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@@ -0,0 +1,4284 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Purcell Papers, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Purcell Papers + Volume II. (of III.) + +Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +Release Date: May 24, 2008 [EBook #510] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURCELL PAPERS *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss and Charles Keller + + + + + +THE PURCELL PAPERS. + +BY THE LATE + +JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU, + +AUTHOR OF 'UNCLE SILAS.' + +With a Memoir by + +ALFRED PERCEVAL GRAVES + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. II. + + PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESS + THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH + STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER + SCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADS + + + + + +PASSAGE IN THE SECRET HISTORY OF AN IRISH COUNTESS. + + Being a Fifth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis + Purcell, P.P. of Drumcoolagh. + +The following paper is written in a female hand, and was no doubt +communicated to my much-regretted friend by the lady whose early history +it serves to illustrate, the Countess D----. She is no more--she long +since died, a childless and a widowed wife, and, as her letter sadly +predicts, none survive to whom the publication of this narrative can +prove 'injurious, or even painful.' Strange! two powerful and wealthy +families, that in which she was born, and that into which she had +married, have ceased to be--they are utterly extinct. + +To those who know anything of the history of Irish families, as they +were less than a century ago, the facts which immediately follow will +at once suggest THE NAMES of the principal actors; and to others +their publication would be useless--to us, possibly, if not probably, +injurious. I have, therefore, altered such of the names as might, if +stated, get us into difficulty; others, belonging to minor characters in +the strange story, I have left untouched. + + +My dear friend,--You have asked me to furnish you with a detail of +the strange events which marked my early history, and I have, without +hesitation, applied myself to the task, knowing that, while I live, a +kind consideration for my feelings will prevent your giving publicity +to the statement; and conscious that, when I am no more, there will not +survive one to whom the narrative can prove injurious, or even painful. + +My mother died when I was quite an infant, and of her I have no +recollection, even the faintest. By her death, my education and habits +were left solely to the guidance of my surviving parent; and, as far +as a stern attention to my religious instruction, and an active anxiety +evinced by his procuring for me the best masters to perfect me in those +accomplishments which my station and wealth might seem to require, could +avail, he amply discharged the task. + +My father was what is called an oddity, and his treatment of me, though +uniformly kind, flowed less from affection and tenderness than from a +sense of obligation and duty. Indeed, I seldom even spoke to him except +at meal-times, and then his manner was silent and abrupt; his leisure +hours, which were many, were passed either in his study or in solitary +walks; in short, he seemed to take no further interest in my happiness +or improvement than a conscientious regard to the discharge of his own +duty would seem to claim. + +Shortly before my birth a circumstance had occurred which had +contributed much to form and to confirm my father's secluded habits--it +was the fact that a suspicion of MURDER had fallen upon his younger +brother, though not sufficiently definite to lead to an indictment, yet +strong enough to ruin him in public opinion. + +This disgraceful and dreadful doubt cast upon the family name, my +father felt deeply and bitterly, and not the less so that he himself +was thoroughly convinced of his brother's innocence. The sincerity and +strength of this impression he shortly afterwards proved in a manner +which produced the dark events which follow. Before, however, I enter +upon the statement of them, I ought to relate the circumstances which +had awakened the suspicion; inasmuch as they are in themselves somewhat +curious, and, in their effects, most intimately connected with my +after-history. + +My uncle, Sir Arthur T----n, was a gay and extravagant man, and, +among other vices, was ruinously addicted to gaming; this unfortunate +propensity, even after his fortune had suffered so severely as to render +inevitable a reduction in his expenses by no means inconsiderable, +nevertheless continued to actuate him, nearly to the exclusion of all +other pursuits; he was, however, a proud, or rather a vain man, +and could not bear to make the diminution of his income a matter of +gratulation and triumph to those with whom he had hitherto competed, and +the consequence was, that he frequented no longer the expensive haunts +of dissipation, and retired from the gay world, leaving his coterie to +discover his reasons as best they might. + +He did not, however, forego his favourite vice, for, though he could not +worship his great divinity in the costly temples where it was formerly +his wont to take his stand, yet he found it very possible to bring about +him a sufficient number of the votaries of chance to answer all his +ends. The consequence was, that Carrickleigh, which was the name of my +uncle's residence, was never without one or more of such visitors as I +have described. + +It happened that upon one occasion he was visited by one Hugh Tisdall, +a gentleman of loose habits, but of considerable wealth, and who had, in +early youth, travelled with my uncle upon the Continent; the period of +his visit was winter, and, consequently, the house was nearly deserted +excepting by its regular inmates; it was therefore highly acceptable, +particularly as my uncle was aware that his visitor's tastes accorded +exactly with his own. + +Both parties seemed determined to avail themselves of their suitability +during the brief stay which Mr. Tisdall had promised; the consequence +was, that they shut themselves up in Sir Arthur's private room for +nearly all the day and the greater part of the night, during the space +of nearly a week, at the end of which the servant having one morning, +as usual, knocked at Mr. Tisdall's bedroom door repeatedly, received no +answer, and, upon attempting to enter, found that it was locked; this +appeared suspicious, and, the inmates of the house having been alarmed, +the door was forced open, and, on proceeding to the bed, they found the +body of its occupant perfectly lifeless, and hanging half-way out, the +head downwards, and near the floor. One deep wound had been inflicted +upon the temple, apparently with some blunt instrument which had +penetrated the brain; and another blow, less effective, probably the +first aimed, had grazed the head, removing some of the scalp, but +leaving the skull untouched. The door had been double-locked upon the +INSIDE, in evidence of which the key still lay where it had been placed +in the lock. + +The window, though not secured on the interior, was closed--a +circumstance not a little puzzling, as it afforded the only other mode +of escape from the room; it looked out, too, upon a kind of courtyard, +round which the old buildings stood, formerly accessible by a narrow +doorway and passage lying in the oldest side of the quadrangle, but +which had since been built up, so as to preclude all ingress or egress; +the room was also upon the second story, and the height of the window +considerable. Near the bed were found a pair of razors belonging to the +murdered man, one of them upon the ground, and both of them open. The +weapon which had inflicted the mortal wound was not to be found in +the room, nor were any footsteps or other traces of the murderer +discoverable. + +At the suggestion of Sir Arthur himself, a coroner was instantly +summoned to attend, and an inquest was held; nothing, however, in any +degree conclusive was elicited; the walls, ceiling, and floor of +the room were carefully examined, in order to ascertain whether they +contained a trap-door or other concealed mode of entrance--but no such +thing appeared. + +Such was the minuteness of investigation employed, that, although the +grate had contained a large fire during the night, they proceeded to +examine even the very chimney, in order to discover whether escape by +it were possible; but this attempt, too, was fruitless, for the chimney, +built in the old fashion, rose in a perfectly perpendicular line from +the hearth to a height of nearly fourteen feet above the roof, affording +in its interior scarcely the possibility of ascent, the flue being +smoothly plastered, and sloping towards the top like an inverted funnel, +promising, too, even if the summit were attained, owing to its great +height, but a precarious descent upon the sharp and steep-ridged roof; +the ashes, too, which lay in the grate, and the soot, as far as it +could be seen, were undisturbed, a circumstance almost conclusive of the +question. + +Sir Arthur was of course examined; his evidence was given with clearness +and unreserve, which seemed calculated to silence all suspicion. +He stated that, up to the day and night immediately preceding the +catastrophe, he had lost to a heavy amount, but that, at their last +sitting, he had not only won back his original loss, but upwards of +four thousand pounds in addition; in evidence of which he produced +an acknowledgment of debt to that amount in the handwriting of the +deceased, and bearing the date of the fatal night. He had mentioned +the circumstance to his lady, and in presence of some of the domestics; +which statement was supported by THEIR respective evidence. + +One of the jury shrewdly observed, that the circumstance of Mr. +Tisdall's having sustained so heavy a loss might have suggested to some +ill-minded persons accidentally hearing it, the plan of robbing him, +after having murdered him in such a manner as might make it appear that +he had committed suicide; a supposition which was strongly supported +by the razors having been found thus displaced, and removed from their +case. Two persons had probably been engaged in the attempt, one watching +by the sleeping man, and ready to strike him in case of his awakening +suddenly, while the other was procuring the razors and employed in +inflicting the fatal gash, so as to make it appear to have been the act +of the murdered man himself. It was said that while the juror was making +this suggestion Sir Arthur changed colour. + +Nothing, however, like legal evidence appeared against him, and the +consequence was that the verdict was found against a person or persons +unknown; and for some time the matter was suffered to rest, until, after +about five months, my father received a letter from a person signing +himself Andrew Collis, and representing himself to be the cousin of the +deceased. This letter stated that Sir Arthur was likely to incur not +merely suspicion, but personal risk, unless he could account for certain +circumstances connected with the recent murder, and contained a copy of +a letter written by the deceased, and bearing date, the day of the week, +and of the month, upon the night of which the deed of blood had been +perpetrated. Tisdall's note ran as follows: + + 'DEAR COLLIS, + 'I have had sharp work with Sir +Arthur; he tried some of his stale tricks, but soon found that _I_ was +Yorkshire too: it would not do--you understand me. We went to the work +like good ones, head, heart and soul; and, in fact, since I came here, I +have lost no time. I am rather fagged, but I am sure to be well paid +for my hardship; I never want sleep so long as I can have the music of a +dice-box, and wherewithal to pay the piper. As I told you, he tried some +of his queer turns, but I foiled him like a man, and, in return, gave +him more than he could relish of the genuine DEAD KNOWLEDGE. + +'In short, I have plucked the old baronet as never baronet was plucked +before; I have scarce left him the stump of a quill; I have got +promissory notes in his hand to the amount of--if you like round +numbers, say, thirty thousand pounds, safely deposited in my portable +strong-box, alias double-clasped pocket-book. I leave this ruinous old +rat-hole early on to-morrow, for two reasons--first, I do not want to +play with Sir Arthur deeper than I think his security, that is, his +money, or his money's worth, would warrant; and, secondly, because I am +safer a hundred miles from Sir Arthur than in the house with him. Look +you, my worthy, I tell you this between ourselves--I may be wrong, but, +by G--, I am as sure as that I am now living, that Sir A---- attempted +to poison me last night; so much for old friendship on both sides. + +'When I won the last stake, a heavy one enough, my friend leant his +forehead upon his hands, and you'll laugh when I tell you that his +head literally smoked like a hot dumpling. I do not know whether his +agitation was produced by the plan which he had against me, or by his +having lost so heavily--though it must be allowed that he had reason to +be a little funked, whichever way his thoughts went; but he pulled +the bell, and ordered two bottles of champagne. While the fellow was +bringing them he drew out a promissory note to the full amount, which he +signed, and, as the man came in with the bottles and glasses, he desired +him to be off; he filled out a glass for me, and, while he thought my +eyes were off, for I was putting up his note at the time, he dropped +something slyly into it, no doubt to sweeten it; but I saw it all, and, +when he handed it to me, I said, with an emphasis which he might or +might not understand: + +'"There is some sediment in this; I'll not drink it." + +'"Is there?" said he, and at the same time snatched it from my hand and +threw it into the fire. What do you think of that? have I not a tender +chicken to manage? Win or lose, I will not play beyond five thousand +to-night, and to-morrow sees me safe out of the reach of Sir Arthur's +champagne. So, all things considered, I think you must allow that you +are not the last who have found a knowing boy in + +'Yours to command, + +'HUGH TISDALL.' + + +Of the authenticity of this document I never heard my father express a +doubt; and I am satisfied that, owing to his strong conviction in +favour of his brother, he would not have admitted it without sufficient +inquiry, inasmuch as it tended to confirm the suspicions which already +existed to his prejudice. + +Now, the only point in this letter which made strongly against my uncle, +was the mention of the 'double-clasped pocket-book' as the receptacle +of the papers likely to involve him, for this pocket-book was not +forthcoming, nor anywhere to be found, nor had any papers referring to +his gaming transactions been found upon the dead man. However, whatever +might have been the original intention of this Collis, neither my uncle +nor my father ever heard more of him; but he published the letter in +Faulkner's newspaper, which was shortly afterwards made the vehicle of +a much more mysterious attack. The passage in that periodical to which +I allude, occurred about four years afterwards, and while the fatal +occurrence was still fresh in public recollection. It commenced by a +rambling preface, stating that 'a CERTAIN PERSON whom CERTAIN persons +thought to be dead, was not so, but living, and in full possession +of his memory, and moreover ready and able to make GREAT delinquents +tremble.' It then went on to describe the murder, without, however, +mentioning names; and in doing so, it entered into minute and +circumstantial particulars of which none but an EYE-WITNESS could +have been possessed, and by implications almost too unequivocal to be +regarded in the light of insinuation, to involve the 'TITLED GAMBLER' in +the guilt of the transaction. + +My father at once urged Sir Arthur to proceed against the paper in an +action of libel; but he would not hear of it, nor consent to my father's +taking any legal steps whatever in the matter. My father, however, wrote +in a threatening tone to Faulkner, demanding a surrender of the author +of the obnoxious article. The answer to this application is still in +my possession, and is penned in an apologetic tone: it states that +the manuscript had been handed in, paid for, and inserted as an +advertisement, without sufficient inquiry, or any knowledge as to whom +it referred. + +No step, however, was taken to clear my uncle's character in the +judgment of the public; and as he immediately sold a small property, the +application of the proceeds of which was known to none, he was said +to have disposed of it to enable himself to buy off the threatened +information. However the truth might have been, it is certain that no +charges respecting the mysterious murder were afterwards publicly made +against my uncle, and, as far as external disturbances were concerned, +he enjoyed henceforward perfect security and quiet. + +A deep and lasting impression, however, had been made upon the public +mind, and Sir Arthur T----n was no longer visited or noticed by the +gentry and aristocracy of the county, whose attention and courtesies +he had hitherto received. He accordingly affected to despise these +enjoyments which he could not procure, and shunned even that society +which he might have commanded. + +This is all that I need recapitulate of my uncle's history, and I now +recur to my own. Although my father had never, within my recollection, +visited, or been visited by, my uncle, each being of sedentary, +procrastinating, and secluded habits, and their respective residences +being very far apart--the one lying in the county of Galway, the other +in that of Cork--he was strongly attached to his brother, and evinced +his affection by an active correspondence, and by deeply and proudly +resenting that neglect which had marked Sir Arthur as unfit to mix in +society. + +When I was about eighteen years of age, my father, whose health had been +gradually declining, died, leaving me in heart wretched and desolate, +and, owing to his previous seclusion, with few acquaintances, and almost +no friends. + +The provisions of his will were curious, and when I had sufficiently +come to myself to listen to or comprehend them, surprised me not a +little: all his vast property was left to me, and to the heirs of my +body, for ever; and, in default of such heirs, it was to go after my +death to my uncle, Sir Arthur, without any entail. + +At the same time, the will appointed him my guardian, desiring that +I might be received within his house, and reside with his family, and +under his care, during the term of my minority; and in consideration of +the increased expense consequent upon such an arrangement, a handsome +annuity was allotted to him during the term of my proposed residence. + +The object of this last provision I at once understood: my father +desired, by making it the direct, apparent interest of Sir Arthur that I +should die without issue, while at the same time he placed me wholly +in his power, to prove to the world how great and unshaken was his +confidence in his brother's innocence and honour, and also to afford +him an opportunity of showing that this mark of confidence was not +unworthily bestowed. + +It was a strange, perhaps an idle scheme; but as I had been always +brought up in the habit of considering my uncle as a deeply-injured man, +and had been taught, almost as a part of my religion, to regard him as +the very soul of honour, I felt no further uneasiness respecting the +arrangement than that likely to result to a timid girl, of secluded +habits, from the immediate prospect of taking up her abode for the first +time in her life among total strangers. Previous to leaving my home, +which I felt I should do with a heavy heart, I received a most tender +and affectionate letter from my uncle, calculated, if anything could do +so, to remove the bitterness of parting from scenes familiar and dear +from my earliest childhood, and in some degree to reconcile me to the +measure. + +It was during a fine autumn that I approached the old domain of +Carrickleigh. I shall not soon forget the impression of sadness and +of gloom which all that I saw produced upon my mind; the sunbeams were +falling with a rich and melancholy tint upon the fine old trees, which +stood in lordly groups, casting their long, sweeping shadows over rock +and sward. There was an air of neglect and decay about the spot, which +amounted almost to desolation; the symptoms of this increased in number +as we approached the building itself, near which the ground had been +originally more artificially and carefully cultivated than elsewhere, +and whose neglect consequently more immediately and strikingly betrayed +itself. + +As we proceeded, the road wound near the beds of what had been formally +two fish-ponds, which were now nothing more than stagnant swamps, +overgrown with rank weeds, and here and there encroached upon by the +straggling underwood; the avenue itself was much broken, and in many +places the stones were almost concealed by grass and nettles; the loose +stone walls which had here and there intersected the broad park were, +in many places, broken down, so as no longer to answer their original +purpose as fences; piers were now and then to be seen, but the gates +were gone; and, to add to the general air of dilapidation, some huge +trunks were lying scattered through the venerable old trees, either the +work of the winter storms, or perhaps the victims of some extensive but +desultory scheme of denudation, which the projector had not capital or +perseverance to carry into full effect. + +After the carriage had travelled a mile of this avenue, we reached the +summit of rather an abrupt eminence, one of the many which added to the +picturesqueness, if not to the convenience of this rude passage. From +the top of this ridge the grey walls of Carrickleigh were visible, +rising at a small distance in front, and darkened by the hoary +wood which crowded around them. It was a quadrangular building of +considerable extent, and the front which lay towards us, and in which +the great entrance was placed, bore unequivocal marks of antiquity; the +time-worn, solemn aspect of the old building, the ruinous and deserted +appearance of the whole place, and the associations which connected +it with a dark page in the history of my family, combined to depress +spirits already predisposed for the reception of sombre and dejecting +impressions. + +When the carriage drew up in the grass-grown court yard before the +hall-door, two lazy-looking men, whose appearance well accorded with +that of the place which they tenanted, alarmed by the obstreperous +barking of a great chained dog, ran out from some half-ruinous +out-houses, and took charge of the horses; the hall-door stood open, and +I entered a gloomy and imperfectly lighted apartment, and found no one +within. However, I had not long to wait in this awkward predicament, for +before my luggage had been deposited in the house, indeed, before I +had well removed my cloak and other wraps, so as to enable me to look +around, a young girl ran lightly into the hall, and kissing me heartily, +and somewhat boisterously, exclaimed: + +'My dear cousin, my dear Margaret--I am so delighted--so out of breath. +We did not expect you till ten o'clock; my father is somewhere about the +place, he must be close at hand. James--Corney--run out and tell +your master--my brother is seldom at home, at least at any reasonable +hour--you must be so tired--so fatigued--let me show you to your +room--see that Lady Margaret's luggage is all brought up--you must lie +down and rest yourself--Deborah, bring some coffee--up these stairs; +we are so delighted to see you--you cannot think how lonely I have +been--how steep these stairs are, are not they? I am so glad you are +come--I could hardly bring myself to believe that you were really +coming--how good of you, dear Lady Margaret.' + +There was real good-nature and delight in my cousin's greeting, and a +kind of constitutional confidence of manner which placed me at once at +ease, and made me feel immediately upon terms of intimacy with her. The +room into which she ushered me, although partaking in the general air of +decay which pervaded the mansion and all about it, had nevertheless been +fitted up with evident attention to comfort, and even with some dingy +attempt at luxury; but what pleased me most was that it opened, by +a second door, upon a lobby which communicated with my fair cousin's +apartment; a circumstance which divested the room, in my eyes, of the +air of solitude and sadness which would otherwise have characterised it, +to a degree almost painful to one so dejected in spirits as I was. + +After such arrangements as I found necessary were completed, we both +went down to the parlour, a large wainscoted room, hung round with grim +old portraits, and, as I was not sorry to see, containing in its ample +grate a large and cheerful fire. Here my cousin had leisure to talk more +at her ease; and from her I learned something of the manners and the +habits of the two remaining members of her family, whom I had not yet +seen. + +On my arrival I had known nothing of the family among whom I was come to +reside, except that it consisted of three individuals, my uncle, and his +son and daughter, Lady T----n having been long dead. In addition to +this very scanty stock of information, I shortly learned from my +communicative companion that my uncle was, as I had suspected, +completely retired in his habits, and besides that, having been so far +back as she could well recollect, always rather strict, as reformed +rakes frequently become, he had latterly been growing more gloomily and +sternly religious than heretofore. + +Her account of her brother was far less favourable, though she did not +say anything directly to his disadvantage. From all that I could gather +from her, I was led to suppose that he was a specimen of the idle, +coarse-mannered, profligate, low-minded 