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diff --git a/7732.txt b/7732.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ba3e1bd --- /dev/null +++ b/7732.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2342 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Paul Clifford, by Lytton, Volume 5. +#159 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: Paul Clifford, Volume 5. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7732] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 13, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL CLIFFORD, BY LYTTON, V5 *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by Bryan Sherman +and David Widger + + + + + +PAUL CLIFFORD, Volume 5. + +By Edward Bulwer-Lytton + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + Outlaw. Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you! + + Val. Ruffians, forego that rude, uncivil touch! + + The Two Gentlemen of Verona. + +On leaving the scene in which he had been so unwelcome a guest, Clifford +hastened to the little inn where he had left his horse. He mounted and +returned to Bath. His thoughts were absent, and he unconsciously +suffered the horse to direct its course whither it pleased. This was +naturally towards the nearest halting-place which the animal remembered; +and this halting-place was at that illustrious tavern, in the suburbs of +the town, in which we have before commemorated Clifford's re-election to +the dignity of chief. It was a house of long-established reputation; and +here news of any of the absent confederates was always to be obtained. +This circumstance, added to the excellence of its drink, its ease, and +the electric chain of early habits, rendered it a favourite haunt, even +despite their present gay and modish pursuits, with Tomlinson and Pepper; +and here, when Clifford sought the pair at unseasonable hours, was he for +the most part sure to find them. As his meditations were interrupted by +the sudden stopping of his horse beneath the well-known sign, Clifford, +muttering an angry malediction on the animal, spurred it onward in the +direction of his own home. He had already reached the end of the street, +when his resolution seemed to change, and muttering to himself, "Ay, I +might as well arrange this very night for our departure!" he turned his +horse's head backward, and was once more at the tavern door. He threw +the bridle over an iron railing, and knocking with a peculiar sound at +the door, was soon admitted. + +Are ------ and ------- here?" asked he of the old woman, as he entered, +mentioning the cant words by which, among friends, Tomlinson and Pepper +were usually known. + +"They are both gone on the sharps to-night," replied the old lady, +lifting her unsnuffed candle to the face of the speaker with an +intelligent look; Oliver (the moon) is sleepy, and the lads will take +advantage of his nap." + +"Do you mean," answered Clifford, replying in the same key, which we take +the liberty to paraphrase, "that they are out on any actual expedition?" + +"To be sure," rejoined the dame. "They who lag late on the road may want +money for supper!" + +"Ha! which road?" + +"You are a pretty fellow for captain!" rejoined the dame, with a good- +natured sarcasm in her tone. "Why, Captain Gloak, poor fellow! knew +every turn of his men to a hair, and never needed to ask what they were +about. Ah, he was a fellow! none of your girl-faced mudgers, who make +love to ladies, forsooth,--a pretty woman need not look far for a kiss +when he was in the room, I warrant, however coarse her duds might be; and +lauk! but the captain was a sensible man, and liked a cow as well as a +calf." + +"So, so! on the road, are they?" cried Clifford, musingly, and without +heeding the insinuated attack on his decorum. "But answer me, what is +the plan? Be quick!" + +"Why," replied the dame, "there's some swell cove of a lord gives a blow- +out to-day; and the lads, dear souls! think to play the queer on some +straggler." + +Without uttering a word, Clifford darted from the house, and was +remounted before the old lady had time to recover her surprise. + +"If you want to see them," cried she, as he put spurs to his horse, "they +ordered me to have supper ready at------" The horse's hoofs drowned the +last words of the dame; and carefully rebolting the door, and muttering +an invidious comparison between Captain Clifford and Captain Gloak, the +good landlady returned to those culinary operations destined to rejoice +the hearts of Tomlinson and Pepper. + +Return we ourselves to Lucy. It so happened that the squire's carriage +was the last to arrive; for the coachman, long uninitiated among the +shades of Warlock into the dissipation of fashionable life, entered on +his debut at Bath, with all the vigorous heat of matured passions for the +first time released, into the festivities of the ale-house, and having a +milder master than most of his comrades, the fear of displeasure was less +strong in his aurigal bosom than the love of companionship; so that +during the time this gentleman was amusing himself, Lucy had ample +leisure for enjoying all the thousand-and-one reports of the scene +between Mauleverer and Clifford which regaled her ears. Nevertheless, +whatever might have been her feelings at these pleasing recitals, a +certain vague joy predominated over all. A man feels but slight +comparative happiness in being loved, if he know that it is in vain; but +to a woman that simple knowledge is sufficient to destroy the memory of a +thousand distresses, and it is not till she has told her heart again and +again that she is loved, that she will even begin to ask if it be in +vain. + +It was a partially starlight yet a dim and obscure night, for the moon +had for the last hour or two been surrounded by mist and cloud, when at +length the carriage arrived; and Mauleverer, for the second time that +evening playing the escort, conducted Lucy to the vehicle. Anxious to +learn if she had seen or been addressed by Clifford, the subtle earl, as +he led her to the gate, dwelt particularly on the intrusion of that +person, and by the trembling of the hand which rested on his arm, he drew +no delicious omen for his own hopes. "However," thought he, "the man +goes to-morrow, and then the field will be clear; the girl's a child yet, +and I forgive her folly." And with an air of chivalric veneration, +Mauleverer bowed the object of his pardon into her carriage. + +As soon as Lucy felt herself alone with her father, the emotions so long +pent within her forced themselves into vent, is and leaning back against +the carriage, she wept, though in silence, tears, burning tears, of +sorrow, comfort, agitation, anxiety. + +The good old squire was slow in perceiving his daughter's emotion; it +would have escaped him altogether, if, actuated by a kindly warming of +the heart towards her, originating in his new suspicion of her love for +Clifford, he had not put his arm round her neck; and this unexpected +caress so entirely unstrung her nerves that Lucy at once threw herself +upon her father's breast, and her weeping, hitherto so quiet, became +distinct and audible. + +"Be comforted, my dear, dear child!" said the squire, almost affected to +tears himself; and his emotion, arousing him from his usual mental +confusion, rendered his words less involved and equivocal than they were +wont to be. "And now I do hope that you won't vex yourself; the young +man is indeed--and, I do assure you, I always thought so--a very charming +gentleman, there's no denying it. But what can we do? You see what they +all say of him, and it really was--we must allow that--very improper in +him to come without being asked. Moreover, my dearest child, it is very +wrong, very wrong indeed, to love any one, and not know who he is; and-- +and--but don't cry, my dear love, don't cry so; all will be very well, I +am sure,--quite sure!" + +As he said this, the kind old man drew his daughter nearer him, and +feeling his hand hurt by something she wore unseen which pressed against +it, he inquired, with some suspicion that the love might have proceeded +to love-gifts, what it was. + +"It is my mother's picture," said Lucy, simply, and putting it aside. + +The old squire had loved his wife tenderly; and when Lucy made this +reply, all the fond and warm recollections of his youth rushed upon him. +He thought, too, how earnestly on her death-bed that wife had recommended +to his vigilant care their only child now weeping on his bosom: he +remembered how, dwelling on that which to all women seems the grand epoch +of life, she had said, "Never let her affections be trifled with,--never +be persuaded by your ambitious brother to make her marry where she loves +not, or to oppose her, without strong reason, where she does: though she +be but a child now, I know enough of her to feel convinced that if ever +she love, she will love too well for her own happiness, even with all +things in her favour." These words, these recollections, joined to the +remembrance of the cold-hearted scheme of William Brandon, which he had +allowed himself to favour, and of his own supineness towards Lucy's +growing love for Clifford, till resistance became at once necessary and +too late, all smote him with a remorseful sorrow, and fairly sobbing +himself, he said, "Thy mother, child! ah, would that she were living, she +would never have neglected thee as I have done!" + +The squire's self-reproach made Lucy's tears cease on the instant; and as +she covered her father's hands with kisses, she replied only by vehement +accusations against herself, and praises of his too great fatherly +fondness and affection. This little burst, on both sides, of honest and +simple-hearted love ended in a silence full of tender and mingled +thoughts; and as Lucy still clung to the breast of the old man, uncouth +as he was in temper, below even mediocrity in intellect, and altogether +the last person in age or mind or habit that seemed fit for a confidant +in the love of a young and enthusiastic girl, she felt the old homely +truth that under all disadvantages there are, in this hollow world, few +in whom trust can be so safely reposed, few who so delicately and +subtilely respect the confidence, as those from whom we spring. + +The father and daughter had been silent for some minutes, and the former +was about to speak, when the carriage suddenly stopped. The squire heard +a rough voice at the horses' heads; he looked forth from the window to +see, through the mist of the night, what could possibly be the matter, +and he encountered in this action, just one inch from his forehead, the +protruded and shining barrel of a horse-pistol. We may believe, without +a reflection on his courage, that Mr. Brandon threw himself back into his +carriage with all possible despatch; and at the same moment the door was +opened, and a voice said, not in a threatening but a smooth accent,-- + +"Ladies and gentlemen, I am sorry to disturb you, but want is imperious; +oblige me with your money, your watches, your rings, and any other little +commodities of a similar nature!" + +So delicate a request the squire had not the heart to resist, the more +especially as he knew himself without any weapons of defence; accordingly +he drew out a purse, not very full, it must be owned,--together with an +immense silver hunting-watch, with a piece of black ribbon attached to +it. + +"There, sir," said he, with a groan, "don't frighten the young lady." + +The gentle applicant, who indeed was no other than the specious Augustus +Tomlinson, slid the purse into his waistcoat-pocket, after feeling its +contents with a rapid and scientific finger. + +"Your watch, sir," quoth he,--and as he spoke he thrust it carelessly +into his coat-pocket, as a school-boy would thrust a peg-top,--"is heavy; +but trusting to experience, since an accurate survey is denied me, I fear +it is more valuable from its weight than its workmanship: however, I will +not wound your vanity by affecting to be fastidious. But surely the +young lady, as you call her,--for I pay you the compliment of believing +your word as to her age, inasmuch as the night is too dark to allow me +the happiness of a personal inspection,--the young lady has surely some +little trinket she can dispense with. 