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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7638.txt b/7638.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d8cff43 --- /dev/null +++ b/7638.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2004 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, V8 +#66 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Disowned, Volume 8. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7638] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 4, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V8 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXII. + + Plot on thy little hour, and skein on skein + Weave the vain mesh, in which thy subtle soul + Broods on its venom! Lo! behind, before, + Around thee, like an armament of cloud, + The black Fate labours onward--ANONYMOUS. + +The dusk of a winter's evening gathered over a room in Crauford's +house in town, only relieved from the closing darkness by an expiring +and sullen fire, beside which Mr. Bradley sat, with his feet upon the +fender, apparently striving to coax some warmth into the icy palms of +his spread hands. Crauford himself was walking up and down the room +with a changeful step, and ever and anon glancing his bright, shrewd +eye at the partner of his fraud, who, seemingly unconscious of the +observation he underwent, appeared to occupy his attention solely with +the difficulty of warming his meagre and withered frame. + +"Ar'n't you very cold there, sir?" said Bradley, after a long pause, +and pushing himself farther into the verge of the dying embers, "may I +not ring for some more coals?" + +"Hell and the--: I beg your pardon, my good Bradley, but you vex me +beyond patience; how can you think of such trifles when our very lives +are in so imminent a danger?" + +"I beg your pardon, my honoured benefactor, they are indeed in +danger!" + +"Bradley, we have but one hope,--fidelity to each other. If we +persist in the same story, not a tittle can be brought home to us,-- +not a tittle, my good Bradley; and though our characters may be a +little touched, why, what is a character? Shall we eat less, drink +less, enjoy less, when we have lost it? Not a whit. No, my friend, +we will go abroad: leave it to me to save from the wreck of our +fortunes enough to live upon like princes." + +"If not like peers, my honoured benefactor." + +"'Sdeath!--yes, yes, very good,--he! he! he! if not peers. Well, all +happiness is in the senses, and Richard Crauford has as many senses as +Viscount Innisdale; but had we been able to protract inquiry another +week, Bradley, why, I would have been my Lord, and you Sir John." + +"You bear your losses like a hero, sir," said Mr. Bradley. To be +sure: there is no loss, man, but life,--none; let us preserve that-- +and it will be our own fault if we don't--and the devil take all the +rest. But, bless me, it grows late, and, at all events, we are safe +for some hours; the inquiry won't take place till twelve to-morrow, +why should we not feast till twelve to-night? Ring, my good fellow: +dinner must be nearly ready." + +"Why, honoured sir," said Bradley, "I want to go home to see my wife +and arrange my house. Who knows but I may sleep in Newgate to- +morrow?" + +Crauford, who had been still walking to and fro, stopped abruptly at +this speech; and his eye, even through the gloom, shot out a livid and +fierce light, before which the timid and humble glance of Mr. Bradley +quailed in an instant. + +"Go home!--no, my friend, no: I can't part with you tonight, no, not +for an instant. I have many lessons to give you. How are we to learn +our parts for to-morrow, if we don't rehearse them beforehand? Do you +not know that a single blunder may turn what I hope will be a farce +into a tragedy? Go home!--pooh! pooh! why, man, I have not seen my +wife, nor put my house to rights, and if you do but listen to me I +tell you again and again that not a hair of our heads can be touched." + +"You know best, honoured sir; I bow to your decision." + +"Bravo, honest Brad! and now for dinner. I have the most glorious +champagne that ever danced in foam to your lip. No counsellor like +the bottle, believe me!" + +And the servant entering to announce dinner, Crauford took Bradley's +arm, and leaning affectionately upon it, passed through an obsequious +and liveried row of domestics to a room blazing with light and plate. +A noble fire was the first thing which revived Bradley's spirit; and, +as he spread his hands over it before he sat down to the table, he +surveyed, with a gleam of gladness upon his thin cheeks, two vases of +glittering metal formerly the boast of a king, in which were immersed +the sparkling genii of the grape. + +Crauford, always a gourmand, ate with unusual appetite, and pressed +the wine upon Bradley with an eager hospitality, which soon somewhat +clouded the senses of the worthy man. The dinner was removed, the +servants retired, and the friends were left alone. + +"A pleasant trip to France!" cried Crauford, filling a bumper. +"That's the land for hearts like ours. I tell you what, little Brad, +we will leave our wives behind us, and take, with a new country and +new names, a new lease of life. What will it signify to men making +love at Paris what fools say of them in London? Another bumper, +honest Brad,--a bumper to the girls! What say you to that, eh?" + +"Lord, sir, you are so facetious, so witty! It must be owned that a +black eye is a great temptation,--Lira-lira, la-la!" and Mr. Bradley's +own eyes rolled joyously. + +"Bravo, Brad!--a song, a song! but treason to King Burgundy! Your +glass is--" + +"Empty, honoured sir, I know it!--Lira-lira la!--but it is easily +filled! We who have all our lives been pouring from one vessel into +another know how to keep it up to the last! + + 'Courage then, cries the knight, we may yet be forgiven, + Or at worst buy the bishop's reversion in heaven; + Our frequent escapes in this world show how true 't is + That gold is the only Elixir Salutis. + Derry down, Derry down.' + + 'All you who to swindling conveniently creep, + Ne'er piddle; by thousands the treasury sweep + Your safety depends on the weight of the sum, + For no rope was yet made that could tie up a plum. + Derry down, etc.'" + [From a ballad called "The Knight and the Prelate."] + +"Bravissimo, little Brad!--you are quite a wit! See what it is to +have one's faculties called out. Come, a toast to old England, the +land in which no man ever wants a farthing who has wit to steal it,-- +'Old England forever!' your rogue is your only true patriot!" and +Crauford poured the remainder of the bottle, nearly three parts full, +into a beaker, which he pushed to Bradley. That convivial gentleman +emptied it at a draught, and, faltering out, "Honest Sir John!--room +for my Lady Bradley's carriage," dropped down on the floor insensible. + +Crauford rose instantly, satisfied himself that the intoxication was +genuine, and giving the lifeless body a kick of contemptuous disgust, +left the room, muttering, "The dull ass, did he think it was on his +back that I was going to ride off? He! he! he! But stay, let me feel +my pulse. Too fast by twenty strokes! One's never sure of the mind +if one does not regulate the body to a hair! Drank too much; must +take a powder before I start." + +Mounting by a back staircase to his bedroom, Crauford unlocked a +chest, took out a bundle of clerical clothes, a large shovel hat, and +a huge wig. Hastily, but not carelessly, induing himself in these +articles of disguise, he then proceeded to stain his fair cheeks with +a preparation which soon gave them a swarthy hue. Putting his own +clothes in the chest, which he carefully locked (placing the key in +his pocket), he next took from a desk on his dressing-table a purse; +opening this, he extracted a diamond of great size and immense value, +which, years before, in preparation of the event that had now taken +place, he had purchased. + +His usual sneer curled his lip as he gazed at it. "Now," said he, "is +it not strange that this little stone should supply the mighty wants +of that grasping thing, man? Who talks of religion, country, wife, +children? This petty mineral can purchase them all! Oh, what a +bright joy speaks out in your white cheek, my beauty! What are all +human charms to yours? Why, by your spell, most magical of talismans, +my years may walk, gloating and revelling, through a lane of beauties, +till they fall into the grave! Pish! that grave is an ugly thought,-- +a very, very ugly thought! But come, my sun of hope, I must eclipse +you for a while! Type of myself, while you hide, I hide also; and +when I once more let you forth to the day, then shine out Richard +Crauford,--shine out!" So saying, he sewed the diamond carefully in +the folds of his shirt; and, rearranging his dress, took the cooling +powder, which he weighed out to a grain, with a scrupulous and +untrembling hand; descended the back stairs; opened the door, and +found himself in the open street. + +The clock struck ten as he entered a hackney-coach and drove to +another part of London. "What, so late!" thought he; "I must be at +Dover in twelve hours: the vessel sails then. Humph! some danger yet! +What a pity that I could not trust that fool! He! he! he!--what will +he think tomorrow, when he wakes and finds that only one is destined +to swing!" + +The hackney-coach stopped, according to his direction, at an inn in +the city. Here Crauford asked if a note had been left for Dr. +Stapylton. One (written by himself) was given to him. + +"Merciful Heaven!" cried the false doctor, as he read it, "my daughter +is on a bed of death!" + +The landlord's look wore anxiety; the doctor seemed for a moment +paralyzed by silent woe. He recovered, shook his head piteously, and +ordered a post-chaise and four on to Canterbury without delay. + +"It is an ill wind that blows nobody good!" thought the landlord, as +he issued the order into the yard. + +The chaise was soon out; the doctor entered; off went the post-boys; +and Richard Crauford, feeling his diamond, turned his thoughts to +safety and to France. + +A little, unknown man, who had been sitting at the bar for the last +two hours sipping brandy and water, and who from his extreme +taciturnity and quiet had been scarcely observed, now rose. +"Landlord," said he, "do you know who that gentleman is?" + +"Why," quoth Boniface, "the letter to him was directed, 'For the Rev. +Dr. Stapylton; will be called for.'" + +"Ah," said the little man, yawning, "I shall have a long night's work +of it. Have you another chaise and four in the yard?" + +"To be sure, sir, to be sure!" cried the landlord in astonishment. + +"Out with it, then! Another glass of brandy and water,--a little +stronger, no sugar!" + +The landlord stared; the barmaid stared; even the head-waiter, a very +stately person, stared too. + +"Hark ye," said the little man, sipping his brandy and water, "I am a +deuced good-natured fellow, so I'll make you a great man to-night; for +nothing makes a man so great as being let into a great secret. Did +you ever hear of the rich Mr. Crauford?" + +"Certainly: who has not?" + +"Did you ever see him?" + +"No! I can't say I ever did." + +"You lie, landlord: you saw him to-night." + +"Sir!" cried the landlord, bristling up. + +The little man pulled out a brace of pistols, and very quietly began +priming them out of a small powder-flask. + +The landlord started back; the head-waiter cried "Rape!" and the +barmaid "Murder!" + +"Who the devil are you, sir?" cried the landlord. + +"Mr. Tickletrout! the celebrated officer,--thief-taker, as they call +it. Have a care, ma'am, the pistols are loaded. I see the chaise is +out; there's the reckoning, landlord." + +"O Lord! I'm sure I don't want any reckoning: too great an honour for +my poor house to be favoured with your company; but [following the +little man to the door] whom did you please to say you were going to +catch?" + +"Mr. Crauford, alias Dr. Stapylton." + +"Lord! Lord! to think of it,--how shocking! What has he done?" + +"Swindled, I believe." + +"My eyes! And why, sir, did not you catch him when he was in the +bar?" + +"Because then I should not have got paid for my journey to Dover. +Shut the door, boy; first stage on to Canterbury." And, drawing a +woollen nightcap over his ears, Mr. Tickletrout resigned himself to +his nocturnal excursion. + +On the very day on which the patent for his peerage was to have been +made out, on the very day on which he had afterwards calculated on +reaching Paris, on that very day was Mr. Richard Crauford lodged in +Newgate, fully committed for a trial of life and death. