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diff --git a/78689-0.txt b/78689-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b5aa05 --- /dev/null +++ b/78689-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3846 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78689 *** + + + + + THE + + CONTRAST, + + + BY THE AUTHOR OF “MATILDA,” “YES AND NO,” + &c. &c. + + + Take but degree away--untune that string, + And hark! what discord follows. + SHAKSPEARE. + + + IN THREE VOLUMES. + + VOL. II. + + + + + LONDON: + + HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, + + NEW BURLINGTON STREET. + + 1832. + + + + + THE CONTRAST. + + + + + CHAPTER I. + + Knights and dames I sing, + Such as the times may furnish: ’tis a flight + Which seems at first to need no lofty wing + Plumed by Longinus, or the Stagyrite: + The difficulty lies in colouring, + (Keeping the due proportions still in sight,) + With nature, manners which are artificial, + And rendering general that which is especial. + BYRON. + + He’s justice of the peace, ay, and rotulorum. + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Some years had passed over Sir North Saunders’ head since we were +last in his company, and yet we shall find him much as we left him, +neither richer nor poorer, wiser nor better, nor, except “quoad” +baptismal register, much older than when, upon first establishing +himself for the summer season at Hornscliff Abbey, he had accompanied +Castleton and Lady Madelina to Morden Bay. He still looked much the +same; he could still eat as much, and walk as little. True, in the +interval one great epoch had occurred in the life of a politician of +his calibre; _he had sworn off_, or, to explain it in other words +to the uninitiated, he was now turned sixty: a fact which, when +sworn to, gives a member of Parliament an exemption from attendance +on committees, it being “in the wisdom of the legislature” thought +that to rise by ten o’clock in the forenoon would be very injurious +at that advanced age, though to sit up all night, and decide the +most important questions at five o’clock in the morning, is a duty +constantly exacted. + +Coeval, however, with this survival of part of his senatorial +functions, he had assumed new provincial duties. He had lately acted +as a justice of the peace! in the jargon of the sessions, he had sued +out his _dedimus_, and become one of the _quorum_, a phraseology +probably retained to contradict the proverbial assertion, that +translation of the dead languages is of benefit to country gentlemen. + +It may be thought a little late for an elderly gentleman, turned +sixty, to take upon himself, for the first time, the complicated +duties of administering the laws; but then it should be recollected +that he had passed the last forty in making them, and from the +singular ease with which he had, during that period, executed his +part in the former process, it is no wonder that he thought himself +perfectly adequate to the subordinate department he now undertook. +It may not be understood with what sort of “hocus pocus” facility +most of the enactments, on the construction of which Sir North +had undertaken to decide, had become the law of the land. Provided +they touched not the interests of any one within hearing, the whole +process seems to consist in a bit of parchment being subjected to the +magic touch of a certain number of men with wigs on their heads and +gowns on their backs, a certain number of times; true, it is also +said to be read a certain number of times, which, however, consists +in one of the gownsmen mumbling the first unmeaning half line in a +tone somewhat lower than that in which every voice is talking around +him. The chief of the gownsmen then, in somewhat the same tone, +invites all of one opinion to say “ay,” and all of the other “no;” +an invitation to which, whilst all are equally unconscious to what +it alludes, no one can pay the slightest attention. Having undergone +this mystic touch the prescribed number of times in one room, it for +once gets into the hands of a man without either gown or wig, who, +with sundry “kotous,” carries it into another room, where it is again +subject, a similar number of times, to the same touching process, +when at last all the wigs being now collected in one room, one of +them stands in the middle, produces a few strange sounds of barbarous +French, and the magic parchment at once becomes the law of the land, +without ninety-nine in a hundred, upon whose authority it has so +become, ever having heard more of it than the cabalistic syllable, +equally applicable to all, of “Whereas.” + +The fact is, from the day of the Druids down to our own inclusive, +there never was any mummery more unmeaning than that with which an +unopposed law is passed through the British legislature. Therefore, +though from being constantly at the beck of every succeeding +whipper-in of the Treasury, Sir North had, perhaps, more frequently +than any other individual, bowed bills up to the bar of the House +of Lords; he was not by any means aware how much he had by that +contributed to complicate the new duties he had undertaken, off hand, +and expected to execute by intuition. But here, let not the reader +be alarmed: I am not going to start off with one of the sweeping +invectives, with some so popular, against the “great unpaid;” such +a digression would be out of place here, if I thought it in reason +anywhere. But my own opinion is, that it is a system which rather +requires to be regulated than superseded. I by no means think that +all is obtained that is required, because the magistrate is unpaid: +but neither do I think that all would be remedied if he was paid. I +do not think it by any means certain, that this change alone would +at once insure oracles of wisdom, and miracles of wit, all over the +country. If, too, their appointments are all to emanate from the +crown, I am much surprised that any, who entertain a constitutional +jealousy of the executive, should tolerate a plan, which either +must be made the means of increased patronage to the dependants of +Government and their supporters amongst the local aristocracy, or +if there ever should be a minister who should be disposed to drill +all under him into a sort of military subordination, would enable +him to organize a system, if not of police espionage, at least, of +ministerial surveillance. “Surveillance!” The word is not English; +because the thing itself has never been naturalized amongst us. And +next to the consideration of how the stipendiary magistrates are to +be appointed, comes that of from what class are they to be selected. +Probably from amongst those educated for the profession of the law. +But you could never expect that the infinite number of appointments +necessary, would be such as to tempt men of eminence or ambition to +accept them, so that everywhere you must be content with mediocrity +of talent and attainments. Added to this, is the name of lawyer, +whether deservedly or not, so popular among the lower orders, as +to make such a change desired by those for whose advantage it is +supposed to be proposed? Whatever the defects of the present system +may be, I am sure much good is frequently effected by the attention +willingly paid to the amicable recommendations of him who is looked +up to in his immediate neighbourhood, as uniting the character of +magistrate with that of kind protector, or benevolent landlord. Far, +however, am I from thinking that the present system is perfect. Many, +I am aware, are the instances both of injustice and ignorance, +which it has fostered under the head of injustice. The “game laws,” +administered by the very persons most interested against the accused +party, have led to much capricious tyranny. But abolish the game laws +(as you have begun to do); destroy the unjust law, and you remove +the temptation to injustice in the administration. As to ignorance, +too, I am afraid that there are but too many lamentable instances; +but why, then, is the most complicated and important business of +administering the laws, supposed to be the only one for which no +previous practice or preparation is required? A diploma is expected +for medicine; a degree or examination, for taking orders as a priest. +Why, as most of our magistrates are of the class usually educated at +one of the Universities, why should not a course of English law be +engrafted upon the many less useful things exacted as necessary to +a degree? or why should not a certificate from a separate college, +established for that purpose, be required from every one wishing +to act as a magistrate? Would it be very unreasonable to expect +that some little fitness should be ascertained, before duties were +undertaken, in which the interests of so many, and amongst them those +the least able to defend themselves, are involved. But nothing of +this kind was required of Sir North Saunders; and he had entered upon +the whole career of “summoning, passing, committing, and certifying,” +without undergoing any other _test_ than the one then exacted from +all, for the preservation of religious intolerance. Through life +it had been the maxim of Sir North Saunders, to unite as much as +possible the outward appearance of a dissipated man of pleasure, with +the solid advantages of a shrewd man of business; and as a principal +ingredient in maintaining his first character, he was always very +conspicuous in his devotion to some one of the reigning beauties +of the day. Not that his gallantries were ever of a nature either +to endanger the character of their object, or at all to interfere +with any more serious affair in which she might at the time be +engaged;--on the contrary, his gratification always seemed complete +when his house was proposed for any little flirting assignation, on +the part of the person whom he for the time admired. And this was a +favour not unfrequently granted to him, being on many accounts found +particularly convenient; for whilst the decorous character of the +society, which he united both in town and country, was maintained +by the tutelary presence of some of the most rigid dowagers of his +own party and connexion, always anxious for the support of splendid +establishments, whether domestic or political, and attracted by the +orthodoxy of his creed and kitchen, there was a most complete absence +of all constraint in a society where every one thought they rather +honoured the host, by condescending to partake of his hospitalities. +Not that Sir North was without his “toad-eaters;”--where is the man +of forty thousand a-year that ever was?--but it was so completely the +tone of the house to take every thing Sir North did for his friends, +as a matter of course, and as their due, that there was never any +openly avowed admiration of any thing, and his veriest creatures +only carried on a contraband trade in flattery, smuggling their +contingent of subserviency at a favourable moment, when unobserved; +and even these, to whom his hospitality was a convenience, and who +had no alternative between the Baronet and his Grace Humphrey, would, +without scruple, criticise the most _recherché_ of his _entrées_, and +make believe a bottle was corked to show they were not obliged to +drink it. + +The party at present assembled consisted, as usual, of a strange +melange, composed of well-paid placemen in search of amusement during +the recess, and needy men of fashion seeking subsistence through the +dead months; of dowagers hunting marrying men, and dandies hunting +married women; but amongst those were to be found, some whom Sir +North had contrived to persuade to visit him, who were rather above +the class usually collected at a house whose ostentatious hospitality +was too much ridiculed to be very _recherché_. And in this list was +to be placed Lady Gayland, the young widow mentioned in Castleton’s +letter to his friend, as a continental acquaintance. She had lately +returned to her native country, and had accepted the invitation to +Hornscliff Abbey, eagerly pressed by Sir North. As she possessed +too much good spirits to be really bored anywhere; and too much +good sense to affect to be so at the caprice of others, and quite +wit enough to avail herself, as a matter of amusement, and in a +good-natured way, of the ridicule of Sir North’s character; she found +such a residence for a short time, well calculated to suit her easy +humour, and independent situation. + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + Her chief resource was in her own high spirit, + Which judged mankind at their due estimation; + And for coquetry she disdained to wear it, + Secure of admiration; its impression + Was faint as if an every-day possession. + BYRON. + + But then her face + So lovely, yet so arch; so full of mirth, + The overflowings of an innocent heart. + + +It will be equally impossible, I fear, to give the reader of these +pages an idea of the charm of Lady Gayland’s character, whether he +is allowed to guess his way to its developement through the mazes