'Beauty when unadorned,' you know, +etc." + +Lucy, who, though greatly frightened, lost neither her senses nor her +presence of mind, only answered by drawing forth a little silk purse, +that contained still less than the leathern convenience of the squire; to +this she added a gold chain; and Tomlinson, taking them with an +affectionate squeeze of the hand and a polite apology, was about to +withdraw, when his sagacious eyes were suddenly stricken by the gleam of +jewels. The fact was that in altering the position of her mother's +picture, which had been set in the few hereditary diamonds possessed by +the Lord of Warlock, Lucy had allowed it to hang on the outside of her +dress, and bending forward to give the robber her other possessions, the +diamonds at once came in full sight, and gleamed the more invitingly from +the darkness of the night. + +"Ah, madam," said Tomlinson, stretching forth his hand, you would play me +false, would you? Treachery should never go unpunished. Favour me +instantly with the little ornament round your neck!" + +"I cannot,--I cannot!" said Lucy, grasping her treasure with both her +hands; "it is my mother's picture, and my mother is dead!" + +"The wants of others, madam," returned Tomlinson, who could not for the +life of him rob immorally, "are ever more worthy your attention than +family prejudices. Seriously, give it, and that instantly; we are in a +hurry, and your horses are plunging like devils: they will break your +carriage in an instant,--despatch!" + +The squire was a brave man on the whole, though no hero; and the nerves +of an old fox-hunter soon recover from a little alarm. The picture of +his buried wife was yet more inestimable to him than it was to Lucy, and +at this new demand his spirit was roused within him. + +He clenched his fists, and advancing himself as it were on his seat, he +cried in a loud voice,-- + +"Begone, fellow! I have given you--for my own part I think so--too much +already; and, by God, you shall not have the picture!" + +"Don't force me to use violence," said Augustus; and putting one foot on +the carriage-step, he brought his pistol within a few inches of Lucy's +breast, rightly judging, perhaps, that the show of danger to her would be +the best method to intimidate the squire. At that instant the valorous +moralist found himself suddenly seized with a powerful gripe on the +shoulder; and a low voice, trembling with passion, hissed in his ear. +Whatever might be the words that startled his organs, they operated as an +instantaneous charm; and to their astonishment, the squire and Lucy +beheld their assailant abruptly withdraw. The door of the carriage was +clapped to, and scarcely two minutes had elapsed before, the robber +having remounted, his comrade, hitherto stationed at the horses' heads, +set spurs to his own steed, and the welcome sound of receding hoofs smote +upon the bewildered ears of the father and daughter. + +The door of the carriage was again opened; and a voice, which made Lucy +paler than the preceding terror, said,-- + +"I fear, Mr. Brandon, the robbers have frightened your daughter. There +is now, however, nothing to fear; the ruffians are gone." + +"God bless me!" said the squire; "why, is that Captain Clifford?" + +"It is; and he conceives himself too fortunate to have been of the +smallest service to Mr. and Miss Brandon." + +On having convinced himself that it was indeed to Mr. Clifford that he +owed his safety as well as that of his daughter, whom he believed to have +been in a far more imminent peril than she really was,--for to tell thee +the truth, reader, the pistol of Tomlinson was rather calculated for show +than use, having a peculiarly long bright barrel with nothing in it,--the +squire was utterly at a loss how to express his gratitude; and when he +turned to Lucy to beg she would herself thank their gallant deliverer, he +found that, overpowered with various emotions, she had, for the first +time in her life, fainted away. + +"Good heavens!" cried the alarmed father, "she is dead,--my Lucy, my +Lucy, they have killed her!" + +To open the door nearest to Lucy, to bear her from the carriage in his +arms, was to Clifford the work of an instant. Utterly unconscious of the +presence of any one else,--unconscious even of what he said, he poured +forth a thousand wild, passionate, yet half-audible expressions; and as +he bore her to a bank by the roadside, and seating himself supported her +against his bosom, it would be difficult perhaps to say, whether +something of delight--of burning and thrilling delight--was not mingled +with his anxiety and terror. He chafed her small hands in his own; his +breath, all trembling and warm, glowed upon her cheek; and once, and but +once, his lips drew nearer, and breathing aside the dishevelled richness +of her tresses, clung in a long and silent kiss to her own. + +Meanwhile, by the help of the footman, who had now somewhat recovered his +astonished senses, the squire descended from his carriage, and approached +with faltering steps the place where his daughter reclined. At the +instant that he took her hand, Lucy began to revive; and the first +action, in the bewildered unconsciousness of awaking, was to throw her +arm around the neck of her supporter. + +Could all the hours and realities of hope, joy, pleasure, in Clifford's +previous life have been melted down and concentrated into a single +emotion, that emotion would have been but tame to the rapture of Lucy's +momentary and innocent caress! And at a later yet no distant period, +when in the felon's cell the grim visage of Death scowled upon him, it +may be questioned whether his thoughts dwelt not far more often on the +remembrance of that delightful moment than on the bitterness and ignominy +of an approaching doom. + +"She breathes,--she moves,--she wakes!" cried the father; and Lucy, +attempting to rise, and recognizing the squire's voice, said faintly,-- + +"Thank God, my dear father, you are not hurt! And are they really gone? +--and where--where are we?" + +The squire, relieving Clifford of his charge, folded his child in his +arms, while in his own elucidatory manner he informed her where she was, +and with whom. The lovers stood face to face to each other; but what +delicious blushes did the night, which concealed all but the outline of +their forms, hide from the eyes of Clifford! + +The honest and kind heart of Mr. Brandon was glad of a release to the +indulgent sentiments it had always cherished towards the suspected and +maligned Clifford, and turning now from Lucy, it fairly poured itself +forth upon her deliverer. He grasped him warmly by the hand, and +insisted upon his accompanying them to Bath in the carriage, and allowing +the footman to ride his horse. This offer was still pending, when the +footman, who had been to see after the health and comfort of his fellow- +servant, came to inform the party, in a dolorous accent, of something +which, in the confusion and darkness of the night, they had not yet +learned,--namely, that the horses and coachman were gone! + +"Gone!" said the squire, "gone! Why, the villains can't (for my part, I +never believe, though I have heard such wonders of, those sleight of +hand) have bagged them!" + +Here a low groan was audible; and the footman, sympathetically guided to +the spot whence it emanated, found the huge body of the coachman safely +deposited, with its face downward, in the middle of the kennel. After +this worthy had been lifted to his legs, and had shaken himself into +intelligence, it was found that when the robber had detained the horses, +the coachman, who required very little to conquer his more bellicose +faculties, had--he himself said, by a violent blow from the ruffian, +though, perhaps, the cause lay nearer home--quitted the coach-box for the +kennel, the horses grew frightened, and after plunging and rearing till +he cared no longer to occupy himself with their arrest, the highwayman +had very quietly cut the traces, and by the time present, it was not +impossible that the horses were almost at the door of their stables at +Bath. + +The footman who had apprised the squire of this misfortune was, unlike +most news-tellers, the first to offer consolation. "There be an +excellent public," quoth he, "about a half a mile on, where your honour +could get horses; or, mayhap, if Miss Lucy, poor heart, be faint, you may +like to stop for the night." + +Though a walk of half a mile in a dark night and under other +circumstances would not have seemed a grateful proposition, yet at +present, when the squire's imagination had only pictured to him the +alternatives of passing the night in the carriage or of crawling on foot +to Bath, it seemed but a very insignificant hardship; and tucking his +daughter's arm under his own, while in a kind voice he told Clifford "to +support her on the other side," the squire ordered the footman to lead +the way with Clifford's horse, and the coachman to follow or be d---d, +whichever he pleased. + +In silence Clifford offered his arm to Lucy, and silently she accepted +the courtesy. The squire was the only talker; and the theme he chose was +not ungrateful to Lucy, for it was the praise of her lover. But Clifford +scarcely listened, for a thousand thoughts and feelings contested within +him; and the light touch of Lucy's hand upon his arm would alone have +been sufficient to distract and confuse his attention. The darkness of +the night, the late excitement, the stolen kiss that still glowed upon +his lips, the remembrance of Lucy's flattering agitation in the scene +with her at Lord Mauleverer's, the yet warmer one of that unconscious +embrace, which still tingled through every nerve of his frame, all +conspired with the delicious emotion which he now experienced at her +presence and her contact to intoxicate and inflame him. Oh, those +burning moments in love, when romance has just mellowed into passion, and +without losing anything of its luxurious vagueness mingles the enthusiasm +of its dreams with the ardent desires of reality and earth! That is the +exact time when love has reached its highest point,--when all feelings, +all thoughts, the whole soul, and the whole mind, are seized and +engrossed,--when every difficulty weighed in the opposite scale seems +lighter than dust,--when to renounce the object beloved is the most +deadly and lasting sacrifice,--and when in so many breasts, where honour, +conscience, virtue, are far stronger than we can believe them ever to +have been in a criminal like Clifford, honour, conscience, virtue, have +perished at once and suddenly into ashes before that mighty and +irresistible fire. + +The servant, who had had previous opportunities of ascertaining the +topography of the "public" of which he spake, and who was perhaps +tolerably reconciled to his late terror in the anticipation of renewing +his intimacy with "the spirits of the past," now directed the attention +of our travellers to a small inn just before them. Mine host had not yet +retired to repose, and it was not necessary to knock twice before the +door was opened. + +A bright fire, an officious landlady, a commiserate landlord, a warm +potation, and the promise of excellent beds, all appeared to our squire +to make ample amends for the intelligence that the inn was not licensed +to let post-horses; and mine host having promised forthwith to send two +stout fellows, a rope, and a cart-horse to bring the carriage under +shelter (for the squire valued the vehicle because it was twenty years +old), and moreover to have the harness repaired, and the horses ready by +an early hour the next day, the good humour of Mr. Brandon rose into +positive hilarity. Lucy retired under the auspices of the landlady to +bed; and the squire having drunk a bowl of bishop, and discovered a +thousand new virtues in Clifford, especially that of never interrupting a +good story, clapped the captain on the shoulder, and making him promise +not to leave the inn till he had seen him again, withdrew also to the +repose of his pillow. Clifford remained below, gazing abstractedly on +the fire for some time afterwards; nor was it till the drowsy chambermaid +had thrice informed him of the prepared comforts of his bed, that he +adjourned to his chamber. Even then it seems that sleep did not visit +his eyelids; for a wealthy grazier, who lay in the room below, complained +bitterly the next morning of some person walking overhead "in all manner +of strides, just for all the world like a happarition in boots." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Viola. And dost thou love me? + Lysander. . . . Love thee, Viola? Do I not fly thee when my + being drinks Light from thine eyes?--that flight is all my answer! + + The Bride, Act ii. sc. 1. + +The curtain meditations of the squire had not been without the produce of +a resolve. His warm heart at once reopened to the liking he had formerly +conceived for Clifford; he longed for an opportunity to atone for his +past unkindness, and to testify his present gratitude; moreover, he felt +at once indignant at, and ashamed of, his late conduct in joining the +popular, and, as he now fully believed, the causeless prepossession +against his young friend, and before a more present and a stronger +sentiment his habitual deference for his brother's counsels faded easily +away. Coupled with these favourable feelings towards Clifford were his +sagacious suspicions, or rather certainty, of Lucy's attachment to her +handsome deliverer; and he had at least sufficient penetration to +perceive that she was not likely to love him the less for the night's +adventure. To all this was added the tender recollection of his wife's +parting words; and the tears and tell-tale agitation of Lucy in the +carriage were sufficient to his simple mind, which knew not how lightly +maiden's tears are shed and dried, to confirm the prediction of the dear +deceased. Nor were the squire's more generous and kindly feelings +utterly unmixed with selfish considerations. Proud, but not the least +ambitious, he was always more ready to confer an honour than receive one, +and at heart he was secretly glad at the notion of exchanging, as a son- +in-law, the polished and unfamiliar Mauleverer for the agreeable and +social Clifford. Such in "admired disorder," were the thoughts which +rolled through the teeming brain of Joseph Brandon; and before be had +turned on his left side, which he always did preparatory to surrendering +himself to slumber, the squire had fully come to a determination most +fatal to the schemes of the lawyer and the hopes of the earl. + +The next morning, as Lucy was knitting + + "The loose train of her amber-dropping hair" + +before the little mirror of her chamber, which even through its dimmed +and darkened glass gave back a face which might have shamed a Grecian +vision of Aurora, a gentle tap at her door announced her father. There +was in his rosy and comely countenance that expression generally +characteristic of a man pleased with himself, and persuaded that he is +about to give pleasure. + +"My dear child," said the squire, fondly stroking down the luxuriance of +his Lucy's hair, and kissing her damask cheek, "I am come to have some +little conversation with you. Sit down now, and (for my part, I love to +talk at my ease; and, by the by, shut the window, my love, it is an +easterly wind) I wish that we may come to a clear and distinct +understanding. Hem!