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIII. + + There, if, O gentle love! I read aright + The utterance that sealed thy sacred bond, + 'T was listening to those accents of delight + She hid upon his breast those eyes, beyond + Expression's power to paint, all languishingly fond.--CAMPBELL. + +"And you will positively leave us for London," said Lady Flora, +tenderly, "and to-morrow too!" This was said to one who under the name +of Clarence Linden has played the principal part in our drama, and +whom now, by the death of his brother succeeding to the honours of his +house, we present to our reader as Clinton L'Estrange, Earl of +Ulswater. + +They were alone in the memorable pavilion; and though it was winter +the sun shone cheerily into the apartment; and through the door, which +was left partly open, the evergreens, contrasting with the leafless +boughs of the oak and beech, could be just descried, furnishing the +lover with some meet simile of love, and deceiving the eyes of those +willing to be deceived with a resemblance to the departed summer. The +unusual mildness of the day seemed to operate genially upon the +birds,--those children of light and song; and they grouped blithely +beneath the window and round the door, where the hand of the kind +young spirit of the place had so often ministered to their wants. +Every now and then, too, you might hear the shrill glad note of the +blackbird keeping measure to his swift and low flight, and sometimes a +vagrant hare from the neighbouring preserves sauntered fearlessly by +the half-shut door, secure, from long experience, of an asylum in the +vicinity of one who had drawn from the breast of Nature a tenderness +and love for all its offspring. + +Her lover sat at Flora's feet; and, looking upward, seemed to seek out +the fond and melting eyes which, too conscious of their secret, turned +bashfully from his gaze. He had drawn her arm over his shoulder; and +clasping that small and snowy hand, which, long coveted with a miser's +desire, was at length won, he pressed upon it a thousand kisses, +sweeter beguilers of time than even words. All had been long +explained; the space between their hearts annihilated; doubt, anxiety, +misconstruction, those clouds of love, had passed away, and left not a +wreck to obscure its heaven. + +"And you will leave us to-morrow; must it be to-morrow?" + +"Ah! Flora, it must; but see, I have your lock of hair--your +beautiful, dark hair--to kiss, when I am away from you, and I shall +have your letters, dearest,--a letter every day; and oh! more than +all, I shall have the hope, the certainty, that when we meet again, +you will be mine forever." + +"And I, too, must, by seeing it in your handwriting, learn to +reconcile myself to your new name. Ah! I wish you had been still +Clarence,--only Clarence. Wealth, rank, power,--what are all these +but rivals to poor Flora?" + +Lady Flora sighed, and the next moment blushed; and, what with the +sigh and the blush, Clarence's lips wandered from the hands to the +cheek, and thence to a mouth on which the west wind seemed to have +left the sweets of a thousand summers. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXIV. + +A Hounsditch man, one of the devil's near kinsmen,--a broker.--Every +Man in His Humour. + +We have here discovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever +was known in the commonwealth.--Much Ado about Nothing. + + +It was an evening of mingled rain and wind, the hour about nine, when +Mr. Morris Brown, under the shelter of that admirable umbrella of sea- +green silk, to which we have before had the honour to summon the +attention of our readers, was, after a day of business, plodding +homeward his weary way. The obscure streets through which his course +was bent were at no time very thickly thronged, and at the present +hour the inclemency of the night rendered them utterly deserted. It +is true that now and then a solitary female, holding up, with one +hand, garments already piteously bedraggled, and with the other +thrusting her umbrella in the very teeth of the hostile winds, might +be seen crossing the intersected streets, and vanishing amid the +subterranean recesses of some kitchen area, or tramping onward amidst +the mazes of the metropolitan labyrinth, till, like the cuckoo, +"heard," but no longer "seen," the echo of her retreating pattens made +a dying music to the reluctant ear; or indeed, at intervals of +unfrequent occurrence, a hackney vehicle jolted, rumbling, bumping +over the uneven stones, as if groaning forth its gratitude to the +elements for which it was indebted for its fare. Sometimes also a +chivalrous gallant of the feline species ventured its delicate paws +upon the streaming pavement, and shook, with a small but dismal cry, +the raindrops from the pyramidal roofs of its tender ears. + +But, save these occasional infringements on its empire, solitude, +dark, comfortless, and unrelieved, fell around the creaking footsteps +of Mr. Morris Brown. "I wish," soliloquized the worthy broker, "that +I had been able advantageously to dispose of this cursed umbrella of +the late Lady Waddilove; it is very little calculated for any but a +single lady of slender shape, and though it certainly keeps the rain +off my hat, it only sends it with a double dripping upon my shoulders. +Pish, deuce take the umbrella! I shall catch my death of cold." + +These complaints of an affliction that was assuredly sufficient to +irritate the naturally sweet temper of Mr. Brown, only ceased as that +industrious personage paused at the corner of the street, for the +purpose of selecting the driest path through which to effect the +miserable act of crossing to the opposite side. Occupied in +stretching his neck over the kennel, in order to take the fullest +survey of its topography which the scanty and agitated lamps would +allow, the unhappy wanderer, lowering his umbrella, suffered a cross +and violent gust of wind to rush, as if on purpose, against the +interior. The rapidity with which this was done, and the sudden +impetus, which gave to the inflated silk the force of a balloon, +happening to occur exactly at the moment Mr. Brown was stooping with +such wistful anxiety over the pavement, that gentleman, to his +inexpressible dismay, was absolutely lifted, as it were, from his +present footing, and immersed in a running rivulet of liquid mire, +which flowed immediately below the pavement. Nor was this all: for +the wind, finding itself somewhat imprisoned in the narrow receptacle +it had thus abruptly entered, made so strenuous an exertion to +extricate itself, that it turned Lady Waddilove's memorable relic +utterly inside out; so that when Mr. Brown, aghast at the calamity of +his immersion, lifted his eyes to heaven, with a devotion that had in +it more of expostulation than submission, he beheld, by the melancholy +lamps, the apparition of his umbrella,--the exact opposite to its +legitimate conformation, and seeming, with its lengthy stick and +inverted summit, the actual and absolute resemblance of a gigantic +wineglass. + +"Now," said Mr. Brown, with that ironical bitterness so common to +intense despair, "now, that's what I call pleasant." + +As if the elements were guided and set on by all the departed souls of +those whom Mr. Brown had at any time overreached in his profession, +scarcely had the afflicted broker uttered this brief sentence, before +a discharge of rain, tenfold more heavy than any which had yet fallen, +tumbled down in literal torrents upon the defenceless head of the +itinerant. + +"This won't do," said Mr. Brown, plucking up courage and splashing out +of the little rivulet once more into terra firma, "this won't do: I +must find a shelter somewhere. Dear, dear, how the wet runs down me! +I am for all the world like the famous dripping well in Derbyshire. +What a beast of an umbrella! I'll never buy one again of an old lady: +hang me if I do." + +As the miserable Morris uttered these sentences, which gushed out, one +by one, in a broken stream of complaint, he looked round and round-- +before, behind, beside--for some temporary protection or retreat. In +vain: the uncertainty of the light only allowed him to discover houses +in which no portico extended its friendly shelter, and where even the +doors seemed divested of the narrow ledge wherewith they are, in more +civilized quarters, ordinarily crowned. + +"I shall certainly have the rheumatism all this winter," said Mr. +Brown, hurrying onward as fast as he was able. Just then, glancing +desperately down a narrow lane, which crossed his path, he perceived +the scaffolding of a house in which repair or alteration had been at +work. A ray of hope flashed across him; he redoubled his speed, and, +entering the welcome haven, found himself entirely protected from the +storm. The extent of the scaffolding was, indeed, rather +considerable; and though the extreme narrowness of the lane and the +increasing gloom of the night left Mr. Brown in almost total darkness, +so that he could not perceive the exact peculiarities of his +situation, yet he was perfectly satisfied with the shelter he had +obtained; and after shaking the rain from his hat, squeezing his coat +sleeves and lappets, satisfying himself that it was only about the +shoulders that he was thoroughly wetted, and thrusting two pocket- +handkerchiefs between his shirt and his skin, as preventives to the +dreaded rheumatism, Mr. Brown leaned luxuriously back against the wall +in the farthest corner of his retreat, and busied