turn to visit the prisoners; they carried baskets and packages and
+bottles; their provisions, in a word, for the Prison allows the
+prisoners no more than one small loaf of bread every day. Some of the
+visitors were quiet, sober people: some were women on whose cheeks lay
+tears: some were noisy, reckless young men, who laughed over the coming
+fate of their friends; spoke of Tyburn Fair; of kicking off the shoes at
+the gallows; of dying game; of Newgate music--meaning the clatter of the
+irons; of whining and snivelling; and so forth. They took in wine, or
+perhaps rum under the name of wine. There were also girls whose
+appearance and manner certainly did not seem as if sorrow and sympathy
+with the unfortunate had alone brought them to this place. Some of the
+girls also carried bottles of wine with them in baskets.
+
+I was then brought before the Governor who, I thought, would perhaps
+hear me if I declared the truth. But I was wrong. He barely looked at
+me; he entered my name and occupation, and the nature of the crime with
+which I was charged. Then he coldly ordered me to be taken in and
+ironed.
+
+The turnkey led me into a room hung with irons. 'What side?' he asked.
+
+I told him I knew nothing about any sides.
+
+'Why,' he said, 'I thought all the world knew so much. There's the State
+side. If you go there you will pay for admission three guineas; for
+garnish and a pair of light irons, one guinea; for rent of a bed half a
+guinea a week; and for another guinea you can have coals and candles,
+plates and a knife. Will that suit you?' He looked disdainfully at the
+dirt and blood with which I was covered, as if he thought the State side
+was not for the likes of me.
+
+'Alas!' I replied, 'I cannot go to the State side.'
+
+'I thought not, by the look of you. Well, there's the master's side
+next; the fee for admission is only thirteen and sixpence: irons, half a
+guinea: the rent of a bed or part of a bed half a crown, and as for your
+food, what you like to order and pay for. No credit at this tavern,
+which is the sign of the Clinking Iron. Will that suit you?'
+
+'No, I can pay nothing.'
+
+'Then why waste time asking questions? There's the common side; you've
+got to go into that, and very grateful you ought to be that there is a
+common side at all for such a filthy Beast as you.'
+
+My choice must needs be the last because I had no money at all: not a
+single solitary shilling--my obliging friends when they put their purse
+into my pocket as a proof of the alleged robbery, abstracted my
+own--which no doubt the worthy Professor of Sacred Theology had in his
+pocket while he was explaining the nature of the attack to the
+Constable.
+
+The turnkey while he grumbled about waste of time--a prisoner ought to
+say at once if he had no money: officers of the Prison were not paid to
+tell stories to every ragged, filthy footpad; the common side was as
+good as any other on the way to Tyburn: what could a ragamuffin covered
+with blood and filth expect?--picked out a pair of irons: they were the
+rustiest and the heaviest that he could find: as he hammered them on he
+said that for half a crown he would drive the rivet into my heel only
+that he would rob his friend Jack Ketch of the pleasure of turning off a
+poor whining devil who came into Newgate without a copper. 'Damme!' he
+cried, as he finished his work, 'if I believe you ever tried to rob
+anyone!'
+
+'I did not,' I replied. At which he laughed, recovering his good temper,
+and opening a door shoved me through and shut it behind me.
+
+The common side of Newgate is a place which, though I was in it no more
+than two hours or so, remains fixed in my memory and will stay there as
+long as life remains. The yard was filled to overflowing with a company
+of the vilest, the filthiest, and the most shameless that it is possible
+to imagine. They were pickpockets, footpads, shoplifters, robbers of
+every kind; they were in rags; they were unwashed and unshaven; some of
+them were drunk; some of them were emaciated by insufficient food--a
+penny loaf a day was doled out to those who had no money and no friends:
+that was actually all that the poor wretches had to keep body and soul
+together: the place was crowded not only with the prisoners, but with
+their friends and relations of both sexes; the noise, the cursings, the
+ribald laugh; the drunken song; the fighting and quarrelling can never
+be imagined. And, in the narrow space of the yard which is like the
+bottom of a deep well, there is no air moving, so that the stench is
+enough, at first, to make a horse sick.
+
+I can liken it to nothing but a sty too narrow for the swine that
+crowded it; so full of unclean beasts was it, so full of noise and
+pushing and quarrelling: so full of passions, jealousies, and suspicions
+ungoverned, was it. Or I would liken it to a chamber in hell when the
+sharp agony of physical suffering is for a while changed for the equal
+pains of such companionship and such discourse as those of the common
+side. I stood near the door as the turnkey had pushed me in, staring
+stupidly about. Some sat on the stone bench with tobacco-pipes and pots
+of beer: some played cards on the bench: some walked about: there were
+women visitors, but not one whose face showed shame or sorrow. To such
+people as these Newgate is like an occasional attack of sickness; a
+whipping is but one symptom of the disease: imprisonment is the natural
+cure of the disease; hanging is only the natural common and inevitable
+end when the disease is incurable, just as death in his bed happens to a
+man with fever.
+
+While I looked about me, a man stepped out of the crowd. 'Garnish!' he
+cried, holding out his hand. Then they all crowded round, crying
+'Garnish! garnish!' I held up my hands: I assured them that I was
+penniless. The man who had first spoken waved back the others with his
+hand. 'Friend,' he said, 'if you have no money, off with your coat.'
+
+Then, I know not what happened, because I think I must have fallen into
+a kind of fit. When I recovered I was lying along the stone bench: my
+coat was gone: my waistcoat was gone; my shirt was in rags; my shoes--on
+which were silver buckles, were gone; and my stockings, which were of
+black silk. My head was in a woman's lap.
+
+'Well done,' she said, 'I thought you'd come round. 'Twas the touching
+of the wound on your head. Brutes and beasts you are, all of you! all of
+you! One comfort is you'll all be hanged, and that very soon. It'll be a
+happy world without you.'
+
+'Come, Nan,' one of the men said, 'you know it's the rule. If a
+gentleman won't pay his garnish he must give up his coat.'
+
+'Give up his coat! You've stripped him to the skin. And him with an open
+wound in his head bleeding again like a pig!'
+
+The people melted away: they offered no further apology; but the coat
+and the rest of the things were not returned.
+
+My good Samaritan, to judge by her dress and appearance, was one of the
+commonest of common women--the wife or the mistress of a Gaol-bird; the
+companion of thieves; the accomplice of villains. Yet there was left on
+her still, whatever the habit of her life, this touch of human kindness
+that made her come to the assistance of a helpless stranger. No
+Christian could have done more. 'Forasmuch,' said Christ, 'as you did it
+unto one of these you did it unto Me.' When I read these words I think
+of this poor woman, and I pray for her.
+
+'Lie still a minute,' she said, 'I will stanch the bleeding with a
+little gin,' she pulled out a flat bottle. 'It is good gin. I will pour
+a little on the wound. That can't hurt--so.' But it did hurt. 'Now, my
+pretty gentleman, for you are a gentleman, though maybe only a gentleman
+rider and woundily in want of a wash. Take a sip for yourself, don't be
+afraid. Take a long sip. I brought it here for my man, but he's dead. He
+died in the night after a fight in the yard here. He got a knife between
+his ribs,' she spoke of this occurrence as if such a conclusion to a
+fight was quite in the common way. 'Look here, sir, you've no business
+in this place. Haven't you got any friends to pay for the Master's side?
+Now you're easier, and the bleeding has stopped. Can you stand, do you
+think?'
+
+I made a shift to get to my feet, shivering in the cold damp November
+air. She had a bundle laying on the bench. ''Tis my man's clothes,' she
+said. 'Take his coat and shoes. You must. Else with nothing but the
+boards to sleep upon you'll be starved to death. Now I must go and tell
+his friends that my man is dead. Well--he won't be hanged. I never did
+like to think that I should be the widow of a Tyburn bird.'
+
+She put on me the warm thick coat that had been her husband's; she put
+on his shoes. I was still stupid and dull of understanding. But I tried
+to thank her.
+
+Some weeks afterwards, when I was at length released, I ventured back
+into the prison in hopes of finding the name and the residence of the
+woman--Samaritan, if ever there was one. The turnkeys could tell me
+nothing. The gaol was full of women, they said. My friend was named Nan.
+They were all Nans. She was the wife of a prisoner who died in the
+place. They were always dying on the common side. That was nothing. They
+all know each other by name; but it was six weeks ago; prisoners change
+every day; they are brought in; they are sent out to be hanged,
+pilloried, whipped or transported. In a word they knew nothing and would
+not take the trouble to inquire. What did it matter to these men made
+callous by intimacy with suffering, that a woman of the lower kind had
+done a kind and charitable action? Nevertheless, we have Christ's own
+assurance--His words--His promise. The woman's action will be remembered
+on the day when her sins shall be passed before a merciful Judge. Her
+sins! Alas! she was what she was brought up to be; her sins lie upon the
+head of those who suffer her, and those like to her, to grow up without
+religion, or virtue, or example, or admonition.
+
+By this time I was growing faint with hunger as well as with loss of
+blood and fatigue. I had taken nothing for fourteen hours; namely, since
+supper the evening before the attack. The first effect of hunger is to
+stop the power of thought. There fell upon me a feeling of carelessness
+as if nothing mattered: the night in the watch-house: the appearance
+before the magistrate: my reception on the common side: all passed
+across my brain as if they belonged to someone else. I rose with
+difficulty, but staggered and fell back upon the bench. My head was
+light: I seemed strangely happy. This lightness of head was quickly
+followed by a drowsiness which became stupor. How long I lay there I
+know not. I remember nothing until a heavy hand was laid on my shoulder.
+'Come,' it was the voice of a turnkey. 'This is not the kind of place
+for an afternoon nap in November. Come this way. A lady wants to see
+you.'
+
+He led me to the door of the common side: and threw it open: in the
+waiting-room was none other than Jenny herself. How had she learned what
+had happened?
+
+'Oh! my poor Will!' she cried, the tears running down her cheeks. 'This
+is even worse than I expected. But first you must be made comfortable.
+Here, you fellow,' she called the turnkey. 'Take him away. I will pay
+for everything. Let him be washed and get his wound dressed; give him a
+clean shirt and get him at once new clothes.'
+
+'If your ladyship pleases--'
+
+'Change these rusty irons for the lightest you have. Put him into the
+best cell that you have on the State side. Get a dinner for him:
+anything that is quickest--cold beef--ham--bread--a bottle of Madeira.
+Go--quick.' She stamped her foot with authority; she put into the man's
+hand enough money to pay for half a dozen prisoners on the State side.
+'Now, fly--don't crawl--fly!--one would think you were all asleep. A
+pretty place this is to sleep in!'
+
+The man knocked off my heavy irons and substituted a pair of lighter
+ones, highly polished and even ornamental. He took me away and washed
+me; it was in the turnkeys' room on the right hand of the entrance; he
+also with some dexterity dressed my wound, dressed and cleaned my
+hair--it was filled with clotted blood; he fitted me with new clothes,
+and in less time than one would think possible, I was taken back
+looking once more like a respectable person, even a gentleman if I chose
+to consider myself entitled to claim that empty rank. I found Jenny
+waiting for me in the best cell that Newgate could offer on the State
+side: a meal was spread for me, with a bottle of wine.
+
+'Before we say a word, Will, sit down and eat. Heavens! You have had
+nothing since our supper last night.'
+
+I checked an impulse to thank her: I drove back the swelling in my
+heart. Reader--I was too hungry for these emotions: I had first to
+satisfy starving nature. While I ate and drank Jenny talked.
+
+'You shall tell me the whole story presently, Will. Meantime, go on with
+your dinner. You must want it, my poor friend. Now let me tell you why I
+am here. You know I was uneasy about the conspiracy that was hatching. I
+feared it might be meant for you. So great was my uneasiness that I bade
+my sister to keep watching and listening: this morning about one o'clock
+I went to the Black Jack myself to learn if she had discovered anything.
+
+'Well, she had discovered everything. She said that at eleven o'clock
+this morning the two fellows called the Bishop and the Captain, whom I
+had taken out of the King's Bench, came to the Black Jack, laughing and
+very merry: they called for a mug of purl and a pack of cards: that
+while they played they talked out loud because there was no one in the
+house except themselves. Doll they disregarded as they always do,
+because Doll is generally occupied with her slate and her scores, which
+she adds up as wrong as she can. They said that it was as good as a play
+to see the Attorney playing the indignant friend of the family, and how
+their own evidence could not possibly be set aside, and the case was as
+good as finished and done with; that the fellow went off to Newgate as
+dumb as an ox to the shambles; and the poor devil had no money and no
+friends, and must needs swing, and the whole job was as clean and
+creditable piece of work as had ever been turned out. It must be
+hanging: nobody could get him off. Then they fell to wondering as well,
+what Mr. Probus had done it for; and what he would get by it; and
+whether (a speculation which pleased them most) he had not put himself
+into Mr. Merridew's power, in which case they might have the holy joy of
+seeing the attorney himself, when his rope was out, sitting in the cart.
+And they congratulated each other on their own share in the job; ten
+guineas apiece, down, and a promise of more when the man was out of the
+way: with a long extension of time.' I condense Jenny's narrative which
+was long, and I alter the language which was wandering.
+
+'When Doll told me all this,' she concluded, 'I had no longer any doubt
+that the man whom they had succeeded in placing in Newgate was none
+other than yourself, my poor Will--so I took a coach and drove here.'
+
+I then told her exactly how everything had happened.
+
+'I hope,' she said, 'that Matthew, if he is in the conspiracy, does not
+know what has been done. Besides, the chief gainer will be Probus, not
+Matthew. Remember, Will, it is just a race; if he can compass your death
+before Matthew becomes bankrupt, then he will get back all his
+money--all his money. Think of that: if not, he will lose the whole.
+Well, Will, he thinks nobody knows except himself. He is mistaken. We
+shall see--we shall see.' So she fell to considering again.
+
+'If there is a loophole of escape,' she went on, 'he will wriggle out.
+Let us think. What do we know?'
+
+'We only know through Ramage,' I replied. 'Is that enough to prove the
+conspiracy? I know what those two men are who are the leading
+witnesses--how can I prove it? I know that they were suborned by Probus
+and that they are in the power of Merridew. How can I prove it? I know
+that Probus has talked to my cousin about my possible death, but what
+does that prove? I know that he will benefit by my death to the amount
+of many thousands, but how can I prove it? My mouth will be closed.
+Where are my witnesses?'
+
+'You can't prove anything, Will. And therefore you had better not try.'
+
+'Jenny.' The tears came to my unmanly eyes. 'Leave me. Go, break the
+news to Alice, and prepare her mind to see me die.'
+
+'I will break the news to Alice, but I will not prepare her mind to see
+you die. For, my dear cousin, you shall not die.' She spoke with
+assurance. She was standing up and she brought her hand down upon the
+table with a slap which with her flashing eyes and coloured cheek
+inspired confidence for the moment. 'You shall not die by the conspiracy
+of these villains.'
+
+'How to prevent them?'
+
+'It would be easy if their friends would bear evidence against them.
+But they will not. They will sit in the Court and admire the tragic
+perjuries of the witnesses. There is one rule among my people which is
+never broken; no one must peach on his brother. Shall dog bite dog? If
+that rule is broken it is never forgiven--never--so long as the offender
+lives.'
+
+'Then, what can we do?'
+
+'The short way would be to buy them. But in this respect they cannot be
+bought. They will rob or murder or perjure themselves with cheerfulness,
+but they will not peach on their brother. Money will not tempt them.
+Jealousy might, but there are no women in this case. Revenge might, but
+there is here no private quarrel. Besides, they are all in the hands of
+the man Merridew. To thwart him would bring certain destruction on their
+heads. And if there was any other reason, they are naturally anxious to
+avoid a Court of Justice. They would rather see their own children
+hanged than go into a court to give evidence, true or false.'
+
+'Then I must suffer, Jenny.'
+
+'Nay, Will, I said not so much--I was only putting the case before
+myself. I see many difficulties but there is always a way out--always an
+end.'
+
+'Always an end.' I repeated. 'Oh! Jenny. What an end!'
+
+A Newgate fit was on me; that is, a fit of despondency which is almost
+despair. All the inmates of Newgate know what it means; the rattling of
+the irons; the recollection of the trial to come; a word that jars; and
+the Newgate shuddering seizes a man and shakes him up and down till it
+is spent. Jenny made me drink a glass of wine. The fit passed away.
+
+'I feel,' I said at last, 'as if the rope was already round my neck. My
+poor Alice! My poor child! Thou wilt be the son of a highwayman and a
+Tyburn bird. To the third and fourth generation ...'
+
+'I know nothing about generations,' Jenny interrupted. 'All I know is
+that you are going to be saved. Why, man, consider. Probus knows nothing
+about me; these conspirators know nothing about Madame Vallance; none of
+them have the least suspicion; and must not have: that you know Jenny of
+the Black Jack. Now I shall try to get a case as to the conspiracy clear
+without attacking the loyalty of the gang to each other. I have thought
+of such a plan. And I know an attorney. You have seen him. He is
+tolerably honest. He shall advise us--I will send him here. Be of good
+cheer, Will. I go to fetch Alice. Put on a smiling countenance to greet
+her. Come, you are a man. Lift the drooping spirit of the woman who
+loves you. Keep up her heart if not your own.'
+
+She came back at about five: the day was already over; the yards and
+courts of the Prison were already dark. My cell was lit with a pair of
+candles when Jenny brought Alice and her brother Tom to see me.
+
+Alice, poor child! fell into my arms and so lay for a long time, unable
+to speak for the sobs that tore her almost in pieces, yet unwilling to
+let me see her weakness.
+
+Tom--the good fellow--assumed the same air of cheerfulness which he had
+learned to show in the King's Bench. He sniffed the air approvingly. He
+looked round with pretended satisfaction. 'Ha!' he said, 'this place
+hath been misrepresented. The room is convenient, if small; the
+furniture solid: the air is not so close as one might expect. For a
+brief residence--a temporary residence--a man might ... might--I say--'
+He cleared his throat; the tears came into his eyes: he sank into a
+chair. 'Oh! Will ... Will,' he cried, breaking down, and unable to
+pretend any longer.
+
+Then no one spoke. Indeed all our hearts were full.
+
+'It is not so much on your account, Will,' said Jenny--I observed that
+she wore a domino, and indeed, she never came to the prison after the
+first visit without a domino, a precaution by no means unusual, because
+ladies might not like to be seen in Newgate, and in any case it might
+arouse suspicions if Jenny were recognised. 'I say it is not on your
+account, so much as for the sake of this dear creature. Madam--Alice--I
+implore you--take courage; we have the proofs of the conspiracy in our
+hands. It is a black and hellish plot. The only difficulty is as to the
+best means of using our knowledge, and here, I confess, for the moment,
+I am not certain--'
+
+Alice recovered herself and stood up, holding my hand. 'I cannot
+believe,' she said, 'that such wickedness as this will be permitted to
+succeed. It would bring shame and sorrow on children and grandchildren
+to the third and fourth generations.'
+
+'You all talk about generations,' said Jenny. 'For my part I think of
+you that are alive, not those who are to come. Well, so far it has not
+succeeded. For the conspirators are known to me and I am Will's
+cousin--and this they know not.'
+
+They stayed talking till nine o'clock when visitors had to leave the
+Prison. Jenny cheered all our hearts. She would hear of no difficulties:
+all was clear: all was easy: she had the conspirators in her power.
+To-morrow she would return with her honest and clever attorney. So Alice
+went away with a lighter heart, and I was left for the night alone in my
+cell with a gleam of hope. In the morning that gleam left me, and the
+day broke upon the place of gloom and brought with it only misery and
+despair.
+
+In the forenoon Jenny returned with her attorney. He was the man who had
+already acted for me. His name was Dewberry; he was possessed of a
+manner easy and assured, which inspired confidence: in face and figure
+he was attractive, and he betrayed no eagerness to possess himself of
+his client's money. I observed also, at the outset, that, like all the
+rest he was the servant (who would, if he could, become the lover) of
+Jenny.
+
+'Now, Mr. Halliday,' he said, 'I have heard some part of your story from
+Madame Vallance. I want, next, to hear your own version.' So I told it,
+while he listened gravely, making notes.
+
+'It is certainly,' he said, 'a very strong point that your death would
+give Probus the chance of recovering his money. Your cousin could then
+pay him off, if he wished, in full. Whether he would do so is another
+question. If bankruptcy arrives and finds you still living, all the
+creditors would be considered together. Madame,' he turned to Jenny,
+'you who have so fine a head for management, let us hear your opinion.'
+
+'I think of nothing else,' she said. 'Yet I cannot satisfy myself. I
+have thought that my sister Doll might warn the Captain that both he and
+the Bishop would be exposed in Court. But what would happen? They would
+instantly go off with the news to Merridew. And then? An information
+against Doll and my mother for receiving stolen goods. And what would
+happen then? You know very well, Mr. Dewberry. They would have to buy
+their release by forbidding the exposure! Why, they are the most
+notorious receivers living. Or, suppose Doll plainly told them that her
+sister Jenny knew the whole case--they don't know at present--at least,
+I think not--where I am--but they can easily find out--that I knew the
+whole case and meant to expose them. What would happen next? Murder, my
+masters. I should be found on my bed with my throat cut, and a letter to
+show that it was done by one of my maids.'
+
+'Jenny, for Heaven's sake, do not run these risks.'
+
+'Not if I can help it, Will. Do you know what I think of--besides? It is
+a doubt whether Matthew would be more rejoiced to see the conspiracy
+succeed and you put out of the way, or to witness the conviction of
+Probus for conspiracy.'
+
+'Softly--softly, Madam,' said the attorney; 'we are a long way yet from
+the trial, even, of Mr. Probus.'
+
+'Jenny,' I said, 'your words bring me confidence.'
+
+'If you feel all the confidence that there is in Newgate it will not be
+enough, Will, for the confidence that you ought to have. But we must
+work in silence. If our friends only knew what we are talking here, why
+then--the Lord help the landlady of the Black Jack and her two
+daughters, Jenny and Doll!'
+
+'You must be aware, Sir,' said Mr. Dewberry, 'that it is absolutely
+necessary for us to preserve silence upon everything connected with your
+defence. You must not communicate any details upon the subject to your
+most intimate friends and relations.'
+
+'He means Alice,' said Jenny.
+
+'We must have secrecy.'
+
+'You may trust a man whose life is at stake.'
+
+'Yes. Now the principal witnesses are the pretended Divine and the
+pretended country gentleman. They rest in the assurance that none of
+their friends will betray them. We must see what can be done. If we
+prove that your Irish Divine is a common rogue we make his evidence
+suspected, but we do not prove the conspiracy. The fellow might brave it
+out, and still swear to the attempted robbery. Then as to the other
+worthy, we may prove that he is a notorious rogue. Still he may swear
+stoutly to his evidence. We must prove, in addition, that these two
+rogues are known to each other--'
+
+'That can be proved by any who were in the King's Bench Prison with
+them--'
+
+'And we must connect them with Probus and Merridew.'
+
+'I can prove that as well,' said Jenny. 'That is, if--'
+
+She paused.
+
+'If your witnesses will give evidence. Madam, I would not pour cold
+water on your confidence--but--will your witnesses go into the box?'
+
+Jenny smiled. 'I believe,' she said, 'that I can fill the Court with
+witnesses.'
+
+'I want more than belief--I want certainty.'
+
+'There is another way,' said Jenny. 'If we could let Mr. Probus
+understand that the sudden and unexpected appearance of a new set of
+creditors would force on Bankruptcy immediately--'
+
+Mr. Dewberry interposed hastily. 'Madam, I implore you. There is no
+necessity at all. Sir, this lady would actually sacrifice her own
+fortune and her future prospects in your cause.'
+
+'For his safety and for his life--everything.'
+
+'I assure you, dear Madam, there is no need. Your affairs want only
+patience, and they will adjust themselves. To throw them also upon your
+husband's other liabilities would not help this gentleman. For this
+reason. There are a thousand tricks and subtleties which a man of Mr.
+Probus's knowledge may employ for the postponement of bankruptcy until
+after the trial of our friend here. You know not the resources of the
+law in a trained hand. I mean that, supposing Mr. Probus to reckon on
+the success of this conspiracy--in which I grieve to find a brother in
+the profession involved; he may cause these delays to extend until his
+end is accomplished or defeated. A man of the Law, Madam, has great
+powers.'
+
+I groaned.
+
+'Another point is that, unless I am much mistaken, this conspiracy is
+intended to intimidate and not to be carried out. Mr. Probus will offer
+you, I take it, your liberty on condition of your yielding in the matter
+of that money.'
+
+'Never!' I declared. 'I will die first!'
+
+'Then it remains to be seen if he will carry the thing through.'
+
+So they went on arguing on this side and on that side: which line of
+action was best: which was dangerous: in the end, as you shall see,
+Jenny took the management of the case into her own hands with results
+which astonished Mr. Dewberry as well as the Court, myself, and the four
+heroes of the conspiracy.
+
+Five weeks, I learned, would elapse before my case would be tried in
+Court. It was a long and a tedious time to contemplate in advance.
+Meantime, I was kept in ignorance, for the most part, of what was being
+done. Afterwards I learned that Jenny carried on the work in secrecy, so
+that not only the conspirators might not have the least suspicion but
+that even Mr. Dewberry did not know what was doing until she placed the
+case complete, in his hands a few days before the trial. Jenny contrived
+all: Jenny paid for all: what the case cost her in money I never
+learned. She spared nothing, neither labour, nor travel, nor money.
+Meantime I lived on now in hope, now in despondency: to go outside among
+my fellow prisoners was to increase the wretchedness of prison. Every
+morning Alice brought provisions for the day. Tom brought me my violin
+and music so that I was not without some consolations.
+
+As I remember this gloomy period, I remember with thankfulness how I was
+stayed and comforted by two women, of whom one was a Saint: and the
+other was--well, Heaven forbid that I should call her a Sinner, in whom
+I never found the least blemish: but not, at least, a Christian. The
+first offered up prayers for me day and night, wrestling in prayer like
+Jacob, for the open manifestation of my innocence. Alice was filled with
+a sublime faith. The Lord whom she worshipped was very near to her. He
+would destroy His enemies; He would preserve the innocent; the wicked
+would be cast down and put to perpetual shame. Never have I witnessed a
+faith so simple and so strong. Yet to all seeming; to the conspirators
+themselves; I had not a single witness whom I could call in my defence:
+that a man was poor favoured the chance of his becoming a robber; that a
+brother-in-law, also a prisoner in the Rules, should be ready to say
+that I was incapable of such an action could not help. What could we
+allege against the clear and strong evidence that the four perjured
+villains would offer when they should stand up, and swear away my life?
+'Have courage,' said Alice, 'Help cometh from the Lord. He will have
+mercy upon the child and--oh! Will--Will--He will have mercy upon the
+father of the child.'
+
+Mr. Dewberry came often. He had little to tell me. Jenny had gone away.
+Jenny had not told him what she was doing. 'Sir,' he said, 'but for the
+confidence I have in that incomparable woman and in her assurances I
+should feel anxious. For as yet, and we are within a fortnight of the
+trial, I have not a single witness who can prove the real character of
+the pretended Divine and the pretended country gentleman. But since
+Madam assures us--' He produced his snuff-box and offered it--
+'Why--then, Sir--in that case--I believe in the success of your
+defence.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE SAME OFFER
+
+
+Thus I passed that weary and anxious imprisonment. The way of getting
+through the day was always the same. Soon after daylight, I went out and
+walked in the yards for half an hour. The early morning, indeed, was the
+only time of the day when a man of decent manners could venture abroad
+even on the State side. At that time the visitors had not yet begun to
+arrive; the men were still sleeping off their carouse of the evening
+before; only a few wretches to whom a dismal foreboding of the future, a
+guilty conscience, an aching heart, would not allow sleep, crept
+dolefully about the empty yards; restlessly sitting or standing: if they
+spoke to each other, it was with distracted words showing that they knew
+not what they said. Alas! The drunken orgies of the others caused them
+at least some relief from the terrible sufferings of remorse and looking
+forward. It is not often that one can find an excuse for drunkenness.
+
+After this melancholy walk I returned to my cell where I played for an
+hour or two, afterwards reading or meditating. But always my thoughts
+turned to the impending trial. I represented myself called upon to make
+my own defence: I read it aloud: I failed to impress the Jury: the Judge
+summed up: the Jury retired: cold beads stood upon my forehead: I
+trembled: I shook: the verdict was Guilty: the Judge assumed the black
+cap--Verily I suffered, every day, despite the assurance of Jenny and
+Mr. Dewberry, all the tortures of one convicted and condemned to death.
+If my heart were examined after my death sure I am that a black cap
+would be found engraven upon it, to show the agonies which I endured.
+
+About one o'clock Alice arrived, sometimes with Tom, sometimes alone.
+As for Tom he had quickly rallied and had now completely accepted the
+assurance that an acquittal was certain: his confidence would have been
+wonderful but for the consideration that it was not his own neck that
+was in danger but that of his brother-in-law. The child was not allowed
+to be brought into the prison for fear of the fever which always lurks
+about the wards and cells and corridors. In the afternoon, while we were
+talking, Jenny herself, when she was not on her mysterious journeys,
+came wearing a domino. About four o'clock, Tom departed and, a little
+after, Alice. Then I was left alone to sleep and reflection for twelve
+hours.
+
+This was the daily routine. On Sunday there was service, in the chapel,
+made horrid by the condemned prisoners in their pew sitting round the
+empty coffin: and by the ribaldry and blasphemous jests of the prisoners
+themselves. Not even in the chapel could they refrain.
+
+One afternoon there was a surprise. We were sitting in conversation
+together, Alice and Jenny with my brother-in-law Tom, and myself, when
+we received a visit from no less a person than Mr. Probus himself. That
+Prince of villains had the audacity to call in person upon me. He stood
+in the doorway, his long, lean body bent, wearing a smile that had
+evidently been borrowed for the occasion. I sprang to my feet with
+indignation. My arm was gently touched. Jenny sat beside me, but a
+little behind.
+
+'Hush!' she whispered. 'Let him say what he has to say. Sit down. Do not
+answer by a single word.'
+
+Mr. Probus looked disconcerted to see me resume my chair and make as if
+I neither saw nor heard.
+
+'You did not expect, Mr. Halliday, to see me here?'
+
+I made no reply.
+
+'I am astonished, I confess, to find myself here, after all that has
+passed. Respect for the memory of my late employer and client, Sir Peter
+Halliday, must be my excuse--my only excuse. Respect, and, if I may be
+permitted to add, compassion--compassion, Madam'--he bowed to Alice.
+
+'Compassion, Sir, is a Christian virtue,' she said, with such emphasis
+on the adjective as to imply astonishment at finding that quality in Mr.
+Probus.
+
+'Assuredly, Madam--assuredly, which is the reason why I cultivate
+it--sometimes to my own loss--my own loss.'
+
+'Sir,' Alice went on, 'you cannot but be aware that your presence here
+is distasteful. Will you be so good as to tell us what you have to say?'
+
+'Certainly, Madam. I think I have seen you before. You are Mr. William
+Halliday's wife. This gentleman I have not seen before.'
+
+'He is my brother.'
+
+'Your brother--And the lady who prefers to wear a domino?' For Jenny had
+made haste to replace that disguise. 'No doubt it is proper in
+Newgate--but is it necessary among friends?'
+
+'This lady is my cousin,' said Alice. 'She will please herself as to
+what she wears.'
+
+'Your cousin. We are therefore, as one may say, a family party. The
+defendant; his wife: his brother-in-law: his cousin. This is very good.
+This is what I should have desired above all things had I prayed upon my
+way hither. A family party.'
+
+'Mr. Probus,' said Alice, 'if this discourse is to continue beware how
+you speak of prayers.' Never had I seen her face so set, so full of
+righteous wrath, with so much repression. The man quaked under her eyes.
+
+'I come to business,' he said. 'I fear there is a spirit of suspicion,
+even of hostility, abroad. Let that pass. I hope, indeed, to remove it.
+Now, if you please, give me your attention.'
+
+He was now the lawyer alert and watchful. 'Your trial, Mr. Halliday,
+takes place in a short time--a few days. I do not know what defence you
+will attempt--I hope you may be successful--I have thought upon the
+subject, and, I confess--well--I can only say that I do not know what
+kind of defence will be possible in a case so clear and so well
+attested.'
+
+'Hush!' Jenny laid her hand again on my arm. 'Hush!' she whispered.
+
+I restrained myself and still sat in silence.
+
+'Let me point out to you--in a moment you will understand why--how you
+stand. You know, of course, yet it is always well to be clear in one's
+mind--the principal evidence is that given by those two gentlemen from
+the country, the young squire of Cumberland--or is it Westmoreland?--and
+the clergyman of the Sister Kingdom. I have naturally been in frequent
+communication with those two gentlemen. I find that they are both kept
+in London to the detriment of their own affairs: that they would
+willingly get the business despatched quickly so that they would be
+free to go home again: that they bear no malice--none whatever: one
+because he is a clergyman, and therefore practises forgiveness as a
+Christian duty: the other because he is a gentleman who scorns revenge,
+and, besides, was not the attacked, but the attacking party. "So far,"
+says the noble-hearted gentleman, "from desiring to hang the poor
+wretch, I would willingly suffer him to go at large." This is a
+disposition of mind which promises a great deal. I have never found a
+more happy disposition in any witness before. No resentment: no revenge:
+no desire for a fatal termination to the trial. It is wonderful and
+rare. So I came over to tell you what they say and to entreat you to
+make use of this friendly temper while it lasts. They might--I do not
+say they will--but they might be induced to withdraw altogether from the
+trial, in which case the prosecution would fall to the ground. For the
+case depends wholly upon their evidence. For myself, as you know, I
+arrived by accident upon the scene, and was too late to see anything.
+Mr. Merridew tells me that what he saw might have been a fight rather
+than a robbery; I ought not to have revealed this weak point in the
+evidence, but I am all for mercy--all for mercy. So I say, that if their
+evidence is not forthcoming, the prosecution must fall through, and
+then, dear Sir, liberty would be once more your happy lot.' He stopped
+and folded his arms.
+
+I had not offered him a chair partly because he was Mr. Probus and I
+would not suffer him to sit in my presence: partly because there was no
+chair to offer him.
+
+'These gentlemen, Sir,' said Tom, 'are willing, we understand, to retire
+from the case.'
+
+'I would not say willing. I would rather say, not unwilling.'
+
+'Do they,' Tom asked, 'demand money as a bribe as a price for retiring?'
+
+'No, Sir. These gentlemen are far above any such consideration. I
+believe they would be simply contented with such a sum of money as would
+meet their personal expenses and their losses by this prolonged stay.'
+
+'And to how much may these losses and expenses, taken together, amount?'
+
+'I hear that his Reverence has lost a valuable Lectureship which has
+been given to another in his absence: and that the Squire has sustained
+losses among his cattle and his horses also owing to his absence.'
+
+'And the combined figures, Sir, which would cover these losses?'
+
+'I cannot say positively. Probably the clergyman's losses would be
+represented by £400 and the Squire's by £600. There would be my own
+costs in the case as well--but they are--as usual--a trifle.'
+
+'And suppose we were to pay this money,' Tom continued, 'what should we
+have to prove that they would not give their evidence?'
+
+'Sir--There you touch me on the tenderest point--the "pundonor," as the
+Spaniards say. You should lodge the money with any person in whom we
+could agree as a person of honour--and after the case for the
+prosecution had broken down--not before--he should give me that money.
+Observe that on the part of these two simple gentlemen there is trust,
+even in an attorney--in myself.'
+
+I said nothing, for as the man knew that I could not find a tenth part
+of the sum, I knew there was something behind. What it was I guessed
+very well. And, in fact, Mr. Probus immediately showed what it was.
+
+'Mr. Halliday,' he said, 'I believe that I know your circumstances. I
+have on one or two occasions had to make myself acquainted with them. I
+shall not give offence if I suppose that you cannot immediately raise
+the sum of £1,000 even to save your life.'
+
+He spoke to me, but he looked at Alice.
+
+'He cannot, certainly,' said Alice, 'either immediately or in any time
+proposed.'
+
+'Quite so. Now, this is a case of life or death--life or death, Sir:
+life or death, Madam: an honourable life--a long life for your husband:
+or a shameful death--a shameful death: shameful to him: shameful to you:
+shameful to your child or children.'
+
+'Hush!' whispered Jenny, laying a repressive hand again upon my
+shoulder, for again I was boiling over with indignation. What! The
+author and contriver of this shameful death was to come and call
+attention to the disgrace of which he was the sole cause! Had I been
+left to myself without Alice or Jenny, I would have brained the old
+villain. But I obeyed and sat in silence, answering nothing.
+
+'Consider, Madam'--he continued to address Alice--'this is not a time
+for false pride or for obstinacy, or even for standing out for better
+terms. Once more I make the same offer which I made before. Let him sell
+his chance of a certain succession of which he knows. Let him do that,
+and all his difficulties and troubles will vanish like the smoke of a
+bonfire. I tell you plainly, Madam, that I can control the appearance of
+this evidence without which the prosecution can do nothing. I will
+control it. If he agrees to sell, your husband shall walk out, on the
+day of the trial, a free man.' He drew out of his pocket a pocket-book
+and from that a document which I remembered well--the deed of sale or
+transfer.
+
+Nobody replied. Alice looked at me anxiously. I remained silent and
+dogged.
+
+'Two years ago--or somewhere about that time--I made the same proposal
+to him. I offered him £3,000 down for his share of an estate which might
+never be his--or only after long years--I offered him £3,000 down. It
+was a large sum of money. He refused. A day or two afterwards he found
+himself in the King's Bench Prison. I would recall that coincidence to
+you. Four or five weeks ago I made a similar offer. This time I proposed
+£4,000 down. He refused again, blind to his own interest. A few days
+afterwards he found himself within these walls on a capital charge. A
+third time, and the last time, I make him another offer. This time I
+raise the sum to £5,000 in order to cover the losses of those two
+witnesses, and in addition to the money, which is a large sum, enough to
+carry you on in comfort and in credit, I offer your husband the crowning
+gift of life. Life--do you hear, woman! Life: and honour: and
+credit--life--life--life--I say.'
+
+His face was troubled: his accents were eager: he was not acting: he
+felt that he was offering me far more than anything he had ever offered
+me before.
+
+'Hush,' whispered Jenny, keeping me quiet again--for all the time I was
+longing to spring to my feet and to let loose a tongue of fiery
+eloquence. But to sit quite quiet and to say nothing was galling.
+
+'Take it, Will, take it,' said Tom. 'If the gentleman can do what he
+promises, take it. Life and liberty--I say--before all.'
+
+'Sir,' said Alice--her voice was gentle, but it was strong: her face was
+sweet, but it was firm. The man saw and listened--and misunderstood. I
+know the mind of my husband in this matter. For reasons which you
+understand, he will not speak to you. The money that was devised by his
+father to the survivor of the two--his cousin or himself--has always
+been accepted by him as a proof that at the end his father desired him
+to understand that he was not wholly unforgiven: that there was a
+loophole of forgiveness, but he did not explain what that was: that
+should my husband, who has no desire to see the death of his cousin,
+survive Mr. Matthew, he will receive the fortune as a proof that a life
+of hard and honest work has been accepted by his father in full
+forgiveness. Sir, my husband considers his father's wishes as sacred.
+Nothing--no pressure of poverty--no danger such as the present will ever
+make him consent to sign the document you have so often submitted to
+him.'
+
+'Then'--Mr. Probus put back his paper--'if this is your last
+word--remember--you have but a few days left. Nothing can save
+you--nothing--nothing--nothing. You have but a few days before you are
+condemned--a week or two more of life. Is this your last word?'
+
+'It is our last word, Sir,' said Alice.
+
+'She is right--Will is right,' cried Tom. 'Hark ye--Mr. Attorney. There
+is foul play here. We may find it out yet, with the help of God. Shall I
+put him out of the door, Alice?'
+
+'He will go of his own accord, Tom. Will you leave us, Sir?'
+
+'Yes, I will leave you.' He shook his long forefinger in my face. 'Ha! I
+leave you to be hanged: you shall have your miserable neck twisted like
+a chicken, and your last thought shall be that you threw your life
+away--no--that by dying you give your cousin all.'
+
+So he flung out of the room and left us looking blankly at each other.
+
+Then Jenny spoke.
+
+'You did well, Will, to preserve silence in the presence of the wretch.
+We all do well to preserve silence about your defence. You dear people.
+I have counted up the cost. It will be more than at first I thought,
+because the case must be made complete, so complete that there can be no
+doubt I promise you.' She took off her domino: her face was very pale: I
+remember now that there was on it an unaccustomed look of nobility such
+as belongs to one who takes a resolution certain to involve her in
+great trouble and at the expense of self-sacrifice or martyrdom. 'I
+promise you,' she said, 'that, cost what it may, the CASE SHALL BE
+COMPLETE.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE IMPENDING TRIAL
+
+
+The time--the awful time--the day of Fate--drew nearer. Despite the
+assurances both of Jenny and of her attorney there were moments when
+anticipation and doubt caused agonies unspeakable. Sometimes I have
+thought that these agonies were cowardly: I should be ashamed of them:
+but no one knows, who has not suffered in the same way, the torture of
+feeling one's self in the absolute power of a crafty conspiracy directed
+by a man as relentless as a weasel after a rabbit, or an eagle after a
+heron, not out of hatred or revenge, but after money, the only object of
+his life, the real spring of his wickedness. After my experience, I can
+briefly say, as David in his old age said, 'Let me fall into the hands
+of the Lord, for His mercies are great: but let me not fall into the
+hands of man.'
+
+Presently it wanted but a week: then six days, then five.
+
+'You should now,' said Mr. Dewberry, 'prepare and write out your
+defence: that is to say, your own speech after the trial is over. Take
+no thought about the evidence; your counsel will cross-examine the
+witnesses against you; he will also examine those for you. Trust your
+counsel for doing the best with both. Heaven help two or three of them
+when Mr. Caterham has done with them.' Mr. Caterham, K. C., our senior
+counsel, was reported to be the best man at the Old Bailey Bar; with him
+was Mr. Stanton, a young man still, quite young, but with a brain of
+fire and a front of brass. 'You must not leave your defence to the
+eloquence of the moment, which may fail you. Write it down; write it
+plainly, fully and without passion. State who you are; what your
+occupation; what your salary; what your rent; what your daily habits; we
+shall have called witnesses to establish all these points. Then tell the
+Court exactly what you have told me. Do not try to be eloquent or
+rhetorical. The plain facts, plainly told, will impress the Jury and
+will affect the Judge's charge, far more than any flights of eloquence
+on your part. What the Judge wants is to get at the truth. Remember
+that. Behind his habitual severity of manner Mr. Justice Parker, who
+will try your case, is bent always upon discovering, if possible, the
+truth. Sit down, therefore, and relate the facts, exactly as they were.