--give me your hand, my child,--I think on these +matters one can scarcely speak too precisely and to the purpose; although +I am well aware (for, for my own part, I always wish to act to every one, +to you especially, my dearest child, with the greatest consideration) +that we must go to work with as much delicacy as conciseness. You know +this Captain Clifford,--'t is a brave youth, is it not? Well--nay, never +blush so deeply; there is nothing (for in these matters one can't have +all one's wishes, one can't have everything) to be ashamed of! Tell me +now, child, dost think he is in love with thee?" + +If Lucy did not immediately answer by words, her pretty lips moved as if +she could readily reply; and finally they settled into so sweet and so +assured a smile that the squire, fond as he was of "precise" information, +was in want of no fuller answer to his question. + +"Ay, ay, young lady," said he, looking at her with all a father's +affection, "I see how it is. And, come now, what do you turn away for? +Dost think, if, as I believe, though there are envious persons in the +world, as there always are when a man's handsome or clever or brave,-- +though, by the way, which is a very droll thing in my eyes, they don't +envy, at least not ill-naturedly, a man for being a lord or rich, but, +quite on the contrary, rank and money seem to make them think one has all +the cardinal virtues. Humph! If, I say, this Mr. Clifford should turn +out to be a gentleman of family,--for you know that is essential, since +the Brandons have, as my brother has probably told you, been a great race +many centuries ago,--dost think, my child, that thou couldst give up (the +cat is out of the bag) this old lord, and marry a simple gentleman?" + +The hand which the squire had held was now with an arch tenderness +applied to his mouth, and when he again seized it Lucy hid her glowing +face in his bosom; and it was only by a whisper, as if the very air was +garrulous, that he could draw forth (for now he insisted on a verbal +reply) her happy answer. + +We are not afraid that our reader will blame us for not detailing the +rest of the interview between the father and daughter: it did not last +above an hour longer; for the squire declared that, for his own part, he +hated more words than were necessary. Mr. Brandon was the first to +descend to the breakfast, muttering as he descended the stairs, "Well +now, hang me if I am not glad that's off (for I do not like to think much +of so silly a matter) my mind. And as for my brother, I sha' n't tell +him till it's all over and settled. And if he is angry, he and the old +lord may, though I don't mean to be unbrotherly, go to the devil +together!" + +When the three were assembled at the breakfast-table, there could not, +perhaps, have been found anywhere a stronger contrast than that which the +radiant face of Lucy bore to the haggard and worn expression that +disfigured the handsome features of her lover. So marked was the change +that one night seemed to have wrought upon Clifford, that even the squire +was startled and alarmed at it. But Lucy, whose innocent vanity pleased +itself with accounting for the alteration, consoled herself with the hope +of soon witnessing a very different expression on the countenance of her +lover; and though she was silent, and her happiness lay quiet and deep +within her, yet in her eyes and lip there was that which seemed to +Clifford an insult to his own misery, and stung him to the heart. +However, he exerted himself to meet the conversation of the squire, and +to mask as well as he was able the evidence of the conflict which still +raged within him. + +The morning was wet and gloomy; it was that drizzling and misty rain +which is so especially nutritious to the growth of blue devils, and the +jolly squire failed not to rally his young friend upon his feminine +susceptibility to the influences of the weather. Clifford replied +jestingly; and the jest, if bad, was good enough to content the railer. +In this facetious manner passed the time, till Lucy, at the request of +her father, left the room to prepare for their return home. + +Drawing his chair near to Clifford's, the squire then commenced in real +and affectionate earnest his operations--these he had already planned-- +in the following order: they were,first, to inquire into and to learn +Clifford's rank, family, and prospects; secondly, having ascertained the +proprieties of the outer man, they were to examine the state of the +inner one; and thirdly, should our skilful inquirer find his guesses at +Clifford's affection for Lucy confirmed, they were to expel the modest +fear of a repulse, which the squire allowed was natural enough, and to +lead the object of the inquiry to a knowledge of the happiness that, +Lucy consenting, might be in store for him. While, with his wonted +ingenuity, the squire was pursuing his benevolent designs, Lucy remained +in her own room, in such meditation and such dreams as were natural to a +heart so sanguine and enthusiastic. + +She had been more than half an hour alone, when the chambermaid of the +hostelry knocked at her door, and delivered a message from the squire, +begging her to come down to him in the parlour. With a heart that beat +so violently it almost seemed to wear away its very life, Lucy slowly and +with tremulous steps descended to the parlour. On opening the door she +saw Clifford standing in the recess of the window; his face was partly +turned from her, and his eyes downcast. The good old squire sat in an +elbow-chair, and a sort of puzzled and half-satisfied complacency gave +expression to his features. + +"Come hither, child," said he, clearing his throat; "Captain Clifford-- +ahem!--has done you the honour to--and I dare say you will be very much +surprised--not that, for my own part, I think there is much to wonder at +in it, but such may be my partial opinion (and it is certainly very +natural in me)--to make you a declaration of love. He declares, +moreover, that he is the most miserable of men, and that he would die +sooner than have the presumption to hope. Therefore you see, my love, I +have sent for you, to give him permission to destroy himself in any way +he pleases; and I leave him to show cause why (it is a fate that sooner +or later happens to all his fellowmen) sentence of death should not be +passed against him." Having delivered this speech with more propriety of +word than usually fell to his share, the squire rose hastily and hobbled +out of the room. + +Lucy sank into the chair her father had quitted; and Clifford, +approaching towards her, said in a hoarse and low voice,-- + +"Your father, Miss Brandon, says rightly, that I would die rather than +lift my eyes in hope to you. I thought yesterday that I had seen you for +the last time; chance, not my own folly or presumption, has brought me +again before you; and even the few hours I have passed under the same +roof with you have made me feel as if my love, my madness, had never +reached its height till now. Oh, Lucy!" continued Clifford, in a more +impassioned tone, and, as if by a sudden and irresistible impulse, +throwing himself at her feet, "if I could hope to merit you,--if I could +hope to raise myself,--if I could--But no, no, no! I am cut off from all +hope, and forever!" + +There was so deep, so bitter, so heartfelt an anguish and remorse in the +voice with which these last words were spoken, that Lucy, hurried off her +guard, and forgetting everything in wondering sympathy and compassion, +answered, extending her hand towards Clifford, who, still kneeling, +seized and covered it with kisses of fire,-- + +"Do not speak thus, Mr. Clifford; do not accuse yourself of what I am +sure, quite sure, you cannot deserve. Perhaps--forgive me--your birth, +your fortune, are beneath your merits, and you have penetrated into my +father's weakness on the former point; or perhaps you yourself have not +avoided all the errors into which men are hurried,--perhaps you have been +imprudent or thoughtless, perhaps you have (fashion is contagious) played +beyond your means or incurred debts: these are faults, it is true, and to +be regretted, yet surely not irreparable." + +For that instant can it be wondered that all Clifford's resolution and +self-denial deserted him, and lifting his eyes, radiant with joy and +gratitude, to the face which bent in benevolent innocence towards him, he +exclaimed,-- + +"No, Miss Brandon!--no, Lucy!--dear, angel Lucy! my faults are less +venial than these, but perhaps they are no less the consequence of +circumstances and contagion; perhaps it may not be too late to repair +them. Would you--you indeed deign to be my guardian, I might not despair +of being saved!" + +"If," said Lucy, blushing deeply and looking down, while she spoke quick +and eagerly, as if to avoid humbling him by her offer,--"if, Mr. +Clifford, the want of wealth has in any way occasioned you uneasiness or +--or error, do believe me--I mean _us_--so much your friends as not for +an instant to scruple in relieving us of some little portion of our last +night's debt to you." + +"Dear, noble girl!" said Clifford, while there writhed upon his lips one +of those smiles of powerful sarcasm that sometimes distorted his +features, and thrillingly impressed upon Lucy a resemblance to one very +different in reputation and character to her lover,--"do not attribute my +misfortunes to so petty a source; it is not money that I shall want while +I live, though I shall to my last breath remember this delicacy in you, +and compare it with certain base remembrances in my own mind. Yes! all +past thoughts and recollections will make me hereafter worship you even +more than I do now; while in your heart they will--unless Heaven grant me +one prayer--make you scorn and detest me!" + +"For mercy's sake, do not speak thus!" said Lucy, gazing in indistinct +alarm upon the dark and working features of her lover. "Scorn, detest +you! Impossible! How could I, after the remembrance of last night?" + +"Ay! of last night," said Clifford, speaking through his ground teeth,-- +"there is much in that remembrance to live long in both of us; but you-- +you--fair angel" (and all harshness and irony vanishing at once from his +voice and countenance, yielded to a tender and deep sadness, mingled with +a respect that bordered on reverence),--"you never could have dreamed of +more than pity for one like me,--you never could have stooped from your +high and dazzling purity to know for me one such thought as that which +burns at my heart for you,--you--Yes, withdraw your hand, I am not +worthy to touch it!" And clasping his own hands before his face, he +became abruptly silent; but his emotions were but ill-concealed, and Lucy +saw the muscular frame before her heaved and convulsed by passions which +were more intense and rending because it was only for a few moments that +they conquered his self-will and struggled into vent. + +If afterwards, but long afterwards, Lucy, recalling the mystery of his +words, confessed to herself that they betrayed guilt, she was then too +much affected to think of anything but her love and his emotion. She +bent down, and with a girlish and fond self-abandonment which none could +have resisted, placed both her hands on his. Clifford started, looked +up, and in the next moment he had clasped her to his heart; and while the +only tears he had shed since his career of crime fell fast and hot upon +her countenance, he kissed her forehead, her cheek, her lips in a +passionate and wild transport. His voice died within him,--he could not +trust himself to speak; only one thought, even in that seeming +forgetfulness of her and of himself, stirred and spoke at his breast,-- +flight. The more he felt he loved, the more tender and the more +confiding the object of his love, the more urgent became the necessity to +leave her. All other duties had been neglected, but he loved with a real +love; and love, which taught him one duty, bore him triumphantly through +its bitter ordeal. + +"You will hear from me to-night," he muttered; "believe that I am mad, +accursed, criminal, but not utterly a monster! I ask no more merciful +opinion!" He drew himself from his perilous position, and abruptly +departed. + +When Clifford reached his home, he found his worthy coadjutors waiting +for him with alarm and terror on their countenances. An old feat, in +which they had signalized themselves, had long attracted the rigid +attention of the police, and certain officers had now been seen at Bath, +and certain inquiries had been set on foot, which portended no good to +the safety of the sagacious Tomlinson and the valorous Pepper. They +came, humbly and penitentially demanding pardon for their unconscious +aggression of the squire's carriage, and entreating their captain's +instant advice. If Clifford had before wavered in his disinterested +determination,--if visions of Lucy, of happiness, and reform had floated +in his solitary ride too frequently and too glowingly before his eyes,-- +the sight of these men, their conversation, their danger, all sufficed to +restore his resolution. "Merciful God!" thought he, "and is it to the +comrade of such lawless villains, to a man, like them, exposed hourly to +the most ignominious of deaths, that I have for one section of a moment +dreamed of consigning the innocent and generous girl, whose trust or love +is the only crime that could deprive her of the most brilliant destiny?" + +Short were Clifford's instructions to his followers, and so much do we do +mechanically, that they were delivered with his usual forethought and +precision. "You will leave the town instantly; go not, for your lives, +to London, or to rejoin any of your comrades. Ride for the Red Cave; +provisions are stored there, and, since our late alteration of the +interior, it will afford ample room to conceal your horses. On the night +of the second day from this I will join you. But be sure that you enter +the cave at night, and quit it upon no account till I come!" + +"Yes!" said he, when he was alone, "I will join you again, but only to +quit you. One more offence against the law, or at least one sum wrested +from the swollen hands of the rich sufficient to equip me for