himself with +endeavouring to restore his insulted umbrella to its original utility +of shape. + +Our wanderer had been about three minutes in this situation; when he +heard the voices of two men, who were hastening along the lane. + +"But do stop," said one; and these were the first words distinctly +audible to the ear of Mr. Brown, "do stop, the rain can't last much +longer, and we have a long way yet to go." + +"No, no," said the other, in a voice more imperious than the first, +which was evidently plebeian and somewhat foreign in its tone, "no, we +have no time. What signify the inclemencies of weather to men feeding +upon an inward and burning thought, and made, by the workings of the +mind, almost callous to the contingencies of the frame?" + +"Nay, my very good friend," said the first speaker, with positive +though not disrespectful earnestness, "that may be all very fine for +you, who have a constitution like a horse; but I am quite a--what call +you it--an invalid, eh? and have a devilish cough ever since I have +been in this d--d country; beg your pardon, no offence to it; so I +shall just step under cover of this scaffolding for a few minutes, and +if you like the rain so much, my very good friend, why, there is +plenty of room in the lane to--(ugh! ugh! ugh!) to enjoy it." + +As the speaker ended, the dim light, just faintly glimmering at the +entrance of the friendly shelter, was obscured by his shadow, and +presently afterwards his companion, joining him, said,-- + +"Well, if it must be so; but how can you be fit to brave all the +perils of our scheme, when you shrink, like a palsied crone, from the +sprinkling of a few water-drops?" + +"A few water-drops, my very good friend," answered the other, "a few-- +what call you them, ay, water-falls rather; (ugh! ugh!) but let me +tell you, my brother citizen, that a man may not like to get his skin +wet with waters and would yet thrust his arm up to the very elbow in +blood! (ugh! ugh!)" + +"The devil!" mentally ejaculated Mr. Brown, who at the word "scheme" +had advanced one step from his retreat, but who now at the last words +of the intruder drew back as gently as a snail into his shell; and +although his person was far too much enveloped in shade to run the +least chance of detection, yet the honest broker began to feel a +little tremor vibrate along the chords of his thrilling frame, and a +new anathema against the fatal umbrella rise to his lips. + +"Ah!" quoth the second, "I trust that it may be so; but, to return to +our project, are you quite sure that these two identical ministers are +in the regular habit of walking homeward from that Parliament which +their despotism has so degraded?" + +"Sure? ay, that I am; Davidson swears to it!" + +"And you are also sure of their persons, so that, even in the dusk, +you can recognize them? for you know I have never seen them." + +"Sure as fivepence!" returned the first speaker, to whose mind the +lives of the persons referred to were of considerably less value than +the sum elegantly specified in his metaphorical reply. + +"Then," said the other, with a deep, stern determination of tone, +"then shall this hand, by which one of the proudest of our oppressors +has already fallen, be made a still worthier instrument of the wrath +of Heaven!" + +"You are a d--d pretty shot, I believe," quoth the first speaker, as +indifferently as if he were praising the address of a Norfolk squire. + +"Never did my eye misguide me, or my aim swerve a hair's-breadth from +its target! I thought once, when I learned the art as a boy, that in +battle, rather than in the execution of a single criminal, that skill +would avail me." + +"Well, we shall have a glorious opportunity to-morrow night!" answered +the first speaker; "that is, if it does not rain so infernally as it +does this night; but we shall have a watch of many hours, I dare say." + +"That matters but little," replied the other conspirator; "nor even +if, night after night, the same vigil is renewed and baffled, so that +it bring its reward at last." + +"Right," quoth the first; I long to be at it!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--what a +confounded cough I have! it will be my death soon, I'm thinking." + +"If so," said the other, with a solemnity which seemed ludicrously +horrible, from the strange contrast of the words and object, "die at +least with the sanctity of a brave and noble deed upon your conscience +and your name!" + +"Ugh! ugh!--I am but a man of colour, but I am a patriot, for all +that, my good friend! See, the violence of the rain has ceased; we +will proceed;" and with these words the worthy pair left the place to +darkness and Mr. Brown. + +"O Lord!" said the latter, stepping forth, and throwing, as it were, +in that exclamation, a whole weight of suffocating emotion from his +chest, "what bloody miscreants! Murder his Majesty's ministers!-- +'shoot them like pigeons!'--'d--d pretty shot!' indeed. O Lord! what +would the late Lady Waddilove, who always hated even the Whigs so +cordially, say, if she were alive? But how providential that I should +have been here! Who knows but I may save the lives of the whole +administration, and get a pension or a little place in the post- +office? I'll go to the prime minister directly,--this very minute! +Pish! ar'n't you right now, you cursed thing?" upbraiding the +umbrella, which, half-right and half-wrong, seemed endued with an +instinctive obstinacy for the sole purpose of tormenting its owner. + +However, losing this petty affliction in the greatness of his present +determination, Mr. Brown issued out of his lair, and hastened to put +his benevolent and loyal intentions into effect. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXV. + + When laurelled ruffians die, the Heaven and Earth, + And the deep Air give warning. Shall the good + Perish and not a sign?--ANONYMOUS. + +It was the evening after the event recorded in our last chapter: all +was hushed and dark in the room where Mordaunt sat alone; the low and +falling embers burned dull in the grate, and through the unclosed +windows the high stars rode pale and wan in their career. The room, +situated at the back of the house, looked over a small garden, where +the sickly and hoar shrubs, overshadowed by a few wintry poplars and +grim firs, saddened in the dense atmosphere of fog and smoke, which +broods over our island city. An air of gloom hung comfortless and +chilling over the whole scene externally and within. The room itself +was large and old, and its far extremities, mantled as they were with +dusk and shadow, impressed upon the mind that involuntary and vague +sensation, not altogether unmixed with awe, which the eye, resting +upon a view that it can but dimly and confusedly define, so frequently +communicates to the heart. There was a strange oppression at +Mordaunt's breast with which he in vain endeavoured to contend. Ever +and anon, an icy but passing chill, like the shivers of a fever, shot +through his veins, and a wild and unearthly and objectless awe stirred +through his hair, and his eyes filled with a glassy and cold dew, and +sought, as by a self-impulse, the shadowy and unpenetrated places +around, which momently grew darker and darker. Little addicted by his +peculiar habits to an over-indulgence of the imagination, and still +less accustomed to those absolute conquests of the physical frame over +the mental, which seem the usual sources of that feeling we call +presentiment, Mordaunt rose, and walking to and fro along the room, +endeavoured by the exercise to restore to his veins their wonted and +healthful circulation. It was past the hour in which his daughter +retired to rest: but he was often accustomed to steal up to her +chamber, and watch her in her young slumbers; and he felt this night a +more than usual desire to perform that office of love; so he left the +room and ascended the stairs. It was a large old house that he +tenanted. The staircase was broad, and lighted from above by a glass +dome; and as he slowly ascended, and the stars gleamed down still and +ghastly upon his steps, he fancied--but he knew not why--that there +was an omen in their gleam. He entered the young Isabel's chamber: +there was a light burning within; he stole to her bed, and putting +aside the curtain, felt, as he looked upon her peaceful and pure +beauty, a cheering warmth gather round his heart. How lovely is the +sleep of childhood! What worlds of sweet, yet not utterly sweet, +associations, does it not mingle with the envy of our gaze! What +thoughts and hopes and cares and forebodings does it not excite! +There lie in that yet ungrieved and unsullied heart what unnumbered +sources of emotion! what deep fountains of passion and woe! Alas! +whatever be its earlier triumphs, the victim must fall at last! As +the hart which the jackals pursue, the moment its race is begun the +human prey is foredoomed for destruction, not by the single sorrow, +but the thousand cares: it may baffle one race of pursuers, but a new +succeeds; as fast as some drop off exhausted, others spring up to +renew and to perpetuate the chase; and the fated, though flying victim +never escapes but in death. There was a faint smile upon his +daughter's lip, as Mordaunt bent down to kiss it; the dark lash rested +on the snowy lid--ah, that tears had no well beneath its surface!--- +and her breath stole from her rich lips with so regular and calm a +motion that, like the "forest leaves," it "seemed stirred with +prayer!" [And yet the forest leaves seem stirred with prayer.-- +BYRON.] One arm lay over the coverlet, the other pillowed her head, +in the unrivalled grace of infancy. + +Mordaunt stooped once more, for his heart filled as he gazed upon his +child, to kiss her cheek again, and to mingle a blessing with the +kiss. When he rose, upon that fair smooth face there was one bright +and glistening drop; and Isabel stirred in sleep, and, as if suddenly +vexed by some painful dream, she sighed deeply as she stirred. It was +the last time that the cheek of the young and predestined orphan was +ever pressed by a father's kiss or moistened by a father's tear! He +left the room silently; no sooner had he left it, than, as if without +the precincts of some charmed and preserving circle, the chill and +presentiment at his heart returned. There is a feeling which perhaps +all have in a momentary hypochondria felt at times: it is a strong and +shuddering impression which Coleridge has embodied in his own dark and +supernatural verse, that something not of earth is behind us; that if +we turned our gaze backward we should behold that which would make the +heart as a bolt of ice, and the eye shrivel and parch within its +socket. And so intense is the fancy that when we turn, and all is +void, from that very void we could shape a spectre, as fearful as the +image our terror had foredrawn. Somewhat such feeling had Mordaunt +now, as his steps sounded hollow and echoless on the stairs, and the +stars filled the air around him with their shadowy and solemn +presence. Breaking by a violent effort from a spell of which he felt +that a frame somewhat overtasked of late was the real enchanter, he +turned once more into the room which he had left to visit Isabel. He +had pledged his personal attendance at an important motion in the +House of Commons for that night, and some political papers were left +upon his table which he had promised to give to one of the members of +his party. He entered the room, purposing to stay only a minute; an +hour passed before he left it: and his servant afterwards observed +that, on giving him some orders as he passed through the hall to the +carriage, his cheek was as white as marble, and that his step, usually +so haughty and firm, reeled and trembled like a fainting man's. Dark +and inexplicable Fate! weaver of wild contrasts, demon of this hoary +and old world, that movest through it, as a spirit moveth over the +waters, filling the depths of things with a solemn mystery and an +everlasting change! Thou sweepest over our graves, and Joy is born +from the ashes: thou sweepest over Joy, and lo, it is a grave! Engine +and tool of the Almighty, whose years cannot fade, thou changest the +earth as a garment, and as a vesture it is changed; thou makest it one +vast sepulchre and womb united, swallowing and creating life! and +reproducing, over and over, from age to age, from the birth of +creation to the creation's doom, the same dust and atoms which were +our fathers, and which are the sole heirlooms that through countless +generations they bequeath and perpetuate to their sons. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVI. + + Methinks, before the issue of our fate, + A spirit moves within us, and impels + The passion of a prophet to our lips.--ANONYMOUS. + + O vitae Philosophia dux, virtutis indagatrix!-CICERO. + ["O Philosophy, conductress of life, searcher after virtue!"] + + +Upon leaving the House of Commons, Mordaunt was accosted by Lord +Ulswater, who had just taken his seat in the Upper House. Whatever +abstraction or whatever weakness Mordaunt might have manifested before +he had left his home, he had now entirely conquered both; and it was +with his usual collected address that he replied to Lord Ulswater's +salutations, and congratulated him on his change of name and accession +of honours. + +It was a night of uncommon calm and beauty; and, although the moon was +not visible, the frosty and clear sky, "clad in the lustre of its +thousand stars," [Marlowe] seemed scarcely to mourn either the +hallowing light or the breathing poesy of her presence; and when Lord +Ulswater proposed that Mordaunt should dismiss his carriage, and that +they should walk home, Algernon consented not unwillingly to the +proposal. He felt, indeed, an unwonted relief in companionship; and +the still air and the deep heavens seemed to woo him from more +unwelcome thoughts, as with a softening and a sister's love. + +"Let us, before we return home," said Lord Ulswater, "stroll for a few +moments towards the bridge: I love looking at the river on a night +like this" + +Whoever inquires into human circumstances will be struck to find how +invariably a latent current of fatality appears to pervade them. It +is the turn of the atom in the scale which makes our safety or our +peril, our glory or our shame, raises us to the throne or sinks us to +the grave. A secret voice at Mordaunt's heart prompted him to dissent +from this proposal, trifling as it seemed and welcome as it was to his +present and peculiar mood: he resisted the voice,--the moment passed +away, and the last seal was set upon his doom; they moved onward +towards the bridge. At first both were silent, for Lord Ulswater used +the ordinary privilege of a lover and was absent and absorbed, and his +companion was never the first to break a taciturnity natural to his +habits. At last Lord Ulswater said, "I rejoice that you are now in +the sphere of action most likely to display your talents: you have not +spoken yet, I think; indeed, there has been no fitting opportunity, +but you will soon, I trust." + +"I know not," said Mordaunt, with a melancholy smile, "whether you +judge rightly in thinking the sphere of political exertion the one +most calculated for me; but I feel at my heart a foreboding that my +planet is not fated to shine in any earthly sphere. Sorrow and +misfortune have dimmed it in its birth, and now it is waning towards +its decline." + +"Its decline!" repeated his companion, "no, rather its meridian. You +are in the vigor of your years, the noon of your prosperity, the +height of your intellect and knowledge; you require only an effort to +add to these blessings the most lasting of all,--Fame!" + +"Well," said Mordaunt, and a momentary light flashed over his +countenance, "the effort will be made. I do not pretend not to have +felt ambition. No man should make it his boast, for it often gives to +our frail and earth-bound virtue both its weapon and its wings; but +when the soil is exhausted its produce fails; and when we have forced +our hearts to too great an abundance, whether it be of flowers that +perish or of grain that endures, the seeds of after hope bring forth +but a languid and scanty harvest. My earliest idol was ambition; but +then came others, love and knowledge, and afterwards the desire to +bless. That desire you may term ambition: but we will suppose them +separate passions; for by the latter I would signify the thirst for +glory, either in evil or in good; and the former teaches us, though by +little and little, to gain its object, no less in secrecy than for +applause; and Wisdom, which opens to us a world, vast, but hidden from +the crowd, establishes also over that world an arbiter of its own, so +that its disciples grow proud, and, communing with their own hearts, +care for no louder judgment than the still voice within. It is thus +that indifference not to the welfare but to the report of others grows +over us; and often, while we are the most ardent in their cause, we +are the least anxious for their esteem." + +"And yet," said Lord Ulswater, "I have thought the passion for esteem +is the best guarantee for deserving it." + +"Nor without justice: other passions may supply its place, and produce +the same effects; but the love of true glory is the most legitimate +agent of extensive good, and you do right to worship and enshrine it. +For me it is dead: it Survived--ay, the truth shall out!--poverty, +want, disappointment, baffled aspirations,--all, all, but the +deadness, the lethargy of regret when no one was left upon this +altered earth to animate its efforts, to smile upon its success, then +the last spark quivered and died; and--and--but forgive me--on this +subject I am not often wont to wander. I would say that ambition is +for me no more; not so are its effects: but the hope of serving that +race whom I have loved as brothers, but who have never known me,--who, +by the exterior" (and here something bitter mingled with his voice), +"pass sentence upon the heart; in whose eyes I am only the cold, the +wayward, the haughty, the morose,--the hope of serving them is to me, +now, a far stronger passion than ambition was heretofore; and whatever +for that end the love of fame would have dictated, the love of mankind +will teach me still more ardently to perform." + +They were now upon the bridge. Pausing, they leaned over, and looked +along the scene before them. Dark and hushed, the river flowed +sullenly on, save where the reflected stars made a tremulous and +broken beam on the black surface of the water, or the lights of the +vast City, which lay in shadow on its banks, scattered at capricious +intervals a pale but unpiercing wanness rather than lustre along the +tide, or save where the stillness was occasionally broken by the faint +oar of the boatman or the call of his rude voice, mellowed almost into +music by distance and the element. + +But behind them, as they leaned, the feet of passengers on the great +thoroughfare passed not oft,--but quick; and that sound, the commonest +of earth's, made rarer and rarer by the advancing night, contrasted +rather than destroyed the quiet of the heaven and the solemnity of the +silent stars. + +"It is an old but a just comparison," said Mordaunt's companion, +"which has likened life to a river such as we now survey, gliding +alternately in light or in darkness, in sunshine or in storm, to that +great ocean in which all waters meet." + +"If," said Algernon, with his usual thoughtful and pensive smile, "we +may be allowed to vary that simile, I would, separating the universal +and eternal course of Destiny from the fleeting generations of human +life, compare the river before us to that course, and not it, but the +city scattered on its banks, to the varieties and mutability of life. +There (in the latter) crowded together in the great chaos of social +union, we herd in the night of ages, flinging the little lustre of our +dim lights over the sullen tide which rolls beside us,--seeing the +tremulous ray glitter on the surface, only to show us how profound is +the gloom which it cannot break, and the depths which it is too faint +to pierce. There Crime stalks, and Woe hushes her moan, and Poverty +couches, and Wealth riots,--and Death, in all and each, is at his +silent work. But the stream of Fate, unconscious of our changes and +decay, glides on to its engulfing bourne; and, while it mirrors the +faintest smile or the lightest frown of heaven, beholds, without a +change upon its surface, the generations of earth perish, and be +renewed, along its banks!" + +There was a pause; and by an involuntary and natural impulse, they +turned from the waves beneath to the heaven which, in its breathing +contrast, spread all eloquently, yet hushed, above. They looked upon +the living and intense stars, and felt palpably at their hearts that +spell--wild, but mute--which nothing on or of earth can inspire; that +pining of the imprisoned soul, that longing after the immortality on +high, which is perhaps no imaginary type of the immortality ourselves +are heirs to. + +"It is on such nights as these," said Mordaunt, who first broke the +silence, but with a low and soft voice, "that we are tempted to +believe that in Plato's divine fancy there is as divine a truth; that +'our souls are indeed of the same essence as the stars,' and that the +mysterious yearning, the impatient wish which swells and soars within +us to mingle with their glory, is but the instinctive and natural +longing to re-unite the divided portion of an immortal spirit, stored +in these cells of clay, with the original lustre of the heavenly and +burning whole!" + +And hence then," said his companion, pursuing the idea, "might we also +believe in that wondrous and wild influence which the stars have been +fabled to exercise over our fate; hence might we shape a visionary +clew to their imagined power over our birth, our destinies, and our +death." + +"Perhaps," rejoined Mordaunt, and Lord Ulswater has since said that +his countenance as he spoke wore an awful and strange aspect, which +lived long and long afterwards in the memory of his companion, +"perhaps