of +contradictory traits which the events themselves may incidentally +present, and so be left puzzled and perplexed, as Lord Castleton +himself was in his former acquaintance with her; or whether the more +arduous task shall be undertaken of giving him a clue through the +medium of introductory description. Yet, how to tie down to terms of +fixed description, that which, if it was as brilliant, was also as +changeful as the sun-beam! How to exemplify that which, at all times, +was unlike any thing else, or how to describe that which was often +most unlike itself! I might, it is true, vaunt the undeniable beauty +of her fine features, expatiate on the brilliancy of her full dark +eye; or detail the form of that noble brow which seemed the chosen +throne of thought. Yet how, even by this means, to give any idea of +that strength of varied expression, which, as the occasion required, +even before the ready words had risen to her lips, stamped upon her +countenance the perfect prototype of indignation, ridicule, or +sympathy! If I were even to recall some of the sallies of her playful +wit, they might, thus stiffly recorded, no longer be the same as +when flowing forth the spontaneous burst of high spirits and buoyant +fancy; and seem, perhaps, abrupt and harsh when deprived of the +accompanying sweet smile and soft tone, which could even blunt the +sting of satire. + +On the other hand, it might be difficult to persuade those who felt +not that her movements were the result of some higher impulse, which +spurned the usual rules of drawing-room refinement--how impossible it +was that under any circumstances she could ever be ungraceful; and +such as she was, when most unlike every one else, she seemed least +aware of it herself. Her’s was the singularity of genius; not the +genius of singularity. If she was often in word and deed what some +might say they would not imitate, still oftener was she what others +owned they could not emulate. And whilst many who knew her slightly, +thought it was well for the world that there was no _second_ Lady +Gayland; all who knew her well, thought there was nothing which the +world could not better spare than that one. + +The morning after the events, described in the last Chapter, had +happened at Morden Bay, a large party was assembled round the +breakfast-table at Sir North’s, and in the full enjoyment of the +social meal; for though, contrary to his usual custom, their host +had not yet appeared, his authority had been put in commission, as +amongst the guests there were many who considered themselves quite at +liberty to treat his servants as if they were their own. + +“How I envy you your spirits, Lady Gayland!” drawled out that +beshawled and draperied anatomy, Mrs. M‘Angle, as she sat coiled up +in one corner of the easy _fauteuil_, which, as an invalid, had been +provided for her. “I shan’t be half awake these three hours yet; and +you talk as gaily as if it was after midnight, instead of before +noon.” + +“For my part,” said Lady Gayland, “I never feel more alive than with +the freshness of the morning dew upon my thoughts; I enjoy, above all +the other _agrémens_ of a country party, a social breakfast-table. +But where is he ‘_who is the cause of mirth in others_?’” + +“Our host has undertaken the part of Banquo,” rejoined his humble +friend, Mr. Spencer, pointing to the vacant chair of Sir North. + +“Perhaps we are too noisy for him; he is accustomed ten months in the +year to a solitary meal, dividing his attention between his sodden +muffin, and newspaper done dry at a quick fire; but, after all, I +believe here he is.” + +But it was not Sir North, but an individual whose entrance was +likely to produce, amongst the other guests, a much stronger +sensation than “one so common hacknied in the eyes of men,” as their +much despised host. The person in question was equipped, as to his +lower man, in the most correct shooting costume; but the jacket had +not as yet replaced the accustomed blue coat with royal buttons, +crossed up to his chin, many loops for sundry stars being seen on +his left breast. He was well known to all the half-fed placemen, who +now _officiously_, perhaps _officially_, cleared him his place at +the breakfast-table, and who, though they would gladly have picked +up HIS crumbs, brushed THEIR OWN out of his way. Indeed, though +all there might not previously have come in personal contact with +him, who did not know, by name, The Right Honourable the Earl of +Stayinmore, K.G., G.C.B., G.G.C., the proprietor of the three snug +little boroughs of Singlecot, Bankcumwall, and Old Summertemple, +and one of the confidential advisers of the Crown at that day? His +Lordship had, through life, observed great judgment in establishing +the reputation of his wisdom by his silence--and of his consequence, +by his civility. But he contrived by his silence often to place more +restraint upon opinion than others by a direct negative, looking +the while as “if I could contradict if it was worth my while;” and +his civility was so ostentatiously condescending, that to some it +was more offensive than would have been the actual assumption of +superiority. One of those who saw it in this light was Lady Gayland; +and it was evident to the blindest of bystanders, even whilst +the diplomatic assurances, &c. of the morning acknowledgements, +were going on between them, that there would very soon be a “war +of opinion.” The serviles formed a royalist militia round Lord +S. whilst all the unquiet spirits looked to Lady Gayland for +encouragement. + +Lord Stayinmore was, however, determined if possible to propitiate +his beautiful antagonist by the studied courtesy of his morning +address to her; and disregarding the attempts of his satellites to +fix him in their system by offering vacant chairs as he bowed his way +up the table, he at last deposited himself in one just opposite Lady +Gayland, saying, with a curvature of the body and an inflexion of the +voice, which became so substantial an impersonation of the shade of +Chesterfield, “Here’s metal more attractive.” + +“New and true,” muttered Lady Gayland; adding more loudly, and in a +manner it was impossible to say positively was meant for ridicule: +“‘I kiss thy hand, but not flattery, Cæsar,’” “There,” said she, +turning to her neighbour Mr. Spencer; “there is a quotation repaid +in kind, as original, and more sincere.” + +As there was nothing in the world, next to the loss of his three +Boroughs of Singlecot, Bankcumwall, and Old Summertemple, which Lord +Stayinmore so particularly dreaded as the idea of being laughed +at, warned by a certain “lurking devil in her eye,” he did not +again address Lady Gayland, but confined himself for some time to +condescending commonplaces amongst his other neighbours. But this +prolonged armistice was, as other prolonged armistices may (not a +thousand years ago) have been, displeasing to these bystanders, who +thought they might gain, and could not lose, by the actual conflict +of the contending parties. And Mr. Spencer, who was sitting next her, +viewed it peculiarly in this light. + +Peter Alexander Spencer was rather, in his way, a character: he +had been ever since he left school a “rising young man,” in every +other respect except bodily height, which had remained stationary +at _five feet one_; but like many little men, he had a most exalted +idea of his own importance, though with great power of bending +to the weaknesses of others, when it suited his object. He was +remarkable for another thing; not only always using the longest +words, but adding still more to their natural length by protracted +pronunciation. He had arrived there the day before, unable to resist +Sir North’s offer of an opportunity to try his double-barrelled +gun, though very proud of the career that had just opened to him, +by being called to the Bar. His arrival had much exhilarated Lady +Gayland. I am afraid it must be owned, that she dearly loved a butt, +and there was in the assumed importance, and natural insignificance +of Mr. Spencer, much, that irresistibly cried out to any one with +the slightest sense of the ridiculous. “Even if you love me, laugh +at me!” She was constantly, in the effervescence of her merry +mood, venting forth many bad jokes about “short Spencers,” and +“long robes,” which she would have been very sorry to have heard +repeated, and which would have been as soon forgotten by every one +else as by herself, but for the intervention of Spencer’s friend, +Mr. Middleman, who shared Spencer’s britscha down, at the allotted +cost of one _post-horse_, and half a post-boy. Middleman was one +of those persons who make their way in the world by constantly +repeating such sentences as “Did you hear what Lady Gayland said of +Spencer! Capital! eh?” Thus storing up the superabundant produce of +more fertile imaginations, and retailing it forth, at moments of +conversational scarcity, thereby gaining his own little percentage +of attention; which he achieved in this instance by repeating, +whenever he thought it would entail most ridicule on his friend and +fellow-traveller, what Lady Gayland had only lightly uttered in a +moment of thoughtlessness. + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + A beauteous ripple of the brilliant stream + Of rank and youth, though purer than the rest. + BYRON. + + Great things were now to be achieved at table. + * * * + + But oh, the scenes mid which they met and parted-- + The thoughts, the recollections, sweet and bitter-- + Th’ Elysian dreams of lovers when they loved-- + Who shall restore them? + * * * + + +In the mean time, Mr. Spencer, whose general _toadying_ turn was +regulated in its particular application by the accidental propinquity +of the moment, now drawled out, making as usual a prolonged note of +each vowel, or a sort of appogiatura between it and its succeeding +consonant, + +“D--_o_--_o_ pray t--_o_rture him a l--_ee_tle. There’s nothing so +del--_i_ghtful as your persifl_a_--_a_--_ge_.” + +“But I’m not so sanguinary an amazon as to declare unprovoked war,” +replied she, “still, ‘sotto voce,’ his silence leaves me no pretence: +he is determined to avail himself of the most literal application of +the Italian proverb, + + ‘In bocca chiusa non entran’ mosche.’” + +But even whilst she was thus declining any wanton act of hostility, +a subject was fixed upon Lord Stayinmore, by one of his satellites, +which was almost the only one on which he could then have been +provoked so far to commit his opinion as to risk a contradiction. + +The topic introduced was the conduct which ought to be pursued by +the government of that day, upon one of those “bit by bit” measures +of reform which then excited curiosity, and, if not interest in +itself, had, at least, divided opinion as to the effect the treatment +of it might have upon the constantly recurring cry for parliamentary +reform. Lord Stayinmore felt more deeply than he thought on this +subject, and always expressed himself strongly upon it. + +“It is the bounden duty,” said he, “of every man who has been bred +up in due estimation of the unparalleled blessings of our invaluable +constitution, to make his immovable stand at once, arresting these +erratic changes on the very threshold of their progress, nipping in +the bud these flowery projects of alteration, choking and damming up, +as I may say, this mischievous current of public opinion, even at its +fountain head.” + +Lady Gayland, for the sake of herself as well as her hearers, had +much rather have met her antagonist on some field where her wit +might have given her more vantage ground of position, than on the +wide and level plains of political discussion, and here she was, +therefore, determined not to be forced into a general action; but as +she retired, she could not avoid a skirmishing diversion; and taking +up his last words, “Stop, indeed, the current of public opinion +at its fountain head!” she continued. “That puts me in mind of an +incident I remember hearing last year amongst the _Yuoddling_ hills +of Switzerland. Shall I begin, ‘Once upon a time----’” + +“Oh, pray do,” exclaimed simultaneously half the breakfast-table. + +“You have, most of you, seen those German _Stu_--dents in the +_U_--_niversities_ who are sedentary in the winter, but peripatetic +all the summer, with waists like wasps, and faces like sheep, all +lank locks and learning. One of these was taken to see the source of +the Danube, when, whilst he pressed his palm against the bubbling +spring as it oozed through the cleft of the rock, he exclaimed, in a +fit of geographical grandiloquence, ‘I wonder what they’ll think of +that at Vienna?’ What do you think they did think of that at Vienna, +Lord Stayinmore?” + +“Amusing! but how applicable?” condescendingly notified Lord +Stayinmore, avoiding the question himself by interposing another. + +“Oh, my dear Lord,” replied Lady Gayland, “if it is mine to adorn the +tale, it is not mine to point the moral; but, however, if you will +make a Cassandra of me in spite of myself, and insist upon my ‘laying +bare my prophetic soul,’ I should say that, if whilst you think you +have the power, you attempt to impede the natural flow of popular +feeling with those political bungs, Singlecot and Bankcumwall, which +you now have at your fingers’ ends, they will only be the more +inevitably borne down with its headlong career; and that the majestic +stream of public opinion, swollen on all sides by tributary springs, +will flow resistlessly onward, bearing on its triumphant waves the +united wishes of a liberal government and a grateful people; and any +such opposition as you now threaten, will then no more be felt, than +was the impression of the pigmy fingers of the German student in the +diminished waters of the Danube at Vienna!” + +Lady Gayland had warmed with her subject, and had rattled on more +than she had intended; but she had tact enough, in the midst of +her rhapsody, to perceive evident intimations on the part of +Lord Stayinmore, that the impression she was making was far from +agreeable. He made, first, a nondescript sort of a noise, between a +short cough and a long groan; his chin sunk within the loose folds +of his ample neckcloth, and his broad chest swelled against the +closely-buttoned breast of his well-padded coat. Suddenly checking +herself, she therefore added, in a more playful tone, “But, as +Beatrice says, _I pray your Grace, pardon me, I was born to speak all +mirth, and no matter_.” + +“No matter, indeed, Ma’am,” said Lord Stayinmore, with a forced +effort to maintain his courtesy--“I can sincerely affirm that it is +no matter. Could any one oblige me with the evening paper?” he added, +anxious to escape. + +“Here it is,” said she, handing it over to him with equal +_empressement_; then turning to Mr. Spencer, “‘A nemico che fugge fa +un ponte d’oro,’ as the prudent Italians say; and in default of gold, +I pay in paper currency.” + +“How little they can have to fill the papers with,” said his +Lordship, “when they are reduced to such extracts from the country +journals as this. ‘Lord Castleton has been some time expected at his +seat, Somersby Park, in this neighbourhood, but has not yet arrived. +Report says, that being in a delicate state of health, he still +lingers amongst the sea-breezes at Brighton, but none of the late +notices from that fashionable watering-place mention his Lordship as +amongst its distinguished visitants.’ Who cares?” + +“Indeed, I never knew any body care at all about Lord Castleton’s +movements; he is one of those persons in whose case universal +popularity is synonymous with general indifference,” drawled out Mrs. +MacAngle, who had, in former days, made as much of an effort as was +consistent with her listless nature to detach him from his allegiance +to Lady Madelina Manfred. + +“Castleton will never make any figure in public life. He cannot keep +his object in view with the proper uniformity of purpose,” ejaculated +Lord Stayinmore. “He has no steady political consistency, still +harping on the threatened dangers of Bankcumwall, Singlecot, and +Summertemple.” + +“For my part, I reckon him an intolerable _bore_,” said Mr. Spencer, +to whom he never addressed half-a-dozen words in his life; “and +it’s quite a mistake to _ca-al_ him ha-andsome: a fair man a-always +wants expression,” added he, casting, as he rose from the table, an +approving glance at his own enormous black head, which, being stuck +upon the shortest of persons’ was only just seen trunkless in the +mirror above the sideboard. + +“You have, some of you,” said Lady Gayland, “hit upon the greatest +of all possible faults under which he at present labours, if not in +all your eyes, on all your tongues; he is the absent one. How lucky +it is that all the sins which absence from such a society as this +comprehends, all its atrocities, imperfections, ridicules, (that is +not in this case so much an anti-climax as you think,) can never be +perpetuated on one devoted head; that we are all in turn subject +to its influence, and that, if _la moitié du monde prend plaisir à +médire, et l’autre moitié à croire les médisances_, in our turn _we_ +must all be comprised in one or other of these two divisions.” + +“Dear Lady Gayland, what a tirade!” said Mrs. MacAngle; “I was +not aware, when I ventured to assert that nobody cared about Lord +Castleton, that you were prepared to give me so immediate and +convincing a contradiction of my assertion.” + +How many distant and scattered images will the reference but of a +moment collect, when the heart points the index of the memory. Even +whilst Mrs. MacAngle was drawling forth her half-hinted insinuation, +there passed over in the mirror of Lady Gayland’s mind the reflection +of many a brilliant fête, and many a meeting in sculptured hall, and +the softer shade of many a social promenade, beneath the soothing +influence of an Italian summer. But whatever she felt, she hesitated +not to reply, “You are now quite mistaken!” blushing slightly, +perhaps, at her generous warmth being so misinterpreted, and +speaking, consequently, in a more hurried manner. “You are now quite +mistaken! my observations were merely general. It is true, I did know +Lord Castleton well in Italy; but our exotic acquaintance, which the +warm south had ripened into intimacy, has not borne transplanting +into this northern clime, and I have seen but little of him since +my return. Certainly, I will acknowledge that my recollection of +him does not confirm the opinions of this meeting, that he is all +these,--ill-looking--dull--weak, and uninteresting, but _n’importe_. +Do I think the worse of him for all this? or, in point of fact, do +any of you? And which of you would not say as much of his present +neighbour, if afflicted with that first of faults, absence? The +only cure would be, if B. instead of C. could some day hear what A. +meant C. should hear of B. how much less agreeable a companion that +first of wits A. would be thought by his butt B. I have often longed +that there could be cross-hearings as well as cross-readings; but +the misfortune is, that though libellous letters might be mis-sent, +mis-directed, a social sarcasm never miscarries, but goes straight to +its mark.” + +“But really, for you of all people,” said Mrs. Mac Angle, “to +complain of one’s occasionally saying a severe thing!” + +“I am as aware as any one can be, how much too freely I often speak +my mind to those that are present, for which, of those _here_ whom +I have thus offended, I humbly sue for pardon,” clasping her hands +together, and looking at Lord Stayinmore with an expression of +contrition, which, though slightly burlesqued, it was impossible +to resent, and difficult to resist. “But, _en revanche_, I never do +speak ill of the absent; perhaps, for no better reason than that my +soul pants for nobler game. Had my friend Peter the Great there,” +pointing to Mr. Spencer, who was seen equipped for sport starting +from the front-door; “had he, like his northern namesake, ever known +other fields than those of stubble, and popped at what could pop at +him again, he would not be so keen after the partridges.” + +Above a quarter of an hour had elapsed after this conversation, and +the last lingering sipper of tea and crumbler of roll had brought +to conclusion his most carefully elongated meal, when at length Sir +North made his appearance, and, with a jerking bow, to be divided +amongst all present, began, in that sort of disjointed colloquy and +string of clipped sentences for which, it was before mentioned, he +was famous:--“I beg a thousand pardons--quite shocked; but the fact +is--a most unpleasant occurrence that--Lady Gayland, I need not ask +how your Ladyship has rested--evident--Aurora--rather Hebe;--but as +breakfast’s over--somewhat late for that simile--Jupiter’s jug, and +all that--I am never late, only the fact is, this morning--a most +unpleasant occurrence that--Lord Stayinmore, it has prevented my +reading the papers,--only looked at the Gazette--Delighted to see the +judicious use your Lordship has made of the vacancy caused by the +death of our late excellent friend. You could not have chosen better; +no steadier voter than Montague Mumchance;--won’t speak often,--so +much the better. Talk of rising young men, indeed; we don’t care for +their rising, so long as they are good sitters. Apropos to rising, +though you will not think that that is my forte--but the fact is, a +most unpleasant occurrence, involving a little legal business--only +just come down, not got into Burn yet--as fresh at it as my friend +Peter Spencer. By the bye, where is he?--just the game for him to +smell out--like a young pointer--break him in--” + +“But Peter Spencer is just now smelling out game by the means of his +proxy pointer,” said his friend Mr. Middleman, “and he’s applying his +own nose to the stock of his gun in a turnip field.” + +“Peter the Great,” added Lady Gayland, “is probably, like his +imperial namesake, by this time, if not _overthrown_, fairly _beat_ +by the _Swedes_. But, my dear Sir North, now you have sufficiently +informed us both that the fact is an unpleasant occurrence, and +that the unpleasant occurrence is a fact, do let us judge of their +reciprocal qualities ourselves, and tell us what has happened?” + +Sir North then informed his hearers, as clearly as the confused and +contradictory notions he had as yet imbibed on the subject enabled +him, of some of the occurrences of the preceding night; how a daring +gang of smugglers had been captured by a revenue cutter, after +having landed and concealed somewhere a valuable cargo, and how it +was found on this occasion a barbarous murder had been added to +their former misdeeds. All the information they had as yet collected +was vague, and amounted merely to inference. It was principally +derived from the captain of the revenue cutter, whom even Sir North +had had penetration enough to discover to be a shrewd and sensible +man; though this opinion, which he had correctly formed, he did +not himself confirm to his present hearers in its full extent, by +the more confused and interpolated version which he gave of the +information he had thus obtained. + +No one of the smugglers had as yet seemed the least inclined to turn +King’s evidence; no corpse had been found on board the vessel; but +the open boat or coble belonging to the lugger had several stains of +blood at the bottom, and on its gunnel the stamp of a bloody hand was +distinctly traced, the ends of the finger marks being inside, and as +if they had been strongly pressed against the inward ledge, seeming +to indicate that a person mortally hurt had been thrown overboard, +and had struggled for life to the last by clinging to the side of the +boat. + +The part which was quite unintelligible to them to whom Sir North +endeavoured to explain it, and which had rather puzzled the captain +of the cutter himself, was how to connect these appearances with the +exclamations, when first found, of the girl, who had been discovered +on the beach; and who appeared to have some connection with, or +at least, previous knowledge of the transactions of the gang, as +involved in the last night’s adventure. Her first wild inquiry had +been, “Where is the body?” which would lead one to conclude, that the +act of violence had been committed ashore, and under her observation; +and yet the appearances in the boat would seem to indicate that the +mortal struggle had been after they had put out to sea. + +“As it is,” said Sir North, “it is impossible, at present, to extract +any coherent account from her; she is either decidedly _non compos_, +or, though far be it from me to suspect any thing harsh of one so +young, who ought not yet to be hardened, and who, I am bound to +add, is of rather an interesting appearance; yet I fear all this +unwillingness to give any account arises from wilful stubbornness.” + +“Poor wretch! stubbornness!” exclaimed Lady Gayland, +compassionately; “is there no more charitable way to account for such +unwillingness? She would not, probably, young as you describe her, +have been even casually involved in such a transaction, unless under +circumstances which would lead one to believe her at this moment +labouring under the overwhelming affliction of either the untimely +loss, or impending shame, of some one she loves. Where is she?” + +“Why, I saw I could make nothing of her at present,” answered Sir +North, “so I turned her over to Jones, telling her to keep her apart +from her companions, and lock her up a bit by herself, in a darkish, +lonely room, where, I’ll warrant, reflection will bring her about, +and she will understand her duty, and learn how to make her peace +with the offended majesty of injured justice.” + +Sir North attempted to look grand, under the consciousness that he +was himself to personify his own peroration. Lady Gayland made no +reply, but shortly after left the room. + +Sir North, with all his vanity, did not feel himself quite up to +understanding, much less expounding and administering, the most +complicated section of