a foreign +army, and I quit the country of my birth and my crimes. If I cannot +deserve Lucy Brandon, I will be somewhat less unworthy. Perhaps--why +not? I am young, my nerves are not weak, my brain is not dull,--perhaps +I may in some field of honourable adventure win a name that before my +death-bed I may not blush to acknowledge to her!" + +While this resolve beat high within Clifford's breast, Lucy sadly and in +silence was continuing with the squire her short journey to Bath. The +latter was very inquisitive to know why Clifford had gone, and what he +had avowed; and Lucy, scarcely able to answer, threw everything on the +promised letter of the night. + +"I am glad," muttered the squire to her, "that he is going to write; for, +somehow or other, though I questioned him very tightly, he slipped +through my cross-examination, and bursting out at once as to his love for +you, left me as wise about himself as I was before: no doubt (for my own +part I don't see what should prevent his being a great man incog.)this +letter will explain all!" + +Late that night the letter came. Lucy, fortunately for her, was alone in +her room; she opened it, and read as follows:-- + + + CLIFFORD'S LETTER. + + I have promised to write to you, and I sit down to perform that + promise. At this moment the recollection of your goodness, your + generous consideration, is warm within me: and while I must choose + calm and common words to express what I ought to say, my heart is + alternately melted and torn by thoughts which would ask words, oh + how different! Your father has questioned me often of my parentage + and birth,--I have hitherto eluded his interrogatories. Learn now + who I am. In a wretched abode, surrounded by the inhabitants of + poverty and vice, I recall my earliest recollections. My father is + unknown to me as to every one; my mother,--to you I dare not mention + who or what she was,--she died in my infancy. Without a name, but + not without an inheritance (my inheritance was large,--it was + infamy!), I was thrown upon the world. I had received by accident + some education, and imbibed some ideas not natural to my situation; + since then I have played many parts in life. Books and men I have + not so neglected but that I have gleaned at intervals some little + knowledge from both. Hence, if I have seemed to you better than I + am, you will perceive the cause. Circumstances made me soon my own + master; they made me also one whom honest men do not love to look + upon; my deeds have been, and my character is, of a par with my + birth and my fortunes. I came, in the noble hope to raise and + redeem myself by gilding my fate with a wealthy marriage, to this + city. I saw you, whom I had once before met. I heard you were + rich. Hate me, Miss Brandon, hate me!--I resolved to make your ruin + the cause of my redemption. Happily for you, I scarcely knew you + before I loved you; that love deepened,--it caught something pure + and elevated from yourself. My resolution forsook me; even now I + could throw myself on my knees and thank God that you--you, dearest + and noblest of human beings--are not my wife. Now, is my conduct + clear to you? If not, imagine me all that is villanous, save in one + point, where you are concerned, and not a shadow of mystery will + remain. Your kind father, overrating the paltry service I rendered + you, would have consented to submit my fate to your decision. I + blush indignantly for him--for you--that any living man should have + dreamed of such profanation for Miss Brandon. Yet I myself was + carried away and intoxicated by so sudden and so soft a hope,--even + I dared to lift my eyes to you, to press you to this guilty heart, + to forget myself, and to dream that you might be mine! Can you + forgive me for this madness? And hereafter, when in your lofty and + glittering sphere of wedded happiness, can you remember my + presumption and check your scorn? Perhaps you think that by so late + a confession I have already deceived you. Alas! you know not what + it costs me now to confess! I had only one hope in life,--it was + that you might still, long after you had ceased to see me, fancy me + not utterly beneath the herd with whom you live. This burning yet + selfish vanity I tear from me, and now I go where no hope can pursue + me. No hope for myself, save one which can scarcely deserve the + name, for it is rather a rude and visionary wish than an + expectation,--it is that under another name and under different + auspices you may hear of me at some distant time; and when I apprise + you that under that name you may recognize one who loves you better + than all created things, you may feel then, at least, no cause for + shame at your lover. What will you be then? A happy wife, a + mother, the centre of a thousand joys, beloved, admired, blest when + the eye sees you and the ear hears! And this is what I ought to + hope, this is the consolation that ought to cheer me; perhaps a + little time hence it will. Not that I shall love you less, but that + I shall love you less burningly, and therefore less selfishly. I + have now written to you all that it becomes you to receive from me. + My horse waits below to bear me from this city, and forever from + your vicinity. For ever!---ay, you are the only blessing forever + forbidden me. Wealth I may gain, a fair name, even glory I may + perhaps aspire to,--to heaven itself I may find a path; but of you + my very dreams cannot give me the shadow of a hope. I do not say, + if you could pierce my soul while I write, that you would pity me. + You may think it strange, but I would not have your pity for worlds; + I think I would even rather have your hate,--pity seems so much like + contempt. But if you knew what an effort has enabled me to tame + down my language, to curb my thoughts, to prevent me from embodying + that which now makes my brain whirl, and my hand feel as if the + living fire consumed it; if you knew what has enabled me to triumph + over the madness at my heart, and spare you what, if writ or spoken, + would seem like the ravings of insanity, you would not and you could + not despise me, though you might abhor. + + And now Heaven guard and bless you! Nothing on _earth_ could injure + you. And even the wicked who have looked upon you learn to pray,--I + have prayed for you! + + +Thus, abrupt and signatureless, ended the expected letter. Lucy came +down the next morning at her usual hour, and, except that she was very +pale, nothing in her appearance seemed to announce past grief or emotion. +The squire asked her if she had received the promised letter. She +answered, in a clear though faint voice, that she had,--that Mr. Clifford +had confessed himself of too low an origin to hope for marriage with Mr. +Brandon's family; that she trusted the squire would keep his secret; and +that the subject might never again be alluded to by either. If in this +speech there was something alien to Lucy's ingenuous character, and +painful to her mind, she felt it as it were a duty to her former lover +not to betray the whole of that confession so bitterly wrung from him. +Perhaps, too, there was in that letter a charm which seemed to her too +sacred to be revealed to any one; and mysteries were not excluded even +from a love so ill-placed and seemingly so transitory as hers. + +Lucy's answer touched the squire in his weak point. "A man of +decidedly low origin," he confessed, "was utterly out of the question; +nevertheless, the young man showed a great deal of candour in his +disclosure." He readily promised never to broach a subject necessarily +so unpleasant; and though he sighed as he finished his speech, yet the +extreme quiet of Lucy's manner reassured him; and when he perceived that +she resumed, though languidly, her wonted avocations, he felt but little +doubt of her soon overcoming the remembrance of what he hoped was but a +girlish and fleeting fancy. He yielded, with avidity, to her proposal to +return to Warlock; and in the same week as that in which Lucy had +received her lover's mysterious letter, the father and daughter commenced +their journey home. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + Butler. What are these, sir? + + Yeoman. And of what nature, to what use? + + Latroc. Imagine. + The Tragedy of Rollo. + + + Quickly. He's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went + to Arthur's bosom. + Henry V. + +The stream of our narrative now conducts us back to William Brandon. The +law-promotions previously intended were completed; and to the surprise of +the public, the envied barrister, undergoing the degradation of +knighthood, had, at the time we return to him, just changed his toilsome +occupations for the serene dignity of the bench. Whatever regret this +wily and aspiring schemer might otherwise have felt at an elevation +considerably less distinguished than he might reasonably have expected, +was entirely removed by the hopes afforded to him of a speedy translation +to a more brilliant office: it was whispered among those not unlikely to +foresee such events, that the interest of the government required his +talents in the house of peers. Just at this moment, too, the fell +disease, whose ravages Brandon endeavoured, as jealously as possible, to +hide from the public, had appeared suddenly to yield to the skill of a +new physician; and by the administration of medicines which a man less +stern or resolute might have trembled to adopt (so powerful and for the +most part deadly was their nature), he passed from a state of almost +insufferable torture to an elysium of tranquillity and ease. Perhaps, +however, the medicines which altered also decayed his constitution; and +it was observable that in two cases where the physician had attained a +like success by the same means, the patients had died suddenly, exactly +at the time when their cure seemed to be finally completed. However, Sir +William Brandon appeared very little anticipative of danger. His manner +became more cheerful and even than it had ever been before; there was a +certain lightness in his gait, a certain exhilaration in his voice and +eye, which seemed the tokens of one from whom a heavy burden had been +suddenly raised, and who was no longer prevented from the eagerness of +hope by the engrossing claims of a bodily pain. He had always been bland +in society, but now his courtesy breathed less of artifice,--it took a +more hearty tone. Another alteration was discernible in him, and that +was precisely the reverse of what might have been expected. He became +more thrifty, more attentive to the expenses of life than he had been. +Though a despiser of show and ostentation, and far too hard to be +luxurious, he was too scientific an architect of the weaknesses of others +not to have maintained during his public career an opulent appearance and +a hospitable table. The profession he had adopted requires, perhaps, +less of externals to aid it than any other; still Brandon had affected to +preserve parliamentary as well as legal importance; and though his house +was situated in a quarter entirely professional, he had been accustomed +to assemble around his hospitable board all who were eminent, in his +political party, for rank or for talent. Now, however, when hospitality +and a certain largeness of expenses better became his station, he grew +closer and more exact in his economy. Brandon never could have +degenerated into a miser; money, to one so habitually wise as he was, +could never have passed from means into an object; but he had evidently, +for some cause or another, formed the resolution to save. Some said it +was the result of returning health, and the hope of a prolonged life, to +which many objects for which wealth is desirable might occur. But when +it was accidentally ascertained that Brandon had been making several +inquiries respecting a large estate in the neighbourhood of Warlock, +formerly in the possession of his family, the gossips (for Brandon was a +man to be gossiped about) were no longer in want of a motive, false or +real, for the judge's thrift. + +It was shortly after his elevation to the bench, and ere these signs of +change had become noticeable, that the same strange ragamuffin whom we +have mentioned before, as introduced by Mr. Swoppem to a private +conference with Brandon, was admitted to the judge's presence. + +"Well," said Brandon, impatiently, the moment the door was closed, "your +news?" + +"Vy, your 'onor," said the man, bashfully, twirling a thing that stood +proxy for a hat, "I thinks as 'ow I shall be hable to satisfy your +vorship's 'onor.'