+Take care to marshal them in their best and most convincing manner. Many
+a good cause has been wasted by a careless and ignorant manner of
+presenting them. In your case first relate the facts as to the alleged
+assault. Next inform the Court who and what you are. Thirdly relate the
+circumstances of your relations with Mr. Probus. Fourthly state the
+reasons why he would profit by your death. Next, call attention to the
+conversation overheard by Mr. Ramage. Then show that he has on more than
+one occasion threatened you, and that he has actually imprisoned you in
+the King's Bench in the hope of moving you. I think that you will have a
+very moving story to tell, supported, as it will be, by the evidence
+which has gone before. But you have no time to lose. Such a statement
+must not be put together in a hurry. When it is finished I will read it
+over and advise you.'
+
+What was important to me in this advice was the necessity of ordering,
+or marshalling the facts. To one not accustomed to English Composition
+such a necessity never occurred, and without such advice I might have
+presented a confused jumble, a muddled array, of facts not dependent one
+upon the other, the importance of which would have been lost. However,
+armed with this advice, I sat down, and after drawing up a schedule or
+list of divisions, or headings, or chapters, I set to work, trying to
+keep out everything but the facts. No one will believe how difficult a
+thing it is to stick to the mere facts and to put in nothing more.
+Indignation carried me beyond control from time to time. I went out of
+my way to point to the villainy of Probus: I called the vengeance of
+Heaven upon him and his colleagues: I appealed to the unmerited
+sufferings of my innocent wife; to the shameful future of my innocent
+offspring--and to other matters of a personal kind all of which were
+ruthlessly struck out by the attorney; with the result that I had with
+me when I went into court as plain and clear a statement of a case as
+ever was presented by any prisoner. This statement I read and re-read
+until I knew it by heart: yet I was advised not to trust to memory but
+to take the papers into court and to seem to read. All this shows the
+care which was taken by our ever-watchful attorney, lest anything should
+happen to hinder the development of the case, as he intended and hoped.
+
+Among other things he called upon Mr. Probus, nominally on account of
+another matter.
+
+'I believe,' he said, 'that you are the attorney of Mr. Matthew
+Halliday?'
+
+'I have that honour.'
+
+'Yes. I observed the fact in reading an affidavit of yours in connection
+with a case in which I am engaged for the defence, the case of Mr.
+William Halliday, now in Newgate on a charge of highway robbery.'
+
+'Defence? He has, then, a defence?'
+
+'A defence? Certainly he has a defence. And Counsel. We have engaged Mr.
+Caterham, K. C., and Mr. Stanton, both of whom you probably know, as
+counsel for the defence. My dear Sir, we have a very good defence
+indeed. Let me see. You arrived on the spot, I observe, after the
+alleged attack was committed.'
+
+'Certainly. My affidavit and my evidence before Sir John, were only as
+to the identity of the robber.'
+
+'Quite so. But we need not concern ourselves, here, with the defence of
+Mr. William Halliday. I come to speak about the affairs of Mr. Matthew.'
+
+'Well, sir? What about his affairs?'
+
+'I hear that they are in a very bad way. Oh! Sir, indeed I do not wish
+to ask any questions. I only repeat what I hear in the City. It is there
+freely stated that the Firm is ruined: that their ships are sold: and
+that their business is gone.'
+
+'They are injurious and false reports.'
+
+'It is possible. I hope so. Meantime, however, I have come to
+communicate to you a matter which perhaps you do not know; but which it
+is important that you should know. The person chiefly concerned gives me
+permission to speak of it. Perhaps you do know it already. Perhaps your
+client has not concealed it from you. Do you, for instance, know that
+Mr. Matthew Halliday is a married man?'
+
+Mr. Probus started. 'Married?' he cried. 'Married? No, certainly not.'
+
+'It is evident that you do not know your client's private history. He
+has been married two years and more. He does not, however, cohabit with
+his wife. They are separated--by consent.'
+
+'Matthew married?'
+
+'They are separated, I say. Such separation, however, does not release
+the husband from the liability of his wife's debts.'
+
+'Has his wife--has Mrs. Matthew--contracted debts?' He looked very
+uneasy.
+
+'His wife--she is a client of mine--has contracted very large debts. She
+may possibly make an arrangement with her creditors. But she may not. In
+the latter case, she will send them to your client who will hand them
+over to you. They will demand payment without delay. Failing payment
+they will take all the steps that the law permits--also without delay.
+That is why I thought it best to communicate the facts to you. My client
+authorized me to do so.'
+
+Mr. Probus made no answer. He could not understand what this meant.
+
+'If it is your interest to postpone bankruptcy, Mr. Probus, it may be
+wiser, for some reason or other, to force it on. I only came to tell you
+of this danger which threatens your client--not you, of course. But your
+client whose wife is mine.'
+
+Mr. Probus made at first no reply. He was thinking what this might mean.
+He was, of course, too wary not to perceive that the threat of forcing
+on bankruptcy was part of the defence, though in an indirect manner.
+
+'Have you,' he asked presently, 'any knowledge of the amount of these
+debts?'
+
+'I believe they amount to over £40,000.'
+
+Mr. Probus groaned aloud.
+
+'I thought I would prepare your mind for the blow which may happen any
+day. Let me see. The trial takes place next Wednesday--next Wednesday. I
+dare say the creditors will wait till after that event. Good-morning,
+Mr. Probus.'
+
+He was going away when Mr. Probus called him back.
+
+'You are aware, sir, that I made the prisoner a handsome offer?'
+
+'I have been told that you made a certain offer.'
+
+'I offered him the very large sum of £5,000 if he would sell his
+succession. If he consents the principal witnesses in the case shall not
+appear.'
+
+'Mr. Probus, as the case stands now I would not take £50,000 for the
+price of his chance.'
+
+Again he was going away, and again Mr. Probus called him back.
+
+'We were speaking,' he said, 'of the defence of that unhappy young man,
+Mr. William Halliday. Of course I am concerned in the matter only as an
+accidental bystander--and, of course, an old friend of the family. There
+is to be a defence, you say.'
+
+'Assuredly.'
+
+'I have always understood that the young man was quite poor, and that
+his wife's friends were also quite poor.'
+
+'That is true. But a man may be quite poor, yet may have friends who
+will fight every point rather than see the man condemned to death--and
+on a false charge.'
+
+'False?'
+
+'Quite false, I assure you.'
+
+'Sir, you surprise me. To be sure I did not see the assault. Yet the
+evidence was most clear. Two gentlemen, unknown to each other--another
+unknown to both who witnessed the affair--how can such evidence as that
+be got over?'
+
+'Well, Mr. Probus, it is not for me to say how it will be got over. You
+are, I believe, giving evidence on what may be called a minor point; you
+will therefore be in the Court on the occasion of the Trial. I can say
+nothing, of course; but I should advise all persons engaged in the case
+to abstain from appearing if possible. I am assured that things quite
+unexpected will take place. Meantime, to return to the point for which I
+came here--advise your client to prepare himself to meet claims rising
+out of his wife's debts to the sum of many thousands.'
+
+'How many thousands, did you say?'
+
+'Forty thousand, I believe.'
+
+'Good Heavens, sir, what can a woman be doing to get through such an
+enormous sum?'
+
+'Indeed, I cannot inform you. It is an age in which women call
+themselves the equals of men. Your client, Mr. Probus, has got through a
+great deal more than that in the same time, including, I believe, the
+£25,000 which you lent him and which he cannot repay----'
+
+'What do you know about these affairs, Sir?'
+
+'Nothing--nothing. I shall see you in Court on the day of the Trial, Mr.
+Probus.'
+
+He went away leaving, as he intended, his brother in the law in an
+anxious condition, and having said nothing that would lead him to
+suspect that the conspiracy was entirely discovered, and would be laid
+open in court.
+
+Then came the last day before the Trial.
+
+In the afternoon all my friends were gathered together in my cell. The
+attorney had read for the last time my statement of defence.
+
+He looked through it once more. 'I do not believe,' he said, 'that the
+case will get so far. Whatever happens, Mr. Halliday, you will do well
+to remember that you have to thank Madame here, and I do not believe it
+will be possible for you to thank her enough, until you find out for
+yourself the sacrifices she has made for you and the risks she is
+running on your behalf. I can but hope, Madame, that the sacrifices may
+be made up to you, and that the risks may prove illusory.'
+
+She smiled, but it was a wan smile. 'Whatever the result,' she said,
+'believe me, Sir, I shall never regret either the sacrifices, if you
+call them such, or the risks, if by either we can defeat this most
+abominable conspiracy.'
+
+'I was in hopes,' said the attorney, 'that Mr. Probus might be
+terrified, and so might withdraw at the last moment. It is easy to
+withdraw. He has only to order the two principal witnesses not to
+attend, when the case falls to the ground. As we are now free from all
+anxiety,' I sighed, 'well, from all but the very natural anxiety that
+belongs to a prison and to the uncertainty of the law, it is better for
+us that he should put in all the witnesses when we can establish our
+charge of conspiracy. I marvel, indeed, greatly that a man so astute
+should not perceive that defence, where a King's Counsel and a Junior of
+great repute are engaged must mean a serious case, and that a serious
+case only means denial of the main charge. Else there would be no
+defence at all. Well,' he rose--'I drink your health, Mr. Halliday, in
+this excellent Madeira, and a speedy release to you.'
+
+'And I, Will,' said Tom, pouring out another glass, 'I, too, drink a
+speedy release to you.'
+
+So they went away.
+
+Then Jenny got up. 'Cousin Will,' she said sadly, 'I have done all I
+could for you. If the Black Jack knew to-night what would be said in
+Court to-morrow, there would be murder. They will all be in Court--every
+one--to hear the splendid perjuries of the Bishop and the Captain. Those
+two worthies expect a brave day: indeed, it will be a great day for
+them, yet not quite in the manner they anticipate. Well 'tis the last
+night in prison, Will. To-morrow thou wilt be back again in the Cottage
+beside the river. Happy Will! Happy Alice! As for me----' she sighed
+wearily.
+
+'Why, Jenny, as for you--what can happen to you?'
+
+'Nothing can happen to me,' she replied, dolorously.
+
+'Then, why so sad?'
+
+'Because, from the outset I have foreseen something dark and dreadful,
+but I knew not what. I see myself in a strange place--but I know not
+where. I look around at the places which I know--and I cannot see
+myself. I am neither at Drury Lane nor the Garden: nor am I at Soho
+Square. I look in the grave, but I am not there. I am to live--but I
+know not where or how. All is to be changed----'
+
+'Jenny,' Alice caught her hand. 'This reading of the future. It is
+wicked since the Lord hath not thought fit to reveal what is to happen.'
+
+She repeated stupidly, as one who understands not, 'Since the Lord--what
+Lord?--what do you mean? Alice, how can I help it? I can read the
+future. Sometimes it is like a printed book to me. Well--no matter.
+Farewell, Will. Sleep sound to-night. To-morrow we shall meet in the
+Court. Good-night, dear woman.' She threw her arms round Alice, kissed
+her and went away.
+
+And as for what passed between husband and wife--what tender things were
+said--what prayers for faith--on the eve of the day of Life or Death: of
+Honour or of Shame; shall they, too, be written on a page which is open
+to every curious eye and to every mocking eye?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE TRIAL
+
+
+It is a most terrible thing for a man of sensibility to stand in the
+dock of the Old Bailey before the awful array of Judges, Lord Mayor,
+Sheriffs and Aldermen. I know very well that most of the hardened
+wretches that stand there have no sense of terror and little of anxiety.
+For them the Judge is like that fabled Sister who cuts the thread of
+life: they have come to the end of their rope: their time is up: they
+are fatalists in a stupid way: the sentence is passed: they bear no
+malice against the informer: the game has been played according to the
+rules--what more can a man desire? Tyburn awaits them. And afterwards?
+They neither know nor do they care.
+
+Early on the morning of the trial, Mr. Dewberry came to see me. He was
+cheerful, and rubbed his hands with great satisfaction. 'The case,' he
+said, 'is complete. Never was a case more complete or more astonishing
+as you shall see.' He would not explain further: he said that walls,
+even in Newgate, have ears: that I must rely upon his word. 'Sir,' he
+said, 'so much I will explain because it may give you ease. Never has a
+man gone forth to be tried for his life, with a greater confidence in
+the result than you ought to have. And, with that assurance enter the
+Court with a light heart.'
+
+They knocked off my irons before going into Court. Thus relieved, I was
+marched along a dismal passage, leading from the prison to the Old
+Bailey. The Court was crowded, not so much out of compliment to me, but
+because it was bruited abroad among the rogues of St. Giles's that two
+of their body were that day about to achieve greatness. They were,
+truly: but not in the way that was expected. The crowd, in fact,
+consisted chiefly of pickpockets and thieves, with their ladies. And the
+heroes of the day were the Bishop and the Captain.
+
+At first, a prisoner entering the court, sees nothing. When the mist
+before his eyes clears away he observes the jury being sworn in--one
+after the other, they lift the great chained Bible and kiss its leathern
+cover, black with ten thousand kisses, and take their seats: he observes
+the counsel arranging their papers: the officers of the court standing
+about and the crowd in the gallery and about the doors: the box for the
+witnesses--my heart sank when I saw sitting together my four enemies,
+looking calm and assured, as if there was no doubt possible as to the
+results. Nay, the Captain seemed unable to repress or to conceal the
+pride he felt in imagination, at thinking of the figure he should cut.
+Mr. Ramage, my own witness, I saw modestly sitting in a corner. Tom
+Shirley, another witness for me, if he would prove of any use, was also
+there. As I entered the dock Mr. Probus turned and his lips moved as if
+he was speaking to Tom. I could not hear what he said, but I knew it,
+without the necessity of ears. He said, 'Sir, I saw you in Newgate three
+weeks ago. Your friend might have saved his life, had he accepted my
+offer. It is now too late.' Then he turned his hatchet face to me and
+grinned. Well--he grins no longer. Under the Dock stood Alice, and with
+her, closely veiled, Jenny herself. They took my hands: Alice held the
+right and Jenny the left. 'Courage, my dear,' said Alice. 'It will soon
+be over now.' 'It is all over already,' whispered Jenny. 'There is such
+evidence as will astonish you--and the whole world.' She kissed my hand
+and dropped a tear upon it. I was to learn afterwards what she meant,
+and what were her own sacrifices and perils in bringing forward this
+evidence.
+
+Then Mr. Dewberry came bustling up. 'That is your lawyer, Mr. Caterham,
+King's Counsel, now arranging his papers. I was with him yesterday. He
+will make a great case--a very great case--out of this. The attorney
+arranges it all and the higher branch gets the credit of it all. Never
+mind. That is your Junior, behind, Mr. Stanton. There's a head for you:
+there's an eye. I can always tell what they think of the case by the way
+they arrange their papers. The Counsel in front of him is Serjeant
+Cosins, King's Counsel, an able man--oh, yes--an able man: he conducts
+the prosecution. We shall open his eyes presently. He thinks he has got
+an ordinary case to conduct. He will see. He will see.'
+
+Then the Judges came in: the Lord Mayor, Mr. Justice Parker, the
+Aldermen, the Recorder, and the Sheriffs. The Lord Mayor sat in the
+middle under the great sword of Justice: but the case was conducted by
+Mr. Justice Parker, who sat on his right hand. I looked along the row of
+faces on the Bench. They all seemed white, cold, stern, hard and
+unforgiving. Despite assurances, my heart sank low.
+
+I pass over the reading of the indictment, my pleading and the opening
+of the case. The Prosecutor said that although it was a most simple
+case, which would not occupy the attention of the court very long, it
+was at the same time one of the most flagrant and audacious robberies
+that had ever been brought before the court of the Old Bailey: that the
+facts were few: that he was not aware of any possible line of defence:
+'Oh yes,' observed my Counsel, smiling, 'a very possible line of
+defence': that he, for one, should be prepared to receive any line of
+defence that could be set up. But he thought his learned brother would
+not waste the time of the Court.
+
+He then rehearsed the history of the facts and proceeded to call the
+witnesses. First he called Samuel Carstairs, Doctor of Divinity (I do
+not intend to set down the whole of the evidence given by him or by the
+others because you already know it).
+
+The Doctor, with alacrity, stepped into the witness-box: he was clean
+shaven, in a new wig, a silken cassock; snow white bands; and a flowing
+gown. But that his face was red and his neck swollen and his appearance
+fleshy and sensual--things which may sometimes be observed even among
+the City Clergy--he presented the appearance of a prosperous
+ecclesiastic. For my own part I can never satisfy myself whether he was
+in Holy Orders at all. One hopes, for the sake of the Church that he was
+not. After kissing the Testament with fervour, he turned an unblushing
+front to the Prosecutor. He said that he was a Clergyman, a Doctor of
+Divinity, formerly of Trinity College, Dublin, and some time the holder
+of certain benefices in the neighbourhood of that city. He deposed that
+on the night in question he was making his way through Leicester Fields
+to Charing Cross at the time of nine in the evening or thereabouts: that
+suddenly a young man rushed out of some dark recess and flourished a
+cudgel over him, crying, 'Your money or your life!' That being a man of
+peace, as becomes his profession, he instantly complied with the demand
+and handed over his purse: that he also cried out either on account of
+the extremity of his fear, or for help: that help came in the shape of a
+stranger, who felled the ruffian: that they called the watch: carried
+the senseless robber to the guard-house, and that the witness's purse
+was found in his pocket.
+
+My counsel deferred cross-examining this witness for the present.
+
+Next came the Captain. He, too, stood unabashed while he poured out his
+tale of perjury. He assumed the style and title of a Gentleman from the
+North, Mr. Ferdinando Fenwick: and he entirely bore out the previous
+witness's evidence. My counsel also deferred his cross-examination of
+this witness.
+
+Mr. Merridew was the third witness. He followed suit. He deposed that
+he was a Sheriff's officer. He had seen the assault and the rescue: he
+had also helped to carry the robber to the round house. This witness's
+cross-examination was also deferred.
+
+Mr. Probus, attired in black velvet with fine lace ruffles and
+neckerchief, so that his respectable appearance could not but impress
+the jury, said that he was passing the watch-house, by accident, about
+midnight, having been summoned by a client, when he saw an unconscious
+figure carried in: that he followed from motives of humanity hoping to
+be of use to some fellow Christian: that he then perceived, to his
+amazement, that the robber was none other than the son of his old friend
+and employer the late Sir Peter Halliday, Alderman and ex-Lord Mayor:
+that he saw the worthy clergyman's purse taken from his pocket so that
+there could be no doubt of his guilt. He also added that it was four
+years and more since Sir Peter had turned his son out of doors, since
+when he believed that the young man had earned a precarious living by
+playing the fiddle to sailors and such low company.
+
+Then the cross-examination began.
+
+My counsel asked him first, whether he knew any of the three preceding
+witnesses. He did not: they were strangers to him. Had he never seen the
+man Merridew? He never had. Did not Merridew owe him money? He did not.
+He was now attorney to Mr. Matthew Halliday? Had he ever taken the man
+Merridew to Mr. Halliday's counting-house? He had not. 'In fact, Mr.
+Probus, you know nothing at all about Mr. Merridew?' 'Nothing.' 'And
+nothing about the other two men?' 'Nothing.'
+
+'I come now, Mr. Probus, to a question which will astonish the Court.
+Will you tell me in what way the prisoner's death will benefit you?'
+
+'In no way.'
+
+'Oh! In no way. Come, Sir, think a little. Collect yourself, I pray you.
+You are attorney to Mr. Matthew Halliday. You have lent him money?' No
+answer. 'Please answer my question.' No answer. 'Never mind, I shall
+find an answer from you before long. Meantime I inform the Jury that you
+have lent him £25,000 on the condition that he pays 15 per cent.
+interest on £40,000, the sum to be repaid. That is the exact description
+of the transaction, I believe?'
+
+He replied unwillingly, 'If you please to say so.'
+
+'Very well. Now your client has spent, or lost, the whole of his money
+and yours--do not deny the fact because I am going to prove it
+presently. He cannot pay you one farthing. In fact, before long the firm
+of Halliday Brothers will become bankrupt.' (There was a movement and a
+whisper among the Aldermen and Sheriffs on the Bench.) 'Is this true or
+not?' No answer.
+
+'My Lud, I press for an answer. This is a most important question. I can
+find an answer from another witness, but I must have an answer from the
+witness now in the box.'
+
+'Answer the question immediately, Sir,' said the Judge.
+
+'I do not know.'
+
+'You do not know? Come, Sir, have you been informed, or have you not, by
+Mr. Matthew Halliday himself, of his position?'
+
+'I have not.'
+
+'You have not. Mark his answer, gentlemen of the Jury. Do not forget his
+statement. He says that he knows nothing and has been told nothing of
+his client's present unfortunate condition. Let us go on. The late Sir
+Peter Halliday left a large sum of money--£100,000, I believe--to the
+survivor of two--either his son or his nephew?'
+
+'That is true.'
+
+If Halliday Brothers becomes bankrupt, your claim would rank with those
+of the other creditors?'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'In which case you would get little or nothing of the £40,000. But if
+the prisoner could be persuaded to sell his chance of succession before
+the declaration of bankruptcy, your client could raise money on that
+succession out of which you could be paid in full, if he consented?'
+
+'Yes, if he consented.'
+
+'You have already made three several attempts to make him sell, have you
+not?'
+
+'Acting by my client's instructions.'
+
+'The first time, when he refused, you threatened revenge, did you not?'
+
+'I did not.'
+
+'You then clapped him in a debtors' prison on a trumped-up charge of
+debt?'
+
+'It was a debt due to an estate placed in my hands.'
+
+'The prisoner denied the debt: said that the instrument was given to him
+by the owner, did he not?'
+
+'Perhaps.'
+
+'But you put him in prison and kept him there?'
+
+'I did, acting for my clients, the executors.'
+
+'The next time you called upon him and offered to buy his share was
+about six weeks ago?'
+
+'It was, acting on instructions from my client.'
+
+'He refused. You then threatened him again?'
+
+'I did not.'
+
+'Two days afterwards the alleged robbery took place at which you were an
+accidental observer?'
+
+'Accidental.'
+
+'I said so--accidental. Now, if this case should prove fatal to the
+prisoner, on his death your client, not a bankrupt, would take the whole
+of the £100,000?'
+
+'He would.'
+
+'You would then expect to be paid?' No answer. 'I say, you would then
+expect to be paid?'
+
+'I should hope to be.'
+
+'In full?'
+
+'I should hope so.'
+
+'Then you would be the better by £40,000 by the execution of the
+prisoner?'
+
+'If you put it so, I should.'
+
+'You made a third and last attempt, a few days ago, to obtain his
+consent?'
+
+'I did, acting on my client's instructions.'
+
+'When he was in Newgate. There were present two other friends of the
+prisoner. You then offered, if he would sign the document, to withdraw
+the principal witnesses?'
+
+'I did not.'
+
+'I put it in another way. You promised, if he would sign, that the
+principal witnesses should not appear?'
+
+'I did not.'
+
+'You swear that you did not?'
+
+'I swear that I did not.'
+
+'You say that you have no power to withdraw witnesses?'
+
+'I have no power to withdraw witnesses.'
+
+'You have no power over the case at all?'
+
+'None.'
+
+Mr. Caterham sat down. Serjeant Cosins stood up.
+
+'You might be the better by the prisoner's death. You are not however in
+any way concerned with the case except as an accidental observer?'
+
+'Not in any way.'
+
+'And you are not in any way acquainted with the witnesses who are
+chiefly concerned?'
+
+'Not at all.'
+
+Mr. Probus sat down.
+
+Mr. Caterham called again, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Carstairs.
+
+'My Lud,' he began, 'I must ask that none of the witnesses in this case
+be allowed to leave the court without your Ludship's permission.'
+
+The Bishop entered the box, but with much less assurance than he had
+previously assumed. And the cross-examination began.
+
+I then understood what Jenny meant when she talked of making the case
+complete. He swore again that his name was Carstairs: that he had held
+preferment in the county of Dublin: he named, in fact, three places: he
+had never used any other name: he was not once called Onslow, at another
+time Osborne: at another Oxborough: he knew nothing about these names:
+he had never been tried at York for fraud: or at Winchester for
+embezzlement: he had never been whipped at the cart-tail at Portsmouth.
+As these lies ran out glibly I began to take heart. I looked at Probus:
+he was sitting on the bench, his fingers interlaced, cold drops of dew
+rising upon his forehead and nose. But the Bishop held out bravely, that
+is, with a brazen impudence.
+
+'You know, Doctor, I believe, the Black Jack?'
+
+'A tavern, is it? No, sir, I do not. One of my profession should not be
+seen in taverns.'
+
+'Yet surely you know the Black Jack, close to St. Giles's Church?'
+
+'No, sir, I am a stranger in London.'
+
+'Do you know the nickname of the "Bishop"?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Oh! you never were called the "Bishop"?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'Do you know the gallant gentleman who rescued you?'
+
+'No, I do not.'
+
+'You do not know him? Never met him, I suppose, at the Black Jack?'
+
+'Never.'
+
+'Never? Do you know the other witness, Mr. Merridew?'
+
+'No, I do not.'
+
+'Where were you staying for the night when this romantic incident
+happened?'
+
+For the first time the Bishop hesitated. 'I--I--forget,' he said.
+
+'Come, come, you cannot forget so simple a thing, you know. Where were
+you staying?'
+
+'It was in a street off the Strand--I forget its name--I am a stranger
+to this city.'
+
+'Well--where did you stay last night?'
+
+'In the same street--I forget its name.'
+
+'Not at the Black Jack, St. Giles's?'
+
+He was pressed upon this point, but nothing could be got out of him. He
+stuck to the point--he had forgotten the name of the street, and he knew
+nothing of the Black Jack.
+
+So he stood down. The Captain was called by the name he gave
+himself--Ferdinando Fenwick. He said he had never been known by any
+other name, that he had no knowledge of the name of Tom Kestever. He had
+never heard that name. Nor did he know of any occasion on which the said
+Tom Kestever had been ducked for a pickpocket: flogged for a rogue:
+imprisoned and tried on a capital charge for cattle lifting. Oh! Jenny,
+the case was well got up, truly. He, too, had never heard of the Black
+Jack, and stoutly stood it out that he was a gentleman of Cumberland.
+Asked what village or town of Cumberland, he named Whitehaven as the
+place in which he was born and had his property--to wit, five farms
+contiguous to the town and two or three messuages in the town.
+
+When this evidence was concluded a juryman rose and asked permission of
+the Court to put a question to the witness, which was granted him.
+
+'Those farms,' he said, 'are contiguous to Whitehaven? Yes, and you were
+born in that town? What was your father by occupation?'
+
+'He was a draper.'
+
+'My lord,' said the Juryman, 'I am myself a native of Whitehaven. I am
+the son of the only draper in the town. I am apparently about the same
+age as the witness. I have never seen him in the town. There is no
+reputable tradesman of that name in the town, or anywhere near it. There
+are gentlefolk of the name, but in Northumberland.'
+
+'I wish, Sir,' said the Counsel, 'that I had you in the box.'
+
+'The statement of a Juryman is not evidence,' the Prosecuting Counsel
+interposed.
+
+'I fear, my learned brother,' said the Judge, 'that when the Jury
+retire, it will become a strong piece of evidence, whatever direction I
+may give them.'
+
+The Serjeant declined to re-examine this evidence.
+
+Then my counsel called Mr. Merridew, who very reluctantly got into the
+box again.
+
+He denied solemnly that he knew either of the preceding witnesses. He
+denied that he knew the Black Jack. He owned, with a pretence at pride,
+that he had frequently served his country by informing against rogues
+and had taken the reward to which he was entitled. He denied that he
+encouraged young fellows to become highwaymen in hopes of securing the
+higher reward. He denied that he knew Mr. Probus. He swore that he
+should not benefit by the conviction of the prisoner.
+
+You observe that the object of the Counsel was to make everyone plunge
+deeper into the mire of perjury. His case was strong indeed, or he would
+not have followed this method.
+
+The Counsel then called half a dozen witnesses in succession. They were
+turnkeys from York, Winchester, Reading and Portsmouth and other places.
+They identified the Rev. Dr. Samuel Carstairs, D.D., as a person
+notoriously engaged in frauds for which an educated person was
+necessary. He had been imprisoned for two years at Winchester for
+embezzlement: for a twelvemonth with a flogging at York for fraud: he
+was whipped through the High Street of Portsmouth and down to Point and
+back again for similar practices. They also identified the Captain as a
+rogue from tender years: hardly a whipping-post anywhere but knew the
+sound of his voice: hardly a prison in which he had not passed some of
+his time.
+
+And now the case looked brighter. Everyone was interested, from the
+Aldermen to the Jury: it was a case of surprises: only Serjeant Cosins
+stood with his papers in his hand looking perplexed and annoyed. So far
+there was no doubt about the two fellows, the authors of the charge,
+being notorious and arrant rogues. A very pitiful figure they cut, as
+they sat side by side on the witnesses' bench. Even their own friends in
+the gallery were laughing at them, for the admiration of the rogue is
+for successful roguery, while for detected roguery he has nothing but
+contempt.
+
+Then the Counsel called John Ramage. He said that he was an accountant
+in the counting-house of Messrs. Halliday Brothers: that in that
+capacity he knew the position of the House: that in two years the
+managing partner, Mr. Matthew Halliday, had reduced the business to a
+state of insolvency: that they might become bankrupts at any moment:
+that creditors were pressing, and the end could not be far off. He went
+on to state that he revealed the secrets of his office because he was
+informed that the knowledge was necessary for the defence of Mr. William
+Halliday, and that the safety and innocence of his late master's only
+son were of far more importance to him than the credit of the House. And
+here the tears came into his eyes. This, however, was the least
+important part of the case. For he went on to depose that the position
+of his desk near the door of Mr. Matthew's office enabled him to hear
+all that went on: that Mr. Probus was constantly engaged with Mr.
+Matthew: that every day there were complaints and quarrels between them:
+that Mr. Probus wanted his money back, and that Mr. Matthew could not
+pay him: that every day they ended with the regret that they could not
+touch this sum of money waiting for the survivor: that every day they
+sighed to think what a happy event it would be for them both if Mr.
+William Halliday were dead. That, one day, Mr. Probus said that there
+were many ways for even a young man to die: he might, for instance, fall
+into the hands of the law: to this Mr. Matthew gave no reply, but when
+he was alone began to drink. That Mr. Probus returned the next day with
+Mr. Merridew, who said that the job was easy and should be done, but he
+should expect to stand in: he said that the thing would cost a good
+deal, but that, for a thousand pounds, he thought that Mr. Will
+Halliday's case might be considered certain. 'When I heard this,' the
+witness said, 'I hastened to Lambeth, where Mr. Will was living with his
+wife. I could not see him because he was playing for Madame Vallance's
+Assembly. I therefore went again to Lambeth the next day, which was
+Sunday, and I told him all. While I was telling him, Mr. Probus himself
+came. So they put me in the kitchen where I could hear what was said.
+Mr. Probus made another effort to persuade Mr. Will to sell his chance
+of succession. Then he went away in a rage, threatening things. So I
+implored Mr. Will to get out of the way of the villains. He promised:
+but it was too late. The next thing I hear is that he has been charged
+with highway robbery. Mr. Will--the best of men!'
+
+I now thought my case was going pretty well.
+
+There were, however, other witnesses.
+
+To my amazement Jenny's mother appeared. She was dressed up as a most
+respectable widow with a white cap, a black dress, and a white apron.
+She curtseyed to the Court and kissed the book with a smack, as if she
+enjoyed it.
+
+She said that she was a widow, and respectable: that she kept the Black
+Jack, which was much frequented by the residents of St. Giles's. The
+Counsel did not press this point but asked her if she knew the Rev. Dr.
+Carstairs. She replied that she knew him, under other names, as a
+frequenter of her house off and on for many years: that he was
+familiarly known as the 'Bishop': that she did not inquire into the
+trades of her customers, but that it was understood that the Bishop was
+one of those who use their skill in writing for various purposes: for
+threatening persons who have been robbed: for offering stolen property
+for sale: for demanding money: for forging documents: and other branches
+of roguery demanding a knowledge of writing. She showed her own
+knowledge of the business by her enumeration of the branches. She said,
+further, that the gentleman had slept at the Black Jack every night for
+the last two months: that he had a bed there, took his meals there, and
+carried on his business there. As regards Mr. Ferdinando Fenwick, she
+knew him as the 'Captain,' or as Tom Kestever, and she identified him in
+the same way and beyond any power of doubt. As for Merridew, she knew
+him very well: he was a thief-taker by profession: he gave his man a
+good run and then laid information against him: he encouraged young
+rogues and showed them how to advance in their profession: and she
+deposed that on a certain day Merridew came to the house where the
+Bishop and the Captain were drinking together and sat with them: that
+all their talk was about getting a man out of the way: that the Bishop
+did not like it, but was told by Mr. Merridew very plainly that he must,
+and that he then assented.
+
+Jenny's sister, Doll, next appeared. She was transformed into a young
+and pleasing woman with a silver ring for greater respectability. Her
+evidence corroborated that of her mother. But she added an important
+particular, that one morning when there was no one in the place but the
+Bishop and the Captain, Mr. Probus came with Mr. Merridew and sat
+conversing with those two gentlemen for a long time.
+
+Then the young fellow called Jack went into the box. By this time the
+interest of everyone in the court was intense, because here was the
+unrolling of a plot which for audacity and wickedness was perhaps
+unequalled. And the wretched man Probus, still writhing in his seat,
+cast his eyes to the door in hopes of a chance at flight: in his agony
+his wig was pushed back, and the whole of his head exposed to view. I
+confess that horror rather than revenge possessed me.
+
+The young fellow called Jack gave his evidence in a straightforward way.
+He confessed that he had run away from his native village in consequence
+of an unfortunate love affair; that he had come up to town, hoping to
+get employment: that he had been taken to the Black Jack by someone who
+met him in the street: that he had there been introduced to Mr.
+Merridew, who promised to find him work: that in fact he had been
+employed by him in shop-lifting and in small street robberies: his
+employer, he explained, would go along the street first and make a sign
+where he could carry off something: that he was promised promotion to be
+a highwayman by Mr. Merridew if he should deserve it: that he had been
+told to keep himself in readiness to help in knocking a gentleman on the
+head: that the thing was talked over with him by the Bishop and the
+Captain: that at the last moment they told him they should want none of
+his help. Asked what he should do after giving this evidence, replied
+that if Mr. Merridew got off, he should have to enlist in order to save
+his neck, which would be as good as gone. More he said, but this was the
+most important.
+
+Then Mr. Caterham called Mr. Halliday.
+
+My unfortunate cousin entered the witness-box pale and trembling. In
+answer to questions he acknowledged that he had lost the whole of his
+fortune and ruined a once noble business in the space of three or four
+years. He confessed that his bankruptcy was inevitable: that Probus had
+been urgent with him to get his cousin to sell his chance of succession
+in order to raise money by which he himself might recover his money:
+that he was willing to do so if his cousin would sell: but his cousin
+would not. He said that Mr. Probus had come to him stating that a man's
+life might be lost in many ways: that, for instance, he might fall into
+the hands of the law: that he had brought Mr. Merridew, who offered to
+arrange so that his cousin might lose his life in some such way if he
+were paid a thousand pounds down; that he would not listen to such
+detestable overtures; that he heard of his cousin's arrest: that he had
+informed his cousin's attorney of the offer made him by Probus and
+Merridew: but he had neither paid nor promised a thousand pounds, or
+anything at all: and that he had never been a consenting party to the
+plot.
+
+He was allowed to stand down: he remained in the court, trembling and
+shivering, as pitiable an object as the wretched conspirators
+themselves.
+
+If there had been interest in the case before, judge what it was now in
+the appearance of the next witness, for there entered the box none other
+than Jenny herself, the bewitching Jenny. She was all lace and ribbons,
+as beautiful a creature as one could expect to see anywhere. She smiled
+upon the Judge and upon the Lord Mayor: she smiled upon the Jury: she
+smiled upon me, the prisoner in the Dock. In answer to the questions put
+to her, she answered, in substance: 'My name is Jenny Halliday. I am the
+wife of the last witness, Matthew Halliday. I am an actress. I am known
+by my maiden name, Jenny Wilmot. As an entertainer, I am known as Madame
+Vallance.' There was now the most breathless attention in Court. 'By
+birth, I am the daughter of the landlady of the Black Jack. It is a
+place of resort of the residents of St. Giles's. Most of them, to my
+certain knowledge, probably all, are thieves. I sometimes go there to
+see my mother and sister, not to see the frequenters of the place.
+Whenever I do go there, I always find the two witnesses who just now
+called themselves Carstairs and Fenwick: at the Black Jack they were
+always called the Bishop and the Captain. I have always heard, and I
+understand, that they are rogues of the deepest dye. The Bishop is not a
+clergyman at all: he is so called because he dresses like a clergyman
+and can write well: the Captain is a highwayman: most of his fraternity
+call themselves Captains: he is the son of a butcher in Clare market.
+His name is Tom Kestever. Both are Mr. Merridew's men: that is, they
+have to carry out whatever he orders, and they live in perpetual terror
+that their time is up. The last time I was in the Black Jack, Merridew
+came in, drank a glass or two of punch in a friendly way, and so left
+them. When he said that he did not know the men, it was flat perjury. He
+was continually in the Black Jack looking up his people; admonishing the
+young and threatening the elders. Not a rogue in London but knows Mr.
+Merridew, and trembles at the thought of him.'
+
+Asked about Mr. Probus, she said she did not know him at all, save by
+repute. That he constantly threatened the prisoner with consequences if
+he did not consent to sell his chance of succession: and that she had
+been present on a certain occasion in Newgate when Mr. Probus visited
+the prisoner and offered him there and then, if he would sign the
+document offered, that the principal witnesses should not appear at the
+Trial, which would thus fall through.
+
+Asked as to her knowledge of the prisoner, she deposed that she found
+him in the King's Bench Prison, sent there through the arts of Mr.
+Probus: that she took him out, paying the detainers: that she then gave
+him employment in her orchestra: that he was a young gentleman of the
+highest principle, married to a wife of saintly conduct and character:
+that he was incapable of crime--that he lived quietly, was not in debt,
+and received for his work in the orchestra the sum of thirty shillings a
+week, which was enough for their modest household.
+
+Asked again about her husband, she said that she could not live with
+him, partly because he was an inveterate gambler: and that to gratify
+this passion there was nothing he would not sell. That he had gamed away
+a noble fortune and ruined a noble business: that steps had already been
+taken to make him bankrupt: and that it was to save his own money that
+the man Probus had designed this villainy.
+
+'Call Thomas Shirley.' It was the Junior Counsel who rose.
+
+Tom went into the box and answered the preliminary questions. 'Do you
+remember meeting Mr. Probus in Newgate about a month ago?'
+
+'I do.'
+
+'What offer did he make?'
+
+'He offered my brother-in-law £5,000 down if he would sell his chance of
+the succession, and further promised that the principal witnesses should
+not appear.'
+
+'You swear that this was his offer?'
+
+'I swear it.'
+
+The counsel looked at Serjeant Cosins who shook his head.
+
+'You may sit down, Sir.'
+
+'My Lud,' said Mr. Caterham, 'my case is completed. I have no other
+evidence unless you direct me to sweep the streets of St. Giles's and
+compel them to come in.'
+
+When all the evidence was completed there was a dead silence in the
+Court. Everybody was silent for a space: the faces of the rogues in the
+gallery were white with consternation: here were the very secrets of
+their citadel, their home, the Black Jack, disclosed, and by the very
+people of the Black Jack, the landlady and her daughters. The Jury
+looked at each other in amazement. Here was the complete revelation of a
+plot which for wickedness and audacity went beyond everything ever
+invented or imagined. What would happen next?
+
+'Brother Cosins,' said the Judge.
+
+He threw his papers on the desk. 'My Lud,' he said, 'I throw down my
+brief.'
+
+Then the Judge charged the Jury. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'it has been
+clearly established--more clearly than I ever before experienced, that a
+wicked--nay a most horrible--crime, designed by one man, carried out by
+three others, has been perpetrated against the prisoner, William
+Halliday. It is a case in which everything has been most carefully
+prepared: the perjury of the witnesses has been established beyond a
+doubt even though the witnesses have been in part taken from the regions
+of St. Giles's, and from actual criminals. Gentlemen, there is but one
+verdict possible.'
+
+They did not leave the box: they conferred for a moment: rose and
+through their foreman pronounced their verdict--'Not Guilty.' They added
+a hope that the conspirators would not escape.
+
+'They shall not,' said the Judge. 'William Halliday, the verdict of the
+jury sets you free. I am happy to say that you leave this court with an
+unblemished character: and that you have the most heartfelt
+commiseration of the court for your wholly undeserved sufferings and
+anxiety.' Then the Judge turned to the four. 'I commit Eliezer Probus:
+Samuel Carstairs alias what he pleases: the man who calls himself
+Ferdinando Fenwick: and John Merridew for trial on the charge of
+conspiracy and perjury.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE COMPANY OF REVENGE
+
+
+The case was over--I stepped out of the Dock: I was free: everybody,
+including Mr. Caterham, K.C., was shaking my hand: the Lord Mayor sent
+for me to the Bench and shook my hand warmly: he said that he had known
+my worthy father, Sir Peter, and that he rejoiced that my innocence had
+been made as clear as the noonday: all the Jury shook hands with me: my
+cousin Tom paid my dues to the prison, without payment of which even a
+free man, proved innocent, must go back to the prison again and there
+stay till he discharges them--because a gaoler everywhere has a heart
+made of flint. At last, surrounded by my friends I went out of Court.
+Outside in the street there was a crowd who shouted and cried my name
+with 'Death to the Conspirators!' But I saw many who did not shout. Who
+are they who had no sympathy with innocence? They stood apart, with
+lowering faces. They came down from the public gallery where--I was
+afterwards told--the appearance in that witness-box first of the
+well-known landlady of the Black Jack--their ancient friend: next, of
+her daughter--also their friend: thirdly, of the young fellow called
+Jack, one of themselves, a rogue and the companion of rogues: and
+lastly, of the woman of whom they had been so proud, Jenny the actress,
+Jenny the Orange Girl: Jenny of Drury Lane: filled them with dismay and
+rage. What? Their own people turn against their own friends? The
+landlady of the Black Jack, even the landlady of the Black Jack, that
+most notorious receiver of stolen goods, and harbourer of rogues, to
+give evidence against her own customers? Thief betray thief? Dog bite
+dog? Heard ever man the like? Now you understand the lowering and gloomy
+faces. These people whispered to each other in the Gallery of the Court
+House: they murmured to each other outside on the pavement: when we
+climbed into a hackney coach--Jenny--her mother and sister--the young
+fellow called Jack and myself--they followed us--in pairs;--by fours,
+talking low and cursing below their breath. After a while they desisted:
+but one or two of them still kept up with the coach.
+
+I sent Alice home under charge of Tom. I would get home, I said, as
+quickly as I could, after seeing Jenny safely at her own house.
+
+We arrived at the house in Soho Square. It was empty save for some
+women-servants, for there was no entertainment that evening. We went
+into the small room on the left and lit the candles.