'squirearchy'--a result which +might naturally have flowed from the circumstance of his being, as it +were, outlawed from society, and driven for companionship to grades +below his own--enjoying, too, the dangerous prerogative of spending much +money. + +However, you may easily suppose that I found nothing in my cousin's +communication fully to bear me out in so very decided a conclusion. + +I awaited the arrival of my uncle, which was every moment to be +expected, with feelings half of alarm, half of curiosity--a sensation +which I have often since experienced, though to a less degree, when upon +the point of standing for the first time in the presence of one of whom +I have long been in the habit of hearing or thinking with interest. + +It was, therefore, with some little perturbation that I heard, first a +slight bustle at the outer door, then a slow step traverse the hall, and +finally witnessed the door open, and my uncle enter the room. He was a +striking-looking man; from peculiarities both of person and of garb, the +whole effect of his appearance amounted to extreme singularity. He was +tall, and when young his figure must have been strikingly elegant; as it +was, however, its effect was marred by a very decided stoop. His dress +was of a sober colour, and in fashion anterior to anything which I could +remember. It was, however, handsome, and by no means carelessly put +on; but what completed the singularity of his appearance was his uncut, +white hair, which hung in long, but not at all neglected curls, even +so far as his shoulders, and which combined with his regularly classic +features, and fine dark eyes, to bestow upon him an air of venerable +dignity and pride, which I have never seen equalled elsewhere. I rose as +he entered, and met him about the middle of the room; he kissed my cheek +and both my hands, saying: + +'You are most welcome, dear child, as welcome as the command of this +poor place and all that it contains can make you. I am most rejoiced to +see you--truly rejoiced. I trust that you are not much fatigued--pray +be seated again.' He led me to my chair, and continued: 'I am glad to +perceive you have made acquaintance with Emily already; I see, in your +being thus brought together, the foundation of a lasting friendship. +You are both innocent, and both young. God bless you--God bless you, and +make you all that I could wish.' + + +He raised his eyes, and remained for a few moments silent, as if +in secret prayer. I felt that it was impossible that this man, with +feelings so quick, so warm, so tender, could be the wretch that public +opinion had represented him to be. I was more than ever convinced of his +innocence. + +His manner was, or appeared to me, most fascinating; there was a mingled +kindness and courtesy in it which seemed to speak benevolence itself. It +was a manner which I felt cold art could never have taught; it owed most +of its charm to its appearing to emanate directly from the heart; it +must be a genuine index of the owner's mind. So I thought. + +My uncle having given me fully to understand that I was most welcome, +and might command whatever was his own, pressed me to take some +refreshment; and on my refusing, he observed that previously to +bidding me good-night, he had one duty further to perform, one in whose +observance he was convinced I would cheerfully acquiesce. + +He then proceeded to read a chapter from the Bible; after which he took +his leave with the same affectionate kindness with which he had greeted +me, having repeated his desire that I should consider everything in his +house as altogether at my disposal. It is needless to say that I was +much pleased with my uncle--it was impossible to avoid being so; and I +could not help saying to myself, if such a man as this is not safe from +the assaults of slander, who is? I felt much happier than I had done +since my father's death, and enjoyed that night the first refreshing +sleep which had visited me since that event. + +My curiosity respecting my male cousin did not long remain +unsatisfied--he appeared the next day at dinner. His manners, though not +so coarse as I had expected, were exceedingly disagreeable; there was an +assurance and a forwardness for which I was not prepared; there was less +of the vulgarity of manner, and almost more of that of the mind, than I +had anticipated. I felt quite uncomfortable in his presence; there was +just that confidence in his look and tone which would read encouragement +even in mere toleration; and I felt more disgusted and annoyed at the +coarse and extravagant compliments which he was pleased from time to +time to pay me, than perhaps the extent of the atrocity might fully +have warranted. It was, however, one consolation that he did not often +appear, being much engrossed by pursuits about which I neither knew nor +cared anything; but when he did appear, his attentions, either with +a view to his amusement or to some more serious advantage, were so +obviously and perseveringly directed to me, that young and inexperienced +as I was, even _I_ could not be ignorant of his preference. I felt more +provoked by this odious persecution than I can express, and discouraged +him with so much vigour, that I employed even rudeness to convince him +that his assiduities were unwelcome; but all in vain. + +This had gone on for nearly a twelve-month, to my infinite annoyance, +when one day as I was sitting at some needle-work with my companion +Emily, as was my habit, in the parlour, the door opened, and my cousin +Edward entered the room. There was something, I thought, odd in his +manner--a kind of struggle between shame and impudence--a kind of flurry +and ambiguity which made him appear, if possible, more than ordinarily +disagreeable. + +'Your servant, ladies,' he said, seating himself at the same time; +'sorry to spoil your tete-a-tete, but never mind, I'll only take Emily's +place for a minute or two; and then we part for a while, fair cousin. +Emily, my father wants you in the corner turret. No shilly-shally; he's +in a hurry.' She hesitated. 'Be off--tramp, march!' he exclaimed, in a +tone which the poor girl dared not disobey. + +She left the room, and Edward followed her to the door. He stood there +for a minute or two, as if reflecting what he should say, perhaps +satisfying himself that no one was within hearing in the hall. + +At length he turned about, having closed the door, as if carelessly, +with his foot; and advancing slowly, as if in deep thought, he took his +seat at the side of the table opposite to mine. + +There was a brief interval of silence, after which he said: + +'I imagine that you have a shrewd suspicion of the object of my early +visit; but I suppose I must go into particulars. Must I?' + +'I have no conception,' I replied, 'what your object may be.' + +'Well, well,' said he, becoming more at his ease as he proceeded, +'it may be told in a few words. You know that it is totally +impossible--quite out of the question--that an offhand young fellow like +me, and a good-looking girl like yourself, could meet continually, as +you and I have done, without an attachment--a liking growing up on one +side or other; in short, I think I have let you know as plain as if I +spoke it, that I have been in love with you almost from the first time I +saw you.' + +He paused; but I was too much horrified to speak. He interpreted my +silence favourably. + +'I can tell you,' he continued, 'I'm reckoned rather hard to please, and +very hard to HIT. I can't say when I was taken with a girl before; so +you see fortune reserved me----' + +Here the odious wretch wound his arm round my waist. The action at +once restored me to utterance, and with the most indignant vehemence I +released myself from his hold, and at the same time said: + +'I have not been insensible, sir, of your most disagreeable +attentions--they have long been a source of much annoyance to me; and +you must be aware that I have marked my disapprobation--my disgust--as +unequivocally as I possibly could, without actual indelicacy.' + +I paused, almost out of breath from the rapidity with which I had +spoken; and without giving him time to renew the conversation, I hastily +quitted the room, leaving him in a paroxysm of rage and mortification. +As I ascended the stairs, I heard him open the parlour-door with +violence, and take two or three rapid strides in the direction in which +I was moving. I was now much frightened, and ran the whole way until I +reached my room; and having locked the door, I listened breathlessly, +but heard no sound. This relieved me for the present; but so much had +I been overcome by the agitation and annoyance attendant upon the scene +which I had just gone through, that when my cousin Emily knocked at my +door, I was weeping in strong hysterics. + +You will readily conceive my distress, when you reflect upon my +strong dislike to my cousin Edward, combined with my youth and extreme +inexperience. Any proposal of such a nature must have agitated me; but +that it should have come from the man whom of all others I most loathed +and abhorred, and to whom I had, as clearly as manner could do it, +expressed the state of my feelings, was almost too overwhelming to be +borne. It was a calamity, too, in which I could not claim the sympathy +of my cousin Emily, which had always been extended to me in my minor +grievances. Still I hoped that it might not be unattended with good; for +I thought that one inevitable and most welcome consequence would result +from this painful eclaircissment, in the discontinuance of my cousin's +odious persecution. + +When I arose next morning, it was with the fervent hope that I might +never again behold the face, or even hear the name, of my cousin Edward; +but such a consummation, though devoutly to be wished, was hardly likely +to occur. The painful impressions of yesterday were too vivid to be at +once erased; and I could not help feeling some dim foreboding of coming +annoyance and evil. + +To expect on my cousin's part anything like delicacy or consideration +for me, was out of the question. I saw that he had set his heart upon +my property, and that he was not likely easily to forego such an +acquisition--possessing what might have been considered opportunities +and facilities almost to compel my compliance. + +I now keenly felt the unreasonableness of my father's conduct in placing +me to reside with a family of all whose members, with one exception, +he was wholly ignorant, and I bitterly felt the helplessness of my +situation. I determined, however, in case of my cousin's persevering in +his addresses, to lay all the particulars before my uncle, although +he had never in kindness or intimacy gone a step beyond our first +interview, and to throw myself upon his hospitality and his sense of +honour for protection against a repetition of such scenes. + +My cousin's conduct may appear to have been an inadequate cause for +such serious uneasiness; but my alarm was caused neither by his acts +nor words, but entirely by his manner, which was strange and even +intimidating to excess. At the beginning of the yesterday's interview +there was a sort of bullying swagger in his air, which towards the +end gave place to the brutal vehemence of an undisguised ruffian--a +transition which had tempted me into a belief that he might seek even +forcibly to extort from me a consent to his wishes, or by means still +more horrible, of which I scarcely dared to trust myself to think, to +possess himself of my property. + +I was early next day summoned to attend my uncle in his private +room, which lay in a corner turret of the old building; and thither I +accordingly went, wondering all the way what this unusual measure might +prelude. When I entered the room, he did not rise in his usual courteous +way to greet me, but simply pointed to a chair opposite to his own. This +boded nothing agreeable. I sat down, however, silently waiting until he +should open the conversation. + +'Lady Margaret,' at length he said, in a tone of greater sternness than +I thought him capable of using, 'I have hitherto spoken to you as a +friend, but I have not forgotten that I am also your guardian, and that +my authority as such gives me a right to control your conduct. I shall +put a question to you, and I expect and will demand a plain, direct +answer. Have I rightly been informed that you have contemptuously +rejected the suit and hand of my son Edward?' + +I stammered forth with a good deal of trepidation: + +'I believe--that is, I have, sir, rejected my cousin's proposals; and +my coldness and discouragement might have convinced him that I had +determined to do so.' + +'Madam,' replied he, with suppressed, but, as it appeared to me, +intense anger, 'I have lived long enough to know that COLDNESS and +discouragement, and such terms, form the common cant of a worthless +coquette. You know to the full, as well as I, that COLDNESS AND +DISCOURAGEMENT may be so exhibited as to convince their object that +he is neither distasteful or indifferent to the person who wears this +manner. You know, too, none better, that an affected neglect, when +skilfully managed, is amongst the most formidable of the engines which +artful beauty can employ. I tell you, madam, that having, without one +word spoken in discouragement, permitted my son's most marked attentions +for a twelvemonth or more, you have no right to dismiss him with no +further explanation than demurely telling him that you had always looked +coldly upon him; and neither your wealth nor your LADYSHIP' (there was +an emphasis of scorn on the word, which would have become Sir Giles +Overreach himself) 'can warrant you in treating with contempt the +affectionate regard of an honest heart.' + +I was too much shocked at this undisguised attempt to bully me into +an acquiescence in the interested and unprincipled plan for their own +aggrandisement, which I now perceived my uncle and his son to have +deliberately entered into, at once to find strength or collectedness +to frame an answer to what he had said. At length I replied, with some +firmness: + +'In all that you have just now said, sir, you have grossly misstated my +conduct and motives. Your information must have been most incorrect as +far as it regards my conduct towards my cousin; my manner towards him +could have conveyed nothing but dislike; and if anything could have +added to the strong aversion which I have long felt towards him, it +would be his attempting thus to trick and frighten me into a marriage +which he knows to be revolting to me, and which is sought by him only as +a means for securing to himself whatever property is mine.' + +As I said this, I fixed my eyes upon those of my uncle, but he was too +old in the world's ways to falter beneath the gaze of more searching +eyes than mine; he simply said: + +'Are you acquainted with the provisions of your father's will?' + +I answered in the affirmative; and he continued: + +'Then you must be aware that if my son Edward were--which God +forbid--the unprincipled, reckless man you pretend to think him'--(here +he spoke very slowly, as if he intended that every word which escaped +him should be registered in my memory, while at the same time the +expression of his countenance underwent a gradual but horrible change, +and the eyes which he fixed upon me became so darkly vivid, that +I almost lost sight of everything else)--'if he were what you have +described him, think you, girl, he could find no briefer means than +wedding contracts to gain his ends? 'twas but to gripe your slender neck +until the breath had stopped, and lands, and lakes, and all were his.' + +I stood staring at him for many minutes after he had ceased to speak, +fascinated by the terrible serpent-like gaze, until he continued with a +welcome change of countenance: + +'I will not speak again to you upon this--topic until one month has +passed. You shall have time to consider the relative advantages of the +two courses which are open to you. I should be sorry to hurry you to +a decision. I am satisfied with having stated my feelings upon the +subject, and pointed out to you the path of duty. Remember this day +month--not one word sooner.' + +He then rose, and I left the room, much agitated and exhausted. + +This interview, all the circumstances attending it, but most +particularly the formidable expression of my uncle's countenance while +he talked, though hypothetically, of murder, combined to arouse all my +worst suspicions of him. I dreaded to look upon the face that had so +recently worn the appalling livery of guilt and malignity. I regarded it +with the mingled fear and loathing with which one looks upon an object +which has tortured them in a nightmare. + +In a few days after the interview, the particulars of which I have just +related, I found a note upon my toilet-table, and on opening it I read +as follows: + + + 'MY DEAR LADY MARGARET, + 'You will be perhaps surprised to +see a strange face in your room to-day. I have dismissed your Irish +maid, and secured a French one to wait upon you--a step rendered +necessary by my proposing shortly to visit the Continent, with all my +family. + +'Your faithful guardian, + +'ARTHUR T----N.' + + +On inquiry, I found that my faithful attendant was actually gone, and +far on her way to the town of Galway; and in her stead there appeared +a tall, raw-boned, ill-looking, elderly Frenchwoman, whose sullen and +presuming manners seemed to imply that her vocation had never before +been that of a lady's-maid. I could not help regarding her as a creature +of my uncle's, and therefore to be dreaded, even had she been in no +other way suspicious. + +Days and weeks passed away without any, even a momentary doubt upon my +part, as to the course to be pursued by me. The allotted period had +at length elapsed; the day arrived on which I was to communicate my +decision to my uncle. Although my resolution had never for a moment +wavered, I could not shake of the dread of the approaching colloquy; and +my heart sunk within me as I heard the expected summons. + +I had not seen my cousin Edward since the occurrence of the grand +eclaircissment; he must have studiously avoided me--I suppose from +policy, it could not have been from delicacy. I was prepared for a +terrific burst of fury from my uncle, as soon as I should make known my +determination; and I not unreasonably feared that some act of violence +or of intimidation would next be resorted to. + +Filled with these dreary forebodings, I fearfully opened the study door, +and the next minute I stood in my uncle's presence. He received me +with a politeness which I dreaded, as arguing a favourable anticipation +respecting the answer which I was to give; and after some slight delay, +he began by saying: + +'It will be a relief to both of us, I believe, to bring this +conversation as soon as possible to an issue. You will excuse me, +then, my dear niece, for speaking with an abruptness which, under other +circumstances, would be unpardonable. You have, I am certain, given +the subject of our last interview fair and serious consideration; and I +trust that you are now prepared with candour to lay your answer before +me. A few words will suffice--we perfectly understand one another.' + +He paused, and I, though feeling that I stood upon a mine which might in +an instant explode, nevertheless answered with perfect composure: + +'I must now, sir, make the same reply which I did upon the last +occasion, and I reiterate the declaration which I then made, that I +never can nor will, while life and reason remain, consent to a union +with my cousin Edward.' + +This announcement wrought no apparent change in Sir Arthur, except that +he became deadly, almost lividly pale. He seemed lost in dark thought +for a minute, and then with a slight effort said: + +'You have answered me honestly and directly; and you say your resolution +is unchangeable. Well, would it had been otherwise--would it had been +otherwise--but be it as it is--I am satisfied.' + +He gave me his hand--it was cold and damp as death; under an assumed +calmness, it was evident that he was fearfully agitated. He continued +to hold my hand with an almost painful pressure, while, as if +unconsciously, seeming to forget my presence, he muttered: + +'Strange, strange, strange, indeed! fatuity, helpless fatuity!' there +was here a long pause. 'Madness INDEED to strain a cable that is rotten +to the very heart--it must break--and then--all goes.' + +There was again a pause of some minutes, after which, suddenly changing +his voice and manner to one of wakeful alacrity, he exclaimed: + +'Margaret, my son Edward shall plague you no more. He leaves this +country on to-morrow for France--he shall speak no more upon this +subject--never, never more--whatever events depended upon your answer +must now take their own course; but, as for this fruitless proposal, it +has been tried enough; it can be repeated no more.' + +At these words he coldly suffered my hand to drop, as if to express +his total abandonment of all his projected schemes of alliance; and +certainly the action, with the accompanying words, produced upon my mind +a more solemn and depressing effect than I believed possible to have +been caused by the course which I had determined to pursue; it struck +upon my heart with an awe and heaviness which WILL accompany the +accomplishment of an important and irrevocable act, even though no doubt +or scruple remains to make it possible that the agent should wish it +undone. + +'Well,' said my uncle, after a little time, 'we now cease to speak upon +this topic, never to resume it again. Remember you shall have no farther +uneasiness from Edward; he leaves Ireland for France on to-morrow; this +will be a relief to you. May I depend upon your HONOUR that no word +touching the subject of this interview shall ever escape you?' + +I gave him the desired assurance; he said: + +'It is well--I am satisfied--we have nothing more, I believe, to say +upon either side, and my presence must be a restraint upon you, I shall +therefore bid you farewell.' + +I then left the apartment, scarcely knowing what to think of the strange +interview which had just taken place. + +On the next day my uncle took occasion to tell me that Edward had +actually sailed, if his intention had not been interfered with by +adverse circumstances; and two days subsequently he actually produced a +letter from his son, written, as it said, ON BOARD, and despatched while +the ship was getting under weigh. This was a great satisfaction to me, +and as being likely to prove so, it was no doubt communicated to me by +Sir Arthur. + +During all this trying period, I had found infinite consolation in the +society and sympathy of my dear cousin Emily. I never in after-life +formed a friendship so close, so fervent, and upon which, in all its +progress, I could look back with feelings of such unalloyed pleasure, +upon whose termination I must ever dwell with so deep, yet so +unembittered regret. In cheerful converse with her I soon recovered +my spirits considerably, and passed my time agreeably enough, although +still in the strictest seclusion. + +Matters went on sufficiently smooth, although I could not help sometimes +feeling a momentary, but horrible uncertainty respecting my uncle's +character; which was not altogether unwarranted by the circumstances of +the two trying interviews whose particulars I have just detailed. The +unpleasant impression which these conferences were calculated to leave +upon my mind, was fast wearing away, when there occurred a circumstance, +slight indeed in itself, but calculated irresistibly to awaken all my +worst suspicions, and to overwhelm me again with anxiety and terror. + +I had one day left the house with my cousin Emily, in order to take +a ramble of considerable length, for the purpose of sketching some +favourite views, and we had walked about half a mile when I perceived +that we had forgotten our drawing materials, the absence of which +would have defeated the object of our walk. Laughing at our own +thoughtlessness, we returned to the house, and leaving Emily without, I +ran upstairs to procure the drawing-books and pencils, which lay in my +bedroom. + +As I ran up the stairs I was met by the tall, ill-looking Frenchwoman, +evidently a good deal flurried. + +'Que veut, madame?' said she, with a more decided effort to be polite +than I had ever known her make before. + + +'No, no--no matter,' said I, hastily running by her in the direction of +my room. + +'Madame,' cried she, in a high key, 'restez ici, s'il vous plait; votre +chambre n'est pas faite--your room is not ready for your reception yet.' + +I continued to move on without heeding her. She was some way behind me, +and feeling that she could not otherwise prevent my entrance, for I was +now upon the very lobby, she made a desperate attempt to seize hold of +my person: she succeeded in grasping the end of my shawl, which she drew +from my shoulders; but slipping at the same time upon the polished oak +floor, she fell at full length upon the boards. + +A little frightened as well as angry at the rudeness of this strange +woman, I hastily pushed open the door of my room, at which I now stood, +in order to escape from her; but great was my amazement on entering to +find the apartment preoccupied. + +The window was open, and beside it stood two male figures; they appeared +to be examining the fastenings of the casement, and their backs were +turned towards the door. One of them was my uncle; they both turned on +my entrance, as if startled. The stranger was booted and cloaked, +and wore a heavy broad-leafed hat over his brows. He turned but for a +moment, and averted his face; but I had seen enough to convince me that +he was no other than my cousin Edward. My uncle had some iron instrument +in his hand, which he hastily concealed behind his back; and coming +towards me, said something as if in an explanatory tone; but I was too +much shocked and confounded to understand what it might be. He said +something about 'REPAIRS--window--frames--cold, and safety.' + +I did not wait, however, to ask or to receive explanations, but hastily +left the room. As I went down the stairs I thought I heard the voice of +the Frenchwoman