they are tokens and signs between the soul and the things of +Heaven which do not wholly shame the doctrine of him [Socrates, who +taught the belief in omens.] from whose bright wells Plato drew (while +he coloured with his own gorgeous errors) the waters of his sublime +lore." As Mordaunt thus spoke, his voice changed: he paused abruptly, +and, pointing to a distant quarter of the heavens, said,-- + +"Look yonder; do you see, in the far horizon, one large and solitary +star, that, at this very moment, seems to wax pale and paler, as my +hand points to it?" + +"I see it; it shrinks and soars, while we gaze into the farther depths +of heaven, as if it were seeking to rise to some higher orbit." + +"And do you see," rejoined Mordaunt, "yon fleecy but dusky cloud which +sweeps slowly along the sky towards it? What shape does that cloud +wear to your eyes?" + +"It seems to me," answered Lord Ulswater, "to assume the exact +semblance of a funeral procession: the human shape appears to me as +distinctly moulded in the thin vapours as in ourselves; nor would it +perhaps ask too great indulgence from our fancy to image amongst the +darker forms in the centre of the cloud one bearing the very +appearance of a bier,--the plume, and the caparison, and the steeds, +and the mourners! Still, as I look, the likeness seems to me to +increase!" + +"Strange!" said Mordaunt, musingly, "how strange is this thing which +we call the mind! Strange that the dreams and superstitions of +childhood should cling to it with so inseparable and fond a strength! +I remember, years since, that I was affected even as I am now, to a +degree which wiser men might shrink to confess, upon gazing on a cloud +exactly similar to that which at this instant we behold. But see: +that cloud has passed over the star; and now, as it rolls away, look, +the star itself has vanished into the heavens." + +"But I fear," answered Lord Ulswater, with a slight smile, "that we +can deduce no omen either from the cloud or the star: would, indeed, +that Nature were more visibly knit with our individual existence! +Would that in the heavens there were a book, and in the waves a voice, +and on the earth a token of the mysteries and enigmas of our fate!" + +"And yet," said Mordaunt, slowly, as his mind gradually rose from its +dream-like oppression to its wonted and healthful tone, "yet, in +truth, we want neither sign nor omen from other worlds to teach us all +that it is the end of existence to fulfil in this; and that seems to +me a far less exalted wisdom which enables us to solve the riddles, +than that which elevates us above the chances, of the future." + +"But can we be placed above those chances;--can we become independent +of that fate to which the ancients taught that even their deities were +submitted?" + +"Let us not so wrong the ancients," answered Mordaunt; "their poets +taught it, not their philosophers. Would not virtue be a dream, a +mockery indeed, if it were, like the herb of the field, a thing of +blight and change, of withering and renewal, a minion of the sunbeam +and the cloud? Shall calamity deject it? Shall prosperity pollute? +then let it not be the object of our aspiration, but the byword of our +contempt. No: let us rather believe, with the great of old, that when +it is based on wisdom, it is throned above change and chance! throned +above the things of a petty and sordid world! throned above the +Olympus of the heathen! throned above the Stars which fade, and the +Moon which waneth in her course! Shall we believe less of the +divinity of Virtue than an Athenian Sage? Shall we, to whose eyes +have been revealed without a cloud the blaze and the glory of Heaven, +make Virtue a slave to those chains of earth which the Pagan subjected +to her feet? But if by her we can trample on the ills of life, are we +not a hundredfold more by her the vanquishers of death? All creation +lies before us: shall we cling to a grain of dust? All immortality is +our heritage: shall we gasp and sicken for a moment's breath? What if +we perish within an hour?--what if already the black cloud lowers over +us?--what if from our hopes and projects, and the fresh woven ties +which we have knit around our life, we are abruptly torn?--shall we be +the creatures or the conquerors of fate? Shall we be the exiled from +a home, or the escaped from a dungeon? Are we not as birds which look +into the Great Air only through a barred cage? Shall we shrink and +mourn when the cage is shattered, and all space spreads around us,-- +our element and our empire? No; it was not for this that, in an elder +day, Virtue and Valour received but a common name! The soul, into +which that Spirit has breathed its glory, is not only above Fate,--it +profits by her assaults! Attempt to weaken it, and you nerve it with +a new strength; to wound it, and you render it more invulnerable; to +destroy it, and you make it immortal! This, indeed, is the Sovereign +whose realm every calamity increases, the Hero whose triumph every +invasion augments; standing on the last sands of life, and encircled +by the advancing waters of Darkness and Eternity, it becomes in its +expiring effort doubly the Victor and the King!" + +Impressed by the fervour of his companion, with a sympathy almost +approaching to awe, Lord Ulswater pressed Mordaunt's hand, but offered +no reply; and both, excited by the high theme of their conversation, +and the thoughts which it produced, moved in silence from their post +and walked slowly homeward. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVII. + + Is it possible? + Is't so? I can no longer what I would + No longer draw back at my liking! I + Must do the deed because I thought of it. + . . . . . . + What is thy enterprise,--thy aim, thy object? + Hast honestly confessed it to thyself? + O bloody, frightful deed! + . . . . . . + Was that my purpose when we parted? + O God of Justice!--COLERIDGE: Wallenstein. + +We need scarcely say that one of the persons overheard by Mr. Brown +was Wolfe, and the peculiar tone of oratorical exaggeration, +characteristic of the man, has already informed the reader with which +of the two he is identified. + +On the evening after the conversation--the evening fixed for the +desperate design on which he had set the last hazard of his life--the +republican, parting from the companions with whom he had passed the +day, returned home to compose the fever of his excited thoughts, and +have a brief hour of solitary meditation, previous to the committal of +that act which he knew must be his immediate passport to the jail and +the gibbet. On entering his squalid and miserable home, the woman of +the house, a blear-eyed and filthy hag, who was holding to her +withered breast an infant, which, even in sucking the stream that +nourished its tainted existence, betrayed upon its haggard countenance +the polluted nature of the mother's milk, from which it drew at once +the support of life and the seeds of death,--this woman, meeting him +in the narrow passage, arrested his steps to acquaint him that a +gentleman had that day called upon him and left a letter in his room +with strict charge of care and speed in its delivery. The visitor had +not, however, communicated his name, though the curiosity excited by +his mien and dress had prompted the crone particularly to demand it. + +Little affected by this incident, which to the hostess seemed no +unimportant event, Wolfe pushed the woman aside with an impatient +gesture, and, scarcely conscious of the abuse which followed this +motion, hastened up the sordid stairs to his apartment. He sat +himself down upon the foot of his bed, and, covering his face with his +hands, surrendered his mind to the tide of contending emotions which +rushed upon it. + +What was he about to commit? Murder!--murder in its coldest and most +premeditated guise! "No!" cried he aloud, starting from the bed, and +dashing his clenched hand violently against his brow, "no! no! no! it +is not murder: it is justice! Did not they, the hirelings of +Oppression, ride over their crushed and shrieking countrymen, with +drawn blades and murderous hands? Was I not among them at the hour? +Did I not with these eyes see the sword uplifted and the smiter +strike? Were not my ears filled with the groans of their victims and +the savage yells of the trampling dastards?--yells which rang in +triumph over women and babes and weaponless men! And shall there be +no vengeance? Yes, it shall fall, not upon the tools, but the master; +not upon the slaves, but the despot. Yet," said he, suddenly pausing, +as his voice sank into a whisper, "assassination!--in another hour +perhaps; a deed irrevocable; a seal set upon two souls,--the victim's +and the judge's! Fetters and the felon's cord before me! the shouting +mob! the stigma!--no, no, it will not be the stigma; the gratitude, +rather, of future times, when motives will be appreciated and party +hushed! Have I not wrestled with wrong from my birth? have I not +rejected all offers from the men of an impious power? have I made a +moment's truce with the poor man's foe? have I not thrice purchased +free principles with an imprisoned frame? have I not bartered my +substance, and my hopes, and the pleasures of this world for my +unmoving, unswerving faith in the Great Cause? am I not about to crown +all by one blow,--one lightning blow, destroying at once myself and a +criminal too mighty for the law? and shall not history do justice to +this devotedness,--this absence from all self, hereafter--and admire, +even if it condemn?" + +Buoying himself with these reflections, and exciting the jaded current +of his designs once more into an unnatural impetus, the unhappy man +ceased and paced with rapid steps the narrow limits of his chamber; +his eye fell upon something bright, which glittered amidst the +darkening shadows of the evening. At that sight his heart stood still +for a moment: it was the weapon of intended death; he took it up, and +as he surveyed the shining barrel, and felt the lock, a more settled +sternness gathered at once over his fierce features and stubborn +heart. The pistol had been bought and prepared for the purpose with +the utmost nicety, not only for use but show; nor is it unfrequent to +find in such instances of premeditated ferocity in design a fearful +kind of coxcombry lavished upon the means. + +Striking a light, Wolfe reseated himself deliberately, and began with +the utmost care to load the pistol; that scene would not have been an +unworthy sketch for those painters who possess the power of giving to +the low a force almost approaching to grandeur, and of augmenting the +terrible by a mixture of the ludicrous. The sordid chamber, the damp +walls, the high window, in which a handful of discoloured paper +supplied the absence of many a pane; the single table of rough oak, +the rush-bottomed and broken chair, the hearth unconscious of a fire, +over which a mean bust of Milton held its tutelary sway; while the +dull rushlight streamed dimly upon the swarthy and strong countenance +of Wolfe, intent upon his work,--a countenance in which