+
+It was then about seven o'clock in the evening and quite dark, as the
+time of year was November. Jenny was restless and excited. She went to
+the window and looked out. 'The Square is quiet,' she said. 'How long
+will it remain quiet?'
+
+The servants brought in some supper. Jenny took a little glass of wine.
+She then went away and returned in a plain dress with a cloak and hood.
+
+'I must be ready,' she said, 'to set off on my travels--whither?
+Mother'--she turned to the old lady--'you are a witch. Look into the
+fire and tell me what you see.'
+
+The old woman filled and drained a glass of Madeira and turned her chair
+round. She gazed intently into the red coals.
+
+'I see,' she said, 'a crowd of people. I see a Court. I see the
+condemned cell....' She turned away. 'No, Jenny, I will look no more.
+'Twas thus I looked in the fire before thy father was taken. Thus and
+thus did I see. I will look no longer.'
+
+'Well,' said Doll, 'what will they do next? They know now where you
+live, Madame Vallance.'
+
+The old woman sat down and sighed heavily. 'The Black Jack!' she
+murmured. 'We shall never see it again.'
+
+Jenny was quiet and grave. 'We have beaten them,' she said. 'They never
+suspected that so complete a beating was in store for them. Now comes
+our turn--my turn rather.'
+
+'Your turn, Jenny?'
+
+'Yes, Will, my turn. Do you suppose they will forgive us? Why, we have
+given evidence against our own people. All St. Giles's trusted my mother
+and sister--Could one suspect the Black Jack? Why, because I was a
+daughter of the house, all St. Giles's trusted me--and we have betrayed
+them! There will be revenge and that quickly.'
+
+Doll nodded expressively. Her mother groaned.
+
+'What kind of revenge?'
+
+Doll nodded her head again and drew a long breath. Her mother groaned
+again.
+
+'I do not know, yet. Listen, Will. The people know very well that this
+case has been got up by myself. I found out, by my mother's assistance,
+those facts about the trials and floggings and imprisonments: I went
+into the country and secured the evidence. I brought up the gaolers to
+testify to the men's identity. I even went to my husband and
+promised--yes, I swore--that I would put him into the conspiracy as well
+as the other four if he did not give evidence without saying a word to
+Probus. And then I bought my mother out.'
+
+'You bought out your mother?'
+
+''Twas as sweet a business, Sir,' the old woman interrupted, 'as you
+ever saw. A matter of three pounds a day takings and two pounds a day
+profit.'
+
+'I bought her out,' said Jenny. 'I also compensated her for the contents
+of her vaults.'
+
+'Ah!' sighed the old woman. 'There were treasures!'
+
+'The Black Jack is shut up. When the people go there this
+evening'--again Doll nodded--'they will find it closed--and they will
+wreck the place.'
+
+'And drink up all that's left,' said Doll.
+
+'Let us prevent murder. Jack, you will find it best for your health to
+get at far as possible out of London. Take my mother and sister to one
+of the taverns in the Borough. There's a waggon or a caravan starts
+every morning for some country place or other; never mind where. Go with
+them, Jack: stay with them for a while till they are settled. Mother,
+you won't be happy unless you can have a tavern somewhere. If you can
+find one, Jack will do for you. There you will be safe, I think. St.
+Giles's doesn't contain any of our people. But in London you will be
+murdered--you and Doll, too--for sure and certain.'
+
+'For sure and certain,' said Doll, grimly.
+
+Jenny gave her mother more money. 'That will carry you into the
+country,' she said. 'You can let me know, somehow, where you are. But
+take care not to let anyone know who would tell the people here. The
+gipsies are your best friends, not the thieves.'
+
+I asked her if it was really necessary to make all these preparations.
+
+'You don't know these people, Will. I do. The one thing to which they
+cling is their safety from the law so long as they are among themselves.
+There will be wild work this evening. As for me I have under my dress
+all my money and all my jewels. I am ready for flight.'
+
+'Why, Jenny, you don't think they will attack you here?'
+
+'I do, indeed. There is nothing more likely. Did you observe a woman
+running along Holborn beside the coach? I know that woman. She is the
+Captain's girl. Revenge was written on her face--easy to
+read--revenge--revenge. She stood beside the doorstep when we came in.
+She marked the house. She has gone back to St. Giles's to tell them
+where we can be found this evening. But they learned that fact in Court.
+Oh! They will come presently.'
+
+'Well, Jenny, let us escape while we can.'
+
+'There are many ways of escape,' she said. 'There is no hurry. We can
+pass over the roof of the next house and so into the garrets of the
+house beyond. I have proved this way of escape----Oh! Will, I counted
+the cost beforehand. Or there is the back door which opens on Hog Lane.
+We can get out that way. I am sure they will not think of the back door.
+Or it is easy to climb over the garden wall into the next house: there
+are plenty of ways. I am not afraid about our escape--if we can keep
+them out for a few minutes. But, Jack, you had better take my mother and
+sister away at once.'
+
+'No,' said Jack, stoutly. 'Where you are, Madame, there I am.'
+
+'You are a fool, Jack,' she replied with her sweet smile, which made him
+more foolish still. 'They will murder you if they can.'
+
+'They shan't murder you, then,' the lad replied, clutching his cudgel.
+
+By the time we finished supper and held this discourse it was close upon
+eight.
+
+'Will,' said Jenny, 'you and Jack had better barricade the door. It is a
+strong door but even oak will give way. Take the card-tables and pile
+them up.'
+
+The card-tables were thin slight things with curved legs all gilt and
+lacquer. But the long table was a heavy mahogany thing. We took out
+some of the pieces by which it was lengthened and closed it up. Then we
+carried it out to the hall and placed it against the door: the length of
+the door filled the breadth of the hall and jammed in the boards until
+it seemed as if it would bear any amount of pressure from without. We
+piled the smaller tables one above the other behind the large table: if
+the mob did get in, they would be encumbered for awhile among the legs
+of so many tables. This was the only attempt we could make at fortifying
+the house: the lower windows were protected by the iron railings
+outside.
+
+'Will,' said Jenny, 'we have made the door safe. But Lord! what is to
+prevent their breaking down the railings and entering by the area? Or
+why should they not bring a ladder and force their way at the first
+floor?'
+
+'Would they be so determined?'
+
+'They scent blood. They are like the carrion crow. They mean blood and
+pillage. The latter they will have. Not the former.'
+
+At this point we heard a low grumbling noise in the distance, which
+became the roar of many voices.
+
+'They are already at the Black Jack,' said Jenny. 'I should like to see
+what they are doing. Come with me, Will. It is too dark for anyone to
+recognise me, and there will be a great crowd. All St. Giles's will be
+out to see the wreck of the Black Jack.'
+
+She drew her hood over her head which in a measure hid her face, and
+taking my hand, she led me through the garden and so out by the back
+door into Hog Lane. The place, always quiet, was deserted and, besides,
+was nearly pitch dark, having no lamps in it.
+
+Jenny's house--the Assembly Rooms of Soho Square--stood at the corner of
+Sutton Street, and with its gardens extended back into Hog Lane. Nearly
+opposite Sutton Street, a little lower down, the short street called
+Denmark Street ran from Hog Lane into St. Giles's High Street opposite
+the Church. The Black Jack stood opposite to the Church.
+
+When we got to Denmark Street we took the north side, because there were
+fewer people there. Yet the crowd was gathering fast. We stood at the
+corner of the street at the East and where we could see what was going
+on and be ready to escape as quickly as possible in case of necessity.
+
+A company of men with whom were a good many women and a few boys, were
+besieging the dark and deserted Black Jack. They were a company apart
+acting by themselves without any assistance from the crowd, which looked
+on approvingly and applauded. They neither asked for, nor would they
+accept, assistance. If any man from the outside offered to join them, he
+was roughly ordered back. 'It is their revenge, Will,' said Jenny. 'They
+will have no one with them to join in their own business.' Their
+resolution and the quiet way with which they acted--for the roars and
+shouting we heard did not proceed from the company of revenge but from
+the crowd that followed them--struck one with terror as if we were
+contemplating the irresistible decrees of Fate. They battered at the
+doors: as no one answered, they broke in the doors; but first with a
+volley of stones they broke every window in the house.
+
+'Poor mother!' said Jenny. ''Twould break her heart. But she will lose
+nothing. I bought her out. It is the landlord who will suffer. Now they
+have found candles: they light up; see, they are going all over the
+house in search of the landlady.' We saw lights in the rooms one after
+the other. 'They will not find her: nor her money: nor anything that is
+valuable. It is all gone, gentlemen: all provided for and stowed away in
+a safer place. This is not a house where a woman who values her throat
+should be found, after to-day's work. See--now, they have made up their
+minds that no one is left in the house. What next? Will they set fire to
+it?'
+
+No: they did not set fire to the house. They proceeded to break up
+everything: all the furniture: the beds, chairs and tables and to throw
+fragments out of windows into the open space below where some of them
+collected everything and made a bonfire. When the house was emptied they
+began to bring out the bottles and to haul up the casks out of the
+cellars: upon this there was a rush of the crowd from the outside:
+strange as it may appear the company of revenge were going to break the
+bottles and to set the casks running. But the mob rushed in: there was
+fighting for a few minutes: someone blew a whistle and the rioters drew
+apart, and stood together before the house. Then one of them; their
+leader, spoke.
+
+'This is the revenge of St. Giles's on the landlady of the Black Jack.
+Drink up all her casks and all her bottles, and be damned to ye!'
+
+The people that rushed upon the casks were like ravenous beasts of prey:
+you would have thought that they had never had their fill of strong
+drink before: indeed for such people it is impossible to have their fill
+of strong drink unless insensibility means satiety. They set the casks
+running: they made cups of their hands: they drank with their mouths
+from the taps: they filled empty bottles: they fought for the full
+bottles: the place was covered with broken glass: their faces were
+bleeding with cuts from broken bottles: the bonfire lifted its fierce
+flame hissing and roaring: at the open windows of houses hard-by women
+looked on, shrieking and applauding: some, within the railings of the
+Church, looked on as from a place of safety: as the flames lit up their
+pale faces, they might have been the ghosts of the dead, called out of
+their quiet graves to see what was going on.
+
+'It is not their intention to burn down the Black Jack,' said Jenny.
+'Then there will be a new landlady, and the Thieves' Kitchen will go on
+again.'
+
+The leader of the Company blew his whistle, and the men fell into some
+kind of line.
+
+'My turn now,' said Jenny. 'Let us fly, Will. Let us fly back again.'
+
+We ran down Denmark Street into the quiet, dark Hog's Lane before the
+Company reached the place. We ran through the garden door and locked it.
+Then we went back to the house. The old woman was half drunk by this
+time and half asleep. Doll was sitting upright, waiting. Jack stood by
+the door.
+
+'They are coming,' said Jenny. 'They have sacked the Black Jack, Doll.
+They would have murdered you had you been in the house: they have broken
+all the furniture and made a bonfire of it: and they have brought out
+all the liquor. The people are drinking it up now--beer and rum and
+gin--and wine. Well, you have lost nothing, Doll--nothing at all. Now
+they are coming here.' She rang the bell, and called the servants. There
+were six of them. 'There is a mob on their way to this house,' she told
+them. 'They are going to wreck the place and to murder me, if they can.
+You had better get out of the house as soon as you can. Put together all
+that you can carry, and go out of the back way. You can go to one of
+the inns in Holborn for the night: if any of you have the courage to
+venture through the streets of Soho, you might go to the Horse Guards
+and call the soldiers to save the house. Now be quick. To-morrow I will
+pay you your wages.'
+
+The women looked astonished, as well they might. What sort of company
+was Madame keeping? There was the old woman bemused with drink: there
+was the young country man: who were they? What did it mean?
+
+'The mob are coming to-night, Madame?'
+
+'They are coming now. They will be here in a few minutes. If you would
+escape, go put your things together and fly by the garden door.'
+
+They looked at each other: without a word they retired: and I suppose
+they got away immediately, because we saw no more of them.
+
+And then we heard a steady tramp of feet along Sutton Street.
+
+'They are here,' said Jenny.
+
+We heard the feet, but there was no shouting. They marched in a silence
+which was more threatening than any noise. I closed the wooden shutters
+of the room. It was as well not to show any lights.
+
+'I suppose,' said Doll, 'that you will give us time to escape. Otherwise
+we shall all four have our throats cut, and perhaps this gentleman too,
+for whom you've taken all this trouble--and him with a wife of his own.
+He'd better go back to her.'
+
+'Yes, Doll,' Jenny replied meekly, without replying to the suggestion.
+'You shall have time to escape.'
+
+They drew up, apparently in very good order before the house, without
+any shouting, because most of the crowd that had followed them to the
+Black Jack were still on the spot drinking what they could get in the
+general scramble. There were some, however, who came with them and hung
+outside and behind the company of revenge who began to assemble and to
+shout 'Huzzah' after the way of the Londoners. But I believe they knew
+not what was intended save that it was revenge of some kind: there would
+most certainly be the breaking of windows and the smashing of doors:
+there would be the pleasant spectacle of revenge with more bonfires of
+broken furniture: perhaps more casks and bottles of strong drink: in
+all probability women would be turned out into the street with every
+kind of insult and ill-usage, as had happened, indeed, only a week
+before in the Strand when a company of sailors wrecked a house and
+turned the women out of doors with blows and curses.
+
+First they knocked loudly at the door, shouting for the door to be
+opened or it would be the worse for everybody inside. Then they pushed
+the door which yielded not.
+
+'They will not force the door easily,' said Jenny. 'Who will run
+downstairs and see that the area door is secure?'
+
+I volunteered for this duty. The kitchen windows were provided with
+strong iron bars which would keep the people off for a time: the area
+door was strong and was barred within: for further precaution I locked
+and barred the kitchen door and a strong door at the head of the
+staircase: we should thus gain time.
+
+Crash--smash--crash! Were you ever in a house while the mob outside were
+breaking the windows? Perhaps not. 'Tis like a field of battle with the
+rattle of musquetry. At one moment half the windows in the house were
+broken: at the next moment the other half went: and still
+crash--crash--the stones flew into the windows tearing out what little
+glass remained.
+
+Then there was silence again.
+
+'Our time is nearly up,' said Jenny. 'Doll, wake up mother. Tie her hat
+under her chin, wrap her handkerchief round her neck--so. What will they
+do next? Jack, are you afraid to reconnoitre? Go up to the first floor,
+and look out of window.'
+
+I went with him. The stones were still flying thickly through the
+windows. We made our way along the wall till we came to the window. Then
+we went on hands and knees and crept to the window. I wrapped one hand
+in a curtain and held it before my face while I looked out.
+
+They were lighting torches and conferring together. By the torchlight I
+could make out their faces. They were of the type which I had had a
+recent opportunity of studying in Newgate: the type which means both the
+hunter and the hunted. It is a cruel and hard type: a relentless type:
+the faces all had the same expression--it meant 'Revenge.' 'We have been
+betrayed,' said the faces, 'by our friends, by the very people we
+trusted: we will have revenge. As we have sacked the Black Jack, so we
+will sack the Assembly Rooms. As we would have killed the landlady of
+the Black Jack: so we will kill her daughter, the Orange Girl, if we
+find her.' That is what the faces seemed to say.
+
+They were conferring what to do next. One of them I could see, advocated
+breaking down the iron railings: but they had no instruments: another
+wanted to use a battering ram against the front door but they had no
+battering-ram: a third proposed a ladder and entering by the first floor
+windows. But they had no ladder.
+
+While they were thus debating a man came into the Square who brought a
+ladder for them. There was no further hesitation. 'Come, Jack,' I said.
+'There is no time to be lost: we must get away as quickly as possible.'
+
+'You go on,' said Jack, 'I will follow.'
+
+He waited. The ladder was raised to the window at which he watched. A
+fellow ran up quickly. Jack sprang to his feet, threw up the sash and
+hurled him headlong off the ladder. The poor wretch fell on the spikes.
+He groaned but only once. He was killed. There was silence for a moment.
+Then there arose a mighty scream--I say it was like the screaming of a
+woman. The mob had tasted blood. It was their own--but it was blood.
+They yelled and roared. Some of them ran to hold the ladder while a
+dozen men ran up. Jack prudently retired, but locked the door behind
+him.
+
+'I believe I have killed him,' he said quickly. 'The one who ran up the
+ladder. I think he fell on the spikes.'
+
+'Come,' said Jenny. 'We must go at once if we mean to go at all. Wake up
+mother again, Doll. Farewell to my greatness. Will, I grudge not any
+cost--remember--whatever it is. Take me with you, to your own home for
+awhile, till I am able to look round again. These devils! they are
+overhead, I hear them falling over the furniture. Pray that they break
+their shins. Come, everybody.'
+
+She blew out the candles and led the way. The old woman half awake was
+led out by Jack and Doll. I followed last. As we passed out into the
+garden, we could hear the cursing of the fellows overhead and the
+smashing of the door which Jack had locked.
+
+In Sutton Street, over the garden wall, everything seemed quiet: that
+is, there were no footsteps as of a crowd. Yet in the Square the crowd
+roared and yelled, and from St. Giles's was still heard the clamour of
+the people fighting over the drink. We looked out of the garden door
+cautiously. No one was in Hog Lane, which was as deserted as a city in
+the Desert. We closed the door and turned to the right, and so making
+our way by streets which I knew well, either by day or by night, we got
+to St. Martin's Lane and then to Charing Cross where we found a hackney
+coach.
+
+'Jenny,' I said in the coach, taking her hand. 'The evening spoils the
+day. All this you have suffered for my sake. What can I say? What can I
+feel?'
+
+'Oh! Will, what are a few sticks of furniture and curtains compared to
+your safety and to Alice's happiness? I care not a straw. I am ruined,
+it is true; but--for the first time in my life, I am thankful for it--I
+am a married woman. My debts will all be transferred to Matthew. Will!
+Think of it! The first effect of the victory will be to make Matthew a
+bankrupt at once. After what he owned in Court, after he receives the
+news of my debts: there can be no delay. Henceforth, my dear Will, you
+will be safe from Mr. Probus.'
+
+I was, indeed, to be safe from him, but in a way which she could not
+expect.
+
+'Meantime,' she added, with a sigh, 'they have not done with me, yet.'
+
+'Why, what further harm can they do you?'
+
+'I know not. You asked the same question before. There is no end to the
+ways of a revengeful spirit. They will murder me, perhaps: or they will
+contrive some other way.'
+
+'Then go out of their reach.'
+
+'The only place of safety for me is with my own folks. I should be safe
+in a gipsy camp. They have their camps everywhere, but I do not want to
+live with them. No, Will. I shall remain. After all, the revenge of
+people like these soon passes away. They will wreck my house to-night.
+That very likely will seem to them enough. I should have thought so, but
+for the things that mother saw in the coals. She is a witch, indeed. I
+say, mother, you are a proper witch.' But the good lady was fast asleep.
+
+We left her with her daughter Doll and the young fellow they called
+Jack, at the White Hart Inn. It appeared that a waggon was going on in
+the morning to Horsham in Sussex. They might as well stay at Horsham for
+a time as anywhere else. There was very little fear that the St.
+Giles's company of revenge would make any further inquiries about them.
+So they left us and I saw the pair no more--and cannot tell you what
+became of them in the end. As for the young fellow, you will hear more
+about him. The hackney coach took us to our cottage on the Bank where,
+after so many emotions and surprises, I, for one, slept well.
+
+Let us return to the house in the Square. The rioters finding no one
+within, quickly pulled away the barricade of the front door and threw it
+open. Then the work of wrecking the place began. When you remember that
+supper was sometimes provided for two thousand people, you will
+understand the prodigious quantity of plates, dishes, knives, forks,
+tables, benches, and things that were stored in the pantries and
+kitchens. You have heard of the hangings, the curtains, the candelabra,
+the sconces, the musical instruments, the plants, the vases, the
+paintings, the coloured lamps, the card-tables, the candlesticks, the
+stores of candles--in a word the immense collection of all kinds
+necessary for carrying on the entertainments. It is true that the
+suppers were cooked at a tavern and sent in, cold; but they had to be
+served in dishes and provided with plates. There was no wine to speak of
+in the house, because the wine was sent in for the night from the tavern
+which supplied it. Everything in the house was broken. The company of
+revenge did its work thoroughly. Everything was broken: everything was
+thrown out of the windows: the centre of the Square was made the site of
+a huge bonfire which, I believe, must be remembered yet: all the
+furniture was piled up on this bonfire: the flames ascended to the
+skies: that of the Black Jack was a mere boy's bonfire compared to this,
+while the piles of broken glass and china rendered walking in the Square
+dangerous for many a day to come.
+
+You have heard that Jenny recommended her women-servants to call out the
+soldiers. One of them dared to run through the dark streets to the Horse
+Guards. Half an hour, however, elapsed before the soldiers could be
+turned out. At last they started with muskets loaded and bayonets fixed:
+when they arrived, the work was nearly finished: it would have been
+better for poor Jenny had it been completely finished, as you will
+presently discover: the furniture was all broken and, with the hangings,
+curtains and carpets, was burning on the bonfire. The soldiers drew up
+before the door: the mob began throwing stones: the soldiers fired into
+them. Four or five fell--of whom two were killed on the spot: the rest
+were wounded. The mob soon ran away. Some of the soldiers proceeded to
+search the house: they found a dozen or twenty fellows engaged in
+smashing the mirrors and the candelabra in the dancing-hall: they
+secured them: and then, the mob all gone, and the bonfire dying away
+they left a guard of four or five and marched back with their prisoners
+and the wounded men. In the morning the soldiers fastened up the broken
+door somehow and left the empty house. Alas! If only the mob had been
+able to fire the house and to burn down and gut the place from cellar to
+garret.
+
+This was the first act of revenge on the part of St. Giles's. There was
+to be another and a more deadly act.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AN UNEXPECTED CHARGE
+
+
+The joy of the acquittal and the release was certainly dashed by the
+wild revenge of the mob in the evening. The wreck of the great house
+with all its costly fittings and decorations could be nothing short of
+ruin to poor Jenny. Still it was with heartfelt gratitude that I
+returned to my own roof with character unblemished. Alice had a little
+feast prepared, not so joyful as it might have been, though Jenny made a
+brave attempt to be cheerful. Tom was with us: the punch-bowl was
+filled: the glasses went round: Tom played and sang--nobody could sing
+more movingly than he when he was in that vein; that is, when he sat
+with a cheerful company round the steaming punch-bowl.
+
+More revenge, however, was to follow. Next morning, about eight or nine
+of the clock, Jenny came out with me to walk upon the Bank. For the time
+of year the weather was fine, the sun, still warm, though it was now low
+down, and had a wintry aspect, shone upon the river: the wind tossed up
+the water in little waves; the boats rocked; the swans rolled about and
+threatened to capsize.
+
+Jenny carried the boy, who laughed and played with her hair and
+impudently planted his fingers upon her cheek.
+
+'Will,' she said, 'I must now contrive some other means of existence.
+The Assembly Rooms of Soho Square are wrecked and destroyed. That is
+certain. They are very likely burned down as well. All my furniture, all
+my property is destroyed. Of that I am quite certain. The villains would
+make short work once inside. Well, I can never recover credit enough to
+refit them. Besides, the mob might break in again, though I do not think
+they would. I am sorry for my creditors. They will be much more injured
+than I myself,' she laughed.
+
+'Who are your creditors, Jenny?'
+
+'Upholsterers, painters, furniture-makers, cooks, wine-merchants,
+bakers, grocers, drapers--half London, Will. There was never anybody a
+greater benefactor to trade. They let me go on, because you see, they
+thought the profits of the winter season would clear them. Poor dear
+confiding people!'
+
+'Well, but Jenny, since they trusted you before, will they not trust you
+again?'
+
+'They cannot, possibly. Consider what it would take to refit that great
+place. By this time all the mirrors and the paintings have been
+destroyed. Most likely the house is burned down as well; unless the
+soldiers came in time, which I doubt. They generally march up when the
+mischief is done.' So she began to toss and to dandle the boy, singing
+to it. 'Will,' she said, 'the happiest lot for a woman is to live
+retired and bring up her brats. If Matthew had been what he promised and
+taken me away from London and into the country!'
+
+'Do you know how much you owe?'
+
+'I heard, some time ago, that it was over £30,000. Masquerades, I fear,
+cannot be made to pay. They say I give them too much wine and too good.
+As for giving them too much, that is impossible. The men would drink,
+every night, a three-decker full; their throats are like the vasty
+deep.'
+
+'But--is it possible? £30,000? Jenny, you can never pay that enormous
+sum.'
+
+'My dear Will, I never thought I should be able to pay it. Unfortunately
+while it is unpaid the good people are not likely to give me any more
+money. No, Will, that chapter is finished. Exit Madame Vallance. Who
+comes next?'
+
+'But there are the creditors to consider.' I began to have fears of a
+Debtors' Prison for Jenny.
+
+'Oh! The creditors? The creditors, my dear Will, will be handed over to
+Matthew. You are a good musician but an indifferent lawyer.
+Matthew--Matthew--is responsible for his wife's liabilities. This is the
+only point which reconciles me to marriage with such a man. I am
+provided with a person who must take over all my debts. Dear Matthew!
+Kind Matthew! That worthy man, that incomparable husband will now, for
+the first time, understand the full felicities of the married state.'
+
+'But Matthew can never pay this enormous sum of money.'
+
+'I do not suppose he can. Then he will retreat to the Prison where he
+put you, and, as long as he lives, will have opportunity of blessing
+first the day when he married a wife, and next the day when he made it
+impossible for her to live with him. If I can no longer carry on my
+Assembly Rooms, what remains?'
+
+'There is always the stage. Your friends desire nothing so much as your
+return to Drury Lane.'
+
+'Yes, the stage. I might return to Drury Lane. But, Will, those good
+people who sacked the Black Jack and wrecked the house in the Square
+yesterday, they were my friends of old; some of them, I believe, are my
+cousins: they formerly came to applaud. Do you think they would come to
+applaud after what has happened? Not so. They would come with baskets
+full of rotten apples and addled eggs: they would salute me with those
+missiles; there would be frantic cursings and hissings; they would drive
+me off the stage with every brutal insult that their filthy minds could
+invent. Oh! I know my own people--my cousins. I know them.'
+
+'They will forget you, Jenny.'
+
+'Yes, if I keep quiet. If I put myself forward the old rancour will be
+revived. Who betrayed her old friends? Who sent the Bishop and the
+Captain to Newgate? Who got them put in pillory--where they will most
+certainly have to stand? Who caused all the addled eggs in London to fly
+in their innocent faces? I tell you, Will, I know my people. Are they
+not my people? And have I not betrayed them? You lovely boy--tell your
+Dada that Jenny will never repent or regret what she did for his sake:
+she would do it again, she would--she would--she would.'
+
+'Oh! Jenny, you cut me to the heart. What can I do for you?'
+
+'You can look happy again: and you can get the Newgate paleness out of
+your cheeks--that is what you can do, Will.'
+
+At this point of our discourse I observed, without paying any attention
+to them, a little company of two men and a woman, walking across the
+Marsh in the direction of the Palace or the Church or perhaps the
+cottages. I looked at them without suspicion. Otherwise it would have
+been easy for Jenny to have jumped into a boat and to have escaped--for
+a time at least. But at this juncture we were singularly unfortunate.
+The house in Soho Square had not been burned; otherwise there would have
+been no further trouble. But you shall hear. I went back to the question
+of the liabilities. How could anyone be easy who owed £30,000?
+
+'Since there is no help, Jenny, for the creditors, and since you are not
+responsible, why then, Jenny, you shall live with us, and it will be our
+pride and happiness to work for you.'
+
+She laughed. No: that would not do either.
+
+Meantime the people I had seen crossing the Marsh were drawing nearer. I
+now observed that the woman with the two men was none other than the
+girl I had seen at the Black Jack, sitting on the Captain's knee.
+
+'Jenny,' I said, 'Quick! Here comes a woman who owes you no goodwill.
+Are you afraid of her? If so, let us take boat and escape across the
+river.'
+
+'Is it one of the St. Giles's company? No, Will, I am not afraid of the
+woman, and you, I am sure, are not afraid of the men.'
+
+They were within fifty feet of us. The woman broke away from the men and
+ran towards us. 'Here she is!' she cried. 'This is the woman. Make her
+prisoner. Quick! She will run away. I told you she would be here. Oh!
+Make her prisoner. Quick! Put on the handcuffs. Tie her hand and
+foot--she's a devil--bring out the chains. She is desperate. She will
+claw some of you with her nails. Once she bit off a man's ear. That was
+when she was an orange girl. Make her prisoner, good gentlemen, as quick
+as you can. Take care of her. She'll tear your eyes out for you.'
+
+Jenny flushed scarlet and stood still. But she caught my hand. 'Don't
+leave me, Will,' she murmured. Leave her? But a terrible sinking of the
+heart warned me that something horrible and dreadful was falling upon
+us. What was it? 'I have felt it coming,' said Jenny. 'Come with me
+whatever they do.'
+
+The woman was within six feet of us, standing on the Bank. A wild figure
+she was, bare-headed save for her hair which streamed out in the fresh
+breeze: she wore a black leather corset and a frock of some thick stuff
+with a woollen shawl or kerchief round her neck. Her red arms were bare
+to the elbow; she had a black eye and a disfiguring scratch across her
+cheek. Her bosom heaved; her lips trembled; her eyes were bright; her
+cheeks were flaming. I knew her now! She was the girl I had seen sitting
+on the Captain's knee. And I understood. This was more revenge.
+
+The two men then approached. I knew them, too, alas! I had good reason
+to know them. They were officers of Bow Street Court.
+
+'By your leave, Madame,' said one, 'I have an order to arrest the body
+of Madame Vallance, otherwise called Jenny Wilmot, otherwise Mrs.
+Matthew Halliday.' He produced his emblem of office, the short wand with
+a brass crown upon it.
+
+'I am the person Sir. I suppose you have some reason--some
+charge--against me?'
+
+'Receiving stolen goods, knowing the same to have been stolen.'
+
+'Oh!' she caught at my arm. 'I had forgotten that danger--Will, do not
+leave me--not yet--not yet.' Then she recovered her self-possession.
+'Well, gentlemen, I am your prisoner. This gentleman, my friend and
+cousin, may, I suppose, come with me?' Alice came to the door and looked
+out astonished to see two officers. 'Take your child, Alice,' said
+Jenny, 'I must go with these gentlemen. Not content with destroying my
+property, they are now trying to destroy my character. Will goes with me
+to see what it means. He will report to you later on!'
+
+'Oh! your character!' said the woman. 'A pretty character you've got!
+How long since you had a character at all, I should like to know?
+Destroy your character? I will destroy your life--your life--your
+life--vile impudent drab--I shall take your life. You shall learn what
+it means to turn against your friends.'
+
+'Come,' said one of the men, 'you've shown us where she was. No more
+jaw. Now leave us. Go. You have had your revenge.'
+
+'Not yet--not till I see her in the cart. That is the only revenge that
+will satisfy me.'
+
+Jenny looked at her with a kind of pity. 'Poor soul!' she said, gently.
+'Do you think the man is worth all this revenge? Do you think he cares
+for you? Do you think you will care about him after a day or two? What
+do you think you will get by all the revenge possible? More of his love
+and fidelity? Who gave you that black eye? Will you make him any happier
+in his prison--will you make him any fonder?'
+
+'Oh!' the woman gasped and caught her breath. 'Revenge? If I can find
+your mother and your sister I will kill them both with a pair of
+scissors.' She improved this prophecy by a few decorative adjectives.
+'As for you, this will teach you to turn against your own folk--the poor
+rogues--you belong to us: and you turn against us. To save a man that
+belongs to other folk. Ha! The rope is round your neck already! Ha! I
+see you swinging. Ho!' She stopped and gasped again, being overcome with
+the emotion of satisfied revenge.
+
+'Perhaps,' I said weakly, 'this good woman would take a guinea and go
+away quietly?'
+
+'No! No!' she replied, 'not if you stuffed my pockets full of guineas.
+You've put my man in prison. They say he'll stand in pillory and p'r'aps
+be killed--the properest man in St. Giles's. They kill them sometimes in
+the pillory,' she shuddered, 'but p'r'aps they'll let him off easy. As
+for you, my fine Madame--you that look so haughty--you, the orange
+girl--you'll be hanged--you'll be hanged!' She screamed these words
+dancing about and cracking her fingers like a mad woman. Never before
+had I seen a woman so entirely possessed by the fury of love's
+bereavement. Do not imagine that I have set down her actual words--that
+I could not do--nor the half of what she said. And all for such a lover!
+for a footpad and highway robber; for a brute who beat her, kicked her,
+and knocked her down; a low, dirty villain, who made her fetch and carry
+and work for him; who had no tenderness, or any good thing in him at
+all. Yet he was her man; and she loved him; and she would be revenged
+for him. This woman, I say, was like a tigress bereft of her cubs. Had
+it not been for the constable who stood between and for myself who stood
+beside, she would have flown at poor Jenny with nail and claw and,
+indeed, any other weapon which Nature had given to woman. I saw two
+women fighting once for a man: 'twas in the King's Bench Prison; they
+were pulled apart after one had been disfigured for life by the other's
+teeth. This woman wanted only permission to rush in and do likewise. But
+the constable kept her back with his strong arm.
+
+'Come,' he said, 'enough said. What's the use of crying and shrieking?
+You'll all be hanged in good time--all be hanged. What else are you fit
+for? And a blessed thing it is for you that you will be hanged. That's
+what I say. If you only knew it. Madame,' he said very respectfully, 'I
+must ask leave to take you before his worship.' He held out his hand:
+the hand of Law in all her branches from Counsel to thief taker is
+always held out. I gave him half a guinea.
+
+The woman was still standing beside us, shaking and trembling under the
+agitation of the late storm. 'Here you,' said the officer, 'we've had
+enough of your filthy tongue. Get off with you. Go, I say.' He stepped
+forward with a menacing gesture. Among these women a blow generally
+follows a word. She turned and walked away. I followed her with my eyes.
+Her shoulders still heaved; her fingers worked: from time to time she
+turned and shook her fist: and though I could not hear I am certain she
+was talking to herself.
+
+'Where are we going?' Jenny asked, humbly.
+
+'To Sir John Fielding's, Bow Street, Madame. Lord! what signifies what a
+madwoman like that says? She's lost her man and she's off her head.'
+
+'How are we to get there?'
+
+'Well, Madam, there is no coach to be got this side the High Street. If
+I may make so bold there's the boats at the Horseferry. We can drop down
+the river more quickly than over London Bridge.'
+
+Jenny made no remark. She sat in the boat with bent head, her cheeks
+still flaming.
+
+'I am thinking, Will. Don't speak to me just at present.'
+
+The boat carried us swiftly down the river.
+
+'I am thinking,' she repeated, 'what is best to do. Will, I had quite
+forgotten the things.' I could not understand a word of what she said.
+'I know now what I have to do. It's a hard thing to do, but it's the
+best.'
+
+She explained no more, and we presently arrived at the Savoy Stairs and
+took a coach to Bow Street Police Court. It was only six weeks since I
+was there last, but on what a different errand!
+
+The blind magistrate took our case and called for the evidence.
+
+First, the woman who had delivered Jenny into the hands of the law
+deposed that she was a respectable milliner by trade; that she was
+accidentally in the neighbourhood of the Black Jack about midnight three
+nights before, when she became aware of something which excited her
+curiosity and interest. The landlady of the tavern and her daughter Doll
+were carrying between them a box full of something or other. She
+followed them, herself unseen. They walked down Denmark Street into
+Hog's Lane, and carried their box into a garden, the door of which was
+open: for greater certainty of knowing the place again she marked the
+door in the corner with a cross. Then the two women came out and
+returned to the Black Jack. All night long they were carrying things
+from the tavern to the garden gate; sometimes in boxes, sometimes in
+their arms; there were silk mantles and satin frocks and embroidered
+petticoats, very fine. That work kept them all night. Now, knowing the
+old woman to be a notorious fence, she was certain that these were
+stolen goods, and that they were removing them for safety to this house
+probably unknown to the master and the mistress; that in the morning
+when it was light she went back to the place and found that the
+garden-door was the back-door of the premises known as the Soho Square
+Assembly Rooms kept by a Madame Vallance.'
+
+'Well? what then?' asked Sir John.
+
+'Your worship, the next day was the trial of that gentleman there for
+robbing the Bishop and the Captain. I was in the Old Bailey, sir, and
+the gentleman would have been brought in guilty and hanged, as many a
+better man than he has suffered it without a whisper or a snivel--but
+this woman here--this Madame Vallance who is nothing in the world but
+Jenny Wilmot the actress--who was an Orange Girl at Drury Lane once--and
+is the daughter of the old woman that keeps the Black Jack.'
+
+'The Black Jack!' said Sir John. 'The mob wrecked that house last
+night.'
+
+'And the other house too. They would have set it on fire, your Honour,'
+said the girl, 'but the soldiers came up and stopped them. More's the
+pity.'
+
+'Have a care, woman,' said the magistrate, 'or I shall commit you for
+taking part in the riot. Go on with your evidence if you have any more.'
+
+She gave her evidence in a quick impetuous manner. It was like a
+cataract of angry burning words.
+
+'It was in the garret that I found the things; I knew them at once. I'd
+been down in Mother Wilmot's cellars. Oh! I knew them at once. Jenny's
+got the stolen goods, I said. And so she had. So she had, your Honour,
+and oh! let her deny it--let her deny it--if she can.'
+
+'You found property in the garret which you identified as stolen. Pray
+how did you know that fact?'
+
+'Because it came from Mother Wilmot's cellars.'
+
+'That does not prove it to be stolen.'
+
+'Well, Sir, I happened to know some respectable people who had been
+robbed of late, and I made bold to tell them of it; and they found their
+own things, and here the worthy respectable gentlemen are to testify.'
+
+'I will hear them presently.' Then Sir John began to ask the woman a few
+questions which mightily disconcerted her. If, he asked, she was a
+respectable milliner, where did she work? If she was a respectable
+woman, what was she doing in front of St. Giles's Church at midnight? If
+she were a respectable woman, how did she come to know the landlady of
+the Black Jack and her daughter? How was it she found herself in the
+garrets at all? At what time was she in the garrets? How did she come to
+know the people who had lost property of late? In a word he made the
+woman confess who she was and what she was. And he then, to her
+confusion and amazement, committed her for trial for taking part in the
+riots. So she was put aside, and presently consigned to Newgate with
+other rioters taken in the fact. In the end she was imprisoned and
+whipped. Still her evidence proved the deposit of goods in the garrets.
+The worthy gentlemen to whom she referred were three or four
+respectable tradesmen of Holborn. They deposed, one after the other, how
+they had suffered of late much from depredations which prevented them
+from exposing their goods at their doors; that this woman had called to
+warn them of certain things found by the rioters in the garrets of the
+Soho Square Assembly Rooms; that they went to see the things by
+permission of the guard of soldiers: that they found certain things of
+their own, which they identified by private marks upon them.
+
+The evidence was concluded. 'Madame,' the magistrate said, 'you have
+heard the evidence. What have you to say? If you desire to call evidence
+for the defence I will remand the case. You can produce, perhaps, your
+mother and sister, though I confess, they are not likely to appear.'
+
+'They got away yesterday, to avoid the fury of the mob, Sir. This woman
+is angry because I have proved her lover to be guilty of perjury.'
+
+'That is evident. On the other hand, your house contained the stolen
+goods; your mother was seen taking them into the house. The
+circumstances are such as to make it evident that your mother desired a
+place of safety. It is proper to show that you were not an accomplice of
+the removal and the reception in your house.'
+
+'I submit, Sir, that I can only prove this by calling my mother as
+witness, and, Sir, you have yourself acknowledged that she is not likely
+to appear.'
+
+'Then, Madame, I can only ask you for anything you may say in defence.'
+
+'Sir, I shall say nothing.'
+
+This reply amazed me beyond anything. I expected her to deny indignantly
+any knowledge of the matter, and to declare that the things had been
+brought into the house without her knowledge. She would say nothing.
+Then Sir John committed her for trial. I placed her in a coach with such
+heaviness of heart as you may imagine and we drove to Newgate. Jenny was
+well remembered by the turnkeys, to whom she had been generous and even
+profuse, in my case. Turnkeys are never astonished, but the appearance
+of Madame was perhaps an exception to this general rule. However, on
+payment of certain guineas she was placed, alone, in the best cell that
+the woman's side could boast.
+
+'Jenny!' I cried when we were alone. 'For God's sake what does it mean?
+Why did you not deny knowledge of the whole business? What have you to
+do with stolen goods? Even supposing that your mother took them there,
+what has that got to do with you?'
+
+'I shall tell the whole truth to you, Will, and only to you. But you may
+tell Alice. From you I will keep no secrets.'
+
+'Oh! Jenny, it is for me--for me--that you have fallen into all this
+trouble. What shall I do? What shall I do?' I looked round the mean,
+bare, and ugly walls of the cell. 'Twas a poor exchange from the private
+room in the Square. And all for me!
+
+'What did your boy tell you this morning, Will? That Jenny never
+regrets--never repents--what she has done for you. She would do it all
+over again--over again--a hundred thousand times over again.' She buried
+her face in her hands for a moment. 'Twas not in woman's nature to
+restrain the tears. Then she sprang to her feet. 'What? you think I am
+going to cry because the woman has done this? At least she is coming to
+Newgate as well. Now, Will. I must tell you the truth. It was most
+important to get the evidence of my mother and of Doll. They connected
+Probus with the conspiracy. They helped to identify the two principal
+witnesses. Well, I had to buy their evidence. They made me pay a pretty
+price for it. As for Doll, you wouldn't believe what a grasping creature
+she is. That comes of keeping the slate. I had to compensate them for
+the loss of their daily takings at the Black Jack. I paid them for their
+stock of liquors--we saw the mob drinking it up last night: I paid them
+for their furniture and their clothes. I gave them money to get out of
+London with, and to keep them until they can get another tavern; they
+got money from me on one pretence or the other till I thought they were
+resolved on taking all I had. And when I had paid for everything and
+thought they were settled and done with there arose the question of the
+stolen goods. And I really thought the whole business was ruined and
+undone.'
+
+'What question?'
+
+'Why, my parent, Will, had got under the old house a spacious stone
+vault quite dry, built up with arches and paved with stone; there isn't
+a finer store-room in all London: it belonged once to some people--I
+don't know--religious people who liked shutting themselves up in the
+dark. I suppose that mother couldn't bear waste or the throwing away of
+good opportunities for she turned the vault into a cellar for stolen
+goods; she bought the goods; she stored them down below; she sold them
+to people who carried them about the country. Everybody knew it; and she
+was pretty safe because she had a good name for the prices she gave, and
+even Merridew had to let her alone. Well, what was to be done with the
+things in the vault? There was enough to hang them both a hundred times.