in all the shrill volubility of excuse, which was met, +however, by suppressed but vehement imprecations, or what seemed to me +to be such, in which the voice of my cousin Edward distinctly mingled. + +I joined my cousin Emily quite out of breath. I need not say that my +head was too full of other things to think much of drawing for that day. +I imparted to her frankly the cause of my alarms, but at the same +time as gently as I could; and with tears she promised vigilance, +and devotion, and love. I never had reason for a moment to repent the +unreserved confidence which I then reposed in her. She was no less +surprised than I at the unexpected appearance of Edward, whose departure +for France neither of us had for a moment doubted, but which was now +proved by his actual presence to be nothing more than an imposture, +practised, I feared, for no good end. + +The situation in which I had found my uncle had removed completely all +my doubts as to his designs. I magnified suspicions into certainties, +and dreaded night after night that I should be murdered in my bed. +The nervousness produced by sleepless nights and days of anxious fears +increased the horrors of my situation to such a degree, that I at length +wrote a letter to a Mr. Jefferies, an old and faithful friend of my +father's, and perfectly acquainted with all his affairs, praying him, +for God's sake, to relieve me from my present terrible situation, and +communicating without reserve the nature and grounds of my suspicions. + +This letter I kept sealed and directed for two or three days always +about my person, for discovery would have been ruinous, in expectation +of an opportunity which might be safely trusted, whereby to have it +placed in the post-office. As neither Emily nor I were permitted to pass +beyond the precincts of the demesne itself, which was surrounded by +high walls formed of dry stone, the difficulty of procuring such an +opportunity was greatly enhanced. + +At this time Emily had a short conversation with her father, which she +reported to me instantly. + +After some indifferent matter, he had asked her whether she and I were +upon good terms, and whether I was unreserved in my disposition. She +answered in the affirmative; and he then inquired whether I had been +much surprised to find him in my chamber on the other day. She answered +that I had been both surprised and amused. + +'And what did she think of George Wilson's appearance?' + +'Who?' inquired she. + +'Oh, the architect,' he answered, 'who is to contract for the repairs of +the house; he is accounted a handsome fellow.' + +'She could not see his face,' said Emily, 'and she was in such a hurry +to escape that she scarcely noticed him.' + +Sir Arthur appeared satisfied, and the conversation ended. + +This slight conversation, repeated accurately to me by Emily, had the +effect of confirming, if indeed anything was required to do so, all that +I had before believed as to Edward's actual presence; and I naturally +became, if possible, more anxious than ever to despatch the letter to +Mr. Jefferies. An opportunity at length occurred. + +As Emily and I were walking one day near the gate of the demesne, a lad +from the village happened to be passing down the avenue from the house; +the spot was secluded, and as this person was not connected by service +with those whose observation I dreaded, I committed the letter to his +keeping, with strict injunctions that he should put it without delay +into the receiver of the town post-office; at the same time I added +a suitable gratuity, and the man having made many protestations of +punctuality, was soon out of sight. + +He was hardly gone when I began to doubt my discretion in having trusted +this person; but I had no better or safer means of despatching the +letter, and I was not warranted in suspecting him of such wanton +dishonesty as an inclination to tamper with it; but I could not be quite +satisfied of its safety until I had received an answer, which could not +arrive for a few days. Before I did, however, an event occurred which a +little surprised me. + +I was sitting in my bedroom early in the day, reading by myself, when I +heard a knock at the door. + +'Come in,' said I; and my uncle entered the room. + +'Will you excuse me?' said he. 'I sought you in the parlour, and thence +I have come here. I desired to say a word with you. I trust that you +have hitherto found my conduct to you such as that of a guardian towards +his ward should be.' + +I dared not withhold my consent. + +'And,' he continued, 'I trust that you have not found me harsh or +unjust, and that you have perceived, my dear niece, that I have sought +to make this poor place as agreeable to you as may be.' + +I assented again; and he put his hand in his pocket, whence he drew a +folded paper, and dashing it upon the table with startling emphasis, he +said: + +'Did you write that letter?' + +The sudden and tearful alteration of his voice, manner, and face, but, +more than all, the unexpected production of my letter to Mr. Jefferies, +which I at once recognised, so confounded and terrified me, that I felt +almost choking. + +I could not utter a word. + +'Did you write that letter?' he repeated with slow and intense +emphasis.' You did, liar and hypocrite! You dared to write this foul and +infamous libel; but it shall be your last. Men will universally believe +you mad, if I choose to call for an inquiry. I can make you appear +so. The suspicions expressed in this letter are the hallucinations and +alarms of moping lunacy. I have defeated your first attempt, madam; and +by the holy God, if ever you make another, chains, straw, darkness, and +the keeper's whip shall be your lasting portion!' + +With these astounding words he left the room, leaving me almost +fainting. + +I was now almost reduced to despair; my last cast had failed; I had no +course left but that of eloping secretly from the castle, and placing +myself under the protection of the nearest magistrate. I felt if this +were not done, and speedily, that I should be MURDERED. + +No one, from mere description, can have an idea of the unmitigated +horror of my situation--a helpless, weak, inexperienced girl, placed +under the power and wholly at the mercy of evil men, and feeling that +she had it not in her power to escape for a moment from the malignant +influences under which she was probably fated to fall; and with a +consciousness that if violence, if murder were designed, her dying +shriek would be lost in void space; no human being would be near to aid +her, no human interposition could deliver her. + +I had seen Edward but once during his visit, and as I did not meet with +him again, I began to think that he must have taken his departure--a +conviction which was to a certain degree satisfactory, as I regarded his +absence as indicating the removal of immediate danger. + +Emily also arrived circuitously at the same conclusion, and not without +good grounds, for she managed indirectly to learn that Edward's black +horse had actually been for a day and part of a night in the castle +stables, just at the time of her brother's supposed visit. The horse had +gone, and, as she argued, the rider must have departed with it. + +This point being so far settled, I felt a little less uncomfortable: +when being one day alone in my bedroom, I happened to look out from +the window, and, to my unutterable horror, I beheld, peering through +an opposite casement, my cousin Edward's face. Had I seen the evil one +himself in bodily shape, I could not have experienced a more sickening +revulsion. + +I was too much appalled to move at once from the window, but I did so +soon enough to avoid his eye. He was looking fixedly into the narrow +quadrangle upon which the window opened. I shrank back unperceived, to +pass the rest of the day in terror and despair. I went to my room early +that night, but I was too miserable to sleep. + +At about twelve o'clock, feeling very nervous, I determined to call +my cousin Emily, who slept, you will remember, in the next room, which +communicated with mine by a second door. By this private entrance I +found my way into her chamber, and without difficulty persuaded her to +return to my room and sleep with me. We accordingly lay down together, +she undressed, and I with my clothes on, for I was every moment walking +up and down the room, and felt too nervous and miserable to think of +rest or comfort. + +Emily was soon fast asleep, and I lay awake, fervently longing for the +first pale gleam of morning, reckoning every stroke of the old clock +with an impatience which made every hour appear like six. + +It must have been about one o'clock when I thought I heard a slight +noise at the partition-door between Emily's room and mine, as if caused +by somebody's turning the key in the lock. I held my breath, and the +same sound was repeated at the second door of my room--that which opened +upon the lobby--the sound was here distinctly caused by the revolution +of the bolt in the lock, and it was followed by a slight pressure upon +the door itself, as if to ascertain the security of the lock. + +The person, whoever it might be, was probably satisfied, for I heard +the old boards of the lobby creak and strain, as if under the weight +of somebody moving cautiously over them. My sense of hearing became +unnaturally, almost painfully acute. I suppose the imagination added +distinctness to sounds vague in themselves. I thought that I could +actually hear the breathing of the person who was slowly returning down +the lobby. At the head of the staircase there appeared to occur a pause; +and I could distinctly hear two or three sentences hastily whispered; +the steps then descended the stairs with apparently less caution. I now +ventured to walk quickly and lightly to the lobby-door, and attempted +to open it; it was indeed fast locked upon the outside, as was also the +other. + +I now felt that the dreadful hour was come; but one desperate expedient +remained--it was to awaken Emily, and by our united strength to attempt +to force the partition-door, which was slighter than the other, and +through this to pass to the lower part of the house, whence it might be +possible to escape to the grounds, and forth to the village. + +I returned to the bedside and shook Emily, but in vain. Nothing that +I could do availed to produce from her more than a few incoherent +words--it was a death-like sleep. She had certainly drank of some +narcotic, as had I probably also, spite of all the caution with which I +had examined everything presented to us to eat or drink. + +I now attempted, with as little noise as possible, to force first one +door, then the other--but all in vain. I believe no strength could have +effected my object, for both doors opened inwards. I therefore collected +whatever movables I could carry thither, and piled them against the +doors, so as to assist me in whatever attempts I should make to +resist the entrance of those without. I then returned to the bed and +endeavoured again, but fruitlessly, to awaken my cousin. It was not +sleep, it was torpor, lethargy, death. I knelt down and prayed with an +agony of earnestness; and then seating myself upon the bed, I awaited my +fate with a kind of terrible tranquillity. + +I heard a faint clanking sound from the narrow court which I have +already mentioned, as if caused by the scraping of some iron instrument +against stones or rubbish. I at first determined not to disturb the +calmness which I now felt, by uselessly watching the proceedings of +those who sought my life; but as the sounds continued, the horrible +curiosity which I felt overcame every other emotion, and I determined, +at all hazards, to gratify it. I therefore crawled upon my knees to the +window, so as to let the smallest portion of my head appear above the +sill. + +The moon was shining with an uncertain radiance upon the antique grey +buildings, and obliquely upon the narrow court beneath, one side of +which was therefore clearly illuminated, while the other was lost in +obscurity, the sharp outlines of the old gables, with their nodding +clusters of ivy, being at first alone visible. + +Whoever or whatever occasioned the noise which had excited my curiosity, +was concealed under the shadow of the dark side of the quadrangle. I +placed my hand over my eyes to shade them from the moonlight, which was +so bright as to be almost dazzling, and, peering into the darkness, I +first dimly, but afterwards gradually, almost with full distinctness, +beheld the form of a man engaged in digging what appeared to be a +rude hole close under the wall. Some implements, probably a shovel and +pickaxe, lay beside him, and to these he every now and then applied +himself as the nature of the ground required. He pursued his task +rapidly, and with as little noise as possible. + +'So,' thought I, as, shovelful after shovelful, the dislodged rubbish +mounted into a heap, 'they are digging the grave in which, before two +hours pass, I must lie, a cold, mangled corpse. I am THEIRS--I cannot +escape.' + +I felt as if my reason was leaving me. I started to my feet, and in mere +despair I applied myself again to each of the two doors alternately. I +strained every nerve and sinew, but I might as well have attempted, with +my single strength, to force the building itself from its foundation. I +threw myself madly upon the ground, and clasped my hands over my eyes as +if to shut out the horrible images which crowded upon me. + +The paroxysm passed away. I prayed once more, with the bitter, +agonised fervour of one who feels that the hour of death is present and +inevitable. When I arose, I went once more to the window and looked out, +just in time to see a shadowy figure glide stealthily along the wall. +The task was finished. The catastrophe of the tragedy must soon be +accomplished. + +I determined now to defend my life to the last; and that I might be able +to do so with some effect, I searched the room for something which might +serve as a weapon; but either through accident, or from an anticipation +of such a possibility, everything which might have been made available +for such a purpose had been carefully removed. I must then die tamely +and without an effort to defend myself. + +A thought suddenly struck me--might it not be possible to escape through +the door, which the assassin must open in order to enter the room? I +resolved to make the attempt. I felt assured that the door through which +ingress to the room would be effected, was that which opened upon the +lobby. It was the more direct way, besides being, for obvious reasons, +less liable to interruption than the other. I resolved, then, to place +myself behind a projection of the wall, whose shadow would serve fully +to conceal me, and when the door should be opened, and before they +should have discovered the identity of the occupant of the bed, to creep +noiselessly from the room, and then to trust to Providence for escape. + +In order to facilitate this scheme, I removed all the lumber which I +had heaped against the door; and I had nearly completed my arrangements, +when I perceived the room suddenly darkened by the close approach of +some shadowy object to the window. On turning my eyes in that direction, +I observed at the top of the casement, as if suspended from above, first +the feet, then the legs, then the body, and at length the whole figure +of a man present himself. It was Edward T----n. + +He appeared to be guiding his descent so as to bring his feet upon the +centre of the stone block which occupied the lower part of the window; +and, having secured his footing upon this, he kneeled down and began to +gaze into the room. As the moon was gleaming into the chamber, and the +bed-curtains were drawn, he was able to distinguish the bed itself and +its contents. He appeared satisfied with his scrutiny, for he looked up +and made a sign with his hand, upon which the rope by which his +descent had been effected was slackened from above, and he proceeded to +disengage it from his waist; this accomplished, he applied his hands +to the window-frame, which must have been ingeniously contrived for the +purpose, for, with apparently no resistance, the whole frame, containing +casement and all, slipped from its position in the wall, and was by him +lowered into the room. + +The cold night wind waved the bed-curtains, and he paused for a +moment--all was still again--and he stepped in upon the floor of the +room. He held in his hand what appeared to be a steel instrument, shaped +something like a hammer, but larger and sharper at the extremities. This +he held rather behind him, while, with three long, tip-toe strides, he +brought himself to the bedside. + +I felt that the discovery must now be made, and held my breath in +momentary expectation of the execration in which he would vent his +surprise and disappointment. I closed my eyes--there was a pause, but +it was a short one. I heard two dull blows, given in rapid succession: +a quivering sigh, and the long-drawn, heavy breathing of the sleeper was +for ever suspended. I unclosed my eyes, and saw the murderer fling the +quilt across the head of his victim: he then, with the instrument of +death still in his hand, proceeded to the lobby-door, upon which he +tapped sharply twice or thrice. A quick step was then heard approaching, +and a voice whispered something from without. Edward answered, with a +kind of chuckle, 'Her ladyship is past complaining; unlock the door, in +the devil's name, unless you're afraid to come in, and help me to lift +the body out of the window.' + +The key was turned in the lock--the door opened--and my uncle entered +the room. + +I have told you already that I had placed myself under the shade of a +projection of the wall, close to the door. I had instinctively shrunk +down, cowering towards the ground on the entrance of Edward through the +window. When my uncle entered the room he and his son both stood so very +close to me that his hand was every moment upon the point of touching my +face. I held my breath, and remained motionless as death. + +'You had no interruption from the next room?' said my uncle. + +'No,' was the brief reply. + +'Secure the jewels, Ned; the French harpy must not lay her claws upon +them. You're a steady hand, by G----! not much blood--eh?' + +'Not twenty drops,' replied his son, 'and those on the quilt.' + +'I'm glad it's over,' whispered my uncle again. 'We must lift the--the +THING through the window, and lay the rubbish over it.' + +They then turned to the bedside, and, winding the bed-clothes round the +body, carried it between them slowly to the window, and, exchanging +a few brief words with some one below, they shoved it over the +window-sill, and I heard it fall heavily on the ground underneath. + +'I'll take the jewels,' said my uncle; 'there are two caskets in the +lower drawer.' + +He proceeded, with an accuracy which, had I been more at ease, would +have furnished me with matter of astonishment, to lay his hand upon the +very spot where my jewels lay; and having possessed himself of them, he +called to his son: + +'Is the rope made fast above?' + +'I'm not a fool--to be sure it is,' replied he. + +They then lowered themselves from the window. I now rose lightly and +cautiously, scarcely daring to breathe, from my place of concealment, +and was creeping towards the door, when I heard my cousin's voice, in +a sharp whisper, exclaim: 'Scramble up again! G--d d----n you, you've +forgot to lock the room-door!' and I perceived, by the straining of the +rope which hung from above, that the mandate was instantly obeyed. + +Not a second was to be lost. I passed through the door, which was only +closed, and moved as rapidly as I could, consistently with stillness, +along the lobby. Before I had gone many yards, I heard the door through +which I had just passed double-locked on the inside. I glided down the +stairs in terror, lest, at every corner, I should meet the murderer or +one of his accomplices. + +I reached the hall, and listened for a moment to ascertain whether all +was silent around; no sound was audible. The parlour windows opened on +the park, and through one of them I might, I thought, easily effect +my escape. Accordingly, I hastily entered; but, to my consternation, a +candle was burning in the room, and by its light I saw a figure seated +at the dinner-table, upon which lay glasses, bottles, and the other +accompaniments of a drinking-party. Two or three chairs were placed +about the table irregularly, as if hastily abandoned by their occupants. + +A single glance satisfied me that the figure was that of my French +attendant. She was fast asleep, having probably drank deeply. There +was something malignant and ghastly in the calmness of this bad woman's +features, dimly illuminated as they were by the flickering blaze of +the candle. A knife lay upon the table, and the terrible thought +struck me--'Should I kill this sleeping accomplice in the guilt of the +murderer, and thus secure my retreat?' + +Nothing could be easier--it was but to draw the blade across her +throat--the work of a second. An instant's pause, however, corrected +me. 'No,' thought I, 'the God who has conducted me thus far through the +valley of the shadow of death, will not abandon me now. I will fall into +their hands, or I will escape hence, but it shall be free from the stain +of blood. His will be done.' + +I felt a confidence arising from this reflection, an assurance of +protection which I cannot describe. There was no other means of escape, +so I advanced, with a firm step and collected mind, to the window. I +noiselessly withdrew the bars and unclosed the shutters--I pushed open +the casement, and, without waiting to look behind me, I ran with my +utmost speed, scarcely feeling the ground under me, down the avenue, +taking care to keep upon the grass which bordered it. + +I did not for a moment slack my speed, and I had now gained the centre +point between the park-gate and the mansion-house. Here the avenue made +a wider circuit, and in order to avoid delay, I directed my way across +the smooth sward round which the pathway wound, intending, at the +opposite side of the flat, at a point which I distinguished by a group +of old birch-trees, to enter again upon the beaten track, which was from +thence tolerably direct to the gate. + +I had, with my utmost speed, got about half way across this broad flat, +when the rapid treading of a horse's hoofs struck upon my ear. My +heart swelled in my bosom as though I would smother. The clattering of +galloping hoofs approached--I was pursued--they were now upon the sward +on which I was running--there was not a bush or a bramble to shelter +me--and, as if to render escape altogether desperate, the moon, which +had hitherto been obscured, at this moment shone forth with a broad +clear light, which made every object distinctly visible. + +The sounds were now close behind me. I felt my knees bending under me, +with the sensation which torments one in dreams. I reeled--I stumbled--I +fell--and at the same instant the cause of my alarm wheeled past me at +full gallop. It was one of the young fillies which pastured loose about +the park, whose frolics had thus all but maddened me with terror. +I scrambled to my feet, and rushed on with weak but rapid steps, my +sportive companion still galloping round and round me with many a +frisk and fling, until, at length, more dead than alive, I reached the +avenue-gate and crossed the stile, I scarce knew how. + +I ran through the village, in which all was silent as the grave, until +my progress was arrested by the hoarse voice of a sentinel, who cried: +'Who goes there?' I felt that I was now safe. I turned in the direction +of the voice, and fell fainting at the soldier's feet. When I came to +myself; I was sitting in a miserable hovel, surrounded by strange faces, +all bespeaking curiosity and compassion. + +Many soldiers were in it also: indeed, as I afterwards found, it was +employed as a guard-room by a detachment of troops quartered for that +night in the town. In a few words I informed their officer of the +circumstances which had occurred, describing also the appearance of the +persons engaged in the murder; and he, without loss of time, proceeded +to the mansion-house of Carrickleigh, taking with him a party of his +men. But the villains had discovered their mistake, and had effected +their escape before the arrival of the military. + +The Frenchwoman was, however, arrested in the neighbourhood upon the +next day. She was tried and condemned upon the ensuing assizes; and +previous to her execution, confessed that 'SHE HAD A HAND IN MAKING HUGH +TISDAL'S BED.' She had been a housekeeper in the castle at the time, and +a kind of chere amie of my uncle's. She was, in reality, able to speak +English like a native, but had exclusively used the French language, I +suppose to facilitate her disguise. She died the same hardened wretch +which she had lived, confessing her crimes only, as she alleged, that +her doing so might involve Sir Arthur T----n, the great author of +her guilt and misery, and whom she now regarded with unmitigated +detestation. + +With the particulars of Sir Arthur's and his son's escape, as far as +they are known, you are acquainted. You are also in possession of their +after fate--the terrible, the tremendous retribution which, after long +delays of many years, finally overtook and crushed them. Wonderful and +inscrutable are the dealings of God with His creatures. + +Deep and fervent as must always be my gratitude to heaven for my +deliverance, effected by a chain of providential occurrences, the +failing of a single link of which must have ensured my destruction, I +was long before I could look back upon it with other feelings than those +of bitterness, almost of agony. + +The only being that had ever really loved me, my nearest and dearest +friend, ever ready to sympathise, to counsel, and to assist--the gayest, +the gentlest, the warmest heart--the only creature on earth that cared +for me--HER life had been the price of my deliverance; and I then +uttered the wish, which no event of my long and sorrowful life has +taught me to recall, that she had been spared, and that, in her