diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7696.txt | 2777 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7696.zip | bin | 0 -> 64321 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 2793 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7696.txt b/7696.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..907c29e --- /dev/null +++ b/7696.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2777 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook A Strange Story, by E. B. Lytton, Volume 5. +#124 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: A Strange Story, Volume 5. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7696] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 22, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE STORY, LYTTON, V5 *** + + +This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath +and David Widger + + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +The lawyer came the next day, and with something like a smile on his lips. +He brought me a few lines in pencil from Mrs. Ashleigh; they were kindly +expressed, bade me be of good cheer; "she never for a moment believed in +my guilt; Lilian bore up wonderfully under so terrible a trial; it was an +unspeakable comfort to both to receive the visits of a friend so attached +to me, and so confident of a triumphant refutation of the hideous calumny +under which I now suffered as Mr. Margrave!" + +The lawyer had seen Margrave again,--seen him in that house. Margrave +seemed almost domiciled there! + +I remained sullen and taciturn during this visit. I longed again for the +night. Night came. I heard the distant clock strike twelve, when again +the icy wind passed through my hair, and against the wall stood the +luminous Shadow. + +"Have you considered?" whispered the voice, still as from afar. "I repeat +it,--I alone can save you." + +"Is it among the conditions which you ask, in return, that I shall resign +to you the woman I love?" + +"No." + +"Is it one of the conditions that I should commit some crime,--a crime +perhaps heinous as that of which I am accused?" + +"No." + +"With such reservations, I accept the conditions you may name, provided I, +in my turn, may demand one condition from yourself." + +"Name it." + +"I ask you to quit this town. I ask you, meanwhile, to cease your visits +to the house that holds the woman betrothed to me." + +"I will cease those visits. And before many days are over, I will quit +this town." + +"Now, then, say what you ask from me. I am prepared to concede it. And +not from fear for myself, but because I fear for the pure and innocent +being who is under the spell of your deadly fascination. This is your +power over me. You command me through my love for another. Speak." + +"My conditions are simple. You will pledge yourself to desist from all +charges of insinuation against myself, of what nature soever. You will +not, when you meet me in the flesh, refer to what you have known of my +likeness in the Shadow. You will be invited to the house at which I may +be also a guest; you will come; you will meet and converse with me as +guest speaks with guest in the house of a host." + +"Is that all?" + +"It is all." + +"Then I pledge you my faith; keep your own." + +"Fear not; sleep secure in the certainty that you will soon be released +from these walls." + +The Shadow waned and faded. Darkness settled back, and a sleep, profound +and calm, fell over me. + +The next day Mr. Stanton again visited me. He had received that morning a +note from Mr. Margrave, stating that he had left L---- to pursue, in +person, an investigation which he had already commenced through another, +affecting the man who had given evidence against me, and that, if his +hope should prove well founded, he trusted to establish my innocence, and +convict the real murderer of Sir Philip Derval. In the research he thus +volunteered, he had asked for, and obtained, the assistance of the +policeman Waby, who, grateful to me for saving the life of his sister, had +expressed a strong desire to be employed in my service. + +Meanwhile, my most cruel assailant was my old college friend, Richard +Strahan. For Jeeves had spread abroad Strahan's charge of purloining the +memoir which had been entrusted to me; and that accusation had done me +great injury in public opinion, because it seemed to give probability to +the only motive which ingenuity could ascribe to the foul deed imputed to +me. That motive had been first suggested by Mr. Vigors. Cases are on +record of men whose life had been previously blameless, who have committed +a crime which seemed to belie their nature, in the monomania of some +intense desire. In Spain, a scholar reputed of austere morals murdered +and robbed a traveller for money in order to purchase books,--books +written, too, by Fathers of his Church! He was intent on solving some +problem of theological casuistry. In France, an antiquary, esteemed not +more for his learning than for amiable and gentle qualities, murdered his +most intimate friend for the possession of a medal, without which his own +collection was incomplete. These, and similar anecdotes, tending to prove +how fatally any vehement desire, morbidly cherished, may suspend the +normal operations of reason and conscience, were whispered about by Dr. +Lloyd's vindictive partisan; and the inference drawn from them and applied +to the assumptions against myself was the more credulously received, +because of that over-refining speculation on motive and act which the +shallow accept, in their eagerness to show how readily they understand the +profound. + +I was known to be fond of scientific, especially of chemical experiments; +to be eager in testing the truth of any novel invention. Strahan, +catching hold of the magistrate's fantastic hypothesis, went about +repeating anecdotes of the absorbing passion for analysis and discovery +which had characterized me in youth as a medical student, and to which, +indeed, I owed the precocious reputation I had obtained. + +Sir Philip Derval, according not only to report, but to the direct +testimony of his servant, had acquired in the course of his travels many +secrets in natural science, especially as connected with the healing +art,--his servant had deposed to the remarkable cures he had effected by +the medicinals stored in the stolen casket. Doubtless Sir Philip, in +boasting of these medicinals in the course of our conversation, had +excited my curiosity, inflamed my imagination; and thus when I afterwards +suddenly met him in a lone spot, a passionate impulse had acted on a brain +heated into madness by curiosity and covetous desire. + +All these suppositions, reduced into system, were corroborated by +Strahan's charge that I had made away with the manuscript supposed to +contain the explanations of the medical agencies employed by Sir Philip, +and had sought to shelter my theft by a tale so improbable, that a man of +my reputed talent could not have hazarded it if in his sound senses. I +saw the web that had thus been spread around me by hostile prepossessions +and ignorant gossip: how could the arts of Margrave scatter that web to +the winds? I knew not, but I felt confidence in his promise and his +power. Still, so great had been my alarm for Lilian, that the hope of +clearing my own innocence was almost lost in my joy that Margrave, at +least, was no longer in her presence, and that I had received his pledge +to quit the town in which she lived. + +Thus, hours rolled on hours, till, I think, on the third day from that +night in which I had last beheld the mysterious Shadow, my door was +hastily thrown open, a confused crowd presented itself at the +threshold,--the governor of the prison, the police superintendent, Mr. +Stanton, and other familiar faces shut out from me since my imprisonment. +I knew at the first glance that I was no longer an outlaw beyond the pale +of human friendship. And proudly, sternly, as I had supported myself +hitherto in solitude and suspense, when I felt warm hands clasping mine, +heard joyous voices proffering congratulations, saw in the eyes of all +that my innocence had been cleared, the revulsion of emotion was too +strong for me,--the room reeled on my sight, I fainted. I pass, as +quickly as I can, over the explanations that crowded on me when I +recovered, and that were publicly given in evidence in court next morning. +I had owed all to Margrave. It seems that he had construed to my favour +the very supposition which had been bruited abroad to my prejudice. +"For," said he, "it is conjectured that Fenwick committed the crime of +which he is accused in the impulse of a disordered reason. That +conjecture is based upon the probability that a madman alone could have +committed a crime without adequate motive. But it seems quite clear that +the accused is not mad; and I see cause to suspect that the accuser is." +Grounding this assumption on the current reports of the witness's manner +and bearing since he had been placed under official surveillance, Margrave +had commissioned the policeman Waby to make inquiries in the village to +which the accuser asserted he had gone in quest of his relations, and Waby +had there found persons who remembered to have heard that the two brothers +named Walls lived less by the gains of the petty shop which they kept than +by the proceeds of some property consigned to them as the nearest of kin +to a lunatic who had once been tried for his life. Margrave had then +examined the advertisements in the daily newspapers. One of them, warning +the public against a dangerous maniac, who had effected his escape from an +asylum in the west of England, caught his attention. To that asylum he +had repaired. + +There he learned that the patient advertised was one whose propensity was +homicide, consigned for life to the asylum on account of a murder, for +which he had been tried. The description of this person exactly tallied +with that of the pretended American. The medical superintendent of the +asylum, hearing all particulars from Margrave, expressed a strong +persuasion that the witness was his missing patient, and had himself +committed the crime of which he had accused another. If so, the +superintendent undertook to coax from him the full confession of all the +circumstances. Like many other madmen, and not least those whose +propensity is to crime, the fugitive maniac was exceedingly cunning, +treacherous, secret, and habituated to trick and stratagem,--more subtle +than even the astute in possession of all their faculties, whether to +achieve his purpose or to conceal it, and fabricate appearances against +another. But while, in ordinary conversation, he seemed rational enough +to those who were not accustomed to study him, he had one hallucination +which, when humoured, led him always, not only to betray himself, but to +glory in any crime proposed or committed. He was under the belief that he +had made a bargain with Satan, who, in return for implicit obedience, +would bear him harmless through all the consequences of such submission, +and finally raise him to great power and authority. It is no unfrequent +illusion of homicidal maniacs to suppose they are under the influence of +the Evil One, or possessed by a Demon. Murderers have assigned as the +only reason they themselves could give for their crime, that "the Devil +got into them," and urged the deed. But the insane have, perhaps, no +attribute more in common than that of superweening self-esteem. The +maniac who has been removed from a garret sticks straws in his hair and +calls them a crown. So much does inordinate arrogance characterize mental +aberration, that, in the course of my own practice, I have detected, in +that infirmity, the certain symptom of insanity, long before the brain had +made its disease manifest even to the most familiar kindred. + +Morbid self-esteem accordingly pervaded the dreadful illusion by which the +man I now speak of was possessed. He was proud to be the protected agent +of the Fallen Angel. And if that self-esteem were artfully appealed to, +he would exult superbly in the evil he held himself ordered to perform, as +if a special prerogative, an official rank and privilege; then, he would +be led on to boast gleefully of thoughts which the most cynical of +criminals in whom intelligence was not ruined would shrink from owning; +then, he would reveal himself in all his deformity with as complacent and +frank a self-glorying as some vain good man displays in parading his +amiable sentiments and his beneficent deeds. + +"If," said the superintendent, "this be the patient who has escaped from +me, and if his propensity to homicide has been, in some way, directed +towards the person who has been murdered, I shall not be with him a +quarter of an hour before he will inform me how it happened, and detail +the arts he employed in shifting his crime upon another; all will be told +as minutely as a child tells the tale of some school-boy exploit, in +which he counts on your sympathy, and feels sure of your applause." + +Margrave brought this gentleman back to L----, took him to the mayor, who +was one of my warmest supporters: the mayor had sufficient influence to +dictate and arrange the rest. The superintendent was introduced to the +room in which the pretended American was lodged. At his own desire a +select number of witnesses were admitted with him. Margrave excused +himself; he said candidly that he was too intimate a friend of mine to be +an impartial listener to aught that concerned me so nearly. + +The superintendent proved right in his suspicions, and verified his +promises. My false accuser was his missing patient; the man recognized +Dr. ---- with no apparent terror, rather with an air of condescension, and +in a very few minutes was led to tell his own tale, with a gloating +complacency both at the agency by which he deemed himself exalted, and at +the dexterous cunning with which he had acquitted himself of the task, +that increased the horror of his narrative. + +He spoke of the mode of his escape, which was extremely ingenious, but of +which the details, long in themselves, did not interest me, and I +understood them too imperfectly to repeat. He had encountered a +sea-faring traveller on the road, whom he had knocked down with a stone, +and robbed of his glazed hat and pea-jacket, as well as of a small sum in +coin, which last enabled him to pay his fare in a railway that conveyed +him eighty miles away from the asylum. Some trifling remnant of this +money still in his pocket, he then travelled on foot along the high-road +till he came to a town about twenty miles distant from L----; there he had +stayed a day or two, and there he said "that the Devil had told him to buy +a case-knife, which he did." "He knew by that order that the Devil meant +him to do something great." "His Master," as he called the fiend, then +directed him the road he should take. He came to L----, put up, as he had +correctly stated before, at a small inn, wandered at night about the town, +was surprised by the sudden storm, took shelter under the convent arch, +overheard somewhat more of my conversation with Sir Philip than he had +previously deposed,--heard enough to excite his curiosity as to the +casket: "While he listened his Master told him he must get possession of +that casket." Sir Philip had quitted the archway almost immediately after +I had done so, and he would then have attacked him if he had not caught +sight of a policeman going his rounds. He had followed Sir Philip to a +house (Mr. Jeeves's). "His Master told him to wait and watch." He did +so. When Sir Philip came forth, towards the dawn, he followed him, saw +him enter a narrow street, came up to him, seized him by the arm, demanded +all he had about him. Sir Philip tried to shake him off,--struck at him. +What follows I spare the reader. The deed was done. He robbed the dead +man both of the casket and the purse that he found in the pockets; had +scarcely done so when he heard footsteps. He had just time to get behind +the portico of a detached house at angles with the street when I came up. +He witnessed, from his hiding-place, the brief conference between myself +and the policemen, and when they moved on, bearing the body, stole +unobserved away. He was going back towards the inn, when it occurred to +him that it would be safer if the casket and purse were not about his +person; that he asked his Master to direct him how to dispose of them: +that his Master guided him to an open yard (a stone-mason's) at a very +little distance from the inn; that in this yard there stood an old +wych-elm tree, from the gnarled roots of which the earth was worn away, +leaving chinks and hollows, in one of which he placed the casket and +purse, taking from the latter only two sovereigns and some silver, and +then heaping loose mould over the hiding-place. That he then repaired to +his inn, and left it late in the morning, on the pretence of seeking for +his relations,--persons, indeed, who really had been related to him, but +of whose death years ago he was aware. He returned to L---- a few days +afterwards, and in the dead of the night went to take up the casket and +the money. He found the purse with its contents undisturbed; but the lid +of the casket was unclosed. From the hasty glance he had taken of it +before burying it, it had seemed to him firmly locked,--he was alarmed +lest some one had been to the spot. But his Master whispered to him not +to mind, told him that he might now take the casket, and would be guided +what to do with it; that he did so, and, opening the lid, found the casket +empty-; that he took the rest of the money out of the purse, but that he +did not take the purse itself, for it had a crest and initials on it, +which might lead to the discovery of what had been done; that he therefore +left it in the hollow amongst the roots, heaping the mould over it as +before; that in the course of the day he heard the people at the inn talk +of the murder, and