+They took me down to see them. I never suspected there was anything like
+the quantity of things. Plain silver melted down; gold melted down;
+precious stones picked out of rings; and snuff-boxes; patch boxes; rolls
+of silk; boxes of gloves; handkerchiefs; frocks and gowns and
+embroidered petticoats and mantles; ribbons of all kinds; the place was
+like a wonderful shop. Time was pressing. It was impossible for mother
+to sell everything at once; things have to be taken into the country and
+sold cautiously to the Squire's' lady, who knows very well what she is
+buying, just as her husband knows that he is buying smuggled brandy.'
+
+'So you bought the things?'
+
+'There was nothing else to do. Mother tied up the jewels in her
+handkerchief; Doll took the melted gold and silver; and they undertook
+to carry all the rest of the things across to the garden door in Hog
+Lane; the door by which we escaped yesterday; and to store them in my
+cellars and garrets. This, I suppose, they did. I paid for the things.
+They are mine, Will.'
+
+'Oh!' I groaned.
+
+'Yes, they are mine. This comes of being born in St. Giles's and
+belonging to the Black Jack. Well, I clean forgot all about the things.
+Well now; this is the point. If I deny knowledge of them they will send
+out a hue and cry for mother. She will certainly be found and brought up
+on the charge. And she is not the sort to suffer in silence. I know my
+people, Will: she and Doll will let it be known that I bought the
+things, so that we may all thus stand in the Dock together. And I assure
+you, Will, I would much rather stand in the Dock alone. I shall have a
+better chance.'
+
+'Yes--but----'
+
+'If I take the whole business on myself they won't drag in mother. They
+will let her alone and she will keep quiet for her own sake. Besides,
+seeing what this woman has got by her evidence I don't think the others
+will be eager to give their evidence. Now, Will, you know the exact
+truth. And--and--this is what one expects if you belong to the Black
+Jack.'
+
+'But--Jenny--think--think.'
+
+'I know what you would say, dear lad. They will hang me. It is a most
+ungraceful way of going out of the world. One would prefer a feather bed
+with dignity. But indeed; have no fears, Will. They will do nothing of
+the kind. If Jenny Wilmot made any friends at Drury Lane now is the time
+to prove them. But I must think what to do.'
+
+She sat down to the table. There were writing materials upon it. She
+took quill in hand. Then she turned to me with her pretty smile. 'Oh!
+Will--what a disaster it was that the soldiers came up before the mob
+had set fire to the house! What a disaster! If the house was burned the
+things in the garrets would have been burned as well and all the stolen
+goods would have been destroyed and no trace left. What a disaster!' She
+laughed. 'What might have been called my good fortune has turned out the
+greatest misfortune that could have happened to me.'
+
+'I must think,' she said. 'I must be alone and think out the whole
+situation. It all depends on what should be told and what should be
+concealed. That, I take it, is the history of everything. Some parts we
+hide and some we tell. I must think.'
+
+I did not disturb her. She leaned her head upon her hand and was silent
+for awhile.
+
+'Will,' she said, 'of all my friends there are but two on whom I can
+rely with any hope of help--only two. Yet they told me I had troops of
+friends. You have heard me speak of a certain noble lord who made love
+to me. He made love so seriously that he was ready to marry me. I
+refused him, as a reward. Besides his sister came and wept--I told you
+the story. I cannot bear to see even a woman weep. Well, Will, this man
+is, I am quite sure, a loyal and faithful gentleman, the only one of all
+my lovers whom I could respect. I am going to write to him. He promised
+me, upon his honour, to come to my assistance if ever I wanted any help
+of any kind. I am going to remind him of that promise. The next friend
+is the Manager of Drury. He will help me if he can, though he did not
+propose to marry me. I will write to him as well. And I must write to my
+attorney, who is also a friend of yours. Now, Will I want you to take by
+your own hand a letter to his lordship. Go to his town house in Curzon
+Street and ask the people to deliver the letter instantly. The other two
+letters you can send by messenger. And, Will, one more thing. I believe
+you ought to warn Matthew what to expect. Since he is going to be
+bankrupt on his own account it will not hurt him very much to be
+bankrupt on mine as well. Now wait a little, while I write the letters.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE FILIAL MARTYR
+
+
+I hastened on my errand, taking a boat to Westminster, whence it is a
+short walk across the Parks to Curzon Street, where my Lord Brockenhurst
+had his town house. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon: I found
+carriages and chaises waiting outside the open door, and the hall within
+filled with servants in livery lolling about and exchanging insolent
+remarks upon the people who crowded up the stairs. I am little versed in
+the customs of the Great, but I confess that the continual presence of
+these insolent and hulking varlets in the house and in all the rooms
+would be to me a burden intolerable. What says Doctor Johnson?
+
+            'The pride of awful state,
+    The golden canopy, the glitt'ring plate,
+    The regal palace, the luxurious board,
+    The liveried army and the menial lord
+
+I believe he meant the lords who were obsequious to the Cardinal: we may
+read it, to suit those times, the impudent menials who lord it over
+their Master's house.
+
+I thought of those lines as I waited, neglected, in the Hall among the
+lacqueys. Fortunately I was reminded of other lines by the same great
+author.
+
+    'Where won by bribes, by flatteries implored,
+    The groom retails the favours of his Lord.'
+
+I turned to one of them whose shoulder knots and his rod of office
+proclaimed him one in authority.
+
+'Sir,' I said, 'I am the bearer of a letter for his Lordship.'
+
+'Wait, friend, wait. His Lordship will receive presently.'
+
+'Sir. It is an important letter. It is from a lady. I assure you that
+his Lordship would be much vexed not to receive it.'
+
+'Give it to me, then.'
+
+'Sir. By your leave. It is very important. Can you contrive to put it
+into his Lordship's hand immediately?'
+
+He looked at me with an air of surprise, and made no reply.
+
+'Pardon me, Sir,' I said, taking out my purse, in which were two
+guineas--all I had in the world--'I forgot to add that I rely on your
+good offices,' with that I slipped a guinea into his hand.
+
+'Ay--' he said. 'Now you talk sense. Well, Sir, you may trust me. His
+Lordship shall have the letter within an hour, as soon as his company
+begins to go.'
+
+With this assurance I was fain to be content. So I came away hoping that
+the fellow would keep his word. This, happily, he did.
+
+It was too late at that hour to seek out Matthew in his counting-house.
+Besides, I confess that I felt pity for the poor wretch thus hastening
+to destruction. His haggard look at the trial showed the miseries he was
+suffering. He gave his evidence, as you have heard on the threat that
+otherwise he would be charged with the other four with conspiracy: and
+now a misfortune almost as bad was to fall upon him. To go to him would
+have the appearance of exulting over these misfortunes. Yet it was
+necessary to tell him.
+
+I went home sadly. That Jenny should suffer the wreck and destruction of
+her house in Soho Square, was hard: that she should, also, which was
+much worse, be arrested on a capital charge and committed to Newgate:
+that she should have nothing to say or to plead in defence: in revenge
+for the part she had played in proving my innocence: these things, I
+say, were difficult to understand. Why should she not plead 'Not
+Guilty,' and leave it to the prosecution to prove that she was the owner
+of the property or that she knew it was in her house? Who would believe
+the word of the revengeful fury who swore to seeing the things taken to
+the house by the old woman and her daughter? Would not a clever counsel
+make her contradict herself? and confess, somehow, that she herself had
+laid the things there by way of a trap?
+
+So I argued, blind, in my anxiety.
+
+'Will,' said Alice, 'you would meet misfortune by falsehood. Fie! You
+would lay a trap set by a clever talker to catch this miserable ignorant
+woman. Fie!'
+
+'What then?' I cried. 'Ignorant or not she is a mischievous and a
+revengeful woman. My dear, I would save Jenny at any cost.'
+
+'I think Jenny is right, Will. She will meet the charge by simply
+pleading "Guilty" to whatever they can prove against her: namely, having
+the things in her house, knowing that they were stolen. I think it is
+her wisest course. No questions will be asked: no one will believe that
+a woman in her position could actually be guilty of receiving stolen
+goods so worthless: it will be understood by everybody that she is
+screening someone--some close relation--even at the risk of her own
+life.'
+
+I replied by a groan of dissent.
+
+'Jenny is not an actress for nothing. She ought not to have bought the
+things at all: or she ought to have destroyed them: this I suppose she
+would have done, but she forgot: she was wholly occupied in saving you.
+We must remember that with gratitude unspeakable, Will.'
+
+'Yes, wife, God knows I do.'
+
+'The world has been told over and over again that poor Jenny was once an
+Orange Girl: do people ever expect Orange Girls to come of respectable
+parents? To take guilt upon yourself--in order to screen your
+mother--will appear to the world as a noble and generous act. It would
+have taken you and me, Will, a month to discover the best way out of the
+trouble. But Jenny saw her way at once.'
+
+In the end Alice proved to be right. Jenny chose the very best thing
+possible, as you shall see.
+
+In the morning I began by making my way to the old familiar place, the
+Counting House and Wharf close to All-hallows the Great. The Wharf was
+quite empty and desolate: the cranes were there, but there were no
+lighters: the casks and bales that formerly encumbered the place were
+gone: in the outer counting-house there were no clerks except Ramage.
+But the place was filled with lawyers' clerks attornies, creditors and
+their representatives. The talk was loud and angry: all were talking
+together: all were threatening terrible things unless their claims were
+paid in full.
+
+Ramage held up his hands when he saw me and shook his head.
+
+'Will my cousin see me, Ramage?' I asked. 'Tell him I have something of
+the greatest importance to say to him.'
+
+'It is all over, Mr. William,' he whispered. 'The blow has fallen. After
+the things which came out in the Old Bailey there was no hope. It was
+all over the City at once and on Change in the afternoon. You will find
+him within. I fear you will find that he has been drinking. Go in, Sir,
+you must not pay any heed to what he says. He has been strange and
+unlike himself for a long time. No wonder with all these troubles.' Thus
+did the faithful servant stand up for the credit of an unworthy master.
+'Go in, Sir. He will insult you. But don't mind what he says.'
+
+I went in. Matthew was evidently half drunk. He had a bottle of brandy
+before him, and he was drinking fast and furiously.
+
+'Gaol-bird!' he cried, banging his fist on the table and talking
+thickly. 'Newgate-bird--what do you want? Money? You all want money. You
+may go away then. I haven't got any money. All the money's gone. All the
+money's lost.' So he went on repeating his words, and maundering and
+forgetting one moment what he had said just before.
+
+'Matthew,' I said, 'I have not come to ask for money or for anything. I
+have brought you news.'
+
+'What news? There is no news but bad news. Perhaps somebody has murdered
+Probus. Why don't you murder Probus--murder--murder Probus?' I suffered
+him to go on in his foolish way without reply. 'Do you know, Will,' he
+lay back in his chair and plunged his hands in his pockets, 'there is
+nobody I should like to see murdered so much as Probus--Ezekiel Probus,
+excepting yourself. If I could see both of you hanging side by side, I
+should be happy; but if I could see you both murdered with a
+bludgeon I could go--I could go--I could go to the King's Bench
+cheerfully--cheerfully.'
+
+It was no use prolonging the interview. I told him, briefly, why I had
+come.
+
+'Your wife,' I said, 'has had her house sacked and the whole of her
+property destroyed by the mob.'
+
+'I am glad of that--very glad to hear that. All of it destroyed you say?
+This is good news indeed.'
+
+'She can no longer carry on her business at the Soho Square Assembly
+Rooms. The property destroyed consists largely of furniture supplied for
+the use of the Rooms. It is not yet paid for. Therefore, she will be
+compelled to refer her creditors to you.'
+
+'Her creditors? Does this abandoned woman owe any money, then?'
+
+'I believe about £30,000 is the sum of her liabilities.'
+
+He laughed. He laughed cheerfully, as if it was one of the merriest and
+heartiest jokes he had ever heard. 'Is that all? Why, man, it's nothing.
+Put it on my back; and as much more as you please: as much as the Bank
+of England contains. Why, I can bear it all. Nothing makes any
+difference now. Tell her she is quite welcome to double it, if she can
+get the credit. It's all one to me.'
+
+'That is what I came to tell you.'
+
+'Very good, gaol-bird. Probus very nearly succeeded, did he not? You
+felt a kind of a tightening about the neck, I suppose. Never mind. Don't
+be disappointed. I dare say you will go to Tyburn after all. You are
+young yet, and then the fortune will come to me--and we shall see--we
+shall see'--he drank another glass of Nantes--'we shall see----What was
+I going to say?'
+
+So I left him and went on my way to Newgate.
+
+Jenny was in conference with her attorney.
+
+'Come in, Will. I have no secrets from my cousin, Mr. Dewberry. Now, if
+you please, give me your opinion.'
+
+'First, then, if you plead Not Guilty--what can they prove against you?
+That certain things were found in your garrets? How did they get there?
+A wretched, revengeful drab says that your mother and sister put them
+there. Is her word to be believed? She is the sweetheart of a
+conspirator and presumably a highwayman, whom you have been instrumental
+in consigning to a prison, with probably a severe punishment to follow.
+Where are your mother and sister? They are gone away? Where? You cannot
+be asked. But you do not know. Why? To escape the revenge of the mob who
+have wrecked their house. Very well. There the case ends--and breaks
+down.'
+
+'Not so. It does not break down. My mother has long been known as the
+greatest receiver in the trade. She bought more and sold more than
+anybody else. The Court dressmakers came to her to buy her lace and her
+embroidery for the great Court Ladies. Why, she is the most notorious
+woman in London. If I am acquitted, they will get up a Hue and Cry for
+her, and they will certainly find her. And then there isn't a thief in
+prison or out who will not give evidence against her, after the evidence
+she has given against the thieves. And as for Doll--my sister's name is
+Doll--in order to save her own skin, she will most certainly be ready to
+give evidence to the effect that I bought the things of my mother and
+paid for them. Which I did. As I told you.'
+
+'You never told me so. I don't know that it matters much. I am only
+trying to see my way to an acquittal. And considering there is nobody
+but that woman to testify to the conveyance of the goods, really, I
+think there ought to be no doubt as to the result.'
+
+'Mr. Dewberry,' Jenny laid her hand upon his arm. 'Understand me. I have
+been kept down, all my life, by my origin. As soon as this business is
+over I shall try in some way or other to get clear away from them
+all--Oh! what an origin it is! Oh, how I have always envied the children
+of honest parents. Why--my father----'
+
+'Dear lady, do not speak of these things.'
+
+'Well, then, my cousins--I mean those of them who are not yet
+hanged--live in the courts and blind alleys of St. Giles's. I have no
+longer any patience with them--it makes me wretched to think of them,
+and it humiliates me to go among them because I have to become again one
+of them and I do it so easily. Well, Sir, I am what I am: yet strange
+as it may seem to you--I will not lend my help to getting my mother and
+sister hanged.'
+
+Mr. Dewberry took her hand and kissed it. 'Proceed, Madame,' he said
+gravely.
+
+'If, then, I plead Guilty, the woman's evidence will be received without
+any dispute or discussion, and when sentence is passed, the case will be
+closed. No one, afterwards, will venture to charge my mother with that
+crime.'
+
+'I suppose not. But the sentence, Madame, the sentence!'
+
+She shuddered. 'I know what the sentence will be. But I am not afraid. I
+have friends who will come to my assistance.'
+
+In fact one of them appeared at that very moment. He was a gentleman of
+a singularly sweet and pleasant countenance, on which kindness, honour,
+and loyalty were stamped without the least uncertainty. He was dressed
+very finely in a satin coat and waistcoat, and he wore a sash and a
+star.
+
+'Divine Jenny!' he said, taking her hand and kissing it. 'Is it possible
+that I find thee in such a place and in such a situation as this?'
+
+Jenny suffered her hand to remain in his. When I think of her and of her
+behaviour at this juncture I am amazed at her power of acting. She
+represented, not her own feelings, which were those of the greatest
+disgust towards her nearest relations (to whom one is taught to pay
+respect), but the feelings which she wished Lord Brockenhurst, and,
+through him, the world at large, should believe of her.
+
+In her left hand she held a white lace handkerchief, scented with some
+delicate perfume: the woman was one of those who are never without some
+subtle fragrance which seemed to belong to her, naturally. This
+handkerchief she applied to her eyes--from time to time: they were dry,
+to my certain knowledge but the act was the outward semblance of
+weeping.
+
+'My Lord,' said Jenny, 'this gentleman is my cousin--not of St.
+Giles's--my husband's cousin--My husband, however, I cannot suffer to
+approach me. This other gentleman is Mr. Dewberry, of Great St. Thomas
+Apostle in the City of London, attorney at Law. They are considering my
+case with me. By your Lordship's permission we will renew our
+conference in your presence. If, on the other hand, you would prefer to
+hear, alone, what I have to state, they will leave us.'
+
+'I am in your hands, Jenny,' he kissed her hand again and let it go. 'My
+sole desire is to be of service. Pray remember, Jenny, that whatever I
+promise I try to perform. All the service that I can render you in this
+time of trouble is at your command.'
+
+I placed a chair for him and looked to Jenny to begin.
+
+She sat down and buried her face in her hands while we all waited.
+
+'My Lord,' she rose at last and continued standing, 'I once told you--at
+a time when it was impossible to conceal anything from you, that I was
+originally an Orange Girl at the Theatre where you honoured me
+frequently by witnessing my humble performances.'
+
+'Say, rather, Jenny, inspired performances.'
+
+She bowed her head, like some queen. 'If your Lordship pleases. I also
+told you that my parents were of the very lowest--so low that one can
+get no lower.'
+
+'You did.'
+
+'Now, my Lord, I am accused of receiving stolen property in my house,
+knowing the property to be stolen.'
+
+'Oh! Monstrous! Most monstrous!'
+
+'My accuser is a girl whose sweetheart is now by my evidence and the
+evidence of others lying in this prison beside me, on a charge of
+conspiracy. With the girl it is an act of revenge. She would tell you as
+much. The mob, also in revenge for exposing a most diabolical plot, has
+wrecked and sacked my mother's house in St. Giles's and my own in Soho
+Square. They have destroyed all that I possessed. I am therefore ruined.
+But that is nothing. On the stage we care very little about losing or
+gaining money. This woman has now brought a charge against me which I
+blush even to name.'
+
+'You have only to deny the charge, Jenny. There is not a man in London
+who would doubt the word of the incomparable Jenny Wilmot.'
+
+She bowed her head again. 'I would I could think so.'
+
+She made as if she would go on; then stopped and hesitated, looking down
+as if in doubt and shame.
+
+'My Lord, I will put the case to you quite plainly. Mr. Dewberry is of
+opinion that the result, if the matter is brought before the court will
+certainly be decided in my favour.'
+
+'I am certain on the point,' said the Attorney. 'I beg your Lordship's
+pardon for my interruption.'
+
+'Oh! Sir, who has a better right to interrupt?' He turned again to
+Jenny, whom he devoured with his eyes. Truly if ever any man was in love
+it was Lord Brockenhurst.
+
+'If I were acquitted,' she went on. 'Indeed, I believe I should be
+acquitted--but the case would not be ended by that acquittal. Suppose,
+my Lord--I put a case--it need not be mine'--she plucked at the lace of
+her handkerchief as if deeply agitated--'I say, it need not be my own
+case--I suppose a case. Such a charge is brought against a
+person--perhaps innocent. She is acquitted--But the charge remains. It
+will then be brought against the real criminal. Out of revenge every
+thief in St. Giles's would crowd in to give evidence. That person's fate
+would be certain. She would be--she would be--your Lordship will spare
+me the word.' Again she covered her eyes. Then she lifted her head again
+and went on. 'I know that the--person--is guilty--She deserves nothing
+short of what the law provides. Yet reflect, my Lord. Born among rogues:
+brought up among rogues: without education and moral principles, or
+honour, or religion, can one wonder if such a person turns to crime? And
+can you wonder, my Lord'--again she sank into a chair and covered her
+face with her hands--'can you wonder if the daughter should resolve to
+save the mother's life, by taking--upon herself--the guilt--the
+confession--the consequences of the crime?'
+
+She was silent save for a sob that convulsed her frame. His Lordship
+heard with humid eyes. When she had finished he rose with tears that
+streamed down his face. For a while he could not speak. Then he turned
+to Mr. Dewberry.
+
+'Sir,' he said, 'tell me--tell me--what she means.'
+
+'She means, my Lord, to plead Guilty and to take the consequences. By so
+doing she will save her mother--yes, my Lord, her mother--even at the
+sacrifice of her own life.'
+
+'Oh!' he cried, 'it must not be! Great Heavens! It must not be.
+Jenny--Jenny--thou art, I swear, an angel.'
+
+'No, my Lord, no angel.'
+
+'Yes, an angel! Hear me, Jenny. I will stand by thee. The world shall
+know--the world that loves thee--By ---- the world shall know what a
+treasure it possesses in the incomparable Jenny Wilmot. As an actress
+thou art without an equal. As a child--as a daughter--history records no
+greater heroism. Thou shalt be written down in history beside the woman
+who saved her father from starvation and the woman who saved her husband
+from the traitor's block. I can endure it no longer, Jenny. To-morrow
+when my spirits are less agitated, I will come again.' He stooped and
+kissed her bowed head and so left us.
+
+A common or vulgar actress when the man for whom she had been playing
+had gone, would have laughed or in some way betrayed herself. Not so
+Jenny. She waited a reasonable time after his Lordship's departure and
+then lifted her head, placed her handkerchief--still dry--to her eyes
+and stood up.
+
+'Mr. Dewberry,' she said, 'do you agree with me in the line I have
+resolved to take?'
+
+'Madame, I do,' he replied emphatically.
+
+'And you, Will?'
+
+I hesitated, because I perceived that she had been playing a part. Yet
+an innocent part. She did not, certainly, desire to bring her mother and
+sister to a shameful end: but, at the same time, she did not wish it to
+be known that she had really paid for the property and ordered its
+removal to her own house: she did not regard the landlady of the Black
+Jack with all the filial affection (not to speak of respect) which her
+emotion undoubtedly conveyed to his Lordship: on the other hand, it
+would serve her own case--as well as her estimable mother--better that
+she should be regarded as a voluntary victim to save a parent than that
+she should be acquitted in order to give place to her mother who would
+certainly be convicted.
+
+'I agree, Jenny--I agree,' I answered.
+
+'Sir,' said Mr. Dewberry as we walked away, 'I have often heard Miss
+Jenny Wilmot described as an incomparable actress. I am now convinced of
+the fact.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE SNARE WHICH THEY DIGGED FOR OTHERS
+
+
+The same day on leaving Jenny, the Turnkey who conducted me to the gate,
+offered me congratulations--rather gruff and even forced--on the turn
+things had taken.
+
+'I assure you, Sir,' he said with feeling, 'that we know generally
+beforehand what will happen, and we'd quite made up our minds as to your
+case, spite of Madame's interest. There didn't seem any doubt. Some of
+us are a bit disappointed: we don't like, you see, for anyone to slip
+out. Well: there's always disappointments. Would you like to cast an eye
+on your friends--them that hatched that pretty plot? Come this way,
+then. I wouldn't like to be in their shoes if it comes to Pillory--and
+it will.'
+
+So he led me out of the passage into one of the yards. At the sight of
+the place my heart sank to think how I had myself trodden those
+flagstones and stepped from side to side of those dismal walls. The
+place was the Master's side: there were twenty prisoners or more in it.
+One or two were sitting on the stone bench drinking beer and smoking
+tobacco: one was playing a game of fives by himself. My two principal
+witnesses, the Bishop and his friend the Captain, were walking side by
+side, both in irons. Mr. Probus sat in a corner his head hanging down:
+taking no notice of anything. Mr. Merridew walked by himself with an
+assumption of being in the wrong place by accident and with an air of
+importance, the prisoners making way for him right and left, for the
+terror of his name accompanied him even into Newgate.
+
+The turnkey called him. 'Merridew,' he said, with familiarity. 'Come and
+see the young gentleman you tried to hang. Now he'll hang you. That's
+curious, isn't it? Here we go up,' he turned to me with a philosophic
+smile, 'and here we go down.'
+
+'Sir,' Mr. Merridew obeyed the call and approached me, bowing with great
+humility. His cringing salute was almost as nauseous as the impudent
+brutality which he had shown in the Thieves' Kitchen. 'Sir, I am
+pleased to make your honoured acquaintance. I hardly expected, in this
+place where I am confined by accident----'
+
+'Oh! Sir, I did not come here to make your acquaintance, believe me.'
+
+'Sir, I am pleased to have speech with you, even in this place, and if
+only to remove a misunderstanding which seems to have arisen regarding
+my part in the late unhappy business. If you will kindly remember, Sir,
+I merely testified to what I saw, being an accidental eye-witness. The
+night was dark: there was a scuffle. You will bear me out, Sir--so
+far--a scuffle--whether you were attacking that fellow'--he pointed to
+the Bishop who with his friend the Captain was now looking on--'or that
+other fellow'--he indicated the Captain--'villains both,
+Sir,--both--who, but for my mistaken kindness, would have been hanged
+long ago--I cannot exactly say. I may have been--perhaps--we all make
+mistakes--too ready to believe the other side, and what they said.
+However, that is all over and, of course, I shall be set free in an hour
+or two. With expressions of sorrow, for an undeserved imprisonment----'
+He looked in my face for some expression of sympathy but, I believe,
+found none. 'No malice, Sir, I hope.' He held out the abominable hand
+which was steeped in the blood of his victims and rank with the stink of
+his wickedness. 'I hope, Sir, that if the case comes to trial, I may not
+see you among the prosecutors.' I maintained silence and took no notice
+of his proffered hand. 'But indeed, I shall certainly be out in an hour
+or two: or perhaps a day or two. My case has not yet, perhaps, been laid
+before the authorities. I am here as a mere matter of form.
+Ha!--form--in fact I have no business here--no business at all--no
+business.' His voice sank to a whisper, showing the real agitation of
+his mind.
+
+'Mr. Merridew, I have not come here with any desire to converse with
+you.'
+
+'You are not going to bear malice, Mr. Halliday? Be content with
+exposing two villains. Two will be enough--If you want more there is
+Probus. He's an extraordinary villain. As for you, Sir, consider: you
+are a fortunate man, Sir. You ought to be in the condemned cell. You
+have got off against all expectation, and when everybody, to a man,
+thought it was a certainty. Had I been consulted by your sweetheart I
+should have advised her, Sir, I should, indeed, so strong a case was
+it--to my experienced mind, Sir, I should have advised her, Sir, to buy
+the cap and the ribbons and the nosegay and the Orange--Oh! a fortunate
+man, indeed!'
+
+As if he had had nothing whatever to do with the case! As if there had
+been no Conspiracy!
+
+I was turning away in disgust, when the other pair of villains drew
+near. I prepared for some volley of abuse and foul language, but was
+disappointed. They addressed me, it seemed in no spirit of hostility,
+but quite the contrary. They were lamb like.
+
+'Sir,' said the Bishop, 'what was done by my friend the Captain and
+myself was done by orders of Mr. Merridew here. He said, "Do it, or
+swing." So we had no choice. Merridew gave us the orders and Probus
+invented the plot. "Do it or swing," was the word.'
+
+'You shall swing, too,' the Thief taker turned upon him savagely, 'as
+soon as I get out. A pair of villains, not fit to live.'
+
+'You won't hang anybody any more,' said the Captain, with defiance.
+'Your own time's up at last, Merridew. Your own rope has come to an
+end.'
+
+'Wait till I get out. Wait till I get out,' he roared.
+
+'That won't be just yet, brother,' said the turnkey. 'Conspiracy's an
+ugly word, friend Merridew. There's imprisonment in it--and flogging,
+sometimes--and pillory. But make up your mind for a long stay and be
+comfortable.'
+
+'Dick,' said Mr. Merridew. He knew every turnkey as well as most of the
+prisoners. It was said that he often had to go shares with the turnkeys.
+'Dick, you know me, of old.'
+
+'Ay--ay--We all know you.'
+
+'We've worked together----'
+
+'That is as may be. But go on.'
+
+'Well, Dick, I am a sheriff's officer. I know all the rogues in London,
+don't I?'
+
+'Why, certainly.'
+
+'I know where to lay my hands upon every one. I know where they practise
+and what they do.'
+
+'Correct,' said the turnkey.
+
+'They don't dare to lock me up. Do they? Lock _me_ up?' he snorted.
+'Why, if I am kept here long, all the villains will go free. London will
+no longer be safe. There won't be fifty hangings in a year. Who fills
+your gaols? John Merridew. Who fills your carts? John Merridew. You know
+that, Dick. Nobody knows better than you.'
+
+'Correct,' said Dick.
+
+'The judges can't send me to prison. They can't do it, I say. Why--of
+course--of course----' Again his voice sank to a whisper.
+
+I looked at the man with amazement. He was evidently seeking consolation
+by delusive assurances. At heart he was filled with terror. For beside
+the prison, there was the dread of pillory. They might be set in
+pillory. He knew, none better, that the thief-taker who is also the
+thief-maker, has not a single friend in the whole world. What would be
+done to him if he should stand in pillory?
+
+'Let me get out as soon as possible,' he went on, appealing to me. 'Why,
+Sir, unless I go out the whole criminal procedure of this country will
+be thrown out of gear. I am the only man--the only man, Sir--ask Dick,
+here.' The turnkey shook his keys and nodded.
+
+'But they'll give you a heavy sentence, my friend,' he said.
+
+'The only man that can't be spared--the only man--the only man----'
+Again his voice dropped to a whisper. He turned away babbling and
+shaking his head, all the insolence gone out of him.
+
+'His power is gone,' said the Bishop. 'He won't get my more rewards.'
+
+'Yes,' said the turnkey. 'But he has had a long innings. Why, he must be
+nearly fifty. There's a many would envy Merridew.'
+
+The Bishop once more addressed himself to me. 'Sir,' he said, 'I grieve
+to hear that our friends wrecked the Black Jack and Madame's house. I
+fear these acts of violence may make you vindictive.'
+
+'Madame herself was brought in yesterday--for receiving stolen goods.'
+
+'Madame? Madame brought here? On a charge----?' The Bishop's face
+expressed the liveliest concern.
+
+'Why,' said the Captain. 'It's----' A motion of his fingers to his
+throat showed what he meant.
+
+'Nothing could have been more disastrous,' said the Bishop. 'Believe me,
+Sir, we have nothing to do with the wreck of the houses, and we were
+ignorant of this charge, I assure you, Sir. Oh! This is a great
+misfortune!'
+
+The misfortune, it appeared, lay in the danger--nay, the certainty, that
+this persecution would make both Madame and myself more vindictive. Now
+the events of the Trial, when at a word, as it seemed, from
+Madame--witnesses sprang up in a cloud to confront them with their
+villainy, made them believe that she had friends everywhere.
+
+'It cannot be,' said the Bishop, 'but she will get off. Who is the
+principal evidence?'
+
+'Ask the Captain. And that is enough.'
+
+I stepped across the yard and laid my finger on Probus's shoulder as he
+sat with bowed form and hanging head. He looked up with lack-lustre
+eyes. I believe that the loss of his money and the result of his
+conspiracy had affected his brain, for he seemed to pay no heed to
+anything.
+
+'Mr. Probus,' I said. 'I must tell you that my cousin is now bankrupt.'
+
+He stared without any look of recognition.
+
+'Mr. Probus,' I repeated, 'my cousin Matthew is a bankrupt. I tell you,
+in order that you may send in your claim with those of the other
+creditors.'
+
+'Ay--ay--' he replied. 'Very like.'
+
+'Bankrupt!' I said again. 'Even had you succeeded in your plot you would
+have been too late.'
+
+He nodded without attention.
+
+'And another mass of debts has been added. His wife's house has been
+wrecked by the mob and all her property destroyed. Therefore her
+liabilities have been presented to her husband.'
+
+'All gone!' he moaned. 'All gone! The work of an honest lifetime wasted
+and thrown away. Nothing will ever be recovered.'
+
+'Mr. Probus,' I said, 'the money is gone. That is most true. But more
+than that is gone. Your character--your honour--it is all gone--wasted
+and thrown away--none of it will be recovered.'
+
+'All gone--all gone,' he repeated.
+
+The turnkey stood beside me. 'Queer, isn't it?' he said. 'He's lost his
+money and his wits have gone after it. A money lender, he was. He's put
+more poor folk into the Fleet and the King's Bench than his friend
+Merridew has put prisoners here. And he ought to be thinking of
+something else--his trial and his sentence.'
+
+'His sentence?'
+
+'Well--you see, Merridew, he knows. This one doesn't. The Bishop, he
+knows--and the Captain--and they don't like it. This man doesn't care.
+For you see they will certainly have to stand in Pillory--and if the mob
+don't love money lenders they love thief takers less, and Merridew's the
+most notorious thief taker in town. Well--it's a wonderful country for
+Law and Justice. Now, I suppose they poor French would be content to
+hang up a man at once. We don't. We give 'em an hour's ride in a cart
+where they sometimes gets roses but more often gets addled eggs. Or we
+put 'em in pillory where they may get dead cats or they may get flints
+and broken bottles.'
+
+I came away. The heavy gate closed: the key turned in the lock; the four
+wretches were shut in once more, there, at least, the prey to the
+keenest terrors, dying a thousand deaths before they should be taken out
+for the dead cats and the addled eggs and perhaps the flints and broken
+bottles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE CASE OF CLARINDA
+
+
+The town has notoriously a short memory, yet I doubt if there be any
+still living who remember the year 1760 and have forgotten the case of
+Jenny Wilmot. For, indeed, no one for some time talked of anything else.
+There were armies in the field: these were forgotten; there were fleets
+and naval battles and expeditions: these were forgotten; there was the
+strife of party: that was forgotten; there were the anxieties of trade:
+they were forgotten; there were scandals among the aristocracy: they
+were forgotten; there was the new play; the new poem: all were clean
+forgotten and neglected while the town talked at my Lady's breakfast or
+Moll King's tavern of Jenny Wilmot; Jenny Wilmot; Jenny Wilmot. The
+world at first could find nothing too bad to say or think of her. At the
+clubs they suspended their play while they listened to the latest
+rumour about Jenny. At the coffee-houses every quidnunc and gobemouche
+brought a new story which he had heard and transmitted with
+embroideries; or else a trifling variation in the old story to
+communicate.
+
+People remembered how she disappeared mysteriously from the stage a year
+or two before this catastrophe!--Ha! what a proof of wickedness was
+that! Why, it was now known that she was none other than Madame Vallance
+who provided the masquerades and the Assemblies in Soho Square and was
+never seen by the company except in a domino. There was another
+illustration of her wicked disposition! It was also recalled, for the
+benefit of those who did not remember the fact, that she had been an
+Orange Girl at Drury before she was promoted to the stage. What could be
+expected of an Orange Girl? And now it was actually brought to
+light--could one believe it!--it was actually discovered--had she not
+herself confessed it?--that her mother and sister kept a tavern in St.
+Giles's, a place of resort for the lowest; a mere thieves' kitchen; the
+rendezvous of highwaymen, footpads, pickpockets and rogues of every
+description.
+
+It was certain that Jenny had been born and brought up in this vile
+receptacle or Temple of Vice. Many people were found who had
+recollections of Jenny as a child playing in the gutter, or on the steps
+of St. Giles's Church. These recollections were of an edifying nature.
+One gentleman, of an aspect which we call smug--somewhat resembling, in
+fact, my cousin Matthew at his earliest and best--related in my hearing
+that he had addressed the child, and on hearing that her ambition was to
+become an Orange Girl at Drury Lane Theatre, had warned her against the
+perils of that path; unhappily without effect, except that while he was
+exhorting her to a godly life, his tears were checked by the theft of
+his pocket-handkerchief. And so on: and so on; because the occasion gave
+an opportunity for securing a momentary distinction, and when the
+imagination is fired the tongue is loosed.
+
+Again, there is in the English mind something particularly repellant in
+the life and the acts of the informer. Now it cannot be denied that in
+my Trial, Jenny figured as one who had turned against her old friends
+and associates; had used her knowledge to secure their arrest; and had
+induced her mother and sister and at least one of the rogues of the
+Black Jack, to join her in giving evidence against the conspirators. So
+that when the news was spread abroad that her house, as well as the
+Black Jack, had been wrecked and the contents destroyed there was at
+first a strong feeling among many that this was a kind of wild justice
+which she deserved, because she ought not to have turned against her
+friends. As for the man for whose sake she did it, you may be sure that
+the motive commonly attributed to her was such as would naturally
+commend itself to the majority. That any woman should be so deeply moved
+by generosity of heart, by love of justice, by honest indignation
+against so foul a conspiracy as to resolve, at all risks and hazards, to
+defeat the object of the villains, and to prevent the destruction of an
+innocent man, required too high a flight to make it possible to be
+considered by the common sort--I mean, not the poor, but the common sort
+of 'respectable' burgesses; the folk of the coffee-house and the club.
+The world always accepts the worst where it ought to believe the best.
+And the wickedness of the natural man is never so strongly demonstrated
+as when he is searching for motives. In a word, it was pretended and
+believed, that in order to rescue her lover--a broken-down gentleman and
+a highwayman--from the charge of robbery, which could only be proved by
+the witnesses taking false names, in order to protect themselves, being
+unfortunately rogues themselves, she brought a charge against them of
+conspiracy and exposed their true names and their history, which she
+could only effect by the knowledge she got from the Black Jack and the
+assistance of her mother: that her lover, it was true, was cast loose
+upon the world again; but that the innocence of those four persons,
+including one most respectable attorney would be established as the
+noonday clear at the ensuing Criminal Court at the Old Bailey.
+
+Further, it was spread abroad that Jenny had been arrested, at her
+lover's house in the Rules of the King's Bench, that she had been
+brought before Sir John Fielding and had been by him committed to
+Newgate on a charge of receiving stolen goods. Receiving stolen goods!
+What, however, could one expect from St. Giles's and the daughter of the
+Black Jack? She who must needs expose the crimes of her friends was now
+in prison on a charge far more serious than theirs. Receiving stolen
+goods! Monstrous! And one who entertained even R-- P--s at her
+Assemblies! And she was all the time acting with her mother in receiving
+stolen goods! After this, what pity could one feel even for a woman so
+beautiful and so engaging as Jenny Wilmot? But was she so beautiful?
+Some of the men raised this question. Painted for the stage: all
+artificial. Was she engaging? She played as she was taught: she smiled
+and laughed as she was told to smile and laugh. That is not true acting.
+Alas! Poor Jenny! Poor favourite of the town, how wert thou fallen! And
+certainly for a day or two the reputation of Jenny was very low indeed.
+
+Suddenly, however, there came a change--to me most welcome, because
+without doubt the mind of the town was poisoned and prejudiced against
+Jenny, in whose favour no one ventured to speak.
+
+The first cause of the change was due to a paper--I think, if my memory
+serves me right, in the _Connoisseur_. In this paper the 'Case of
+Clarinda' put forth with great skill and power thinly disguised the
+history of Jenny. I venture to quote a portion of that paper. As soon as
+people understood that it was her history that was told the paper flew
+from hand to hand: everybody in the coffee-houses and the taverns cried
+out for it when they entered the house. And when it was read a silence
+fell upon the room and shame upon all hearts. The author, I have always
+understood, I know not why, was my Lord Brockenhurst, though he never
+confessed it.
+
+The mottoes--there were two--were as follows:
+
+     'Non tali auxilio, non defensoribus istis Tempus eget;'
+
+and
+
+     'Tandem desine matrem.... sequi.'
+
+'The Case of Clarinda, whose future yet remains to be determined, is one
+which ought to reduce to humility those who boast of our civilization
+and the justice of our institutions. For, certainly, it will be allowed
+that the first requisite of justice is that the officers of the State
+shall be sufficiently provided with intelligence, with resources and
+with encouragement, to search into all cases of alleged crime, and to
+take care by ascertaining especially the private character and previous
+history of the witnesses how far they are to be credited. In a word,
+and speaking of those cases in which human intelligence can be of avail,
+it should be impossible for an innocent man to be convicted of any crime
+charged to him. Yet the case of Clarinda shows that such is the
+condition of the times, such the weakness of our criminal procedure that
+a conspiracy as vile, as villainous, as was ever concocted out of Hell
+would have succeeded to the judicial murder of an innocent man, had it
+not been for the activity, the courage, the lavish expenditure of a
+woman unaided and single-handed. Her efforts have resulted in the escape
+of the innocent man and the imprisonment of the conspirators. But at
+what a price for herself?
+
+'Clarinda is the daughter of a widow who for a long time has kept a
+tavern in that part of the town known as St. Giles's. It is not
+pretended that the place is the resort of the Quality. There has been
+nothing, however, alleged against the conduct of the house or the
+character of the landlady. Some of the frequenters certainly belonged to
+the ranks of those who live by their wits. It is not the case, as
+alleged in some quarters, that Clarinda was ever the companion or the
+friend of these people. When she was still quite young she was placed in
+the pit of Drury Lane Theatre as an Orange Girl. Accident drew towards
+her the attention of the manager, who found her clever and attractive
+with a lovely face and figure, a charming manner, and a beautiful voice.
+In a word, the Orange Girl was transferred to the stage, and there
+became the delight of the town; the greatest favourite of living
+actresses.
+
+'After a time Clarinda, as often happens to actresses, grew weary of the
+stage, and longed for a quiet life in the country far from the lights
+and music and applause of the Theatre.
+
+'Among the many who sighed for her was a young merchant from the city;
+he said he was rich; he swore he loved her; he promised to take her out
+of town to a country house where she would have a carriage, a garden,
+and all that she could desire.
+
+'Clarinda listened. He was grave in demeanour; he was even austere; but
+this proved that he was free from the vices of the men she more
+frequently met. Clarinda accepted him, and they were married.
+
+'She discovered, on the very day of her marriage, that he had lied to
+her. He was not rich, though once he had been possessed of a large
+fortune; he was a gambler; he had gambled away all his money; he had
+married her because she was lovely; he proposed to use her charms for
+the purpose of attracting rich gentlemen to his rooms where he intended
+to carry on a gaming table.
+
+'Clarinda on this discovery instantly left the man in disgust; but for
+the moment she would not go back to the stage. She then took a large
+house in one of the western squares. She decorated and furnished this
+house, and she opened it for Masquerades and Assemblies. One day she
+received a letter from two of the frequenters of her mother's house.
+They were in a Debtors' Prison: they were afraid of becoming known, in
+which case not only would other detainers be put in, but they might
+themselves be arrested on some criminal charge.
+
+'Clarinda, always generous, went to the Prison, saw the two men, and
+promised them relief. It was an unfortunate act of generosity, which in
+the end worked toward her ruin.
+
+'In the Prison she espied a young man so closely resembling her own
+unworthy husband that she accosted him and learned that he was
+imprisoned, probably for life, by her husband aided by Mr. Vulpes, an
+Attorney, on a vamped-up charge of debt with the hope of making him
+obtain his liberty by selling his chance of succession to a large
+fortune.
+
+'She obtained the release of this gentleman, who, with his wife, can
+never cease to be sufficiently grateful to her. She gave him, for he was
+a fine musician, a place in her orchestra.