stead, +_I_ were mouldering in the grave, forgotten and at rest. + + + + + +THE BRIDAL OF CARRIGVARAH. + +Being a Sixth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis Purcell, P. P. +of Drumcoolagh. + +In a sequestered district of the county of Limerick, there stood my +early life, some forty years ago, one of those strong stone buildings, +half castle, half farm-house, which are not unfrequent in the South of +Ireland, and whose solid masonry and massive construction seem to prove +at once the insecurity and the caution of the Cromwellite settlers who +erected them. At the time of which I speak, this building was tenanted +by an elderly man, whose starch and puritanic mien and manners might +have become the morose preaching parliamentarian captain, who had raised +the house and ruled the household more than a hundred years before; +but this man, though Protestant by descent as by name, was not so in +religion; he was a strict, and in outward observances, an exemplary +Catholic; his father had returned in early youth to the true faith, and +died in the bosom of the church. + +Martin Heathcote was, at the time of which I speak, a widower, but his +house-keeping was not on that account altogether solitary, for he had a +daughter, whose age was now sufficiently advanced to warrant her father +in imposing upon her the grave duties of domestic superintendence. + +This little establishment was perfectly isolated, and very little +intruded upon by acts of neighbourhood; for the rank of its occupants +was of that equivocal kind which precludes all familiar association +with those of a decidedly inferior rank, while it is not sufficient to +entitle its possessors to the society of established gentility, among +whom the nearest residents were the O'Maras of Carrigvarah, whose +mansion-house, constructed out of the ruins of an old abbey, whose +towers and cloisters had been levelled by the shot of Cromwell's +artillery, stood not half a mile lower upon the river banks. + +Colonel O'Mara, the possessor of the estates, was then in a declining +state of health, and absent with his lady from the country, leaving at +the castle, his son young O'Mara, and a kind of humble companion, named +Edward Dwyer, who, if report belied him not, had done in his early days +some PECULIAR SERVICES for the Colonel, who had been a gay man--perhaps +worse--but enough of recapitulation. + +It was in the autumn of the year 17-- that the events which led to the +catastrophe which I have to detail occurred. I shall run through the +said recital as briefly as clearness will permit, and leave you to +moralise, if such be your mood, upon the story of real life, which I +even now trace at this distant period not without emotion. + +It was upon a beautiful autumn evening, at that glad period of the +season when the harvest yields its abundance, that two figures were seen +sauntering along the banks of the winding river, which I described as +bounding the farm occupied by Heathcote; they had been, as the rods +and landing-nets which they listlessly carried went to show, plying the +gentle, but in this case not altogether solitary craft of the fisherman. +One of those persons was a tall and singularly handsome young man, whose +dark hair and complexion might almost have belonged to a Spaniard, +as might also the proud but melancholy expression which gave to his +countenance a character which contrasts sadly, but not uninterestingly, +with extreme youth; his air, as he spoke with his companion, was marked +by that careless familiarity which denotes a conscious superiority of +one kind or other, or which may be construed into a species of contempt; +his comrade afforded to him in every respect a striking contrast. He +was rather low in stature--a defect which was enhanced by a broad and +square-built figure--his face was sallow, and his features had +that prominence and sharpness which frequently accompany personal +deformity--a remarkably wide mouth, with teeth white as the fangs of a +wolf, and a pair of quick, dark eyes, whose effect was heightened by the +shadow of a heavy black brow, gave to his face a power of expression, +particularly when sarcastic or malignant emotions were to be exhibited, +which features regularly handsome could scarcely have possessed. + +'Well, sir,' said the latter personage, 'I have lived in hall and abbey, +town and country, here and abroad for forty years and more, and should +know a thing or two, and as I am a living man, I swear I think the girl +loves you.' + +'You are a fool, Ned,' said the younger. + +'I may be a fool,' replied the first speaker, 'in matters where my own +advantage is staked, but my eye is keen enough to see through the flimsy +disguise of a country damsel at a glance; and I tell you, as surely as I +hold this rod, the girl loves you.' + +'Oh I this is downright headstrong folly,' replied the young fisherman. +'Why, Ned, you try to persuade me against my reason, that the event +which is most to be deprecated has actually occurred. She is, no doubt, +a pretty girl--a beautiful girl--but I have not lost my heart to her; +and why should I wish her to be in love with me? Tush, man, the days of +romance are gone, and a young gentleman may talk, and walk, and laugh +with a pretty country maiden, and never breathe aspirations, or vows, +or sighs about the matter; unequal matches are much oftener read of than +made, and the man who could, even in thought, conceive a wish against +the honour of an unsuspecting, artless girl, is a villain, for whom +hanging is too good.' + +This concluding sentence was uttered with an animation and excitement, +which the mere announcement of an abstract moral sentiment could hardly +account for. + +'You are, then, indifferent, honestly and in sober earnest, indifferent +to the girl?' inquired Dwyer. + +'Altogether so,' was the reply. + +'Then I have a request to make,' continued Dwyer, 'and I may as well +urge it now as at any other time. I have been for nearly twenty years +the faithful, and by no means useless, servant of your family; you know +that I have rendered your father critical and important services----' he +paused, and added hastily: 'you are not in the mood--I tire you, sir.' + +'Nay,' cried O'Mara, 'I listen patiently--proceed.' + +'For all these services, and they were not, as I have said, few or +valueless, I have received little more reward than liberal promises; +you have told me often that this should be mended--I'll make it easily +done--I'm not unreasonable--I should be contented to hold Heathcote's +ground, along with this small farm on which we stand, as full quittance +of all obligations and promises between us.' + +'But how the devil can I effect that for you; this farm, it is true, I, +or my father, rather, may lease to you, but Heathcote's title we cannot +impugn; and even if we could, you would not expect us to ruin an honest +man, in order to make way for YOU, Ned.' + +'What I am,' replied Dwyer, with the calmness of one who is so +accustomed to contemptuous insinuations as to receive them with perfect +indifference, 'is to be attributed to my devotedness to your honourable +family--but that is neither here nor there. I do not ask you to displace +Heathcote, in order to made room for me. I know it is out of your power +to do so. Now hearken to me for a moment; Heathcote's property, that +which he has set out to tenants, is worth, say in rents, at most, one +hundred pounds: half of this yearly amount is assigned to your father, +until payment be made of a bond for a thousand pounds, with interest and +soforth. Hear me patiently for a moment and I have done. Now go you to +Heathcote, and tell him your father will burn the bond, and cancel the +debt, upon one condition--that when I am in possession of this farm, +which you can lease to me on what terms you think suitable, he will +convey over his property to me, reserving what life-interest may appear +fair, I engaging at the same time to marry his daughter, and make such +settlements upon her as shall be thought fitting--he is not a fool--the +man will close with the offer.' + +O'Mara turned shortly upon Dwyer, and gazed upon him for a moment with +an expression of almost unmixed resentment. + +'How,' said he at length, 'YOU contract to marry Ellen Heathcote? the +poor, innocent, confiding, light-hearted girl. No, no, Edward Dwyer, I +know you too well for that--your services, be they what they will, must +not, shall not go unrewarded--your avarice shall be appeased--but not +with a human sacrifice! Dwyer, I speak to you without disguise; you +know me to be acquainted with your history, and what's more, with your +character. Now tell me frankly, were I to do as you desire me, in cool +blood, should I not prove myself a more uncompromising and unfeeling +villain than humanity even in its most monstrous shapes has ever yet +given birth to?' + +Dwyer met this impetuous language with the unmoved and impenetrable +calmness which always marked him when excitement would have appeared +in others; he even smiled as he replied: (and Dwyer's smile, for I have +seen it, was characteristically of that unfortunate kind which implies, +as regards the emotions of others, not sympathy but derision). + +'This eloquence goes to prove Ellen Heathcote something nearer to your +heart than your great indifference would have led me to suppose.' + +There was something in the tone, perhaps in the truth of the +insinuation, which at once kindled the quick pride and the anger of +O'Mara, and he instantly replied: + +'Be silent, sir, this is insolent folly.' + +Whether it was that Dwyer was more keenly interested in the success of +his suit, or more deeply disappointed at its failure than he cared to +express, or that he was in a less complacent mood than was his wont, it +is certain that his countenance expressed more emotion at this direct +insult than it had ever exhibited before under similar circumstances; +for his eyes gleamed for an instant with savage and undisguised ferocity +upon the young man, and a dark glow crossed his brow, and for the moment +he looked about to spring at the throat of his insolent patron; but the +impulse whatever it might be, was quickly suppressed, and before O'Mara +had time to detect the scowl, it had vanished. + +'Nay, sir,' said Dwyer, 'I meant no offence, and I will take none, at +your hands at least. I will confess I care not, in love and soforth, +a single bean for the girl; she was the mere channel through which +her father's wealth, if such a pittance deserves the name, was to have +flowed into my possession--'twas in respect of your family finances the +most economical provision for myself which I could devise--a matter in +which you, not I, are interested. As for women, they are all pretty much +alike to me. I am too old myself to make nice distinctions, and too ugly +to succeed by Cupid's arts; and when a man despairs of success, he soon +ceases to care for it. So, if you know me, as you profess to do, rest +satisfied "caeteris paribus;" the money part of the transaction being +equally advantageous, I should regret the loss of Ellen Heathcote just +as little as I should the escape of a minnow from my landing-net.' + +They walked on for a few minutes in silence, which was not broken till +Dwyer, who had climbed a stile in order to pass a low stone wall which +lay in their way, exclaimed: + +'By the rood, she's here--how like a philosopher you look.' + +The conscious blood mounted to O'Mara's cheek; he crossed the stile, +and, separated from him only by a slight fence and a gate, stood the +subject of their recent and somewhat angry discussion. + +'God save you, Miss Heathcote,' cried Dwyer, approaching the gate. + +The salutation was cheerfully returned, and before anything more could +pass, O'Mara had joined the party. + +My friend, that you may understand the strength and depth of those +impetuous passions, that you may account for the fatal infatuation which +led to the catastrophe which I have to relate, I must tell you, that +though I have seen the beauties of cities and of courts, with all +the splendour of studied ornament about them to enhance their graces, +possessing charms which had made them known almost throughout the world, +and worshipped with the incense of a thousand votaries, yet never, +nowhere did I behold a being of such exquisite and touching beauty, as +that possessed by the creature of whom I have just spoken. At the moment +of which I write, she was standing near the gate, close to which several +brown-armed, rosy-cheeked damsels were engaged in milking the peaceful +cows, who stood picturesquely grouped together. She had just thrown +back the hood which is the graceful characteristic of the Irish girl's +attire, so that her small and classic head was quite uncovered, save +only by the dark-brown hair, which with graceful simplicity was parted +above her forehead. There was nothing to shade the clearness of her +beautiful complexion; the delicately-formed features, so exquisite when +taken singly, so indescribable when combined, so purely artless, yet so +meet for all expression. She was a thing so very beautiful, you could +not look on her without feeling your heart touched as by sweet music. +Whose lightest action was a grace--whose lightest word a spell--no +limner's art, though ne'er so perfect, could shadow forth her beauty; +and do I dare with feeble words try to make you see it?(1) Providence +is indeed no respecter of persons, its blessings and its inflictions are +apportioned with an undistinguishing hand, and until the race is over, +and life be done, none can know whether those perfections, which seemed +its goodliest gifts, many not prove its most fatal; but enough of this. + + +(1) Father Purcell seems to have had an admiration for the beauties of +nature, particularly as developed in the fair sex; a habit of mind which +has been rather improved upon than discontinued by his successors from +Maynooth.--ED. + + +Dwyer strolled carelessly onward by the banks of the stream, leaving his +young companion leaning over the gate in close and interesting parlance +with Ellen Heathcote; as he moved on, he half thought, half uttered +words to this effect: + +'Insolent young spawn of ingratitude and guilt, how long must I submit +to be trod upon thus; and yet why should I murmur--his day is even now +declining--and if I live a year, I shall see the darkness cover him and +his for ever. Scarce half his broad estates shall save him--but I +must wait--I am but a pauper now--a beggar's accusation is always a +libel--they must reward me soon--and were I independent once, I'd make +them feel my power, and feel it SO, that I should die the richest or the +best avenged servant of a great man that has ever been heard of--yes, +I must wait--I must make sure of something at least--I must be able to +stand by myself--and then--and then--' He clutched his fingers together, +as if in the act of strangling the object of his hatred. 'But one thing +shall save him--but one thing only--he shall pay me my own price--and if +he acts liberally, as no doubt he will do, upon compulsion, why he saves +his reputation--perhaps his neck--the insolent young whelp yonder would +speak in an humbler key if he but knew his father's jeopardy--but all in +good time.' + +He now stood upon the long, steep, narrow bridge, which crossed the +river close to Carrigvarah, the family mansion of the O'Maras; he looked +back in the direction in which he had left his companion, and leaning +upon the battlement, he ruminated long and moodily. At length he raised +himself and said: + +'He loves the girl, and WILL love her more--I have an opportunity of +winning favour, of doing service, which shall bind him to me; yes, he +shall have the girl, if I have art to compass the matter. I must think +upon it.' + +He entered the avenue and was soon lost in the distance. + +Days and weeks passed on, and young O'Mara daily took his rod and net, +and rambled up the river; and scarce twelve hours elapsed in which some +of those accidents, which invariably bring lovers together, did not +secure him a meeting of longer or shorter duration, with the beautiful +girl whom he so fatally loved. + +One evening, after a long interview with her, in which he had been +almost irresistibly prompted to declare his love, and had all but +yielded himself up to the passionate impulse, upon his arrival at home +he found a letter on the table awaiting his return; it was from his +father to the following effect: + + + 'To Richard O'Mara. + 'September, 17--, L----m, England. + + 'MY DEAR SON,-- + 'I have just had a severe attack of +my old and almost forgotten enemy, the gout. This I regard as a good +sign; the doctors telling me that it is the safest development of +peccant humours; and I think my chest is less tormenting and oppressed +than I have known it for some years. My chief reason for writing to you +now, as I do it not without difficulty, is to let you know my pleasure +in certain matters, in which I suspect some shameful, and, indeed, +infatuated neglect on your part, "quem perdere vult deus prius +dementat:" how comes it that you have neglected to write to Lady Emily +or any of that family? the understood relation subsisting between you is +one of extreme delicacy, and which calls for marked and courteous, nay, +devoted attention upon your side. Lord ---- is already offended; beware +what you do; for as you will find, if this match be lost by your fault +or folly, by ---- I will cut you off with a shilling. I am not in the +habit of using threats when I do not mean to fulfil them, and that you +well know; however I do not think you have much real cause for alarm in +this case. Lady Emily, who, by the way, looks if possible more charming +than ever, is anything but hard-hearted, at least when YOU solicit; but +do as I desire, and lose no time in making what excuse you may, and +let me hear from you when you can fix a time to join me and your mother +here. + +'Your sincere well-wisher and father, + +'RICHARD O'MARA.' + + +In this letter was inclosed a smaller one, directed to Dwyer, and +containing a cheque for twelve pounds, with the following words: + + +'Make use of the enclosed, and let me hear if Richard is upon any wild +scheme at present: I am uneasy about him, and not without reason; report +to me speedily the result of your vigilance. + +'R. O'MARA.' + + +Dwyer just glanced through this brief, but not unwelcome, epistle; and +deposited it and its contents in the secret recesses of his breeches +pocket, and then fixed his eyes upon the face of his companion, who sat +opposite, utterly absorbed in the perusal of his father's letter, which +he read again and again, pausing and muttering between whiles, and +apparently lost in no very pleasing reflections. At length he very +abruptly exclaimed: + +'A delicate epistle, truly--and a politic--would that my tongue had been +burned through before I assented to that doubly-cursed contract. Why, I +am not pledged yet--I am not; there is neither writing, nor troth, nor +word of honour, passed between us. My father has no right to pledge me, +even though I told him I liked the girl, and would wish the match. 'Tis +not enough that my father offers her my heart and hand; he has no right +to do it; a delicate woman would not accept professions made by proxy. +Lady Emily! Lady Emily! with all the tawdry frippery, and finery of +dress and demeanour--compare HER with---- Pshaw! Ridiculous! How blind, +how idiotic I have been.' + +He relapsed into moody reflections, which Dwyer did not care to disturb, +and some ten minutes might have passed before he spoke again. When he +did, it was in the calm tone of one who has irrevocably resolved upon +some decided and important act. + +'Dwyer,' he said, rising and approaching that person, 'whatever god or +demon told you, even before my own heart knew it, that I loved Ellen +Heathcote, spoke truth. I love her madly--I never dreamed till now +how fervently, how irrevocably, I am hers--how dead to me all other +interests are. Dwyer, I know something of your disposition, and you no +doubt think it strange that I should tell to you, of all persons, SUCH +a secret; but whatever be your faults, I think you are attached to our +family. I am satisfied you will not betray me. I know----' + +'Pardon me,' said Dwyer, 'if I say that great professions of confidence +too frequently mark distrust. I have no possible motive to induce me to +betray you; on the contrary, I would gladly assist and direct whatever +plans you may have formed. Command me as you please; I have said +enough.' + +'I will not doubt you, Dwyer,' said O'Mara; 'I have taken my +resolution--I have, I think, firmness to act up to it. To marry Ellen +Heathcote, situated as I am, were madness; to propose anything else +were worse, were villainy not to be named. I will leave the country +to-morrow, cost what pain it may, for England. I will at once break off +the proposed alliance with Lady Emily, and will wait until I am my own +master, to open my heart to Ellen. My father may say and do what he +likes; but his passion will not last. He will forgive me; and even were +he to disinherit me, as he threatens, there is some property which +must descend to me, which his will cannot affect. He cannot ruin my +interests; he SHALL NOT ruin my happiness. Dwyer, give me pen and ink; I +will write this moment.' + +This bold plan of proceeding for many reasons appeared inexpedient +to Dwyer, and he determined not to consent to its adoption without a +struggle. + +'I commend your prudence,' said he, 'in determining to remove yourself +from the fascinating influence which has so long bound you here; but +beware of offending your father. Colonel O'Mara is not a man to forgive +an act of deliberate disobedience, and surely you are not mad enough to +ruin yourself with him by offering an outrageous insult to Lady Emily +and to her family in her person; therefore you must not break off the +understood contract which subsists between you by any formal act--hear +me out patiently. You must let Lady Emily perceive, as you easily may, +without rudeness or even coldness of manner, that she is perfectly +indifferent to you; and when she understands this to be the case, it +she possesses either delicacy or spirit, she will herself break off +the engagement. Make what delay it is possible to effect; it is very +possible that your father, who cannot, in all probability, live many +months, may not live as many days if harassed and excited by such scenes +as your breaking off your engagement must produce.' + +'Dwyer,' said O'Mara, 'I will hear you out--proceed.' + +'Besides, sir, remember,' he continued, 'the understanding which we have +termed an engagement was entered into without any direct sanction upon +your part; your father has committed HIMSELF, not YOU, to Lord ----. +Before a real contract can subsist, you must be an assenting party +to it. I know of no casuistry subtle enough to involve you in any +engagement whatever, without such an ingredient. Tush! you have an easy +card to play.' + +'Well,' said the young man, 'I will think on what you have said; in the +meantime, I will write to my father to announce my immediate departure, +in order to join him.' + +'Excuse me,' said Dwyer, 'but I would suggest that by hastening your +departure you but bring your dangers nearer. While you are in this +country a letter now and then keeps everything quiet; but once across +the Channel and with the colonel, you must either quarrel with him to +your own destruction, or you must dance attendance upon Lady Emily with +such assiduity as to commit yourself as completely as if you had been +thrice called with her in the parish church. No, no; keep to this +side of the Channel as long as you decently can. Besides, your sudden +departure must appear suspicious, and will probably excite inquiry. +Every good end likely to be accomplished by your absence will be +effected as well by your departure for Dublin, where you may remain for +three weeks or a month without giving rise to curiosity or doubt of +an unpleasant kind; I would therefore advise you strongly to write +immediately to the colonel, stating that business has occurred to defer +your departure for a month, and you can then leave this place, if you +think fit, immediately, that is, within a week or so.' + +Young O'Mara was not hard to be persuaded. Perhaps it was that, +unacknowledged by himself, any argument which recommended his staying, +even for an hour longer than his first decision had announced, in +the neighbourhood of Ellen Heathcote, appeared peculiarly cogent and +convincing; however this may have been, it is certain that he followed +the counsel of his cool-headed follower, who retired that night to bed +with the pleasing conviction that he was likely soon to involve +his young patron in all the intricacies of disguise and intrigue--a +consummation which would leave him totally at the mercy of the favoured +confidant who should possess his secret. + + +Young O'Mara's reflections were more agitating and less satisfactory +than those of his companion. He resolved upon leaving the country before +two days had passed. He felt that he could not fairly seek to involve +Ellen Heathcote in his fate by pledge or promise, until he had +extricated himself from those trammels which constrained and embarrassed +all his actions. His determination was so far prudent; but, alas! he +also resolved that it was but right, but necessary, that he should see +her before his departure. His leaving the country without a look or a +word of parting kindness interchanged, must to her appear an act of cold +and heartless caprice; he could not bear the thought. + +'No,' said he, 'I am not child enough to say more than prudence tells +me ought to say; this cowardly distrust of my firmness I should and will +contemn. Besides, why should I commit myself? It is possible the girl +may not care for me. No, no; I need not shrink from this interview. +I have no reason to doubt my firmness--none--none. I must cease to +be governed by impulse. I am involved in rocks and quicksands; and a +collected spirit, a quick eye, and a steady hand, alone can pilot me +through. God grant me a safe voyage!' + +The next day came, and young O'Mara did not take his fishing-rod as +usual, but wrote two letters; the one to his father, announcing his +intention of departing speedily for England; the other to Lady Emily, +containing a cold but courteous apology for his apparent neglect. Both +these were despatched to the post-office that evening, and upon the next +morning he was to leave the country. + +Upon the night of the momentous day of which we have just spoken, Ellen +Heathcote glided silently and unperceived from among the busy crowds +who were engaged in the gay dissipation furnished by what is in Ireland +commonly called a dance (the expenses attendant upon which, music, etc., +are defrayed by a subscription of one halfpenny each), and having +drawn her mantle closely about her, was proceeding with quick steps to +traverse the small field which separated her from her father's abode. +She had not walked many yards when she became aware that a solitary +figure, muffled in a cloak, stood in the pathway. It approached; a low +voice whispered: + +'Ellen.' + +'Is it you, Master Richard?' she replied. + +He threw back the cloak which had concealed his features. + +'It is I, Ellen, he said; 'I have been watching for you. I will not +delay you long.' + +He took her hand, and she did not attempt to withdraw it; for she was +too artless to think any evil, too confiding to dread it. + +'Ellen,' he continued, even now unconsciously departing from the rigid +course which prudence had marked out; 'Ellen, I am going to leave the +country; going to-morrow. I have had letters from England. I must go; +and the sea will soon be between us.' + +He paused, and she was silent. + +'There is one request, one entreaty I have to make,' he continued; 'I +would, when I am far away, have something to look at which belonged +to you. Will you give me--do not refuse it--one little lock of your +beautiful hair?' + +With artless alacrity, but with trembling hand, she took the scissors, +which in simple fashion hung by her side, and detached one of the long +and beautiful locks which parted over her forehead. She placed it in his +hand. + +Again he took her hand, and twice he attempted to speak in vain; at +length he said: + +'Ellen, when I am gone--when I am away--will you sometimes remember, +sometimes think of me?' + +Ellen Heathcote had as much, perhaps more, of what is noble in pride +than the haughtiest beauty that ever trod a court; but the effort was +useless; the honest struggle was in vain; and she burst into floods of +tears, bitterer than she had ever shed before. + +I cannot tell how passions rise and fall; I cannot describe the +impetuous words of the young lover, as pressing again and again to his +lips the cold, passive hand, which had been resigned to him, prudence, +caution, doubts, resolutions, all vanished from his view, and melted +into nothing. 