! Then, approaching the judge and assuming an important +air, he whispered, "'T is as 'ow I thought!" + +"My God!" cried Brandon, with vehemence. "And he is alive,--and where?" + +"I believes," answered the seemly confidant of Sir William Brandon, "that +he be's alive; and if he be's alive, may I flash my ivories in a glass +case, if I does not ferret him out; but as to saying vhere he be at this +nick o' the moment, smash me if I can!" + +"Is he in this country," said Brandon; "or do you believe that he has +gone abroad?" + +"Vy, much of one and not a little of the other!" said the euphonious +confidant. + +"How! speak plain, man; what do you mean?" + +"Vy, I means, your 'oner, that I can't say vhere he is." + +"And this," said Brandon, with a muttered oath,--"this is your boasted +news, is it? Dog! damned, damned dog! if you trifle with me or play me +false, I will hang you,--by the living God, I will!" + +The man shrank back involuntarily from Brandon's vindictive forehead and +kindled eyes; but with the cunning peculiar to low vice, answered, though +in a humbler tone,-- + +"And vet good vill that do your 'oner? If so be as how you scrags I, +will that put your vorship in the vay of finding _he_?" + +Never was there an obstacle in grammar through which a sturdy truth could +not break; and Brandon, after a moody pause, said in a milder voice,-- + +"I did not mean to frighten you! Never mind what I said; but you can +surely guess whereabouts he is, or what means of life he pursues. +Perhaps,"--and a momentary paleness crossed Brandon's swarthy visage,-- +"perhaps he may have been driven into dishonesty in order to maintain +himself!" + +The informant replied with great naivete that such a thing was not +impossible! And Brandon then entered into a series of seemingly careless +but artful cross-questionings, which either the ignorance or the craft of +the man enabled him to baffle. After some time Brandon, disappointed and +dissatisfied, gave up his professional task; and bestowing on the man +many sagacious and minute instructions as well as a very liberal +donation, he was forced to dismiss his mysterious visitor, and to content +himself with an assured assertion that if the object of his inquiries +should not already be gone to the devil, the strange gentleman employed +to discover him would certainly, sooner or later, bring him to the judge. + +This assertion, and the interview preceding it, certainly inspired Sir +William Brandon with a feeling like complacency, although it was mingled +with a considerable alloy. + +"I do not," thought he, concluding his meditations when he was left +alone,--"I do not see what else I can do! Since it appears that the boy +had not even a name when he set out alone from his wretched abode, I fear +that an advertisement would have but little chance of even designating, +much less of finding him, after so long an absence. Besides, it might +make me the prey to impostors; and in all probability he has either left +the country, or adopted some mode of living which would prevent his +daring to disclose himself!" This thought plunged the soliloquist into a +gloomy abstraction, which lasted several minutes, and from which he +started, muttering aloud,-- + +"Yes, yes! I dare to believe, to hope it. Now for the minister and the +peerage!" And from that time the root of Sir William Brandon's ambition +spread with a firmer and more extended grasp over his mind. + +We grieve very much that the course of our story should now oblige us to +record an event which we would willingly have spared ourselves the pain +of narrating. The good old Squire of Warlock Manor-house had scarcely +reached his home on his return from Bath, before William Brandon received +the following letter from his brother's gray-headed butler:-- + + HONNURED SUR,--I send this with all speede, thof with a hevy bart, + to axquainte you with the sudden (and it is feered by his loving + friends and well-wishers, which latter, to be sur, is all as knows + him) dangeros ilness of the Squire. He was seezed, poor deer + gentleman (for God never made a better, no offence to your Honnur), + the moment he set footing in his Own Hall, and what has hung rond me + like a millston ever sin, is that instead of his saying, "How do you + do, Sampson?" as was his wont, whenever he returned from forren + parts, sich as Bath, Lunnun, and the like, he said, "God bless you, + Sampson!" which makes me think sumhow that it will be his last + wurds; for he has never spoke sin, for all Miss Lucy be by his + bedside continual. She, poor deer, don't take on at all, in regard + of crying and such woman's wurk, but looks nevertheless, for all the + wurld, just like a copse. I sends Tom the postilion with this + hexpress, nowing he is a good hand at a gallop, having, not sixteen + years ago, beat some o' the best on 'un at a raceng. Hoping as yer + Honnur will lose no time in coming to this "house of mourning," I + remane, with all respect, + Your Honnur's humble servant to command, + JOHN SAMPSON. + + [The reader, who has doubtless noticed how invariably servants of + long standing acquire a certain tone from that of their master, may + observe that honest John Sampson had caught from the squire the + habit of parenthetical composition.] + +Sir William Brandon did not give himself time to re-read this letter, +in order to make it more intelligible, before he wrote to one of his +professional compeers, requesting him to fill his place during his +unavoidable absence, on the melancholy occasion of his brother's +expected death; and having so done, he immediately set off for Warlock. +Inexplicable even to himself was that feeling, so nearly approaching to +real sorrow, which the worldly lawyer felt at the prospect of losing his +guileless and unspeculating brother. Whether it be that turbulent and +ambitious minds, in choosing for their wavering affections the very +opposites of themselves, feel (on losing the fellowship of those calm, +fair characters that have never crossed their rugged path) as if they +lost, in losing them, a kind of haven for their own restless thoughts and +tempest-worn designs!--be this as it may, certain it is that when William +Brandon arrived at his brother's door, and was informed by the old +butler, who for the first time was slow to greet him, that the squire had +just breathed his last, his austere nature forsook him at once, and he +felt the shock with a severity perhaps still keener than that which a +more genial and affectionate heart would have experienced. + +As soon as he had recovered his self-possession, Sir William made +question of his niece; and finding that after an unrelaxing watch during +the whole of the squire's brief illness, nature had failed her at his +death, and she had been borne senseless from his chamber to her own, +Brandon walked with a step far different from his usual stately gait to +the room where his brother lay. It was one of the oldest apartments in +the house, and much of the ancient splendour that belonged to the mansion +ere its size had been reduced, with the fortunes of its successive +owners, still distinguished the chamber. The huge mantelpiece ascending +to the carved ceiling in grotesque pilasters, and scroll-work of the +blackest oak, with the quartered arms of Brandon and Saville escutcheoned +in the centre; the panelled walls of the same dark wainscot; the armorie +of ebony; the high-backed chairs, with their tapestried seats; the lofty +bed, with its hearse-like plumes and draperies of a crimson damask that +seemed, so massy was the substance and so prominent the flowers, as if it +were rather a carving than a silk,--all conspired with the size of the +room to give it a feudal solemnity, not perhaps suited to the rest of the +house, but well calculated to strike a gloomy awe into the breast of the +worldly and proud man who now entered the death-chamber of his brother. + +Silently William Brandon motioned away the attendants, and silently he +seated himself by the bed, and looked long and wistfully upon the calm +and placid face of the deceased. It is difficult to guess at what passed +within him during the space of time in which he remained alone in that +room. The apartment itself he could not at another period have tenanted +without secret emotion. It was that in which, as a boy, he had himself +been accustomed to sleep; and, even then a schemer and an aspirant, the +very sight of the room sufficed to call back all the hopes and visions, +the restless projects and the feverish desires, which had now brought him +to the envied state of an acknowledged celebrity and a shattered frame. +There must have been something awful in the combination of those active +remembrances with the cause which had led him to that apartment; and +there was a homily in the serene countenance of the dead, which preached +more effectually to the heart of the living than William Brandon would +ever have cared to own. He had been more than an hour in the room, and +the evening had already begun to cast deep shadows through the small +panes of the half-closed window, when Brandon was startled by a slight +noise. He looked up, and beheld Lucy opposite to him. She did not see +him; but throwing herself upon the bed, she took the cold hand of the +deceased, and after a long silence burst into a passion of tears. + +"My father!" she sobbed,--"my kind, good father! who will love me now?" + +"I!" said Brandon, deeply affected; and passing round the bed, he took +his niece in his arms: "I will be your father, Lucy, and you--the last of +our race--shall be to me as a daughter!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Falsehood in him was not the useless lie + Of boasting pride or laughing vanity: + It was the gainful, the persuading art, etc. + + CRABBE. + + + On with the horses--off to Canterbury, + Tramp, tramp o'er pebble, and splash, splash thro' puddle; + Hurrah! how swiftly speeds the post so merry! + . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . + "Here laws are all inviolate: none lay + Traps for the traveller; every highway's clear; + Here--" he was interrupted by a knife, + With "D---your eyes! your money or your life!" + + Don Juan. + +Misfortunes are like the creations of Cadmus,--they destroy one another! +Roused from the torpor of mind occasioned by the loss of her lover at the +sudden illness of the squire, Lucy had no thought for herself, no thought +for any one, for anything but her father, till long after the earth had +closed over his remains. The very activity of the latter grief was less +dangerous than the quiet of the former; and when the first keenness of +sorrow passed away, and her mind gradually and mechanically returned to +the remembrance of Clifford, it was with an intensity less strong, and +less fatal to her health and happiness than before. She thought it +unnatural and criminal to allow anything else to grieve her, while she +had so sacred a grief as that of her loss; and her mind, once aroused +into resistance to passion, betrayed a native strength little to have +been expected from her apparent character. Sir William Brandon lost no +time in returning to town after the burial of his brother. He insisted +upon taking his niece with him; and, though with real reluctance, she +yielded to his wishes, and accompanied him. By the squire's will, +indeed, Sir William was appointed guardian to Lucy, and she yet wanted +more than a year of her majority. Brandon, with a delicacy very uncommon +to him where women (for he was a confirmed woman-hater) were concerned, +provided everything that he thought could in any way conduce to her +comfort. He ordered it to be understood in his establishment that she +was its mistress. He arranged and furnished, according to what he +imagined to be her taste, a suite of apartments for her sole +accommodation; a separate carriage and servants were appropriated to her +use; and he sought, by perpetual presents of books or flowers or music, +to occupy her thoughts, and atone for the solitude to which his +professional duties obliged him so constantly to consign her. These +attentions, which showed this strange man in a new light, seemed to bring +out many little latent amiabilities, which were usually imbedded in the +callosities of his rocky nature; and, even despite her causes for grief +and the deep melancholy which consumed her, Lucy was touched with +gratitude at kindness doubly soothing in one who, however urbane and +polished, was by no means addicted to the little attentions that are +considered so gratifying by women, and yet for which they so often +despise, while they like, him who affords them. There was much in +Brandon that wound itself insensibly around the heart. To one more +experienced than Lucy, this involuntary attraction might not have been +incompatible with suspicion, and could scarcely have been associated with +esteem; and yet for all who knew him intimately, even for the penetrating +and selfish Mauleverer, the attraction existed. Unprincipled, crafty, +hypocritical, even base when it suited his purpose; secretly sneering at +the dupes he made, and knowing no code save that of interest and +ambition; viewing men only as machines, and opinions only as ladders,-- +there was yet a tone of powerful feeling sometimes elicited from a heart +that could at the same moment have sacrificed a whole people to the +pettiest personal object: and sometimes with Lucy the eloquence or irony +of his conversation deepened into a melancholy, a half-suppressed +gentleness of sentiment, that accorded with the state of her own mind and +interested her kind feelings powerfully in his. It was these +peculiarities in his converse which made Lucy love to hear him; and she +gradually learned to anticipate with a gloomy pleasure the hour in which, +after the occupations of the day, he was accustomed to join her. + +"You look unwell, uncle, to-night," she said, when one evening he entered +the room with looks more fatigued than usual; and rising, she leaned +tenderly over him, and kissed his forehead. + +"Ay!" said Brandon, utterly unwon by, and even unheeding, the caress, +"our way of life soon passes into the sear and yellow leaf; and when +Macbeth grieved that he might not look to have that which should +accompany old age, he had grown doting, and grieved for what was +worthless." + +"Nay, uncle, 'honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,' these surely +were worth the sighing for?" + +"Pooh! not worth a single sigh! The foolish wishes we form in youth have +something noble and something bodily in them; but those of age are utter +shadows, and the shadows of pygmies! Why, what is honour, after all? +What is this good name among men? Only a sort of heathenish idol, set up +to be adored by one set of fools and scorned by another. Do you not +observe, Lucy, that the man you hear most praised by the party you meet +to-day is most abused by that which you meet to-morrow? Public men are +only praised by their party; and their party, sweet Lucy, are such base +minions that it moves one's spleen to think one is so little as to be +useful to them. Thus a good name is only the good name of a sect, and +the members of that sect are only marvellous proper knaves." + +"But posterity does justice to those who really deserve fame." + +"Posterity! Can you believe that a man who knows what life is cares for +the penny whistles of grown children after his death? Posterity, Lucy,-- +no! Posterity is but the same perpetuity of fools and rascals; and even +were justice desirable at their hands, they could not deal it. Do men +agree whether Charles Stuart was a liar or a martyr? For how many ages +have we believed Nero a monster! A writer now asks, as if demonstrating +a problem, what real historian could doubt that Nero was a paragon? The +patriarchs of Scripture have been declared by modern philosophy to be a +series of astronomical hieroglyphs; and, with greater show of truth, we +are assured that the patriot Tell never existed! Posterity! the word has +gulled men enough without my adding to the number. I, who loathe the +living, can scarcely venerate the unborn. Lucy, believe me that no man +can mix largely with men in political life, and not despise everything +that in youth he adored! Age leaves us only one feeling,--contempt!" + +"Are you belied, then?" said Lucy, pointing to a newspaper, the organ of +the party opposed to Brandon: "are you belied when you are here called +'ambitious'? When they call you 'selfish' and 'grasping,' I know they +wrong you; but I confess that I have thought you ambitious; yet can he +who despises men desire their good opinion?" + +"Their good opinion!" repeated Brandon, mockingly: "do we want the bray +of the asses we ride? No!" he resumed, after a pause. "It is power, not +honour; it is the hope of elevating oneself in every respect, in the +world without as well as in the world of one's own mind: it is this hope +which makes me labour where I might rest, and will continue the labour to +my grave. Lucy," continued Brandon, fixing his keen eyes on his niece, +"have you no ambition,--have power and pomp and place no charm for your +mind?" + +"None!" said Lucy, quietly and simply. + +"Indeed! yet there are times when I have thought I recognized my blood in +your veins. You are sprung from a once noble, but a fallen race. Are +you ever susceptible to the weakness of ancestral pride?" + +"You say," answered Lucy, "that we should care not for those who live +after us; much less, I imagine, should we care for those who have lived +ages before!" + +"Prettily answered," said Brandon, smiling. "I will tell you at one time +or another what effect that weakness you despise already once had, long +after your age, upon me. You are early wise on some points; profit by my +experience, and be so on all." + +"That is to say, in despising all men and all things!" said Lucy, also +smiling. + +"Well, never mind my creed,--you may be wise after your own; but trust +one, dearest Lucy, who loves you purely and disinterestedly, and who has +weighed with scales balanced to a hair all the advantages to be gleaned +from an earth in which I verily think the harvest was gathered before we +were put into it,--trust me, Lucy, and never think love, that maiden's +dream, so valuable as rank and power: pause well before you yield to the +former; accept the latter the moment they are offered you. Love puts you +at the feet of another, and that other a tyrant; rank puts others at your +feet, and all those thus subjected are your slaves!" + +Lucy moved her chair so that the new position concealed her face, and did +not answer; and Brandon, in an altered tone, continued,-- + +"Would you think, Lucy, that I once was fool enough to imagine that love +was a blessing, and to be eagerly sought for? I gave up my hopes, my +chances of wealth, of distinction,--all that had burned from the years of +boyhood into my very heart. I chose poverty, obscurity, humiliation; but +I chose also love. What was my reward? Lucy Brandon, I was deceived,-- +deceived!" + +Brandon paused; and Lucy took his hand affectionately, but did not break +the silence. Brandon resumed:-- + +"Yes, I was deceived! But I in my turn had a revenge, and a fitting +revenge; for it was not the revenge of hatred, but" (and the speaker +laughed sardonically) "of contempt. Enough of this, Lucy! What I wished +to say to you is this,--grown men and women know more of the truth of +things than ye young persons think for. Love is a mere bauble, and no +human being ever exchanged for it one solid advantage without repentance. +Believe this; and if rank ever puts itself under those pretty feet, be +sure not to spurn the footstool." + +So saying, with a slight laugh, Brandon lighted his chamber candle, and +left the room for the night. + +As soon as the lawyer reached his own apartment, he indited to Lord +Mauleverer the following epistle: + + "Why, dear Mauleverer, do you not come to town? I want you, your + party wants you; perhaps the K--g wants you; and certainly, if you + are serious about my niece, the care of your own love-suit should + induce you yourself to want to come hither. I have paved the way + for you; and I think, with a little management, you may anticipate a + speedy success. But Lucy is a strange girl; and, perhaps, after + all, though you ought to be on the spot, you had better leave her as + much as possible in my hands. I know human nature, Mauleverer, and + that knowledge is the engine by which I will work your triumph. As + for the young lover, I am not quite sure whether it be not better + for our sake that Lucy should have experienced a disappointment on + that score; for when a woman has once loved, and the love is utterly + hopeless, she puts all vague ideas of other lovers altogether out of + her head; she becomes contented with a husband whom she can esteem! + Sweet canter! But you, Mauleverer, want Lucy to love you! And so + she will--after you have married her! She will love you partly from + the advantages she derives from you, partly from familiarity (to say + nothing of your good qualities). For my part, I think domesticity + goes so far that I believe a woman always inclined to be + affectionate to a man whom she has once seen in his nightcap. + However, you should come to town; my poor brother's recent death + allows us to see no one,--the coast will be clear from rivals; grief + has softened my niece's heart; in a word, you could not have a + better opportunity. Come! + + "By the way, you say one of the reasons which made you think ill of + this Captain Clifford was your impression that in the figure of one + of his comrades you recognized something that appeared to you to + resemble one of the fellows who robbed you a few months ago. I + understand that at this moment the police are in active pursuit of + three most accomplished robbers; nor should I be at all surprised if + in this very Clifford were to be found the leader of the gang, + namely, the notorious Lovett. I hear that the said leader is a + clever and a handsome fellow, of a gentlemanlike address, and that + his general associates are two men of the exact stamp of the + worthies you have so amusingly described to me. I heard this + yesterday from Nabbem, the police-officer with whom I once scraped + acquaintance on a trial; and in my grudge against your rival, I + hinted at my suspicion that he, Captain Clifford, might not + impossibly prove this Rinaldo Rinaldini of the roads. Nabbem caught + at my hint at once; so that, if it be founded on a true guess, I may + flatter my conscience as well as my friendship by the hope that I + have had some hand in hanging this Adonis of my niece's. Whether my + guess be true or not, Nabbem says he is sure of this Lovett; for one + of his gang has promised to betray him. Hang these aspiring dogs! + I thought treachery was confined to politics; and that thought makes + me turn to public matters, in which all people are turning with the + most edifying celerity. . . ." + + +Sir William Brandon's epistle found Mauleverer in a fitting mood for Lucy +and for London. Our worthy peer had been not a little chagrined by +Lucy's sudden departure from Bath; and while in doubt whether or not to +follow her, the papers had informed him of the squire's death. +Mauleverer, being then fully aware of the impossibility of immediately +urging his suit, endeavoured, like the true philosopher he was, to +reconcile himself to his hope deferred. Few people were more easily +susceptible of consolation than Lord Mauleverer. He found an agreeable +lady, of a face more unfaded than her reputation, to whom he intrusted +the care of relieving his leisure moments from ennui; and being a lively +woman, the confidante discharged the trust with great satisfaction to +Lord Mauleverer, for the space of a fortnight, so that he naturally began +to feel his love for Lucy gradually wearing away, by absence and other +ties; but just as the triumph of time over passion was growing decisive, +the lady left Bath in company with a tall guardsman, and Mauleverer +received Brandon's letter. These two events recalled our excellent lover +to a sense of his allegiance; and there being now at Bath no particular +attraction to counterbalance the ardour of his affection, Lord Mauleverer +ordered the horses to his carriage, and attended only by his valet, set +out for London. + +Nothing, perhaps, could convey a better portrait of the world's spoiled +darling than a sight of Lord Mauleverer's thin, fastidious features, +peering forth through the closed window of his luxurious travelling- +chariot; the rest of the outer man being carefully enveloped in furs, +half-a-dozen novels strewing the seat of the carriage, and a lean French +dog, exceedingly like its master, sniffing in vain for the fresh air, +which, to the imagination of Mauleverer, was peopled with all sorts of +asthmas and catarrhs! Mauleverer got out of his carriage at Salisbury, +to stretch his limbs, and to amuse himself with a cutlet. Our nobleman +was well known on the roads; and as nobody could be more affable, he was +equally popular. The officious landlord bustled into the room, to wait +himself upon his lordship and to tell all the news of the place. + +"Well, Mr. Cheerly," said Mauleverer, bestowing a penetrating glance on +his cutlet, "the bad times, I see, have not ruined your cook." + +"Indeed, my lord, your lordship is very good, and the times, indeed, are +very bad,--very bad indeed. Is there enough gravy? Perhaps your +lordship will try the pickled onions?" + +"The what? Onions!--oh! ah! nothing can be better; but I never touch +them. So, are the roads good?" + +"Your lordship has, I hope, found them good to Salisbury?" + +"Ah! I believe so. Oh! to be sure, excellent to Salisbury. But how +are they to London? We have had wet weather lately, I think!" + +"No, my lord. Here the weather has been dry as a bone." + +"Or a cutlet!" muttered Mauleverer; and the host continued,-- + +"As for the roads themselves, my lord, so far as the roads are concerned, +they are pretty good, my lord; but I can't say as how there is not +something about them that might be mended." + +"By no means improbable! You mean the inns and the turnpikes?" rejoined +Mauleverer. + +"Your lordship is pleased to be facetious; no! I meant something worse +than them." + +"What! the cooks?" + +"No, my lord, the highwaymen!" + +"The highwaymen! indeed?" said Mauleverer, anxiously; for he had with him +a case of diamonds, which at that time were on grand occasions often the +ornaments of a gentleman's dress, in the shape of buttons, buckles, etc. +He had also a tolerably large sum of ready money about him,--a blessing +he had lately begun to find very rare. "By the way, the rascals robbed +me before on this very road. My pistols shall be loaded this time. Mr. +Cheerly, you had better order the horses; one may as well escape the +nightfall." + +"Certainly, my lord, certainly.--Jem, the horses immediately!--Your +lordship will have another cutlet?" + +"Not a morsel!" + +"A tart?" + +"A dev--! not for the world!" + +"Bring the cheese, John!" + +"Much obliged to you, Mr. Cheerly, but I have dined; and if I have not +done justice to your good cheer, thank yourself and the highwaymen. +Where do these highwaymen attack one?" + +"Why, my lord, the neighbourhood of Reading is, I believe, the worst +part; but they are very troublesome all the way to Salthill." + +"Damnation! the very neighbourhood in which the knaves robbed me before! +You may well call them troublesome! Why the deuce don't the police clear +the country of such a movable species of trouble?" + +"Indeed, my lord, I don't know; but they say as how Captain Lovett, the +famous robber, be one of the set; and nobody can catch him, I fear!" + +"Because, I suppose, the dog has the sense to bribe as well as bully. +What is the general number of these ruffians?" + +"Why, my lord, sometimes one, sometimes two, but seldom more than three." + +Mauleverer drew himself up. "My dear diamonds and my pretty purse!" +thought he; "I may save you yet!" + +"Have you been long plagued with the fellows?" he asked, after a pause, +as he was paying his bill. + +"Why, my lord, we have and we have not. I fancy as how they have a sort +of a haunt near Reading, for sometimes they are intolerable just about +there, and sometimes they are quiet for months together! For instance, +my lord, we thought them all gone some time ago; but lately they have +regularly stopped every one, though I hear as how they have cleared no +great booty as yet." + +Here the waiter announced the horses, and Mauleverer slowly re-entered +his carriage, among the bows and smiles of the charmed spirits of the +hostelry. + +During the daylight Mauleverer, who was naturally of a gallant and +fearless temper, thought no more of the highwaymen,--a species of danger +so common at that time that men almost considered it disgraceful to +suffer the dread of it to be a cause of delay on the road. Travellers +seldom deemed it best to lose time in order to save money; and they +carried with them a stout heart and a brace of pistols, instead of +sleeping all night on the road. Mauleverer, rather a _preux chevalier_, +was precisely of this order of wayfarers; and a night at an inn, when it +was possible to avoid it, was to him, as to most rich Englishmen, a +tedious torture zealously to be shunned. It never, therefore, entered +into the head of our excellent nobleman, despite his experience, that his +diamonds and his purse might be saved from all danger if he would consent +to deposit them, with his own person, at some place of hospitable +reception; nor, indeed, was it till he was within a stage of Reading, and +the twilight had entirely closed in, that he troubled his head much on +the matter. But while the horses were putting to, he summoned the +postboys to him; and after regarding their countenances with the eye +of a man accustomed to read physiognomies, he thus eloquently addressed +them,-- + +"Gentlemen, I am informed that there is some danger of being robbed +between this town and Salthill. Now, I beg to inform you that I think it +next to impossible for four horses, properly directed, to be stopped by +less than four men. To that number I shall probably yield; to a less +number I shall most assuredly give nothing but bullets. You understand +me?" + +The post-boys grinned, touched their hats; and Mauleverer slowly +continued,-- + +"If, therefore,--mark me!