that his own first impulse was to get out of the town +immediately, but that his Master "made him too wise for that," and bade +him stay; that passing through the streets, he saw me come out of the +sash-window door, go to a stable-yard on the other side of the house, +mount on horseback and ride away; that he observed the sash-door was left +partially open; that he walked by it and saw the room empty; there was +only a dead wall opposite; the place was solitary, unobserved; that his +Master directed him to lift up the sash gently, enter the room, and +deposit the knife and the casket in a large walnut-tree bureau which +stood unlocked near the window. All that followed--his visit to Mr. +Vigors, his accusation against myself, his whole tale--was, he said, +dictated by his Master, who was highly pleased with him, and promised to +bring him safely through. And here he turned round with a hideous smile, +as if for approbation of his notable cleverness and respect for his high +employ. + +Mr. Jeeves had the curiosity to request the keeper to inquire how, in what +form, or in what manner, the Fiend appeared to the narrator, or conveyed +his infernal dictates. The man at first refused to say; but it was +gradually drawn from him that the Demon had no certain and invariable +form: sometimes it appeared to him in the form of a rat; sometimes even +of a leaf, or a fragment of wood, or a rusty nail; but that his Master's +voice always came to him distinctly, whatever shape he appeared in; only, +he said, with an air of great importance, his Master, this time, had +graciously condescended, ever since he left the asylum, to communicate +with him in a much more pleasing and imposing aspect than he had ever done +before,--in the form of a beautiful youth, or, rather, like a bright +rose-coloured shadow, in which the features of a young man were visible, +and that he had heard the voice more distinctly than usual, though in a +milder tone, and seeming to come to him from a great distance. + +After these revelations the man became suddenly disturbed. He shook from +limb to limb, he seemed convulsed with terror; he cried out that he had +betrayed the secret of his Master, who had warned him not to describe his +appearance and mode of communication, or he would surrender his servant to +the tormentors. Then the maniac's terror gave way to fury; his more +direful propensity made itself declared; he sprang into the midst of his +frightened listeners, seized Mr. Vigors by the throat, and would have +strangled him but for the prompt rush of the superintendent and his +satellites. Foaming at the mouth, and horribly raving, he was then +manacled, a strait-waistcoat thrust upon him, and the group so left him +in charge of his captors. Inquiries were immediately directed towards +such circumstantial evidence as might corroborate the details he had so +minutely set forth. The purse, recognized as Sir Philip's, by the valet +of the deceased, was found buried under the wych-elm. A policeman +despatched, express, to the town in which the maniac declared the knife to +have been purchased, brought back word that a cutler in the place +remembered perfectly to have sold such a knife to a seafaring man, and +identified the instrument when it was shown to him. From the chink of a +door ajar, in the wall opposite my sash-window, a maid-servant, watching +for her sweetheart (a journeyman carpenter, who habitually passed that way +on going home to dine), had, though unobserved by the murderer, seen him +come out of my window at a time that corresponded with the dates of his +own story, though she had thought nothing of it at the moment. He might +be a patient, or have called on business; she did not know that I was from +home. The only point of importance not cleared up was that which related +to the opening of the casket,--the disappearance of the contents; the lock +had been unquestionably forced. No one, however, could suppose that some +third person had discovered the hiding-place and forced open the casket to +abstract its contents and then rebury it. The only probable supposition +was that the man himself had forced it open, and, deeming the contents of +no value, had thrown them away before he had hidden the casket and purse, +and, in the chaos of his reason, had forgotten that he had so done. Who +could expect that every link in a madman's tale would be found integral +and perfect? In short, little importance was attached to this solitary +doubt. Crowds accompanied me to my door, when I was set free, in open +court, stainless; it was a triumphal procession. The popularity I had +previously enjoyed, superseded for a moment by so horrible a charge, came +back to me tenfold as with the reaction of generous repentance for a +momentary doubt. One man shared the public favour,--the young man whose +acuteness had delivered me from the peril, and cleared the truth from so +awful a mystery; but Margrave had escaped from congratulation and +compliment; he had gone on a visit to Strahan, at Derval Court. + +Alone, at last, in the welcome sanctuary of my own home, what were my +thoughts? Prominent amongst them all was that assertion of the madman, +which had made me shudder when repeated to me: he had been guided to the +murder and to all the subsequent proceedings by the luminous shadow of the +beautiful youth,--the Scin-Laeca to which I had pledged myself. If Sir +Philip Derval could be believed, Margrave was possessed of powers, derived +from fragmentary recollections of a knowledge acquired in a former state +of being, which would render his remorseless intelligence infinitely dire +and frustrate the endeavours of a reason, unassisted by similar powers, to +thwart his designs or bring the law against his crimes. Had he then the +arts that could thus influence the minds of others to serve his fell +purposes, and achieve securely his own evil ends through agencies that +could not be traced home to himself? + +But for what conceivable purpose had I been subjected as a victim to +influences as much beyond my control as the Fate or Demoniac Necessity of +a Greek Myth? In the legends of the classic world some august sufferer +is oppressed by powers more than mortal, but with an ethical if gloomy +vindication of his chastisement,--he pays the penalty of crime committed +by his ancestors or himself, or he has braved, by arrogating equality with +the gods, the mysterious calamity which the gods alone can inflict. But +I, no descendant of Pelops, no OEdipus boastful of a wisdom which could +interpret the enigmas of the Sphynx, while ignorant even of his own +birth--what had I done to be singled out from the herd of men for trials +and visitations from the Shadowland of ghosts and sorcerers? It would be +ludicrously absurd to suppose that Dr. Lloyd's dying imprecation could +have had a prophetic effect upon my destiny; to believe that the pretences +of mesmerizers were specially favoured by Providence, and that to question +their assumptions was an offence of profanation to be punished by exposure +to preternatural agencies. There was not even that congruity between +cause and effect which fable seeks in excuse for its inventions. Of all +men living, I, unimaginative disciple of austere science, should be the +last to become the sport of that witchcraft which even imagination +reluctantly allows to the machinery of poets, and science casts aside into +the mouldy lumber-room of obsolete superstition. + +Rousing my mind from enigmas impossible to solve, it was with intense +and yet most melancholy satisfaction that I turned to the image of Lilian, +rejoicing, though with a thrill of awe, that the promise so mysteriously +conveyed to my senses had, hereto, been already fulfilled,--Margrave had +left the town; Lilian was no longer subjected to his evil fascination. +But an instinct told me that that fascination had already produced an +effect adverse to all hope of happiness for me. Lilian's love for myself +was gone. Impossible otherwise that she--in whose nature I had always +admired that generous devotion which is more or less inseparable from the +romance of youth--should have never conveyed to me one word of consolation +in the hour of my agony and trial; that she, who, till the last evening we +had met, had ever been so docile, in the sweetness of a nature femininely +subinissive to my slightest wish, should have disregarded my solemn +injunction, and admitted Margrave to acquaintance, nay, to familiar +intimacy,--at the very time, too, when to disobey my injunctions was to +embitter my ordeal, and add her own contempt to the degradation imposed +upon my honour! No, her heart must be wholly gone from me; her very +nature wholly warped. A union between us had become impossible. My love +for her remained unshattered; the more tender, perhaps, for a sentiment of +compassion. But my pride was shocked, my heart was wounded. My love was +not mean and servile. Enough for me to think that she would be at least +saved from Margrave. Her life associated with his!--contemplation +horrible and ghastly!--from that fate she was saved. Later, she would +recover the effect of an influence happily so brief. She might form some +new attachment, some new tie; but love once withdrawn is never to be +restored--and her love was withdrawn from me. I had but to release her, +with my own lips, from our engagement,--she would welcome that release. +Mournful but firm in these thoughts and these resolutions, I sought Mrs. +Ashleigh's house. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +It was twilight when I entered, unannounced (as had been my wont in our +familiar intercourse), the quiet sitting-room in which I expected to find +mother and child. But Lilian was there alone, seated by the open window, +her hands crossed and drooping on her knee, her eye fixed upon the +darkening summer skies, in which the evening star had just stolen forth, +bright and steadfast, near the pale sickle of a half-moon that was dimly +visible, but gave as yet no light. + +Let any lover imagine the reception he would expect to meet from his +betrothed coming into her presence after he had passed triumphant through +a terrible peril to life and fame--and conceive what ice froze my blood, +what anguish weighed down my heart, when Lilian, turning towards me, rose +not, spoke not, gazed at me heedlessly as if at some indifferent +stranger--and--and--But no matter. I cannot bear to recall it even now, +at the distance of years! I sat down beside her, and took her hand, +without pressing it; it rested languidly, passively in mine, one moment; I +dropped it then, with a bitter sigh. + +"Lilian," I said quietly, "you love me no longer. Is it not so?" + +She raised her eyes to mine, looked at me wistfully, and pressed her hand +on her forehead; then said, in a strange voice, "Did I ever love you? +What do you mean?" + +"Lilian, Lilian, rouse yourself; are you not, while you speak, under some +spell, some influence which you cannot describe nor account for?" + +She paused a moment before she answered, calmly, "No! Again I ask what do +you mean?" + +"What do I mean? Do you forget that we are betrothed? Do you forget how +often, and how recently, our vows of affection and constancy have been +exchanged?" + +"No, I do not forget; but I must have deceived you and myself--" + +"It is true, then, that you love me no more?" + +"I suppose so." + +"But, oh, Lilian, is it that your heart is only closed to me; or is +it--oh, answer truthfully--is it given to another,--to him--to +him--against whom I warned you, whom I implored you not to receive? Tell +me, at least, that your love is not gone to Margrave--" + +"To him! love to him! Oh, no--no--" + +"What, then, is your feeling towards him?" + +Lilian's face grew visibly paler, even in that dim light. "I know not," +she said, almost in a whisper; "but it is partly awe--partly--" + +"What?" + +"Abhorrence!" she said almost fiercely, and rose to her feet, with a wild +defying start. + +"If that be so," I said gently, "you would not grieve were you never again +to see him--" + +"But I shall see him again," she murmured in a tone of weary sadness, and +sank back once more into her chair. + +"I think not," said I, "and I hope not. And now hear me and heed me, +Lilian. It is enough for me, no matter what your feelings towards +another, to learn from yourself that the affection you once professed for +me is gone. I release you from your troth. If folks ask why we two +henceforth separate the lives we had agreed to join, you may say, if you +please, that you could not give your hand to a man who had known the taint +of a felon's prison, even on a false charge. If that seems to you an +ungenerous reason, we will leave it to your mother to find a better. +Farewell! For your own sake I can yet feel happiness,--happiness to hear +that you do not love the man against whom I warn you still more solemnly +than before! Will you not give me your hand in parting--and have I not +spoken your own wish?" + +She turned away her face, and resigned her hand to me in silence. +Silently I held it in mine, and my emotions nearly stifled me. One +symptom of regret, of reluctance, on her part, and I should have fallen at +her feet, and cried, "Do not let us break a tie which our vows should have +made indisoluble; heed not my offers, wrung from a tortured heart! You +cannot have ceased to love me!" But no such symptom of relenting showed +itself in her, and with a groan I left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +I was just outside the garden door, when I felt an arm thrown round me, my +cheek kissed and wetted with tears. Could it be Lilian? Alas, no! It +was her mother's voice, that, between laughing and crying, exclaimed +hysterically: "This is joy, to see you again, and on these thresholds. I +have just come from your house; I went there on purpose to congratulate +you, and to talk to you about Lilian. But you have seen her?" + +"Yes; I have but this moment left her. Come this way." I drew Mrs. +Ashleigh back into the garden, along the old winding walk, which the +shrubs concealed from view of the house. We sat down on a rustic seat +where I had often sat with Lilian, midway between the house and the Monks' +Well. I told the mother what had passed between me and her daughter; I +made no complaint of Lilian's coldness and change; I did not hint at its +cause. "Girls of her age will change," said I, "and all that now remains +is for us two to agree on such a tale to our curious neighbours as may +rest the whole blame on me. Man's name is of robust fibre; it could not +push its way to a place in the world, if it could not bear, without +sinking, the load idle tongues may lay on it. Not so Woman's Name: what +is but gossip against Man, is scandal against Woman." + +"Do not be rash, my dear Allen," said Mrs. Ashleigh, in great distress. +"I feel for you, I understand you; in your case I might act as you do. I +cannot blame you. Lilian is changed,--changed unaccountably. Yet sure I +am that the change is only on the surface, that her heart is really yours, +as entirely and as faithfully as ever it was; and that later, when she +recovers from the strange, dreamy kind of torpor which appears to have +come over all her faculties and all her affections, she would awake with a +despair which you cannot conjecture to the knowledge that you had +renounced her." + +"I have not renounced her," said I, impatiently; "I did but restore her +freedom of choice. But pass by this now, and explain to me more fully +the change in your daughter, which I gather from your words is not +confined to me." + +"I wished to speak of it before you saw her, and for that reason came to +your house. It was on the morning in which we left her aunt's to return +hither that I first noticed some thing peculiar in her look and manner. +She seemed absorbed and absent, so much so that I asked her several times +to tell me what made her so grave; but I could only get from her that she +had had a confused dream which she could not recall distinctly enough to +relate, but that she was sure it boded evil. During the journey she +became gradually more herself, and began to look forward with delight to +the idea of seeing you again. Well, you came that evening. What passed +between you and her you know best. You complained that she slighted your +request to shun all acquaintance with Mr. Margrave. I was surprised that, +whether your wish were reasonable or not, she could have hesitated to +comply with it. I spoke to her about it after you had gone, and she wept +bitterly at thinking she had displeased you." + +"She wept! You amaze me. Yet the next day what a note she returned to +mine!" + +"The next day the change in her became very visible to me. She told me, +in an excited manner, that she was convinced she ought not to marry you. +Then came, the following day, the news of your committal. I heard of it, +but dared not break it to her. I went to our friend the mayor, to consult +with him what to say, what to do; and to learn more distinctly than I had +done from terrified, incoherent servants, the rights of so dreadful a +story. When I returned, I found, to my amazement, a young stranger in the +drawing-room; it was Mr. Margrave,--Miss Brabazon had brought him at his +request. Lilian was in the room, too, and my astonishment was increased, +when she said to me with a singular smile, vague but tranquil: 'I know all +about Allen Fenwick; Mr. Margrave has told me all. He is a friend of +Allen's. He says there is no cause for fear.' Mr. Margrave then +apologized to me for his intrusion in a caressing, kindly manner, as if +one of the family. He said he was so intimate with you that he felt that +he could best break to Miss Ashleigh information she might receive +elsewhere, for that he was the only man in the town who treated the charge +with ridicule. You know the wonderful charm of this young man's manner. +I cannot explain to you how it was, but in a few moments I was as much at +home with him as if he had been your brother. To be brief, having once +come, he came constantly. He had moved, two days before you went to +Derval Court, from his hotel to apartments in Mr. ----'s house, just +opposite. We could see him on his balcony from our terrace; he would +smile to us and come across. I did wrong in slighting your injunction, +and suffering Lilian to do so. I could not help it, he was such a +comfort to me,--to her, too--in her tribulation. He alone had no doleful +words, wore no long face; he alone was invariably cheerful. 