'Tis for me to tell the simple fact, that from that brief +interview they both departed promised and pledged to each other for +ever. + +Through the rest of this story events follow one another rapidly. + +A few nights after that which I have just mentioned, Ellen Heathcote +disappeared; but her father was not left long in suspense as to her +fate, for Dwyer, accompanied by one of those mendicant friars who +traversed the country then even more commonly than they now do, called +upon Heathcote before he had had time to take any active measures for +the recovery of his child, and put him in possession of a document +which appeared to contain satisfactory evidence of the marriage of Ellen +Heathcote with Richard O'Mara, executed upon the evening previous, as +the date went to show; and signed by both parties, as well as by Dwyer +and a servant of young O'Mara's, both these having acted as witnesses; +and further supported by the signature of Peter Nicholls, a brother of +the order of St. Francis, by whom the ceremony had been performed, and +whom Heathcote had no difficulty in recognising in the person of his +visitant. + +This document, and the prompt personal visit of the two men, and above +all, the known identity of the Franciscan, satisfied Heathcote as +fully as anything short of complete publicity could have done. And his +conviction was not a mistaken one. + +Dwyer, before he took his leave, impressed upon Heathcote the necessity +of keeping the affair so secret as to render it impossible that it +should reach Colonel O'Mara's ears, an event which would have been +attended with ruinous consequences to all parties. He refused, also, +to permit Heathcote to see his daughter, and even to tell him where she +was, until circumstances rendered it safe for him to visit her. + +Heathcote was a harsh and sullen man; and though his temper was anything +but tractable, there was so much to please, almost to dazzle him, in the +event, that he accepted the terms which Dwyer imposed upon him without +any further token of disapprobation than a shake of the head, and a +gruff wish that 'it might prove all for the best.' + +Nearly two months had passed, and young O'Mara had not yet departed +for England. His letters had been strangely few and far between; and in +short, his conduct was such as to induce Colonel O'Mara to hasten his +return to Ireland, and at the same time to press an engagement, which +Lord ----, his son Captain N----, and Lady Emily had made to spend some +weeks with him at his residence in Dublin. + +A letter arrived for young O'Mara, stating the arrangement, and +requiring his attendance in Dublin, which was accordingly immediately +afforded. + +He arrived, with Dwyer, in time to welcome his father and his +distinguished guests. He resolved to break off his embarrassing +connection with Lady Emily, without, however, stating the real motive, +which he felt would exasperate the resentment which his father and Lord +---- would no doubt feel at his conduct. + +He strongly felt how dishonourably he would act if, in obedience to +Dwyer's advice, he seemed tacitly to acquiesce in an engagement which +it was impossible for him to fulfil. He knew that Lady Emily was not +capable of anything like strong attachment; and that even if she were, +he had no reason whatever to suppose that she cared at all for him. + +He had not at any time desired the alliance; nor had he any reason to +suppose the young lady in any degree less indifferent. He regarded it +now, and not without some appearance of justice, as nothing more than a +kind of understood stipulation, entered into by their parents, and to +be considered rather as a matter of business and calculation than as +involving anything of mutual inclination on the part of the parties most +nearly interested in the matter. + +He anxiously, therefore, watched for an opportunity of making known +his feelings to Lord ----, as he could not with propriety do so to +Lady Emily; but what at a distance appeared to be a matter of easy +accomplishment, now, upon a nearer approach, and when the immediate +impulse which had prompted the act had subsided, appeared so full of +difficulty and almost inextricable embarrassments, that he involuntarily +shrunk from the task day after day. + +Though it was a source of indescribable anxiety to him, he did not +venture to write to Ellen, for he could not disguise from himself the +danger which the secrecy of his connection with her must incur by +his communicating with her, even through a public office, where +their letters might be permitted to lie longer than the gossiping +inquisitiveness of a country town would warrant him in supposing safe. + +It was about a fortnight after young O'Mara had arrived in Dublin, where +all things, and places, and amusements; and persons seemed thoroughly +stale, flat, and unprofitable, when one day, tempted by the unusual +fineness of the weather, Lady Emily proposed a walk in the College Park, +a favourite promenade at that time. She therefore with young O'Mara, +accompanied by Dwyer (who, by-the-by, when he pleased, could act the +gentleman sufficiently well), proceeded to the place proposed, where +they continued to walk for some time. + +'Why, Richard,' said Lady Emily, after a tedious and unbroken pause +of some minutes, 'you are becoming worse and worse every day. You are +growing absolutely intolerable; perfectly stupid! not one good thing +have I heard since I left the house.' + +O'Mara smiled, and was seeking for a suitable reply, when his design was +interrupted, and his attention suddenly and painfully arrested, by the +appearance of two figures, who were slowly passing the broad walk on +which he and his party moved; the one was that of Captain N----, the +other was the form of--Martin Heathcote! + +O'Mara felt confounded, almost stunned; the anticipation of some +impending mischief--of an immediate and violent collision with a young +man whom he had ever regarded as his friend, were apprehensions which +such a juxtaposition could not fail to produce. + +'Is Heathcote mad?' thought he. 'What devil can have brought him here?' + +Dwyer having exchanged a significant glance with O'Mara, said slightly +to Lady Emily: + +'Will your ladyship excuse me for a moment? I have a word to say to +Captain N----, and will, with your permission, immediately rejoin you.' + +He bowed, and walking rapidly on, was in a few moments beside the object +of his and his patron's uneasiness. + +Whatever Heathcote's object might be, he certainly had not yet declared +the secret, whose safety O'Mara had so naturally desired, for Captain +N---- appeared in good spirits; and on coming up to his sister and her +companion, he joined them for a moment, telling O'Mara, laughingly, that +an old quiz had come from the country for the express purpose of +telling tales, as it was to be supposed, of him (young O'Mara), in whose +neighbourhood he lived. + +During this speech it required all the effort which it was possible to +exert to prevent O'Mara's betraying the extreme agitation to which his +situation gave rise. Captain N----, however, suspected nothing, and +passed on without further delay. + +Dinner was an early meal in those days, and Lady Emily was obliged to +leave the Park in less than half an hour after the unpleasant meeting +which we have just mentioned. + +Young O'Mara and, at a sign from him, Dwyer having escorted the lady +to the door of Colonel O'Mara's house, pretended an engagement, and +departed together. + +Richard O'Mara instantly questioned his comrade upon the subject of his +anxiety; but Dwyer had nothing to communicate of a satisfactory nature. +He had only time, while the captain had been engaged with Lady Emily and +her companion, to say to Heathcote: + +'Be secret, as you value your existence: everything will be right, if +you be but secret.' + +To this Heathcote had replied: 'Never fear me; I understand what I am +about.' + +This was said in such an ambiguous manner that it was impossible to +conjecture whether he intended or not to act upon Dwyer's exhortation. +The conclusion which appeared most natural, was by no means an agreeable +one. + +It was much to be feared that Heathcote having heard some vague report +of O'Mara's engagement with Lady Emily, perhaps exaggerated, by the +repetition, into a speedily approaching marriage, had become alarmed for +his daughter's interest, and had taken this decisive step in order to +prevent, by a disclosure of the circumstances of his clandestine union +with Ellen, the possibility of his completing a guilty alliance with +Captain N----'s sister. If he entertained the suspicions which they +attributed to him, he had certainly taken the most effectual means to +prevent their being realised. Whatever his object might be, his presence +in Dublin, in company with Captain N----, boded nothing good to O'Mara. + +They entered ----'s tavern, in Dame Street, together; and there, over a +hasty and by no means a comfortable meal, they talked over their plans +and conjectures. Evening closed in, and found them still closeted +together, with nothing to interrupt, and a large tankard of claret to +sustain their desultory conversation. + +Nothing had been determined upon, except that Dwyer and O'Mara should +proceed under cover of the darkness to search the town for Heathcote, +and by minute inquiries at the most frequented houses of entertainment, +to ascertain his place of residence, in order to procuring a full and +explanatory interview with him. They had each filled their last glass, +and were sipping it slowly, seated with their feet stretched towards +a bright cheerful fire; the small table which sustained the flagon of +which we have spoken, together with two pair of wax candles, placed +between them, so as to afford a convenient resting-place for the long +glasses out of which they drank. + +'One good result, at all events, will be effected by Heathcote's visit,' +said O'Mara. 'Before twenty-four hours I shall do that which I should +have done long ago. I shall, without reserve, state everything. I can no +longer endure this suspense--this dishonourable secrecy--this apparent +dissimulation. Every moment I have passed since my departure from +the country has been one of embarrassment, of pain, of humiliation. +To-morrow I will brave the storm, whether successfully or not is +doubtful; but I had rather walk the high roads a beggar, than submit +a day longer to be made the degraded sport of every accident--the +miserable dependent upon a successful system of deception. Though +PASSIVE deception, it is still unmanly, unworthy, unjustifiable +deception. I cannot bear to think of it. I despise myself, but I will +cease to be the despicable thing I have become. To-morrow sees me free, +and this harassing subject for ever at rest.' + +He was interrupted here by the sound of footsteps heavily but rapidly +ascending the tavern staircase. The room door opened, and Captain N----, +accompanied by a fashionably-attired young man, entered the room. + +Young O'Mara had risen from his seat on the entrance of their unexpected +visitants; and the moment Captain N---- recognised his person, an +evident and ominous change passed over his countenance. He turned +hastily to withdraw, but, as it seemed, almost instantly changed his +mind, for he turned again abruptly. + +'This chamber is engaged, sir,' said the waiter. + +'Leave the room, sir,' was his only reply. + +'The room is engaged, sir,' repeated the waiter, probably believing that +his first suggestion had been unheard. + +'Leave the room, or go to hell!' shouted Captain N----; at the same time +seizing the astounded waiter by the shoulder, he hurled him headlong +into the passage, and flung the door to with a crash that shook the +walls. 'Sir,' continued he, addressing himself to O'Mara, 'I did not +hope to have met you until to-morrow. Fortune has been kind to me--draw, +and defend yourself.' + +At the same time he drew his sword, and placed himself in an attitude of +attack. + +'I will not draw upon YOU,' said O'Mara. 'I have, indeed, wronged you. +I have given you just cause for resentment; but against your life I will +never lift my hand.' + +'You are a coward, sir,' replied Captain N----, with almost frightful +vehemence, 'as every trickster and swindler IS. You are a contemptible +dastard--a despicable, damned villain! Draw your sword, sir, and +defend your life, or every post and pillar in this town shall tell your +infamy.' + +'Perhaps,' said his friend, with a sneer, 'the gentleman can do better +without his honour than without his wife.' + +'Yes,' shouted the captain, 'his wife--a trull--a common----' + +'Silence, sir!' cried O'Mara, all the fierceness of his nature roused +by this last insult--'your object is gained; your blood be upon your own +head.' At the same time he sprang across a bench which stood in his way, +and pushing aside the table which supported the lights, in an instant +their swords crossed, and they were engaged in close and deadly strife. + +Captain N---- was far the stronger of the two; but, on the other hand, +O'Mara possessed far more skill in the use of the fatal weapon which +they employed. But the narrowness of the room rendered this advantage +hardly available. + +Almost instantly O'Mara received a slight wound upon the forehead, +which, though little more than a scratch, bled so fast as to obstruct +his sight considerably. + +Those who have used the foil can tell how slight a derangement of eye +or of hand is sufficient to determine a contest of this kind; and this +knowledge will prevent their being surprised when I say, that, spite of +O'Mara's superior skill and practice, his adversary's sword passed twice +through and through his body, and he fell heavily and helplessly upon +the floor of the chamber. + +Without saying a word, the successful combatant quitted the room along +with his companion, leaving Dwyer to shift as best he might for his +fallen comrade. + +With the assistance of some of the wondering menials of the place, Dwyer +succeeded in conveying the wounded man into an adjoining room, where he +was laid upon a bed, in a state bordering upon insensibility--the blood +flowing, I might say WELLING, from the wounds so fast as to show that +unless the bleeding were speedily and effectually stopped, he could not +live for half an hour. + +Medical aid was, of course, instantly procured, and Colonel O'Mara, +though at the time seriously indisposed, was urgently requested to +attend without loss of time. He did so; but human succour and support +were all too late. The wound had been truly dealt--the tide of life had +ebbed; and his father had not arrived five minutes when young O'Mara +was a corpse. His body rests in the vaults of Christ Church, in Dublin, +without a stone to mark the spot. + +The counsels of the wicked are always dark, and their motives often +beyond fathoming; and strange, unaccountable, incredible as it may seem, +I do believe, and that upon evidence so clear as to amount almost to +demonstration, that Heathcote's visit to Dublin--his betrayal of the +secret--and the final and terrible catastrophe which laid O'Mara in the +grave, were brought about by no other agent than Dwyer himself. + +I have myself seen the letter which induced that visit. The handwriting +is exactly what I have seen in other alleged specimens of Dwyer's +penmanship. It is written with an affectation of honest alarm at +O'Mara's conduct, and expresses a conviction that if some of Lady +Emily's family be not informed of O'Mara's real situation, nothing could +prevent his concluding with her an advantageous alliance, then upon +the tapis, and altogether throwing off his allegiance to Ellen--a +step which, as the writer candidly asserted, would finally conduce as +inevitably to his own disgrace as it immediately would to her ruin and +misery. + +The production was formally signed with Dwyer's name, and the postscript +contained a strict injunction of secrecy, asserting that if it were +ascertained that such an epistle had been despatched from such a +quarter, it would be attended with the total ruin of the writer. + +It is true that Dwyer, many years after, when this letter came to light, +alleged it to be a forgery, an assertion whose truth, even to his dying +hour, and long after he had apparently ceased to feel the lash of public +scorn, he continued obstinately to maintain. Indeed this matter is full +of mystery, for, revenge alone excepted, which I believe, in such +minds as Dwyer's, seldom overcomes the sense of interest, the only +intelligible motive which could have prompted him to such an act was the +hope that since he had, through young O'Mara's interest, procured +from the colonel a lease of a small farm upon the terms which he had +originally stipulated, he might prosecute his plan touching the property +of Martin Heathcote, rendering his daughter's hand free by the removal +of young O'Mara. This appears to me too complicated a plan of villany +to have entered the mind even of such a man as Dwyer. I must, therefore, +suppose his motives to have originated out of circumstances connected +with this story which may not have come to my ear, and perhaps never +will. + +Colonel O'Mara felt the death of his son more deeply than I should have +thought possible; but that son had been the last being who had continued +to interest his cold heart. Perhaps the pride which he felt in his child +had in it more of selfishness than of any generous feeling. But, be this +as it may, the melancholy circumstances connected with Ellen Heathcote +had reached him, and his conduct towards her proved, more strongly than +anything else could have done, that he felt keenly and justly, and, to a +certain degree, with a softened heart, the fatal event of which she had +been, in some manner, alike the cause and the victim. + +He evinced not towards her, as might have been expected, any +unreasonable resentment. On the contrary, he exhibited great +consideration, even tenderness, for her situation; and having +ascertained where his son had placed her, he issued strict orders that +she should not be disturbed, and that the fatal tidings, which had not +yet reached her, should be withheld until they might be communicated in +such a way as to soften as much as possible the inevitable shock. + +These last directions were acted upon too scrupulously and too long; +and, indeed, I am satisfied that had the event been communicated at +once, however terrible and overwhelming the shock might have been, much +of the bitterest anguish, of sickening doubts, of harassing suspense, +would have been spared her, and the first tempestuous burst of sorrow +having passed over, her chastened spirit might have recovered its tone, +and her life have been spared. But the mistaken kindness which concealed +from her the dreadful truth, instead of relieving her mind of a burden +which it could not support, laid upon it a weight of horrible fears +and doubts as to the affection of O'Mara, compared with which even the +certainty of his death would have been tolerable. + +One evening I had just seated myself beside a cheerful turf fire, with +that true relish which a long cold ride through a bleak and shelterless +country affords, stretching my chilled limbs to meet the genial +influence, and imbibing the warmth at every pore, when my comfortable +meditations were interrupted by a long and sonorous ringing at the +door-bell evidently effected by no timid hand. + +A messenger had arrived to request my attendance at the Lodge--such was +the name which distinguished a small and somewhat antiquated building, +occupying a peculiarly secluded position among the bleak and heathy +hills which varied the surface of that not altogether uninteresting +district, and which had, I believe, been employed by the keen and hardy +ancestors of the O'Mara family as a convenient temporary residence +during the sporting season. + +Thither my attendance was required, in order to administer to a deeply +distressed lady such comforts as an afflicted mind can gather from the +sublime hopes and consolations of Christianity. + +I had long suspected that the occupant of this sequestered, I might +say desolate, dwelling-house was the poor girl whose brief story we are +following; and feeling a keen interest in her fate--as who that had ever +seen her DID NOT?--I started from my comfortable seat with more eager +alacrity than, I will confess it, I might have evinced had my duty +called me in another direction. + +In a few minutes I was trotting rapidly onward, preceded by my guide, +who urged his horse with the remorseless rapidity of one who seeks by +the speed of his progress to escape observation. Over roads and through +bogs we splashed and clattered, until at length traversing the brow of +a wild and rocky hill, whose aspect seemed so barren and forbidding that +it might have been a lasting barrier alike to mortal sight and step, the +lonely building became visible, lying in a kind of swampy flat, with a +broad reedy pond or lake stretching away to its side, and backed by a +farther range of monotonous sweeping hills, marked with irregular +lines of grey rock, which, in the distance, bore a rude and colossal +resemblance to the walls of a fortification. + +Riding with undiminished speed along a kind of wild horse-track, we +turned the corner of a high and somewhat ruinous wall of loose stones, +and making a sudden wheel we found ourselves in a small quadrangle, +surmounted on two sides by dilapidated stables and kennels, on another +by a broken stone wall, and upon the fourth by the front of the lodge +itself. + +The whole character of the place was that of dreary desertion and +decay, which would of itself have predisposed the mind for melancholy +impressions. My guide dismounted, and with respectful attention held +my horse's bridle while I got down; and knocking at the door with the +handle of his whip, it was speedily opened by a neatly-dressed female +domestic, and I was admitted to the interior of the house, and conducted +into a small room, where a fire in some degree dispelled the cheerless +air, which would otherwise have prevailed to a painful degree throughout +the place. + +I had been waiting but for a very few minutes when another female +servant, somewhat older than the first, entered the room. She made some +apology on the part of the person whom I had come to visit, for the +slight delay which had already occurred, and requested me further to +wait for a few minutes longer, intimating that the lady's grief was so +violent, that without great effort she could not bring herself to speak +calmly at all. As if to beguile the time, the good dame went on in a +highly communicative strain to tell me, amongst much that could not +interest me, a little of what I had desired to hear. I discovered that +the grief of her whom I had come to visit was excited by the sudden +death of a little boy, her only child, who was then lying dead in his +mother's chamber. + +'And the mother's name?' said I, inquiringly. + +The woman looked at me for a moment, smiled, and shook her head with +the air of mingled mystery and importance which seems to say, 'I am +unfathomable.' I did not care to press the question, though I suspected +that much of her apparent reluctance was affected, knowing that my +doubts respecting the identity of the person whom I had come to visit +must soon be set at rest, and after a little pause the worthy Abigail +went on as fluently as ever. She told me that her young mistress had +been, for the time she had been with her--that was, for about a year +and a half--in declining health and spirits, and that she had loved her +little child to a degree beyond expression--so devotedly that she could +not, in all probability, survive it long. + +While she was running on in this way the bell rang, and signing me to +follow, she opened the room door, but stopped in the hall, and taking me +a little aside, and speaking in a whisper, she told me, as I valued the +life of the poor lady, not to say one word of the death of young O'Mara. +I nodded acquiescence, and ascending a narrow and ill-constructed +staircase, she stopped at a chamber door and knocked. + +'Come in,' said a gentle voice from within, and, preceded by my +conductress, I entered a moderately-sized, but rather gloomy chamber. + +There was but one living form within it--it was the light and graceful +figure of a young woman. She had risen as I entered the room; but owing +to the obscurity of the apartment, and to the circumstance that her +face, as she looked towards the door, was turned away from the light, +which found its way in dimly through the narrow windows, I could not +instantly recognise the features. + +'You do not remember me, sir?' said the same low, mournful voice. 