+
+'She then learned that Vulpes, the attorney, together with one Traditor,
+a Thief taker, was organizing another plot against this already injured
+gentleman. But she was unable to learn the nature of the plot, except
+that the two Villains whom she had released from Prison were involved in
+it. The next step was that the gentleman was accused by the whole party
+of four as a highway robber, and as such was cast into prison.
+
+'Then it was that our Magistrates should have taken up the case.
+Clarinda repaired to Rhadamanthus, the Magistrate, and pointed out to
+him the truth. He told her that he had neither men nor money to follow
+up the case. Therefore Clarinda, at her own expense, fetched up from
+various country prisons turnkeys and governors who should expose the
+character of the witnesses; she persuaded her mother and sister to give
+evidence to the same effect; in order to do this, she was obliged to buy
+her mother out of the tavern. She herself gave evidence; and she made
+her unwilling husband give evidence. The result was the acquittal of the
+prisoner and the committal of the conspirators. Not the magistrates of
+the country; but--_Dux femina facti_--a woman, without assistance,
+single-handed, at her own private charges, has done this.
+
+     '"Non tali auxilio non defensoribus istis Tempus eget."
+
+'That the mob should, in revenge, wreck her house and destroy her
+property was to be expected at a time when we cannot protect our streets
+in the very day time. But there was more.
+
+'Clarinda's mother at the time of the trial had in her keeping a certain
+quantity of stolen property. Whether she knew it to be stolen or not
+cannot be said. When, however, the old woman accepted Clarinda's
+proposal that she should give evidence against the conspiracy she seems
+to have thought that the garrets of her daughter's house would be a safe
+place for storing these goods. She was observed to be conveying them by
+a woman, the mistress of one of the conspirators. While the house was in
+the hands of the mob, this woman looked for, and found the property--a
+miserable paltry collection of rags--in the garrets. For the sake of
+revenge she brought information against Clarinda, who now therefore lies
+in Newgate waiting her trial at the Old Bailey.
+
+'What should Clarinda do? If she pleads "Not Guilty," which under
+ordinary circumstances she should do; the more so as there is no
+evidence whatever to connect her with any knowledge of these rags; she
+will be acquitted; but then her mother will be arrested and tried on
+this capital charge. If, on the other hand, she takes upon herself the
+full responsibility, the mother escapes scot free while the daughter may
+pay the full penalty for the crime.
+
+'The reader will not think it necessary to ask what course will be
+pursued by Clarinda. The generous heart which would risk all, sacrifice
+all, lavish all, in the cause of justice and for the rescue of a
+man--not her lover, but a worthless husband's cousin--from an
+ignominious and undeserved death, will assuredly not hesitate to save
+her erring mother even at the risk of her own life. That generous heart;
+that noble heart; will be sustained and followed unto the end, even
+though justice demands the uttermost penalty, by the tears of all who
+can admire heroic sacrifice and filial martyrdom.'
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There was more, but this is enough.
+
+In a single day the voice of the people veered round to the opposite
+pole. It was wonderful how quickly opinion was changed. Jenny, who
+yesterday had been a traitress; a spy; a receiver of stolen goods; a
+hussy with no character; suddenly became a heroine; a martyr.
+
+Then the men remembered once more that she was a wonderful actress; a
+most charming woman; a most beautiful, graceful, vivacious creature.
+Then, as of old, men recalled the evenings when as they sat in the pit,
+Jenny seemed to have singled out one by one each for a separate and
+individual smile, so that they went home, their heads in the clouds, to
+dream of things impossible and unspeakable, and all the old love for the
+Favourite returned to them, and they panted for Jenny to be set free.
+
+During this time I was with Jenny all day long ready to be of service to
+her. The more I observed her, the more I marvelled at the strange power
+which brought all men to their knees before her. She had but to smile
+upon them and they were conquered. The Governor of the Prison was her
+servant; the turnkeys were her slaves; her visitors crowded her narrow
+cell every afternoon, while Jenny received them dressed like a Countess
+with the manner of a Countess. Sometimes I was honoured by her commands
+to play to them; tea and chocolate were served daily. Great ladies came
+with the rest to gaze upon her; actresses, once her rivals, now came,
+all rivalry apart, to weep over her; gentlemen wrote her letters of
+passionate love; portrait painters begged on their knees permission to
+limn her lovely features. In a word, for a while the centre of fashion
+was Jenny's cell in Newgate.
+
+And every day, among the visitors stood my Lord of Brockenhurst,
+foremost in sympathy and truest in friendship. He was, indeed, as Jenny
+had assured me, the most loyal of the gentlemen and the most sincere of
+friends.
+
+It must be added that Jenny's time in prison was not wholly spent in
+converting a cell into a drawing-room of fashion. The unfortunate women,
+her fellow-prisoners, were much worse off than the men; they had fewer
+friends; they were suffered to starve on the penny loaf a day, the
+allowance of the prison. They lay for the most part in cold and
+starvation; in rags and dirt and misery overwhelming. Jenny went into
+their yard and among them. There was the poor creature who had caused
+her arrest. She was half starved now. Jenny gave her food and spoke to
+her friendly without reproach; she sent food to others who were
+starving. She not only fed them; she talked to them, not about their
+sins, because poor Jenny knew nothing about sins except so far as that
+certain deeds are punished by the law; but she talked to them about
+being clean and neat: she revived the womanly instinct in them: made
+them wash themselves, dress their hair, and take pleasure again in
+making themselves attractive. Never had a woman a keener sense of the
+duty of women to be beautiful. She made them in a week or two so
+civilized that they left off fighting: there was not a black eye in the
+place; and while Jenny was in the ward there was hardly so much as a
+foul word. It was pretty to see how they loved her and welcomed her and
+would have worked themselves to death for her. Poor lost souls--if
+indeed they are lost! They must all be dead now. The horrible gallows
+has killed some; the gaol fever, others; the fever of bad food and bad
+drink and bad air, others, yet until the day of death I am sure that all
+remembered Jenny. Notably, there was her accuser. She was sullen at
+first; she was revengeful; next she was ashamed and turned aside; then
+she wept; and then she became like a tame kitten following her through
+the ward, hungering and thirsting for one more word--one more word of
+friendship--from the very woman whom she had brought to this place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE FALLEN ALDERMAN
+
+
+Let me return to the wretched man who had caused this trouble. I learned
+that, although his two fellow-prisoners declared openly that Mr.
+Merridew's power was gone and that he would never again have the power
+to hang anybody, some of his credit was still maintained: he pretended
+that the books--of which he spoke often and with pride, were still kept
+up, and that every man's life and liberty were in his hands: and many
+poor rogues, thinking to curry favour, waited upon him daily, bringing
+him presents of wine, tobacco and (secretly) rum, so that he was able to
+be drunk and to forget his anxieties for the greater part of the day.
+The two rebels against his authority, the Bishop and the Captain,
+carried themselves bravely: there is, indeed, in the profession of the
+rogue something of the soldier, in that they both brave dangers without
+fear. The battle field is covered with the dead and wounded: but there
+are plenty left standing unhurt: every soldier thinks he will escape:
+the rogue's field of honour is covered with whipping-posts, stocks,
+pillory, and gallows. It is far more dangerous than the field of battle.
+Yet every rogue hopes to escape, and carries himself accordingly.
+Perhaps it is better so. One would not wish such a crew to be whining
+and snivelling and pretending repentance and imploring pity.
+
+One day I met, coming out of the prison, one whose face and appearance I
+knew. He was old and bent, and in rags: his woollen stockings were in
+holes: the elbows of his coat were gone: his hat was too limp to
+preserve its shape: his buttons were off his coat--he wore the old jasey
+with a broken pigtail. I touched him on the shoulder.
+
+'You are Mr. Probus's clerk?' I said.
+
+'If I am, Sir,' he replied, 'is that a crime?'
+
+'No--no--no. But you remember me? You bade me once go throw myself into
+the river with a stone about my neck.'
+
+'Ay--ay,' he replied. 'Yes, I remember you now. I did, I did. Was it
+good advice, young man?'
+
+'It was, doubtless, very good advice. But I did not take it. What are
+you doing here?'
+
+'I come to look after my master,' he replied simply.
+
+'Your master? He has kept you in rags and wretchedness. He has given you
+a starvation wage.'
+
+'Yet he is my master. I have eaten his bread, though it was bitter. I
+come every day to look after him.'
+
+'Has he no friends? No wife or children to do this for him?'
+
+'His friends were his money bags till he lost them. They were his wife
+and children as well.'
+
+'Has he no relations--cousins--nephews?'
+
+'Perhaps--he has driven them all away long ago.'
+
+'You are his friend at least.'
+
+'I am his clerk,' he repeated. 'Sir, since my master found that all his
+money had been thrown away and lost, he has not been himself. He has
+been mad with rage and grief. That is why he hatched that unfortunate
+plot. I was in Court and heard it. Ah! he was not himself, Sir, I assure
+you. Common tricks he practised daily, because he knew how far he could
+go. But not such a big job as this conspiracy. In his sober senses he
+would not have been so mad. Have you seen him, Sir? Have you observed
+the change in him? 'Twould bring tears to a flint. He moans and laments
+all day long.'
+
+'Yes, I have seen him.'
+
+'Sir, he thinks about nothing else. Sir, I verily believe that he does
+not know even that he is in Newgate. All the money he had in the world
+is gone--lent to Mr. Matthew and lost by Mr. Matthew. Terrible!
+Terrible!'
+
+'Was there not some lent to the man Merridew?'
+
+'A trifle, Sir: a few hundreds only. No: it is all gone. My master and I
+must become beggars and go together into the workhouse.' He shook his
+poor old head and went his way.
+
+Now this man had received the treatment of a dog. How long he had been
+with Probus: what was his previous history I never knew: it matters not:
+he had received the treatment of a dog and the wages of a galley slave:
+yet he was faithful and stood by his master--the only living thing who
+did--in his adversity as in his prosperity.
+
+I next heard from Mr. Ramage that the Counting House was closed and the
+gates of the Quay locked: that Matthew had run away. Then that the
+unfortunate Alderman, partner in the House, had been arrested for debt
+and was taken to the Fleet Prison. After this, that Matthew had been
+arrested: that he was bankrupt: that he had been taken to the same
+prison: and that the whole amount of the liabilities was now so great
+that this meant certain imprisonment for life. By the custom of London,
+too, a creditor may, before the day of payment, arrest his debtor and
+oblige him to find sureties to pay the money on the day it shall become
+due. By this custom the whole of Jenny's liabilities became the cause of
+new detainers, so that I believe the total amount for which Matthew was
+imprisoned was not far short of £150,000. I conveyed this intelligence
+to my mistress.
+
+'Misfortune,' she said, gravely, 'is falling upon all of us. Thou alone
+wilt survive--the triumph of virtue. Go, however, take the man
+something, or he will starve. Give it him from me, Will. Tell him--tell
+him'--She considered for a little. 'Tell him--as soon as I can
+forget, I will forgive. Not that he cares whether he is forgiven
+or not. A man, Will, I very truly believe, may be anything he
+pleases--drunkard--murderer--highwayman: yet something may still survive
+in him of human kindness. There will still be a place, perhaps, for
+compassion or for love. But for a gambler there is no compassion left.
+He is more hardened than the worst villain in this wretched place: he
+has neither sense, nor pity, nor affection, nor anything. He is all
+gambler.'
+
+'I will give him your money, Jenny. But not your message.'
+
+She smiled sadly. 'Go, Will. The money will solace him as long as it
+lasts. Perhaps a quarter of an hour.'
+
+I repaired without delay to the Fleet Prison. Those who walk up and down
+the Fleet market know of the open window in the wall and the grating,
+behind which stands a man holding a tin box which he rattles to attract
+attention while he repeats his parrot cry, 'Pity the Poor Prisoners!
+Pity the Poor Prisoners!' This humiliation is imposed upon those of the
+Common side: they must beg or they must starve. What was my surprise and
+shame--who could believe that one of my family should fall so low?--to
+recognise in the prisoner behind these bars, my cousin Matthew! None
+other. His face was pale--it had always been pale: now it was white: his
+hand shook: he was unshaven and uncombed: I pretended not to notice him.
+I entered the prison and was told that he was holding the plate, but
+would be free in half an hour. So I waited in the yard until he came
+out, being relieved of his task. I now saw that he was in rags. How can
+a man dressed as a substantial merchant fall into rags in a few days?
+There was but one answer. The gambler can get rid of everything:
+Matthew had played for his clothes and lost.
+
+I accosted him. At sight of me he fell into a paroxysm of rage. He
+reviled and cursed me. I had been the cause of all his misfortunes: he
+wept and sobbed, being weak for want of food and cold. So I let him go
+on until he stopped and sank exhausted upon the bench.
+
+Then I told him that I had come to him from his wife. He began again to
+curse and to swear. It was Jenny now who was the cause of all his
+troubles: it was Jenny who refused to obey him: her liabilities alone
+had prevented him from weathering the storm: he should certainly have
+weathered the storm: and so on--foolish recrimination that meant
+nothing.
+
+I made no answer until he had again exhausted his strength, but not his
+bitterness.
+
+'Matthew,' I said, 'the woman against whom you have been railing sends
+you money. Here it is. Use it for living and not for gambling,' The
+money I gave him was five guineas.
+
+The moment he had it in his hand he hurried away as fast as he could go.
+I thought he ran away in order to conceal his agitation or shame at
+receiving these coals of fire. Not so, it was in order to find out
+someone who would sit down to play with him. Oh! It was a madness.
+
+I watched him. He ran to the kitchen and bought some food. He swallowed
+it eagerly. Then he bent his steps to the coffee-room. I followed and
+looked in. He was already at a table opposite another man, and in his
+hands was a pack of cards. In a few hours or a few minutes--it mattered
+not which--Jenny's present of five guineas would be gone, and the man
+would be destitute again. Poor wretch! One forgave him all considering
+this madness that had fallen upon him.
+
+'But,' said Jenny, 'he was bad before he was mad. He was bad when he
+married me: he is only worse: nothing more is the matter with him.'
+
+But my uncle, the Alderman, also involved in the bankruptcy, had been
+carried to the same place, while his great house on Clapham Common, with
+all his plate and fine furniture, had been sold for the benefit of the
+creditors. Matthew had ruined all. I went to see him. He was on the
+Masters', not the common side. It was a most melancholy spectacle. For
+my own part I bore the poor man no kind of malice. He had but believed
+things told him concerning me. He gave me his hand.
+
+'Nephew,' he said, his voice breaking, 'this is but a poor place for an
+Alderman: yet it is to be my portion for the brief remainder of my days.
+What would my brother--your father--have said if he had known? But he
+could not even suspect: no one could suspect--'
+
+'Nay, Sir,' I said, 'I hope that your creditors will give you a speedy
+release.'
+
+'I doubt it, Will. They are incensed--and justly so--at their treatment
+by--by--Matthew. They reproach me with not knowing what was doing--why,
+Will, I trusted my son'--he sobbed--'my son--Absalom, my son--the steady
+sober son, for whom I have thanked God so often: Will, he made me
+believe evil things of thee: he accused thee of such profligacy as we
+dare not speak of in the City: profligacy such as young men of Quality
+may practise but not young men of the City. I dared not tell my brother
+all that he told me.'
+
+'Indeed, Sir, I know how he persuaded not only you but my father as
+well--to my injury. In the end it was my own act and deed that drove me
+forth, because I would not give up my music.'
+
+'If not that, then something else would have served his purpose. Alas!
+Will. Here come your cousins. Heed them not. They are bitter with me.
+Heed them not.'
+
+The girls, whom I had not seen since my father's funeral, marched along
+with disdainful airs pulling their hoops aside, as once before, to
+prevent the contamination of a touch. They reddened when they saw me,
+but not with friendliness.
+
+'Oh!' said one, 'he comes to gloat over our misfortunes.'
+
+'Ah! No doubt they make him happy.'
+
+'Cousins,' I said, 'I am in no mood to rejoice over anything except my
+own escape from grievous peril. The hand of the Lord is heavy upon this
+family. We are all afflicted. As for your brother Matthew, it is best to
+call him mad.'
+
+'Who hath driven him mad?' asked Amelia, the elder. 'The revengeful
+spirit of his cousin!'
+
+This was their burden. Women may be the most unreasonable of all
+creatures. These girls could not believe that their brother was guilty:
+the bankruptcy of the House: the stories of his gambling: his marriage
+with an actress: his evidence in the Court: were all set down as
+instigated, suggested, encouraged, or invented, by his wicked cousin,
+Will. It matters not: I have no doubt that the legend had grown in their
+minds until it was an article of their creed: if they ever mention the
+Prodigal Son--who is now far away--it is to deplore the wicked wiles by
+which he ruined their martyred Saint: their brother Matthew.
+
+'It is of no use,' I said to my uncle, 'to protest, to ask what my
+cousins mean, or how I could have injured Matthew, had I desired. I may
+tell you, Sir, that I learned only a short time ago that Matthew was a
+gambler: that the affairs of the House were desperate: and that an
+attempt was to be made upon my life--an attempt of which Matthew was
+cognizant--even if he did not formally consent. So, Sir, I take my
+leave.'
+
+They actually did not know that Matthew was within the same
+walls.--Father and son: the father on the Masters' side, dignified at
+least with the carriage of fallen authority: the son a ragged, shambling
+creature, with no air at all save that of decay and ruin. Unfortunate
+indeed was our House: dismal indeed was its fall: shameful was its end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE END OF THE CONSPIRACY
+
+
+The trial of our four friends for conspiracy took place in the middle of
+January. For my own part, I had to relate in open Court the whole
+history with which you are already acquainted: the clause in my father's
+will giving me a chance of obtaining a large fortune if I should survive
+my cousin: the attempts made by Mr. Probus to persuade me to sell the
+chance of succession: the trumping up of a debt which never existed: my
+imprisonment in a debtors' Prison: my release by Jenny's assistance: the
+renewed attempts of Mr. Probus to gain my submission: his threats: and
+the truth about the alleged robbery. I also stated that two of the
+defendants had been imprisoned in the King's Bench at the same time as
+myself and that they were at that time close companions.
+
+The Counsel for the defence cross-examined me rigorously but with no
+effect. My story was plain and simple. It was, in a word, so much to the
+interest of Mr. Probus to get me to renounce my chance that he stuck at
+nothing in order to effect this purpose--or my death.
+
+I sat down and looked about me. Heavens! with what a different mind from
+that with which I stood in the dock now occupied by my enemies. I should
+have been more than human had I not felt a great satisfaction at the
+sight of these four men standing in a row. Let me call it gratitude, not
+satisfaction. The spectacle of the chief offender, the contriver of the
+villainy, Mr. Probus, was indeed enough to move one's heart to terror,
+if not to pity. The wretched man had lost, with the whole of his money,
+the whole of his wits. The money was his God, his Religion, his Heaven:
+he had lost the harvest of a life: he was old: he would get no more
+clients: he would save no more money. He would probably have to make a
+living, as others of his kind have done, by advising and acting as an
+attorney for the rabble of St. Giles's and Clerkenwell. He stood with
+rounded shoulders and bowed head: he clutched at the iron spikes before
+him: he pulled the sprigs of rue to pieces: he appeared to pay no
+attention at all to the evidence.
+
+Mr. Merridew, on the other hand, showed in his bearing the greatest
+possible terror and anxiety: he gasped when his Counsel seemed to make a
+point in his favour: he shivered and shook when his part in the plot was
+exposed. He who had given evidence in so many hanging cases unconcerned,
+now stood in the dock himself. He was made to feel--what he had never
+before considered--the natural horror of the prisoner and the dreadful
+terror of the sentence.
+
+The case might have been strengthened by the evidence of the landlady of
+the Black Jack. She, worthy soul, was out of the way, and no one
+inquired after her. Nor was her daughter Doll present on the occasion.
+But there was evidence enough. The gaolers and masters of the country
+prisons proved the real character of the two witnesses who called
+themselves respectively a clergyman and a country gentleman. Ramage, the
+clerk, proved, as before, that Probus brought Merridew to the Counting
+House. Jack, the country lad, proved the consultations at the Black Jack
+between Probus, Merridew, and the two others. These two, indeed, behaved
+with some manliness. They had given up all hope of an acquittal and
+could only hope that the sentence would be comparatively light. They
+therefore made a creditable appearance of undaunted courage, a thing
+which is as popular in their profession as in any other.
+
+I do not suppose their crime was capital. Otherwise the Judge would most
+certainly have sent them all to the gallows.
+
+'Many,' he said at the end, 'are justly executed for offences mild
+indeed, in comparison with the detestable crime of which you stand
+convicted.'
+
+When the case was completed and all the evidence heard, the Judge asked
+the prisoners, one after the other, what they had to say in their own
+defence.
+
+'Ezekiel Probus, you have now to lay before the Court whatever you have
+to urge in your own defence.'
+
+Mr. Probus, still with hanging head, appeared not to hear. The warder
+touched him on the shoulder and whispered. He held up his head for a
+moment: looked round the court, and murmured:
+
+'No--no--it is all gone.'
+
+Nothing more could be got from him.
+
+'John Merridew, you have now the opportunity of stating your own case.'
+
+He began in a trembling voice. He said that he had been long a sheriff's
+officer: that he had incurred great odium by his zeal in the arrest of
+criminals: that it was not true that he had concocted any plot either
+with Mr. Probus or with the other prisoners: that he was a man of
+consideration whose evidence had frequently been received with respect
+in that very court: that it was not true, further, as had been stated by
+the Prosecution, that he had ever encouraged thieves or advised them to
+become highwaymen: that, if he went to such places as the Black Jack, it
+was to arrest villains in the cause of Justice: that he deposed at the
+last trial, what he saw or thought he saw--namely a scuffle: he might
+have been in too great a hurry to conclude that the late prisoner
+Halliday was the assaulting party: the night was dark: he only knew the
+two witnesses as two rogues whom he intended to bring to justice on a
+dozen capital charges for each, as soon as he was out of Newgate: and
+that he was a person--this he earnestly begged the Court to
+consider--without whom the criminal Courts would be empty and Justice
+would be rendered impossible. With more to the same effect, and all
+with such servile cringings and entreaties for special consideration as
+did him, I am convinced, more harm than good.
+
+When it came to the Doctor's turn, he boldly declared that if the
+verdict of the Jury went against him--'And gentlemen,' he said, 'I must
+own that the evidence has certainly placed me in a strange, and
+unexpected and most painful position'--he would bring over the
+Archbishop of Dublin: the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral: and the
+Provost of Trinity College: besides noblemen of the Irish Peerage and
+many of his old parishioners in order to prove that he was what he
+pretended to be. 'The assurance, gentlemen, that I shall be thus
+supported, enables me to bear up even against your possible view of the
+case and his Lordship's possible opinion. To a Divine of unblemished
+life it is, I confess, inexpressibly painful to be confused with forgers
+and highwaymen.'
+
+Lastly, the gallant Captain spoke of himself. 'This,' he said with a
+front of brass, 'is a case of most unfortunate resemblance. It appears
+that I bear some likeness to a certain notorious robber and highwayman
+called, it is said, the Captain.' Here the whole Court burst into
+laughter, so unabashed was the villain when he pronounced these words.
+He looked round him with affected wonder. 'The event of this trial,
+however,' he went on, 'matters but little because in two or three weeks
+I can bring to town the Mayor and Alderman, the Town Clerk, the Rector
+of the Church and the Master of the Grammar School of my native town to
+testify that I am what I have declared myself to be. This being so,
+gentlemen, you may proceed, if you please, to do your duty.'
+
+The Judge then summed up. He went through the whole case, adopting the
+views of the Counsel for the Prosecution. He said that the evidence
+before him was practically unshaken. It showed that these men, who had
+pretended to know nothing of each other were in fact banded and allied
+together--in short he gave the whole weight of his opinion against the
+prisoners. Indeed, I cannot think what else he would do seeing the
+nature of the evidence. So he left the jury to find their verdict.
+
+They found it, without leaving the box. It was a verdict of 'Guilty'
+against all four prisoners. I looked to see the Judge assume the black
+cap. To my surprise, he did not. He began by commenting in the
+strongest terms on the diabolical wickedness of the conspiracy. He said
+that he could find no difference as to the respective guilt of one or
+the other. The prisoner Probus, a member of a learned profession, was
+the contriver or designer of the deed: perhaps he might be thought the
+worst. Indeed, his was a depth of infamy to which it was difficult to
+find a rival or an equal. He would be punished worse than the rest
+because he would infallibly lose by his disgrace his profession and his
+practice. The infamy of the prisoner Merridew, when one considered the
+hold that he had over a large number of criminals and rogues, was very
+close to that of the prisoner Probus. He had apparently forced the other
+two into carrying out the plot, on threat of informing against them. In
+short, he pronounced the sentence of the court; namely, that the
+prisoners should stand in pillory for an hour and then be imprisoned for
+the space of four years.
+
+On hearing the sentence Mr. Merridew shrieked aloud. 'My Lord!' he
+cried. 'My Lord! Have mercy! They will murder me!'
+
+They led him off crying that he was a murdered man. The Doctor swelled
+out his cassock. 'The Archbishop,' he said, 'will arrive, I believe,
+next week. There will still be time for his Grace to procure my
+release.' So rolling his head and squaring his sleeves, he followed
+along the passage which leads to the Prison.
+
+I left the Court and made my way through the crowd to the gates of
+Newgate in order to tell Jenny.
+
+'Four years,' she said, 'will more than suffice to ruin the man
+Merridew. His companies of thieves will be broken up; he will no longer
+have any hold over them. He will have to turn rogue himself. When all
+has been said, this is the greatest villain of them all. I hope they
+will not maltreat the prisoners in pillory; because there they are
+defenceless. But a thief-taker--a thief-taker, they cannot abide. If I
+were Mr. Merridew I should wish the job well over.'
+
+While we were discoursing there came a message from the Captain. Would
+Madame grant him the favour of speech with her?
+
+He came in, walking with his heavy clanking irons. He had lost the
+braggart swagger which he assumed at the trial, and now looked as
+humble as any pickpocket about to undergo the discipline of the pump.
+
+'Madame,' he said, 'I thank you for this favour.'
+
+'Your trial is over, Captain, I hear.'
+
+'It is over,' he sighed. 'Mr. Halliday, Sir, I hope you are satisfied.'
+
+'I desire no revenge,' I said. 'I want safety and peace--nothing more.
+These blessings you and your friends denied me.'
+
+'It is quite true, Sir. It was a most damnable plot. The only excuse for
+me is that I had no choice but to comply and obey, or be hanged.'
+
+'Captain, I do not desire more of your company than is necessary. Will
+you tell me what you want of me?'
+
+'The sentence is'--he made a wry face--'Pillory, Pillory, Madame. And
+four years' imprisonment. But the four years will pass--what I fear is
+Pillory.'
+
+'I have heard of a man's friends protecting him.'
+
+'Mine will do what they can. But, Madame, my fear is not so much on my
+own account as that I may be put up on the same scaffold with Mr.
+Merridew or Mr. Probus. There isn't a rogue in London who will not come
+out with something for the thief-taker. Madame, no one knows the terror
+in which we poor robbers live. The world envies us our lot; they think
+it is glorious to ride out of a moonlight night and stop the coach all
+alone. They don't know that the thief-taker is always behind the
+highwayman. He lays his hand on the largest share of the swag; he
+encourages lads to take the roads, and whenever he wants money he says
+that the time is up and then he takes the reward. My time was up.'
+
+'I know all this--unhappily--as well as you. What do you want me to do?'
+
+'Mr. Probus--he will prove quite as unpopular as Merridew. They thirst
+for his blood. There will be murder done in the pillory. Madame, for the
+love of God, do something for me.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'You have great influence. Everybody knows what powerful friends you
+have. Make them put the two unpopular prisoners on the same scaffold.
+They will share the flints between them. Let me stand up beside the
+Bishop. Nobody will give us much more than a dead cat or two and a
+basket of rotten eggs. But the other two'--he shivered with cold
+terror--'I know not what will happen to them.'
+
+'Well, Captain, perhaps if Merridew gives up the profession, you may
+possibly turn honest man again when you go out of this place.'
+
+He shook his head. 'No, that is impossible.'
+
+'Well, I will do this. The Governor of the Prison is civil to me. I will
+ask him as a special favour to place you as you desire. I hope that you
+both--the Bishop as well as yourself--will enjoy your short hour on that
+elevated position. Will, give the Captain a bottle of wine to take away
+with him. You can go, sir.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE HONOURS OF THE MOB
+
+
+It was far from my intention to witness the reception of my friends in
+Pillory from the sympathizing mob. I was, however, reminded that the day
+had arrived by finding in my morning walk from Lambeth to the Old Bailey
+the Pillory itself actually erected, in St Martin's Lane, somewhat above
+St. Martin's Church. It was put up in the open space where Long Acre
+runs into St Martin's Lane, very nearly in the actual spot where the
+assault was delivered and the plot carried out A just retribution. Even
+now, after thirty years, only to think of the villainy causes my blood
+to boil: nothing surely could be bad enough for these creatures, vilest
+of all the vile creatures of this wicked town. At the same time when I
+saw the preparations that were making for the reception of the
+criminals, my heart sank, and I would willingly have spared them all and
+forgiven them all to save them from what followed.
+
+The pillory, on a scaffold four feet high, was put up with
+'accommodation'--if we may so describe it--for two persons standing side
+by side, so that they could not see each other. They were also so close
+together that favours intended for the face of one might if they missed
+him be received by some part of the body of the other. A vast crowd was
+already assembled, although the sentence would not be carried out till
+eleven, and it was then barely nine. The crowd consisted of the scum and
+off-scouring of the whole city: there was a company from Southwark.
+While I was looking on, they arrived marching in good form like
+soldiers: there were contributions from Turnmill Street and
+Hockley-by-the-Hole: there were detachments from the Riverside: from St.
+Katherine's by the Tower: from Clerkenwell: but, above all, from St.
+Giles's.
+
+'Who is to stand up there to-day?' I asked one of them--a more
+decent-looking man than most. Of course, I knew very well, but I wished
+to find out what the people intended.
+
+'Where do you come from, not to know that?' the man replied. ''Tis the
+thief-taker: him that makes the rogue: teaches the rogue and then sells
+the rogue. Now we've got him--wait till we leave him. And there's the
+lawyer who made the plot to hang a man. We've got him, too. We don't
+often get a lawyer. Wait a bit--wait a bit. You shall see what they'll
+look like when we leave them.'
+
+He had his apron full of something or other--rotten eggs, perhaps: or
+rotten apples: or, perhaps, brickbats. The faces of all around expressed
+the same deadly look of revenge. I thought of the Captain's terror, and
+of his petition to Jenny; that he might be put up with the Bishop; it
+was impossible not to feel awed and terrified at the aspect of so much
+hatred and such deliberate preparation for revenge. A thief-taker and a
+lawyer! Oh! noble opportunity! Some carried baskets filled with
+missiles: some had their aprons full; the women for their part brought
+rotten eggs and dead cats, stinking rabbits, and all kinds of putrid
+offal in baskets and in their arms, as if they had been things precious
+and costly. They conferred together and laughed, grimly telling what
+they had to throw, and how they would throw it.
+
+'I don't waste my basket,' said one, 'on rotten eggs. There's something
+here sharper than rotten eggs. He took my man before his time was up,
+because he wanted the money. My man was honest before he met Merridew,
+who made him a rogue, poor lad!--yes, made him--told him what to
+do--taught him: made him a highwayman: told him where to go; hired a
+horse for him and gave him a pistol. Then he sold him--got forty pounds
+and a Tyburn ticket for him and twenty pounds allowance for his own
+horse. Oh! If my arm is strong enough! Let me get near him--close to
+him, good people.'
+
+'He took my son,' said another, 'to be sure he was a rogue, but he
+thieved in a safe way till John Merridew got him. If I had my strength
+that I used to have it wouldn't be rotten eggs; but never mind--there's
+others besides me. Don't waste your brickbats: throw straight: let the
+women get to the front. Oh! He shall look very pretty when he is carried
+home. He shall have a pleasant hour with his friends. We love him, don't
+we? We love him like a son, we do.'
+
+This man had for years exercised absolute sway over Rogueland. He
+instructed the young in the various branches of the criminal's horrid
+trade: he led them on from pocket-picking to stealing from stalls and
+bulkheads: to shop-lifting; to burglary; to robbery in the street: to
+forgery: to coining and issuing false coin: to highway robbery and, at
+times, to murder. 'Twas the most accomplished and the most desperate
+villain that ever lived--I cannot believe that his like was ever known.
+No one dared to cross him or to refuse his orders. If anyone should be
+so presumptuous, he speedily repented in Newgate under a capital charge
+followed by a capital sentence. There are so many ways of getting
+hanged, and so few outside the law know what offences may be capital and
+what are not, that there was never any certainty in the mind of the
+smallest rogue that he was safe from such a charge. Children of fourteen
+on his information were hung as well as grown men: little girls of
+fourteen were hung on his information as well as grown women: for
+shop-lifting, for lifting linen from the hedge--why this devil incarnate
+would instigate a child to commit a capital offence and then give him
+into custody for the reward, careless whether the child was hanged or
+not. It was a terrible end that he met with. I read sometimes of
+dreadful punishments: of tortures and agonies: yet I cannot picture to
+myself a punishment more awful than to stand up before an infuriated and
+implacable mob; to look down upon thousands of faces and to see no gleam
+of relenting upon one: not one with a tear of pity: to hear their yells
+of execration: to see their arms springing up with one consent----Poor
+wretch! Poor wretch!
+
+These people knew very well that Mr. Merridew could hang them all: that,
+in course of time, he would hang them all; and that, if they offended
+him, he would hang them all at once. It was a terrible weapon for one
+man to wield: nor can I believe that the laws of the land intended that
+any one man should be able to wield such a weapon. Why they allowed him
+to exist I know not--seeing their insensibility to crime, one would
+think that they would have murdered him long before. From wives he had
+taken their husbands; from mothers their sons; from girls their
+sweethearts: he had taken their wives and their mistresses from the men;
+he had taken the boys--one cannot say the innocent boys--from their
+playfellows; and he had hanged them all. It would be interesting to know
+how many he had hanged, this murderous, blood-stained villain, whose
+heart was like the nether millstone for hardness.
+
+The punishment of pillory hands a man over to the people, for judgment
+and execution or for acquittal or for pardon. The law says practically,
+'We find him guilty: we assign him a term of imprisonment: it is for the
+people to increase the punishment or to protest against it.' In the case
+of a common rogue, whose offence is in no way remarkable, a few rotten
+eggs, broken on his face and dropping yellow streams over the nose and
+cheeks, please the mob, who like this harmless demonstration in favour
+of virtue which does not hurt their friend and brother, the prisoner. In
+other cases, where the sympathy of the people is entirely with the
+prisoner, one hour of pillory means an hour of triumph. For they bring
+bands of music and welcome the criminal; they shout applause: they hang
+the pillory with flowers: they take out the horses and drag the
+carriage. This happened to Dr. Shebbeare, who came to the pillory in the
+sheriff's carriage and stood in front of the pillory, not in it, a man
+holding an umbrella over his head the whole time to keep off the rain.
+It is, however, the most terrible punishment that can be devised when
+the mob are infuriated with the prisoner. In this case the thief-taker,
+the Man-slayer was about to stand before them: and with him the designer
+of a plot to take away the life of an innocent man.
+
+The crowd now became so dense that it was impossible to get forwards or
+back. Therefore, though it might seem revengeful to look on at the
+popular reception of these two wretches, I was fain to stay where I was,
+namely, on the top step of Slaughter's Coffee House. The time passed
+quickly while I stood looking on and listening. The crowd grew thicker:
+on the outskirts with me were many respectable persons. Their
+indignation against the crime was, like mine, tempered by the prospect
+of the horrible punishment that awaited the evil-doers. I would not tell
+them that I myself was the object of this plot, for fear of being
+considered as wishing to enjoy a revenge full and satisfying.
+
+'The greatest villain of the four,' said one gentleman, 'is the
+attorney. He will barely escape, I think: but these people are assembled
+to vent their revenge upon the thief-taker. I know not whether, when he
+is gone, crime will decrease, but it is time that something was done to
+prevent the encouragement of crime with one hand, and the arrest of the
+criminal with the other. Such a wretch, Sir, is not fit to live.'
+
+'And,' said another, 'unless I mistake, we are here to witness the
+resolution of the mob that he shall no longer live.'
+
+At eleven o'clock there was a shout which ran all down St. Martin's
+Lane. 'Here they come! here they come!' followed by roars which were
+certainly not meant for applause and approval.
+
+'It is an awful moment,' said my next neighbour. 'If I could get out of
+the throng I would go away. It will be a terrible spectacle.'
+
+There was a force of constables round the pillory. As it appeared
+immediately afterwards, it was insufficient. They formed a circle
+standing shoulder to shoulder, to keep back the crowd and to preserve an
+open space round the scaffold. It is a merciful plan because the greater
+the distance, the better is the prisoner's chance.
+
+The prisoners were brought in a cart. It was recognised by the crowd as
+a cart used for flogging unfortunates, and there were jokes on the
+subject, perhaps the hitching of shoulders, as it passed. It was guarded
+by a force of constables armed with clubs; not that they feared a
+rescue, but that they feared a rush of the crowd and the tearing of the
+prisoners to pieces.
+
+I was standing, I say, on the highest doorstep of Slaughter's Coffee
+House, the windows of which were full of men looking on. Looking thus
+over the heads of the people, I saw that the driver and the prisoner
+Probus were covered already with filth and with rotten eggs. The former
+cursed the people. 'Why can't you wait--you?' he cried as the eggs flew
+about his head or broke upon his face. Mr. Probus sat on the bench bowed
+and doubled up. He showed no fear: he was as one who is utterly broken
+up, and in despair: he had lost his money--all his money: the work of
+his life. That was all he cared for. He was disgraced and imprisoned--he
+had lost his money. He was going to be pelted in the pillory--he had
+lost his money--nothing else mattered.
+
+To a revengeful man this day's work was revenge indeed, ample and
+satisfying, if revenge ever can satisfy. I do not think it can: one
+would want to repeat it every day: the man in the Italian Poem who gnaws
+his enemy's head can never have enough of his cruel and horrid revenge.
+I hope, however, that no one will think that I rejoiced over sufferings,
+terrors, and pain unspeakable; even though they were deserved.
+
+If Mr. Probus showed callousness and insensibility extraordinary, his
+companion behaved in exactly an opposite manner. For he had thrown
+himself down in the bottom of the cart, and there lay writhing while the
+execrations of the people followed the cart. When the procession arrived
+at the pillory it took six men to drag him out. He covered his face with
+his hands: he wept--the tears ran down his cheeks: he clung to the
+constables; it took a quarter of an hour before they had him up the
+steps and on the platform: it took another ten minutes before he was
+placed in the machine, his face turned towards the crowd on the north
+side with his helpless hands struck through the holes. As for the other
+he stood facing the south.
+
+When both the miserable men were ready the under-sheriff and the
+constables ducked their heads and ran for their lives from the stage
+down the ladder and waited under cover.
+
+For, with a roar as of a hungry wild beast the mob began. There was no
+formal or courteous commencement with rotten eggs and dead cats. These
+things, it is true, were flung, and with effect. But from the very
+beginning they were accompanied by sharp flints, stones and brickbats.
+The mob broke through the line of constables and filled up the open
+space; they pushed the women to the front: I think they were mad: they
+shrieked and yelled execrations: the air was thick with missiles; where
+did they come from? There were neither pause nor cessation. For the
+whole time the storm went on: the under-sheriff wanted, I have heard, to
+take down the men; but no one would venture on the stage to release
+them. Meanwhile with both of them the yellow streams of broken eggs had
+given way to blood. Their faces and heads were covered every inch--every
+half inch--with open bleeding wounds: their eyes were closed, their
+heads held down as much as they could: if they groaned; if they
+shrieked; if they prayed for mercy; if they prayed for the mercy of
+Heaven since from man there was none; no one could hear in the Babel of
+voices from the mob. It was the Thief-taker, the Man-slayer, who was the
+principal object of the crowd's attention: but they could not
+distinguish between the two and they soon threw at one head or the other
+impartially. It was indeed a most dreadful spectacle of the popular
+justice. Just so, the Jews took out the man who worshipped false idols,
+and the woman who was a witch and stoned them with stones, so that they
+died. For my own part I can never forget that sight of the two bowed
+heads at which a mob of I know not how many hundreds crowded together in
+a narrow street hurled everything that they could find, round paving
+stones, sharp flints, broken bricks, wooden logs, with every kind of
+execration that the worst and lowest of the people can invent. From the
+south and from the north: there was an equal shower; there was no
+difference.
+
+For a whole hour this went on. The pillory should have been turned every
+quarter of an hour. But no one dared to mount the stage in order to turn
+it--besides it was safer to let one side exhaust their artillery than to
+tempt the unspent stores of the other side.
+
+At last the hour of twelve struck. There was a final discharge: then all
+stopped. The heads hung down inanimate, motionless. Had the mob, then,
+killed them both?
+
+The under-sheriff mounted the stage: one of the constables cleared it of
+the miscellaneous stuff lying at the feet of the prisoners; then they
+took out the men. Both were senseless; they were carried down the steps
+and placed in the cart. The driver went to the horse's head; the
+constables closed in: the show was over.
+
+In five minutes the whole crowd had dispersed; they had enjoyed the very
+rare chance of expressing their opinion upon a Thief-taker and an
+Attorney. They went off in great spirits, marching away in companies
+each in its own direction. Those from Clare Market I observed, were
+headed by music peculiar to that district played by eight butchers with
+marrow-bones and cleavers.
+
+The horrid business over I thought I would learn how the other two fared
+in Soho Square. The pillory was still standing when I got there, but the
+business of the day was over. From a gentleman who had been a spectator
+I learned that the two men were turned to the four quarters in the
+pillory, that their friends on the St. Giles's side would not pelt them;
+but that on the other three sides they received a liberal allowance of
+eggs and such harmless gifts, together with a more severe expression of
+opinion in stones and brickbats. They were taken out wounded and
+bleeding, but they could walk down the ladder and were carried off in
+their right senses, at least.
+
+I went on to Newgate. There I learned that the man Merridew was already
+dead: he was found dead in the cart when he was brought in. It was not
+wonderful. His skull was battered in; his cheek-bones were broken: his
+jaw was fractured: for the last half-hour it was thought he had been
+already senseless if not dead. The case of Mr. Probus was nearly as bad.
+He was breathing, they told me, and no more. It was doubtful if he would
+recover.
+
+The Captain and the Bishop were, as I have said, more fortunate. They
+escaped with scars which would disfigure them for life. But they did
+escape, and since their master the Man-slayer was dead, they might begin
+again, once out of prison, with another rope much longer, perhaps, than
+the first.
+
+I suppose they are long since hanged, both of them. No other lot was
+possible for them. I have not seen them or heard of them, since that
+day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+"GUILTY, MY LORD"
+
+
+The days slipped away. Visitors came, gazed, and departed. Our attorney
+exhorted Jenny every day to consider her decision and to prepare a
+defence.