'Everything,' +he said, 'would come right in a day or two.'" + +"And Lilian could not but admire this young man, he is so beautiful." + +"Beautiful? Well, perhaps. But if you have a jealous feeling, you were +never more mistaken. Lilian, I am convinced, does more than dislike him; +he has inspired her with repugnance, with terror. And much as I own I +like him, in his wild, joyous, careless, harmless way, do not think I +flatter you if I say that Mr. Margrave is not the man to make any girl +untrue to you,--untrue to a lover with infinitely less advantages than you +may pretend to. He would be a universal favourite, I grant; but there is +something in him, or a something wanting in him, which makes liking and +admiration stop short of love. I know not why; perhaps, because, with all +his good humour, he is so absorbed in himself, so intensely egotistical, +so light; were he less clever, I should say so frivolous. He could not +make love, he could not say in the serious tone of a man in earnest, 'I +love you.' He owned as much to me, and owned, too, that he knew not even +what love was. As to myself, Mr. Margrave appears rich; no whisper +against his character or his honour ever reached me. Yet were you out of +the question, and were there no stain on his birth, nay, were he as high +in rank and wealth as he is favoured by Nature in personal advantages, I +confess I could never consent to trust him with my daughter's fate. A +voice at my heart would cry, 'No!' It may be an unreasonable prejudice, +but I could not bear to see him touch Lilian's hand!" + +"Did she never, then--never suffer him even to take her hand?" + +"Never. Do not think so meanly of her as to suppose that she could be +caught by a fair face, a graceful manner. Reflect: just before she had +refused, for your sake, Ashleigh Sumner, whom Lady Haughton said 'no girl +in her senses could refuse;' and this change in Lilian really began before +we returned to L----,--before she had even seen Mr. Margrave. I am +convinced it is something in the reach of your skill as physician,--it is +on the nerves, the system. I will give you a proof of what I say, only +do not betray me to her. It was during your imprisonment, the night +before your release, that I was awakened by her coming to my bedside. She +was sobbing as if her heart would break. 'O mother, mother!' she cried, +'pity me, help me! I am so wretched.' 'What is the matter, darling?' 'I +have been so cruel to Allen, and I know I shall be so again. I cannot +help it. Do not question me; only if we are separated, if he cast me off, +or I reject him, tell him some day perhaps when I am in my grave--not to +believe appearances; and that I, in my heart of hearts, never ceased to +love him!'" + +"She said that! You are not deceiving me?" + +"Oh, no! how can you think so?" + +"There is hope still," I murmured; and I bowed my head upon my hands, hot +tears forcing their way through the clasped fingers. + +"One word more," said I; "you tell me that Lilian has a repugnance to this +Margrave, and yet that she found comfort in his visits,--a comfort that +could not be wholly ascribed to cheering words he might say about myself, +since it is all but certain that I was not, at that time, uppermost in her +mind. Can you explain this apparent contradiction?" + +"I cannot, otherwise than by a conjecture which you would ridicule." + +"I can ridicule nothing now. What is your conjecture?" + +"I know how much you disbelieve in the stories one hears of animal +magnetism and electro-biology, otherwise--" + +"You think that Margrave exercises some power of that kind over Lilian? +Has he spoken of such a power?" + +"Not exactly; but he said that he was sure Lilian possessed a faculty that +he called by some hard name, not clairvoyance, but a faculty, which he +said, when I asked him to explain, was akin to prevision,--to second +sight. Then he talked of the Priestesses who had administered the ancient +oracles. Lilian, he said, reminded him of them, with her deep eyes and +mysterious smile." + +"And Lilian heard him? What said she?" + +"Nothing; she seemed in fear while she listened." + +"He did not offer to try any of those arts practised by professional +mesmerists and other charlatans?" + +"I thought he was about to do so, but I forestalled him, saying I never +would consent to any experiment of that kind, either on myself or my +daughter." + +"And he replied--" + +"With his gay laugh, 'that I was very foolish; that a person possessed of +such a faculty as he attributed to Lilian would, if the faculty were +developed, be an invaluable adviser.' He would have said more, but I +begged him to desist. Still I fancy at times--do not be angry--that he +does somehow or other bewitch her, unconsciously to herself; for she +always knows when he is coming. Indeed, I am not sure that he does not +bewitch myself, for I by no means justify my conduct in admitting him to +an intimacy so familiar, and in spite of your wish; I have reproached +myself, resolved to shut my door on him, or to show by my manner that his +visits were unwelcome; yet when Lilian has said, in the drowsy lethargic +tone which has come into her voice (her voice naturally earnest and +impressive, though always low), 'Mother, he will be here in two minutes; I +wish to leave the room and cannot,' I, too, have felt as if something +constrained me against my will; as if, in short, I were under that +influence which Mr. Vigors--whom I will never forgive for his conduct to +you--would ascribe to mesmerism. But will you not come in and see Lilian +again?" + +"No, not to-night; but watch and heed her, and if you see aught to make +you honestly believe that she regrets the rupture of the old tic from +which I have released her--why, you know, Mrs. Ashleigh, that--that--" +My voice failed; I wrung the good woman's hand, and went my way. + +I had always till then considered Mrs. Ashleigh--if not as Mrs. Poyntz +described her--"commonplace weak"--still of an intelligence somewhat below +mediocrity. I now regarded her with respect as well as grateful +tenderness; her plain sense had divined what all my boasted knowledge had +failed to detect in my earlier intimacy with Margrave,--namely, that in +him there was a something present, or a something wanting, which forbade +love and excited fear. Young, beautiful, wealthy, seemingly blameless in +life as he was, she would not have given her daughter's hand to him! + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +The next day my house was filled with visitors. I had no notion that I +had so many friends. Mr. Vigors wrote me a generous and handsome letter, +owning his prejudices against me on account of his sympathy with poor Dr. +Lloyd, and begging my pardon for what he now felt to have been harshness, +if not distorted justice. But what most moved me was the entrance of +Strahan, who rushed up to me with the heartiness of old college days. +"Oh, my dear Allen, can you ever forgive me; that I should have +disbelieved your word,--should have suspected you of abstracting my poor +cousin's memoir?" + +"Is it found, then?" + +"Oh, yes; you must thank Margrave. He, clever fellow, you know, came to +me on a visit yesterday. He put me at once on the right scent. Only +guess; but you never can! It was that wretched old housekeeper who +purloined the manuscript. You remember she came into the room while you +were looking at the memoir. She heard us talk about it; her curiosity was +roused; she longed to know the history of her old master, under his own +hand; she could not sleep; she heard me go up to bed; she thought you +might leave the book on the table when you, too, went to rest. She stole +downstairs, peeped through the keyhole of the library, saw you asleep, +the book lying before you, entered, took away the book softly, meant to +glance at its contents and to return it. You were sleeping so soundly +she thought you would not wake for an hour; she carried it into the +library, leaving the door open, and there began to pore over it. She +stumbled first on one of the passages in Latin; she hoped to find some +part in plain English, turned over the leaves, putting her candle close to +them, for the old woman's eyes were dim, when she heard you make some +sound in your sleep. Alarmed, she looked round; you were moving uneasily +in your seat, and muttering to yourself. From watching you she was soon +diverted by the consequences of her own confounded curiosity and folly. +In moving, she had unconsciously brought the poor manuscript close to the +candle; the leaves caught the flame; her own cap and hand burning first +made her aware of the mischief done. She threw down the book; her sleeve +was in flames; she had first to tear off the sleeve, which was, luckily +for her, not sewn to her dress. By the time she recovered presence of +mind to attend to the book, half its leaves were reduced to tinder. She +did not dare then to replace what was left of the manuscript on your +table; returned with it to her room, hid it, and resolved to keep her own +secret. I should never have guessed it; I had never even spoken to her of +the occurrence; but when I talked over the disappearance of the book to +Margrave last night, and expressed my disbelief of your story, he said, in +his merry way: 'But do you think that Fenwick is the only person curious +about your cousin's odd ways and strange history? Why, every servant in +the household would have been equally curious. You have examined your +servants, of course?' 'No, I never thought of it.' 'Examine them now, +then. Examine especially that old housekeeper. I observe a great change +in her manner since I came here, weeks ago, to look over the house. She +has something on her mind,--I see it in her eyes.' Then it occurred to me, +too, that the woman's manner had altered, and that she seemed always in a +tremble and a fidget. I went at once to her room, and charged her with +stealing the book. She fell on her knees, and told the whole story as I +have told it to you, and as I shall take care to tell it to all to whom I +have so foolishly blabbed my yet more foolish suspicions of yourself. But +can you forgive me, old friend?" + +"Heartily, heartily! And the book is burned?" + +"See;" and he produced a mutilated manuscript. Strange, the part +burned--reduced, indeed, to tinder--was the concluding part that related +to Haroun,--to Grayle: no vestige of that part was left; the earlier +portions were scorched and mutilated, though in some places still +decipherable; but as my eye hastily ran over those places, I saw only +mangled sentences of the experimental problems which the writer had so +minutely elaborated. + +"Will you keep the manuscript as it is, and as long as you like?" said +Strahan. + +"No, no; I will have nothing more to do with it. Consult some other man +of science. And so this is the old woman's whole story? No +accomplice,--none? No one else shared her curiosity and her task?" + +"No. Oddly enough, though, she made much the same excuse for her pitiful +folly that the madman made for his terrible crime; she said, 'the Devil +put it into her head.' Of course he did, as he puts everything wrong into +any one's head. That does not mend the matter." + +"How! did she, too, say she saw a Shadow and heard a voice?" + +"No; not such a liar as that, and not mad enough for such a lie. But she +said that when she was in bed, thinking over the book, something +irresistible urged her to get up and go down into the study; swore she +felt something lead her by the hand; swore, too, that when she first +discovered the manuscript was not in English, something whispered in her +ear to turn over the leaves and approach them to the candle. But I had no +patience to listen to all this rubbish. I sent her out of the house, bag +and baggage. But, alas! is this to be the end of all my wise cousin's +grand discoveries?" + +True, of labours that aspired to bring into the chart of science new +worlds, of which even the traditionary rumour was but a voice from the +land of fable--nought left but broken vestiges of a daring footstep! The +hope of a name imperishable amidst the loftiest hierarchy of Nature's +secret temple, with all the pomp of recorded experiment, that applied to +the mysteries of Egypt and Chaldwa the inductions of Bacon, the tests of +Liebig--was there nothing left of this but what, here and there, some +puzzled student might extract, garbled, mutilated, perhaps unintelligible, +from shreds of sentences, wrecks of problems! O mind of man, can the +works, on which thou wouldst found immortality below, be annulled into +smoke and tinder by an inch of candle in the hand of an old woman! + +When Strahan left me, I went out, but not yet to visit patients. I stole +through by-paths into the fields; I needed solitude to bring my thoughts +into shape and order. What was delusion, and what not? Was I right or +the Public? Was Margrave really the most innocent and serviceable of +human beings, kindly affectionate, employing a wonderful acuteness for +benignant ends? Was I, in truth, indebted to him for the greatest boon +one man can bestow on another,--for life rescued, for fair name +justified? Or had he, by some demoniac sorcery, guided the hand of the +murderer against the life of the person who alone could imperil his own? +Had he, by the same dark spells, urged the woman to the act that had +destroyed the only record of his monstrous being,--the only evidence that +I was not the sport of an illusion in the horror with which he inspired +me? + +But if the latter supposition could be admissible, did he use his agents +only to betray them afterwards to exposure, and that, without any possible +clew to his own detection as the instigator? Then, there came over me +confused recollections of tales of mediaeval witchcraft, which I had read +in boyhood. Were there not on judicial record attestation and evidence, +solemn and circumstantial, of powers analogous to those now exercised by +Margrave,--of sorcerers instigating to sin through influences ascribed to +Demons; making their apparitions glide through guarded walls, their voices +heard from afar in the solitude of dungeons or monastic cells; subjugating +victims to their will, by means which no vigilance could have detected, if +the victims themselves had not confessed the witchcraft that had ensnared, +courting a sure and infamous death in that confession, preferring such +death to a life so haunted? Were stories so gravely set forth in the pomp +of judicial evidence, and in the history of times comparatively recent, +indeed to be massed, pell-mell together, as a moles indigesta of senseless +superstition,--all the witnesses to be deemed liars; all the victims and +tools of the sorcerers, lunatics; all the examiners or judges, with their +solemn gradations--lay and clerical--from Commissions of Inquiry to Courts +of Appeal,--to be despised for credulity, loathed for cruelty; or, amidst +records so numerous, so imposingly attested, were there the fragments of a +terrible truth? And had our ancestors been so unwise in those laws we now +deem so savage, by which the world was rid of scourges more awful and more +potent than the felon with his candid dagger? Fell instigators of the +evil in men's secret hearts, shaping into action the vague, half-formed +desire, and guiding with agencies impalpable, unseen, their spell-bound +instruments of calamity and death. + +Such were the gloomy questions that I--by repute, the sternest advocate of +common-sense against fantastic errors; by profession, the searcher into +flesh and blood, and tissue and nerve and sinew, for the causes of all +that disease the mechanism of the universal human frame; I, self-boasting +physician, sceptic, philosopher, materialist--revolved, not amidst gloomy +pines, under grim winter skies, but as I paced slow through laughing +meadows, and by the banks of merry streams, in the ripeness of the golden +August: the hum of insects in the fragrant grass, the flutter of birds +amid the delicate green of boughs checkered by playful sunbeams and gentle +shadows, and ever in sight of the resorts of busy workday man,--walls, +roof-tops, church-spires rising high; there, white and modern, the +handwriting of our race, in this practical nineteenth century, on its +square plain masonry and Doric shafts, the Town-Hall, central in the +animated marketplace. And I--I--prying into long-neglected corners and +dust-holes of memory for what my reason had flung there as worthless +rubbish; reviving the jargon of French law, in the proces verbal, against +a Gille de Retz, or an Urbain Grandier, and sifting the equity of +sentences on witchcraft! + +Bursting the links of this ghastly soliloquy with a laugh at my own folly, +I struck into a narrow path that led back towards the city, by a quiet and +rural suburb; the path wound on through a wide and solitary churchyard, at +the base of the Abbey-hill. Many of the former dwellers on that eminence +now slept in the lowly burial-ground at its foot; and the place, +mournfully decorated with the tombs which still jealously mark +distinctions of rank amidst the levelling democracy of the grave, was kept +trim with the care which comes half from piety, and half from pride. + +I seated myself on a bench, placed between the clipped yew-trees that +bordered the path from the entrance to the church porch, deeming vaguely +that my own perplexing thoughts might imbibe a quiet from the quiet of the +place. + +"And oh," I murmured to myself, "oh that I had one