'I +am--I WAS--Ellen Heathcote.' + +'I do remember you, my poor child,' said I, taking her hand; 'I do +remember you very well. Speak to me frankly--speak to me as a friend. +Whatever I can do or say for you, is yours already; only speak.' + +'You were always very kind, sir, to those--to those that WANTED +kindness.' + +The tears were almost overflowing, but she checked them; and as if +an accession of fortitude had followed the momentary weakness, +she continued, in a subdued but firm tone, to tell me briefly the +circumstances of her marriage with O'Mara. When she had concluded the +recital, she paused for a moment; and I asked again: + +'Can I aid you in any way--by advice or otherwise?' + +'I wish, sir, to tell you all I have been thinking about,' she +continued. 'I am sure, sir, that Master Richard loved me once--I am sure +he did not think to deceive me; but there were bad, hard-hearted people +about him, and his family were all rich and high, and I am sure he +wishes NOW that he had never, never seen me. Well, sir, it is not in +my heart to blame him. What was _I_ that I should look at him?--an +ignorant, poor, country girl--and he so high and great, and so +beautiful. The blame was all mine--it was all my fault; I could not +think or hope he would care for me more than a little time. Well, sir, +I thought over and over again that since his love was gone from me for +ever, I should not stand in his way, and hinder whatever great thing +his family wished for him. So I thought often and often to write him +a letter to get the marriage broken, and to send me home; but for one +reason, I would have done it long ago: there was a little child, his and +mine--the dearest, the loveliest.' She could not go on for a minute or +two. 'The little child that is lying there, on that bed; but it is dead +and gone, and there is no reason NOW why I should delay any more about +it.' + +She put her hand into her breast, and took out a letter, which she +opened. She put it into my hands. It ran thus: + + 'DEAR MASTER RICHARD, + 'My little child is dead, and your +happiness is all I care about now. Your marriage with me is displeasing +to your family, and I would be a burden to you, and in your way in the +fine places, and among the great friends where you must be. You ought, +therefore, to break the marriage, and I will sign whatever YOU wish, or +your family. I will never try to blame you, Master Richard--do not think +it--for I never deserved your love, and must not complain now that I +have lost it; but I will always pray for you, and be thinking of you +while I live.' + +While I read this letter, I was satisfied that so far from adding to the +poor girl's grief, a full disclosure of what had happened would, on the +contrary, mitigate her sorrow, and deprive it of its sharpest sting. + +'Ellen,' said I solemnly, 'Richard O'Mara was never unfaithful to you; +he is now where human reproach can reach him no more.' + +As I said this, the hectic flush upon her cheek gave place to a paleness +so deadly, that I almost thought she would drop lifeless upon the spot. + +'Is he--is he dead, then?' said she, wildly. + +I took her hand in mine, and told her the sad story as best I could. She +listened with a calmness which appeared almost unnatural, until I +had finished the mournful narration. She then arose, and going to the +bedside, she drew the curtain and gazed silently and fixedly on the +quiet face of the child: but the feelings which swelled at her heart +could not be suppressed; the tears gushed forth, and sobbing as if her +heart would break, she leant over the bed and took the dead child in her +arms. + +She wept and kissed it, and kissed it and wept again, in grief so +passionate, so heartrending, as to draw bitter tears from my eyes. I +said what little I could to calm her--to have sought to do more would +have been a mockery; and observing that the darkness had closed in, +I took my leave and departed, being favoured with the services of my +former guide. + +I expected to have been soon called upon again to visit the poor +girl; but the Lodge lay beyond the boundary of my parish, and I felt a +reluctance to trespass upon the precincts of my brother minister, and a +certain degree of hesitation in intruding upon one whose situation was +so very peculiar, and who would, I had no doubt, feel no scruple in +requesting my attendance if she desired it. + +A month, however, passed away, and I did not hear anything of Ellen. I +called at the Lodge, and to my inquiries they answered that she was very +much worse in health, and that since the death of the child she had been +sinking fast, and so weak that she had been chiefly confined to her bed. +I sent frequently to inquire, and often called myself, and all that I +heard convinced me that she was rapidly sinking into the grave. + +Late one night I was summoned from my rest, by a visit from the person +who had upon the former occasion acted as my guide; he had come to +summon me to the death-bed of her whom I had then attended. With +all celerity I made my preparations, and, not without considerable +difficulty and some danger, we made a rapid night-ride to the Lodge, a +distance of five miles at least. We arrived safely, and in a very short +time--but too late. + +I stood by the bed upon which lay the once beautiful form of Ellen +Heathcote. The brief but sorrowful trial was past--the desolate mourner +was gone to that land where the pangs of grief, the tumults of passion, +regrets and cold neglect, are felt no more. I leant over the lifeless +face, and scanned the beautiful features which, living, had wrought such +magic on all that looked upon them. They were, indeed, much wasted; but +it was impossible for the fingers of death or of decay altogether +to obliterate the traces of that exquisite beauty which had so +distinguished her. As I gazed on this most sad and striking spectacle, +remembrances thronged fast upon my mind, and tear after tear fell upon +the cold form that slept tranquilly and for ever. + +A few days afterwards I was told that a funeral had left the Lodge +at the dead of night, and had been conducted with the most scrupulous +secrecy. It was, of course, to me no mystery. + +Heathcote lived to a very advanced age, being of that hard mould which +is not easily impressionable. The selfish and the hard-hearted survive +where nobler, more generous, and, above all, more sympathising natures +would have sunk for ever. + +Dwyer certainly succeeded in extorting, I cannot say how, considerable +and advantageous leases from Colonel O'Mara; but after his death he +disposed of his interest in these, and having for a time launched into a +sea of profligate extravagance, he became bankrupt, and for a long time +I totally lost sight of him. + +The rebellion of '98, and the events which immediately followed, called +him forth from his lurking-places, in the character of an informer; and +I myself have seen the hoary-headed, paralytic perjurer, with a scowl +of derision and defiance, brave the hootings and the execrations of the +indignant multitude. + + + + +STRANGE EVENT IN THE LIFE OF SCHALKEN THE PAINTER. + + Being a Seventh Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis + Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh. + +You will no doubt be surprised, my dear friend, at the subject of the +following narrative. What had I to do with Schalken, or Schalken with +me? He had returned to his native land, and was probably dead and +buried, before I was born; I never visited Holland nor spoke with a +native of that country. So much I believe you already know. I must, +then, give you my authority, and state to you frankly the ground upon +which rests the credibility of the strange story which I am, about to +lay before you. + +I was acquainted, in my early days, with a Captain Vandael, whose father +had served King William in the Low Countries, and also in my own unhappy +land during the Irish campaigns. I know not how it happened that I liked +this man's society, spite of his politics and religion: but so it was; +and it was by means of the free intercourse to which our intimacy gave +rise that I became possessed of the curious tale which you are about to +hear. + +I had often been struck, while visiting Vandael, by a remarkable +picture, in which, though no connoisseur myself, I could not fail to +discern some very strong peculiarities, particularly in the distribution +of light and shade, as also a certain oddity in the design itself, which +interested my curiosity. It represented the interior of what might be a +chamber in some antique religious building--the foreground was occupied +by a female figure, arrayed in a species of white robe, part of which is +arranged so as to form a veil. The dress, however, is not strictly that +of any religious order. In its hand the figure bears a lamp, by whose +light alone the form and face are illuminated; the features are marked +by an arch smile, such as pretty women wear when engaged in successfully +practising some roguish trick; in the background, and, excepting where +the dim red light of an expiring fire serves to define the form, totally +in the shade, stands the figure of a man equipped in the old fashion, +with doublet and so forth, in an attitude of alarm, his hand being +placed upon the hilt of his sword, which he appears to be in the act of +drawing. + +'There are some pictures,' said I to my friend, 'which impress one, I +know not how, with a conviction that they represent not the mere ideal +shapes and combinations which have floated through the imagination +of the artist, but scenes, faces, and situations which have actually +existed. When I look upon that picture, something assures me that I +behold the representation of a reality.' + +Vandael smiled, and, fixing his eyes upon the painting musingly, he +said: + +'Your fancy has not deceived you, my good friend, for that picture is +the record, and I believe a faithful one, of a remarkable and mysterious +occurrence. It was painted by Schalken, and contains, in the face of the +female figure, which occupies the most prominent place in the design, +an accurate portrait of Rose Velderkaust, the niece of Gerard Douw, the +first and, I believe, the only love of Godfrey Schalken. My father knew +the painter well, and from Schalken himself he learned the story of +the mysterious drama, one scene of which the picture has embodied. This +painting, which is accounted a fine specimen of Schalken's style, was +bequeathed to my father by the artist's will, and, as you have observed, +is a very striking and interesting production.' + +I had only to request Vandael to tell the story of the painting in order +to be gratified; and thus it is that I am enabled to submit to you a +faithful recital of what I heard myself, leaving you to reject or to +allow the evidence upon which the truth of the tradition depends, with +this one assurance, that Schalken was an honest, blunt Dutchman, and, +I believe, wholly incapable of committing a flight of imagination; and +further, that Vandael, from whom I heard the story, appeared firmly +convinced of its truth. + +There are few forms upon which the mantle of mystery and romance +could seem to hang more ungracefully than upon that of the uncouth and +clownish Schalken--the Dutch boor--the rude and dogged, but most cunning +worker in oils, whose pieces delight the initiated of the present day +almost as much as his manners disgusted the refined of his own; and yet +this man, so rude, so dogged, so slovenly, I had almost said so savage, +in mien and manner, during his after successes, had been selected by +the capricious goddess, in his early life, to figure as the hero of a +romance by no means devoid of interest or of mystery. + +Who can tell how meet he may have been in his young days to play the +part of the lover or of the hero--who can say that in early life he had +been the same harsh, unlicked, and rugged boor that, in his maturer age, +he proved--or how far the neglected rudeness which afterwards marked +his air, and garb, and manners, may not have been the growth of that +reckless apathy not unfrequently produced by bitter misfortunes and +disappointments in early life? + +These questions can never now be answered. + +We must content ourselves, then, with a plain statement of facts, or +what have been received and transmitted as such, leaving matters of +speculation to those who like them. + +When Schalken studied under the immortal Gerard Douw, he was a young +man; and in spite of the phlegmatic constitution and unexcitable manner +which he shared, we believe, with his countrymen, he was not incapable +of deep and vivid impressions, for it is an established fact that the +young painter looked with considerable interest upon the beautiful niece +of his wealthy master. + +Rose Velderkaust was very young, having, at the period of which we +speak, not yet attained her seventeenth year, and, if tradition speaks +truth, possessed all the soft dimpling charms of the fail; light-haired +Flemish maidens. Schalken had not studied long in the school of Gerard +Douw, when he felt this interest deepening into something of a keener +and intenser feeling than was quite consistent with the tranquillity of +his honest Dutch heart; and at the same time he perceived, or thought he +perceived, flattering symptoms of a reciprocity of liking, and this +was quite sufficient to determine whatever indecision he might have +heretofore experienced, and to lead him to devote exclusively to her +every hope and feeling of his heart. In short, he was as much in love as +a Dutchman could be. He was not long in making his passion known to +the pretty maiden herself, and his declaration was followed by a +corresponding confession upon her part. + +Schalken, however, was a poor man, and he possessed no counterbalancing +advantages of birth or position to induce the old man to consent to +a union which must involve his niece and ward in the strugglings and +difficulties of a young and nearly friendless artist. He was, therefore, +to wait until time had furnished him with opportunity, and accident with +success; and then, if his labours were found sufficiently lucrative, it +was to be hoped that his proposals might at least be listened to by her +jealous guardian. Months passed away, and, cheered by the smiles of the +little Rose, Schalken's labours were redoubled, and with such effect and +improvement as reasonably to promise the realisation of his hopes, +and no contemptible eminence in his art, before many years should have +elapsed. + +The even course of this cheering prosperity was, however, destined to +experience a sudden and formidable interruption, and that, too, in a +manner so strange and mysterious as to baffle all investigation, and +throw upon the events themselves a shadow of almost supernatural horror. + +Schalken had one evening remained in the master's studio considerably +longer than his more volatile companions, who had gladly availed +themselves of the excuse which the dusk of evening afforded, to withdraw +from their several tasks, in order to finish a day of labour in the +jollity and conviviality of the tavern. + +But Schalken worked for improvement, or rather for love. Besides, he +was now engaged merely in sketching a design, an operation which, +unlike that of colouring, might be continued as long as there was light +sufficient to distinguish between canvas and charcoal. He had not then, +nor, indeed, until long after, discovered the peculiar powers of +his pencil, and he was engaged in composing a group of extremely +roguish-looking and grotesque imps and demons, who were inflicting +various ingenious torments upon a perspiring and pot-bellied St. +Anthony, who reclined in the midst of them, apparently in the last stage +of drunkenness. + +The young artist, however, though incapable of executing, or even of +appreciating, anything of true sublimity, had nevertheless discernment +enough to prevent his being by any means satisfied with his work; and +many were the patient erasures and corrections which the limbs and +features of saint and devil underwent, yet all without producing in +their new arrangement anything of improvement or increased effect. + +The large, old-fashioned room was silent, and, with the exception of +himself, quite deserted by its usual inmates. An hour had passed--nearly +two--without any improved result. Daylight had already declined, and +twilight was fast giving way to the darkness of night. The patience +of the young man was exhausted, and he stood before his unfinished +production, absorbed in no very pleasing ruminations, one hand buried +in the folds of his long dark hair, and the other holding the piece of +charcoal which had so ill executed its office, and which he now rubbed, +without much regard to the sable streaks which it produced, with +irritable pressure upon his ample Flemish inexpressibles. + +'Pshaw!' said the young man aloud, 'would that picture, devils, saint, +and all, were where they should be--in hell!' + +A short, sudden laugh, uttered startlingly close to his ear, instantly +responded to the ejaculation. + +The artist turned sharply round, and now for the first time became aware +that his labours had been overlooked by a stranger. + +Within about a yard and a half, and rather behind him, there stood what +was, or appeared to be, the figure of an elderly man: he wore a short +cloak, and broad-brimmed hat with a conical crown, and in his hand, +which was protected with a heavy, gauntlet-shaped glove, he carried a +long ebony walking-stick, surmounted with what appeared, as it glittered +dimly in the twilight, to be a massive head of gold, and upon his +breast, through the folds of the cloak, there shone what appeared to be +the links of a rich chain of the same metal. + +The room was so obscure that nothing further of the appearance of the +figure could be ascertained, and the face was altogether overshadowed +by the heavy flap of the beaver which overhung it, so that not a feature +could be discerned. A quantity of dark hair escaped from beneath this +sombre hat, a circumstance which, connected with the firm, upright +carriage of the intruder, proved that his years could not yet exceed +threescore or thereabouts. + +There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of this +person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the +perfect, stone-like movelessness of the figure, that effectually checked +the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated +artist. He therefore, as soon as he had sufficiently recovered the +surprise, asked the stranger, civilly, to be seated, and desired to know +if he had any message to leave for his master. + +'Tell Gerard Douw,' said the unknown, without altering his attitude in +the smallest degree, 'that Mynher Vanderhauseny of Rotterdam, desires +to speak with him to-morrow evening at this hour, and, if he please, in +this room, upon matters of weight--that is all. Good-night.' + +The stranger, having finished this message, turned abruptly, and, with a +quick but silent step, quitted the room, before Schalken had time to say +a word in reply. + +The young man felt a curiosity to see in what direction the burgher of +Rotterdam would turn on quitting the studio, and for that purpose he +went directly to the window which commanded the door. + +A lobby of considerable extent intervened between the inner door of the +painter's room and the street entrance, so that Schalken occupied the +post of observation before the old man could possibly have reached the +street. + +He watched in vain, however. There was no other mode of exit. + +Had the old man vanished, or was he lurking about the recesses of the +lobby for some bad purpose? This last suggestion filled the mind of +Schalken with a vague horror, which was so unaccountably intense as to +make him alike afraid to remain in the room alone and reluctant to pass +through the lobby. + +However, with an effort which appeared very disproportioned to the +occasion, he summoned resolution to leave the room, and, having +double-locked the door and thrust the key in his pocket, without looking +to the right or left, he traversed the passage which had so recently, +perhaps still, contained the person of his mysterious visitant, scarcely +venturing to breathe till he had arrived in the open street. + +'Mynher Vanderhausen,' said Gerard Douw within himself, as the appointed +hour approached, 'Mynher Vanderhausen of Rotterdam! I never heard of the +man till yesterday. What can he want of me? A portrait, perhaps, to be +painted; or a younger son or a poor relation to be apprenticed; or a +collection to be valued; or--pshaw I there's no one in Rotterdam to +leave me a legacy. Well, whatever the business may be, we shall soon +know it all.' + +It was now the close of day, and every easel, except that of Schalken, +was deserted. Gerard Douw was pacing the apartment with the restless +step of impatient expectation, every now and then humming a passage from +a piece of music which he was himself composing; for, though no great +proficient, he admired the art; sometimes pausing to glance over the +work of one of his absent pupils, but more frequently placing himself at +the window, from whence he might observe the passengers who threaded the +obscure by-street in which his studio was placed. + +'Said you not, Godfrey,' exclaimed Douw, after a long and fruitless gaze +from his post of observation, and turning to Schalken--'said you not the +hour of appointment was at about seven by the clock of the Stadhouse?' + +'It had just told seven when I first saw him, sir,' answered the +student. + +'The hour is close at hand, then,' said the master, consulting +a horologe as large and as round as a full-grown orange. 