+
+'Consider, Madame,' he urged earnestly, 'you will stand before a Court
+already prepossessed by the knowledge of your history, in your favour.
+There will be no pressure of points against you. It will be shown, nay,
+it is already well known, that you have, by your own unaided efforts,
+defeated a most odious conspiracy and made it possible for the
+conspirators to be brought to justice. This fact, further, assigns
+reasons and motives for the persecution and the malignity of their
+friends. I am prepared to show that at the time when you are charged
+with receiving stolen property you were occupying a fine position; that
+you were solvent because you were receiving large sums of money: that
+you were the last person to be tempted even to receive stolen goods
+especially those of a mean and worthless character. Those who might
+otherwise be ready to perjure themselves against you will be afraid to
+speak since this last business. You have this protection brought about
+by your own action. It will be impossible to prove that you had any
+knowledge of the property found on your premises.'
+
+'All that is true. Yet, dear Sir, I cannot change my mind.'
+
+'It is so true that I cannot believe it possible under the circumstances
+for a jury to convict: you are also, Madame, which is a very important
+feature in the case, possessed of a face and form whose loveliness alone
+proclaims your innocence.'
+
+'Oh! Sir, if loveliness had aught to do with justice! But could I, even
+then, rely upon that claim?'
+
+'Let me instruct Counsel. He will brush aside the evidence! Good
+Heavens! What evidence! A woman swears that she saw the property carried
+into your house during the whole of a certain night. That is quite
+possible. Certain shopkeepers have been found to swear to some of the
+articles found in your rooms as their own. How do they know? One bale of
+goods is like another. That kind of evidence is worth very little. But
+if the things are theirs how are you to be connected with them? I shall
+prove that you lived in a great house with many servants: that it was
+quite easy to carry things in and out of that house without your
+knowledge: I shall call your servants, who will swear that they know
+nothing of any such conveyance of goods. I will prepare a defence for
+you in which you will state that you had no knowledge of these things:
+nor do you know when, or by whom, they were brought into the house: you
+will point to your troop of servants, including footmen, waiters,
+carvers, cooks, butlers and women of all kinds: you will ask if a
+manager of any place of entertainment is to be held responsible for what
+was brought under his roof--that you were not in want of money and that
+if you were the rubbish lying in your garrets would be of no use to you.
+And so on. There could not possibly be found a better defence.'
+
+'I know one better still,' said Jenny quietly.
+
+'Tell me what it is, then.'
+
+'I have already told you. Once more then. My mother has long been
+notorious as a receiver of stolen goods. The people used to bring their
+plunder to the Black Jack by a back entrance: under the house there are
+stone vaults and a great deal of property can be stored there. When I
+understood that we should want the evidence of my mother I was obliged
+to offer her a large sum of money as a bribe before she would consent.
+When she found that I would give no more, she accepted my offer but on
+conditions. 'Remember,' she said. 'None of us will ever be able to show
+our faces at the Black Jack any more. We should be murdered for sure,
+for going against our own people.'
+
+'Well,' said Mr. Dewberry, 'doubtless she was right. But what were the
+conditions?'
+
+'They were connected with the stolen goods. The vaults contained a great
+deal of property which could not be sold at once. If I would suffer her
+to store that property in my house, she would consent Sir, at that time,
+and in order to defeat those villains, I would have consented to
+anything. It was agreed that my mother and sister should move the things
+by night after the Black Jack was shut up. I suppose the woman watched.
+So you see, unfortunately, I did consent without thinking.'
+
+'You did consent--oh!' he groaned. 'But, after all, your mother and
+sister will not give evidence. Where is the evidence of your consent?
+Are they out of sight? Good. Let them keep out of sight.'
+
+'But there is more. Dear Sir, you will say I am very imprudent. When it
+was arranged for my mother to go away after the trial and lie snug for
+awhile, she could not bear to think of losing all her property, and
+so--still without thinking of consequences--I bought the whole lot.'
+
+'You bought! Oh! This, indeed, I did not expect. You bought the whole!
+However, one comfort, no one knows except your mother.'
+
+'And my sister. Now, Sir, Doll will not allow my mother to suffer alone.
+If she is accused of receiving I shall be charged with buying the
+property.'
+
+'I wish the mob had burned the place.'
+
+'Nobody can wish that more than myself. Now consider. If I plead "Not
+Guilty" and am acquitted, my mother will certainly be arrested. There
+will be a Hue and Cry after her, and I shall then be charged again with
+buying stolen property, knowing it to be stolen. No, Sir, my mind is
+quite made up. I shall plead Guilty. If the evidence is only what we
+know, there will be no further inquiry after the property. So, at least,
+my mother will be safe.'
+
+Mr. Dewberry said nothing for a while. 'Would your mother,' he asked,
+'do as much for you?'
+
+'I dare say she would. We have our virtues, we poor rogues, sometimes.'
+
+He remonstrated with her: he repeated over and over again his assurance
+that her defence was as perfect as a defence could be. She could not be
+examined or cross-examined. The evidence of the woman would be confined
+to one point. It was all in vain: she was obstinate.
+
+'I shall plead Guilty,' she said.
+
+Finally he went away and left me alone with her.
+
+'Jenny,' I said, 'sometimes I believe you are mad so far as your own
+interests are concerned.'
+
+'No, Will--only crafty. Now listen a little. I have one firm, strong,
+powerful friend--I mean Lord Brockenhurst. If a woman wants a man to
+remain in love with her, she must keep him off. He knows all about me,
+he says: he has made up the prettiest tale possible. And he actually
+believes it.'
+
+'Made up a tale, Jenny?'
+
+'It was a very pretty story that he wrote called the "Case of Clarinda,"
+This is a prettier story still. It appears that I am the lost and stolen
+child of noble parents. My birth is stamped upon my face. Never a gipsy
+yet was known to have light hair like mine, and blue eyes like mine. I
+have been brought up in ignorance of my parentage, by a woman of
+dishonest character who stole me in infancy. She made me, against my
+wish (for a person of my rank naturally loathes employment so menial)
+an Orange Girl of Drury Lane Theatre. Then I rose above that station by
+the possession of parts inherited, and became an actress and the Toast
+of the Town. The woman clung to her pretended daughter still. Then I
+left the stage in order to be married: when I found my husband little
+better than a sordid gambler, I left his house and opened the
+Assembly-room: the woman, for her own safety, made, unknown to me, a
+storehouse of my garrets. That is his story. But the end is better
+still. My true nobility of soul, inherited from my unknown illustrious
+ancestors, prompts me to plead Guilty in order to save this pretended
+mother. Now, Will----'
+
+'How does the story help?'
+
+'Because it has already got abroad. Because it will incline everybody's
+heart to get me saved.'
+
+'Yes--but an acquittal is so easy.'
+
+'Will, you can never understand what it means to belong to such a family
+as mine. Suppose I get my acquittal. Then--afterwards----'
+
+'What will follow afterwards?'
+
+'Do you think that they will let me return to the stage? I must face the
+revenge of the family--the family of St. Giles's. Through me the Bishop
+and the Captain have been put in pillory and are now in prison. They
+belong to the family--my family, and I have brought them to ruin--I
+myself. One of themselves. Can they forgive me? Nay, Will, I was brought
+up among them: it is their only point of honour. Can I expect them to
+forgive me? Never--until--unless----' She stopped and trembled.
+
+'Unless--what?'
+
+'Unless I pay for it, as I have made those two rogues pay for it. Unless
+I pass through the fiery furnace of trial and sentence, even if it leads
+me to the condemned cell. After that, Will, I may perhaps look for
+forgiveness.'
+
+A man must be a stock or a stone not to be moved by such words as these.
+'Oh, Jenny!' I said, 'you have brought all this upon yourself--for me.'
+
+'Yes, Will, for you and for yours. I have counted the cost. Your life is
+worth it all--and more. Don't think I never flinched. No. I had thoughts
+of letting everything go. Why should I imperil myself--my life--to
+defeat a villain? It was easy to do nothing. Then one night I saw a
+ghost--oh! a real ghost. It was Alice, and in her arms lay your boy.'
+Jenny rose slowly. The afternoon was turning into early evening: the
+cell was already in twilight. She rose, and gradually, so great is the
+power of an actress, that even though my eyes were overcast, I saw the
+narrow cell no longer. There was no Jenny. In her place stood another
+woman. It was Alice. In the arms of that spirit lay the semblance of a
+child. And the spirit spoke. It was the voice of Alice. 'Woman!' she
+said, solemnly, 'give me back my husband. Give the boy the honour of his
+father. Murderess! Thou wouldst kill the father and ruin the son. There
+shall be no peace or rest or quiet for thee to the end. Save him--for
+thou must. Suffer and endure what follows. Thou shalt suffer, but thou
+shalt not be destroyed.' Alice spoke: it was as if she came there with
+intent to say those words. Then she vanished. And with a trembling of
+great fear, even as Saul trembled when he saw the spirit of Samuel, I
+saw Jenny standing in the place where Alice had been.
+
+She fell into her chair: she burst into tears--the first and the last
+that ever I saw upon her cheek: she covered her face with her hands.
+
+I soothed her, I assured her of all that I could say in gratitude
+infinite: perhaps I mingled my tears with hers.
+
+'Oh, Will,' she cried. 'Do not vex yourself over the fate of an
+orange-wench. What does it matter for such a creature as myself?'
+
+The Old Bailey never witnessed a greater crowd than that which filled
+the court to witness the trial of Mistress Jenny Wilmot, charged with
+receiving stolen goods knowing them to be stolen. Her assumed name of
+Madame Vallance was forgotten: her married name of Halliday was
+forgotten: on everybody's tongue she was Jenny Wilmot the actress: Jenny
+Wilmot the Toast of the Town: Jenny Wilmot of Drury Lane. They spoke of
+her beauty, her grace, her vivacity: these were still remembered in
+spite of her absence from the stage of nearly two years. Now two years
+is a long time for an actress, unless she is very good indeed, to be
+remembered. But the 'Case of Clarinda' was by this time known to every
+club and coffee-house in London: not a City clerk or shopman but had the
+story pat, with oaths and sighs and tears. My Lord Brockenhurst had done
+his share in changing public opinion, and the later story, that of the
+noble origin of the stolen girl, was also whispered from mouth to
+mouth.
+
+The court, I say, was crowded. Behind the chairs of the Lord Mayor and
+Judge, the Aldermen and the Sheriffs, were other chairs filled with
+great ladies: the public gallery was also filled with ladies who were
+admitted by tickets issued by sheriffs: the entrances and doorways and
+the body of the court were filled with gentlemen, actors and actresses
+mixed with an evil-looking and evil-smelling company from St. Giles's.
+
+The witnesses, among whom I failed to observe the revengeful woman,
+consisted, I was pleased to see, of no more than the two or three
+shopkeepers who were waiting to swear to their own property. They stood
+beside the witness-box, wearing the look of determined and pleased
+revenge common to those who have been robbed. The Jury were sworn one
+after the other, and took their seats. I could not fail to observe that
+the unrelenting faces with which they had received me, the highwayman,
+were changed into faces of sweet commiseration. If ever Jury betrayed by
+outward signs a full intention, beforehand, of bringing in a verdict of
+Not Guilty, with the addition, if the Judge would allow it, that the
+lady left the dock without a blemish upon her character, it was that
+jury--yet a jury composed entirely of persons engaged in trade, who
+would naturally be severe upon the crime of receiving stolen goods.
+
+When the Court were ready to take their places the prisoner was brought
+in, and all the people murmured with astonishment and admiration and
+pity, for the prisoner was dressed as for her wedding day. She was all
+in white without a touch of any other colour. Her lovely fair hair was
+dressed without powder over a high cushion with white silk ribbons
+hanging to her shoulders: her white silk frock drawn back in front,
+showed a white satin petticoat: white silk gloves covered her hands and
+arms: she carried a nosegay of white jonquils: a necklace of pearls hung
+round her neck: her belt was of worked silver. She took her place in the
+dock: she disposed her flowers between the spikes, among the sprigs of
+rue. Her air was calm and collected: not boastful: sad as was natural:
+resigned as was becoming: neither bold nor shrinking: there was no
+affectation of confidence nor any agitation of terror. She was like a
+Queen: she was full of dignity. She seemed to say, 'Look at me, all of
+you. Can you believe that I--I--I--such as I--Jenny Wilmot--could
+actually stoop to receive a lot of stolen rags and old petticoats and
+bales of stuff worth no more altogether than two or three guineas?'
+
+During the whole time of the trial the eyes of everybody in court, I
+observed, were turned upon the prisoner. Never before, I am sure, did a
+more lovely prisoner stand in the Dock: never was there one whose
+position was more commiserated: they were all, I verily believe, ready
+to set her free at once: but for the act and deed of the prisoner
+herself. Her attitude: her face: her dress all proclaimed aloud the
+words which I have written down above. Everybody had seen her on the
+stage playing principally the coquette, the woman of fashion and folly,
+the hoyden, the affected prude--but not a part like this. 'Ye gods!' I
+heard a young barrister exclaim. 'She looks like an angel: an angel sent
+down to Newgate!' The strange, new, unexpected look of virginal
+innocence stamped on the brow of the once daring and headlong actress
+startled the people: it went to the heart of everyone: it made everybody
+present feel that they were assisting at a martyrdom: nay, as if they
+were themselves, unwillingly, bringing faggots to pile the fire. Before
+the trial began many an eye was dim, many a cheek was humid.
+
+The Court entered: the people rose: the Counsel bowed to the Bench: the
+Lord Mayor took his seat: beside him the Judge: with him the Aldermen
+and the Sheriffs: the prisoner also did reverence to the Court like a
+gentlewoman receiving company. One would not have been surprised had my
+Lord Mayor stepped down and kissed her on the cheek in City fashion. But
+neither in her look nor in her actions was there betrayed the least sign
+of degradation, fear, or shame.
+
+When a somewhat lengthy indictment had been read, she raised her head.
+'My Lord, I would first desire to ask for my name to be amended.'
+
+'What amendment do you desire?'
+
+'I am described as Madame Vallance, alias Jenny Wilmot, actress. It is
+true that Jenny Wilmot was my maiden name, and that I assumed the name
+of Madame Vallance when I left the stage and opened the Assembly Rooms.
+My true name is Jenny Halliday, and I am the wife of Mr. Matthew
+Halliday, son of Sir Peter Halliday, Alderman, and partner in the House
+of Halliday Brothers, West India Wharf, by the Steel Yard in the Parish
+of All Hallows the Great.'
+
+The Judge, whom nothing could surprise, answered with the awful coldness
+which becomes a Judge and so terrifies a prisoner. 'There is no dispute
+concerning identity. Plead in your married name, if you will.'
+
+'Then, my Lord, I plead Guilty.'
+
+She had done it, then. With a case so strong: with an assurance of
+acquittal, she had pleaded Guilty. My heart sank. Yet I knew what she
+would do. The Lord Mayor whispered the judge again.
+
+'You are ignorant of law and procedure in Courts of Justice,' he said.
+'I will allow you to withdraw that plea. Have you no Counsel?'
+
+'I need none, my Lord. I plead Guilty.'
+
+The people all held their breath. Then the 'Case of Clarinda' was true
+after all.
+
+'I am anxious,' the Judge went on, 'that you should have a fair trial.
+Appoint a Counsel. Advise with him.'
+
+'I plead Guilty' she repeated.
+
+The Judge threw himself back in his seat 'Let the trial proceed,' he
+said.
+
+The Counsel for the Prosecution opened the case. It was, he said a
+remarkable case, because there seemed no sufficient reason or temptation
+for breaking the law, or for receiving stolen property. The information
+was laid by a woman living in the purlieus of St. Giles's Parish: she
+was, very probably, a person of no character at all: but character was
+not wanted in this case because her information would be supplemented by
+the evidence of several persons of the highest respectability who would
+swear to certain articles as their own property. The woman in fact,
+would depose to the conveyance of stolen goods to the house in question:
+she gave information the goods were actually found there: and other
+witnesses would claim as their own many things among the property so
+found.
+
+'Gentlemen of the Jury,' he went on, 'this is a case of a painful
+nature. The prisoner who pleads guilty--who rejects the clemency--the
+kindly benevolence--of the Court--is a person who, as you know, a year
+or two ago was delighting the town by the vivacity of her acting and the
+beauty of her person: she left the stage, the world knew not why, or
+what had become of her: it now appears that she took a certain house in
+Soho Square, where she carried on assemblies, masquerades, and other
+amusements still delighting the town: there is nothing to make one
+believe that she was in pecuniary embarrassments: and we now learn that
+she is actually the wife of a City merchant of great wealth and
+reputation.' Here his neighbour hurriedly wrote something on a paper:
+and handed it to him. 'My learned friend,' he said correcting himself,
+'informs me that this House, until recently in the highest repute, has
+fallen into evil times and is now bankrupt. But, gentlemen, whether the
+prisoner attempted to stave off her husband's bankruptcy or not, the
+property which she received was of so trifling a character that it would
+seem as if she was breaking the Law for the sake of a few shillings. The
+things found in her possession were not those which we are accustomed to
+regard as the booty of robbers: there are no jewels, gold chains, silver
+cups, lace, silks or anything at all but things belonging to poor people
+or to people just raised above poverty. There are women's petticoats,
+men's nightcaps: watches in tortoise-shell cases: knives and forks:
+small spoons, handkerchiefs: stockings, even: wigs, and so forth. I
+expected, I confess when I surveyed this rubbish, to hear a defence on
+the ground that such a person in a position so responsible--with friends
+so numerous, some of them of high rank, could not condescend to
+countenance the mean and sordid traffic. I confess that I looked forward
+to this trial as a means of finding out the real criminal who had taken
+advantage of access to the house and impudently used the rooms in Madame
+Vallance's premises for their own dishonest purposes. That expectation
+must be now disappointed: that hope must be abandoned. By her own
+repeated confession, the prisoner has assured the Court that she is
+guilty.
+
+'The case,' he went on, 'has grown out of one recently heard before this
+Court. It was one in which the present prisoner exerted herself very
+actively in the cause of a man named Halliday, presumably a connection
+of her own by marriage. Halliday was charged with highway robbery. The
+evidence was clear and direct. The prisoner before us, however, with
+great activity and courage, brought together an overwhelming mass of
+evidence which proved that the charge was a conspiracy of the blackest
+and foulest kind. The conspirators are now undergoing their sentence. By
+this brave action an innocent life was saved and four villains were sent
+to prison. I mention the fact because it shows that the prisoner
+possesses many noble qualities, which make it the more marvellous that
+she should be guilty of acts so mean, so paltry, so sordid. The woman
+who will appear before you was the mistress of one of these
+conspirators. Her information was doubtless laid as an act of revenge.
+Yet we cannot weigh motives.' And so on.
+
+It appeared that the evidence was of a merely formal character and that
+the witnesses would not be cross-examined. The first witness was the
+woman of whom you know. She, among other women prisoners in Newgate, had
+been kept from starvation by Jenny; this fact might have softened her
+heart: but unfortunately the recent sufferings of her lover in pillory
+re-awakened her desire for revenge. She was an eager witness: she wanted
+to begin at once and to tell her tale her own way. The main point now
+was a statement invented since her evidence before the magistrate. She
+now declared that she herself was engaged by the prisoner to carry the
+property to the Assembly Rooms. This abominable perjury she stoutly
+maintained. The Counsel for the Prosecution questioned her apparently in
+order to elicit the facts: in reality, as I now believe, in order to
+make her contradict herself. She was asked where she put the things: why
+in the garret: what servants helped her: who received her: who carried
+candles for her: why the prisoner selected her for the job: what share
+she had in the riots: whether she was in prison on that account: and so
+on. She was a poor ignorant creature, thirsting for revenge: therefore
+she maintained stoutly that the prisoner had paid her for moving the
+goods into her house.
+
+Whether by accident or design, nothing was said about the Black Jack or
+about the landlady of that establishment. I suppose that the Prosecution
+was only anxious to establish the bare facts to which the prisoner had
+pleaded Guilty.
+
+The manner in which the witness gave her evidence: the fire in her eyes
+and in her cheeks: the dirty slovenly look of the woman: her uncombed
+hair: her voice: her gestures: her manifest perjuries and
+contradictions: disgusted all who looked on: the Judge laid down his pen
+and leaned back in his chair as if what she said was of no concern: the
+Aldermen looked at the Judge as much as to ask how long this was to be
+permitted: the Jury whispered and shook their heads: the ladies present
+knotted their brows and fanned themselves and whispered each other
+angrily. At last she sat down flaming and vehement to the end. Her
+evidence had in fact ruined the case. Why, she had the impudence to
+allege that the property she had herself carried to the house was
+received by Madame herself, who ordered her footmen to carry it to the
+garrets.
+
+She was followed by the shopkeepers who had been robbed. They swore to
+certain goods of no great value, which had been stolen from them. Their
+evidence was quickly given. There was, in fact, no evidence really
+implicating the prisoner except that of the woman. There was clearly
+something behind: something not explained, which everybody was
+whispering to each other--it had been revealed in the famous paper
+called 'The Case of Clarinda.' And now I understood what Jenny meant
+when she said that her defence would bring her mother into the business.
+For Counsel would have inquired into the Black Jack story and asked what
+the things were doing there: how they came there: who was the landlord:
+with many other particulars, some of which would have brought out the
+truth. As for the woman, whether by feminine cunning or by accident, she
+concealed the relationship between Jenny and the Black Jack: she had
+really seen the sister and the mother carrying things to the house in
+Soho Square: she did not then know that Madame Vallance was Jenny: she
+found out the fact at the trial: she then invented the story of being
+hired for carrying the property _because she knew it was there_. All
+that the Court knew, however, was the fact that such a woman as stood
+before them, this angel of loveliness this woman of position: had
+actually confessed to the crime of receiving the miserable odds and
+ends--the rags and tawdry finery--stolen from quite poor people. It was
+amazing: it was incredible.
+
+'That is my case, my Lord,' said the Counsel with a sigh, as if he was
+ashamed of having conducted it at all.
+
+'Prisoner at the Bar,' said the Judge, 'you have heard the verdict of
+the Jury. You may now say anything you wish in explanation or
+extenuation.'
+
+'What can I have to say, my Lord,' she replied simply but with dignity,
+'since I pleaded guilty? Nevertheless, I have to thank the Counsel for
+the Prosecution, who almost proved my pleading impossible.'
+
+The Judge summed up in a few words. The verdict of the Jury included a
+recommendation to mercy.
+
+The Judge assumed the black cap: he pronounced sentence of Death: the
+Ordinary appeared in his robes and prayed that the Lord would have mercy
+on her soul: the warder tied the usual slip of string about the
+prisoner's thumb to show what hanging meant. The only person unaffected
+by the sentence was the prisoner herself. Never before had she acted so
+finely: never before, indeed, had Jenny been called upon to play such a
+part. She stood with clasped hands gazing into the face of the Judge,
+not with defiance, not with wonder: not with resentment: but with a meek
+acceptance. The women in the court, the great ladies behind the Lord
+Mayor wept and sobbed without restraint: even the younger members of the
+outer Bar were affected to unmanly humidity of the eyes.
+
+Now when the verdict of the Jury was pronounced, and before the sentence
+of the Judge, Jenny did a strange thing, which moved the people almost
+more than the words of the sentence. She took up a small roll which lay
+before her. It was a black lace veil. She threw this over her head: it
+fell down upon her shoulders nearly to her waist. She held it up while
+the Judge was speaking: when he finished she dropped it over her face.
+So with the veil of Death falling over her spotless robes of Innocence
+she stepped down from the dock and followed the men in blue back to the
+prison. 'Ye Gods!' cried one of the barristers, 'she is nothing less
+than the Virgin Martyr!' Indeed she seemed nothing less than one of the
+Christian martyrs, the confessors faithful to the end whom no tortures
+and no punishment could turn aside from the path of martyrdom.
+
+I hurried round to the prison. 'Ah! Sir,' sighed a turnkey, 'she must
+now go to the condemned cell. Pity! Pity!' They were all her
+friends--every one of these officers, hardened by years of daily contact
+with the scum of the people. 'But they won't hang her. They can't.'
+
+'And all for her mother,' said another. 'I remember old Sal of the Black
+Jack, also her sister Dolly. All to save that fat old carrion carcass.
+Well, well. You can go in, sir.'
+
+Jenny was standing by the table. She greeted me with a sad smile. 'It is
+all over at last,' she said. 'It is harder to play a part on a real
+stage than in a theatre. Did I play well, Will?'
+
+'You left a House in tears, Jenny. Oh!' I cried impatiently, 'Is this
+what you wanted?'
+
+'Yes, I am quite satisfied. I really was afraid at one time that the
+Counsel would throw up the case because his leading witness was so gross
+and impudent a liar. Didst ever hear a woman perjure herself so roundly
+and so often? What next?'
+
+'Yes, Jenny. What next?'
+
+'I don't know, Will. The Assembly Rooms which are taken in my name are
+seized, I hear, by my husband's creditors. But all the furniture and
+fittings have been destroyed already. That is done with, then. Am I to
+begin again in order to have everything seized again?' She talked as if
+her immediate enlargement was certain. I could not have the heart to
+whisper discouragement.
+
+'There is still the stage, Jenny. The world will welcome you back
+again.'
+
+'Do you think so? The Orange Girl they could stand; it pleased the Pit
+to remember how they used to buy my oranges. But the woman who has come
+out of a condemned cell? The woman who pleaded guilty to receiving
+stolen goods? I doubt it will.'
+
+'What does that matter? Everybody knows why you pleaded Guilty. You are
+Clarinda.'
+
+'An audience at a theatre, Will, sometimes shows neither pity nor
+consideration for an actress. They say what they like: they shout what
+they like: they insult her as they please--an actress is fair game: to
+make an actress run off the stage in a flood of tears is what they
+delight in. They would be pleased to ask what I have done with the
+stolen goods.'
+
+'What will you do then, Jenny?'
+
+There came along, at this point, another visitor. It was none other than
+the Counsel for the Prosecution. He stood at the door of the cell, but
+seeing me, he hesitated.
+
+'Come in, Sir,' said Jenny. 'You wish to speak to me. Speak. This
+gentleman, my husband's first cousin, can hear all that you have to ask
+or I to reply.'
+
+'Madame,' he bowed as to a Countess. 'This is a wretched place for you.
+I trust, however that it will not be for long. The recommendation of the
+Jury will certainly have weight: the Judge is benevolently disposed: you
+have many friends.'
+
+'I hope, Sir, that I have some friends who will not believe that I have
+bought a parcel of stolen petticoats?'
+
+'Your friends will stand by you: of that I am certain. Madame, I venture
+here to ask you, if I may do so without the charge of impertinent
+curiosity--believe me--I am not so actuated----'
+
+'Surely, Sir. Ask what you will.'
+
+'I would ask you then, why you pleaded Guilty. The case was certain from
+the outset to break down. I might have pressed the witness as to the
+property itself, but I refrained because her perjuries were manifest.
+Why then, Madame--if I may ask--why?'
+
+'Perhaps I had learned that certain things had been sent to my garrets,
+but I paid no thought to any risk or danger----'
+
+'That might have been pleaded.'
+
+'The case being over, that property can bring no other person into
+trouble, I believe?'
+
+'I should think not. The case is ended.'
+
+'Then, Sir, I pray you to consider this question. If some person very
+closely connected with yourself were actually guilty of this crime: if
+you yourself were charged with it: if your acquittal would lead to that
+person's conviction, what would you do?'
+
+'That is what they whisper,' he replied. 'Madame, I hope that such a
+choice may never be made to me. Is this true--what you suggest--what
+people whisper?'
+
+'Many things are whispered concerning me,' said Jenny proudly. 'I do not
+heed those whispers. Well, Sir, such a choice has been presented to me.
+It is part of the penalty of my birth that such a choice could be
+possible.'
+
+'Then it is true?' he insisted; 'the "Case of Clarinda" is true?'
+
+'Sir, it is true in many points. I was once an Orange Girl of Drury
+Lane. My people were residents of St. Giles's in the Fields. I was
+brought up in the courts and lanes of that quarter. You, Sir, are a
+lawyer. Need I explain further the nature of that choice?'
+
+'Madam,' said the lawyer, 'I think you are the best woman in the world
+as you are the loveliest.' So saying he lifted her hand to his lips,
+bowing low, and left us.
+
+'Well,' said Jenny, 'I think I have done pretty well for my mother and
+for Doll. Their slate is clean again. They can begin fair. Receiving has
+been her principal trade so long that she is not likely to be satisfied
+with drawing beer. But the past is wiped out. And as for myself----'
+She sighed. 'What next? Matthew is where the wicked can no longer
+trouble. Merridew, poor wretch! has also ceased from troubling. My
+friends of St. Giles's will be satisfied because I have now done what I
+told you I should do, and gone through the fiery furnace. Why,' she
+looked around the bare and narrow walls, 'I believe I am in it still.
+But the flames do not burn, nor does the hot air scorch--believe me,
+dear Will--oh! believe me--I would do it all again--all again--I regret
+nothing--Will, nothing. Assure Alice that I would do it all
+again--exactly as I have done.'
+
+With a full heart I left her. What next? What next?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+FROM THE CONDEMNED CELL
+
+
+And now, indeed, began the time of endurance and suspense. To the
+bravest of women came moments of depression--what else could be expected
+when her days and nights were spent in a condemned cell? In this gloomy
+apartment Jenny was now compelled to live. The place lies in a corner of
+the women's yard or Court; it contains two rooms, one of them a small
+bedroom, the other, when there are only one or two in residence, a
+living room. One other prisoner was already in this cell, awaiting her
+time for execution. Alas! she was a mere child, not more than sixteen,
+and looking younger: a poor, ignorant creature who had never learned the
+difference between right and wrong: who had been brought up, as was
+Jenny herself, among children of rogues, themselves rogues from infancy.
+The law was going to kill this child because the law itself had found no
+way to protect her. Alas for our humanity! Alas for our statesmen! Alas
+for our Church! Will there never arise a Prophet in the land to show us
+how much better it is to teach than to kill?
+
+Outside, the yard was all day long filled with women either convicted or
+waiting to be tried: some of them were in prison for short sentences:
+some were waiting to be whipped: some were waiting for ships to carry
+them to the plantations: all alike were foul in language; unwashed,
+uncombed and draggled; rough and coarse and common. Such women, gathered
+together in one place, make each other worse: they swear like men: they
+fight like men: they drink like men: their hair hangs loose over their
+shoulders: the 'loose jumps' of leather which they use for stays are
+never changed: the ragged kerchief over their shoulders is never washed:
+the linsey-woolsey frock is foul with every kind of stain: their loud
+harsh voices have no feminine softness: their red brawny arms terrify
+the spectator: in their faces, even of the youngest, is no look of
+Venus.
+
+Taken to this place, Jenny had to wait, expectant, for the relief that
+was promised her by Lord Brockenhurst. Her cheek grew pale and thin: her
+eyes became unnaturally bright: I feared gaol fever but happily she was
+spared this dreadful malady. Yet she kept up the appearance of
+cheerfulness, and greeted me every day with a smile that was never
+forced, and a grasp that was never chilled.
+
+For exercise Jenny had the crowded yard. There, with no one to protect
+her, she walked a little every morning, the women falling back, right
+and left, to let her pass. They offered her no molestation. To save her
+fancy man--so ran the legend--she had compassed the ruin of her old
+friends: with this object ('twas the only one they could understand) she
+put up her mother to bear witness against her own customers. Well: it
+was to save her fancy man--the same came every day to see her in the
+prison: that was some excuse for her: would not any woman do as much for
+her man? And now she was herself condemned all through the other woman
+whose man she had put in prison and in pillory. So far, then, they were
+quits, and might all become friends again. And they remembered as a
+point in Jenny's favour that the noble welcome with which the
+thief-taker was received--a thing at which all Roguery rejoiced--was
+entirely due to her exertions. These things passed from one to the other
+clothed in the language peculiar to such people.
+
+Jenny took two or three turns in the yard, every morning when the prison
+air is freshest, and then went back to her cell, where she remained for
+the rest of the day.
+
+In those days she talked to me more freely than before and a great deal
+about herself. She was forced to talk and to think about herself, for
+the first time in her life. Her thoughts went back to the past when all
+she could expect was to become such as the poor creatures with her in
+the prison. Yet these poor women, whom I found so terrible to look upon
+and to hear, she regarded with a tenderness which I thought excessive. I
+now understand that it was more humane than at that time was within my
+comprehension.
+
+'They are not terrible to me,' she said. 'I know them--what they are and
+what has made them so. I can speak their language, but I must not let
+them know that I understand. It is the Thieves' tongue made up of Gipsy
+and of Tinkers' talk. They talk about me all day--even when I am in
+their midst. Poor wretches! They are not so bad as they look.'
+
+'Nay, Jenny, but to see them beside you!'
+
+'If we grow up among people, Will, and are used to them, we do not think
+much of their manners and their looks. When I was a child I played among
+them. Many a cuff have I had: many a slap for getting in their way: but
+many a bit of gingerbread and many an apple. You think them terrible. If
+they were clean and had their hair dressed they would not be terrible
+any longer. Oh! Will, they are not very far from the fine
+ladies--no--nor so very much below the best of good women, even Alice.
+They are women, though you flog them at Bridewell and hang them at
+Tyburn--they are still women. And they love--in their poor fond faithful
+way--the very hand that knocks them down and the very foot that kicks
+them. They love--Oh! the poor women--they love.'
+
+She broke off, with a sob in her voice. I marvelled at the time because
+I had always looked upon the creatures as something below humanity: as
+belonging to a tribe of savages such as Swift called the Yahoos.
+Afterwards, I understood; and then I marvelled more.
+
+Another time she talked about her profession as an actress. 'Acting,'
+she said, 'cannot be otherwise than delightful--but it takes an actor
+away from himself. When one has been two or three years on the stage
+nothing is left but the stage and the dressing-room: the company behind
+the scenes and the audience in front. Nothing is real. Everything that
+happens is but a scene in a play. When the curtain drops upon this Act,
+that is, when they let me go, I shall rest for five minutes while the
+next Act is getting ready: the play of _Clarinda_, or the _Orange Girl_,
+has some excellent scenes. You remember that scene when the mob wrecked
+the house: and the scene when the mob pelted Mr. Merridew--well, I
+should not be in the least surprised to meet Mr. Merridew himself
+walking along Holborn with one eye on a young thief in training for a
+shoplifter: and I might look in at the Black Jack and see my mother
+taking her morning dram and Doll adding up the scores upon the slate. In
+five minutes after the curtain has dropped what has happened is little
+more to me than the last scene in the play at Drury. Why, if I were put
+into the cart and carried out to Tyburn I should still be the heroine
+playing my part to a breathless house. And I believe I should enjoy that
+part of the performance as much as anything. You saw how I played the
+Virgin Martyr in Court.'
+
+'Yet this is real enough, God knows,' I said, looking round the place.
+
+'I dare say it looks so to you. To me, it is part of the Play. Will, the
+Play is nearly over. I knew all along that disaster was coming upon me.
+But the worst is over--the worst is over. I know that the worst is over.
+I can now foretell what is coming next.' She looked straight before her,
+her eyes luminous in the dark cell. 'I can see,' she said, 'a time of
+peace and calm. Well, Will, reality or not, that scene will be pleasant.
+I shall go out of this place very soon--But I know not when, and I
+cannot see myself at any time again upon the boards of Drury. I am
+certain that I shall never go back there. I cannot see myself in Soho
+Square either. I shall never go back there. I see fields and hills and
+woods'--she shuddered and with a gesture pushed the vision from her.
+'Will--it is strange, all is strange: it is a beautiful country, but I
+know it not--I cannot understand it.'
+
+It was not the first time, as you have seen, that she showed this
+strange power of peering into the future. Whether this fair-haired and
+blue-eyed woman was really a child of the gipsies, or, as Lord
+Brockenhurst conjectured, a stolen child, she had the powers that we
+commonly find in gipsy women who are fortune-tellers all the world over.
+That she compelled all men to become her servants you have seen: that
+she could also compel women to follow and obey her was proved by what
+she did during that three or four weeks which she spent in the condemned
+cell: the same magic arts--yet she was no witch: and she could read the
+future--a gift which is marvellous in our eyes.
+
+Her power over others, even the most savage people, was shown by the
+changed behaviour of the poor girl waiting for execution. I have
+mentioned her: she was at first a wild creature: she fled to the darkest
+corner of the cell and there crouched with eyes of suspicion and terror:
+she snatched her food and ran into her corner to eat it: she was
+altogether unwashed and altogether in rags: she was bare-footed,
+bare-legged and bare-armed: her hair which should have been light--like
+Jenny's own hair, was matted with dirt: it looked as if it had never
+known a comb: yet long and beautiful hair: her eyes were blue, large and
+limpid. She had never known kindness, or love, or care since the day
+when her mother was marched away to Newgate wearing handcuffs. She was,
+I say, a mere savage. The child might have been sixteen, but she looked
+thirteen. Still, sixteen is young for Tyburn. Jenny found this child in
+her cell: condemned like herself; and she tamed her. Not in a single
+day, but in a few days. She tamed her with kindness; with soft words in
+the language which the child understood best: with soft touches: with
+gifts of pretty things: I suppose she gave her sweetmeats--I know not
+what she did, but in a few days I found the savage wild creature
+converted into a shy, timid girl--clinging to Jenny and following her
+about like a favourite spaniel. She was washed and combed and dressed
+from head to foot: she wore stockings and shoes: her hair, just confined
+by a ribbon, hung over her shoulders in lovely tresses: she had become
+an interesting child who promised to grow into a lovely maiden. And yet
+she was to be carried out to Tyburn and there hanged.
+
+Then, when the girl had assumed a civilized look, Jenny began to lament
+her approaching fate of which the poor creature seemed herself
+unconscious. Indeed, I think the child understood nothing at her trial
+or her sentence except that she was horribly frightened and was carried
+out of court crying.
+
+'Is it not terrible,' she asked, 'that we must hang children--ignorant
+children?'
+
+'It is the law of the land, Jenny. Judges have only to administer the
+law of the land.'
+
+'Then it is a cruel law, and the Judges ought to say so. A man is a
+murderer who condemns a child to death, even if it is the law, without
+declaring against it.'
+
+'Nay, Jenny'--this she could not understand for the reasons I have
+already given--'we must remember that the children suffer for the sins
+of the fathers, unto the third and fourth generation.'
+
+She stared. 'Why,' she said, 'the poor child has been taught no better.'
+And, indeed, there seems no answer to this plea. If in the mysteries of
+Providence we must so suffer, the Law of men should not punish
+ignorance. 'To hang children!' she insisted. 'To destroy their lives
+before they have well begun! And for what? For taking something not
+their own--Oh! Will, it is monstrous. Just for a bit of cloth--only a
+bit of cloth off a counter. Oh! the poor child! the poor child!'
+
+Then, just as she had spared no trouble to get me out of my danger so
+she now began to work for the rescue of this child. She spoke to the
+Governor about it. He looked astonished: children of fifteen, or so,
+were frequently executed for one offence or the other: the Law was
+doubtless severe: but criminals of all kinds were multiplying: after
+all, they were out of the way when they were hanged: this girl, for
+instance, would only grow up like the rest, a plague and a curse to the
+community. Still he gave Jenny advice, and by her instruction I drew up
+a Petition from the child herself addressed to no less a person than her
+Gracious Majesty the young Queen, who was said to have a kindly heart.
+The petition, with certain changes, might almost have been that of Jenny
+herself for her own case. Here is a piece of it.
+
+'Your Petitioner humbly submits that she was born and brought up in a
+part of London occupied entirely by thieves, rogues, and vagabonds: that
+she was taught from infancy that the only way by which she could earn
+her daily bread was by stealing: that the only art or trade she had ever
+learned was that of stealing without being detected: that she was never
+at any school or Church or under any kind of instruction whatever: that
+she was never taught the meaning of right or wrong: that she had learned
+no religion and no morals and knew not what they meant; and that being
+caught in the act of stealing a piece of cloth value six shillings from
+a shop, she is now lying under sentence of death.'
+
+To make a long story short, Jenny entrusted this Petition to Lord
+Brockenhurst, who generously interested himself in the girl and
+undertook that the Petition should reach the hands of Her Majesty the
+Queen--with the result, as you shall presently hear, that the girl's
+life was spared.
+
+This incident has nothing to do with the story, save that it shows
+Jenny's generous nature and her good heart; thus in the midst of her own
+anxieties to think of the troubles of others. Nay, she not only saved
+the life of this girl, but she brought her to a new mind and to new
+thoughts: and, whereas she had been before what you have seen, she
+converted the child into a decent, well conducted civil girl, worthy of
+better things--even to marry an honest man and to become the mother of
+stout lads and sturdy wenches. Let us consider how many lives might have
+been destroyed had they hanged this young girl. I have sometimes
+calculated that if they hang a hundred women every year, most of them
+young, they deprive the country of five hundred children whose loss may
+mean the loss of two thousand five hundred grandchildren, and so on. Can
+any country afford to lose so many valuable soldiers and sailors every
+year, the number still mounting up? Why, then, cannot we take the
+children when they are still young out of Roguery and place them in some
+house where they will be taught religion and morals and a craft? At
+present the cry is all 'Hang! Hang! Hang!' or 'Flog! Flog! Flog!' So the
+soldiers and the sailors and the wretched women are tied up and flogged
+well nigh to death: and the carts go rumbling along Holborn loaded with
+the poor creatures on their way to be hanged: but the rogues increase
+and multiply. Since hanging and flogging do no good cannot we try
+Jenny's method of kindness? I say this writing many years
+afterwards--because at that time I did not understand the law of
+kindness which I now perceive to be the Heavenly Law of Charity. Jenny,
+who had no glimmer of religion, poor thing, in her quick way divined the
+Law of Charity.
+
+Why, she changed even the women in the Prison Yard. There was great
+suffering among them. Many of them had no friends to bring them food:
+they had nothing but the daily dole of the penny loaf. Presently, I
+observed that they looked more contented and better fed: they were less
+noisy: there was less quarrelling and fighting: they were even cleaner
+to look at. All this was Jenny's doing. She fed them first: then when
+their craving for food, which made them quarrelsome, was allayed, she
+went among them and talked to them one at a time. I have seen her, I
+have seen how the rough coarse common creatures would respond, little by
+little, to words of kindness. She advised them about their affairs: she
+made them confess what they had done: why, was she not one of
+themselves?
+
+'I knew you,' she said to one, 'long ago in Hog's Lane: you lived in the
+Old Bell Alley: we were girls together. Come into my cell and I will
+find you something more to put on; and your hair wants to be combed and
+put up, doesn't it? And your face would look so much better if it were
+washed. Come with me----' and so on with one after the other: not the
+least case being the girl who had laid information and committed perjury
+against her. It was what Jenny said--though the saying was then too hard
+for me. They are women: as are all men and women, whether we call some
+Yahoos or not: they are women: there is not such very great difference
+between the greatest lady and the lowest woman: both are women: both are
+ruled by the same irresistible forces of love. Some day, perhaps, some
+gentlewoman will put the part of the Christian religion--I mean the Law
+of Charity--into practice. It is strange that a woman who was not a
+Christian, and had no religion, should first teach me that Charity means
+more than the giving of alms.