--one, two, or three men stop your horses, and I +find that the use of your whips and spurs are ineffectual in releasing +the animals from the hold of the robbers, I intend with these pistols-- +you observe them!---to shoot at the gentlemen who detain you; but as, +though I am generally a dead shot, my eyesight wavers a little in the +dark, I think it very possible that I may have the misfortune to shoot +you, gentlemen, instead of the robbers! You see the rascals will be +close by you, sufficiently so to put you in jeopardy, unless indeed you +knock them down with the but-end of your whips. I merely mention this, +that you may be prepared. Should such a mistake occur, you need not be +uneasy beforehand, for I will take every possible care of your widows; +should it not, and should we reach Salthill in safety, I intend to +testify my sense of the excellence of your driving by a present of ten +guineas apiece! Gentlemen, I have done with you. I give you my honour +that I am serious in what I have said to you. Do me the favour to +mount." + +Mauleverer then called his favourite servant, who sat in the dickey in +front (rumble-tumbles not being then in use). "Smoothson," said he, "the +last time we were attacked on this very road, you behaved damnably. See +that you do better this time, or it may be the worse for you. You have +pistols to-night about you, eh? Well, that's right! And you are sure +they're loaded? Very well! Now, then, if we are stopped, don't lose a +moment. Jump down, and fire one of your pistols at the first robber. +Keep the other for a sure aim. One shot is to intimidate, the second to +slay. You comprehend? My pistols are in excellent order, I suppose. +Lend me the ramrod. So, so! No trick this time!" + +"They would kill a fly, my lord, provided your lordship fired straight +upon it." + +"I do not doubt you," said Mauleverer; "light the lanterns, and tell the +postboys to drive on." + +It was a frosty and tolerably clear night. The dusk of the twilight had +melted away beneath the moon which had just risen, and the hoary rime +glittered from the bushes and the sward, breaking into a thousand +diamonds as it caught the rays of the stars. On went the horses briskly, +their breath steaming against the fresh air, and their hoofs sounding +cheerily on the hard ground. The rapid motion of the carriage, the +bracing coolness of the night, and the excitement occasioned by anxiety +and the forethought of danger, all conspired to stir the languid blood of +Lord Mauleverer into a vigorous and exhilarated sensation, natural in +youth to his character, but utterly contrary to the nature he had imbibed +from the customs of his manhood. + +He felt his pistols, and his hands trembled a little as he did so,--not +the least from fear, but from that restlessness and eagerness peculiar to +nervous persons placed in a new situation. + +"In this country," said he to himself, "I have been only once robbed in +the course of my life. It was then a little my fault; for before I took +to my pistols, I should have been certain they were loaded. To-night I +shall be sure to avoid a similar blunder; and my pistols have an +eloquence in their barrels which is exceedingly moving. Humph, another +milestone! These fellows drive well; but we are entering a pretty- +looking spot for Messieurs the disciples of Robin Hood!" + +It was, indeed, a picturesque spot by which the carriage was now rapidly +whirling. A few miles from Maidenhead, on the Henley Road, our readers +will probably remember a small tract of forest-like land, lying on either +side of the road. To the left the green waste bears away among the trees +and bushes; and one skilled in the country may pass from that spot, +through a landscape as little tenanted as green Sherwood was formerly, +into the chains of wild common and deep beech-woods which border a +certain portion of Oxfordshire, and contrast so beautifully the general +characteristics of that county. + +At the time we speak of, the country was even far wilder than it is now; +and just on that point where the Henley and the Reading roads unite was a +spot (communicating then with the waste land we have described), than +which, perhaps, few places could be more adapted to the purposes of such +true men as have recourse to the primary law of nature. Certain it was +that at this part of the road Mauleverer looked more anxiously from his +window than he had hitherto done, and apparently the increased +earnestness of his survey was not altogether without meeting its reward. + +About a hundred yards to the left, three dark objects were just +discernible in the shade; a moment more, and the objects emerging grew +into the forms of three men, well mounted, and riding at a brisk trot. + +"Only three!" thought Mauleverer, "that is well;" and leaning from the +front window with a pistol in either hand, Mauleverer cried out to the +postboys in a stern tone, "Drive on, and recollect what I told you!-- +Remember!" he added to his servant. The postboys scarcely looked round; +but their spurs were buried in their horses, and the animals flew on like +lightning. + +The three strangers made a halt, as if in conference; their decision was +prompt. Two wheeled round from their comrade, and darted at full gallop +by the carriage. Mauleverer's pistol was already protruded from the +front window, when to his astonishment, and to the utter baffling of his +ingenious admonition to his drivers, he beheld the two postboys knocked +from their horses one after the other with a celerity that scarcely +allowed him an exclamation; and before he had recovered his self- +possession, the horses taking fright (and their fright being skilfully +taken advantage of by the highwaymen), the carriage was fairly whirled +into a ditch on the right side of the road, and upset. Meanwhile +Smoothson had leaped from his station in the front; and having fired, +though without effect, at the third robber, who approached menacingly +towards him, he gained the time to open the carriage door and extricate +his master. + +The moment Mauleverer found himself on terra firma, he prepared his +courage for offensive measures; and he and Smoothson, standing side by +side in front of the unfortunate vehicle, presented no unformidable +aspect to the enemy. The two robbers who had so decisively rid +themselves of the postboys acted with no less determination towards the +horses. One of them dismounted, cut the traces, and suffered the +plunging quadrupeds to go whither they listed. This measure was not, +however, allowed to be taken with impunity; a ball from Mauleverer's +pistol passed through the hat of the highwayman with an aim so slightly +erring that it whizzed among the locks of the astounded hero with a sound +that sent a terror to his heart, no less from a love of his head than +from anxiety for his hair. The shock staggered him for a moment; and a +second shot from the hands of Mauleverer would have probably finished his +earthly career, had not the third robber, who had hitherto remained +almost inactive, thrown himself from his horse, which, tutored to such +docility, remained perfectly still, and advancing with a bold step and a +levelled pistol towards Mauleverer and his servant, said in a resolute +voice, "Gentlemen, it is useless to struggle; we are well armed, and +resolved on effecting our purpose. Your persons shall be safe if you lay +down your arms, and also such part of your property as you may +particularly wish to retain; but if you resist, I cannot answer for your +lives!" + +Mauleverer had listened patiently to this speech in order that he might +have more time for adjusting his aim. His reply was a bullet, which +grazed the side of the speaker and tore away the skin, without inflicting +any more dangerous wound. Muttering a curse upon the error of his aim, +and resolute to the last when his blood was once up, Mauleverer backed +one pace, drew his sword, and threw himself into the attitude of a +champion well skilled in the use of the instrument he wore. + +But that incomparable personage was in a fair way of ascertaining what +happiness in the world to come is reserved for a man who has spared no +pains to make himself comfortable in this. For the two first and most +active robbers having finished the achievement of the horses, now +approached Mauleverer; and the taller of them, still indignant at the +late peril to his hair, cried out in a stentorian voice,-- + +"By Jove! you old fool, if you don't throw down your toasting-fork, I'll +be the death of you!" + +The speaker suited the action to the word by cocking an immense pistol. +Mauleverer stood his ground; but Smoothson retreated, and stumbling +against the wheel of the carriage, fell backward; the next instant, the +second highwayman had possessed himself of the valet's pistols, and, +quietly seated on the fallen man's stomach, amused himself by inspecting +the contents of the domestic's pockets. Mauleverer was now alone; and +his stubbornness so enraged the tall bully that his hand was already on +his trigger, when the third robber, whose side Mauleverer's bullet had +grazed, thrust himself between the two. + +"Hold, Ned!" said he, pushing back his comrade's pistol. "And you, my +lord, whose rashness ought to cost you your life, learn that men can rob +generously." So saying, with one dexterous stroke from the robber's +riding-whip, Mauleverer's sword flew upwards, and alighted at the +distance of ten yards from its owner. + +"Approach now," said the victor to his comrades. "Rifle the carriage, +and with all despatch!" + +The tall highwayman hastened to execute this order; and the lesser one +having satisfactorily finished the inquisition into Mr. Smoothson's +pockets, drew forth from his own pouch a tolerably thick rope; with this +he tied the hands of the prostrate valet, moralizing as he wound the rope +round and round the wrists of the fallen man, in the following edifying +strain:-- + +"Lie still, sir,--lie still, I beseech you! All wise men are fatalists; +and no proverb is more pithy than that which says, 'What can't be cured +must be endured.' Lie still, I tell you! Little, perhaps, do you think +that you are performing one of the noblest functions of humanity; yes, +sir, you are filling the pockets of the destitute; and by my present +action I am securing you from any weakness of the flesh likely to impede +so praiseworthy an end, and so hazard the excellence of your action. +There, sir, your hands are tight,--lie still and reflect." + +As he said this, with three gentle applications of his feet, the moralist +rolled Mr. Smoothson into the ditch, and hastened to join his lengthy +comrade in his pleasing occupation. + +In the interim Mauleverer and the third robber (who, in the true spirit +of government, remained dignified and inactive while his followers +plundered what he certainly designed to share, if not to monopolize) +stood within a few feet of each other, face to face. + +Mauleverer had now convinced himself that all endeavour to save his +property was hopeless, and he had also the consolation of thinking he had +done his best to defend it. He therefore bade all his thoughts return to +the care of his person. He adjusted his fur collar around his neck with +great sang froid, drew on his gloves, and, patting his terrified poodle, +who sat shivering on its haunches with one paw raised and nervously +trembling, he said,-- + +"You, sir, seem to be a civil person, and I really should have felt quite +sorry if I had had the misfortune to wound you. You are not hurt, I +trust. Pray, if I may inquire, how am I to proceed? My carriage is in +the ditch, and my horses by this time are probably at the end of the +world." + +"As for that matter," said the robber, whose face, like those of his +comrades, was closely masked in the approved fashion of highwaymen of +that day, "I believe you will have to walk to Maidenhead,--it is not far, +and the night is fine!" + +"A very trifling hardship, indeed!" said Mauleverer, ironically; but his +new acquaintance made no reply, nor did he appear at all desirous of +entering into any further conversation with Mauleverer. + +The earl, therefore, after watching the operations of the other robbers +for some moments, turned on his heel, and remained humming an opera tune +with dignified indifference until the pair had finished rifling the +carriage, and seizing Mauleverer, proceeded to rifle him. + +With a curled lip and a raised brow, that supreme personage suffered +himself to be, as the taller robber expressed it, "cleaned out." His +watch, his rings, his purse, and his snuff-box, all went. It was long +since the rascals had captured such a booty. + +They had scarcely finished when the postboys, who had now begun to look +about them, uttered a simultaneous cry, and at some distance a wagon was +seen heavily approaching. Mauleverer really wanted his money, to say +nothing of his diamonds; and so soon as he perceived assistance at hand, +a new hope darted within him. His sword still lay on the ground; he +sprang towards it, seized it, uttered a shout for help, and threw himself +fiercely on the highwayman who had disarmed him; but the robber, warding +off the blade with his whip, retreated to his saddle, which he managed, +despite of Mauleverer's lunges, to regain with impunity. + +The other two had already mounted, and within a minute afterwards not a +vestige of the trio was visible. "This is what may fairly be called +single blessedness!" said Mauleverer, as, dropping his useless sword, he +thrust his hands into his pockets. + +Leaving our peerless peer to find his way to Maidenhead on foot, +accompanied (to say nothing of the poodle) by one wagoner, two postboys, +and the released Mr. Smoothson, all four charming him with their +condolences, we follow with our story the steps of the three _alieni +appetentes_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + The rogues were very merry on their booty. They said a thousand + things that showed the wickedness of their morals.