bosom friend to whom I +might freely confide all these torturing riddles which I cannot +solve,--one who could read my heart, light up its darkness, exorcise its +spectres; one in whose wisdom I could welcome a guide through the Nature +which now suddenly changes her aspect, opening out from the walls with +which I had fenced and enclosed her as mine own formal garden;--all her +pathways, therein, trimmed to my footstep; all her blooms grouped and +harmonized to my own taste in colour; all her groves, all her caverns, but +the soothing retreats of a Muse or a Science; opening out--opening out, +desert on desert, into clewless and measureless space! Gone is the +garden! Were its confines too narrow for Nature? Be it so! The Desert +replaces the garden, but where ends the Desert? Reft from my senses are +the laws which gave order and place to their old questionless realm. I +stand lost and appalled amidst Chaos. Did my Mind misconstrue the laws it +deemed fixed and immutable? Be it so! But still Nature cannot be +lawless; Creation is not a Chaos. If my senses deceive me in some things, +they are still unerring in others; if thus, in some things, fallacious, +still, in other things, truthful. Are there within me senses finer than +those I have cultured, or without me vistas of knowledge which instincts, +apart from my senses, divine? So long as I deal with the Finite alone, my +senses suffice me; but when the Infinite is obtruded upon me there, are my +senses faithless deserters? If so, is there aught else in my royal +resources of Man--whose ambition it is, from the first dawn of his glory +as Thinker, to invade and to subjugate Nature,--is there aught else to +supply the place of those traitors, the senses, who report to my Reason, +their judge and their sovereign, as truths seen and heard tales which my +Reason forfeits her sceptre if she does not disdain as lies? Oh, for a +friend! oh, for a guide!" + +And as I so murmured, my eye fell upon the form of a kneeling child,--at +the farther end of the burial-ground, beside a grave with its new +headstone gleaming white amidst the older moss-grown tombs, a female +child, her head bowed, her hands clasped. I could see but the outline of +her small form in its sable dress,--an infant beside the dead. My eye and +my thoughts were turned from that silent figure, too absorbed in my own +restless tumult of doubt and dread, for sympathy with the grief or the +consolation of a kneeling child. And yet I should have remembered that +tomb! Again I murmured with a fierce impatience, "Oh, for a friend! oh, +for a guide!" + +I heard steps on the walk under the yews; and an old man came in sight, +slightly bent, with long gray hair, but still with enough of vigour for +years to come, in his tread, firm, though slow, in the unshrunken muscle +of his limbs and the steady light of his clear blue eye. I started. Was +it possible? That countenance, marked, indeed, with the lines of +laborious thought, but sweet in the mildness of humanity, and serene in +the peace of conscience! I could not be mistaken. Julius Faber was +before me,--the profound pathologist, to whom my own proud self-esteem +acknowledged inferiority, without humiliation; the generous benefactor to +whom I owed my own smooth entrance into the arduous road of fame and +fortune. I had longed for a friend, a guide; what I sought stood suddenly +at my side. + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +Explanation on Faber's part was short and simple. The nephew whom he +designed as the heir to his wealth had largely outstripped the liberal +allowance made to him, had incurred heavy debts; and in order to extricate +himself from the debts, had plunged into ruinous speculations. Faber had +come back to England to save his heir from prison or outlawry, at the +expense of more than three-fourths of the destined inheritance. To add to +all, the young man had married a young lady without fortune; the uncle +only heard of this marriage on arriving in England. The spendthrift was +hiding from his creditors in the house of his father-in-law, in one of the +western counties. Faber there sought him; and on becoming acquainted +with his wife, grew reconciled to the marriage, and formed hopes of his +nephew's future redemption. He spoke, indeed, of the young wife with +great affection. She was good and sensible; willing and anxious to +encounter any privation by which her husband might reprieve the effects +of his folly. "So," said Faber, "on consultation with this excellent +creature--for my poor nephew is so broken down by repentance, that others +must think for him how to exalt repentance into reform--my plans were +determined. I shall remove my prodigal from all scenes of temptation. He +has youth, strength, plenty of energy, hitherto misdirected. I shall take +him from the Old World into the New. I have decided on Australia. The +fortune still left to me, small here, will be ample capital there. It is +not enough to maintain us separately, so we must all live together. +Besides, I feel that, though I have neither the strength or the experience +which could best serve a young settler on a strange soil, still, under my +eye, my poor boy will be at once more prudent and more persevering. We +sail next week." + +Faber spoke so cheerfully that I knew not how to express compassion; yet, +at his age, after a career of such prolonged and distinguished labour, to +resign the ease and comforts of the civilized state for the hardships and +rudeness of an infant colony, seemed to me a dreary prospect; and, as +delicately, as tenderly as I could to one whom I loved and honoured as a +father, I placed at his disposal the fortune which, in great part, I owed +to him,--pressing him at least to take from it enough to secure to +himself, in his own country, a home suited to his years and worthy of his +station. He rejected all my offers, however earnestly urged on him, with +his usual modest and gentle dignity; and assuring me that he looked +forward with great interest to a residence in lands new to his experience, +and affording ample scope for the hardy enjoyments which had always most +allured his tastes, he hastened to change the subject. + +"And who, think you, is the admirable helpmate my scape-grace has had the +saving good luck to find? A daughter of the worthy man who undertook the +care of poor Dr. Lloyd's orphans,--the orphans who owed so much to your +generous exertions to secure a provision for them; and that child, now +just risen from her father's grave, is my pet companion, my darling ewe +lamb,--Dr. Lloyd's daughter Amy." + +Here the child joined us, quickening her pace as she recognized the old +man, and nestling to his side as she glanced wistfully towards myself. A +winning, candid, lovable child's face, somewhat melancholy, somewhat more +thoughtful than is common to the face of childhood, but calm, intelligent, +and ineffably mild. Presently she stole from the old man, and put her +hand in mine. + +"Are you not the kind gentleman who came to see him that night when he +passed away from us, and who, they all say at home, was so good to my +brothers and me? Yes, I recollect you now." And she put her pure face to +mine, wooing me to kiss it. + +I kind! I good! I--I! Alas! she little knew, little guessed, the +wrathful imprecation her father had bequeathed to me that fatal night! + +I did not dare to kiss Dr. Lloyd's orphan daughter, but my tears fell over +her hand. She took them as signs of pity, and, in her infant +thankfulness, silently kissed me. + +"Oh, my friend!" I murmured to Faber, "I have much that I yearn to say to +you--alone--alone! Come to my house with me, be at least my guest as long +as you stay in this town." + +"Willingly," said Faber, looking at me more intently than he had done +before, and with the true eye of the practised Healer, at once soft and +penetrating. + +He rose, took my arm, and whispering a word in the ear of the little girl, +she went on before us, turning her head, as she gained the gate, for +another look at her father's grave. As we walked to my house, Julius +Faber spoke to me much of this child. Her brothers were all at school; +she was greatly attached to his nephew's wife; she had become yet more +attached to Faber himself, though on so short an acquaintance; it bad been +settled that she was to accompany the emigrants to Australia. + +"There," said he, "the sum, that some munificent, but unknown friend of +her father has settled on her, will provide her no mean dower for a +colonist's wife, when the time comes for her to bring a blessing to some +other hearth than ours." He went on to say that she had wished to +accompany him to L----, in order to visit her father's grave before +crossing the wide seas; "and she has taken such fond care of me all the +way, that you might fancy I were the child of the two. I come back to +this town, partly to dispose of a few poor houses in it which still belong +to me, principally to bid you farewell before quitting the Old World, no +doubt forever. So, on arriving to-day, I left Amy by herself in the +churchyard while I went to your house, but you were from home. And now I +must congratulate you on the reputation you have so rapidly acquired, +which has even surpassed my predictions." + +"You are aware," said I, falteringly, "of the extraordinary charge from +which that part of my reputation dearest to all men has just emerged!" + +He had but seen a short account in a weekly journal, written after my +release. He asked details, which I postponed. + +Reaching my home, I hastened to provide for the comfort of my two +unexpected guests; strove to rally myself, to be cheerful. Not till +night, when Julius Faber and I were alone together, did I touch on what +was weighing at my heart. Then, drawing to his side, I told him all,--all +of which the substance is herein written, from the deathscene in Dr. +Lloyd's chamber to the hour in which I had seen Dr. Lloyd's child at her +father's grave. Some of the incidents and conversations which had most +impressed me I had already committed to writing, in the fear that, +otherwise, my fancy might forge for its own thraldom the links of +reminiscence which my memory might let fall from its chain. Faber +listened with a silence only interrupted by short pertinent questions; +and when I had done, he remained thoughtful for some moments; then the +great physician replied thus:-- + +"I take for granted your conviction of the reality of all you tell me, +even of the Luminous Shadow, of the bodiless Voice; but, before admitting +the reality itself, we must abide by the old maxim, not to accept as cause +to effect those agencies which belong to the Marvellous, when causes less +improbable for the effect can be rationally conjectured. In this case are +there not such causes? Certainly there are--" + +"There are?" + +"Listen; you are one of those men who attempt to stifle their own +imagination. But in all completed intellect, imagination exists, and will +force its way; deny it healthful vents, and it may stray into morbid +channels. The death-room of Dr. Lloyd deeply impressed your heart, far +more than your pride would own. This is clear from the pains you took to +exonerate your conscience, in your generosity to the orphans. As the +heart was moved, so was the imagination stirred; and, unaware to yourself, +prepared for much that subsequently appealed to it. Your sudden love, +conceived in the very grounds of the house so associated with +recollections in themselves strange and romantic; the peculiar temperament +and nature of the girl to whom your love was attracted; her own visionary +beliefs, and the keen anxiety which infused into your love a deeper poetry +of sentiment,--all insensibly tended to induce the imagination to dwell on +the Wonderful; and, in overstriving to reconcile each rarer phenomenon to +the most positive laws of Nature, your very intellect could discover no +solution but in the Preternatural. + +"You visit a man who tells you he has seen Sir Philip Derval's ghost; on +that very evening, you hear a strange story, in which Sir Philip's name is +mixed up with a tale of murder, implicating two mysterious pretenders to +magic,--Louis Grayle and the Sage of Aleppo. The tale so interests your +fancy that even the glaring impossibility of a not unimportant part of it +escapes your notice,--namely, the account of a criminal trial in which +the circumstantial evidence was more easily attainable than in all the +rest of the narrative, but which could not legally have taken place as +told. Thus it is whenever the mind begins, unconsciously, to admit the +shadow of the Supernatural; the Obvious is lost to the eye that plunges +its gaze into the Obscure. Almost immediately afterwards you become +acquainted with a young stranger, whose traits of character interest and +perplex, attract yet revolt you. All this time you are engaged in a +physiological work which severely tasks the brain, and in which you +examine the intricate question of soul distinct from mind. + +"And, here, I can conceive a cause deep-hid amongst what metaphysicians +would call latent associations, for a train of thought which disposed you +to accept the fantastic impressions afterwards made on you by the scene in +the Museum and the visionary talk of Sir Philip Derval. Doubtless, when +at college you first studied metaphysical speculation you would have +glanced over Beattie's 'Essay on Truth' as one of the works written in +opposition to your favourite, David Hume." + +"Yes, I read the book, but I have long since forgotten its arguments." + +"Well in that essay, Beattie[1] cites the extraordinary instance of Simon +Browne, a learned and pious clergyman, who seriously disbelieved the +existence of his own soul; and imagined that, by interposition of Divine +power, his soul was annulled, and nothing left but a principle of animal +life, which he held in common with the brutes! When, years ago, a +thoughtful imaginative student, you came on that story, probably enough +you would have paused, revolved in your own mind and fancy what kind of a +creature a man might be, if, retaining human life and merely human +understanding, he was deprived of the powers and properties which +reasoners have ascribed to the existence of soul. Something in this young +man, unconsciously to yourself, revives that forgotten train of meditative +ideas. His dread of death as the final cessation of being, his brute-like +want of sympathy with his kind, his incapacity to comprehend the motives +which carry man on to scheme and to build for a future that extends beyond +his grave,--all start up before you at the very moment your reason is +overtasked, your imagination fevered, in seeking the solution of problems +which, to a philosophy based upon your system, must always remain +insoluble. The young man's conversation not only thus excites your +fancies,--it disturbs your affections. He speaks not only of drugs that +renew youth, but of charms that secure love. You tremble for your Lilian +while you hear him! And the brain thus tasked, the imagination thus +inflamed, the heart thus agitated, you are presented to Sir Philip Derval, +whose ghost your patient had supposed he saw weeks ago. + +"This person, a seeker after an occult philosophy, which had possibly +acquainted him with some secrets in nature beyond the pale of our +conventional experience, though, when analyzed, they might prove to be +quite reconcilable with sober science, startles you with an undefined +mysterious charge against the young man who had previously seemed to you +different from ordinary mortals. In a room stored with the dead things of +the brute soulless world, your brain becomes intoxicated with the fumes of +some vapour which produces effects not uncommon in the superstitious +practices of the East; your brain, thus excited, brings distinctly before +you the vague impressions it had before received. Margrave becomes +identified with the Louis Grayle of whom you had previously heard an +obscure and, legendary tale, and all the anomalies in his character are +explained by his being that which you had contended, in your physiological +work, it was quite possible for man to be,--namely, mind and body without +soul! You were startled by the monster which man would be were your own +theory possible; and in order to reconcile the contradictions in this very +monster, you account for knowledge, and for powers that mind without soul +could not have attained, by ascribing to this prodigy broken memories of a +former existence, demon attributes from former proficiency in evil magic. +My friend, there is nothing here which your own study of morbid +idiosyncracies should not suffice to solve." + +"So, then," said I, "you would reduce all that have affected my senses as +realities into the deceit of illusions? But," I added, in a whisper, +terrified by my own question, "do not physiologists agree in this: namely, +that though illusory phantasms may haunt the sane as well as the insane, +the sane know that they are only illusions, and the insane do not." + +"Such a distinction," answered Faber, "is far too arbitrary and rigid for +more than a very general and qualified acceptance. Muller, indeed, who is +perhaps the highest authority on such a subject, says, with prudent +reserve, 'When a person who is not insane sees spectres and believes, them +to be real, his intellect must be imperfectly exercised.'[2] He would, +indeed, be a bold physician who maintained that every man who believed he +had really seen a ghost was of unsound mind. In Dr. Abercrombie's +interesting account of spectral illusions, he tells us of a servant-girl +who believed she saw, at the foot of her bed, the apparition of Curran, in +a sailor's jacket and an immense pair of whiskers.