the most intricate portion of our penal code, +which comprises the revenue laws; with which, in this instance, there +was but too much reason to fear an accusation of murder would be +involved. He therefore postponed the examination till late in the +day, when he hoped for the arrival of an able solicitor from Mayton; +one whose well-tried merits had prevented our poor friend Pounce, in +his probationary lifetime, from dividing any business with him: and +this Mr. Asklaw, Sir North meant on this occasion should act as his +clerk: his butler, who usually doubled that part, being, in point of +fact, not up to much more besides executing warrants himself to take +up the oldest offenders from the cellar, and making out “permits” to +transfer poachers to the House of Correction. + +By thus postponing the examination, Sir North calculated that, even +should Mr. Asklaw not come upon his summons, Peter Spencer would then +be returned with his bagfull, not of briefs, but of birds, and ready +to act as his assessor. + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + Yet time serves wherein you may redeem + Your banished honours, and restore yourselves + Into the good thoughts of the world again. + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“I can assure your Ladyship, it’s quite the most _unsuitablest_ +place you ever _seed_ for your Ladyship,” said Mrs. Jones, in answer +to Lady Gayland’s entreaty to be shown the room to which the poor +girl had been conveyed. “It’s quite a place for a lady like you to +catch the _cholera_, or the _tic-dooleeroose_, or some other narvous +disorder.” + +“Why! should all these dreadful things happen to me for staying in +it for a few minutes, at my own will and pleasure, and yet it be a +proper place in which forcibly to confine that poor creature? What is +it? not a real dungeon, I hope?” + +“Oh! no, my Lady, I trust I am not such an _unchristen hankeret_, as +to deal in such things. You see, Ma’am, the fact is, she’s stowed in +my lumber-room. It’s many a year now, whenever Sir North said to me, +‘Jones, take this here out of my way, and put it by’--up it’s always +gone, under lock and key, into the lumber-room. So, when he said +to-day, ‘You, Jones, put by this young woman, and keep her safe till +I want her;’ it come most _natral_ like to me, just to pop her in +there, and there she is.” + +There was much in Mrs. Jones’s manner which would have been to Lady +Gayland, at any other time, irresistible food for ridicule; but the +errand on which she was then going, had so much excited her interest, +that she was regulated, in her answers to Mrs. Jones, by an anxious +desire to smooth as much as possible the precise objections that +were started by that methodical body to the object she had in view. +No one of which objections were founded at all upon any difficulty +in counteracting Sir North’s orders, which had been that the young +person should be kept alone; for, though Mrs. Jones had known Sir +North all his life-time, and, consequently, much of her own, she had +not therefore imbibed a more respectful deference for his authority, +than those more recently added members of his establishment, which +had been gradually swelled to the present extent. Mrs. Jones had +begun life as servant-maid to old Sir Simon, at his office in the +City. And therefore let it not be supposed that she is given as a +common specimen of the housekeeping species as it now exists. It +would be strange indeed, if, in these days, when education has been +so widely diffused amongst the middling and lower orders, a pet +preserve of slipslop and ignorance should be found, exactly amongst +those who have the most means of improving themselves by comparing +their own phraseology with that of their superiors. Mrs. Jones had, +in spite of the accumulated dignity of her multiplied charges, +retained much of the original “Maid of All Work of Cripplegate.” In +the course of the many years when she had been left in the solitary +keeping of Hornscliff Abbey, her original cockney had become a little +chequered with the country dialect in the neighbourhood: and from her +occasional association with the fine gentlemen’s fine gentlemen, and +the _elegantes, helegant women_, which Sir North had occasionally, +at considerable intervals, collected there, she had acquired nothing +but awkward affectation. + +But I forget that all this while I am keeping Lady Gayland on the +staircase of the turret even longer than Mrs. Jones would, who, at +length, said-- + +“But, _o’ coorse_, my Lady, I’m not going for to say you shan’t not +do nothing you chooses.” And with this she began to mount the spiral +staircase of the turret, jingling at the same time the big bunch of +keys, from which she was feeling out the biggest, as belonging to the +ponderous lock of the lumber-room. Whilst fitting it in its allotted +key-hole, she turned to Lady Gayland, saying, “I’m afraid your +Ladyship will find it a small matter _dampishish_, it’s so nigh the +roof. I could light a bit of fire now, but it do smoke a triflish at +first lighting: as I remember well this time five years back, when +Sir North set me to burn some old papers here; and if I’d known you’d +been so _descending_ as to come up here, I’d have lighted it when I +first put her in here; but the reason was I was a bit _timbersome_ of +her, poor despairing _cretur_! that she might be _misheevous_ with +fire, since we’ve heard tell of the burnings of the _insensiblaries_, +and some of them _papish monkeish_ old chairs would catch like +tinder.” + +Her follower, as may be imagined, declined the offer to smother her +with smoke, though, at first entrance, the room struck damp, and yet +close, as never having been aired. The low gallery, let into the roof +and sparingly lighted, was, nevertheless, spacious, as far as its +dimensions could be guessed at through the immense heaps of littered +rubbish with which it was crowded, and which afforded ample proofs +that if Mrs. Jones, who kept the key, rarely visited it, she could +never have done so empty-handed. + +Against the low groined windows were leaned so as almost to exclude +the light, broken detached wings of a japan screen, and over them +were hung the sails of a pleasure-boat. On the seats of some +fractured high-backed cedar chairs, which had belonged to the monks, +were piled all the numbers of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ from the +beginning; a crayon drawing of George Anne Bellamy; a print of +Admiral Duncan; Mrs. Abington, as _Scrub_; Sir Simon’s hatchment; and +some coloured lamps for an illumination. On an old billiard-table +were heaped, a gouty chair, fishing-tackle, packets of Sir Simon’s +treasury vouchers scattered loose about, and specimens of rare plants +sent as presents and never unpacked, with every other possible +variety of chaotic confusion, much too numerous to describe. + +But Lady Gayland hardly observed all this, for her attention was +engrossed by an object which seemed as motionless as any of the +incongruous fixtures by which it was surrounded. Lucy Darnell was +discovered sitting on a low stool, leaning one elbow on a tattered +sofa beside her, and the other on her knee, whilst she covered +her face with her hands, pressing the palms against her eyes, and +clenching between her fingers, the locks of her long fair hair, which +was twined and twisted through them. Her intended comforter, Lady +Gayland, moved slowly and softly towards her, and was about to place +herself silently on the sofa beside her, on which Lucy was leaning, +when Mrs. Jones stopped her with something of a scream: + +“Oh, my Lady! take care! it’s dust an inch thick, quite a shame to +be seen! nothing as comes here ever feels a duster _agin_; and _that +ere sofar_ has been here long afore my day; they do say it was put +by ever since the last Lord Hornscliff was laid on it, when he made +away with himself, after he had made away with every thing else; and +to think of your brushing down the nasty dust as _has bin_ there ever +since, with that sweet gown. Vapor, (vapeur) too, as Mrs. Angel-leek +calls it, is the most wulnerablest colour as is!” + +Lady Gayland could have been impatient at this interference, but +she preferred quickly, but effectually getting rid of Mrs. Jones +altogether, to any mode of controlling her proceedings. And as this +wish was not effected by words, it need not be recorded in them; it +is therefore sufficient to say, that the manner which she adopted for +conveying her desire to Mrs. Jones was satisfactory to both parties. + +When at length left alone with poor Lucy Darnell, her visitor felt, +from the graceful, though desolate, attitude of the young person +before her, an interest in her, for which she had not been previously +prepared; and though she had come there with an anxious desire to +minister comfort to her sufferings, she knew not exactly in what +way to commence her self-imposed task. She bent silently over the +apparently unconscious sufferer, desirous, if possible, that her +presence should appear to be in some way acknowledged by her to +whom she came, before she abruptly intruded herself on her notice. +She stood intently gazing on her whose face was still concealed. On +her own fine countenance, the workings of that benevolence which +had brought her there, were blended with that softened expression +of true feminine delicacy, which now made her pause and shrink +from the fear of incautiously wounding where she meant to soothe. +It would have been next to impossible to identify in her, who was +even then fastidiously restrained by the mere chance of inadvertent +offence or injury to a helpless girl, whom she came to serve--the +same person who, an hour before, had fearlessly scattered the +shafts of her ridicule amongst the great and powerful--those who +were easiest to offend and slowest to forgive. The classical contour +of the finely-chiselled features was indeed the same, and was such +as Domenichino would have selected for its beauty--such as, loving +to paint, he would have dressed in one or other of those varied +expressions, according as his subject had been, a Sibyl or a saint. + +Seeing that the motionless being over whom she leaned, and whom +she had gradually approached, still gave no sign of awakened +consciousness, she softly touched the cold and clammy hand, still so +strongly pressed by Lucy against her brow and forehead, and attempted +gently to draw it off, and take it between her’s, and addressed to +her at the same time these words: + +“However great your grief may be, my poor child, there may be some +part of your sorrow which it may be in the power of another to +alleviate; and if so, I think you would prefer to open your heart to +one of your own sex, though unknown to you, rather than to any of +those rude and lawless men in whose company you were brought here, +but to whose society, I feel assured when I look at you, you must be +entirely a stranger.” + +There was that harmony in the silvery tone of Lady Gayland’s +voice--there was that sympathy in her soft and persuasive touch, +which, though Lucy’s faculties were as yet too scattered to enable +her rightly to comprehend the purport of what was said, yet prevented +her from abruptly rejecting the proffered interference. + +“Thank you most kindly, Ma’am,” said she, gently returning the soft +pressure of the lady’s hand with that which she now allowed her +to detach from her cheek, but dropping her head at the same time +still lower towards her knees, and shading her features with the +other hand, whilst she spoke--“thank you most kindly; But yesterday +I should not have known what to wish for, what favour to ask of any +one, stranger or not; and to-day, though I am obliged to you all +every bit the same, not all your kindness could lend me one ray of +comfort.” + +“Why so?” replied her visitor. “It is evident that you are at present +labouring under some severe affliction; but there is no situation +from which every ray of comfort or of hope is excluded, except +guilt, and even there, only from hardened and habitual guilt: that, +I feel assured, is not your case; nay, you tell me yourself that +but yesterday all was peace and content around; think, then, how +much of your present distress may have arisen, not so much from the +extent of the actual calamity which oppresses you, as from the sudden +abruptness of the change by which it was effected. Nay, perhaps you +may have been imprudent,--you have, contrary to the consent of your +friends, wandered where these suspicious associates have unexpectedly +involved you in their lawless transactions,--you dread the exposure, +to those whom you respect, which this discovery entails? If so, +confide openly to me; my protection might, when mere imprudence, not +guilt, is its cause, smooth your return there, whence you ought never +to have wandered. Shame ought never to be allowed to weigh down so +young and gentle a head; and since yesterday it cannot be your casual +connection with the smuggling transactions of last night which