the deliberate +calmness that had succeeded the late struggle of feeling had in it a +mingled power of energy and haggardness of languor,--the one of the +desperate design, the other of the exhausted body; while in the knit +brow, and the iron lines, and even in the settled ferocity of +expression, there was yet something above the stamp of the vulgar +ruffian,--something eloquent of the motive no less than the deed, and +significant of that not ignoble perversity of mind which diminished +the guilt, yet increased the dreadness of the meditated crime, by +mocking it with the name of virtue. + +As he had finished his task, and hiding the pistol on his person +waited for the hour in which his accomplice was to summon him to the +fatal deed, he perceived, close by him on the table, the letter which +the woman had spoken of, and which till then, he had, in the +excitement of his mind, utterly forgotten. He opened it mechanically; +an enclosure fell to the ground. He picked it up; it was a bank-note +of considerable amount. The lines in the letter were few, anonymous, +and written in a hand evidently disguised. They were calculated +peculiarly to touch the republican, and reconcile him to the gift. In +them the writer professed to be actuated by no other feeling than +admiration for the unbending integrity which had characterized Wolfe's +life, and the desire that sincerity in any principles, however they +might differ from his own, should not be rewarded only with indigence +and ruin. + +It is impossible to tell how far, in Wolfe's mind, his own desperate +fortunes might insensibly have mingled with the motives which led him +to his present design: certain it is that wherever the future is +hopeless the mind is easily converted from the rugged to the criminal; +and equally certain it is that we are apt to justify to ourselves many +offences in a cause where we have made great sacrifices; and, perhaps, +if this unexpected assistance had come to Wolfe a short time before, +it might, by softening his heart and reconciling him in some measure +to fortune, have rendered him less susceptible to the fierce voice of +political hatred and the instigation of his associates. Nor can we, +who are removed from the temptations of the poor,--temptations to +which ours are as breezes which woo to storms which "tumble towers,"-- +nor can we tell how far the acerbity of want, and the absence of +wholesome sleep, and the contempt of the rich, and the rankling memory +of better fortunes, or even the mere fierceness which absolute hunger +produces in the humours and veins of all that hold nature's life, nor +can we tell how far these madden the temper, which is but a minion of +the body, and plead in irresistible excuse for the crimes which our +wondering virtue--haughty because unsolicited--stamps with its +loftiest reprobation! + +The cloud fell from Wolfe's brow, and his eye gazed, musingly and +rapt, upon vacancy. Steps were heard ascending; the voice of a +distant clock tolled with a distinctness which seemed like strokes +palpable as well as audible to the senses; and, as the door opened and +his accomplice entered, Wolfe muttered, "Too late! too late!"--and +first crushing the note in his hands, then tore it into atoms, with a +vehemence which astonished his companion, who, however, knew not its +value. + +"Come," said he, stamping his foot violently upon the floor, as if to +conquer by passion all internal relenting, "come, my friend, not +another moment is to be lost; let us hasten to our holy deed!" + +"I trust," said Wolfe's companion, when they were in the open street, +"that we shall not have our trouble in vain; it is a brave night for +it! Davidson wanted us to throw grenades into the ministers' +carriages, as the best plan; and, faith, we can try that if all else +fails!" + +Wolfe remained silent: indeed he scarcely heard his companion; for a +sullen indifference to all things around him had wrapped his spirit,-- +that singular feeling, or rather absence from feeling, common to all +men, when bound on some exciting action, upon which their minds are +already and wholly bent; which renders them utterly without thought, +when the superficial would imagine they were the most full of it, and +leads them to the threshold of that event which had before engrossed +all their most waking and fervid contemplation with a blind and +mechanical unconsciousness, resembling the influence of a dream. + +They arrived at the place they had selected for their station; +sometimes walking to and fro in order to escape observation, sometimes +hiding behind the pillars of a neighbouring house, they awaited the +coming of their victims. The time passed on; the streets grew more +and more empty; and, at last, only the visitation of the watchman or +the occasional steps of some homeward wanderer disturbed the solitude +of their station. + +At last, just after midnight, two men were seen approaching towards +them, linked arm in arm, and walking very slowly. + +"Hist! hist!" whispered Wolfe's comrade, "there they are at last; is +your pistol cocked?" + +"Ay," answered Wolfe, "and yours: man, collect yourself your hand +shakes." + +"It is with the cold then," said the ruffian, using, unconsciously, a +celebrated reply; "let us withdraw behind the pillar." + +They did so: the figures approached them; the night, though star-lit, +was not sufficiently clear to give the assassins more than the outline +of their shapes and the characters of their height and air. + +"Which," said Wolfe, in a whisper,--for, as he had said, he had never +seen either of his intended victims,--"which is my prey?" + +"Oh, the nearest to you," said the other, with trembling accents; "you +know his d--d proud walk, and erect head that is the way he answers +the people's petitions, I'll be sworn. The taller and farther one, +who stoops more in his gait, is mine." + +The strangers were now at hand. + +"You know you are to fire first, Wolfe," whispered the nearer ruffian, +whose heart had long failed him, and who was already meditating +escape. + +"But are you sure, quite sure, of the identity of our prey?" said +Wolfe, grasping his pistol. + +"Yes, yes," said the other; and, indeed, the air of the nearest person +approaching them bore, in the distance, a strong resemblance to that +of the minister it was supposed to designate. His companion, who +appeared much younger and of a mien equally patrician, but far less +proud, seemed listening to the supposed minister with the most earnest +attention. Apparently occupied with their conversation, when about +twenty yards from the assassins they stood still for a few moments. + +"Stop, Wolfe, stop," said the republican's accomplice, whose Indian +complexion, by fear, and the wan light of the lamps and skies, faded +into a jaundiced and yellow hue, while the bony whiteness of his teeth +made a grim contrast with the glare of his small, black, sparkling +eyes. "Stop, Wolfe, hold your hand. I see, now, that I was mistaken; +the farther one is a stranger to me, and the nearer one is much +thinner than the minister: pocket your pistol,--quick! quick!--and let +us withdraw." + +Wolfe dropped his hand, as if dissuaded from his design but as he +looked upon the trembling frame and chattering teeth of his terrified +accomplice, a sudden, and not unnatural, idea darted across his mind +that he was wilfully deceived by the fears of his companion; and that +the strangers, who had now resumed their way, were indeed what his +accomplice had first reported them to be. Filled with this +impression, and acting upon the momentary spur which it gave, the +infatuated and fated man pushed aside his comrade, with a muttered +oath at his cowardice and treachery, and taking a sure and steady, +though quick, aim at the person, who was now just within the certain +destruction of his hand, he fired the pistol. The stranger reeled and +fell into the arms of his companion. + +"Hurrah!" cried the murderer, leaping from his hiding place, and +walking with rapid strides towards his victim, "hurrah! for liberty +and England!" + +Scarce had he uttered those prostituted names, before the triumph of +misguided zeal faded suddenly and forever from his brow and soul. + +The wounded man leaned back in the supporting arms of his chilled and +horror-stricken friend; who, kneeling on one knee to support him, +fixed his eager eyes upon the pale and changing countenance of his +burden, unconscious of the presence of the assassin. + +"Speak, Mordaunt; speak! how is it with you?" he said. Recalled from +his torpor by the voice, Mordaunt opened his eyes, and muttering, "My +child, my child," sank back again; and Lord Ulswater (for it was he) +felt, by his increased weight, that death was hastening rapidly on its +victim. + +"Oh!" said he, bitterly, and recalling their last conversation--"oh! +where, where, when this man--the wise, the kind, the innocent, almost +the perfect--falls thus in the very prime of existence, by a sudden +blow from an obscure hand, unblest in life, inglorious in death,--oh! +where, where is this boasted triumph of Virtue, or where is its +reward?" + +True to his idol at the last, as these words fell upon his dizzy and +receding senses, Mordaunt raised himself by a sudden though momentary +exertion, and, fixing his eyes full upon Lord Ulswater, his moving +lips (for his voice was already gone) seemed to shape out the answer, +"It is here!" + +With this last effort, and with an expression upon his aspect which +seemed at once to soften and to hallow the haughty and calm character +which in life it was wont to bear, Algernon Mordaunt fell once more +back into the arms of his companion and immediately expired. + + + + +CHAPTER LXXXVIII. + + Come, Death, these are thy victims, and the axe + Waits those who claimed the chariot.--Thus we count + Our treasures in the dark, and when the light + Breaks on the cheated eye, we find the coin + Was skulls-- + . . . . . . + Yet the while + Fate links strange contrasts, and the scaffold's gloom + Is neighboured by the altar.