'Mynher +Vanderhausen, from Rotterdam--is it not so?' + +'Such was the name.' + +'And an elderly man, richly clad?' continued Douw. + +'As well as I might see,' replied his pupil; 'he could not be young, nor +yet very old neither, and his dress was rich and grave, as might become +a citizen of wealth and consideration.' + +At this moment the sonorous boom of the Stadhouse clock told, stroke +after stroke, the hour of seven; the eyes of both master and student +were directed to the door; and it was not until the last peal of the old +bell had ceased to vibrate, that Douw exclaimed: + +'So, so; we shall have his worship presently--that is, if he means to +keep his hour; if not, thou mayst wait for him, Godfrey, if you court +the acquaintance of a capricious burgomaster. As for me, I think our +old Leyden contains a sufficiency of such commodities, without an +importation from Rotterdam.' + +Schalken laughed, as in duty bound; and after a pause of some minutes, +Douw suddenly exclaimed: + +'What if it should all prove a jest, a piece of mummery got up by +Vankarp, or some such worthy! I wish you had run all risks, and +cudgelled the old burgomaster, stadholder, or whatever else he may +be, soundly. I would wager a dozen of Rhenish, his worship would have +pleaded old acquaintance before the third application.' + +'Here he comes, sir,' said Schalken, in a low admonitory tone; and +instantly, upon turning towards the door, Gerard Douw observed the same +figure which had, on the day before, so unexpectedly greeted the vision +of his pupil Schalken. + +There was something in the air and mien of the figure which at once +satisfied the painter that there was no mummery in the case, and that +he really stood in the presence of a man of worship; and so, without +hesitation, he doffed his cap, and courteously saluting the stranger, +requested him to be seated. + +The visitor waved his hand slightly, as, if in acknowledgment of the +courtesy, but remained standing. + +'I have the honour to see Mynher Vanderhausen, of Rotterdam?' said +Gerard Douw. + +'The same,' was the laconic reply of his visitant. + +'I understand your worship desires to speak with me,' continued Douw, +'and I am here by appointment to wait your commands.' + +'Is that a man of trust?' said Vanderhausen, turning towards Schalken, +who stood at a little distance behind his master. + +'Certainly,' replied Gerard. + +'Then let him take this box and get the nearest jeweller or goldsmith to +value its contents, and let him return hither with a certificate of the +valuation.' + +At the same time he placed a small case, about nine inches square, in +the hands of Gerard Douw, who was as much amazed at its weight as at the +strange abruptness with which it was handed to him. + +In accordance with the wishes of the stranger, he delivered it into the +hands of Schalken, and repeating HIS directions, despatched him upon the +mission. + +Schalken disposed his precious charge securely beneath the folds of his +cloak, and rapidly traversing two or three narrow streets, he stopped at +a corner house, the lower part of which was then occupied by the shop of +a Jewish goldsmith. + +Schalken entered the shop, and calling the little Hebrew into the +obscurity of its back recesses, he proceeded to lay before him +Vanderhausen's packet. + +On being examined by the light of a lamp, it appeared entirely cased +with lead, the outer surface of which was much scraped and soiled, and +nearly white with age. This was with difficulty partially removed, and +disclosed beneath a box of some dark and singularly hard wood; this, +too, was forced, and after the removal of two or three folds of linen, +its contents proved to be a mass of golden ingots, close packed, and, as +the Jew declared, of the most perfect quality. + +Every ingot underwent the scrutiny of the little Jew, who seemed to +feel an epicurean delight in touching and testing these morsels of the +glorious metal; and each one of them was replaced in the box with the +exclamation: + +'Mein Gott, how very perfect! not one grain of alloy--beautiful, +beautiful!' + +The task was at length finished, and the Jew certified under his hand +the value of the ingots submitted to his examination to amount to many +thousand rix-dollars. + +With the desired document in his bosom, and the rich box of gold +carefully pressed under his arm, and concealed by his cloak, he retraced +his way, and entering the studio, found his master and the stranger in +close conference. + +Schalken had no sooner left the room, in order to execute the commission +he had taken in charge, than Vanderhausen addressed Gerard Douw in the +following terms: + +'I may not tarry with you to-night more than a few minutes, and so I +shall briefly tell you the matter upon which I come. You visited the +town of Rotterdam some four months ago, and then I saw in the church of +St. Lawrence your niece, Rose Velderkaust. I desire to marry her, and if +I satisfy you as to the fact that I am very wealthy--more wealthy than +any husband you could dream of for her--I expect that you will forward +my views to the utmost of your authority. If you approve my proposal, +you must close with it at once, for I cannot command time enough to wait +for calculations and delays.' + +Gerard Douw was, perhaps, as much astonished as anyone could be by the +very unexpected nature of Mynher Vanderhausen's communication; but he +did not give vent to any unseemly expression of surprise, for besides +the motives supplied by prudence and politeness, the painter experienced +a kind of chill and oppressive sensation, something like that which +is supposed to affect a man who is placed unconsciously in immediate +contact with something to which he has a natural antipathy--an undefined +horror and dread while standing in the presence of the eccentric +stranger, which made him very unwilling to say anything which might +reasonably prove offensive. + +'I have no doubt,' said Gerard, after two or three prefatory hems, 'that +the connection which you propose would prove alike advantageous and +honourable to my niece; but you must be aware that she has a will of her +own, and may not acquiesce in what WE may design for her advantage.' + +'Do not seek to deceive me, Sir Painter,' said Vanderhausen; 'you are +her guardian--she is your ward. She is mine if YOU like to make her so.' + +The man of Rotterdam moved forward a little as he spoke, and Gerard +Douw, he scarce knew why, inwardly prayed for the speedy return of +Schalken. + +'I desire,' said the mysterious gentleman, 'to place in your hands at +once an evidence of my wealth, and a security for my liberal dealing +with your niece. The lad will return in a minute or two with a sum in +value five times the fortune which she has a right to expect from a +husband. This shall lie in your hands, together with her dowry, and you +may apply the united sum as suits her interest best; it shall be all +exclusively hers while she lives. Is that liberal?' + +Douw assented, and inwardly thought that fortune had been +extraordinarily kind to his niece. The stranger, he thought, must be +both wealthy and generous, and such an offer was not to be despised, +though made by a humourist, and one of no very prepossessing presence. + +Rose had no very high pretensions, for she was almost without dowry; +indeed, altogether so, excepting so far as the deficiency had been +supplied by the generosity of her uncle. Neither had she any right to +raise any scruples against the match on the score of birth, for her +own origin was by no means elevated; and as to other objections, Gerard +resolved, and, indeed, by the usages of the time was warranted in +resolving, not to listen to them for a moment. + +'Sir,' said he, addressing the stranger, 'your offer is most liberal, +and whatever hesitation I may feel in closing with it immediately, +arises solely from my not having the honour of knowing anything of your +family or station. Upon these points you can, of course, satisfy me +without difficulty?' + +'As to my respectability,' said the stranger, drily, 'you must take that +for granted at present; pester me with no inquiries; you can discover +nothing more about me than I choose to make known. You shall have +sufficient security for my respectability--my word, if you are +honourable: if you are sordid, my gold.' + +'A testy old gentleman,' thought Douw; 'he must have his own way. But, +all things considered, I am justified in giving my niece to him. Were +she my own daughter, I would do the like by her. I will not pledge +myself unnecessarily, however.' + +'You will not pledge yourself unnecessarily,' said Vanderhausen, +strangely uttering the very words which had just floated through +the mind of his companion; 'but you will do so if it IS necessary, I +presume; and I will show you that I consider it indispensable. If the +gold I mean to leave in your hands satisfy you, and if you desire that +my proposal shall not be at once withdrawn, you must, before I leave +this room, write your name to this engagement.' + +Having thus spoken, he placed a paper in the hands of Gerard, the +contents of which expressed an engagement entered into by Gerard +Douw, to give to Wilken Vanderhausen, of Rotterdam, in marriage, Rose +Velderkaust, and so forth, within one week of the date hereof. + +While the painter was employed in reading this covenant, Schalken, as +we have stated, entered the studio, and having delivered the box and +the valuation of the Jew into the hands of the stranger, he was about +to retire, when Vanderhausen called to him to wait; and, presenting the +case and the certificate to Gerard Douw, he waited in silence until he +had satisfied himself by an inspection of both as to the value of the +pledge left in his hands. At length he said: + +'Are you content?' + +The painter said he would fain have an other day to consider. + +'Not an hour,' said the suitor, coolly. + +'Well, then,' said Douw, 'I am content; it is a bargain.' + +'Then sign at once,' said Vanderhausen; 'I am weary.' + +At the same time he produced a small case of writing materials, and +Gerard signed the important document. + +'Let this youth witness the covenant,' said the old man; and Godfrey +Schalken unconsciously signed the instrument which bestowed upon another +that hand which he had so long regarded as the object and reward of all +his labours. + +The compact being thus completed, the strange visitor folded up the +paper, and stowed it safely in an inner pocket. + +'I will visit you to-morrow night, at nine of the clock, at your house, +Gerard Douw, and will see the subject of our contract. Farewell.' And so +saying, Wilken Vanderhausen moved stiffly, but rapidly out of the room. + +Schalken, eager to resolve his doubts, had placed himself by the window +in order to watch the street entrance; but the experiment served only +to support his suspicions, for the old man did not issue from the +door. This was very strange, very odd, very fearful. He and his master +returned together, and talked but little on the way, for each had his +own subjects of reflection, of anxiety, and of hope. + +Schalken, however, did not know the ruin which threatened his cherished +schemes. + +Gerard Douw knew nothing of the attachment which had sprung up between +his pupil and his niece; and even if he had, it is doubtful whether +he would have regarded its existence as any serious obstruction to the +wishes of Mynher Vanderhausen. + +Marriages were then and there matters of traffic and calculation; and +it would have appeared as absurd in the eyes of the guardian to make a +mutual attachment an essential element in a contract of marriage, as +it would have been to draw up his bonds and receipts in the language of +chivalrous romance. + +The painter, however, did not communicate to his niece the important +step which he had taken in her behalf, and his resolution arose not from +any anticipation of opposition on her part, but solely from a ludicrous +consciousness that if his ward were, as she very naturally might do, to +ask him to describe the appearance of the bridegroom whom he destined +for her, he would be forced to confess that he had not seen his face, +and, if called upon, would find it impossible to identify him. + +Upon the next day, Gerard Douw having dined, called his niece to him, +and having scanned her person with an air of satisfaction, he took +her hand, and looking upon her pretty, innocent face with a smile of +kindness, he said: + +'Rose, my girl, that face of yours will make your fortune.' Rose blushed +and smiled. 'Such faces and such tempers seldom go together, and, when +they do, the compound is a love-potion which few heads or hearts can +resist. Trust me, thou wilt soon be a bride, girl. But this is trifling, +and I am pressed for time, so make ready the large room by eight o'clock +to-night, and give directions for supper at nine. I expect a friend +to-night; and observe me, child, do thou trick thyself out handsomely. I +would not have him think us poor or sluttish.' + +With these words he left the chamber, and took his way to the room to +which we have already had occasion to introduce our readers--that in +which his pupils worked. + +When the evening closed in, Gerard called Schalken, who was about to +take his departure to his obscure and comfortless lodgings, and asked +him to come home and sup with Rose and Vanderhausen. + +The invitation was of course accepted, and Gerard Douw and his pupil +soon found themselves in the handsome and somewhat antique-looking room +which had been prepared for the reception of the stranger. + +A cheerful wood-fire blazed in the capacious hearth; a little at +one side an oldfashioned table, with richly-carved legs, was +placed--destined, no doubt, to receive the supper, for which +preparations were going forward; and ranged with exact regularity, +stood the tall-backed chairs, whose ungracefulness was more than +counterbalanced by their comfort. + +The little party, consisting of Rose, her uncle, and the artist, awaited +the arrival of the expected visitor with considerable impatience. + +Nine o'clock at length came, and with it a summons at the street-door, +which, being speedily answered, was followed by a slow and emphatic +tread upon the staircase; the steps moved heavily across the lobby, +the door of the room in which the party which we have described were +assembled slowly opened, and there entered a figure which startled, +almost appalled, the phlegmatic Dutchmen, and nearly made Rose scream +with affright; it was the form, and arrayed in the garb, of Mynher +Vanderhausen; the air, the gait, the height was the same, but the +features had never been seen by any of the party before. + +The stranger stopped at the door of the room, and displayed his form and +face completely. He wore a dark-coloured cloth cloak, which was short +and full, not falling quite to the knees; his legs were cased in dark +purple silk stockings, and his shoes were adorned with roses of the +same colour. The opening of the cloak in front showed the under-suit to +consist of some very dark, perhaps sable material, and his hands were +enclosed in a pair of heavy leather gloves which ran up considerably +above the wrist, in the manner of a gauntlet. In one hand he carried +his walking-stick and his hat, which he had removed, and the other +hung heavily by his side. A quantity of grizzled hair descended in long +tresses from his head, and its folds rested upon the plaits of a stiff +ruff, which effectually concealed his neck. + +So far all was well; but the face!--all the flesh of the face was +coloured with the bluish leaden hue which is sometimes produced by the +operation of metallic medicines administered in excessive quantities; +the eyes were enormous, and the white appeared both above and below the +iris, which gave to them an expression of insanity, which was heightened +by their glassy fixedness; the nose was well enough, but the mouth +was writhed considerably to one side, where it opened in order to give +egress to two long, discoloured fangs, which projected from the upper +jaw, far below the lower lip; the hue of the lips themselves bore the +usual relation to that of the face, and was consequently nearly black. +The character of the face was malignant, even satanic, to the last +degree; and, indeed, such a combination of horror could hardly be +accounted for, except by supposing the corpse of some atrocious +malefactor, which had long hung blackening upon the gibbet, to have at +length become the habitation of a demon--the frightful sport of Satanic +possession. + +It was remarkable that the worshipful stranger suffered as little as +possible of his flesh to appear, and that during his visit he did not +once remove his gloves. + +Having stood for some moments at the door, Gerard Douw at length +found breath and collectedness to bid him welcome, and, with a mute +inclination of the head, the stranger stepped forward into the room. + +There was something indescribably odd, even horrible, about all his +motions, something undefinable, that was unnatural, unhuman--it was +as if the limbs were guided and directed by a spirit unused to the +management of bodily machinery. + +The stranger said hardly anything during his visit, which did not exceed +half an hour; and the host himself could scarcely muster courage enough +to utter the few necessary salutations and courtesies: and, indeed, such +was the nervous terror which the presence of Vanderhausen inspired, that +very little would have made all his entertainers fly bellowing from the +room. + +They had not so far lost all self-possession, however, as to fail to +observe two strange peculiarities of their visitor. + +During his stay he did not once suffer his eyelids to close, nor even +to move in the slightest degree; and further, there was a death-like +stillness in his whole person, owing to the total absence of the heaving +motion of the chest, caused by the process of respiration. + +These two peculiarities, though when told they may appear trifling, +produced a very striking and unpleasant effect when seen and +observed. Vanderhausen at length relieved the painter of Leyden of his +inauspicious presence; and with no small gratification the little party +heard the street-door close after him. + +'Dear uncle,' said Rose, 'what a frightful man! I would not see him +again for the wealth of the States!' + +'Tush, foolish girl!' said Douw, whose sensations were anything but +comfortable. 'A man may be as ugly as the devil, and yet if his heart +and actions are good, he is worth all the pretty-faced, perfumed puppies +that walk the Mall. Rose, my girl, it is very true he has not thy pretty +face, but I know him to be wealthy and liberal; and were he ten times +more ugly----' + +'Which is inconceivable,' observed Rose. + +'These two virtues would be sufficient,' continued her uncle, 'to +counterbalance all his deformity; and if not of power sufficient +actually to alter the shape of the features, at least of efficacy enough +to prevent one thinking them amiss.' + +'Do you know, uncle,' said Rose, 'when I saw him standing at the door, +I could not get it out of my head that I saw the old, painted, wooden +figure that used to frighten me so much in the church of St. Laurence of +Rotterdam.' + +Gerard laughed, though he could not help inwardly acknowledging the +justness of the comparison. He was resolved, however, as far as he +could, to check his niece's inclination to ridicule the ugliness of her +intended bridegroom, although he was not a little pleased to observe +that she appeared totally exempt from that mysterious dread of the +stranger which, he could not disguise it from himself, considerably +affected him, as also his pupil Godfrey Schalken. + +Early on the next day there arrived, from various quarters of the town, +rich presents of silks, velvets, jewellery, and so forth, for Rose; and +also a packet directed to Gerard Douw, which, on being opened, was found +to contain a contract of marriage, formally drawn up, between Wilken +Vanderhausen of the Boom-quay, in Rotterdam, and Rose Velderkaust of +Leyden, niece to Gerard Douw, master in the art of painting, also of +the same city; and containing engagements on the part of Vanderhausen +to make settlements upon his bride, far more splendid than he had before +led her guardian to believe likely, and which were to be secured to her +use in the most unexceptionable manner possible--the money being placed +in the hands of Gerard Douw himself. + +I have no sentimental scenes to describe, no cruelty of guardians, or +magnanimity of wards, or agonies of lovers. The record I have to make is +one of sordidness, levity, and interest. In less than a week after the +first interview which we have just described, the contract of marriage +was fulfilled, and Schalken saw the prize which he would have risked +anything to secure, carried off triumphantly by his formidable rival. + +For two or three days he absented himself from the school; he then +returned and worked, if with less cheerfulness, with far more dogged +resolution than before; the dream of love had given place to that of +ambition. + +Months passed away, and, contrary to his expectation, and, indeed, to +the direct promise of the parties, Gerard Douw heard nothing of his +niece, or her worshipful spouse. The interest of the money, which was +to have been demanded in quarterly sums, lay unclaimed in his hands. He +began to grow extremely uneasy. + +Mynher Vanderhausen's direction in Rotterdam he was fully possessed +of. After some irresolution he finally determined to journey thither--a +trifling undertaking, and easily accomplished--and thus to satisfy +himself of the safety and comfort of his ward, for whom he entertained +an honest and strong affection. + +His search was in vain, however. No one in Rotterdam had ever heard of +Mynher Vanderhausen. + +Gerard Douw left not a house in the Boom-quay untried; but all in vain. +No one could give him any information whatever touching the object of +his inquiry; and he was obliged to return to Leyden, nothing wiser than +when he had left it. + +On his arrival he hastened to the establishment from which Vanderhausen +had hired the lumbering though, considering the times, most luxurious +vehicle which the bridal party had employed to convey them to Rotterdam. +From the driver of this machine he learned, that having proceeded by +slow stages, they had late in the evening approached Rotterdam; but that +before they entered the city, and while yet nearly a mile from it, a +small party of men, soberly clad, and after the old fashion, with peaked +beards and moustaches, standing in the centre of the road, obstructed +the further progress of the carriage. The driver reined in his horses, +much fearing, from the obscurity of the hour, and the loneliness of the +road, that some mischief was intended. + +His fears were, however, somewhat allayed by his observing that these +strange men carried a large litter, of an antique shape, and which they +immediately set down upon the pavement, whereupon the bridegroom, having +opened the coach-door from within, descended, and having assisted his +bride to do likewise, led her, weeping bitterly and wringing her hands, +to the litter, which they both entered. It was then raised by the men +who surrounded it, and speedily carried towards the city, and before it +had proceeded many yards the darkness concealed it from the view of the +Dutch charioteer. + +In the inside of the vehicle he found a purse, whose contents more than +thrice paid the hire of the carriage and man. He saw and could tell +nothing more of Mynher Vanderhausen and his beautiful lady. This mystery +was a source of deep anxiety and almost of grief to Gerard Douw. + +There was evidently fraud in the dealing of Vanderhausen with him, +though for what purpose committed he could not imagine. He greatly +doubted how far it was possible for a man possessing in his countenance +so strong an evidence of the presence of the most demoniac feelings, to +be in reality anything but a villain; and every day that passed without +his hearing from or of his niece, instead of inducing him to forget his +fears, on the contrary tended more and more to exasperate them. + +The loss of his niece's cheerful society tended also to depress his +spirits; and in order to dispel this despondency, which often crept upon +his mind after his daily employment was over, he was wont frequently +to prevail upon Schalken to accompany him home, and by his presence to +dispel, in some degree, the gloom of his otherwise solitary supper. + +One evening, the painter and his pupil were sitting by the fire, having +accomplished a comfortable supper, and had yielded to that silent +pensiveness sometimes induced by the process of digestion, when their +reflections were disturbed by a loud sound at the street-door, as if +occasioned by some person rushing forcibly and repeatedly against it. +A domestic had run without delay to ascertain the cause of the +disturbance, and they heard him twice or thrice interrogate the +applicant for admission, but without producing an answer or any +cessation of the sounds. + +They heard him then open the hall-door, and immediately there followed a +light and rapid tread upon the staircase. Schalken laid his hand on his +sword, and advanced towards the door. It opened before he reached it, +and Rose rushed into the room. She looked wild and haggard, and pale +with exhaustion and terror; but her dress surprised them as much even +as her unexpected appearance. It consisted of a kind of white woollen +wrapper, made close about the neck, and descending to the very ground. +It was much deranged and travel-soiled. The poor creature had hardly +entered the chamber when she fell senseless on the floor. With some +difficulty they succeeded in reviving her, and on recovering her senses +she instantly exclaimed, in a tone of eager, terrified impatience: + +'Wine, wine, quickly, or I'm lost!' + +Much alarmed at the strange agitation in which the call was made, they +at once administered to her wishes, and she drank some wine with a haste +and eagerness which surprised them. She had hardly swallowed it, when +she exclaimed, with the same urgency: + +'Food, food, at once, or I perish!' + +A considerable fragment of a roast joint was upon the table, and +Schalken immediately proceeded to cut some, but he was anticipated; for +no sooner had she become aware of its presence than she darted at it +with the rapacity of a vulture, and, seizing it in her hands she tore +off the flesh with her teeth and swallowed it. + +When the paroxysm of hunger had been a little appeased, she appeared +suddenly to become aware how strange her conduct had been, or it may +have been that other more agitating thoughts recurred to her mind, for +she began to weep bitterly and to wring her hands. + +'Oh! send for a minister of God,' said she; 'I am not safe till he +comes; send for him speedily.' + +Gerard Douw despatched a messenger instantly, and prevailed on his niece +to allow him to surrender his bedchamber to her use; he also persuaded +her to retire to it at once and to rest; her consent was extorted upon +the condition that they would not leave her for a moment. + +'Oh that the holy man were here!' she said; 'he can deliver me. The dead +and the living can never be one--God has forbidden it.' + +With these mysterious words she surrendered herself to their guidance, +and they proceeded to the chamber which Gerard Douw had assigned to her +use. + +'Do not--do not leave me for a moment,' said she. 'I am lost for ever if +you do.' + +Gerard Douw's chamber was approached through a spacious apartment, which +they were now about to enter. Gerard Douw and Schalken each carried +a was candle, so that a sufficient degree of light was cast upon all +surrounding objects. They were now entering the large chamber, which, +as I have said, communicated with Douw's apartment, when Rose suddenly +stopped, and, in a whisper which seemed to thrill with horror, she said: + +'O God! he is here--he is here! See, see--there he goes!' + +She pointed towards the door of the inner room, and Schalken thought he +saw a shadowy and ill-defined form gliding into that apartment. He +drew his sword, and raising the candle so as to throw its light with +increased distinctness upon the objects in the room, he entered the +chamber into which the shadow had glided. No figure was there--nothing +but the furniture which belonged to the room, and yet he could not be +deceived as to the fact that something had moved before them into the +chamber. + +A sickening dread came upon him, and the cold perspiration broke out in +heavy drops upon his forehead; nor was he more composed when he heard +the increased urgency, the agony of entreaty, with which Rose implored +them not to leave her for a moment. + +'I saw him,' said she. 