have +so completely changed your situation as would induce your friends to +cast you off.” + +“Oh, no, God bless them! no one will cast me off; my dear father +could never dart an angry look or give a hard word to his poor Lucy, +if all the judges of the land had found me guilty! But ’tisn’t for +that I grieve: I do not fear for myself; there will be no judge to +find me guilty;--they’ll lay the blame elsewhere, and he will suffer +for it, and it is by him that the name which I bear, and shame, will +be said to have been coupled together, and his stout heart and daring +spirit will only serve to bear the passive trial of a disgraceful +death. But all the time I shall feel that I was the guilty one; yes, +I killed him as much as if I gave the blow. He’s gone, he’s dead, the +best, the kindest, the gentlest, and I’m sure, whatever he was, one +of the noblest of men.” + +It was in vain that Lady Gayland gave the best attention of which her +acute faculties were capable, to these disjointed and self-accusing +reflections, on the events of the last four-and-twenty hours; it +was in vain that she attempted to connect in her mind any distinct +idea of what actually had happened, or of who the various parties +were to whom allusion had been made, or what connexion they had with +the person before her: but gathering that her grief was principally +connected with the murder supposed to have been committed, and having +heard from Sir North that the occurrence was not at all as yet +substantiated by evidence, she endeavoured to console the mourner by +throwing some doubts upon the fact, saying, “Give not way at once, my +poor girl, to such bitter repinings; you could not feel more acutely +if his death were already ascertained and pronounced. I understand +that there are yet hopes that the wounded man may recover.” + +“Ah! where is he?” screamed Lucy, starting up; “have they then found +him? Quick, dearest Lady, take me to him; let me care him, watch +him, preserve his precious life. But no, no, no!” added she, sinking +down again, upon reading in Lady Gayland’s expressive countenance +that she saw she had gone too far in attempting to excite hopes which +she could not support, “no, I see you are only humouring me like a +child. He cannot, he never will be found. Why was he not found in +the boat with the others, when they refused to let him stay with me? +Where should he be then? ’tis the roar of the waves can alone answer +that question. It was no wild vision when from the beach I thought I +saw them fling him overboard. He struggled hard, and one he dragged +down with him, and, as I thought, the contending breakers bore both +aloft for a moment before my sight, and then, swallowing them as they +sank, rose in another hideous form without them, and closed for ever +over their heads. Was all this so, or not?--who can tell? who can +tell? I’m sure Lucy cannot.” + +Knitting her brows, she seemed for a short time endeavouring to +collect and analyze her thoughts on the subject; then, as if finding +the effort in vain, she covered her face again with her hands, and +sobbed hysterically. + +Lady Gayland’s strong mind enabled her, when she thought it +necessary, to command her feelings, and through all the early part +of this scene she had made extraordinary efforts to do so, knowing +that if she could be at all useful when she wished so to be, it must +only be by calming the sufferer, not increasing her excitation by +sharing her emotions. But the wild and plaintive manner in which Lucy +asked herself the question as to the reality of the dreadful scene +she fancied, struck upon one of those simple chords which pure nature +has implanted in every gentle breast, which, when touched, vibrate +irresistible sympathy; and she was by this for a time so completely +upset as to be unable to attempt to resume her task of comforter. + + + + + CHAPTER V. + + I beseech you, + Wrest once the law to your authority: + To do a great right, do a little wrong. + SHAKSPEARE. + + My watch, Sir, has indeed comprehended two auspicious persons. + IBID. + + +Whilst Lady Gayland struggled to recover her own composure, she felt +how important it was to prepare Lucy’s mind for the ordeal which she +had so soon to go through in the shape of a legal investigation into +all these transactions, and previous to which it was so important +that her tranquillity should in some measure be restored. She knew +the unfair inferences which might by possibility be drawn from +her present disordered state; how often, in the hard judgment of +technical men, the effects of modest embarrassment and awe-struck +inexperience may be perverted into the confusion and contradictions +of guilt; and in this case the probability of such a misconstruction +was increased by the overwhelming nature of the recent sorrows which +oppressed her. Yet all the assistance which she could give her to +support her through so severe a trial, Lady Gayland felt, must be +in previous advice, for to it she must go alone and unaccompanied. +However much the interest she now felt in her new _protégée_ might +make her wish to accompany her, she was aware that her presence, as a +female guest of Sir North’s, at a legal investigation in his private +room, into a deed of blood and violence, would be rather misplaced. +She therefore attempted to sustain the impression of the last idea, +which seemed to have so powerful an effect on Lucy’s feelings, and +to enforce upon her a due sense of the unpleasant duty to which she +was shortly to be summoned, and from which she could not shrink, +saying, “If that dreadful scene to which you have alluded with such +natural sensations of horror, is actually impressed upon your mind +as a fact, you should endeavour to recollect that you are now in +the power, and shortly will be summoned into the presence of those +who have a right to ask all you know on the subject. You would, of +course, be most careful not to make a matter of grave accusation +against any one that which may have been merely the workings of your +own distempered imagination; but if you can really feel assured that +you actually saw that which you described, however painful it may be +to the retiring gentleness of your character to bear witness against +any one, you have now no choice; you owe it not only to the memory +of him you mourn, but also your duty to that superior power who has +ordained that through you justice should in this instance be done on +guilt, commands you to speak, without fear or shrinking, the plain +and simple truth.” + +“What! and myself twine the rope round his neck. Ugh! no, no!” +muttered Lucy, shuddering: “my first, best, my only friend, whose +only fault was loving me too well; who has thought of his Lucy far, +far off, when, what was night to him, was day to me. No; if they have +tortures here, let them use them, rather than I will utter one word +against poor George.” + +Lady Gayland felt now completely perplexed: she thought she knew the +language of passion; she thought she could not be completely deceived +in her estimate of artless innocence; and yet it was difficult +to reconcile such contradictory expressions of strong affection, +as it seemed, at the same time, for the slayer and the slain; him +who had fallen a victim to lawless violence, and the perpetrator +of the deed. The fact was, that Lucy’s affectionate disposition +unconsciously impelled her to vent her feelings in exaggerated terms, +when speaking of either of them; principally from the self-reproaches +with regard to both, which she mixed up with the horrors of the last +four-and-twenty hours. She could not bear to reflect that the last +words on Churchill’s lips, before his untimely end, were unrequited +professions of love for her, which love had, indeed, been the cause +of his death: as little could she bear to recollect that it was to +her alleged fickleness, though there never had been any positive +pledges to confirm such an accusation, that George had attributed +all his progressive errors, and but too plainly traced his last +dreadful act of guilt. + +Lady Gayland’s object in seeking Lucy Darnell in her present +temporary confinement, had been, if possible, to soothe the sorrows +of an unfortunate female. But it was no part of her intention to +gratify her own curiosity through the medium of that involuntary +half-confidence which those sorrows themselves might be the +means of eliciting. The sort of mystery which to her seemed to +hang over Lucy’s connexion, both with the murdered man and him +who was in custody, induced her to avoid, rather than to press, +any farther questions on that part of the subject; and she was +confining her counsel to general advice, not to get herself into +farther difficulties by an apparent attempt to thwart the ends of +justice, when Mrs. Jones re-entered the room to inform her that the +Lawyer from Mayton was arrived, and Mr. Spencer was taking off his +shooting-gaiters, and Sir North was almost ready for what Mrs. Jones +called his _justiciary_ business. + +Lady Gayland rose to leave her _protegée_ with an anxious feeling +as to the conduct she would pursue during her approaching trial: in +spite of the doubt she was left in as to her connexion with some +of the parties concerned in these transactions, the course of the +interview with her had excited in her monitress’s breast a powerful +interest in her behalf. + +It was impossible not to be prepossessed in her favour by her +personal appearance; though the obscurity of the darkened room +in which they were, had prevented Lady Gayland from seeing her +thoroughly. It is not merely on its victim man, that beauty in woman, +when apart from rivalry, produces an irresistibly forcible effect. +Lady Gayland, with all her occasional off-hand manner of speaking, +and with the frequent temptations opened to an ever-ready fancy +of ridiculing personal defects, could never be accused of having +made an ill-natured remark upon a rival beauty; and, certainly, she +could very well spare any occasional advantage which such use of her +satirical powers might have been sufficient to promise. But here, not +only the immeasurable distinction of their different rank in life, +but the present position of one of the parties, would have prevented +the idea of possible rivalry: and certainly, whatever may be thought +the best light for commanding admiration; for exciting sympathy, +there is nothing like beauty in distress. + +Lucy was, on her side, so much touched by the unexpected interest +shown in her fate by so superior a being as Lady Gayland, that, +before parting with her, she promised faithfully, that in the +examination to which she was about to be subjected, she would +endeavour to be composed; and that at any rate she would be perfectly +candid, on every part which related to herself, who she was and +whence she came; and that as far as she could, without injuring those +she wished to save, she would explain the whole transaction. + +Lady Gayland, however, could not satisfy herself perfectly with this +conditional promise. She felt a great inclination still, if possible, +to be present at the examination; and in passing through the +entrance-hall, in her way down, she found Sir North and Mr. Spencer +in close conference; the former with a light, calfskin-covered, +legal-looking, quarto volume under his arm; the other drawing the +_charge_, not of the prisoners, but of his gun. The case had, +however, been opened to him, as he was saying, + +“Oh, certainly, Sir North; it will be the su-mmit of _ea_-rthly +_fe-li-ci_-ty to me, to render myself, in the most _di-mi_-nutive +degree, your servi_cea_ble sl_a_-ve. It is, as you justly assumed, +one of the most _co_-mpli-_ca_-ted departm_e_-nts of your judicial +functions. The advice of a pr_o_-fessional man is not only expedient, +but I may say indisp-_e_-nsable to a rural Archimedes. I suppose we +must attack them under the 9th of George II. Chap. 35. for running +unlawful goods. Apropos, Sir North--that black bitch, Juno, has +taken to running hares; we had better put her into the indictment; +’p_o_-n my soul we had--ha! ha! If, according to the 9th of George +II. this ch_a_-rge could be extr_a-ac_ted, I mean substantiated, it +would be the most _e-li_-gible mode of p_ro_c_ee_ding; if not, we +must pr-_o_-c_ee_d against them under the 5th of George III. Chapter +13. In the mean time, I will just change these,” sticking out +conceitedly a worsted-clad fragment of a column, which was called +a leg, and which it would have been well for him if he could have +changed. + +In all this he had shown as usual, that, with the greatest +pretensions to accurate information, and professions of the desire +to serve, his knowledge was never useful, and his assistance always +contingent upon his own convenience. + +Lady Gayland joined Sir North, as Mr. Spencer left him. “My dear Sir +North, I am very anxious to interest you in favour of that young +girl, who is about to be examined before you; I am sure that her +connexion with these lawless parties is accidental and recent; but I +foresee that she will be terribly alarmed at the whole proceeding. +Now, what I want of you is no hard task,--it is only to recollect as +_much_ as possible, that _she_ is a very pretty young girl, and as +_little_ as possible, that you are the ‘great Justice Midas.’ I beg +pardon,” she said, seeing that that last allusion was unfortunate; +“all I meant was, that I hoped you would be the good-natured, +indulgent person, you are to _all_ of our sex, and not endue any +additional dignity on this occasion. Now just promise me that,” she +said, in her most coaxing manner. + +Sir North, who, in the fascination of her address, forgot Justice +Midas, answered, + +“My dear Lady Gayland, I have not now to inform you, that to me your +_will_ alone is law; only recollect, it must not only be law to me, +but must appear so to the professional gentlemen I have called in, or +else--” + +“Nay, Sir North, take care, or I shall come myself, and see whether +you administer accurately what you own you consider as your only law, +my sovereign will and pleasure.” + +Sir North would generally have thought himself only too much +flattered at Lady Gayland making him her _butt_, in any manner +which at the moment might hit her fancy, or chime in with her merry +humour; but just at present, principally from its novelty, his +magisterial dignity was his hobby, on which account her threatened +presence, bringing with it the imminent danger of ridicule, was +particularly unpleasant to him; and he, therefore, bowed himself +away, with as much of a negative as he dared to put upon any proposal +of hers, vented in disjointed, half-sentences, “Fear--perfectly +impossible--distract attention--syren voice--imperative +duty--strictly private--magisterial functions--lives at stake--” + +Lady Gayland, looking after him, only muttered, “Full of wise saws, +and modern instances, and so he plays his part;” for she evidently +saw that it would be impossible under these circumstances, with any +delicacy, to press her desire to attend, and therefore, gave it up, +and retired to her own room, to wait the result. + + + + + CHAPTER VI. + + I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Esquire of this county, and one of the + King’s Justices of the Peace. + SHAKSPEARE. + + There is no future pang + Can deal that justice on the self-condemned + He deals on his own soul. + BYRON. + + +Sir North having taken his seat on what is figuratively called the +“bench,” typified in this instance by a most portentous looking elbow +chair, meant not only passively to confer dignity upon him who sat +in it, but calculated actively to strike awe into all who approached +it, the prisoners were summoned into his presence. The judicial +consequence of Sir North’s _ci-devant_ study had been recently +perfected by “appropriate scenery and decorations” in the shape of +frame-work divisions, borrowed exactly from the “London boards” or +Metropolitan police-offices. In short, there was only one ingredient +wanting to make it an excellent “justice-shop,” and that was a little +stock of law on the part of the purveyor of that commodity. + +Sir North being stationed in what the servants called his throne, +with Mr. Asklaw on one side, and Mr. Spencer on the other, with +Captain Scudd, of the cutter, at a little distance, the prisoners +were brought in. They were many in number, and of varied appearance, +from the hard weather-beaten _tar_, who feared nothing, to the fresh +lubberly youth, who was scared with the apparent certainty of an +hempen cord. There was, among them, both the uneasy assumption of +pretended recklessness, and the downcast gaze of nerveless despair. +The whole set had on this occasion, too, an unusually care-worn +and disordered appearance, as much from the active labours and +hard-fought dangers of the preceding night, as from the awkwardness +of their present position. Captain Collett alone, neither in his +outward appearance, nor, as it seemed, in his internal sensations, +was at all changed by the events that had taken place, but still wore +the same unvaried expression of quiet cunning. + +Poor George Darnell, on the other hand, could not have been +recognised for the same light-hearted, frank-spoken, somewhat +overbearing roisterer who had appeared at his uncle’s hospitable +board so few days before. The remorseful feelings of which he had +been the prey during the last few hours, appeared almost to have +eaten into his very features, so deeply was their impression stamped +upon his wild and haggard countenance. + +Sir North, whose great anxiety was not to show how little he really +knew of the duties which he had undertaken to discharge, soon found +the greatest difference in the value of his two coadjutors,--of the +professional assistant whom he had casually sought from Mayton, and +of the private friend, on whose considerate suggestions he had mainly +depended for helping him, without expense, out of a difficulty. +The latter (Mr. Spencer) appeared only anxious to confound all his +hearers with the extent of his own information, in which confusion +his friend was most especially included. Mr. Asklaw’s desire, on the +other hand, was to transfuse his own knowledge almost imperceptibly +for the use of his principal. Mr. Spencer began a tirade, much too +long and tedious to be recorded here; the result of which was, that +poor Sir North’s head, in the conclusion, only retained a chaotic +mass of contradictory acts of parliament which he had quoted, +principally from the 8th of George II. c. 18, to the 52d George III. +c. 143, these both inclusive; much about “foreign brandy, arrack +rum, or strong waters;” something about the eye or the limb of a +custom-house officer being assessed of the value of 50_l._ extra; +but most of all, for Mr. Spencer principally relied upon the act +against vessels for hovering near the coast, Sir North had to hear of +the peculiar construction of “cutters, luggers, shallops, wherries, +smacks, and yawls:” this, more than any thing else, bewildered +him; for though he would not for the world have acknowledged his +ignorance, but, on the contrary, looked at least as wise as usual +on the subject, yet there was not one of these, whether cutter, +lugger, shallop, wherry, smack, or yawl, which, if he had seen, he +could have known from Noah’s ark. In the mean time, Mr. Asklaw had +quietly insinuated a Burn’s Justice open at the right place before +him; and though, his head still being a little confused with Peter +Spencer’s prolific jargon, his eye did at first wander to the wrong +page of the two, and his attention yet stranded amongst the islands +of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man; yet, at length, he was +beginning to fancy he saw his way clearer, when Spencer having, as +he thought, satisfactorily played the part of counsel, rose to try +his hand as a judge, and make some sort of address to the prisoners; +and he was particularly diffuse upon the enormity of the conduct of +the leader of such a gang as this, (the captain of the smugglers,) +who, in attempting to defraud his country, had evidently deluded his +followers, many of whom were young offenders. Whilst Spencer was +working himself into eloquence, he was interrupted by Captain Collett. + +“I’ll tell you what, young gentleman, I take it you’ve only your own +authority for putting yourself into the commission here; if so, you’d +better keep your advice for those who ask it, and your opinions for +those who need them. It is no part of my present misfortunes that +I should be forced to hear you preach; I know exactly how much I’m +forced to bear, and no more. I must answer his worship’s questions +there, always provided that I need not criminate myself, which I’m +not very likely to do; and I must mind his worship’s bidding always, +providing it’s according to law, which, of course, it’s likely to be, +but of which same law, it’s as well to let all present know, I’ve +myself some little smattering. But it’s neither my business, nor my +pleasure, to stand here as a mark for you to shoot your tongue at, as +practice in jaw, or law, whichever you please to call it.” + +“Silence, fellow, respect the court!” said Sir North, in, as he +thought, the most impressive manner. + +Whilst this collateral dispute was going on, Mr. Asklaw, who had not +previously had any communication with the Captain of the revenue +cutter, had extracted from him the degree of circumstantial evidence +he had been able to collect, and which had, since they arrived at +Hornscliff, been, to a certain extent, confirmed by the general +report, that a stranger, who had been for some days residing in +that neighbourhood, was mysteriously missing. He again repeated +the appearances they had remarked in the smuggler’s open boat, +intimating that a deed of violence had been there consummated. The +girl’s exclamation, when found on the beach, seeming to prove that +the assault which had been the cause of death, (whether by fire-arms, +or what other means, did not yet appear,) had taken place on shore +previous to the re-embarkation; it immediately occurred to Mr. +Asklaw, that this being much the more serious charge of the two, it +would be most desirable to go into this first; because, could a case +of murder be substantiated and brought home to the parties, the other +accusation, though a much more complicated affair, was of infinitely +minor importance. + +He therefore suggested that the young girl, who was in attendance, +should be called in and examined as to her knowledge of the earlier +part of these transactions, to which her exclamation on the beach +had referred. This proposal was acceded to by Sir North, and poor +Lucy sent for. In the interval which followed, had all present, of +every degree, not been too much occupied with their own concerns to +remark George, the workings of his countenance, in his efforts to +maintain his composure during these moments of, to him, agonizing +suspense, would then have been construed as the struggles of a guilty +conscience. + +After some little while the door opened, and Mrs. Jones only made her +appearance. “I ask pardon, Sir North, for _protruding_ myself, but +it’s quite impossible that young person can make her _testament_, for +she’s _parfectly historical_.” + +It was urged by Mr. Spencer that she ought at least to be brought +there, that they might themselves judge of the state in which she +was; when George, with apparent effort, stepped forward to prevent +it. “It’s not the least necessary, gentlemen, if you’ll only give me +leave to speak a moment. She could only hang me if she came here, and +I’d rather do that job for myself than owe it to her handy-work. If +I must know that my guilt is in her thoughts, let me in mercy think +that she could not bring her lips to utter it. If you’ll only hear +me, I’ll tell you all. Nay, never fear,” said he to his companions, +observing rather a murmur of alarm, “I’m not going to peach about +any of you; leave me _alone_ to tell what concerns myself _alone_. +I know you all too well to think you’d make any difficulties about +my twisting my own hempen cord--I know very well what you, too, +are going to say, gentlemen,” added he, turning to the bench, and +persevering through an attempt to interrupt him from thence, “you +would advise me not to criminate myself; but when a man has brought +disgrace on an honest name, repaid the kindness of his kin with +deceit, and behaved like a bloodthirsty savage in the presence of her +he loved, why, the sooner he finishes his own business the better, +and the less he mixes up with his shameful end those dear ones for +whom it would have been better that they had never seen him.