--ANONYMOUS. + +When Crauford's guilt and imprisonment became known; when inquiry +developed, day after day, some new maze in the mighty and intricate +machinery of his sublime dishonesty; when houses of the most reputed +wealth and profuse splendour, whose affairs Crauford had transacted, +were discovered to have been for years utterly undermined and +beggared, and only supported by the extraordinary genius of the +individual by whose extraordinary guilt, now no longer concealed, they +were suddenly and irretrievably destroyed; when it was ascertained +that, for nearly the fifth part of a century, a system of villany had +been carried on throughout Europe, in a thousand different relations, +without a single breath of suspicion, and yet which a single breath of +suspicion could at once have arrested and exposed; when it was proved +that a man whose luxury had exceeded the pomp of princes, and whose +wealth was supposed more inexhaustible than the enchanted purse of +Fortunatus, had for eighteen years been a penniless pensioner upon the +prosperity of others; when the long scroll of this almost incredible +fraud was slowly, piece by piece, unrolled before the terrified +curiosity of his public, an invading army at the Temple gates could +scarcely have excited such universal consternation and dismay. + +The mob, always the first to execute justice, in their own inimitable +way took vengeance upon Crauford by burning the house no longer his, +and the houses of his partners, who were the worst and most innocent +sufferers for his crime. No epithet of horror and hatred was too +severe for the offender; and serious apprehension for the safety of +Newgate, his present habitation, was generally expressed. The more +saintly members of that sect to which the hypocrite had ostensibly +belonged, held up their hands, and declared that the fall of the +Pharisee was a judgment of Providence. Nor did they think it worth +while to make, for a moment, the trifling inquiry how far the judgment +of Providence was also implicated in the destruction of the numerous +and innocent families he had ruined! + +But, whether from that admiration for genius, common to the vulgar, +which forgets all crime in the cleverness of committing it, or from +that sagacious disposition peculiar to the English, which makes a hero +of any person eminently wicked, no sooner did Crauford's trial come on +than the tide of popular feeling experienced a sudden revulsion. It +became, in an instant, the fashion to admire and to pity a gentleman +so talented and so unfortunate. Likenesses of Mr. Crauford appeared +in every print-shop in town; the papers discovered that he was the +very fac-simile of the great King of Prussia. The laureate made an +ode upon him, which was set to music; and the public learned, with +tears of compassionate regret at so romantic a circumstance, that +pigeon-pies were sent daily to his prison, made by the delicate hands +of one of his former mistresses. Some sensation, also, was excited by +the circumstance of his poor wife (who soon afterwards died of a +broken heart) coming to him in prison, and being with difficulty torn +away; but then, conjugal affection is so very commonplace, and there +was something so engrossingly pathetic in the anecdote of the pigeon- +pies! + +It must be confessed that Crauford displayed singular address and +ability upon his trial; and fighting every inch of ground, even to the +last, when so strong a phalanx of circumstances appeared against him +that no hope of a favourable verdict could for a moment have supported +him, he concluded the trial with a speech delivered by himself, so +impressive, so powerful, so dignified, yet so impassioned, that the +whole audience, hot as they were, dissolved into tears. + +Sentence was passed,--Death! But such was the infatuation of the +people that every one expected that a pardon, for crime more +complicated and extensive than half the "Newgate Calendar" could +equal, would of course be obtained. Persons of the highest rank +interested themselves in his behalf; and up to the night before his +execution, expectations, almost amounting to certainty, were +entertained by the criminal, his friends, and the public. On that +night was conveyed to Crauford the positive and peremptory assurance +that there was no hope. Let us now enter his cell, and be the sole +witnesses of his solitude. + +Crauford was, as we have seen, a man in some respects of great moral +courage, of extraordinary daring in the formation of schemes, of +unwavering resolution in supporting them, and of a temper which rather +rejoiced in, than shunned, the braving of a distant danger for the +sake of an adequate reward. But this courage was supported and fed +solely by the self-persuasion of consummate genius, and his profound +confidence both in his good fortune and the inexhaustibility of his +resources. Physically he was a coward! immediate peril to be +confronted by the person, not the mind, had ever appalled him like a +child. He had never dared to back a spirited horse. He had been +known to remain for days in an obscure ale-house in the country, to +which a shower had accidentally driven him, because it had been idly +reported that a wild beast had escaped from a caravan and been seen in +the vicinity of the inn. No dog had ever been allowed in his +household lest it might go mad. In a word, Crauford was one to whom +life and sensual enjoyments were everything,--the supreme blessings, +the only blessings. + +As long as he had the hope, and it was a sanguine hope, of saving +life, nothing had disturbed his mind from its serenity. His gayety +had never forsaken him; and his cheerfulness and fortitude had been +the theme of every one admitted to his presence. But when this hope +was abruptly and finally closed; when Death, immediate and +unavoidable,--Death, the extinction of existence, the cessation of +sense,--stood bare and hideous before him, his genius seemed at once +to abandon him to his fate, and the inherent weakness of his nature to +gush over every prop and barrier of his art. + +No hope!" muttered he, in a voice of the keenest anguish, "no hope; +merciful God! none, none? What, I, I, who have shamed kings in +luxury,--I to die on the gibbet, among the reeking, gaping, swinish +crowd with whom--O God, that I were one of them even! that I were the +most loathsome beggar that ever crept forth to taint the air with +sores! that I were a toad immured in a stone, sweltering in the +atmosphere of its own venom! a snail crawling on these very walls, and +tracking his painful path in slime!--anything, anything, but death! +And such death! The gallows, the scaffold, the halter, the fingers of +the hangman paddling round the neck where the softest caresses have +clung and sated. To die, die, die! What, I whose pulse now beats so +strongly! whose blood keeps so warm and vigorous a motion! in the very +prime of enjoyment and manhood; all life's million paths of pleasure +before me,--to die, to swing to the winds, to hang,--ay, ay--to hang! +to be cut down, distorted and hideous; to be thrust into the earth +with worms; to rot, or--or--or hell! is there a hell?--better that +even than annihilation!" + +"Fool! fool!--damnable fool that I was" (and in his sudden rage he +clenched his own flesh till the nails met in it); "had I but got to +France one day sooner! Why don't you save me, save me, you whom I +have banqueted and feasted, and lent money to! one word from you might +have saved me; I will not die! I don't deserve it! I am innocent! I +tell you, Not guilty, my lord,--not guilty! Have you no heart, no +consciences? Murder! murder! murder!" and the wretched man sank upon +the ground, and tried with his hands to grasp the stone floor, as if +to cling to it from some imaginary violence. + +Turn we from him to the cell in which another criminal awaits also the +awful coming of his latest morrow. + +Pale, motionless, silent, with his face bending over his bosom and +hands clasped tightly upon his knees, Wolfe sat in his dungeon, and +collected his spirit against the approaching consummation of his +turbulent and stormy fate. His bitterest punishment had been already +past; mysterious Chance, or rather the Power above chance, had denied +to him the haughty triumph of self-applause. No sophistry, now, could +compare his doom to that of Sidney, or his deed to the act of the +avenging Brutus. + +Murder--causeless, objectless, universally execrated--rested, and +would rest (till oblivion wrapped it) upon his name. It had appeared, +too, upon his trial, that he had, in the information he had received, +been the mere tool of a spy in the ministers' pay; and that, for weeks +before his intended deed, his design had been known, and his +conspiracy only not bared to the public eye because political craft +awaited a riper opportunity for the disclosure. He had not then +merely been the blind dupe of his own passions, but, more humbling +still, an instrument in the hands of the very men whom his hatred was +sworn to destroy. Not a wreck, not a straw, of the vain glory for +which he had forfeited life and risked his soul, could he hug to a +sinking heart, and say, "This is my support." + +The remorse of gratitude embittered his cup still further. On +Mordaunt's person had been discovered a memorandum of the money +anonymously inclosed to Wolfe on the day of the murder; and it was +couched in words of esteem which melted the fierce heart of the +republican into the only tears he had shed since childhood. From that +time, a sullen, silent spirit fell upon him. He spoke to none,-- +heeded none; he made no defence on trial, no complaint of severity, no +appeal from judgment. The iron had entered into his soul; but it +supported, while it tortured. Even now as we gaze upon his inflexible +and dark countenance, no transitory emotion; no natural spasm of +sudden fear for the catastrophe of the morrow; no intense and working +passions, struggling into calm; no sign of internal hurricanes, rising +as it were from the hidden depths, agitate the surface, or betray the +secrets of the unfathomable world within. The mute lip; the rigid +brow; the downcast eye; a heavy and dread stillness, brooding over +every feature,--these are all we behold. + +Is it that thought sleeps, locked in the torpor of a senseless and +rayless dream; or that an evil incubus weighs upon it, crushing its +risings, but deadening not its pangs? Does Memory fly to the green +fields and happy home of his childhood, or the lonely studies of his +daring and restless youth, or his earliest homage to that Spirit of +Freedom which shone bright and still and pure upon the solitary +chamber of him who sang of heaven [Milton]; or (dwelling on its last +and most fearful object) rolls it only through one tumultuous and +convulsive channel,--Despair? Whatever be within the silent and deep +heart, pride, or courage, or callousness, or that stubborn firmness, +which, once principle, has grown habit, cover all as with a pall; and +the strung nerves and the hard endurance of the human flesh sustain +what the immortal mind perhaps quails beneath, in its dark retreat, +but once dreamed that it would exult to bear. + +The fatal hour had come! and, through the long dim passages of the +prison, four criminals were led forth to execution. The first was +Crauford's associate, Bradley. This man prayed fervently; and, though +he was trembling and pale, his mien and aspect bore something of the +calmness of resignation. + +It has been said that there is no friendship among the wicked. I have +examined this maxim closely, and believe it, like most popular +proverbs,--false. In wickedness there is peril, and mutual terror is +the strongest of ties. At all events, the wicked can, not unoften, +excite an attachment in their followers denied to virtue. Habitually +courteous, caressing, and familiar, Crauford had, despite his own +suspicions of Bradley, really touched the heart of one whom weakness +and want, not nature, had gained to vice; and it was not till +Crauford's guilt was by other witnesses undeniably proved that Bradley +could be tempted to make any confession