[3] No doubt the +spectre was an illusion, and Dr. Abercrombie very ingeniously suggests the +association of ideas by which the apparition was conjured up with the +grotesque adjuncts of the jacket and the whiskers; but the servant-girl, +in believing the reality of the apparition, was certainly not insane. +When I read in the American public journals[4] of 'spirit manifestations,' +in which large numbers of persons, of at least the average degree of +education, declare that they have actually witnessed various phantasms, +much more extraordinary than all which you have confided to me, and +arrive, at once, at the conclusion that they are thus put into direct +communication with departed souls, I must assume that they are under an +illusion; but I should be utterly unwarranted in supposing that, because +they credited that illusion, they were insane. I should only say with +Muller, that in their reasoning on the phenomena presented to them, 'their +intellect was imperfectly exercised.' And an impression made on the +senses, being in itself sufficiently rare to excite our wonder, may be +strengthened till it takes the form of a positive fact, by various +coincidences which are accepted as corroborative testimony, yet which are, +nevertheless, nothing more than coincidences found in every day matters +of business, but only emphatically noticed when we can exclaim, 'How +astonishing!' In your case such coincidences have been, indeed, very +signal, and might well aggravate the perplexities into which your reason +was thrown. Sir Philip Derval's murder, the missing casket, the exciting +nature of the manuscript, in which a superstitious interest is already +enlisted by your expectation to find in it the key to the narrator's +boasted powers, and his reasons for the astounding denunciation of the man +whom you suspect to be his murderer,--in all this there is much to +confirm, nay, to cause, an illusion; and for that very reason, when +examined by strict laws of evidence, in all this there is but additional +proof that the illusion was--only illusion. Your affections contribute +to strengthen your fancy in its war on your reason. The girl you so +passionately love develops, to your disquietude and terror, the visionary +temperament which, at her age, is ever liable to fantastic caprices. She +hears Margrave's song, which you say has a wildness of charm that affects +and thrills even you. Who does not know the power of music? and of all +music, there is none so potential as that of the human voice. Thus, in +some languages, charm and song are identical expressions; and even when a +critic, in our own sober newspapers, extols a Malibran or a Grisi, you +may be sure that he will call her 'enchantress.' Well, this lady, your +betrothed, in whom the nervous system is extremely impressionable, hears a +voice which, even to your ear, is strangely melodious, and sees a form and +face which, even to your eye, are endowed with a singular character of +beauty. Her fancy is impressed by what she thus hears and sees; and +impressed the more because, by a coincidence not very uncommon, a face +like that which she beholds has before been presented to her in a dream +or a revery. In the nobleness of genuine, confiding, reverential love, +rather than impute to your beloved a levity of sentiment that would seem +to you a treason, you accept the chimera of 'magical fascination.' In +this frame of mind you sit down to read the memoir of a mystical +enthusiast. Do you begin now to account for the Luminous Shadow? A +dream! And a dream no less because your eyes were open and you believed +yourself awake. The diseased imagination resembles those mirrors which, +being themselves distorted, represent distorted pictures as correct. + +"And even this Memoir of Sir Philip Derval's--can you be quite sure that +you actually read the part which relates to Haroun and Louis Grayle? +You say that, while perusing the manuscript, you saw the Luminous +Shadow, and became insensible. The old woman says you were fast asleep. +May you not really have fallen into a slumber, and in that slumber +have dreamed the parts of the tale that relate to Grayle,--dreamed that +you beheld the Shadow? Do you remember what is said so well by Dr. +Abercrombie, to authorize the explanation I suggest to you: 'A +person under the influence of some strong mental impression falls asleep +for a few seconds, perhaps without being sensible of it: some scene or +person appears in a dream, and he starts up under the conviction +that it was a spectral appearance.'" [5] + +"But," said I, "the apparition was seen by me again, and when, certainly, +I was not sleeping." + +"True; and who should know better than a physician so well read as +yourself that a spectral illusion once beheld is always apt to return +again in the same form? Thus, Goethe was long haunted by one image,--the +phantom of a flower unfolding itself, and developing new flowers.[6] +Thus, one of our most distinguished philosophers tells us of a lady known +to himself, who would see her husband, hear him move and speak, when he +was not even in the house.[7] But instances of the facility with which +phantasms, once admitted, repeat themselves to the senses, are numberless. +Many are recorded by Hibbert and Abercrombie, and every physician in +extensive practice can add largely, from his own experience, to the list. +Intense self-concentration is, in itself, a mighty magician. The +magicians of the East inculcate the necessity of fast, solitude, and +meditation for the due development of their imaginary powers. And I have +no doubt with effect; because fast, solitude, and meditation--in other +words, thought or fancy intensely concentred--will both raise apparitions +and produce the invoker's belief in them. Spinello, striving to conceive +the image of Lucifer for his picture of the Fallen Angels, was at last +actually haunted by the Shadow of the Fiend. Newton himself has been +subjected to a phantom, though to him, Son of Light, the spectre presented +was that of the sun! You remember the account that Newton gives to Locke +of this visionary appearance. He says that 'though he had looked at the +sun with his right eye only, and not with the left, yet his fancy began +to make an impression upon his left eye as well as his right; for if he +shut his right and looked upon the clouds, or a book, or any bright object +with his left eye, he could see the sun almost as plain as with the right, +if he did but intend his fancy a little while on it;' nay, 'for some +months after, as often as he began to meditate on the phenomena, the +spectrum of the sun began to return, even though he lay in bed at +midnight, with his curtains drawn!' Seeing, then, how any vivid +impression once made will recur, what wonder that you should behold in +your prison the Shining Shadow that had first startled you in a wizard's +chamber when poring over the records of a murdered visionary? The more +minutely you analyze your own hallucinations--pardon me the word--the more +they assume the usual characteristics of a dream; contradictory, +illogical, even in the marvels they represent. Can any two persons be +more totally unlike each other, not merely as to form and years, but as to +all the elements of character, than the Grayle of whom you read, or +believe you read, and the Margrave in whom you evidently think that Grayle +is existent still? The one represented, you say, as gloomy, saturnine, +with vehement passions, but with an original grandeur of thought and will, +consumed by an internal remorse; the other you paint to me as a joyous and +wayward darling of Nature, acute yet frivolous, free from even the +ordinary passions of youth, taking delight in innocent amusements, +incapable of continuous study, without a single pang of repentance for the +crimes you so fancifully impute to him. And now, when your suspicions, so +romantically conceived, are dispelled by positive facts, now, when it is +clear that Margrave neither murdered Sir Philip Derval nor abstracted the +memoir, you still, unconsciously to yourself, draw on your imagination in +order to excuse the suspicion your pride of intellect declines to banish, +and suppose that this youthful sorcerer tempted the madman to the murder, +the woman to the theft--" + +"But you forget the madman said 'that he was led on by the Luminous Shadow +of a beautiful youth,' that the woman said also that she was impelled by +some mysterious agency." + +"I do not forget those coincidences; but how your learning would dismiss +them as nugatory were your imagination not disposed to exaggerate them! +When you read the authentic histories of any popular illusion, such as the +spurious inspirations of the Jansenist Convulsionaries, the apparitions +that invaded convents, as deposed in the trial of Urbain Grandier, the +confessions of witches and wizards in places the most remote from each +other, or, at this day, the tales of 'spirit-manifestation' recorded in +half the towns and villages of America,--do not all the superstitious +impressions of a particular time have a common family likeness? What one +sees, another sees, though there has been no communication between the +two. I cannot tell you why these phantasms thus partake of the nature of +an atmospheric epidemic; the fact remains incontestable. And strange as +may be the coincidence between your impressions of a mystic agency and +those of some other brains not cognizant of the chimeras of your own, +still, is it not simpler philosophy to say, 'They are coincidences of the +same nature which made witches in the same epoch all tell much the same +story of the broomsticks they rode and the sabbats at which they danced to +the fiend's piping,' and there leave the matter, as in science we must +leave many of the most elementary and familiar phenomena inexplicable as +to their causes,--is not this, I say, more philosophical than to insist +upon an explanation which accepts the supernatural rather than leave the +extraordinary unaccounted for?" + +"As you speak," said I, resting my downcast face upon my hand, "I should +speak to any patient who had confided to me the tale I have told to you." + +"And yet the explanation does not wholly satisfy you? Very likely: to +some phenomena there is, as yet, no explanation. Perhaps Newton himself +could not explain quite to his own satisfaction why he was haunted at +midnight by the spectrum of a sun; though I have no doubt that some later +philosopher whose ingenuity has been stimulated by Newton's account, has, +by this time, suggested a rational solution of that enigma.[8] To return +to your own case. I have offered such interpretations of the mysteries +that confound you as appear to me authorized by physiological science. +Should you adduce other facts which physiological science wants the data +to resolve into phenomena always natural, however rare, still hold fast to +that simple saying of Goethe: 'Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.' +And if all which physiological science comprehends in its experience +wholly fails us, I may then hazard certain conjectures in which, by +acknowledging ignorance, one is compelled to recognize the Marvellous (for +as where knowledge enters, the Marvellous recedes, so where knowledge +falters, the Marvellous advances); yet still, even in those conjectures, I +will distinguish the Marvellous from the Supernatural. But, for the +present, I advise you to accept the guess that may best quiet the fevered +imagination which any bolder guess would only more excite." + +"You are right," said I, rising proudly to the full height of my stature, +my head erect and my heart defying. "And so let this subject be renewed +no more between us. I will brood over it no more myself. I regain the +unclouded realm of my human intelligence; and, in that intelligence, I +mock the sorcerer and disdain the spectre." + +[1] Beattie's "Essay on Truth," part i. c. ii. 3. The story of +Simon Browne is to be found in "The Adventurer." + +[2] Miller's Physiology of the Senses, p. 394. + +[3] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 281. (15th edition.) + +[4] At the date of Faber's conversation with Allen Fenwick, the +(so-called) spirit manifestations had not spread from America over Europe. +But if they had, Faber's views would, no doubt, have remained the same. + +[5] Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers, p. 278. (15th edition.) + +This author, not more to be admired for his intelligence than his candour, +and who is entitled to praise for a higher degree of original thought +than that to which he modestly pretends, relates a curious anecdote +illustrating "the analogy between dreaming and spectral illusion, which he +received from the gentleman to which it occurred,--an eminent medical +friend:" "Having sat up late one evening, under considerable anxiety for +one of his children, who was ill, he fell asleep in his chair, and had a +frightful dream, in which the prominent figure was an immense baboon. He +awoke with the fright, got up instantly, and walked to a table which was +in the middle of the room. He was then quite awake, and quite conscious +of the articles around him; but close by the wall in the end of the +apartment he distinctly saw the baboon making the same grimaces which he +had seen in his dreams; and this spectre continued visible for about half +a minute." Now, a man who saw only a baboon would be quite ready to admit +that it was but an optical illusion; but if, instead of a baboon, he had +seen an intimate friend, and that friend, by some coincidence of time, had +died about that date, he would be a very strong-minded man if he admitted +for the mystery of seeing his friend the same natural solution which he +would readily admit for seeing a baboon. + +[6] See Muller's observations on this phenomenon, "Physiology of the +Senses," Baley's translation, p. 1395. + +[7] Sir David Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic, p. 39. + +[8] Newton's explanation is as follows: "This story I tell you to +let you understand, that in the observation related by Mr. Boyle, the +man's fancy probably concurred with the impression made by the sun's +light to produce that phantasm of the sun which he constantly saw in +bright objects, and so your question about the cause of this phantasm +involves another about the power of the fancy, which I must confess is +too hard a knot for me to untie. To place this effect in a constant +motion is hard, because the sun ought then to appear perpetually. It +seems rather to consist in a disposition of the sensorium to move the +imagination strongly, and to be easily moved both by the imagination and +by the light as often as bright objects are looked upon."--Letter from Sir +I. Newton to Locke, Lord Kinq's Life of Locke, vol. i. pp. 405-408. + +Dr. Roget (Animal and Vegetable Physiology considered with reference to +Natural Theology, "Bridgewater Treatise," pp. 524, 525) thus refers to +this phenomenon, which he states "all of us may experience ":-- + +"When the impressions are very vivid" (Dr. Roget is speaking of visual +impressions), "another phenomenon often takes place,--namely, their +_subsequent recurrence after a certain interval, during which they are not +felt, and quite independently of any renewed application of the cause +which had originally excited them."_ (I mark by italics the words which +more precisely coincide with Julius Faber's explanations.) "If, for +example, we look steadfastly at the sun for a second or two, and then +immediately close our eyes, the image, or spectrum, of the sun remains for +a long time present to the mind, as if the light were still acting on the +retina. It then gradually fades and disappears; but if we continue to +keep the eyes shut, the same impression will, after a certain time, recur, +and again vanish: and this phenomenon will be repeated at intervals, the +sensation becoming fainter at each renewal. It is probable that these +reappearances of the image, after the light which produced the original +impression has been withdrawn, are occasioned by spontaneous affections of +the retina itself which are conveyed to the sensorium. In other cases, +where the impressions are less strong, the physical changes producing +these changes are perhaps confined to the sensorium." + +It may be said that there is this difference between the spectrum of the +sun and such a phantom as that which perplexed Allen Fenwick,--namely, +that the sun has been actually beheld before its visionary appearance can +be reproduced, and that Allen Fenwick only imagines he has seen the +apparition which repeats itself to his fancy. "But there are grounds for +the suspicion" (says Dr. Hibbert, "Philosophy of Apparitions," p. 250), +"that when ideas of vision are vivified to the height of sensation, a +corresponding affection of the optic nerve accompanies the illusion." +Muller ("Physiology of the Senses," p. 1392, Baley's translation) states +the same opinion still more strongly; and Sir David Brewster, quoted by +Dr. Hibbert (p. 251) says: "In examining these mental impressions, I +have found that they follow the motions of the eyeball exactly like the +spectral impressions of luminous objects, and that they resemble them also +in their apparent immobility when the eye is displaced by an external +force. If this result (which I state with much diffidence, from having +only my own experience in its favour) shall be found generally true by +others, it will follow that the objects of mental contemplation may be +seen as distinctly as external objects, and will occupy the same local +position in the axis of vision, as if they had been formed by the agency +of light." Hence the impression of an image once conveyed to the senses, +no matter how, whether by actual or illusory vision, is liable to renewal, +"independently of any renewed application of the cause which had +originally excited it," and the image can be seen in that renewal "as +distinctly as external objects," for indeed "the revival of the fantastic +figure really does affect those points of the retina which had been +previously impressed." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Julius Faber and Amy Lloyd stayed in my house three day, I and in their +presence I felt a healthful sense of security and peace. Amy wished to +visit her father's house, and I asked Faber, in taking her there, to seize +the occasion to see Lilian, that he might communicate to me his impression +of a case so peculiar. I prepared Mrs. Ashleigh for this visit by a +previous note. When the old man and the child came back, both brought me +comfort. Amy was charmed with Lilian, who had received her with the +sweetness natural to her real character, and I loved to hear Lilian's +praise from those innocent lips. + +Faber's report was still more calculated to console me. + +"I have seen, I have conversed with her long and familiarly. You were +quite right,--there is no tendency to consumption in that exquisite, if +delicate, organization; nor do I see cause for the fear to which your +statement had pre-inclined me. That head is too nobly formed for any +constitutional cerebral infirmity. In its organization, ideality, wonder, +veneration, are large, it is true, but they are balanced by other organs, +now perhaps almost dormant, but which will come into play as life passes +from romance into duty. Something at this moment evidently oppresses her +mind. In conversing with her, I observe abstraction, listlessness; but I +am so convinced of her truthfulness, that if she has once told you she +returned your affection, and pledged to you her faith, I should, in your +place, rest perfectly satisfied that whatever be the cloud that now rests +on her imagination, and for the time obscures the idea of yourself, it +will pass away." + +Faber was a believer in the main divisions of phrenology, though he did +not accept all the dogmas of Gall and Spurzheim; while, to my mind, the +refutation of phrenology in its fundamental propositions had been +triumphantly established by the lucid arguments of Sir W. Hamilton.[1] +But when Faber rested on phrenological observations assurances in honour +of Lilian, I forgot Sir W. Hamilton, and believed in phrenology. As iron +girders and pillars expand and contract with the mere variations of +temperature, so will the strongest conviction on which the human intellect +rests its judgment vary with the changes of the human heart; and the +building is only safe where these variations are foreseen and allowed for +by a wisdom intent on self-knowledge.[2] + +There was much in the affection that had sprung up between Julius Faber +and Amy Lloyd which touched my heart and softened all its emotions. This +man, unblessed, like myself, by conjugal and parental ties, had, in his +solitary age, turned for solace to the love of a child, as I, in the pride +of manhood, had turned to the love of woman. But his love was without +fear, without jealousy, without trouble. My sunshine came to me in a +fitful ray, through clouds that had gathered over my noon; his sunshine +covered all his landscape, hallowed and hallowing by the calm of declining +day. + +And Amy was no common child. She had no exuberant imagination; she was +haunted by no whispers from Afar; she was a creature fitted for the +earth,--to accept its duties and to gladden its cares. Her tender +observation, fine and tranquil, was alive to all the important household +trifles by which, at the earliest age, man's allotted soother asserts her +privilege to tend and to comfort. It was pleasant to see her moving so +noiselessly through the rooms I had devoted to her venerable protector, +knowing all his simple wants, and providing for them as if by the +mechanism of a heart exquisitely moulded to the loving uses of life. +Sometimes when I saw her setting his chair by the window (knowing, as I +did, how much he habitually loved to be near the light) and smoothing his +papers (in which he was apt to be unmethodical), placing the mark in his +book when he ceased to read, divining, almost without his glance, some +wish passing through his mind, and then seating herself at his feet, often +with her work--which was always destined for him or for one of her absent +brothers,--now and then with the one small book that she had carried with +her, a selection of Bible stories compiled for children,--sometimes when I +saw her thus, how I wished that Lilian, too, could have seen her, and have +compared her own ideal fantasies with those young developments of the +natural heavenly Woman! + +But was there nothing in that sight from which I, proud of my arid reason +even in its perplexities, might have taken lessons for myself? + +On the second evening of Faber's visit I brought to him the draft of deeds +for the sale of his property. He had never been a man of business out of +his profession; he was impatient to sell his property, and disposed to +accept an offer at half its value. I insisted on taking on myself the +task of negotiator; perhaps, too, in this office I was egotistically +anxious to prove to the great physician that which he believed to be my +"hallucination" had in no way obscured my common-sense in the daily +affairs of life. So I concluded, and in a few hours, terms for his +property that were only just, but were infinitely more advantageous than +had appeared to himself to be possible. But as I approached him with the +papers, he put his finger to his lips. Amy was standing by him with her +little book in her hand, and his own Bible lay open on the table. He was +reading to her from the Sacred Volume itself, and impressing on her the +force and beauty of one of the Parables, the adaptation of which had +perplexed her; when he had done, she kissed him, bade him goodnight, and +went away to rest. Then said Faber thoughtfully, and as if to himself +more than me,-- + +"What a lovely bridge between old age and childhood is religion! How +intuitively the child begins with prayer and worship on entering life, and +how intuitively on quitting life the old man turns back to prayer and +worship, putting himself again side by side with the infant!" + +I made no answer, but, after a pause, spoke of fines and freeholds, +title-deeds and money; and when the business on hand was concluded, asked +my learned guest if, before he departed, he would deign to look over the +pages of my ambitious Physiological Work. There were parts of it on which +I much desired his opinion, touching on subjects in which his special +studies made him an authority as high as our land possessed. + +He made me bring him the manuscript, and devoted much of that night and +the next day to its perusal. + +When he gave it me back, which was not till the morning of his departure, +he commenced with eulogies on the scope of its design, and the manner of +its execution, which flattered my vanity so much that I could not help +exclaiming, "Then, at least, there is no trace of 'hallucination' here!" + +"Alas, my poor Allen! here, perhaps, hallucination, or self-deception, is +more apparent than in all the strange tales you confided to me. For here +is the hallucination of the man seated on the shores of Nature, and who +would say to its measureless sea, 'So far shalt thou go and no farther;' +here is the hallucination of the creature, who, not content with exploring +the laws of the Creator, ends with submitting to his interpretation of +some three or four laws, in the midst of a code of which all the rest are +in a language unknown to him, the powers and free-will of the Lawgiver +Himself; here is the hallucination by which Nature is left Godless, +because Man is left soulless. What would matter all our speculations on a +Deity who would cease to exist for us when we are in the grave? Why mete +out, like Archytas, the earth and the sea, and number the sands on the +shore that divides them, if the end of this wisdom be a handful of dust +sprinkled over a skull! + + "'Nec quidquam tibi prodest + Aerias tentasse dornos, animoque rotundum + Percurrisse polum naorituro.' + +"Your book is a proof of the soul that you fail to discover. Without a +soul, no man would work for a Future that begins for his fame when the +breath is gone from his body. Do you remember how you saw that little +child praying at the grave of her father? Shall I tell you that in her +simple orisons she prayed for the benefactor,--who had cared for the +orphan; who had reared over dust that tomb which, in a Christian +burial-ground, is a mute but perceptible memorial of Christian hopes; that +the child prayed, haughty man, for you? And you sat by, knowing nought of +this; sat by, amongst the graves, troubled and tortured with ghastly +doubts, vain of a reason that was sceptical of eternity, and yet shaken +like a reed by a moment's marvel. Shall I tell the child to pray for you +no more; that you disbelieve in a soul? If you do so, what is the +efficacy of prayer? Speak, shall I tell her this? Shall the infant pray +for you never more?" + +I was silent; I was thrilled. + +"Has it never occurred to you, who, in denying all innate perceptions as +well as ideas, have passed on to deductions from which poor Locke, humble +Christian that he was, would have shrunk in dismay,--has it never +occurred to you as a wonderful fact, that the easiest thing in the world +to teach a child is that which seems to metaphysical schoolmen the +abstrusest of all problems? Read all those philosophers wrangling about a +First Cause, deciding on what are miracles, and then again deciding that +such miracles cannot be; and when one has answered another, and left in +the crucible of wisdom a caput mortuum of ignorance, then turn your eyes, +and look at the infant praying to the invisible God at his mother's knees. +This idea, so miraculously abstract, of a Power the infant has never seen, +that cannot be symbolled forth and explained to him by the most erudite +sage,--a Power, nevertheless, that watches over him, that hears him, that +sees him, that will carry him across the grave, that will enable him to +live on forever,--this double mystery of a Divinity and of a Soul, the +infant learns with the most facile readiness, at the first glimpse of his +reasoning faculty. Before you can teach him a rule in addition, before +you can venture to drill him into his horn-book, he leaps, with one +intuitive spring of all his ideas, to the comprehension of the truths +which are only incomprehensible to blundering sages! And you, as you +stand before me, dare not say, 'Let the child pray for me no more!' But +will the Creator accept the child's prayer for the man who refuses prayer +for himself? Take my advice, pray! And in this counsel I do not overstep +my province. I speak not as a preacher, but as a physician. For health +is a word that comprehends our whole organization, and a just equilibrium +of all faculties and functions is the condition of health. As in your +Lilian the equilibrium is deranged by the over-indulgence of a spiritual +mysticism which withdraws from the nutriment of duty the essential pabulum +of sober sense, so in you the resolute negation of disciplined spiritual +communion between Thought and Divinity robs imagination of its noblest +and safest vent. Thus, from opposite extremes, you and your Lilian meet +in the same region of mist and cloud, losing sight of each other and of +the true ends of life, as her eyes only gaze on the stars and yours only +bend to the earth. Were I advising her, I should say: 'Your Creator has +placed the scene of your trial below, and not in the stars.' Advising +you, I say: 'But in the trial below, man should recognize education for +heaven.' In a word, I would draw somewhat more downward her fancy, raise +somewhat more upward your reason. Take my advice then,--Pray. Your +mental system needs the support of prayer in order to preserve its +balance. In the embarrassment and confusion of your senses, clearness of +perception will come with habitual and tranquil confidence in Him who +alike rules the universe and reads the heart. I only say here what has +been said much better before by a reasoner in whom all Students of Nature +recognize a guide. I see on your table the very volume of Bacon which +contains the passage I commend to your reflection. Here it is. Listen: +'Take an example of a dog, and mark what a generosity and courage he will +put on when he finds himself maintained by a man who, to him, is instead +of a God, or melior natura, which courage is manifestly such as that +creature, without that confidence of a better nature than his own, could +never attain. So man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine +protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature +could not obtain.'[3] You are silent, but your gesture tells me your +doubt,--a doubt which your heart, so femininely tender, will not speak +aloud lest you should rob the old man of a hope with which your strength +of manhood dispenses,--you doubt the efficacy of prayer! Pause and +reflect, bold but candid inquirer into the laws of that guide you call +Nature. If there were no efficacy in prayer; if prayer were as mere an +illusion of superstitious fantasy as aught against which your reason now +struggles, do you think that Nature herself would have made it amongst the +most common and facile of all her dictates? Do you believe that if there +really did not exist that tie between Man and his Maker--that link +between life here and life hereafter which is found in what we call Soul +alone--that wherever you look through the universe, you would behold a +child at Prayer? Nature inculcates nothing that is superfluous. Nature +does not impel the leviathan or the lion, the eagle or the moth, to pray; +she impels only man. Why? Because man only has soul, and Soul seeks to +commune with the Everlasting, as a fountain struggles up to its source. +Burn your book. It would found you a reputation for learning and +intellect and courage, I allow; but learning and intellect and courage +wasted against a truth, like spray against a rock! A truth valuable to +the world, the world will never part with. You will not injure the truth, +but you will mislead and may destroy many, whose best security is in the +truth which you so eruditely insinuate to be a fable. Soul and Hereafter +are the heritage of all men; the humblest, journeyman in those streets, +the pettiest trader behind those counters, have in those beliefs their +prerogatives of royalty. You would dethrone and embrute the lords of the +earth by your theories. For my part, having given the greater part of my +life to the study and analysis of facts, I would rather be the author of +the tritest homily, or the baldest poem, that inculcated that imperishable +essence of the soul to which I have neither scalpel nor probe, than be the +founder of the subtlest school, or the framer of the loftiest verse, that +robbed my fellow-men of their faith in a spirit that eludes the +dissecting-knife,--in a being that escapes the grave-digger. Burn your +book! Accept This Book instead; Read and Pray." + +He placed his Bible in my hand, embraced me, and, an hour afterwards, the +old man and the child left my hearth solitary once more. + +[1] The summary of this distinguished lecturer's objections to phrenology +is to be found in the Appendix to vol i. of "Lectures on Metaphysics," p. +404, et seq. Edition 1859. + +[2] The change of length of iron girders caused by variation of +temperature has not unfrequently brought down the whole edifice into which +they were admitted. Good engineers and architects allow for such changes +produced by temperature. In the tubular bridge across the Menai Straits, +a self-acting record of the daily amount of its contraction and expansion +is ingeniously Contrived. + +[3] Bacon's "Essay on Atheism." This quotation is made with admirable +felicity and force by Dr. Whewell, page 378 of Bridgewater Treatise on +Astronomy and General Physics considered with reference to Natural +Theology. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +That night, as I sat in my study, very thoughtful and very mournful, I +resolved all that Julius Faber had said; and the impression his words had +produced became gradually weaker and weaker, as my reason, naturally +combative, rose up with all the replies which my philosophy suggested. +No; if my imagination had really seduced and betrayed me into monstrous +credulities, it was clear that the best remedy to such morbid tendencies +towards the Superstitious was in the severe exercise of the faculties most +opposed to Superstition,--in the culture of pure reasoning, in the science +of absolute fact. Accordingly, I placed before me the very book which +Julius Faber had advised me to burn; I forced all my powers of +mind to go again over the passages which contained the doctrines that his +admonition had censured; and before daybreak, I had stated the substance +of his argument, and the logical reply to it, in an elaborate addition to +my chapter on "Sentimental Philosophers." While thus rejecting the +purport of his parting counsels, I embodied in another portion of my work +his views on my own "illusions;" and as here my commonsense was in concord +with his, I disposed of all my own previous doubts in an addition to my +favourite chapter "On the Cheats of the Imagination." And when the pen +dropped from my hand, and the day-star gleamed through the window, my +heart escaped from the labour of my mind, and flew back to the image of +Lilian. The pride of the philosopher died out of me, the sorrow of the +man reigned supreme, and I shrank from the coming of the sun, despondent. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +Not till the law had completed its proceedings, and satisfied the public +mind as to the murder of Sir Philip Derval, were the remains of the +deceased consigned to the family mausoleum. The funeral was, as may be +supposed, strictly private, and when it was over, the excitement caused by +an event so tragical and singular subsided. New topics engaged the public +talk, and--in my presence, at least--the delicate consideration due to one +whose name had been so painfully mixed up in the dismal story forbore a +topic which I could not be expected to hear without distressful emotion. +Mrs. Ashleigh I saw frequently at my own house; she honestly confessed +that Lilian had not shown that grief at the cancelling of our engagement +which would alone justify Mrs. Ashleigh in asking me again to see her +daughter, and retract my conclusions against our union. She said that +Lilian was quiet, not uncheerful, never spoke of me nor of Margrave, but +seemed absent and pre-occupied as before, taking pleasure in nothing that +had been wont to please her; not in music, nor books, nor that tranquil +pastime which women call work, and in which they find excuse to meditate, +in idleness, their own fancies. She rarely stirred out, even in the +garden; when she did, her eyes seemed to avoid the house in which Margrave +had lodged, and her steps the old favourite haunt by the Monks' Well. She +would remain silent for long hours together, but the silence did not +appear melancholy. For the rest, her health was more than usually good. +Still Mrs. Ashleigh persisted in her belief that, sooner or later, Lilian +would return to her former self, her former sentiments for me; and she +entreated me not, as yet, to let the world know that our engagement was +broken off. "For if," she said, with good sense, "if it should prove not +to be broken off, only suspended, and afterwards happily renewed, there +will be two stories to tell when no story be needed. Besides, I should +dread the effect on Lilian, if offensive gossips babbled to her on a +matter that would excite so much curiosity as the rupture of a union in +which our neighbours have taken so general an interest." + +I had no reason to refuse acquiescence in Mrs. Ashleigh's request, but I +did not share in her hopes; I felt that the fair prospects of my life +were blasted; I could never love another, never wed another; I resigned +myself to a solitary hearth, rejoiced, at least, that Margrave had not +revisited at Mrs. Ashleigh's,--had not, indeed, reappeared in the town. +He was still staying with Strahan, who told me that his guest had +ensconced himself in Forman's old study, and amused himself with +reading--though not for long at a time--the curious old books and +manuscripts found in the library, or climbing trees like a schoolboy, and +familiarizing himself with the deer and the cattle, which would group +round him quite tame, and feed from his hand. Was this the description of +a criminal? But if Sir Philip's assertion were really true; if the +criminal were man without soul; if without soul, man would have no +conscience, never be troubled by repentance, and the vague dread of a +future world,--why, then, should not the criminal be gay despite his +crimes, as the white bear gambols as friskly after his meal on human +flesh? These questions would haunt me, despite my determination to accept +as the right solution of all marvels the construction put on my narrative +by Julius Faber. + +Days passed; I saw and heard nothing of Margrave. I began half to hope +that, in the desultory and rapid changes of mood and mind which +characterized his restless nature, he had forgotten my existence. + +One morning I went out early on my rounds, when I met Straban +unexpectedly. + +"I was in search of you," he said, "for more than one person has told me +that you are looking ill and jaded. So you are! And the town now is hot +and unhealthy. You must come to Derval Court for a week or so. You can +ride into town every day to see your patients. Don't refuse. Margrave, +who is still with me, sends all kind messages, and bade me say that he +entreats you to come to the house at which he also is a guest!" + +I started. What had the Scin-Laeca required of me, and obtained to that +condition my promise?" If you are asked to the house at which I also am a +guest, you will come; you will meet and converse with me as guest speaks +to guest in the house of a host!" Was this one of the coincidences which +my reason was bound to accept as coincidences, and nothing more? Tut, +tut! Was I returning again to my "hallucinations"? Granting that Faber +and common-sense were in the right, what was this Margrave? A man to +whose friendship, acuteness, and energy I was under the deepest +obligations,--to whom I was indebted for active services that had saved my +life from a serious danger, acquitted my honour of a horrible suspicion. +"I thank you," I said to Strahan, "I will come; not, indeed, for a week, +but, at all events, for a day or two." + +"That's right; I will call for you in the carriage at six o'clock. You +will have done your day's work by then?" + +"Yes; I will so arrange." + +On our way to Derval Court that evening, Strahan talked much about +Margrave, of whom, nevertheless, he seemed to be growing weary. + +"His high spirits are too much for one," said he; "and then so +restless,--so incapable of sustained quiet conversation. And, clever +though he is, he can't help me in the least about the new house I shall +build. He has no notion of construction. I don't think he could build a +barn." + +"I thought you did not like to demolish the old house, and would content +yourself with pulling down the more ancient part of it?" + +"True. At first it seemed a pity to destroy so handsome a mansion; but +you see, since poor Sir Philip's manuscript, on which he set such store, +has been too mutilated, I fear, to allow me to effect his wish with regard +to it, I think I ought at least scrupulously to obey his other whims. +And, besides, I don't know, there are odd noises about the old house. I +don't believe in haunted houses; still there is something dreary in +strange sounds at the dead of night, even if made by rats, or winds +through decaying rafters. You, I remember at college, had a taste for +architecture, and can draw plans. I wish to follow out Sir Philip's +design, but on a smaller scale, and with more attention to comfort." + +Thus he continued to run on, satisfied to find me a silent and attentive +listener. We arrived at the mansion an hour before sunset, the westering +light shining full against the many windows cased in mouldering pilasters, +and making the general dilapidation of the old place yet more mournfully +evident. + +It was but a few minutes to the dinner-hour. I went up at once to the +room appropriated to me,--not the one I had before occupied. Strahan had +already got together a new establishment. I was glad to find in the +servant who attended me an old acquaintance. He had been in my own employ +when I first settled at L----, and left me to get married. He and his +wife were now both in Strahan's service. He spoke warmly of his new +master and his contentment with his situation, while he unpacked my +carpet-bag and assisted me to change my dress. But the chief object of +his talk and his praise was Mr. Margrave. + +"Such a bright young gentleman, like the first fine day in May!" + +When I entered the drawing-room, Margrave and Strahan were both there. +The former was blithe and genial, as usual, in his welcome. At dinner, +and during the whole evening till we retired severally to our own rooms, +he was the principal talker,--recounting incidents of travel, always very +loosely strung together, jesting, good-humouredly enough, at Strahan's +sudden hobby for building, then putting questions to me about mutual +acquaintances, but never waiting for an answer; and every now and then, as +if at random, startling us with some brilliant aphorism, or some +suggestion drawn from abstract science or unfamiliar erudition. The whole +effect was sparkling, but I could well understand that, if long continued, +it would become oppressive. The soul has need of pauses of +repose,--intervals of escape, not only from the flesh, but even from the +mind. A man of the loftiest intellect will experience times when mere +intellect not only fatigues him, but amidst its most original conceptions, +amidst its proudest triumphs, has a something trite and commonplace +compared with one of those vague intimations of a spiritual destiny which +are not within the ordinary domain of reason; and, gazing abstractedly +into space, will leave suspended some problem of severest thought, or +uncompleted some golden palace of imperial poetry, to indulge in hazy +reveries, that do not differ from those of an innocent, quiet child! The +soul has a long road to travel--from time through eternity. It demands +its halting hours of contemplation. Contemplation is serene. But with +such wants of an immortal immaterial spirit, Margrave had no fellowship, +no sympathy; and for myself, I need scarcely add that the lines I have +just traced I should not have written at the date at which my narrative +has now arrived. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +I had no case that necessitated my return to L---- the following day. The +earlier hours of the forenoon I devoted to Strahan and his building plans. +Margrave flitted in and out of the room fitfully as an April sunbeam, +sometimes flinging himself on a sofa, and reading for a few minutes one of +the volumes of the ancient mystics, in which Sir Philip's library was so +rich. I remember it was a volume of Proclus. He read that crabbed and +difficult Greek with a fluency that surprised me. "I picked up the +ancient Greek," said he, "years ago, in learning the modern." But the +book soon tired him; then he would come and disturb us, archly enjoying +Strahan's peevishness at interruption; then he would throw open the window +and leap down, chanting one of his wild savage airs; and in another moment +he was half hid under the drooping boughs of a broad lime-tree, amidst the +antlers of deer that gathered fondly round him. In the afternoon my host +was called away to attend some visitors of importance, and I found myself +on the sward before the house, right in view of the mausoleum and alone +with Margrave. + +I turned my eyes from that dumb House of Death wherein rested the corpse +of the last lord of the soil, so strangely murdered, with a strong desire +to speak out to Margrave the doubts respecting himself that tortured me. +But--setting aside the promise to the contrary, which I had given, or +dreamed I had given, to the Luminous Shadow--to fulfil that desire would +have been impossible,--impossible to any one gazing on that radiant +youthful face! I think I see him now as I saw him then: a white doe, that +even my presence could not scare away from him, clung lovingly to his +side, looking up at him with her soft eyes. He stood there like the +incarnate principle of mythological sensuous life. I have before applied +to him that illustration; let the repetition be pardoned. Impossible, I +repeat it, to say to that creature, face to face, "Art thou the master of +demoniac arts, and the instigator of secret murder?" As if from +redundant happiness within himself, he was humming, or rather cooing, a +strain of music, so sweet, so wildly sweet, and so unlike the music one +hears from tutored lips in crowded rooms! I passed my hand over my +forehead in bewilderment and awe. + +"Are there," I said unconsciously,--"are there, indeed, such prodigies in +Nature?" + +"Nature!" he cried, catching up the word; "talk to me of Nature! Talk of +her, the wondrous blissful mother! Mother I may well call her. I am her +spoiled child, her darling! But oh, to die, ever to die, ever to lose +sight of Nature!--to rot senseless, whether under these turfs or within +those dead walls--" + +I could not resist the answer,-- + +"Like yon murdered man! murdered, and by whom?" + +"By whom? I thought that was clearly proved." + +"The hand was proved; what influence moved the hand?" + +"Tush! the poor wretch spoke of a Demon. Who can tell? Nature herself is +a grand destroyer. See that pretty bird, in its beak a writhing worm! +All Nature's children live to take life; none, indeed, so lavishly as man. +What hecatombs slaughtered, not to satisfy the irresistible sting of +hunger, but for the wanton ostentation of a feast, which he may scarcely +taste, or for the mere sport that he finds in destroying! We speak with +dread of the beasts of prey: what beast of prey is so dire a ravager as +man,--so cruel and so treacherous? Look at yon flock of sheep, bred and +fattened for the shambles; and this hind that I caress,--if I were the +park-keeper, and her time for my bullet had come, would you think her life +was the safer because, in my own idle whim, I had tamed her to trust to +the hand raised to slay her?" + +"It is true," said I,--"a grim truth. Nature, on the surface so loving +and so gentle, is full of terror in her deeps when our thought descends +into their abyss!" + +Strahan now joined us with a party of country visitors. "Margrave is the +man to show you the beauties of this park," said he. "Margrave knows +every bosk and dingle, twisted old thorn-tree, or opening glade, in its +intricate, undulating ground." + +Margrave seemed delighted at this proposition; and as he led us through +the park, though the way was long, though the sun was fierce, no one +seemed fatigued. For the pleasure he felt in pointing out detached +beauties which escaped an ordinary eye was contagious. He did not talk as +talks the poet or the painter; but at some lovely effect of light amongst +the tremulous leaves, some sudden glimpse of a sportive rivulet below, he +would halt, point it out to us in silence, and with a kind of childlike +ecstasy in his own bright face, that seemed to reflect the life and the +bliss of the blithe summer day itself. + +Thus seen, all my doubts in his dark secret nature faded away,--all my +horror, all my hate; it was impossible to resist the charm that breathed +round him, not to feel a tender, affectionate yearning towards him as to +some fair happy child. Well might he call himself the Darling of Nature. +Was he not the mysterious likeness of that awful Mother, beautiful as +Apollo in one aspect, direful as Typhon in another? + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +"What a strange-looking cane you have, sir!" said a little girl, who was +one of the party, and who had entwined her arm round Margrave's. "Let me +look at it." + +"Yes," said Strahan," that cane, or rather walking-staff, is worth looking +at. Margrave bought it in Egypt, and declares that it is very ancient." + +This staff seemed constructed from a reed: looked at, it seemed light, in +the hand it felt heavy; it was of a pale, faded yellow, wrought with black +rings at equal distances, and graven with half obliterated characters that +seemed hieroglyphic. I remembered to have seen Margrave with it before, +but I had never noticed it with any attention until now, when it was +passed from hand to hand. At the head of the cane there was a large +unpolished stone of a dark blue. + +"Is this a pebble or a jewel?" asked one of the party. + +"I cannot tell you its name or nature," said Margrave; "but it is said to +cure the bite of serpents[1], and has other supposed virtues,--a talisman, +in short." + +He here placed the staff in my hands, and bade me look at it with care. +Then he changed the conversation and renewed the way, leaving the staff +with me, till suddenly I forced it back on him. I could not have +explained why, but its touch, as it warmed in my clasp, seemed to send +through my whole frame a singular thrill, and a sensation as if I no +longer felt my own weight,--as if I walked on air. + +Our rambles came to a close; the visitors went away; I re-entered the +house through the sash-window of Forman's study. Margrave threw his hat +and staff on the table, and amused himself with examining minutely the +tracery on the mantelpiece. Strahan and myself left him thus occupied, +and, going into the adjoining library, resumed our task of examining the +plans for the new house. I continued to draw outlines and sketches of +various alterations, tending to simplify and contract Sir Philip's general +design. Margrave soon joined us, and this time took his seat patiently +beside our table, watching me use ruler and compass with unwonted +attention. + +"I wish I could draw," he said; "but I can do nothing useful." + +"Rich men like you," said Strahan, peevishly, "can engage others, and are +better employed in rewarding good artists than in making bad drawings +themselves." + +"Yes, I can employ others; and--Fenwick, when you have finished with +Strahan I will ask permission to employ you, though without reward; the +task I would impose will not take you a minute." + +He then threw himself back in his chair, and seemed to fall into a doze. + +The dressing-bell rang; Strahan put away the plans,--indeed, they were now +pretty well finished and decided on. Margrave woke up as our host left +the room to dress, and drawing me towards another table in the room, +placed before me one of his favourite mystic books, and, pointing to an +old woodcut, said, + +"I will ask you to copy this for me; it pretends to be a facsimile of +Solomon's famous seal. I have a whimsical desire to have a copy of it. +You observe two triangles interlaced and inserted in a circle?--the +pentacle, in short. Yes, just so. You need not add the astrological +characters: they are the senseless superfluous accessories of the dreamer +who wrote the book. But the pentacle itself has an intelligible meaning; +it belongs to the only universal language, the language of symbol, in +which all races that think--around, and above, and below us--can establish +communion of thought. If in the external universe any one constructive +principle can be detected, it is the geometrical; and in every part of the +world in which magic pretends to a written character, I find that its +hieroglyphics are geometrical figures. Is it not laughable that the most +positive of all the sciences should thus lend its angles and circles to +the use of--what shall I call it?--the ignorance?--ay, that is the +word--the ignorance of dealers in magic?" + +He took up the paper, on which I had hastily described the triangles and +the circle, and left the room, chanting the serpent-charmer's song. + +[1] The following description of a stone at Corfu, celebrated as an +antidote to the venom of the serpent's bite, was given to me by an eminent +scholar and legal functionary in that island:-- + +DESCRIPTION of THE BLUESTONE.