'He's here! I cannot be deceived--I know him. +He's by me--he's with me--he's in the room. Then, for God's sake, as you +would save, do not stir from beside me!' + +They at length prevailed upon her to lie down upon the bed, where she +continued to urge them to stay by her. She frequently uttered incoherent +sentences, repeating again and again, 'The dead and the living cannot be +one--God has forbidden it!' and then again, 'Rest to the wakeful--sleep +to the sleep-walkers.' + +These and such mysterious and broken sentences she continued to utter +until the clergyman arrived. + +Gerard Douw began to fear, naturally enough, that the poor girl, owing +to terror or ill-treatment, had become deranged; and he half suspected, +by the suddenness of her appearance, and the unseasonableness of the +hour, and, above all, from the wildness and terror of her manner, that +she had made her escape from some place of confinement for lunatics, and +was in immediate fear of pursuit. He resolved to summon medical advice +as soon as the mind of his niece had been in some measure set at rest +by the offices of the clergyman whose attendance she had so earnestly +desired; and until this object had been attained, he did not venture to +put any questions to her, which might possibly, by reviving painful or +horrible recollections, increase her agitation. + +The clergyman soon arrived--a man of ascetic countenance and venerable +age--one whom Gerard Douw respected much, forasmuch as he was a veteran +polemic, though one, perhaps, more dreaded as a combatant than beloved +as a Christian--of pure morality, subtle brain, and frozen heart. He +entered the chamber which communicated with that in which Rose reclined, +and immediately on his arrival she requested him to pray for her, as +for one who lay in the hands of Satan, and who could hope for +deliverance--only from heaven. + +That our readers may distinctly understand all the circumstances of the +event which we are about imperfectly to describe, it is necessary to +state the relative position of the parties who were engaged in it. The +old clergyman and Schalken were in the anteroom of which we have already +spoken; Rose lay in the inner chamber, the door of which was open; and +by the side of the bed, at her urgent desire, stood her guardian; a +candle burned in the bedchamber, and three were lighted in the outer +apartment. + +The old man now cleared his voice, as if about to commence; but before +he had time to begin, a sudden gust of air blew out the candle which +served to illuminate the room in which the poor girl lay, and she, with +hurried alarm, exclaimed: + +'Godfrey, bring in another candle; the darkness is unsafe.' + +Gerard Douw, forgetting for the moment her repeated injunctions in the +immediate impulse, stepped from the bedchamber into the other, in order +to supply what she desired. + +'O God I do not go, dear uncle!' shrieked the unhappy girl; and at the +same time she sprang from the bed and darted after him, in order, by her +grasp, to detain him. + +But the warning came too late, for scarcely had he passed the threshold, +and hardly had his niece had time to utter the startling exclamation, +when the door which divided the two rooms closed violently after him, as +if swung to by a strong blast of wind. + +Schalken and he both rushed to the door, but their united and desperate +efforts could not avail so much as to shake it. + +Shriek after shriek burst from the inner chamber, with all the piercing +loudness of despairing terror. Schalken and Douw applied every energy +and strained every nerve to force open the door; but all in vain. + +There was no sound of struggling from within, but the screams seemed to +increase in loudness, and at the same time they heard the bolts of the +latticed window withdrawn, and the window itself grated upon the sill as +if thrown open. + +One LAST shriek, so long and piercing and agonised as to be scarcely +human, swelled from the room, and suddenly there followed a death-like +silence. + +A light step was heard crossing the floor, as if from the bed to the +window; and almost at the same instant the door gave way, and, +yielding to the pressure of the external applicants, they were nearly +precipitated into the room. It was empty. The window was open, and +Schalken sprang to a chair and gazed out upon the street and canal +below. He saw no form, but he beheld, or thought he beheld, the waters +of the broad canal beneath settling ring after ring in heavy circular +ripples, as if a moment before disturbed by the immersion of some large +and heavy mass. + +No trace of Rose was ever after discovered, nor was anything certain +respecting her mysterious wooer detected or even suspected; no clue +whereby to trace the intricacies of the labyrinth and to arrive at a +distinct conclusion was to be found. But an incident occurred, which, +though it will not be received by our rational readers as at all +approaching to evidence upon the matter, nevertheless produced a strong +and a lasting impression upon the mind of Schalken. + +Many years after the events which we have detailed, Schalken, then +remotely situated, received an intimation of his father's death, and of +his intended burial upon a fixed day in the church of Rotterdam. It was +necessary that a very considerable journey should be performed by the +funeral procession, which, as it will readily be believed, was not very +numerously attended. Schalken with difficulty arrived in Rotterdam +late in the day upon which the funeral was appointed to take place. The +procession had not then arrived. Evening closed in, and still it did not +appear. + +Schalken strolled down to the church--he found it open--notice of the +arrival of the funeral had been given, and the vault in which the body +was to be laid had been opened. The official who corresponds to our +sexton, on seeing a well-dressed gentleman, whose object was to attend +the expected funeral, pacing the aisle of the church, hospitably invited +him to share with him the comforts of a blazing wood fire, which, as +was his custom in winter time upon such occasions, he had kindled on the +hearth of a chamber which communicated, by a flight of steps, with the +vault below. + +In this chamber Schalken and his entertainer seated themselves, and +the sexton, after some fruitless attempts to engage his guest in +conversation, was obliged to apply himself to his tobacco-pipe and can +to solace his solitude. + +In spite of his grief and cares, the fatigues of a rapid journey of +nearly forty hours gradually overcame the mind and body of Godfrey +Schalken, and he sank into a deep sleep, from which he was awakened by +some one shaking him gently by the shoulder. He first thought that the +old sexton had called him, but HE was no longer in the room. + +He roused himself, and as soon as he could clearly see what was around +him, he perceived a female form, clothed in a kind of light robe of +muslin, part of which was so disposed as to act as a veil, and in +her hand she carried a lamp. She was moving rather away from him, and +towards the flight of steps which conducted towards the vaults. + +Schalken felt a vague alarm at the sight of this figure, and at the +same time an irresistible impulse to follow its guidance. He followed +it towards the vaults, but when it reached the head of the stairs, he +paused; the figure paused also, and, turning gently round, displayed, +by the light of the lamp it carried, the face and features of his first +love, Rose Velderkaust. There was nothing horrible, or even sad, in the +countenance. On the contrary, it wore the same arch smile which used to +enchant the artist long before in his happy days. + +A feeling of awe and of interest, too intense to be resisted, prompted +him to follow the spectre, if spectre it were. She descended the +stairs--he followed; and, turning to the left, through a narrow passage, +she led him, to his infinite surprise, into what appeared to be an +oldfashioned Dutch apartment, such as the pictures of Gerard Douw have +served to immortalise. + +Abundance of costly antique furniture was disposed about the room, and +in one corner stood a four-post bed, with heavy black-cloth curtains +around it; the figure frequently turned towards him with the same arch +smile; and when she came to the side of the bed, she drew the curtains, +and by the light of the lamp which she held towards its contents, she +disclosed to the horror-stricken painter, sitting bolt upright in the +bed, the livid and demoniac form of Vanderhausen. Schalken had hardly +seen him when he fell senseless upon the floor, where he lay until +discovered, on the next morning, by persons employed in closing the +passages into the vaults. He was lying in a cell of considerable size, +which had not been disturbed for a long time, and he had fallen beside +a large coffin which was supported upon small stone pillars, a security +against the attacks of vermin. + +To his dying day Schalken was satisfied of the reality of the vision +which he had witnessed, and he has left behind him a curious evidence of +the impression which it wrought upon his fancy, in a painting executed +shortly after the event we have narrated, and which is valuable as +exhibiting not only the peculiarities which have made Schalken's +pictures sought after, but even more so as presenting a portrait, as +close and faithful as one taken from memory can be, of his early love, +Rose Velderkaust, whose mysterious fate must ever remain matter of +speculation. + +The picture represents a chamber of antique masonry, such as might be +found in most old cathedrals, and is lighted faintly by a lamp carried +in the hand of a female figure, such as we have above attempted to +describe; and in the background, and to the left of him who examines the +painting, there stands the form of a man apparently aroused from sleep, +and by his attitude, his hand being laid upon his sword, exhibiting +considerable alarm: this last figure is illuminated only by the expiring +glare of a wood or charcoal fire. + +The whole production exhibits a beautiful specimen of that artful and +singular distribution of light and shade which has rendered the name +of Schalken immortal among the artists of his country. This tale is +traditionary, and the reader will easily perceive, by our studiously +omitting to heighten many points of the narrative, when a little +additional colouring might have added effect to the recital, that +we have desired to lay before him, not a figment of the brain, but a +curious tradition connected with, and belonging to, the biography of a +famous artist. + + + + +SCRAPS OF HIBERNIAN BALLADS. + + Being an Eighth Extract from the Legacy of the late Francis + Purcell, P. P. of Drumcoolagh. + +I have observed, my dear friend, among other grievous misconceptions +current among men otherwise well-informed, and which tend to degrade the +pretensions of my native land, an impression that there exists no such +thing as indigenous modern Irish composition deserving the name of +poetry--a belief which has been thoughtlessly sustained and confirmed +by the unconscionable literary perverseness of Irishmen themselves, who +have preferred the easy task of concocting humorous extravaganzas, +which caricature with merciless exaggeration the pedantry, bombast, and +blunders incident to the lowest order of Hibernian ballads, to the more +pleasurable and patriotic duty of collecting together the many, many +specimens of genuine poetic feeling, which have grown up, like its wild +flowers, from the warm though neglected soil of Ireland. + +In fact, the productions which have long been regarded as pure samples +of Irish poetic composition, such as 'The Groves of Blarney,' and 'The +Wedding of Ballyporeen,' 'Ally Croker,' etc., etc., are altogether +spurious, and as much like the thing they call themselves 'as I to +Hercules.' + +There are to be sure in Ireland, as in all countries, poems which +deserve to be laughed at. The native productions of which I speak, +frequently abound in absurdities--absurdities which are often, too, +provokingly mixed up with what is beautiful; but I strongly and +absolutely deny that the prevailing or even the usual character of Irish +poetry is that of comicality. No country, no time, is devoid of real +poetry, or something approaching to it; and surely it were a strange +thing if Ireland, abounding as she does from shore to shore with all +that is beautiful, and grand, and savage in scenery, and filled with +wild recollections, vivid passions, warm affections, and keen sorrow, +could find no language to speak withal, but that of mummery and jest. +No, her language is imperfect, but there is strength in its rudeness, +and beauty in its wildness; and, above all, strong feeling flows through +it, like fresh fountains in rugged caverns. + +And yet I will not say that the language of genuine indigenous Irish +composition is always vulgar and uncouth: on the contrary, I am in +possession of some specimens, though by no means of the highest order as +to poetic merit, which do not possess throughout a single peculiarity +of diction. The lines which I now proceed to lay before you, by way +of illustration, are from the pen of an unfortunate young man, of very +humble birth, whose early hopes were crossed by the untimely death of +her whom he loved. He was a self-educated man, and in after-life rose +to high distinctions in the Church to which he devoted himself--an +act which proves the sincerity of spirit with which these verses were +written. + + 'When moonlight falls on wave and wimple, + And silvers every circling dimple, + That onward, onward sails: + When fragrant hawthorns wild and simple + Lend perfume to the gales, + And the pale moon in heaven abiding, + O'er midnight mists and mountains riding, + Shines on the river, smoothly gliding + Through quiet dales, + + 'I wander there in solitude, + Charmed by the chiming music rude + Of streams that fret and flow. + For by that eddying stream SHE stood, + On such a night I trow: + For HER the thorn its breath was lending, + On this same tide HER eye was bending, + And with its voice HER voice was blending + Long, long ago. + + Wild stream! I walk by thee once more, + I see thy hawthorns dim and hoar, + I hear thy waters moan, + And night-winds sigh from shore to shore, + With hushed and hollow tone; + But breezes on their light way winging, + And all thy waters heedless singing, + No more to me are gladness bringing-- + I am alone. + + 'Years after years, their swift way keeping, + Like sere leaves down thy current sweeping, + Are lost for aye, and sped-- + And Death the wintry soil is heaping + As fast as flowers are shed. + And she who wandered by my side, + And breathed enchantment o'er thy tide, + That makes thee still my friend and guide-- + And she is dead.' + + +These lines I have transcribed in order to prove a point which I have +heard denied, namely, that an Irish peasant--for their author was no +more--may write at least correctly in the matter of measure, language, +and rhyme; and I shall add several extracts in further illustration of +the same fact, a fact whose assertion, it must be allowed, may +appear somewhat paradoxical even to those who are acquainted, though +superficially, with Hibernian composition. The rhymes are, it must be +granted, in the generality of such productions, very latitudinarian +indeed, and as a veteran votary of the muse once assured me, depend +wholly upon the wowls (vowels), as may be seen in the following stanza +of the famous 'Shanavan Voicth.' + + '"What'll we have for supper?" + Says my Shanavan Voicth; + "We'll have turkeys and roast BEEF, + And we'll eat it very SWEET, + And then we'll take a SLEEP," + Says my Shanavan Voicth.' + + +But I am desirous of showing you that, although barbarisms may and do +exist in our native ballads, there are still to be found exceptions +which furnish examples of strict correctness in rhyme and metre. Whether +they be one whit the better for this I have my doubts. In order to +establish my position, I subjoin a portion of a ballad by one Michael +Finley, of whom more anon. The GENTLEMAN spoken of in the song is Lord +Edward Fitzgerald. + + 'The day that traitors sould him and inimies bought him, + The day that the red gold and red blood was paid-- + Then the green turned pale and thrembled like the dead leaves in +Autumn, And the heart an' hope iv Ireland in the could grave was +laid. + + 'The day I saw you first, with the sunshine fallin' round ye, + My heart fairly opened with the grandeur of the view: + For ten thousand Irish boys that day did surround ye, + An' I swore to stand by them till death, an' fight for you. + + 'Ye wor the bravest gentleman, an' the best that ever stood, + And your eyelid never thrembled for danger nor for dread, + An' nobleness was flowin' in each stream of your blood-- + My bleasing on you night au' day, an' Glory be your bed. + + 'My black an' bitter curse on the head, an' heart, an' hand, + That plotted, wished, an' worked the fall of this Irish hero +bold; God's curse upon the Irishman that sould his native land, + An' hell consume to dust the hand that held the thraitor's +gold.' + + +Such were the politics and poetry of Michael Finley, in his day, +perhaps, the most noted song-maker of his country; but as genius is +never without its eccentricities, Finley had his peculiarities, and +among these, perhaps the most amusing was his rooted aversion to pen, +ink, and paper, in perfect independence of which, all his compositions +were completed. It is impossible to describe the jealousy with which +he regarded the presence of writing materials of any kind, and his ever +wakeful fears lest some literary pirate should transfer his oral poetry +to paper--fears which were not altogether without warrant, inasmuch as +the recitation and singing of these original pieces were to him a source +of wealth and importance. I recollect upon one occasion his detecting me +in the very act of following his recitation with my pencil and I shall +not soon forget his indignant scowl, as stopping abruptly in the midst +of a line, he sharply exclaimed: + +'Is my pome a pigsty, or what, that you want a surveyor's ground-plan of +it?' + +Owing to this absurd scruple, I have been obliged, with one exception, +that of the ballad of 'Phaudhrig Crohoore,' to rest satisfied with such +snatches and fragments of his poetry as my memory could bear away--a +fact which must account for the mutilated state in which I have been +obliged to present the foregoing specimen of his composition. + +It was in vain for me to reason with this man of metres upon the +unreasonableness of this despotic and exclusive assertion of copyright. +I well remember his answer to me when, among other arguments, I urged +the advisability of some care for the permanence of his reputation, as a +motive to induce him to consent to have his poems written down, and thus +reduced to a palpable and enduring form. + +'I often noticed,' said he, 'when a mist id be spreadin', a little +brier to look as big, you'd think, as an oak tree; an' same way, in the +dimmness iv the nightfall, I often seen a man tremblin' and crassin' +himself as if a sperit was before him, at the sight iv a small thorn +bush, that he'd leap over with ase if the daylight and sunshine was in +it. An' that's the rason why I think it id be better for the likes iv me +to be remimbered in tradition than to be written in history.' + +Finley has now been dead nearly eleven years, and his fame has not +prospered by the tactics which he pursued, for his reputation, so +far from being magnified, has been wholly obliterated by the mists of +obscurity. + +With no small difficulty, and no inconsiderable manoeuvring, I succeeded +in procuring, at an expense of trouble and conscience which you will no +doubt think but poorly rewarded, an accurate 'report' of one of his most +popular recitations. It celebrates one of the many daring exploits of +the once famous Phaudhrig Crohoore (in prosaic English, Patrick Connor). +I have witnessed powerful effects produced upon large assemblies by +Finley's recitation of this poem which he was wont, upon pressing +invitation, to deliver at weddings, wakes, and the like; of course the +power of the narrative was greatly enhanced by the fact that many of his +auditors had seen and well knew the chief actors in the drama. + + +'PHAUDHRIG CROHOORE. + + Oh, Phaudhrig Crohoore was the broth of a boy, + And he stood six foot eight, + And his arm was as round as another man's thigh, + 'Tis Phaudhrig was great,-- + And his hair was as black as the shadows of night, + And hung over the scars left by many a fight; + And his voice, like the thunder, was deep, strong, and loud, + And his eye like the lightnin' from under the cloud. + And all the girls liked him, for he could spake civil, + And sweet when he chose it, for he was the divil. + An' there wasn't a girl from thirty-five undher, + Divil a matter how crass, but he could come round her. + But of all the sweet girls that smiled on him, but one + Was the girl of his heart, an' he loved her alone. + An' warm as the sun, as the rock firm an' sure, + Was the love of the heart of Phaudhrig Crohoore; + An' he'd die for one smile from his Kathleen O'Brien, + For his love, like his hatred, was sthrong as the lion. + + 'But Michael O'Hanlon loved Kathleen as well + As he hated Crohoore--an' that same was like hell. + But O'Brien liked HIM, for they were the same parties, + The O'Briens, O'Hanlons, an' Murphys, and Cartys-- + An' they all went together an' hated Crohoore, + For it's many the batin' he gave them before; + An' O'Hanlon made up to O'Brien, an' says he: + "I'll marry your daughter, if you'll give her to me." + And the match was made up, an' when Shrovetide came on, + The company assimbled three hundred if one: + There was all the O'Hanlons, an' Murphys, an' Cartys, + An' the young boys an' girls av all o' them parties; + An' the O'Briens, av coorse, gathered strong on day, + An' the pipers an' fiddlers were tearin' away; + There was roarin', an' jumpin', an' jiggin', an' flingin', + An' jokin', an' blessin', an' kissin', an' singin', + An' they wor all laughin'--why not, to be sure?-- + How O'Hanlon came inside of Phaudhrig Crohoore. + An' they all talked an' laughed the length of the table, + Atin' an' dhrinkin' all while they wor able, + And with pipin' an' fiddlin' an' roarin' like tundher, + Your head you'd think fairly was splittin' asundher; + And the priest called out, "Silence, ye blackguards, agin!" + An' he took up his prayer-book, just goin' to begin, + An' they all held their tongues from their funnin' and bawlin', + So silent you'd notice the smallest pin fallin'; + + An' the priest was just beg'nin' to read, whin the door + Sprung back to the wall, and in walked Crohoore-- + Oh! Phaudhrig Crohoore was the broth of a boy, + Ant he stood six foot eight, + An' his arm was as round as another man's thigh, + 'Tis Phaudhrig was great-- + An' he walked slowly up, watched by many a bright eye, + As a black cloud moves on through the stars of the sky, + An' none sthrove to stop him, for Phaudhrig was great, + Till he stood all alone, just apposit the sate + Where O'Hanlon and Kathleen, his beautiful bride, + Were sitting so illigant out side by side; + An' he gave her one look that her heart almost broke, + An' he turned to O'Brien, her father, and spoke, + An' his voice, like the thunder, was deep, sthrong, and loud, + An' his eye shone like lightnin' from under the cloud: + "I didn't come here like a tame, crawlin' mouse, + But I stand like a man in my inimy's house; + In the field, on the road, Phaudhrig never knew fear, + Of his foemen, an' God knows he scorns it here; + + So lave me at aise, for three minutes or four, + To spake to the girl I'll never see more." + An' to Kathleen he turned, and his voice changed its tone, + For he thought of the days when he called her his own, + An' his eye blazed like lightnin' from under the cloud + On his false-hearted girl, reproachful and proud, + An' says he: "Kathleen bawn, is it thrue what I hear, + That you marry of your free choice, without threat or fear? + If so, spake the word, an' I'll turn and depart, + Chated once, and once only by woman's false heart." + Oh! sorrow and love made the poor girl dumb, + An' she thried hard to spake, but the words wouldn't come, + For the sound of his voice, as he stood there fornint her, + Wint could on her heart as the night wind in winther. + An' the tears in her blue eyes stood tremblin' to flow, + And pale was her cheek as the moonshine on snow; + Then the heart of bould Phaudhrig swelled high in its place, + For he knew, by one look in that beautiful face, + + That though sthrangers an' foemen their pledged hands might +sever, Her true heart was his, and his only, for ever. + An' he lifted his voice, like the agle's hoarse call, + An' says Phaudhrig, "She's mine still, in spite of yez all!" + Then up jumped O'Hanlon, an' a tall boy was he, + An' he looked on bould Phaudhrig as fierce as could be, + An' says he, "By the hokey! before you go out, + Bould Phaudhrig Crohoore, you must fight for a bout." + Then Phaudhrig made answer: "I'll do my endeavour," + An' with one blow he stretched bould O'Hanlon for ever. + In his arms he took Kathleen, an' stepped to the door; + And he leaped on his horse, and flung her before; + An' they all were so bother'd, that not a man stirred + Till the galloping hoofs on the pavement were heard. + Then up they all started, like bees in the swarm, + An' they riz a great shout, like the burst of a storm, + An' they roared, and they ran, and they shouted galore; + But Kathleen and Phaudhrig they never saw more. + + 'But them days are gone by, an' he is no more; + An' the green-grass is growin' o'er Phaudhrig Crohoore, + For he couldn't be aisy or quiet at all; + As he lived a brave boy, he resolved so to fall. + And he took a good pike--for Phaudhrig was great-- + And he fought, and he died in the year ninety-eight. + An' the day that Crohoore in the green field was killed, + A sthrong boy was sthretched, and a sthrong heart was stilled.' + + +It is due to the memory of Finley to say that the foregoing ballad, +though bearing throughout a strong resemblance to Sir Walter Scott's +'Lochinvar,' was nevertheless composed long before that spirited +production had seen the light. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Purcell Papers, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PURCELL PAPERS *** + +***** This file should be named 510.txt or 510.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/510/ + +Produced by Judith Boss and Charles Keller + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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