tending to implicate him. + +He now crept close to his former partner, and frequently clasped his +hand, and besought him to take courage and to pray. But Crauford's +eye was glassy and dim, and his veins seemed filled with water: so +numbed and cold and white was his cheek. Fear, in him, had passed its +paroxysms, and was now insensibility; it was only when they urged him +to pray that a sort of benighted consciousness strayed over his +countenance and his ashen lips muttered something which none heard. + +After him came the Creole, who had been Wolfe's accomplice. On the +night of the murder, he had taken advantage of the general loneliness +and the confusion of the few present, and fled. He was found, +however, fast asleep in a garret, before morning, by the officers of +justice; and, on trial, he had confessed all. This man was in a rapid +consumption. The delay of another week would have given to Nature the +termination of his life. He, like Bradley, seemed earnest and +absorbed in prayer. + +Last came Wolfe, his tall, gaunt frame worn by confinement and +internal conflict into a gigantic skeleton; his countenance, too, had +undergone a withering change; his grizzled hair seemed now to have +acquired only the one hoary hue of age; and, though you might trace in +his air and eye the sternness, you could no longer detect the fire, of +former days. Calm, as on the preceding night, no emotion broke over +his dark but not defying features. He rejected, though not +irreverently, all aid from the benevolent priest, and seemed to seek +in the pride of his own heart a substitute for the resignation of +Religion. + +"Miserable man!" at last said the good clergyman, in whom zeal +overcame kindness, "have you at this awful hour no prayer upon your +lips?" + +A living light shot then for a moment over Wolfe's eye and brow. "I +have!" said he; and raising his clasped hands to Heaven, he continued +in the memorable words of Sidney, "Lord, defend Thy own cause, and +defend those who defend it! Stir up such as are faint; direct those +that are willing; confirm those that waver; give wisdom and integrity +to all: order all things so as may most redound to Thine own glory! + +"I had once hoped," added Wolfe, sinking in his tone, "I had once +hoped that I might with justice have continued that holy prayer; +["Grant that I may die glorifying Thee for all Thy mercies, and that +at the last Thou hast permitted me to be singled out as a witness of +Thy truth, and even by the confession of my opposers for that OLD +CAUSE in which I was from my youth engaged, and for which Thou hast +often and wonderfully declared Thyself."--ALGERNON SIDNEY.] but--" he +ceased abruptly; the glow passed from his countenance, his lip +quivered, and the tears stood in his eyes; and that was the only +weakness he betrayed, and those were his last words. + +Crauford continued, even while the rope was put round him, mute and +unconscious of everything. It was said that his pulse (that of an +uncommonly strong and healthy man on the previous day) had become so +low and faint that, an hour before his execution, it could not be +felt. He and the Creole were the only ones who struggled; Wolfe died, +seemingly, without a pang. + +From these feverish and fearful scenes, the mind turns, with a feeling +of grateful relief, to contemplate the happiness of one whose candid +and high nature, and warm affections, Fortune, long befriending, had +at length blessed. + +It was on an evening in the earliest flush of returning spring that +Lord Ulswater, with his beautiful bride, entered his magnificent +domains. It had been his wish and order, in consequence of his +brother's untimely death, that no public rejoicings should be made on +his marriage: but the good old steward could not persuade himself +entirely to enforce obedience to the first order of his new master; +and as the carriage drove into the park-gates, crowds on crowds were +assembled to welcome and to gaze. + +No sooner had they caught a glimpse of their young lord, whose +affability and handsome person had endeared him to all who remembered +his early days, and of the half-blushing, half-smiling countenance +beside him, than their enthusiasm could be no longer restrained. The +whole scene rang with shouts of joy; and through an air filled with +blessings, and amidst an avenue of happy faces, the bridal pair +arrived at their home. + +"Ah! Clarence (for so I must still call you)," said Flora, her +beautiful eyes streaming with delicious tears, "let us never leave +these kind hearts; let us live amongst them, and strive to repay and +deserve the blessings which they shower upon us! Is not Benevolence, +dearest, better than Ambition?" + +"Can it not rather, my own Flora, be Ambition itself?" + + + + +CONCLUSION. + + So rest you, merry gentlemen.--Monsieur Thomas. + +The Author has now only to take his leave of the less important +characters whom he has assembled together; and then, all due courtesy +to his numerous guests being performed, to retire himself to repose. + +First, then, for Mr. Morris Brown: In the second year of Lord +Ulswater's marriage, the worthy broker paid Mrs. Minden's nephew a +visit, in which he persuaded that gentleman to accept, "as presents," +two admirable fire screens, the property of the late Lady Waddilove: +the same may be now seen in the housekeeper's room at Borodaile Park +by any person willing to satisfy his curiosity and--the housekeeper. +Of all further particulars respecting Mr. Morris Brown, history is +silent. + +In the obituary for 1792, we find the following paragraph: + +"Died at his house in Putney, aged seventy-three, Sir Nicholas +Copperas, Knt., a gentleman well known on the Exchange for his +facetious humour. Several of his bons-mots are still recorded in the +Common Council. When residing many years ago in the suburbs of +London, this worthy gentleman was accustomed to go from his own house +to the Exchange in a coach called 'the Swallow,' that passed his door +just at breakfast-time; upon which occasion he was wont wittily to +observe to his accomplished spouse, 'And now, Mrs. Copperas, having +swallowed in the roll, I will e'en roll in the Swallow!' His whole +property is left to Adolphus Copperas, Esq., banker." + +And in the next year we discover,-- + +"Died, on Wednesday last, at her jointure house, Putney, in her sixty- +eighth year, the amiable and elegant Lady Copperas, relict of the late +Sir Nicholas, Knt." + +Mr. Trollolop, having exhausted the whole world of metaphysics, died +like Descartes, "in believing he had left nothing unexplained." + +Mr. Callythorpe entered the House of Commons at the time of the French +Revolution. He distinguished himself by many votes in favour of Mr. +Pitt, and one speech which ran thus: "Sir, I believe my right +honourable friend who spoke last (Mr. Pitt) designs to ruin the +country: but I will support him through all. Honourable Gentlemen may +laugh; but I'm a true Briton, and will not serve my friend the less +because I scorn to flatter him." + +Sir Christopher Findlater lost his life by an accident arising from +the upsetting of his carriage, his good heart not having suffered him +to part with a drunken coachman. + +Mr. Glumford turned miser in his old age; and died of want, and an +extravagant son. + +Our honest Cole and his wife were always among the most welcome +visitors at Lord Ulswater's. In his extreme old age, the ex-king took +a journey to Scotland, to see the Author of "The Lay of the Last +Minstrel." Nor should we do justice to the chief's critical +discernment if we neglected to record that, from the earliest dawn of +that great luminary of our age, he predicted its meridian splendour. +The eldest son of the gypsy-monarch inherited his father's spirit, and +is yet alive, a general, and G.C.B. + +Mr. Harrison married Miss Elizabeth, and succeeded to the Golden +Fleece. + +The Duke of Haverfield and Lord Ulswater continued their friendship +through life; and the letters of our dear Flora to her correspondent, +Eleanor, did not cease even with that critical and perilous period to +all maiden correspondents,--Marriage. If we may judge from the +subsequent letters which we have been permitted to see, Eleanor never +repented her brilliant nuptials, nor discovered (as the Duchess of +---- once said from experience) "that Dukes are as intolerable for +husbands as they are delightful for matches." + +And Isabel Mordaunt?--Ah! not in these pages shall her history be told +even in epitome. Perhaps for some future narrative, her romantic and +eventful fate may be reserved. Suffice it for the present, that the +childhood of the young heiress passed in the house of Lord Ulswater, +whose proudest boast, through a triumphant and prosperous life, was to +have been her father's friend; and that as she grew up, she inherited +her mother's beauty and gentle heart, and seemed to bear in her deep +eyes and melancholy smile some remembrance of the scenes in which her +infancy had been passed. + +But for Him, the husband and the father, whose trials through this +wrong world I have portrayed,--for him let there be neither murmurs at +the blindness of Fate, nor sorrow at the darkness of his doom. Better +that the lofty and bright spirit should pass away before the petty +business of life had bowed it, or the sordid mists of this low earth +breathed a shadow on its lustre! Who would have asked that spirit to +have struggled on for years in the intrigues, the hopes, the objects +of meaner souls? Who would have desired that the heavenward and +impatient heart should have grown insured to the chains and toil of +this enslaved state, or hardened into the callousness of age? Nor +would we claim the vulgar pittance of compassion for a lot which is +exalted above regret! Pity is for our weaknesses: to our weaknesses +only be it given. It is the aliment of love; it is the wages of +ambition; it is the rightful heritage of error! But why should pity +be entertained for the soul which never fell? for the courage which +never quailed? for the majesty never humbled? for the wisdom which, +from the rough things of the common world, raised an empire above +earth and destiny? for the stormy life?--it was a triumph! for the +early death?--it was immortality! + +I have stood beside Mordaunt's tomb: his will had directed that he +should sleep not in the vaults of his haughty line; and his last +dwelling is surrounded by a green and pleasant spot. The trees shadow +it like a temple; and a silver though fitful brook wails with a +constant yet not ungrateful dirge at the foot of the hill on which the +tomb is placed. I have stood there in those ardent years when our +wishes know no boundary and our ambition no curb; yet, even then, I +would have changed my wildest vision of romance for that quiet grave, +and the dreams of the distant spirit whose relics reposed beneath it. + +THE END. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V8 *** + +****** This file should be named 7638.txt or 7638.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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