+
+'Let me,' said Jenny, 'do something for these poor creatures while I am
+among them. That will not be for long. Then they will fall back again
+into their own ways.'
+
+'But, Jenny, you are spending all your money.'
+
+'An actress never wants money. When I get out of this place I have made
+up my mind what to do. I will not return to Drury Lane: I will go over
+to Dublin. That is the strange country with hills and woods which I see
+before me always. It is Ireland. I will go on the Dublin stage. As for
+the money, I brought with me all there was in the house when I left it:
+and all my jewels--but they are not worth much. These women have had
+some of the money, and the turnkeys have had some, and Mr. Dewberry has
+had some: and I think there is not much left.'
+
+The question of money pressed hard because I had none, and as yet no new
+situation, and when Jenny was released she would certainly want money to
+carry her on.
+
+She laughed, seeing my seriousness. 'Oh! Will--Will,' she said. 'You are
+a musician and yet you are anxious about money. But you were born in the
+City. Now in a theatre nobody thinks about money. When the money is
+plenty it is freely lent: when there is none it is freely borrowed.
+Believe me, Will, I shall want no money: I never have wanted money. Did
+I ever tell you, Will, my own fortune? An old gipsy woman told me. "What
+others envy she shall have: what she would have she shall lack. She
+shall pass through dangers without harm: she shall be happy in the end.
+Yet not in the way she would most desire." That is a strange fortune, is
+it not? Now I am in the midst of dangers, yet nothing will do me harm.
+What do I most desire? What do all women most desire? You were born in
+the City, Will, where they do not study the human heart. Therefore you
+know not. The old woman was a witch, as they all are--all the gipsy
+women--so far I have had what others envy--and--alas! Will, I still lack
+what most I desire.'
+
+'What is it, Jenny?'
+
+'Ask your violin, Will. Ask your music. Ask the play upon the stage what
+women most desire. Oh! Foolish youth! they ask what you have given to
+Alice--they ask the happiness of love.'
+
+If the time was long to those who watched and waited, it was worse for
+her who suffered. I believe if I remember aright that our poor Jenny
+spent five or perhaps six weeks in that noisome cell; her cheek, as I
+have said, grew thin and pale from the bad air and the confinement; but
+her courage she never lost for a single day. She asked for no
+consolations and desired no soothing to alleviate the weariness of her
+prison. Of those fine ladies who called before she was tried not one
+came now: nor did any of the actresses, her old friends and rivals,
+visit her. They came before the trial, just as they visit a notorious
+robber, because it is interesting to gape upon a person who stands in
+the great danger of a trial for his life, or has done some daring act of
+villainy, or is about to undergo some terrible ordeal. When her trial
+was over and it became certain in everybody's mind that, although the
+woman had pleaded guilty: although she was condemned: she would not
+suffer the capital sentence, the interest of the public in the case
+rapidly declined and in a few days ceased wholly: the great ladies ran
+after other excitements: they sent letters to the new singer: they sent
+rings to their favourite actor: they crowded the prison of the
+fashionable highwaymen: the actresses, for their part, reflected that
+they would probably have Jenny back among them before long casting them
+all in the shade: so they left off calling: the portrait painters went
+elsewhere after studies likely to be popular. Truly it was a lamentable
+instance of the breath of popular favour fickle and uncertain. 'The Case
+of Clarinda' was forgotten as soon as people had made up their minds
+that Clarinda was not to be hanged, although she had screened her mother
+and pleaded guilty and received sentence of death.
+
+The only persons who now came to the cell were Lord Brockenhurst and Mr.
+Dewberry the attorney, not to speak of the Governor of the Prison, who
+came daily to ask after his fair prisoner's health. His Lordship let us
+know day by day concerning the efforts being made on Jenny's behalf. The
+reason why they were so slow was partly due to a feeling on the part of
+the Judge that though the motive of the prisoner might be good she had
+confessed to a heinous crime, and the Law must not be made ridiculous.
+Therefore, a few weeks of prison should be allowed, whatever was done
+afterwards, in vindication of the Majesty of the Law. 'But,' said Lord
+Brockenhurst, 'he is at least on your side. So much I know for a fact.
+It is a great thing to have the Judge on your side.' He also told us
+that the Counsel for the Prosecution, a gentleman of great eminence in
+the Law, was also very active on our behalf: that the Jurymen had drawn
+up a petition and signed it unanimously for Jenny's pardon and release:
+that the Queen was also reported to be interested in the case and in
+favour of clemency, the whole circumstances being so unusual and the
+behaviour of the prisoner so strangely actuated by filial affection even
+towards an unworthy object: and that the general opinion of the people
+was that it was impossible to suppose that a woman in Jenny's position,
+commanding receipts of thousands every night of a masquerade, could
+condescend to so low and miserable a business as receiving a bundle of
+stolen goods, not worth a couple of guineas altogether, with the
+assistance of wretched confederates whose evidence might hang her: and
+further that the minds of the people being made up they thought no more
+about the matter. In a word, that all was going well, but we must wait:
+he could not tell us how long, and possess our souls in patience.
+
+'If only we do not die of gaol fever,' Jenny sighed. 'Faugh! To die in
+the reek and the stench of this place. My Lord, I am always your most
+obliged servant. Perhaps the Judge would consider his opinion and give
+me at least the choice of death. Let me die like my own people. They lie
+down in a little tent which keeps off the cold rain and the hot sun: on
+their backs they lie looking through the open front at the sky and the
+clouds and presently they shut their eyes and their limbs grow cold.
+Then they are buried in the hedge without coffin or winding-sheet.'
+
+'And without prayers,' said his Lordship. 'Dear Madame, they are not
+your people. There was never yet gipsy with fair hair and blue eyes. You
+shall not die in a tent, but in a bed with those who love you weeping
+over you. And you shall be borne to a marble tomb in the Church with the
+singing men and the boys chanting the service for the good of your
+soul.'
+
+The doctrine was unsound, but the meaning of his Lordship was good.
+
+'The good of my soul,' Jenny repeated, doubtfully. 'Well, my Lord, I
+have at least learned something from the people who stole me--if they
+did steal me. I love the light and the sunshine and the wind. Restore me
+to these and I will promise never, never, never to have another mother
+who will tempt me with second-hand petticoats.'
+
+She laughed, but Lord Brockenhurst, who was a grave gentleman, did not
+laugh.
+
+'Madame,' he said, kissing her fingers--of which he never seemed to
+weary--'I should desire nothing better than to lead you into meadows and
+beside gentle streams where the Zephyrs would bring back their rosy hue
+to your pale cheek. We must not speak of death but of life.'
+
+'But not of love, my Lord,' she interrupted. 'Remember I have a husband.
+He is in the King's Bench Prison, a bankrupt, there to remain for life,
+because he can never hope to pay his debts. But he is my husband.'
+
+'Of everything but love, Madame,' he replied with the dignity which sat
+upon him as naturally as grace sat upon Jenny. 'Seriously, I have a
+house some fifty miles from here. It stands among deep woods, beside a
+flowing stream: behind it is a hill, not terrible with crags but of a
+gentle ascent: it has gardens and orchards: around is a park with flocks
+of the timid deer: not far off you may discover the tower of a village
+Church and hear the music of the bells. Thither, thither, Madame, I will
+lead you when you are free from the misery of this place, and there you
+shall stay till your spirits are restored and your mind recreated: nay,
+you shall stay there, if you will so honour me, all your life. The house
+and all that belongs to it shall be your own. I will be content if once
+in a while I may spend a day or two with you, as your honoured guest.'
+
+'Oh! my Lord,' Jenny made reply, through her tears, 'you are too good to
+me. Indeed I deserve none of this kindness.'
+
+'You deserve all--all--divine Jenny--that a man can offer. Believe me
+there is nothing that is too good or too great for such as Jenny
+Wilmot.'
+
+This dialogue was only one of many. Truly, as Jenny said, here was a
+faithful and a loyal friend.
+
+One more friend was found, as faithful and as loyal, but more humble.
+You remember the country lad called Jack, who had fallen into Merridew's
+clutches and had already entered under his guidance upon the career of a
+rogue. He it was who gave evidence which helped to connect all four
+plotters with the plot. He it was, also, who carried off the old woman
+and Doll by the waggon to Horsham in Sussex. We thought no more about
+him. He had done his service and had received his pay and had gone his
+own way. The lad had an honest look--a wholesome country-bred face,
+different from the pale cheeks of the boys and the swollen faces of the
+men with whom he had begun to sit. In a word, he was not yet branded
+with the mark of Cain. But, I say, we had forgotten him. He was one of
+the characters in the last scene but one of the play which we were
+performing with Miss Jenny Wilmot of Drury Lane Theatre as the heroine.
+
+Now, one morning, while I was playing something to please our prisoner
+in her cell the turnkey brought us a visitor. It was none other than the
+country lad. He stood at the open door and pulled his hair, holding his
+hat in one hand.
+
+'Your servant to command, Madame,' he said timidly, pronouncing his
+words in the broad country manner which is too uncouth to be presented
+to eyes polite.
+
+'Why,' cried Jenny, 'it is Jack! How fares it, honest Jack?' and so took
+him by the hand as if he was of her station. Jenny had no sense of what
+is due to rank and station. 'Why,' she said, when I spoke to her about
+it, 'we are all players in the same company: and we all like speaking
+parts.'
+
+'And how did you leave Mother and Doll?' she went on.
+
+'Purely well, Madame. They got out of the waggon about two miles from
+Horsham at a tavern by the roadside. It was shut up. Doll saw it.
+"Mother," she said, "it would do for us." They wanted me to stay, and if
+they could get the House I should be tapster and drawer. But I thought I
+would go home. So I left them.'
+
+'And then you went home.'
+
+'Ay--I went home. But they didn't want me there. And the parson talked
+about the whipping-post. So I came away again. And I found out where you
+were, Madame, and I came to offer my humble services.'
+
+'Thank you kindly, Jack. But what can I do with you here?'
+
+'I will fetch and carry. I want no wages but just to live. Let me stay
+with your Ladyship.'
+
+He looked so earnest and so honest that Jenny turned to me. 'He might be
+useful. I believe he is honest. What say you, Will?'
+
+What could I say? Should I turn away a friend when we might want all the
+friends we could find? How we were to keep our new servant was more than
+I knew: however, there he was, upon our hands. It was a kindly act of
+Jenny, when her fortunes were at their worst to take over this poor lad
+who was thrown upon the world without a trade--save that of rustic
+labourer, which is useless in London: without a character: and without
+friends. Jenny's consent saved him--he could remain honest.
+
+'Vex not your soul about money, Will. We shall want none. There is
+always money when it is really wanted. See how cheaply I live: I cannot
+wear out my fine clothes--indeed, the mob has left me mighty few to
+wear: I have no rent to pay nor any servants. It is true that my money
+is nearly gone, but there are still things--well--things of which you
+know nothing: and the Judge who thinks so much about the Majesty of the
+Law--will surely relent before long. If he would come to see me I think
+I could soften his heart.'
+
+'Indeed you would, Jenny, if it was of the hardness of the nether
+millstone.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+AN UNEXPECTED EVENT
+
+
+At this juncture the question of money became pressing. For three months
+I had been out of a place. Jenny's money, of which she was so prodigal,
+was coming to an end; and although she hinted at other resources it
+became obvious to me that the attempt must be made to find employment. I
+looked forward to another round of walking about the town day after day
+in fruitless search. At this juncture, however, an event happened wholly
+unexpected, which changed the position altogether both for myself and,
+as it proved, for Jenny.
+
+You have heard how I visited my cousin in the Prison; how I found him
+ragged and half starved; and how I gave him five guineas from his wife,
+which he instantly gambled away. Jenny sent him no more money; nor did
+she speak of him again; nor did I again visit him; nor did I think upon
+him. To think of one who had been my life-long enemy served no purpose
+but to make me angry: even now, after thirty years, when I have long
+since forgiven this poor deluded wretch, ever running after a
+Will-o'-the-wisp, I cannot think of what he did for me--how he made it
+impossible for my father to be reconciled--without a momentary wrath
+boiling up in my heart. Still, I say, at thinking of my Cousin Matthew
+the pulse beats quicker; the blood rises to my cheeks; it is like a
+wound whose scar never vanishes, though it may be hidden away: I would
+not injure Matthew if he were still living in the world, but I cannot
+forget. The old rule taught to children was that we must forget and
+forgive; two boys fight and are reconciled: the master flogs the boy,
+who is then forgiven and his offence at once forgotten: we all forget
+and forgive daily: yet some things may not be forgotten: the long years
+of continued persecution, animosity, misrepresentation and conspiracy
+against dear life I cannot forget, though I have long since forgiven.
+
+One evening Mr. Ramage came to see me. 'Mr. Will,' he said, 'I have
+called to tell you what you ought to know. The Alderman, Sir, has I
+fear, lost his wits: his misfortunes have made him distracted: he now
+dreams that he is living in a palace, and that his riches have no limit.
+He buys land; he gives his daughters diamonds; he founds almshouses----'
+
+'If he believes all that, he is surely happy,' I said.
+
+This faithful servant shook his head. 'There is a look in his eyes which
+belies his words,' he said, 'I would rather see him wretched in his
+senses than happy without them.'
+
+'How does he live?'
+
+'He has a room on the Master's side; some of his old friends of the City
+send him a guinea every week: his daughters pass the day with him. He
+wants for nothing. But, Mr. Will--the change! the change!' and so his
+eyes filled with tears. 'And he who would have been Lord Mayor--Lord
+Mayor--next year!'
+
+'How do my cousins treat you?'
+
+'If I was a dog and toothless they could not treat me worse, because I
+gave that evidence.'
+
+The unfortunate Alderman! This was, indeed, a wretched ending to an
+honourable career. I suppose that he knew nothing and suspected nothing
+of what was threatening; and that the news of his wrecked fortunes fell
+upon him like a thunderbolt. That some of his friends sent him a guinea
+a week showed that he was pitied rather than blamed for this wreck and
+ruin of a noble House. Poor old merchant! And this after his Alderman's
+pride and glory: after being Warden of his Company: after a long
+partnership in one of the oldest Houses in the City! Fortune, which used
+to put Kings down and put Kings up, just by a turn of her wheel, now
+makes rich merchants bankrupt and consigns Aldermen to Debtors' Prisons
+in order to bring home to all of us--even the humble musician--the
+uncertainty of human wealth. His wits gone a-wandering! A happiness for
+him: a thing to be expected, when, at his age, there had fallen upon him
+the thing which City merchants dread worse than death.
+
+'How can we help him?' I asked.
+
+'Nay: there is no help, but pity and to bear the scorn of the young
+ladies as best one may.'
+
+'Do they know that Matthew is in the prison with him?'
+
+'No, Sir. They do not know. They do not inquire after Mr. Matthew. But
+it was of him, Sir, that I came to speak.'
+
+It then appeared that since in every depth of misery there is a lower
+depth, so the unfortunate man had sunk still lower since I last saw him.
+He was absolutely destitute, ragged, starving, even bare-footed.
+
+'Will,' said Alice, 'we must take him to-morrow what we can spare. After
+all he is your cousin. You must forgive him.'
+
+'I would not harm him, certainly.'
+
+Alas! Silver and gold had we little: out of our slender store we might
+spare two or three shillings and some provisions. Half a loaf; a piece
+of cheese; a piece of gammon; a bottle of beer; these things I carried
+over to the Fleet Prison in the morning. I also carried over a warm coat
+which I could ill spare; a pair of shoes and stockings; a warm wrapper
+for the neck; and a thick blanket.
+
+I had no difficulty in finding Matthew. He sat in a bare and wretched
+room where, on this cold day of January, with a sharp frost outside,
+there was no fire in the grate, no curtains to the rattling windows, no
+carpet, no beds, nothing but the hard planks to lie upon when night fell
+and the poor debtors could huddle together for such warmth as the
+half-starved human body could afford. There was a small bench--I suppose
+it found its way there by accident. Matthew sat on that, his feet under
+the bench, his body bent, his hands clasped. I called him by name.
+'Matthew!'
+
+He looked up. He knew me. He murmured something, I know not what, but it
+was unfriendly. To the last, he remained unfriendly.
+
+I opened my bundle. I took out my provisions and the bottle of beer. He
+ate and drank enormously, but without a word of thanks. Then I took out
+the stockings and the shoes and put them on: tied the kerchief round his
+neck; laid the thick blanket on the floor, laid him on it and rolled it
+round him. He was quite unresisting; he was without gratitude; he
+cursed, but mechanically, and as if he could say nothing else. Instead
+of getting warmer, his teeth chattered and he shivered still.
+
+I spoke to him again. 'Is there anything more I can do for you,
+Matthew?'
+
+'You can go away,' he said, articulate at last. 'You can go away and
+leave me. The sight of you makes me mad.' I have since thought that this
+might be a sign of repentance.
+
+'I will go away directly. Is there anything more I can do for you?'
+
+'I want,' he said, lifting his head and looking round, 'I want to have
+my turn. The last time I lost. If you will find the man who won my coat
+and will send him here, I shall be warm directly, and I can have another
+turn. I've lost a good deal, somehow. The luck's been against me, always
+against me.'
+
+He lay back and shivered again, though now he was wrapped up in the
+blanket with a warm coat on over his old rags. He should have been quite
+warm. I felt his forehead; it was hot and dry.
+
+'Matthew,' I said, 'I think you are in some kind of fever. Shall I bring
+a doctor for you?' There are generally about a thousand people in this
+barrack, men, women, and children, yet they have not so much as an
+apothecary in the place. Outside, there is the wise woman who knows the
+herbs and professes to cure all the diseases that flesh is heir to with
+a bundle of camomile, feverfew, or vervain. She commonly lives in a
+court. In Fleet Street there is the apothecary who has a shop full of
+drugs. He despises the wise woman, yet is not so much wiser than she is,
+except in his own conceit. There is the tooth-drawer; and there is the
+bone-setter; but for physicians there are none.
+
+His face, now that the pains of cold and hunger were appeased, looked
+gray, and what the old women call drawn. It is a bad sign had I known
+it, but I did not. I thought he was suffering from cold and hunger
+first, and from some kind of fever brought on by privation.
+
+'You think,' he murmured--his voice was sunk almost to a whisper--'to
+bring a man--a murderer--to make an end--that is your revenge. But you
+shall not. I will send to the Warden for protection. Go away. Leave me
+alone. I can do you no more harm. I will have no doctor sent by you, to
+poison me.'
+
+'Do you know, Matthew, that Probus received such terrible injuries in
+pillory that he will remain blind for the rest of his life?'
+
+'Blind?' he sat up eagerly repeating. 'Blind for the rest of his life.
+Ha! Then he will not be able to find me. Will, he wanted to get you
+hung--so as to be out of the way. He was going to try next to get me
+hung. Then all the money would be his. Blind, is he? Then he can't find
+me. Will, the man is a devil; now a blind devil; a devil in the dark.'
+The thought seemed to revive and to comfort him.
+
+'The other man, Merridew, was killed by the mob in pillory.'
+
+'Killed--killed--by the mob. I was afraid he was going to give me up for
+the reward. Then I am safe; at last. Both of them out of the way. Now I
+shall prosper again.'
+
+'Yes--you are quite safe.'
+
+'Will,' he held out his hand. 'Don't bear malice. Don't give information
+against me.'
+
+'I am not going to give any information against you.' But I could not
+take his hand, for which I was afterwards sorry.
+
+'The information ought to be worth fifty pounds at least and a Tyburn
+ticket--a Tyburn ticket,' he went on repeating the words over one after
+the other, which showed the weakness of his condition.
+
+It is useless setting down all the nonsense he talked. After a while I
+left him and looked about for someone who would attend to him. Presently
+I found an old man in rags, almost as bad as Matthew's, who undertook to
+look after him and give him some food from time to time. So I went away
+and repaired to my daily post at Newgate again, saying nothing to Jenny
+about this illness.
+
+I repeat that I had no thought of anything but what they call a feverish
+cold, which would be checked by the warmth and the food. You may
+therefore imagine my surprise when I went to visit the sick man in the
+morning to learn that he was dead.
+
+'He talked a lot of nonsense,' said the old man, his nurse; 'all day
+long he talked nonsense about murdering and hanging, and dividing
+thousands. Now and then I gave him a bit and a sup and he went on
+talking. There was no candle and I lay down beside him with a corner of
+his blanket over me, and in the middle of the night I woke up and found
+that he had left off talking and was quite still and cold. So I went to
+sleep again.' The insensate wretch had actually finished his sleep
+beside the corpse.
+
+Matthew was dead.
+
+They showed me his body lying in a small shed against the wall. It was
+laid in a shell of pinewood roughly painted black, with no name or plate
+upon it. It was to be taken across to the churchyard of St. George's
+that afternoon, to be laid in a pauper's grave without mourners or
+friends, and with a service hurriedly gabbled over his coffin.
+
+The old man who had nursed him was now comfortably wrapped in the
+blanket and clothed in the coat and stockings which Alice had sent for
+the use of the dead man. I hope the things kept him warm.
+
+Matthew was dead. At first I did not understand the difference it made
+to me. I asked if he had left anything behind him; any letters or papers
+or anything at all that his sisters might desire to have. There was
+nothing; absolutely nothing was left of him at all.
+
+Most of our lives are like the stones thrown in the water; it makes
+circles widening and growing indistinct; presently these signs vanish
+altogether. Then the stone is clean forgotten. So the man and his life
+are clean forgotten, never to be brought to mind again. Matthew left no
+circles even; his was a stone that fell into the water silently and made
+no splash and left no mark upon the surface even for a minute. He lived
+for eight-and-twenty years: he ruined an old and noble House of trade;
+he lost all the wealth and possessions and money of the House; he lost
+all the money he could borrow; he plotted against me continually in
+order to get some of the money which might be mine; he wilfully and
+deliberately deceived the woman who married him; he died in a debtors'
+prison without a single friend in the world or a single possession to
+bequeath to a single friend, if he had one. To die lying on the
+floor--it would have been on the bare planks but for Alice; in the dark
+room without fire or light; what more wretched end could one desire for
+his worst enemy? What more miserable record could one set down against a
+man?
+
+I could do nothing more. I left the poor shell in the shed and passed
+over to the other side. If my uncle could understand anything I had to
+communicate the sad news to him. His only son was dead--What a son! What
+a life! What a death!
+
+The alderman was sitting before the fire. With him sat his two
+daughters. The guinea a week which was meant for him alone procured food
+for the two girls as well. They passed the whole day, I believe, sitting
+thus before the fire in gloom and bitterness; their bitterness was
+mostly directed against myself as the supposed cause of all their
+troubles.
+
+'Cousin,' said one of them looking up, 'you are not wanted here.'
+
+'Perhaps not. I have come, however, to bring you news. It is not good
+news, I am sorry to say.'
+
+'That one can see by the joy expressed in your face.' Yet I did not feel
+joyful.
+
+'Sir,' I addressed my uncle. 'I bring you bad news.'
+
+He looked up and smiled vacuously. 'You will find my brother, sir, on
+Change, I believe.'
+
+'Yes, Sir. I would speak to you of Matthew.'
+
+'He is in the counting-house, or perhaps on board one of the ships. Or
+on the Quay.'
+
+I turned to the daughters. 'I see that he understands nothing.'
+
+'No. He eats and sleeps. He talks nonsense. It is no use speaking to
+him. You have seen us in our shame and misery. Give us your news and
+go.'
+
+'It is about Matthew.'
+
+'Matthew? Where is he? We heard he had escaped.'
+
+'You do not know? Matthew has been in this prison for some weeks.'
+
+'Here? In this prison? And we have not see him?'
+
+'He has been on the Common side; on the Poor side. Perhaps that is the
+reason; perhaps he did not know that.
+
+They looked at each other. Then they burst into tears. I thought they
+were natural tears such as a sister might shed over the loss of her
+brother. But they were not. 'Oh!' they cried. 'Oh! Oh! Oh! And now you
+will have the whole of that great fortune. And we thought that you would
+die and that Matthew would have it. What a misfortune! What a dreadful
+thing!' They wept and lamented, capping each other in lamentations all
+to the effect that the fortune had fallen to the undeserving one. 'And
+after all his plots and after his shameful trial before all the world!
+And after his highway robbery! And after the things that have been done
+to us! and now that people will say that Matthew died a Pauper--on the
+Common side! On the Poor side! We can never hold up our heads again.'
+
+So I left these dear creatures. Never could I understand why they
+attributed any one of their misfortunes to me; nor of what nature were
+the plots to which they referred; nor why my trial was shameful.
+
+However, I left these poor ladies. The reduction in their circumstances;
+their precarious condition; their having nothing but the guinea a week
+given by the Alderman's old friend; the uncertainty of his life; all
+should be considered when we think of their bitterness.
+
+For my own part it was not until my cousins reminded me that I
+understood the great difference which the event made to me.
+
+I was the survivor: and my succession came to me in less than three
+years after my father's death.
+
+I was the survivor. At a single step I rose from the condition of a
+simple fiddler, at twenty-five or thirty shillings a week, to the
+possession of a fortune of over a hundred thousand pounds.
+
+I hastened to our trusty attorney, Mr. Dewberry. I apprised him of what
+had happened; he undertook to present my claims and to transfer the
+money to my name, which he faithfully effected, and without difficulty.
+
+Then I went on to Newgate.
+
+'What is the matter, Will?' cried Jenny, 'you look strangely agitated.'
+
+'Jenny'--I took her hand and held it--'you told me the other day that
+you were in no anxiety about money.'
+
+'I never am, Will. For people of parts there is always plenty of money.'
+
+'You are a Prophetess, Jenny. You will never want for money so long as
+you live. For all that I have is yours, and I am rich.'
+
+'You are rich?' Over her face, so quick to change, there passed a cloud.
+'You are rich? Then--Will ... then ... if you are rich--I must be--a
+widow. Is Matthew dead?'
+
+'He is dead, Jenny.'
+
+She sank into a chair. She shed no tears: she expressed no sorrow.
+
+'Matthew is dead. I wish I had never met him--Matthew is dead.'
+
+'He is dead, Jenny. He died in the prison.'
+
+'And I am a widow. I am free again. I am a widow who never was a wife.
+Will, I would not speak ill of the dead--of the unburied: but ... alas!
+I can find no good words to speak of him. He can do no more harm--either
+to you or to me.'
+
+'Let us not speak of him, then.'
+
+'No--we must forget him. As for this money, Will, it is yours--your
+own--yours and Alice's--and the lovely boy's.'
+
+'Jenny--all that we have is yours: all that we have and
+more ... more ... gratitude and love and devotion--which are
+more than gold.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+COMMUTATION
+
+
+At that very moment, while we were trying to find words befitting the
+occasion which would not admit of grief yet demanded the respect due to
+Death, arrived the news so long expected.
+
+The Governor of the Prison, accompanied by our friend the Counsel for
+the Prosecution, stood at the door, followed by one of the Turnkeys.
+
+'Madame,' said the Governor, 'I come to bring you news.' But he looked
+so serious that my heart sank.
+
+'And I, Madame,' said the lawyer, 'shall be pleased to add a codicil to
+this intelligence.'
+
+'Gentlemen, I have already this morning received news enough for one day
+at least. Am I, gentlemen, ordered to adorn the next procession along
+the Oxford Road?'
+
+'No, Madame,' the Governor replied. 'But I wish the news were more
+joyful. I had hoped--I had expected--considering the whole case----'
+
+I looked at Jenny. She turned suddenly pale; I thought she was going to
+faint. Consider: she had persuaded herself that a full and immediate
+pardon would be granted. She had no doubt as to that point. She did not
+faint; she recovered and spoke with white lips and a hard forced voice.
+
+'Tell me quick!'
+
+'Madame, His Majesty has graciously commuted the sentence into
+transportation to the plantations for the term of five years.'
+
+Jenny made no reply. I groaned aloud. Transportation? To go out as a
+servant! To be bought by a planter and made to work in the tobacco
+fields under the lash? This for Jenny! All the world knew what
+transportation meant and what were the mercies served out to convicts.
+
+The Governor sighed and shook his head. The lawyer took up the tale.
+'Madame,' he said, 'believe me; everything has been done that could be
+done. Had you pleaded Not Guilty you would most certainly have been
+acquitted. Madame, I know your reasons, and I respect them. You pleaded
+Guilty. Your reasons were not such as could be laid before the King,
+unless privately. The Judge in your case is a lawyer of great eminence;
+that is to say, he is jealous of the Law; he holds that above all things
+the Law must be feared. He is called a hanging Judge, being a most
+merciful man; but the Law must be respected. There must not be one Law
+for the rich rogue and another for the poor rogue.'
+
+'Rich or poor,' said Jenny, 'I am a rogue for having stolen nightcaps in
+my garrets; and I am a rogue and a vagabond because I am an actress.'
+
+'Nay, Madame; but the Toast of the Town, the most lovely----'
+
+'My loveliness does not stand me in much stead at this juncture. Tell me
+again. I am to be shipped across seas: I am to stay there five years: I
+am to herd on board with the wretched women outside: I am to work in the
+fields with them and with negroes: I am to be whipped by my master: I am
+to live on sweet potatoes. I am to wear sacking for all my clothes.
+Gentlemen,' she added with flushed cheek, 'go, tell the King that I will
+not accept this mercy.'
+
+'Nay, Madame,' said the lawyer with persuasive tongue. 'You go too fast.
+Those who have friends can evade the obligations of service; you, who
+have so many friends, will find that you have nothing to fear beyond the
+voyage and a short residence in a pleasant climate. For my own part,
+dear Madame, I hope to see you before another year begins back upon the
+boards of Drury Lane, with all the town at your feet. I pine, Madame, I
+languish for the first evening to arrive.'
+
+'Jenny,' I whispered, 'for Heaven's sake be careful. Consider; this
+gentleman cannot be deceiving you. If there is, as he says, no real
+obligation to service; and if, as he says, the sentence means only a
+short residence in a pleasant country--then surely you must accept.
+There is, however, the voyage. Perhaps, Sir,' I addressed the lawyer,
+'it will be possible for Madame to take the voyage in a private cabin
+apart from the rest of the--the company.'
+
+'It will certainly be possible. She may take state rooms for herself and
+her maid: she will be treated as a gentlewoman. It is only a question of
+arrangement with the Captain. Madame, I assure you, upon my honour, that
+the sentence means no more than what I have stated. It is a brief exile
+in which you will endure no other indignity than that of sailing on
+board the ship which carries a few scores of the wretches going out as
+slaves--if one may call an Englishman a slave.'
+
+Jenny wavered. Her cheek was still red with shame and disappointment.
+She wavered.
+
+'Jenny,' I said, taking her hand.
+
+She sat down. 'Let it be, then, as you will.'
+
+'That is bravely resolved,' said the Governor. 'And now I shall have the
+pleasure of removing you immediately from this close and confined
+chamber to one more airy and more commodious.'
+
+'Gentlemen,' said Jenny, still crestfallen, 'I thank you both for your
+good intentions. I should love you better if you would put a sword
+through me and so end it. Perhaps, however, the ship may go to the
+bottom. Let us hope so. It must sink, I am sure, so heavy will be the
+heart of lead on board it.'
+
+So, with renewed protestations of assistance and goodwill the lawyer
+went away with the Governor. In the yard I observed that he stopped and
+looked upon the crowd of women, many of whom he would help to the
+gallows. Does such a lawyer, always occupied in getting up and preparing
+a case, so as to persuade a jury into a verdict of 'Guilty' ever feel
+remorse at having done so, or repugnance at doing it again? Do the
+ghosts of those whom he has sent to the other world haunt his bedside at
+night? One may as well ask if the Judge who pronounces the sentence
+feels remorse or pity. He is the mouth of the Law; the Counsel feeds the
+mouth; the Governor of Newgate is the arm of the Law. However, that the
+Counsel for the Prosecution should take so much interest in the release
+of a prisoner is, I should think, without example in the history of
+Newgate, where they have never had before, and can never have again, a
+prisoner so lovely, so attractive, so interesting, as Jenny. After him
+came another visitor. It was my Lord Brockenhurst who brought us the
+news we had already heard--but with a difference.
+
+'Madame,' he said, after telling us what we had already heard, 'I shall
+always regret that I was not the first to let you know. Indeed, I have
+flown. The commutation of the sentence involves a voyage; that cannot be
+denied; but there is no obligation to service. That will be arranged for
+you; I can undertake so much, if necessary. The voyage is no great
+matter; six weeks if you are fortunate; eight weeks, at most, will set
+you on shore; the country is said to be beautiful; the climate is
+healthy, the Virginians are mostly gentlemen of good family.'
+
+'I thank you, my Lord, for your kind words.'
+
+'There is another thing, Madame. I am empowered to assure you that the
+Petition which you drew up for your young protégée here has been
+graciously received by Her Majesty the Queen. She has herself asked for
+the remission of the capital sentence. The girl's life will be spared.'
+
+'This is good news, at least.'
+
+'On conditions, which you must expect. She will go with you to Virginia
+for five years. You can take her as your maid, if you please.'
+
+'With me for five years?' Jenny repeated. 'I know so little of what is
+ordered----'
+
+'Briefly, Madame, a prisoner under sentence of transportation is engaged
+as a servant, generally on a tobacco plantation, where he works with the
+negroes. If there should happen to be one among them of a superior class
+he becomes an accountant or even a manager; or if he can command
+influence or money his engagement is merely nominal. Your engagement
+will be a form which I shall arrange for you. This girl can remain with
+you. When you come home you can bring her with you.'
+
+'In five years?'
+
+'No--in much less time--in a few months. I am permitted on the highest
+authority to assure you that your banishment will be but short. As soon
+as it can with decency be asked for, a full pardon will be asked for and
+it will be granted. You will then only have to return in order to
+delight your friends once more.'
+
+'When shall I have to go?'
+
+'A ship is now fitting out. She sails in a week or a fortnight. You will
+sail as a cabin passenger, entrusted to the protection of the Captain.
+The--the other--passengers will be confined between decks, I believe.'
+
+'My Lord, I am deeply touched by all your kindness.'
+
+'Madame, _I_ have done little--little indeed. Would it had been more! I
+shall now, with your permission, make arrangements with the Captain of
+the ship for your entertainment on the voyage and your reception on
+reaching the port.'
+
+'So,' said Jenny, 'in one day I am deprived of my husband. I am a widow
+who never was a wife. I am deprived of my country--which is London; and
+of all my friends.'
+
+His lordship's face changed. 'Your husband, Madame? Is he dead?'
+
+'He died last night. Let us not speak of him.'
+
+'Then you are free' He glanced at me: I saw his meaning and the purpose
+in his eyes. 'You are free.'
+
+I stepped out, leaving them together. In a few minutes he came out with
+the look of one distracted, and not knowing what he was doing or whither
+he went.
+
+Within the cell Jenny was sitting at the table with red and tearful
+eyes.
+
+'That good and noble friend, Will, would make me Lady Brockenhurst.'
+
+'Jenny--why not?'
+
+'He would go with me: he would marry me here and sail with me. No--no--I
+promised his sister. What? Because I love a man--the best of men--should
+I give him children who would be ashamed of their mother and her origin?
+Mine would be a pretty history for them to learn, would it not? No,
+Will, no. Believe me I love him too well. Even if he were a meaner man,
+I could never bring my history to smirch the chronicles of a respectable
+family.'
+
+She was silent a little. 'Will,' she said presently, looking up, 'all
+that I foretold has proved true. I want no money. I am going out to a
+strange country. It is not Ireland as I thought. It is Virginia. I see
+it again so plain--so clear--I shall know it when I land. But I can see
+no farther. There will be no return for me to Drury Lane. My vision
+stops short--now that I see you--somewhere--with me--I see Alice also.
+But I cannot see England or London--or the Black Jack or Drury Lane.'
+
+Then we moved to the more commodious chamber, where I soothed her
+spirits with a cup of tea which is better far than wine or cordials for
+the refreshment of the mind. Presently she began to recover a little
+from her disappointment.
+
+'It will be lonely at first,' she said, 'without a single friend, and I
+suppose that a transported convict--say that for me, Will--it hath a
+strange sound. It is like a slap in the face--a transported convict----'
+
+'Nay, Jenny, do not say it.'
+
+'I must. I say that though a transported convict must be despised, yet I
+shall have my girl here with me, and perhaps my Lord will prove right
+and I may come home again. Yet I do not think so. Will, there is one
+consolation. At last I shall get clean away from my own people. They
+used to congregate round the stage-door of the Theatre to congratulate
+their old friend on her success. The Orange-Girls were never tired of
+claiming old friendship. I married in order to get away from them, but
+Matthew never meant to keep his promise--I am tired, Will, of my own
+people. They have made me suffer too much. Henceforth let them go and
+hang without any help from me.'
+
+'It is high time, Jenny.'
+
+'The Act ends lamely, perhaps. It may be the last Act of the Play. The
+ship leaves the Quay. On the deck stands the heroine in white satin,
+waving her handkerchief. The people weep. The bo's'n blows his whistle.
+The sailors stamp about; the curtain falls. Will, if things are
+real--what am I to do when I get back--if I do get back? How am I to
+live?'
+
+'Jenny,' I said seriously, 'I believe that one so good and so fearless,
+for whom daily prayers are offered, will be led by no will of her own,
+into some way of peace and happiness.'
+
+'Think you so, good cousin? There spoke Alice. It is her language. She
+says that beyond the stars are eyes that can see and hands that can
+lead. Why, Will, for my people, the only hand that leads is the hand of
+hunger: the only hand that directs is the hand with the whip in it; as
+for eyes that see'--she shook her head sadly--'I wish there were,' she
+said. 'Perhaps there would then be some order in St. Giles's. And there
+would be some hope for the poor rogues. Oh! Will--the poor helpless,
+ignorant, miserable rogues--of whom I am one--a transported convict--a
+transported convict--how we suffer! how we die! And pass away and are
+forgotten! Will ... Will ... I go with a heavy heart--I go to meet my
+death. For never more shall I return. Where is the eye that sees? Oh!
+Will--where is the hand that leads?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+TRANSPORTATION
+
+
+In the evening when I left the prison, it was with emotions strange and
+bewildering. Jenny, who was to have received a free pardon, was sent, a
+self-accused convict, to the plantations. To the plantations, where they
+send the common rogues and villains. She was to go out on board a
+convict ship, counted happy because although one of that shameful
+company, she was not kept below all the voyage on convict fare with
+those wretches vile and unspeakable.
+
+And I was rich. After all these troubles: after my father's displeasure:
+after my disinheritance: after my persecution and imprisonment: I was
+rich----
+
+And Matthew, the cause of all, was dead.
+
+Truly the hand of the Lord had been heavy upon them all. Matthew dying
+in starvation and misery. Mr. Probus, lying in prison, a pauper and
+blind: Merridew stoned to death: the other two escaped with life, but
+that was all. But the innocent were suffering with the guilty: the old
+man Alderman languishing in a debtors' prison with no hope of release:
+and Jenny a convict to be transported across the seas. They did well to
+call it a voyage: a short exile in a pleasant climate: she was a
+convict: she was under sentence.
+
+And I was rich. So I kept saying to myself as I walked home that
+evening. So I kept saying to Alice when I told her what had happened
+while we sat till late at night talking over these acts of Providence.
+
+We were to see her go far away across the ocean--a convict, never
+perhaps to return: to see her go alone, save for her little maid: in
+danger of wicked men of whom there are plenty over every part of the
+world: perhaps, in spite of what was said, a servant even, at her
+master's beck and call: the woman to whom I owed more than life: far
+more than life: honour: and the respect of the world: and the happiness
+of my children and grandchildren: yea, even unto the third and fourth
+generation. What was wealth? Where was its happiness when we had to
+think of Jenny? It was this woman, I say, who by her ready wit, her
+generosity, her fearlessness in the presence of risks certain and
+dangers inevitable, made my innocence as clear as the noonday's sun. For
+this service shall her name be blessed among those who come after me and
+bear my name and are stimulated to deeds of honour by the thought that
+they come of an honourable stock. Think of the burden upon their lives
+had they been doomed to remember that their father or their grandfather
+before them had suffered a shameful death for highway robbery!
+
+Jenny saved me--but at what a price! She braved the worst that the
+rogues, her former friends, could do to her. She compelled her own
+people: their own associates to betray them in order to prove my
+innocence. She paid for the betrayal by prison, trial and ruin. She
+poured out her money like water in order that no doubt whatever should
+exist in the mind of the Court or the Jury as to the real character of
+the witnesses. In return she endured the foul air and the foul
+companionship of Newgate and a shameful transportation to Virginia,
+there to be set up, if her sentence was carried out, and sold as
+a slave for five years. It was no common gratitude--we repeated over
+and over again--that we owed her for this service. We owed her
+all--all--all--that we possessed or ever could possess.
+
+But money cannot effect everything: it could not, in this case, give
+Jenny the full pardon and the immediate release we desired.
+
+In the dead of night, as I lay sleepless, tortured in my mind because I
+could think of nothing that we could do for Jenny, who had done so much
+for us, Alice spoke to me, sitting up in bed.
+
+'Husband,' she said, and then she fell to weeping for a while and it
+seemed as if she could not stop her crying and sobbing--but they were
+tears of prayer and praise. 'Let us talk. It is yet night. The world
+sleeps; but the Lord is awake. Let us talk.'
+
+So we talked.
+
+'I am heavy in my mind about that poor creature,' she began.
+
+'And I no less, my dear.'
+
+'We must not think that the innocent are punished with the guilty. That
+old man the Alderman is pulled down by his son: they lie in ruin
+together: but he is innocent: for this reason he has been permitted to
+lose his wits and now feels nothing. Jenny suffers because though she is
+innocent in intention, she is guilty in fact. Will, if I think of that
+poor creature, so good and generous and so self-denying: and of the
+company among whom she has lived: and of the people among whom she was
+born: and how she has no religion, not the least sense of religion, I
+think that this new business may be but the leading of the poor
+trembling soul to knowledge.'
+
+'She is assured that before long she will be permitted to return.'
+
+'Perhaps she will not be permitted to return. There is One who is higher
+than kings.'
+
+'What would you do, Alice?'
+
+'Let us ask ourselves, Will, what we are to do with our new riches. I am
+but a homely body, I cannot become a fine lady. As for yourself,
+remember, my dear, that you have been a musician, playing for your
+livelihood at the Dog and Duck: and you have stood your trial at the Old
+Bailey: and you have been in a Debtors' Prison: and your father's House
+is bankrupt: and your name is held in contempt where formerly it was in
+honour. Where will you seek your new friends? In the country? But the
+Quality despise a musician. In the City? They despise a musician much:
+prisoner for debt, more: a bankrupt, most.'
+
+'I know not what is in your mind, Alice.'
+
+'I am coming to it, my dear. Remember, once more, what you said to-night
+that we owe her all--all--all. Your life: your honour: your son's pride
+in his father: my life, for the agony and the shame would have killed
+me. Oh! Will, what can we do for her? What can we give her in return for
+benefits and services such as these?'