---Gil Bias. + + They fixed on a spot where they made a cave, which was large enough + to receive them and their horses. This cave was inclosed within a + sort of thicket of bushes and brambles. From this station they used + to issue, etc.---Memoirs of Richard Turpin. + +It was not for several minutes after their flight had commenced that any +conversation passed between the robbers. Their horses flew on like wind; +and the country through which they rode presented to their speed no other +obstacle than an occasional hedge, or a short cut through the thicknesses +of some leafless beechwood. The stars lent them a merry light, and the +spirits of two of them at least were fully in sympathy with the +exhilaration of the pace and the air. Perhaps, in the third, a certain +presentiment that the present adventure would end less merrily than it +had begun, conspired, with other causes of gloom, to check that +exaltation of the blood which generally follows a successful exploit. + +The path which the robbers took wound by the sides of long woods or +across large tracts of uncultivated land; nor did they encounter anything +living by the road, save now and then a solitary owl, wheeling its gray +body around the skirts of the bare woods, or occasionally troops of +conies, pursuing their sports and enjoying their midnight food in the +fields. + +"Heavens!" cried the tall robber, whose incognito we need no longer +preserve, and who, as our readers are doubtless aware, answered to the +name of Pepper,--"heavens!" cried he, looking upward at the starry skies +in a sort of ecstasy, "what a jolly life this is! Some fellows like +hunting; d---it! what hunting is like the road? If there be sport in +hunting down a nasty fox, how much more is there in hunting down a nice, +clean nobleman's carriage! If there be joy in getting a brush, how much +more is there in getting a purse! If it be pleasant to fly over a hedge +in the broad daylight, hang me if it be not ten times finer sport to skim +it by night,--here goes! Look how the hedges run away from us! and the +silly old moon dances about, as if the sight of us put the good lady in +spirits! Those old maids are always glad to have an eye upon such fine, +dashing young fellows." + +"Ay," cried the more erudite and sententious Augustus Tomlinson, roused +by success from his usual philosophical sobriety; "no work is so pleasant +as night-work, and the witches our ancestors burned were in the right to +ride out on their broomsticks with the awls and the stars. We are their +successors now, Ned. We are your true fly-by-nights!" + +"Only," quoth Ned, "we are a cursed deal more clever than they were; for +they played their game without being a bit the richer for it, and we--I +say, Tomlinson, where the devil did you put that red morocco case?" + +"Experience never enlightens the foolish," said Tomlinson, "or you would +have known, without asking, that I had put it in the very safest pocket +in my coat. 'Gad, how heavy it is! + +"Well," cried Pepper, "I can't say I wish it were lighter! Only think of +our robbing my lord twice, and on the same road too!" + +"I say, Lovett," exclaimed Tomlinson, "was it not odd that we should have +stumbled upon our Bath friend so unceremoniously? Lucky for us that we +are so strict in robbing in masks! He would not have thought the better +of Bath company if he had seen our faces." + +Lovett, or rather Clifford, had hitherto been silent. He now turned +slowly in his saddle, and said: "As it was, the poor devil was very +nearly despatched. Long Ned was making short work with him, if I had not +interposed!" + +"And why did you?" said Ned. + +"Because I will have no killing; it is the curse of the noble art of our +profession to have passionate professors like thee." + +"Passionate!" repeated Ned. "Well, I am a little choleric, I own it; +but that is not so great a fault on the road as it would be in +housebreaking. I don't know a thing that requires so much coolness and +self-possession as cleaning out a house from top to bottom,--quietly and +civilly, mind you!" + +"That is the reason, I suppose, then," said Augustus, "that you +altogether renounced that career. Your first adventure was house +breaking, I think I have heard you say. I confess it was a vulgar +debut,--not worthy of you!" + +"No! Harry Cook seduced me; but the specimen I saw that night disgusted +me of picking locks; it brings one in contact with such low companions. +Only think, there was a merchant, a rag-merchant, one of the party!" + +"Faugh!" said Tomlinson, in solemn disgust. + +"Ay, you may well turn up your lip; I never broke into a house again." + +"Who were your other companions?" asked Augustus. "Only Harry Cook, +--[A noted highwayman.]--and a very singular woman--" + +Here Ned's narrative was interrupted by a dark defile through a wood, +allowing room for only one horseman at a time. They continued this +gloomy path for several minutes, until at length it brought them to the +brink of a large dell, overgrown with bushes, and spreading around +somewhat in the form of a rude semicircle. Here the robbers dismounted, +and led their reeking horses down the descent. Long Ned, who went first, +paused at a cluster of bushes, which seemed so thick as to defy +intrusion, but which, yielding on either side to the experienced hand of +the robber, presented what appeared the mouth of a cavern. A few steps +along the passage of this gulf brought them to a door, which, even seen +by torchlight, would have appeared so exactly similar in colour and +material to the rude walls on either side as to have deceived any +unsuspecting eye, and which, in the customary darkness brooding over it, +might have remained for centuries undiscovered. Touching a secret latch, +the door opened, and the robbers were in the secure precincts of the "Red +Cave." It may be remembered that among the early studies of our +exemplary hero the memoirs of Richard Turpin had formed a conspicuous +portion; and it may also be remembered that in the miscellaneous +adventures of that gentleman nothing had more delighted the juvenile +imagination of the student than the description of the forest cave in +which the gallant Turpin had been accustomed to conceal himself, his +friend, his horse, + + "And that sweet saint who lay by Turpin's side;" + +or, to speak more domestically, the respectable Mrs. Turpin. So strong +a hold, indeed, had that early reminiscence fixed upon our hero's mind, +that no sooner had he risen to eminence among his friends than he had put +the project of his childhood into execution. He had selected for the +scene of his ingenuity an admirable spot. In a thinly peopled country, +surrounded by commons and woods, and yet, as Mr. Robins would say if he +had to dispose of it by auction, "within an easy ride" of populous and +well-frequented roads, it possessed all the advantages of secrecy for +itself and convenience for depredation. Very few of the gang, and those +only who had been employed in its construction, were made acquainted with +the secret of this cavern; and as our adventurers rarely visited it, and +only on occasions of urgent want or secure concealment, it had continued +for more than two years undiscovered and unsuspected. + +The cavern, originally hollowed by nature, owed but little to the +decorations of art; nevertheless, the roughness of the walls was +concealed by a rude but comfortable arras of matting; four or five of +such seats as the robbers themselves could construct were drawn around a +small but bright wood-fire, which, as there was no chimney, spread a thin +volume of smoke over the apartment. The height of the cave, added to the +universal reconciler (custom), prevented, however, this evil from being +seriously unpleasant; and, indeed, like the tenants of an Irish cabin, +perhaps the inmates attached a degree of comfort to a circumstance which +was coupled with their dearest household associations. A table, formed +of a board coarsely planed, and supported by four legs of irregular size, +made equal by the introduction of blocks or wedges between the legs and +the floor, stood warming its uncouth self by the fire. At one corner a +covered cart made a conspicuous article of furniture, no doubt useful +either in conveying plunder or provisions; beside the wheels were +carelessly thrown two or three coarse carpenter's tools, and the more +warlike utilities of a blunderbuss, a rifle, and two broadswords. In the +other corner was an open cupboard, containing rows of pewter platters, +mugs, etc. Opposite the fireplace, which was to the left of the +entrance, an excavation had been turned into a dormitory; and fronting +the entrance was a pair of broad, strong wooden steps, ascending to a +large hollow about eight feet from the ground. This was the entrance to +the stables; and as soon as their owners released the reins of the +horses, the docile animals proceeded one by one leisurely up the steps, +in the manner of quadrupeds educated at the public seminary of Astley's, +and disappeared within the aperture. + +These steps, when drawn up,--which, however, from their extreme +clumsiness, required the united strength of two ordinary men, and was not +that instantaneous work which it should have been,--made the place above +a tolerably strong hold; for the wall was perfectly perpendicular and +level, and it was only by placing his hands upon the ledge, and so +lifting himself gymnastically upward, that an active assailant could have +reached the eminence,--a work which defenders equally active, it may +easily be supposed, would not be likely to allow. + +This upper cave--for our robbers paid more attention to their horses than +themselves, as the nobler animals of the two species--was evidently +fitted up with some labour. The stalls were rudely divided, the litter +of dry fern was clean, troughs were filled with oats, and a large tub had +been supplied from a pond at a little distance. A cart-harness and some +old wagoners' frocks were fixed on pegs to the wall; while at the far end +of these singular stables was a door strongly barred, and only just large +enough to admit the body of a man. The confederates had made it an +express law never to enter their domain by this door, or to use it, +except for the purpose of escape, should the cave ever be attacked; in +which case, while one or two defended the entrance from the inner cave, +another might unbar the door, and as it opened upon the thickest part of +the wood, through which with great ingenuity a labyrinthine path had been +cut, not easily tracked by ignorant pursuers, these precautions of the +highwaymen had provided a fair hope of at least a temporary escape from +any invading enemies. + +Such were the domestic arrangements of the Red Cave; and it will be +conceded that at least some skill had been shown in the choice of the +spot, if there were a lack of taste in its adornments. + +While the horses were performing their nightly ascent, our three heroes, +after securing the door, made at once to the fire. And there, O reader! +they were greeted in welcome by one--an old and revered acquaintance of +thine--whom in such a scene it will equally astound and wound thee to +re-behold. + +Know, then--But first we will describe to thee the occupation and the +garb of the August personage to whom we allude. Bending over a large +gridiron, daintily bespread with steaks of the fatted rump, the +INDIVIDUAL stood, with his right arm bared above the elbow, and his right +hand grasping that mimic trident known unto gastronomers by the +monosyllable "fork." His wigless head was adorned with a cotton +nightcap. His upper vestment was discarded, and a whitish apron flowed +gracefully down his middle man. His stockings were ungartered, and +permitted between the knee and the calf interesting glances of the rude +carnal. One list shoe and one of leathern manufacture cased his ample +feet. Enterprise, or the noble glow of his present culinary profession, +spread a yet rosier blush over a countenance early tinged by generous +libations, and from beneath the curtain of his pallid eyelashes his large +and rotund orbs gleamed dazzlingly on the new comers. Such, O reader! +was the aspect and the occupation of the venerable man whom we have long +since taught thee to admire; such, alas for the mutabilities of earth! +was--A new chapter only can contain the name. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + Caliban. Hast thou not dropped from heaven? + Tempest. + +PETER MacGRAWLER! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! +! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAUL CLIFFORD, LYTTON, V5 *** + +****** This file should be named 7732.txt or 7732.zip ******** + +This eBook was produced by Bryan Sherman +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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