--This stone is of an oval shape 1 2/10 in. +long, 7/10 broad, 3/10 thick, and, having been broken formerly, is now set +in gold. + +When a person is bitten by a poisonous snake, the bite must be opened by a +cut of a lancet or razor longways, and the stone applied within +twenty-four hours. The stone then attaches itself firmly on the wound, +and when it has done its office falls off; the cure is then complete. The +stone must then be thrown into milk, whereupon it vomits the poison it has +absorbed, which remains green on the top of the milk, and the stone is +then again fit for use. + +This stone has been from time immemorial in the family of Ventura, of +Corfu, a house of Italian origin, and is notorious, so that peasants +immediately apply for its aid. Its virtue has not been impaired by the +fracture. Its nature or composition is unknown. + +In a case where two were stung at the same time by serpents, the stone was +applied to one, who recovered; but the other, for whom it could not be +used, died. + +It never failed but once, and then it was applied after the twenty-four +hours. + +Its colour is so dark as not to be distinguished from black. + + P. M. COLQUHOUN. + +Corfu, 7th Nov., 1860. + +Sir Emerson Tennent, in his popular and excellent work on Ceylon, gives an +account of "snake stones" apparently similar to the one at Corfu, except +that they are "intensely black and highly polished," and which are +applied, in much the same manner, to the wounds inflicted by the +cobra-capella. + + +QUERY.-Might it not be worth while to ascertain the chemical properties of +these stones, and, if they be efficacious in the extraction of venom +conveyed by a bite, might they not be as successful if applied to the bite +of a mad dog as to that of a cobra-capella? + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +When we separated for the night, which we did at eleven o'clock, Margrave +said,-- + +"Good-night and good-by. I must leave you to-morrow, Strahan, and before +your usual hour for rising. I took the liberty of requesting one of your +men to order me a chaise from L----. Pardon my seeming abruptness, but I +always avoid long leave-takings, and I had fixed the date of my departure +almost as soon as I accepted your invitation." + +"I have no right to complain. The place must be dull indeed to a gay +young fellow like you. It is dull even to me. I am meditating flight +already. Are you going back to L----?" + +"Not even for such things as I left at my lodgings. When I settle +somewhere and can give an address, I shall direct them to be sent to me. +There are, I hear, beautiful patches of scenery towards the north, only +known to pedestrian tourists. I am a good walker; and you know, Fenwick, +that I am also a child of Nature. Adieu to you both; and many thanks to +you, Strahan, for your hospitality." + +He left the room. + +"I am not sorry he is going," said Strahan, after a pause, and with a +quick breath as if of relief. "Do you not feel that he exhausts one? An +excess of oxygen, as you would say in a lecture." + +I was alone in my own chamber; I felt indisposed for bed and for sleep; +the curious conversation I had held with Margrave weighed on me. In that +conversation, we had indirectly touched upon the prodigies which I had not +brought myself to speak of with frank courage, and certainly nothing in +Margrave's manner had betrayed consciousness of my suspicions; on the +contrary, the open frankness with which he evinced his predilection for +mystic speculation, or uttered his more unamiable sentiments, rather +tended to disarm than encourage belief in gloomy secrets or sinister +powers. And as he was about to quit the neighbourhood, he would not again +see Lilian, not even enter the town of L----. Was I to ascribe this +relief from his presence to the promise of the Shadow; or was I not +rather right in battling firmly against any grotesque illusion, and +accepting his departure as a simple proof that my jealous fears had been +amongst my other chimeras, and that as he had really only visited Lilian +out of friendship to me, in my peril, so he might, with his characteristic +acuteness, have guessed my jealousy, and ceased his visits from a kindly +motive delicately concealed? And might not the same motive now have +dictated the words which were intended to assure me that L---- contained +no attractions to tempt him to return to it? Thus, gradually soothed and +cheered by the course to which my reflections led me, I continued to muse +for hours. At length, looking at my watch, I was surprised to find it was +the second hour after midnight. I was just about to rise from my chair +to undress, and secure some hours of sleep, when the well-remembered cold +wind passed through the room, stirring the roots of my hair; and before me +stood, against the wall, the Luminous Shadow. + +"Rise and follow me," said the voice, sounding much nearer than it had +ever done before. + +And at those words I rose mechanically, and like a sleepwalker. + +"Take up the light." + +I took it. The Scin-Laeca glided along the wall towards the threshold, +and motioned me to open the door. I did so. The Shadow flitted on +through the corridor. I followed, with hushed footsteps, down a small +stair into Forman's study. In all my subsequent proceedings, about to be +narrated, the Shadow guided me, sometimes by voice, sometimes by sign. I +obeyed the guidance, not only unresistingly, but without a desire to +resist. I was unconscious either of curiosity or of awe,--only of a calm +and passive indifference, neither pleasurable nor painful. In this +obedience, from which all will seemed extracted, I took into my hands the +staff which I had examined the day before, and which lay on the table, +just where Margrave had cast it on re-entering the house. I unclosed the +shutter to the casement, lifted the sash, and, with the light in my left +hand, the staff in my right, stepped forth into the garden. The night was +still; the flame of the candle scarcely trembled in the air; the Shadow +moved on before me towards the old pavilion described in an earlier part +of this narrative, and of which the mouldering doors stood wide open. I +followed the Shadow into the pavilion, up the crazy stair to the room +above, with its four great blank unglazed windows, or rather arcades, +north, south, east, and west. I halted on the middle of the floor: right +before my eyes, through the vista made by breathless boughs, stood out +from the moonlit air the dreary mausoleum. Then, at the command conveyed +to me, I placed the candle on a wooden settle, touched a spring in the +handle of the staff; a lid flew back, and I drew from the hollow, first a +lump of some dark bituminous substance, next a smaller slender wand of +polished steel, of which the point was tipped with a translucent material, +which appeared to me like crystal. Bending down, still obedient to the +direction conveyed to me, I described on the floor with the lump of +bitumen (if I may so call it) the figure of the pentacle with the +interlaced triangles, in a circle nine feet in diameter, just as I had +drawn it for Margrave the evening before. The material used made the +figure perceptible, in a dark colour of mingled black and red. I applied +the flame of the candle to the circle, and immediately it became lambent +with a low steady splendour that rose about an inch from the floor; and +gradually front this light there emanated a soft, gray, transparent mist +and a faint but exquisite odour. I stood in the midst of the circle, and +within the circle also, close by my side, stood the Scin-Laeca,--no longer +reflected on the wall, but apart from it, erect, rounded into more +integral and distinct form, yet impalpable, and from it there breathed an +icy air. Then lifting the wand, the broader end of which rested in the +palm of my hand, the two forefingers closing lightly over it in a line +parallel with the point, I directed it towards the wide aperture before +me, fronting the mausoleum. I repeated aloud some words whispered to me +in a language I knew not: those words I would not trace on this paper, +could I remember them. As they came to a close, I heard a howl from the +watch-dog in the yard,--a dismal, lugubrious howl. Other dogs in the +distant village caught up the sound, and bayed in a dirge-like chorus; and +the howling went on louder and louder. Again strange words were whispered +to me, and I repeated them in mechanical submission; and when they, too, +were ended, I felt the ground tremble beneath me, and as my eyes looked +straight forward down the vista, that, stretching from the casement, was +bounded by the solitary mausoleum, vague formless shadows seemed to pass +across the moonlight,--below, along the sward, above, in the air; and then +suddenly a terror, not before conceived, came upon me. + +And a third time words were whispered; but though I knew no more of their +meaning than I did of those that had preceded them, I felt a repugnance to +utter them aloud. Mutely I turned towards the Scin-Laeca, and the +expression of its face was menacing and terrible; my will became yet more +compelled to the control imposed upon it, and my lips commenced the +formula again whispered into my ear, when I heard distinctly a voice of +warning and of anguish, that murmured "Hold!" I knew the voice; it was +Lilian's. I paused; I turned towards the quarter from which the voice had +come, and in the space afar I saw the features, the form of Lilian. Her +arms were stretched towards me in supplication, her countenance was deadly +pale, and anxious with unutterable distress. The whole image seemed in +unison with the voice,--the look, the attitude, the gesture of one who +sees another in deadly peril, and cries, "Beware!" + +This apparition vanished in a moment; but that moment sufficed to free my +mind from the constraint which had before enslaved it. I dashed the wand +to the ground, sprang from the circle, rushed from the place. How I got +into my own room I can remember not,--I know not; I have a vague +reminiscence of some intervening wandering, of giant trees, of shroud-like +moonlight, of the Shining Shadow and its angry aspect, of the blind walls +and the iron door of the House of the Dead, of spectral images,--a +confused and dreary phantasmagoria. But all I can recall with +distinctness is the sight of my own hueless face in the mirror in my own +still room, by the light of the white moon through the window; and, +sinking down, I said to myself, "This, at least, is an hallucination or a +dream!" + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +A heavy sleep came over me at daybreak, but I did not undress nor go to +bed. The sun was high in the heavens when, on waking, I saw the servant +who had attended me bustling about the room. + +"I beg your pardon, sir, I am afraid I disturbed you; but I have been +three times to see if you were not coming down, and I found you so soundly +asleep I did not like to wake you. Mr. Strahan has finished breakfast, +and gone out riding; Mr. Margrave has left,--left before six o'clock." + +"Ah, he said he was going early." + +"Yes, sir; and he seemed so cross when he went. I could never have +supposed so pleasant a gentleman could put himself into such a passion!" + +"What was the matter?" + +"Why, his walking-stick could not be found; it was not in the hall. He +said he had left it in the study; we could not find it there. At last he +found it himself in the old summerhouse, and said--I beg pardon--he said +he was sure you had taken it there: that some one, at all events, had been +meddling with it. However, I am very glad it was found, since he seems to +set such store on it." + +"Did Mr. Margrave go himself into the summer-house to look for it?" + +"Yes, sir; no one else would have thought of such a place; no one likes to +go there, even in the daytime." + +"Why?" + +"Why, sir, they say it is haunted since poor Sir Philip's death; and, +indeed, there are strange noises in every part of the house. I am afraid +you had a bad night, sir," continued the servant, with evident curiosity, +glancing towards the bed, which I had not pressed, and towards the +evening-dress which, while he spoke, I was rapidly changing for that which +I habitually wore in the morning. "I hope you did not feel yourself ill?" + +"No! but it seems I fell asleep in my chair." + +"Did you hear, sir, how the dogs howled about two o'clock in the morning? +They woke me. Very frightful!" + +"The moon was at her full. Dogs will bay at the moon." + +I felt relieved to think that I should not find Strahan in the +breakfast-room; and hastening through the ceremony of a meal which I +scarcely touched, I went out into the park unobserved, and creeping round +the copses and into the neglected gardens, made my way to the pavilion. I +mounted the stairs; I looked on the floor of the upper room; yes, there +still was the black figure of the pentacle, the circle. So, then, it was +not a dream! Till then I had doubted. Or might it not still be so far a +dream that I had walked in my sleep, and with an imagination preoccupied +by my conversations with Margrave,--by the hieroglyphics on the staff I +had handled, by the very figure associated with superstitious practices +which I had copied from some weird book at his request, by all the strange +impressions previously stamped on my mind,--might I not, in truth, have +carried thither in sleep the staff, described the circle, and all the rest +been but visionary delusion? Surely, surely, so common-sense, and so +Julius Faber would interpret the riddles that perplexed me! Be that as it +may, my first thought was to efface the marks on the floor. I found this +easier than I had ventured to hope. I rubbed the circle and the pentacle +away from the boards with the sole of my foot, leaving but an +undistinguishable smudge behind. I know not why, but I felt the more +nervously anxious to remove all such evidences of my nocturnal visit to +that room, because Margrave had so openly gone thither to seek for the +staff, and had so rudely named me to the servant as having meddled with +it. Might he not awake some suspicion against me? Suspicion, what of? I +knew not, but I feared! + +The healthful air of day gradually nerved my spirits and relieved my +thoughts. But the place had become hateful to me. I resolved not to wait +for Strahan's return, but to walk back to L----, and leave a message for +my host. It was sufficient excuse that I could not longer absent myself +from my patients; accordingly I gave directions to have the few things +which I had brought with me sent to my house by any servant who might be +going to L----, and was soon pleased to find myself outside the park-gates +and on the high-road. + +I had not gone a mile before I met Strahan on horseback. He received my +apologies for not waiting his return to bid him farewell without +observation, and, dismounting, led his horse and walked beside me on my +road. I saw that there was something on his mind; at last he said, +looking down,-- + +"Did you hear the dogs howl last night?" + +"Yes! the full moon!" + +"You were awake, then, at the time. Did you hear any other sound? Did +you see anything?" + +"What should I hear or see?" + +Strahan was silent for some moments; then he said, with great +seriousness,-- + +"I could not sleep when I went to bed last night; I felt feverish and +restless. Somehow or other, Margrave got into my head, mixed up in some +strange way with Sir Philip Derval. I heard the dogs howl, and at the +same time, or rather a few minutes later, I felt the whole house tremble, +as a frail corner-house in London seems to tremble at night when a +carriage is driven past it. The howling had then ceased, and ceased as +suddenly as it had begun. I felt a vague, superstitious alarm; I got up, +and went to my window, which was unclosed (it is my habit to sleep with my +windows open); the moon was very bright, and I saw, I declare I saw along +the green alley that leads from the old part of the house to the +mausoleum--No, I will not say what I saw or believed I saw,--you would +ridicule me, and justly. But, whatever it might be, on the earth without +or in the fancy within my brain, I was so terrified, that I rushed back to +my bed, and buried my face in my pillow. I would have come to you; but I +did not dare to stir. I have been riding hard all the morning in order to +recover my nerves. But I dread sleeping again under that roof, and now +that you and Margrave leave me, I shall go this very day to London. I +hope all that I have told you is no bad sign of any coming disease; blood +to the head, eh?" + +"No; but imagination overstrained can produce wondrous effects. You do +right to change the scene. Go to London at once, amuse yourself, and--" + +"Not return, till the old house is razed to the ground. That is my +resolve. You approve? That's well. All success to you, Fenwick. I will +canter back and get my portmanteau ready and the carriage out, in time for +the five o'clock train." + +So then he, too, had seen--what? I did not dare and I did not desire to +ask him. But he, at least, was not walking in his sleep! Did we both +dream, or neither? + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE STORY, LYTTON, V5 *** + +******* This file should be named 7696.txt or 7696.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath +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. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +https://gutenberg.org or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* diff --git a/7696.zip b/7696.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..290e04d --- /dev/null +++ b/7696.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..67e36de --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #7696 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7696) |