+
+'I will give her all I have, my dear, my whole fortune, this new great
+fortune. I will give her everything but you, my dear, and the boy.'
+
+'Money she does not want and it will not help her in this strait.'
+
+'What then can we do? We have gratitude--it is hers. And our fortune, it
+is hers if she will take it.'
+
+'Oh! Will, be patient with me, dear. We can give her indeed, all that we
+have: we can give her'--she bent over me and kissed me, and her tears
+fell upon my forehead--'we can give her, Will--ourselves.'
+
+'What?'
+
+'We can give her--ourselves. The whole of our lives. We can become her
+servants in grateful thanks for all that she has done for us.'
+
+'But how, Alice, how?'
+
+'Consider: she is going out to a new country--alone. We know not into
+what company she may fall. It is a rough country not yet fully settled I
+am told: there are fierce Indians and cruel snakes and wild
+beasts--though I fear the men worse than the beasts. Who will protect
+her? She is beautiful and men are sometimes driven mad by beauty in
+women.'
+
+I began to understand.
+
+'Let us go away with her to this new country, where she shall be the
+mistress and we will be the servants. They say it is a beautiful
+country, with fine sunshine and fruits in plenty. Let us go with her,
+Will, and protect her from dangers and teach her to forget the thieves'
+kitchen and make her happy among the flowers and the woods. We will turn
+her captivity into a holiday: we will think of nothing in the world but
+to make her happy. I have told you. Will, what is in my mind. And, my
+dear, I verily believe the Lord Himself has put it there.'
+
+I reflected for a little. Then I kissed her. 'I am content, my dear,' I
+said. 'As you desire, so shall it be. We will go with Jenny and become
+her servants as long as the duty shall be laid upon us.'
+
+And so we fell asleep. And in the morning this thing seemed a dream. But
+it was no dream. Then we had to begin our preparations. It would be
+close on three weeks, we learned, before the ship, the _Pride of
+Ratcliffe_, would be ready to drop down the river. I went on board and
+saw the Captain. He told us that Lord Brockenhurst had already engaged
+the best cabin for Madame, that although one of the convicts she was to
+be treated differently: to be separated from the rest: not to mix with
+them: wherein, he said grimly, 'she is lucky indeed.' With her and in
+her cabin was to go another convict, a young girl. They were to mess in
+the Captain's cabin. 'See,' he said, 'what it is to be a friend of a
+noble Lord.' I told him that the lady was a cousin of my own, which
+disconcerted him. However, without many more words, we came to an
+understanding. I was to have a cabin for so much. And the Captain
+undertook to lay in provisions for us. He was kind enough to draw up a
+list of the things we should require: it appeared necessary for a
+passenger to America to buy up half the beeves and sheep of Smithfield,
+together with all the turkey, geese and poultry, of Leadenhall, not to
+speak of wine and rum, enough for the whole crew. He said that in bad
+weather so much of the live-stock was destroyed that it was necessary to
+provide against these accidents. So he prevailed, and I think I kept the
+whole ship's company with my stores.
+
+The ship was of 350 tons burden, a stout, well-built ship, with three
+masts, not unlike one of my father's West Indiamen, but inferior in
+tonnage: she was slow, it afterwards appeared, generally doing from
+four knots an hour, or about a hundred knots a day at such times as
+there was a favourable wind. If the wind was unfavourable, as generally
+happened, her speed was much less. As for the length of the voyage, the
+Captain reckoned that taking one voyage with another, she would get
+across in six or eight weeks: the uncertainty of the time, as he pointed
+out, as well as the possibility of storms, called for the apparently
+vast quantity of provisions which he was laying in for our party.
+
+And now began a busy time. First I communicated our design to Mr.
+Dewberry, the attorney, who entirely approved of it. Next I arranged
+with him for the safe investment of my new fortune as to which there was
+no difficulty at all as soon as the death of Matthew had been duly
+proved and attested. The amount which was originally £100,000 had now by
+the accumulation of the interest become over £120,000, which, at five
+per cent., produced the enormous income of £6,000 a year--more than a
+hundred pounds a week. What would we do with a hundred pounds a week?
+Mr. Dewberry laughed. 'I have never yet,' he said, 'found a rich man
+complaining of too much wealth. For the most part he complains of
+poverty. In a word, Mr. Halliday, your wealth will before many months
+cease to be a burden to you. But remember, great as is this income, even
+in the wealthy City of London, and enormous as it will be in the distant
+land of Virginia, there are limits to the power even of such an income.
+Keep within it: keep within it.'
+
+It matters not how we made this money safe--that is, as safe as money
+can be made. There are stocks and shares in the National Debt. Some of
+these were obtained: and there were houses in the City which were
+bought: in a few days my excellent attorney put my affairs in such order
+that I was enabled to leave England without fear, and to be provided,
+moreover, with letters of credit by which I could draw for such money as
+might be necessary from time to time. By this time our plans, much
+talked about, were matured. We would purchase an estate, as a
+plantation: in Virginia every estate is a plantation: it would be
+probably a tobacco-growing estate with its servants and slaves and
+buildings complete. Thither we would all go together and take up our
+abode. Letters were provided which I could present to responsible and
+honest merchants at Baltimore, by whose assistance I hoped to get what
+we desired, and we resolved, further, to tell Jenny nothing of these
+plans until we were all on board together.
+
+The next thing was to find out what we should take out from the old
+country to the new. It was reported that already they made nearly
+everything that was wanted: such as furniture and things made out of the
+woods of the country, which are various and excellent. The things most
+in demand were reported to be knives, tools, and ironmongery of all
+kinds: guns and weapons: clothes of the better kind, especially dresses
+for gentlewomen in silk and satin and embroidered work. Books, music,
+and musical instruments were also scarce. I laid in a great stock of all
+these things: they were packed in large chests bound in iron and sent on
+board as they were bought.
+
+In getting these purchases and in procuring this information the days
+passed quickly, because it was necessary as well that I should visit
+Jenny every day. A happy bustling time. After all the trouble of the
+past it was pleasant to think of a new world opening before us with new
+hopes of happiness. These hopes were realized. I do not say that people
+are better in the New World than in the Old; everywhere are men
+self-seeking and grasping: but there is less suffering, less poverty,
+and, I believe, none of such infernal wickedness as may be devised at
+home by men like Probus and Merridew. Such monstrous growths are not
+found in a new country where the population is thin, and there is no
+place for villains to hide their heads. The worst trouble in Virginia,
+in those days, was with the convicts, concerning whom I shall speak
+immediately.
+
+While these preparations were going on, Jenny waited in Newgate somewhat
+sadly. Lord Brockenhurst came to visit her daily: she had the girl whom
+she had saved for a maid: the lad Jack came every day to fetch and carry
+and do her bidding. I said nothing to this fellow of our purpose. One
+day, however, while he waited in the corridor outside the cell, I called
+him in and spoke to him seriously. 'Jack,' I said, ''tis known to thee
+that Madame sails for America in a week or so?'
+
+'Ay, Sir,' and his face dropped.
+
+'What will you do, Jack? There is the old company of the kitchen at the
+Black Jack: if that is broken up they have gone to the Spotted Dog.'
+
+'No, Sir,' he said stoutly, 'I will be a rogue no more. I have promised
+Madame.'
+
+'Then there is the village. You could go home again, Jack.'
+
+'They will not have me.'
+
+'Then, Jack, what will you do?'
+
+He held his hat in his hands, and then with tears rolling down his
+cheeks he fell on his knees to Jenny. 'Take me with you, Madame,' he
+said. 'I will be your faithful servant to command. Only take me with
+you.'
+
+'Alas, Jack! who am I that I should have a servant with me who shall be
+but a servant myself. Poor lad, I cannot take thee.'
+
+'By your leave, Jenny,' I said. 'There will be a little maid to wait
+upon you and you will want Jack to protect both you and her. If you
+consent to take him, he shall go.'
+
+'But, Will, you know the conditions. I shall not be mistress even of
+myself.'
+
+'That is provided. Did not Lord Brockenhurst promise?'
+
+'Lord Brockenhurst will do what he can. Of that I have no doubt. But as
+to his power across the Atlantic, of that I have grave doubts.'
+
+'Jenny,' I took her hand. 'Do you trust my word? Could I deceive you?
+Could I ever hold out hopes unless I knew that they were well grounded?'
+
+'Why, Will, whom should I trust if not you?'
+
+'Then, Jenny, listen and believe. It is so arranged and provided that on
+landing in America you will be provided with a house fit for your
+station and with everything, so long as you may stay in the country,
+that a gentlewoman can require. And all that you have or enjoy will be
+yours--your own--and over all you shall be mistress.'
+
+'Dear Will--this providing is your providing.'
+
+'A manservant you must have to begin with. Negroes there are in plenty,
+but an English manservant--an honest'--here I looked Jack in the face;
+he reddened and was confused--'an honest, strong, capable, faithful
+servant, that you want, Jenny; and that you must have, and here he is.'
+I clapped the fellow on the shoulder as he still knelt before his
+mistress.
+
+'Get up, Jack,' she said. 'Since it must be so, it must. But you must
+thank Mr. Halliday and not me.'
+
+It was not a servant that she took out with her but a slave, one of
+those willing slaves to whom their slavery is freedom, who have no
+thoughts or desires of their own; none but the thought how best to
+please their Lords or Ladies. Such servants are rare, except those who
+have served in the army, where duty is taught to be the first virtue.
+
+'At least,' said Jenny, 'I shall not be put ashore alone or among the
+gang of poor creatures with whom I ought to stand as a companion.' And
+indeed the prospect of this strong fellow to protect her at the outset
+caused her, I was pleased to find, no slight consolation. Yet I dared
+not tell her till it was too late to be altered, the resolution which we
+had formed to go with her as well.
+
+Despite the injurious treatment of my two cousins, I took it greatly to
+heart that the unfortunate Alderman should, for no fault of his own, be
+condemned to imprisonment for the short remainder of his days. He was
+past understanding where he was. In imagination he rolled in his chariot
+from Clapham Common to the Wharf and Counting House: he received the
+Captains of the West Indiamen: he appeared on Change: he dined with his
+Company: he sat on the Bench: he walked in his garden: he cut
+pine-apples and grapes in his hothouses. He was quite happy. But there
+was the shame of knowing that he was there and that he was supported by
+the charity of his old friends.
+
+Accordingly I sought Mr. Dewberry's advice and help. There was now but
+little time to be lost, a matter which made things easier, because, Mr.
+Dewberry said, so long as there was any chance of getting more by
+putting off the matter it would be put off. In a word, he called
+together the creditors. They were fortunately a small body: all those
+who had claims in respect to Jenny's liabilities were cut off by
+Matthew's death. The debt of Mr. Probus was also removed by his death
+because it was an account of monies borrowed by Matthew privately. There
+remained the debts of the House, and these were due to merchants and to
+banks. The creditors met, therefore, and I attended. Mr. Dewberry
+pointed out that my desire was the release of my uncle: that the
+creditors had no claim upon me: that anything I might offer with the
+view of attaining that object was a free and voluntary gift: that if the
+creditors refused this gift they would never get anything at all: and
+finally that they should consider that the poor man now in prison had
+not been a party to any of the transactions which led to the ruin of
+the House.
+
+They asked half an hour to consider. At the end of that time, they
+offered to accept in full discharge of all claims, two shillings in the
+pound. I was advised to accept this offer. It took nearly £20,000 out of
+my fortune; in fact, all the accumulations. But I had the satisfaction
+before I left of releasing my uncle from his chamber in the loathed
+King's Bench.
+
+I knew how I should be received by my cousins: but words break no bones.
+Besides, I wished to release him, so to speak, with my own hands.
+
+'You are come again then,' said my elder cousin, who for some reason
+unknown, was much the more bitter of the two. There is your handiwork.
+Gaze upon it,' she pointed to her father, 'and exult! Exult!'
+
+'On the whole,' I said, 'I can, this day at least, exult in my work.'
+
+'It is your doing. None but yours. If you had signed what he wished this
+misery would have been saved. And you would have had quite as much as
+one in your beggarly trade could desire.'
+
+'Thank you, cousin. You are always kind to me.'
+
+'You are my brother's murderer. You have ruined my father,' she added.
+
+'I am anything you wish. Indeed, I have no reply to make to such charges
+as these. Meantime I have come here to-day in order to release your
+father. Down below waits the attorney with his discharge in due form. He
+is free. You can take him out of the Prison.'
+
+'Out of prison?'
+
+They both stared at me. Their eyes flashed: the sudden joy of liberty
+seized them: they sprang to their feet.
+
+'Free? He is free?' cried the younger. 'Father, you are free--do you
+hear?'
+
+'Free?' he replied. I have been free of the City for six-and-thirty
+years.'
+
+'Free!' echoed the elder. 'What is the good of freedom without the means
+of getting a living? Free? Let us stay here, where at least we have a
+guinea a week.'
+
+'Your livelihood is provided for. You will receive during your three
+lives the sum of three guineas paid weekly.'
+
+'Three guineas?' The younger caught my hand, 'Cousin Will! Oh! It is
+our living. It is everything to us poor paupers. Will, I doubt we have
+misjudged you.'
+
+Her sister snatched her hand away. 'Don't touch him!' she cried. 'Don't
+speak to him! Three guineas a week! The miserable pittance! and he has
+thousands--thousands--thousands a year'--her voice rose to a
+shriek--'which ought to have been our murdered brother's and our own!'
+
+One must never look for gratitude or even for reasonable recognition: or
+for the courtesy of thanks: but these words were really more shrewish
+and more bitter than one can endure. However, I made no reply and left
+them, pleased at least that one of them could be moved to confessing her
+prejudice. I know not what became of them, nor have I ever heard tidings
+of them since that day.
+
+One more addition was made to our party.
+
+My brother-in-law, Tom Shirley, came to me one morning with a serious
+face--serious at least, for him. 'Will,' he said, 'I have been thinking
+about my own concerns, that is, my wife has been thinking about them for
+me. It is a great advantage for a man to give over that part of his
+business to his wife.'
+
+'Well, Tom?'
+
+'She says, if I remember right, because she has been saying a good deal,
+that so long as I am content to play first fiddle at the Dog and Duck
+for thirty shillings a week it matters not, as we shall never get on,
+and shall have to live in the Rules all our life. Well, Will, I would as
+lief live in the Rules as out of them. There is very good company in the
+Rules, almost as good as in the King's Bench itself.'
+
+'She is not content that you should always play the fiddle at that
+place, and you are. Is that so?'
+
+'For the patronage of aristocracy and the esteem of an audience of taste
+there is no equal to the Dog and Duck,' he replied gravely, as if he
+meant what he said of the dirty disreputable haunt of 'prentices and
+their kind. 'But I confess, Will, that there are times when I consider
+my musical compositions and when I long for a wider popularity. I think
+that I should like an opportunity to get my name better known. At the
+Dog and Duck the noble audience doth not ask the name of the composer.'
+
+'You would leave the Rules if you could, and go live at Westminster,
+where there are concerts and rich patrons? Well, Tom, we are now rich.
+We might manage that for you I believe.'
+
+He shook his head. 'No. Best not waste good money. I should only get
+back here again in a month or two. My dear Will, if you only knew how
+difficult it is to refuse when things are offered on credit. Now, in the
+Rules no one has any credit, so that we save all our money.'
+
+I never heard of Tom's saving any money. However, I asked him what he
+would have.
+
+He would go with me. But did they want music in Virginia?
+
+'Perhaps not now. Wait, however, till they have heard and seen me. I
+believe there is no musical composer, yet, in the Province. I will be
+the first Virginian musician. I will be the Handel of Virginia.'
+
+'Well, Tom, why not?' The knowledge of my great income made me yielding.
+Was there not enough for a dozen Toms? 'I dare say we could pay out your
+detaining creditors with no great difficulty.'
+
+'Not for the world, my dear brother-in-law. Even from you I could not
+accept such a favour. Pay me out? Why, it would be no favour: it would
+be a crime. Do you know that my only detaining creditor is an attorney?
+Pay an attorney? Never. Remember Probus. Surely you have had enough of
+attorneys.'
+
+'Indeed I am not likely to forget Probus as long as I live. But then, if
+you are not paid out, Tom, how will you get out?'
+
+'I shall walk out, Mr. William Halliday. If you let us go out with you I
+shall send the wife on board with Alice and I shall then walk out with
+my violin in one hand and a bundle of music in the other on the evening
+before the ship sails. I shall go on board. When my creditor finds out
+that I have taken my departure, which may take weeks--or it may take
+months--that honest attorney will be pained no doubt, for he is of a
+revengeful spirit. He will then do exactly what he pleases. But I
+believe he will not venture out to Virginia. If he should dare that
+attempt I will give him to friendly Indians in order to be--carbonadoed,
+as I believe you Americans call it. That attorney, Will, shall be
+carbonadoed over a slow fire.'
+
+Tom, then, was to come with us. So with Jenny, her maid, and her man:
+Tom Shirley and his wife: Alice, the boy and myself we should make up
+as pleasant a family party as ever sailed across the Atlantic.
+
+The time approached when we were to go on board. The ship was to drop
+down with the ebb on Saturday morning at nine with the turn of the tide.
+Everything was on board; on the forecastle on deck my live stock was
+gathered: sheep, pigs, turkeys (all of which died in the Channel) geese
+and poultry: our furniture, books and music were stowed away in the
+hold: our wine and liquors were laid in bunks around the cabin: the
+Captain and the mate were to take meals with us: they were also so
+obliging as to drink up our rum and our wine. We had no leavetakings: on
+Friday afternoon Alice and her sister-in-law went on board. Tom joined
+them after sundown. At eight o'clock or thereabouts I was to bring Jenny
+and her party on board. Lord Brockenhurst had expressed his desire to
+say farewell to her on the quarterdeck.
+
+A little after seven I repaired to the Gaol. At the gates I saw waiting
+three large waggons which the people were filling with boxes and bundles
+tied up in sacking and canvas. I thought nothing of these waggons at the
+moment: they did not concern me, and I entered the Lodge. There was
+waiting for me Jenny herself, dressed in splendour as if for a wedding.
+Surely no prisoner sentenced to transportation ever went on board ship
+in such a guise. She was taking an affectionate leave of the Governor,
+who was moved almost to tears by her departure.
+
+'Indeed, Sir,' she said, 'I am grieved to have put you to so much
+trouble.' So she shook hands, smiling sweetly: then she turned to the
+turnkeys. 'I am also very much in your debt, my friends,' and walked
+along the whole line distributing guineas. 'God bless your Ladyship!'
+they uttered fervently. 'We shall never see the likes of your Ladyship
+here again.'
+
+Indeed I am sure that they never will.
+
+She mounted the steps of the coach which waited outside, she was
+followed by the girl, by myself, and by the lad called Jack.
+
+'I am glad,' she said, 'that this child goes out with me to Virginia.'
+The child--she looked little more--took Jenny's hand and kissed it. 'She
+is an affectionate little fool,' said Jenny, 'and loves me much. And to
+think what they were going to do with her! Oh! Fools! Fools!' she
+cried. 'Oh! monstrous Fools!'
+
+We were now rolling slowly along Ludgate Hill. There was a rumbling
+after us which continued. I looked out. They were the three waggons I
+had observed at the Gate.
+
+'What are those waggons?' I asked.
+
+'They contain my baggage. Did you think I was going abroad with
+nothing?'
+
+'But in those waggons you must have the whole wardrobe of Drury Lane.'
+
+She laughed. 'Will, you understand nothing. Did I not tell you that I
+would have all those turnkeys at my feet in a day or two? Well, I
+succeeded.'
+
+'But what has that got to do with your baggage?'
+
+'Why, you see, the officers that went to search my house for stolen
+property began with the garrets. And there they stopped. Now when my
+mother agreed to give evidence it was on conditions as I told you. I
+gave her money for compensation and I bought the whole of her stock of
+stolen property. It had been stored in the stone vaults under the Black
+Jack. They carried it over to the cellars of my house, and when there
+was no room left there, they used the garrets.'
+
+'Oh! They took the garrets first.'
+
+'Where there was very little to see. Now you understand why there was
+such a paltry show. Could a woman in my position brave such a fate for
+things so miserable?'
+
+'Jenny! Jenny! You are wonderful.'
+
+'No, Will, only I have my wits about me.'
+
+'You have actually converted Newgate--Newgate Prison--into a Receiving
+House for stolen property.'
+
+'Five guineas apiece for the turnkeys was what it cost. I thought it the
+safest and the simplest plan, Will.'
+
+'Safest and simplest!'
+
+Before I recovered the surprise of this information we reached the
+stairs. On the Quarter deck was Alice with the boy.
+
+'You dear good woman,' Jenny cried. 'You are come to see the last of the
+transported convict: the end of the Orange Girl!'
+
+Yet beside my wife in her homely dress, Jenny looked like a Countess.
+Alice kissed her. 'We are not going to leave you, Jenny. We are going
+with you, your servants as long as we live.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+THE LAST TEMPTATION
+
+
+'We are waiting,' said the Captain, 'for our passengers.'
+
+While he spoke there came alongside the ship a dozen boats or more laden
+with the passengers for whose sake the good ship was about to cross the
+Atlantic. There were, I remember--it is not possible for me to forget
+anything that happened on this voyage--one hundred and eight of them who
+came on board, men and women. They were brought down from Blackfriars
+Stairs in a closed lighter.
+
+'Jenny,' I said, 'go into the cabin. Do not look at them.'
+
+'Why, Will, I ought to be among them. I am one of them. Suffer me to
+look at my brothers and sisters in misfortune.'
+
+Of these poor wretches we had seen the greater part already in Newgate.
+Within those walls: in the bad air; among those companions; where
+everything was sordid and wretched; they did not present an appearance
+so horrible as they did in the open air; on the bright river; in the
+sunshine; under the flying clouds; among the sailors; where everything
+spoke of freedom. The pallor of their faces; their wretched rags blowing
+about in the breeze; their pinched faces; the unnatural brightness of
+their eyes; their tottering limbs; their meek submissiveness to order;
+proclaimed their long detention in prison while they were waiting for
+the ship. As they climbed up the companion painfully; as they stepped
+down upon the deck; as they stood huddled together like sheep, my heart
+sank within me for thinking that Jenny, too, was reckoned as one of
+these. I glanced at her; she was thinking the same thing; her cheek was
+aflame; her eyes, glowed; her lips trembled.
+
+'Will,' said she; 'we are a proper company. Virginia will welcome us.'
+
+They brought with them--faugh! the prison reek and stench. But we saw
+them for a few moments only. Then they were bundled down below to their
+own quarters and we saw the poor creatures no more.
+
+It has been said that these poor convicts are cruelly ill-used on board
+the transport ships. I can speak only of what I saw; I know that our
+Captain was a humane man. I can testify to the fact that there were
+seldom more than two or three floggings a day, and of the women not so
+many; I know that our convicts were a gang of hardened wretches whom
+nothing but the fear of the lash kept in order; I know that when they
+came on board they were for the most part in a wretched condition; of
+low habits from long confinement, poor food, and bad drink; that many of
+them lay down directly the ship got into open water and, what with
+sea-sickness, fever, and weakness, never got up again. The truth is that
+the contractors, who receive £5 a head for a voyage which takes about
+two months, do honestly provide the convicts the rations prescribed by
+the Government. These rations are sufficient but not luxurious; they
+consist of beef, pork, biscuits and cheese once a week; to keep up their
+spirits they are served a ration of gin. The beef may have been tough
+and the pork rusty, but such as it was the Captain served it out among
+them. Yet, on the voyage of seven weeks we buried forty-seven, or nearly
+one every day. It seems a large number; those who died were nearly all
+men; very few of them were women. They were unfit to face the fatigues
+of the voyage and the rolling of the ship; some of them were even
+consumptive; some were asthmatic; some were in fevers; some had other
+diseases; they died; perhaps they would have died at home in prison. At
+Newgate scarce a day passes that some poor wretch does not succumb to
+privation and bad air. If so many of them died on board the ship that is
+no proof of inhumanity.
+
+Let us forget these poor sinners. It is easy to say that they deserved
+all they got. No doubt they did. And what do we deserve? And when a man
+like myself has gone through that gate and mouth of Hell called Newgate,
+he looks on the poor creatures who go there to be flogged and branded
+and pilloried and hanged and transported with some compassion because he
+knows that such as they are, such they have been made. Mr. Merridew is
+always with them: the landlady of the Black Jack is always ready to buy
+what they offer her for sale: no respectable person will employ them;
+they have never been taught anything. The Divine and the schoolmaster
+dare not venture within their streets, which are the very Sanctuary of
+Wickedness; our charities are all for the deserving; we have no bowels,
+no compassion, for those we call the undeserving. Let us forget them.
+Better to lie at the bottom of the ocean, where at least it is peaceful,
+than to face the cruel whip of the overseer, and the burning fields of
+the American Plantations.
+
+Our voyage lasted, I say, little more than seven weeks; we were wafted
+across a smooth sea by favouring breezes. After leaving the Channel we
+got into a warmer air; we began to sit on the quarterdeck. Tom and I got
+out our violins and played. We played for our party; we played for the
+sailors; we sang those part-songs which he made so well. Jenny, for her
+part, was silent. Now and then she spoke to me about herself.
+
+'Will,' she said, 'if I receive that permission to return which my Lord
+promises, what will you do? Will you come home with me?'
+
+'I do not know,' I told her. 'If the place pleases us, why should we go
+home again? My memories of home will be full of wrongs for many a year
+to come. I can never get back to my old friends in the City. Although,
+thanks to you, I was fully acquitted, I am a Newgate bird and a bird of
+the King's Bench. People look askance upon such a man. I must think of
+Alice, too, and of the boy. We must not let these memories haunt the
+mother and make the boy ashamed.'
+
+'To go back,' she answered without heeding me, 'to stand on the stage at
+Drury Lane once more. Have they forgotten me already, do you think? The
+Orange Girls will remember, I am sure, and the natives of St. Giles's,'
+she laughed, 'I don't think they will bear malice.'
+
+'You must not go back to Drury Lane, Jenny.'
+
+'I can do better than Drury Lane, Will,' she said. 'I have but to
+consent and I shall be--a Countess. And oh! how proud will my children
+be of their mother, proud indeed of their mother. Oh! Will, to think how
+one's birth clings round and hampers us all our lives. I might be happy;
+I might make a good and faithful man happy; but the time would come when
+the children would grow up and would ask who and what was their mother
+and where she was born. Could I take them to the ruins of the Black
+Jack? Could I take them to the Tyburn Tree of Glory and tell them how
+how their grandfather died?' Then she relapsed into silence and so
+remained for awhile.
+
+She had none of the common accomplishments of women; she could not sew
+or embroider or make things as women used. She could do nothing; she
+could not cook or make cordials; she understood no household work of any
+kind: she could read, but she had read nothing beyond the plays in which
+she had acted; she knew no history or geography or politics; she knew
+nothing but what she had learned for her own purposes; the scaffolding,
+so to speak, on which the actor builds his playing; the art of fine
+dress; and how to wear it; the art of dancing with an admirable grace of
+manner and of carriage; the art of courtesy and graciousness, in which
+she was a Princess; the art of making herself even more beautiful than
+Nature intended; and the art of bringing all men to her feet. Before we
+had been a day at sea, the Captain was her servant to command; by the
+second day, the mate was her slave; by the third day the sailors
+worshipped her. She brought good luck to the ship; every sailor will
+tell you that passengers may, and often do, resemble Jonah, who was
+pursued by a tempest; Jenny brought fair weather and a balmy breeze
+always from the right quarter.
+
+She did not forget our fellow-passengers. When she heard that they were
+dying fast she would have gone below to visit them but the Captain
+refused his leave; the noisome quarters where they herded together, day
+and night, was not a proper place for any decent woman to visit. Let her
+send down what she pleased, and they should have it. She sent down from
+our stores daily drams of cordial and of rum; if she did not save many
+lives she made death less terrible.
+
+The voyage came to an end all too quickly. On a certain day at the
+beginning of April we put into port and presently landed on the shores
+of the New World. There are certain forms. The bodies of Jenny Halliday
+and Pamela St. Giles's--I called the girl Pamela for obvious
+reasons--were duly delivered to the officer representing the Governor
+and as duly handed over to me as their master for five years. This
+proceeding was performed without Jenny's presence or knowledge. I then
+found a lodging not far from the Port and sought the merchants to whom I
+had letters of introduction and credit.
+
+My tale draws to an end. Let it not grow tedious in its last pages. In
+one word, in a week or so after our landing we started on a short
+journey of thirty miles or so over a somewhat rough road. Our journey
+took us five hours. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon when we
+arrived. First there was a large wooden house of two storeys painted
+white; in the front a long and deep veranda--meaning a place covered
+over and protected from the sun by the roof and hangings at the side and
+in the front. Before the house was a flower-garden; at the back was a
+kitchen garden and orchard; the house was well and solidly furnished;
+all round the house lay fields of tobacco on which black people were
+working; on the steps of the veranda; in the garden; under the trees
+played in the warm sun the little naked negro children.
+
+'Where are we?' asked Jenny, looking round her.
+
+I assisted her to get out of the waggon--it was little better--in which
+we had made our journey.
+
+I led her into the house. In the principal room there was a long table
+laid as if for dinner. At the head was an armchair carved, I should
+think, in the sixteenth century, or earlier; it was a kind of throne
+with a coat of arms carved, gilded, and coloured upon it; the shield of
+the late occupant of the estate, recently dead.
+
+I led Jenny to the head of the table. I placed her in the throne.
+
+'Madame,' I said, 'this house is yours; these gardens are yours; this
+estate is yours; and we, if you please, are your most humble servants to
+command.' So I bent one knee and kissed her hand.
+
+'Your most humble, obedient and grateful servants,' said Alice,
+following my example.
+
+So we all did homage, but our Queen and mistress hid her face in her
+handkerchief and for a while she could not speak.
+
+Thus began our new life, in which we all vied with each other in making
+Jenny feel that she was our mistress. We called her Madame; we made way
+for her; we flew to obey her; the overseers were instructed to report to
+her, personally, as to the condition of the field and the conduct of the
+slaves--there were no white servants on the estate; the slaves
+themselves looked to Madame as their owner, their mistress, and their
+friend.
+
+For a time Jenny's mind remained still with the events of the past: the
+thought of Lord Brockenhurst; of the danger and the horrors which she
+had escaped; indeed she could never forget these things. Little by
+little, as I hoped, the sense of power and authority returned. She never
+asked how this lovely property came to her, or if it truly belonged to
+her; she began quietly, as she had done in the Assembly Rooms at Soho
+Square, to direct, administrate, and improve. She mitigated the
+floggings; she improved the slaves' rations; she gave them days of
+rejoicing; she made the poor ignorant blacks who for the most part
+understand little but the whip and the stick and the cuff, feel that
+they were in kindly hands; their children rolled about at her feet
+taking their childish liberties; she learned the business of
+tobacco-growing in all the stages; she walked about the fields in the
+morning before the sun was high, and noted how the plants were looking
+and whether the weeds were kept down.
+
+Our neighbours--we had neighbours in all directions at two or three
+miles' distance--for some time hesitated to call. Things were variously
+reported; that Madame had come out for the help of her cousin, a
+convict; that Madame had brought out a large fortune; that the cousin
+had certainly letters of credit for a very large amount; that Madame was
+herself a convict; that we were all convicts--political prisoners--sent
+out for some kind of treason--Jacobite conspirators; friends of the
+Young Pretender; there was no end to the rumours and reports which were
+spread abroad concerning us. Nor was it until Lord Brockenhurst himself
+came all the way from England to visit us and stay with us, as you shall
+hear, that the neighbours made up their minds that we could be visited.
+I believe people think that Colonial society is open to all comers
+without question--perhaps they think it is composed of convicts. On the
+other hand the Colonials are more careful than the English at home whom
+they admit into their houses on friendly or intimate terms.
+
+Our method of life was simple and uniform. We assembled on the veranda
+at seven, when I read prayers and a chapter. This done we took
+breakfast, not the petty meal of thin bread and butter and tea which
+satisfies the man about town, but a plentiful repast with many dishes
+containing vegetables and fruits unknown in London. After breakfast came
+the duties of the day. My own part was the keeping of the accounts. I
+called myself the steward. Alice directed the household; Jack was
+butler in command over the negroes of the house; and Pamela St. Giles's
+was in charge of the stillroom. Outside, the blacks were busy in the
+fields. At twelve a bell rang which brought them all back to camp where
+they took their dinner. At half past twelve we dined. For our eating I
+declare that we had the choicest birds; the finest mutton; the best
+beef; the most excellent fish that you can imagine; all things cheap;
+all plentiful; and for drink our cellars were full of such Canary,
+Madeira and Port as few gentlemen could show at home. In the evening we
+had supper at six; after supper I read prayers and another chapter. Then
+we played cards; or we had in the violins; or Tom played on the
+harpischord; or we sang glees and Madrigals. And every night all to bed
+by nine.
+
+On Sundays we had morning service, which I read. The overseers were
+present and after the blacks grew to like the music they sat about the
+door while we chanted the Psalms and sang our Hymns. In the evening I
+read a sermon or a discourse on some godly subject.
+
+At these religious exercises Madame would always be present; sitting in
+her carved armchair, her head resting on her hand, expressing in her
+face neither interest nor weariness. Remember that never had anyone
+taught her a word of religion. She looked on and listened; sometimes she
+did not listen; her eyes were fixed and far away; she was back on the
+stage of Drury Lane.
+
+Who can tell how they all loved and worshipped her? Even the overseers,
+commonly the most brutal of men, some of whom pride themselves at being
+able to cut a lump of flesh from a negro's leg at a distance of ten feet
+and more, were softened by the gracious presence. The worst cruelties
+were abandoned on our estate; as for floggings; of course there must be
+flogging so long as there are slaves; and of course there must be slaves
+so long as there are negroes. The clergy of Virginia are united in this
+opinion; I wish they were also united in the opinion that even a slave
+should be protected by the law from inhuman treatment.
+
+This our quiet mode of life was broken into one day when there appeared
+unexpectedly Lord Brockenhurst himself. It was about six months after
+our arrival. He dismounted; he threw his reins to his servant and
+mounted the steps of the veranda.
+
+It was late in the afternoon--about six; the autumn sun was getting
+low; Jenny was sitting with Alice and Tom's wife talking of household
+affairs. She rose quietly with a pretty blush and stepped forward.
+
+'Good Heavens, Jenny!' his Lordship cried, 'you are more beautiful than
+ever, I swear.'
+
+'Welcome, my Lord, to Virginia. You are come, I trust, to accept the
+hospitality of this poor house?'
+
+'Madame, you honour me. It is a lovely house with a view the most
+charming in the world. I knew not that Virginia was half so fine a
+country.'
+
+'Indeed, if English people did know--they would all come over. I pray
+your Lordship not to speak too well of us. There are some people in the
+old country that we would not willingly welcome in the New.'
+
+So she led him into the inner room and sent for Madeira to refresh him.
+
+'Your Lordship has something to tell me,' she said, beginning to shiver
+and shake. 'You did not come all the way from England only to wish me
+Good-morning.'
+
+'I bring you, Jenny, what I promised, your full pardon and release. It
+is in the hands of the Governor. You can return, now, whenever you
+please.'
+
+'I was beginning to forget, my Lord, that I am but a prisoner still and
+a convict. These people with whom I live, the best people, I very
+believe, in the whole world, have almost made me forget that fact. But I
+thank your Lordship all the same. I thank you most humbly and most
+gratefully. Except my Cousin Will--my husband's cousin--there is no more
+loyal and faithful gentleman than my Lord Brockenhurst.'
+
+'I have done what I can. I could do no more.'
+
+'My lord, you have ridden thirty miles. You are tired? No? Then--let me
+ask you one more favour. Tell me about this matter to-morrow. Sleep
+first upon it,' for she saw his purpose in his eyes. 'Think, I pray you,
+partly of what I am and of what you are; partly of your own dignity;
+partly of how one such as I am should behave towards one such as you.'
+
+She rose.
+
+'I will now,' she said, 'if you are not tired, show you our gardens and
+our tobacco-fields.'
+
+His Lordship took supper with us. I saw that he was pleased at the
+little state and ceremony with which we surrounded Jenny. I saw, as
+well, the love in his eyes, which he could not tear away from her face.
+
+After supper, we had a little concert Tom took the harpsichord, and I
+took the violin. First we played a piece, as a duet; then Tom played
+while Alice sang; then we all, with Jack our Butler, who had an
+excellent bass, while Tom sang alto and I the tenor, sang four-part
+songs, and I saw how his Lordship watched the negroes sitting about
+outside and crowding up the doorway. I am sure he took home the belief
+that we were a happy household, blacks and all; and that Jenny was the
+mistress over all.
+
+After breakfast in the morning Jenny bade Alice and me come with her
+while she received his Lordship.
+
+She took her place at the window, sitting in her high chair. Lord
+Brockenhurst entered, bearing certain papers in his hand.
+
+'My lord,' she said, 'you can speak with perfect freedom. I entreat you
+to use perfect freedom before my cousins. I have no secrets from them;
+they can tell you perhaps more about myself than I ever will speak--for
+myself.'
+
+Lord Brockenhurst coloured and was confused, but only for a little.
+'Dear Madame,' he said, 'since you will not give an interview alone I
+must make the best of the presence of others.'
+
+'They know everything,' said Madame.
+
+He bowed. 'I have told you,' he said, 'that I have brought out and
+delivered over to the Governor your full pardon and release. These
+papers are a copy.'
+
+Jenny pushed them aside. 'I do not want to see them,' she said, 'let me
+never be reminded of their existence. Take them, Will, and lock them
+up.'
+
+I received them and placed them in my pocket.
+
+'That done, Madame,' he went on, 'I have only to invite your remembrance
+of a certain proposal that--I believe you have not forgotten it. Since
+your worthy cousins know what that proposal was I have only to say that
+once more, most divine woman, I offer myself--my name and rank--my
+fortune and possessions--at your feet.' He fell on his knees and took
+her hand.
+
+Jenny turned away her face. 'Answer him, Alice--tell him what I have so
+often told you. Rise, my Lord. Do not pain me by kneeling at my unworthy
+feet.'
+
+'My Lord,' said Alice solemnly, 'there is no one in the world--believe
+me--whom Jenny regards with greater respect and gratitude than
+yourself.'
+
+'Respect and gratitude are but cold words,' he said.
+
+'Let me add with greater love. Your Lordship is the only man in the
+world whom she has ever loved or could love. That also, believe me, is
+most true.'
+
+'Why, then----' He held out his hand.
+
+'Nay, my Lord. Jenny loves you so well that nothing would induce her to
+accept the honour of your proposal.'
+
+'How? Loves me so well?'
+
+'Jenny bids me tell you that the time would come when your children
+would ask who was their mother, and who were her mother's friends. They
+would learn her history, I need not remind you of her history. You know
+it all. Jenny loves you too well to bring shame and discredit on a noble
+House. Your children, she says, must have a mother worthy of yourself.'
+
+'There is no more worthy woman in the world than Jenny!'
+
+'Their mother must have an unblemished name, my Lord, worthy of your
+own. She knows you to be so good and loyal that you could never reproach
+her with the past. But it belongs to her. And, my Lord, it must not
+belong to you.'
+
+'It must not; it shall not,' Jenny repeated through her tears.
+
+'Is this your answer, Jenny? Oh! Jenny, will you cast me off for such a
+scruple?'
+
+'I must--I must. Go, my Lord. Think of me no more. Why'--she sprang to
+her feet--'what could I expect? I--the Orange Girl--the daughter of the
+Black Jack--the friend of thieves; the Newgate Prisoner; the transported
+convict? A coronet? For me? the hand of a noble gentleman? the name of a
+noble house? For me? Fie upon you, my Lord, for thinking of such a
+thing! Remember what is due to a gentleman. And I thank you--oh! I thank
+you--you can never know how much--for thinking--you the only one--of
+nothing less or lower. Go, my Lord. Tempt me no more. I know what I must
+do. Farewell.'
+
+He seized her in his arms; he kissed her--forehead and cheek and lips
+and hands. He ceased to urge his suit. He saw that she was fixed, and in
+his heart he knew that she was right. 'I obey,' he said. 'Oh! noblest
+of women, I obey.'
+
+So he rushed away, and Jenny fell into Alice's arms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I sit on my own estate in the pleasant land of Virginia; outside the
+veranda the hot sun ripens the corn and fruit: I did my duty in the
+great and glorious war which set our country free: my sons will do
+theirs if the occasion should again arise: we have taught our cousins
+across the seas that we can fight for freedom: but there will be no more
+fighting for that. It is won, once for all--I am now old, but as I sit
+alone, my eyes resting on as fair a landscape of river and forest and
+orchard and garden as the world can show, I suddenly wander away and
+gaze beyond the ocean, beyond the years, upon that abode of despair and
+wretchedness, where Jenny sits like a flower in a pigsty, talking of
+what she should do when she came out of prison, but unable to read in
+the future any return to the world at all. As for fear or doubt, or any
+anxiety about the future, the poor soul had none. She was going to
+continue for ever beautiful, to win that worship of men which she loved
+so much. I have now lost all the friends of my youth: they pass before
+me sometimes in a long procession. It is the consolation of age to live
+in the past: but in all the array of ghosts there is none that brings
+tears except the figure of Jenny in her wondrous beauty and her soft and
+lovely eyes.
+
+She lived with us for more than thirty years. She grew gray--but she was
+as lovely in her age as in her youth. She was mistress unquestioned to
+the end and never more than in her old age. But always with the same
+kindness: the same grace: the same sweetness of look, and the same
+softness of eye.
+
+She died at last of some fever caught of a young negress whom she
+visited in the infirmary. She was ill for three days only, and she died
+lying in the veranda, looking out upon the woods and mountains on the
+golden sunshine that she loved.
+
+'Alice, dear,' she said, 'you have told me, often, that we are led, we
+know not how, to things that are best for us, though by ways that we
+would not choose. I have not forgotten what you said. I never forget, my
+dear, what you say.'
+
+Alice kissed her fingers.
+
+'I understand now what you mean. I have been led. I have been led----My
+dear, I am going to die. Bury me as one of yourselves--not in a ditch
+like my own people--who, perhaps, are not led. Bury me in the
+burial-ground where your baby lies. Put no stone upon my grave, but
+plant white flowers over it. Let my abode, at least, look lovely after
+death. I have been led, Alice--I have been led--I understand it now.'
+
+After a little. 'Alice, I have been proud of what men called my
+loveliness. It makes every woman happy when men call her lovely. My Lord
+called me lovely. Send him, Alice, a lock of my hair. Tell him that I
+have never loved any other man.'
+
+She died. We buried her in the little burial-ground where lay the child
+we lost. We put up no headstone, but we planted the grave with white
+flowers.
+
+There is now another grave beside hers with more white flowers. It bears
+the name of Alice.
+
+To me it has been given to love two women at the same time, and that
+with equal love and equal respect and without blame or sin.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41545 ***