--I’ll +out with it at once, without more words,” continued he in a firmer +tone, and, after gulping down that emotion which swelled within his +throat, “’Twas I that killed Churchill; it was all my own affair; +these comrades had nought to do with it. I might not be minded, +perhaps, to kill him outright, but I certainly did hate him with all +my heart, and I fear my spirit yearned for his blood.” + +“One moment,” said Mr. Asklaw; “(with your leave, Sir North,) I must +remind you that you can be doing yourself no good by speaking in that +tone: by making those declarations of furious hatred, you are giving +your unhappy act the character of deliberate murder.” + +“God forgive me then!” said George; “I would not willingly make +myself out worse than I really am; not for my own sake, for my sand +is run, but for theirs who must share my shame, and to whom there +will soon nought be left behind that was mine but my bad name, +which will stick to them long after they’ve tried hard to forget +George Darnell. I did not mean to say that I carried deadly weapons +expressly to destroy him; but for many a long year that oaken staff, +when ashore, has never been out of my gripe; I never had so much ado +to keep it still as when I was nigh him. It may all be very wrong and +unchristianlike, but when a lad has never had but one hope in the +farthermost seas, and the darkest nights, and the roughest weather, +it’s hard to be run down and capsized by a fair-weather punt, when he +thinks he’s just got safe into that port to which his thoughts have +always turned, as the needle to the pole.” + +Mr. Spencer, who was very jealous of any interference on the part of +Mr. Asklaw with what he considered as his peculiar province, the +whole conduct of this case, having already officiated as counsel and +judge, now took upon himself the department of clerk, and offered +to take down this voluntary confession of George Darnell; and when +divested of those ebullitions of feeling, with which the first +explanation was mixed up, and reduced, as he thought, to technical +form, it contained an accurate account of all that part of which the +reader is already aware: George’s first meeting with Churchill on +the cliff, the altercation, the blow, the subsequent conveyance of +the wounded man to the cave on the beach, and his having afterwards +been carried aboard by the orders of Capt. Collett; but of anything +which passed afterwards, (of which I hope the reader is also anxious +to be informed,) he could add nothing certain. There had been such +a confusion in jumping amid the dashing breakers aboard the lugger, +from the crowded boat, that neither the moment, nor the manner, of +Churchill’s end had been remarked by him. It was possible that he +might have fallen the victim of a casual scuffle, or of a blow dealt +in hostility by one of the crew, as the evidence of Capt. Scudd, as +to the state of the coble, seemed to infer; or he might, as George +had previously imagined, have been washed overboard by the breakers, +his weak state preventing him from saving himself by taking effectual +hold. But the only fact to which the confession could speak was, that +upon drawing up the boat, he was nowhere to be found: a circumstance +that, as the revenue cutter was directly after, through the darkness, +discerned a-head, had failed to make even then a transient impression +on the crew. + +The result of this confession of George’s was not exactly as he had +anticipated, to concentrate upon himself all the blame; for it was +decided by Sir North, with the advice of his “privy council,” which, +as Mr. Asklaw, from disagreement with the rest of the cabinet, had +resigned, now consisted merely of Peter Spencer, that, connecting +George’s statement with the evidence of Captain Scudd, he George, his +confession having been duly signed, should stand committed to the +county gaol, as a principal in the wilful murder of Churchill, and +Captain Collett, and the rest of his boat’s crew, who had carried him +aboard, as accessaries after the fact. + +As soon as this result was communicated to Lady Gayland, she occupied +herself in contriving how Lucy might most speedily, and with the +least discomfort, be restored to her friends, which was arranged +without much difficulty. But she was afterwards prevented from +fulfilling her promise, with which she accompanied the completion of +this arrangement, “That she would herself pay her a visit there.” +For the next post brought letters summoning her to town on legal +business connected with her duty as executrix to Sir Joseph, and +consequently abridged her intended stay at Hornscliff. But though she +cannot accompany the reader there, and he must not expect to revisit +Morden Bay in such gay society as the first time, or to find there as +happy a home as in the second, yet once again for a short time he is +requested to turn his attention towards Bankside Farm. + + + + + CHAPTER VII. + + Few years have passed since brightly cross the way + Lights from each window shot the lengthened ray, + And busy looks in every face were seen, + Through the warm precincts of the reigning Queen. + There fires, inviting, blazed; and all around + Was heard the tinkling bell’s seducing sound: + The nimble waiters to that sound, from far, + Sprang to the call, then hastened to the bar, + Where a glad priestess of the temple swayed, + The most obedient, and the most obeyed. + CRABBE. + + +And first, by the way, to stop at the little town of Mayton. The +evening had begun to close in on the day of the events described +above, when the Widow Westbury, having, unfortunately, no guests +to occupy her within, was standing at her front door, the somewhat +narrow threshold of which the ample expanse of her spotless apron +now more completely filled than when on first taking up that +position, seven years back, she had been herself the most attractive +sign to stray travellers on an idle afternoon to induce them to slip +in beside her. She had, as usual on such occasions, been looking +listlessly up the street, and down the road, when, on turning her +head again in the direction of the road leading from Hornscliff, she +was struck with the uncommon spectacle of two carriages crowded with +persons, apparently both within and without, and attended by others +on horseback, coming into town. One short hopeful vision she had time +to form, of full bedrooms and an empty larder, before undeceived +by observing that they were two hack chaises, and, therefore, the +regular undoubted allies of her powerful rival, the Angel, to which, +of course, they therefore edged off. + +The Widow Westbury was not an envious woman, but one pang she could +not suppress at the exuberance of her rival’s good fortune, whilst +her own house was literally empty, and she turned her head in the +opposite direction, to avoid seeing the actual unloading. But she +was as much surprised here as at what had met her view in the other +direction. It was not market-day, and yet it could be no other than +Farmer Darnell whom she beheld riding towards her, and pressing +George’s pony beyond its natural speed. The first impression of +pleasure which the Widow derived from recognising him was, however, +as completely destroyed, as had been the half-formed hopes in the +other direction, as soon as she made out the extraordinary state in +which he arrived. His first words were, as he kicked the pony towards +the stable gateway. “Hast seen her, Widow? Hast heard anything on +her? Oh! I’se lost her, she’s gone! She’s been kidnapped from us.” + +“What’s fashed about, George? tell us, hinny. Is’t cart mare’s lost, +that ye’re come on t’ galloway?” + +“The cart mare, indeed! she might gang and be d--d, for what I’d fash +myself about the likes of she. But I ax yer pardon, Widow. It’s na +th’ time for a sinfu’ mon to tak’ to profane swearing, when he’s in +sair trouble as I am now. What cared I for hard toimes, for rot i’ +th’ flocks, or blight i’ th’ crops, so long as I had but her, my own +pet lamb, my pride, and my joy--my little Lucy?” + +“And sure there won’t be any harm come to Miss Lucy, then?” asked the +Widow. + +“Harm! I trust in mercy, none. But I’se sair flayed aboot her,” +replied he, in language that would have been hardly intelligible +to any but indigenous ears, his provincialism being, as is often +observed to be the case, redoubled by excitement. “And only to think +now that I slept so sound all through t’ night, when may be she was +struggling with them as have _spraited_ her away from us. But I made +sartain sure she were at her aunt’s, where she had boided the night +afore; but when morning came, and it were noised about that there +had been some fasheous doings on t’ beach, I took galloway and rode +down to sister Alice’s, and when I fooun’ my poor darling child had +never bin there, I were clean demented, and did not ken which way to +gang, but as all t’ turnpikes come through Mayton, I thought I’d may +be hear some tidings of her here; and I’ve lossen a good hour, for I +thought to come the gainest way straight by the salt-marshes--and t’ +galloway was matched to get me throughf, as he was like to be--being +o’er small to bear me, even on canny groond.” + +“And if you haven’t been bogged and are quite dripping wet up to your +waist!” interrupted the Widow--“Come in, Richard, I’ll see and get +you some tidings, and make you comfortable the while.” + +“Comfort!” replied Richard, contemptuously; “comfort! and where’s the +comfort ever like to visit me again, but in the sight of my child?” + +“But step in a wee bit, and tell me all about it, while Joe gives +a feed to the galloway, for he’s clean done at present. Is’t alone +she’s missing?” + +“No: George never com’d back naither; but I don’t count much about +that, for he’s a messmate about in these parts; and he said maybe he +shouldn’t return last night. But Painter Churchill wasn’t to be found +naither.” + +“Richard, I’d my misgivings when you took that man home with you +from here, that no good would come of it: he’s just the sort of +soft-spoken chap to take with a young girl. I wish it mayn’t be along +with he that she’s off.” + +“What, Widow! my own Lucy, that’s come of decent folk, and all along +been used to have a good roof-top over her head, and bide where she +was known and looked up to; she to bemean herself to give up all and +follow a vagabond stroller, of her own free mind! that’s the least +crediblest surmise of all. Hark! what’s that ere chap saying about +George Darnell?” overhearing the voices of those who were already +circulating in the street that it was George Darnell who had been +brought there in a chaise, on his way to the county gaol. This, +when explained, was sure to be a bitter aggravation of the troubles +of Farmer Darnell, who had always loved his nephew better than any +thing else in the world, except her whom he was then seeking; but +the first impression made on him by this news was only, that somehow +or another it must be connected with the absence of Lucy; and acting +upon the idea, he strode across to the Angel, to inform himself, +without stopping to ask any farther particulars, or to listen to the +Widow’s request that he wouldn’t show himself at “t’ other house” in +that unsightly gait. He was however much shocked, when, upon first +desiring to be shown to George Darnell, a difficulty was made by +the constables in whose custody he was, upon the ground that it was +not usual to allow any communication with a prisoner who was on his +way to gaol on so grave a charge as murder. This objection being +at last surmounted, and the Farmer admitted to George by one of +the constables, his parental anxiety again superseding every other +feeling, he blurted out, “Sad job indeed, George! but feyther before +uncle, after all. Hast seen her? Hast heard on her?” + +George, who could make every allowance for any one, father or not, +considering Lucy before every thing else in the world, also forgot +for the moment, his own dreadful situation, in the pleasure he felt +in dissipating his uncle’s fear for his daughter, by informing him +of her safety, and that her return home might speedily be expected. +After this explanation, the more painful task remained, of detailing +to his uncle the particulars of the awful situation in which he had +involved himself. In the whole course of his life, George had never +known what it was to offend his uncle. Many faults he had certainly +committed from his earliest childhood, and scrapes he had got into +with his aunt and others about the house; but his uncle had always +rather taken his part on these occasions; that indulgence towards +venial errors, the result of a disposition not over-strict for +himself, and consequently easy for others, being confirmed by his +strong partiality for his nephew. This only made it more painful to +George to have to break to him the dreadful crime with which he was +now charged; of all the circumstances connected with which he gave +him a faithful account. + +Richard Darnell wished, if possible, not to increase the anguish +which he saw his nephew suffered in the relation, but his own +disappointment would break through his endeavours to make the least +of it. + +“It’s a baddish piece of work indeed, George,” he said; “that must +be confessed. I hope and trust you may be gettin’ well quit on’t, +and you’re not to doubt that we--that is, I--will do all in my power +to help you. But to think, George, how little I would have guessed +that the first sorrow I ever had about my poor child should be +of your making; I that always looked forward to your keeping her +out of harm’s way when I should be gone to my long rest; and that +it should be you brought her among all that unseemly society! But +I will not say now, how far I’d pushed my hopes that sometime the +name of Darnell might be left to share atween you two in peace and +honour; but to think that, through you, it should fall out that my +own innocent child should have been gaped at by the gentlefolk as a +wanton one, the tramping follower of a band of unlawful ruffians!” + +“Don’t, I pray you, uncle,” said George, “don’t; no more o’ that; +it’s just the light in which I’ve been turning it over all this day +and night, and you can’t any how put that stronger in words than I’ve +had it in my thoughts; only from you it hurts me more, for it comes, +I know, strange to Richard Darnell to say an unkind word when his +back’s not up: and of myself you never did yet.” + +The dialogue was here interrupted by the head constable, “Come, +gentlemen, the chaise be ready;” in the phrase of the minions of the +law, any one becoming a gentleman who is consigned to their custody +on any charge, however trivial or flagrant. + +The other prisoners, who had been stowed in different apartments, +were then brought out, and, upon seeing them, and particularly +recognizing Kit Collett again, Richard Darnell, whose fears +immediately turned to the breeze all this would raise at home, though +anxious to avoid, of his own accord, giving George any farther pain, +could not help saying: “Lord! Lord! George, to think how my Missus +will fash herself when she hears tell how you brought a ruffian like +that ere to sit aside her and break her bread! I shall have a bad +time of it with her, George, all along of you; and if this bean’t +the very spot where I seed you off from last time! That were another +guess voyage you were a-bound on then, George: and who kens but I may +have been summut to blame myself? If I’d gi’en you some o’ that good +counsel your aunt said you needed, and had been a bit more minded +what I was after myself, who knows? But good b’ye, George,” added he, +as his nephew was put into the chaise, “you’ll be gettin’ through +yet, I’se sure.” + +And, with a heavier heart, though with somewhat a steadier head +than when he last saw George drive off from the Angel, poor Richard +Darnell returned to the Queen’s Head. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII. + + O’er all within, the lady-hostess rules, + Her bar she governs, and her kitchen schools; + To every guest the appropriate speech is made, + And every duty with distinction paid. + CRABBE. + + Why do you keep alone, + Of sorriest fancies your companions making? + Using those thoughts which should indeed have died + With them they think on. + SHAKSPEARE. + + +In the mean time there had been an arrival at the Queen’s Head. At +the desire of Lady Gayland, Lucy Darnell had been sent as far as +Mayton, in Sir North’s pony-phaeton, accompanied by her own maid, +Mam’selle Angelique, or Angel-leek, as Mrs. Jones called her. +Lucy’s companion was a gay-hearted, good-humoured little Parisian +girl, recently imported by her mistress; and she thought she best +accomplished the purpose for which she was sent, and whiled away the +tedium of the way, by singing to her in succession scraps of little +French chansons; and occasionally, when Lucy seemed most depressed, +assuring her in a tone of sympathy, but half in English, half in +French, both equally unintelligible to her to whom it was addressed, +that she was to take “courage,” for that it was impossible they could +ever be so cruel as to hang a “_si joli garçon de contrabandist_,” as +that “_amour_” whom she had seen pass the windows. + +In this opinion she was more kind and courteous than sincere; for +though George was a fine, handsome, well-made lad, he certainly at +no time, and least of all then, accurately answered the definition +of the sort of man a French girl frequently styles “_un amour_.” Sir +North’s coachman had found, that though the Widow Westbury’s ale +sometimes, for the time being, got the better of memory, memory was +always in favour of making another attack upon it, and therefore he +drove straight, without asking any questions, to the Queen’s Head. +Mrs. Westbury having found out who the two ladies were, met Richard +Darnell on his return with one of her sweetest smiles, “And what do +you think I’ve got for you now?” + +But Richard, who was not at that moment in the most amiable frame of +mind towards his hostess, from the compunctious recollections which +his parting with George had awakened, only replied, making straight +for the stable, “It’s of nae use now, Widow, I’ll not tak’ a drop of +aught you’ve gotten, or touch aught you could give till I’ve seen my +child again.” + +“And what if it should be just your child herself I’ve got to offer +you?” + +“What! what, Lucy?” and Richard Darnell, pushing past the Widow, +rushed into the front parlour, when, upon finding her, the sudden +transition from despondency had a most powerful effect upon him. +His athletic frame actually shook with agitation, and he blubbered +outright, whilst he buried his daughter in his capacious arms. + +At this extraordinary spectacle, even Mam’selle Angelique was not a +little touched, though still more astonished at what she thought a +wonderful natural phenomenon, and lifting up her hands in amazement, +unmixed however with ridicule, exclaimed, “_Mon Dieu! mon Dieu! que +les ours de ce pays-ci jouent le grand sentiment!_” + +The widow having followed our friend into the room, was very anxious, +as it was rather late, that they should stay there all night; but the +Farmer would not hear of it. + +“It’s all very well, Widow; I am always agreeable, you know, when +I’m by myself, but this is my child, whom I’ve only just gettin’ back +out o’ the hands of the Philistines, as my Missus would speak it, and +home’s the most seemly place for the likes o’ she; and besides, Anne, +you know this house wouldn’t be altogither quite entirely fitting +like, you understand.” + +This being said in a manner that was quite intelligible to the +hostess, as conveying a negative of her proposal, she bestirred +herself with real zeal to procure them a conveyance homewards, which +was speedily obtained in the shape of a taxed cart; and Angelique, +after kissing Lucy on both cheeks with the fervour of an old friend, +prepared to resume her seat in the phaeton, attended by the coachman +alone, and whom she treated, on her return, to the same scraps of the +same little “vaudeville airs,” to which he occasionally ventured to +attempt a somewhat incongruous accompaniment; Mrs. Westbury’s ale +having made such a breach in his habitual respectful deference for +the steward’s room, as would have been resented by any other member +of that upper house, but which the light-hearted French girl easily +put up with, as adding to the amusement of the moment. + +In the mean time the Farmer, with one arm guiding the reins, and the +other still round his recovered treasure, partly as if to be sure he +should not again lose her, and partly to save her delicate limbs from +some of the dislocating effects of this rough conveyance, pursued +his way homeward. And if we once see him safe, we will promise that +the story shall not linger long there at present; for Mrs. Darnell, +it may be imagined, had not been rendered more companionable by all +the late events, and though her fault-finding disposition had been +so long used to pick out petty errors, as not to be able at once to +stretch itself so as to comprehend the enormity of George’s present +offences, yet, perhaps, she was more intolerable when perpetually +fishing for minor accompanying grievances, which would have escaped +the other parties, in the overpowering disgrace of George’s +approaching trial. + +But Mrs. Darnell was, as her husband had anticipated, particularly +indignant upon a ruffian like Collett having sat at her board. “Only +to think, if he’d slept here too! as Richard was daft enough to ask +him; it’s just of a piece wi’ all the rest.” And in succession, +“George’s having left Lucy on the shore alone of such a night, to +catch her death of cold, and spoil all her clothes; and Lucy having +been never minded that she’d lost her bonnet there, and having come +home at last with that queer Frenchified thing instead; and Richard, +when he returned from Mayton, having left George’s pony behind, and +Joe Hostler having broken his knees in bringing him over the next +day;”--all these were enumerated, and each in turn pronounced to +be “just of a piece wi’ all the rest.” The effect of all this upon +her husband was to make him enter into a warm and angry defence of +himself upon points on which, if the contrite feelings with which he +had returned from Mayton had been sustained, he would undoubtedly +have pleaded guilty, and sued for mercy. + +The peril in which Lucy had lately been, and the alarm which that +peril had occasioned to her father, had left so strong an impression +on the minds of both as to draw forth more than ever their mutual +feelings of affection, and to multiply more than ever little offices +of attachment on one side, and protection on the other: there never +was a better daughter or a kinder father. For many days after Lucy’s +return, Richard Darnell could not bear, without uneasiness, to see +her stray beyond the garden gate; and when he went out to his work, +she employed almost all the time, till she saw him come back, in +devising and arranging his choicest comforts, and endeavouring how to +welcome him home with his favourite little indulgences. The result +of all this was, that Mrs. Darnell very soon reckoned them a useless +pair of idle _do-noughts_; and after many vain attempts to propitiate +her mother on that head, Lucy finding that her presence seemed +only to open an additional ground of dispute, the effect of these +altercations between her parents was to drive her more from home, to +seek comfort, where she never sought it in vain, in the society of +her aunt. From this in itself she could derive nothing but benefit; +but it is matter of doubt whether she, in her present frame of mind, +was the better for those solitary rambles by which these interviews +were necessarily both preceded and followed. + +During the course of her short acquaintance with Churchill, she +had, she hardly knew why, been led gradually to think of him more +with the anxious deference due to a superior being, than with the +easy consciousness of equality. This feeling, since the melancholy +thoughts that he was now no more, had hallowed the memory of their +interviews, had increased in intensity to a degree amounting to +reverence, almost to adoration, and with it she would have shrunk +from mixing any alloy of feminine tenderness; whilst, on the +other hand, the shame that George, her cousin, the playmate of +her infantine years, should have so fallen, was mixed up with the +deepest anxiety for his impending fate, constantly recurring, and +as constantly checked by the idea that its indulgence was an injury +to Churchill’s murdered shade, whom her excited imagination often +pictured to be hanging about her in these much-loved spots in her +rambles, which they had together so lately visited. + + + + + CHAPTER IX. + + Better be with the dead + Whom we to gain our place have sent to peace, + Than on the torture of the mind to lie + In restless ecstasy. + SHAKSPEARE. + + How many pine in want and dungeon glooms, + Shut from the common air, and common use + Of their own limbs! + THOMSON. + + +It has often struck me, that though it is said, in answer to the +question, “whom does time gallop withal?--with a thief to the +gallows, for, though he goes as softly as foot can fall, he thinks +himself too soon there:” yet, if there is a course which time has to +run, which should, if possible, be shortened, it is that elongated +period which, in the greater part of this kingdom, has often to be +passed between the commitment of a prisoner and his trial. In many +cases nine months may elapse--nine weary months elapse before those +whose trials ultimately end in acquittal, can be restored to their +family; and of those who are committed, how large a proportion are +afterwards proved to have been innocent? or rather, if you please, +not proved to be guilty? With the numberless law reforms, previously +deemed visionary and impossible, which the last few years have seen +actually put in practice, it is not likely that this evil should long +be allowed to continue. How the alteration is to be effected, or by +what separation of the civil and criminal functions of the judges the +courts of law at Westminster Hall could still continue open during +the terms, as they are now required to be, and yet commissions for +the dispatch of criminal justice be issued to the country,--must be +left to more experienced heads than mine to determine. But the evil +of the want of some such arrangement is not confined alone to that +one, in itself sufficient, of an innocent man chancing to be detained +whilst those seasons have almost revolved during which he should have +supported his family by his labour; but it is also not rare that +the tendency to crime, which might be epidemic before, is rendered +so much more virulent by contagion, that he who went in a petty +offender, whether acquitted that time or not, comes out a confirmed +criminal; and even on the guilty, on whom certain punishment must +be done, how much of the benefit of that example, which is the sole +object of punishment, is destroyed by its not being speedy as well as +certain! In this age, celebrated above all its other peculiarities +for the rapid succession of fresh sensations, what crime, however +atrocious, can fix the attention of the public for nine long months? +A rural Burke, or a provincial Bishop, is examined upon a charge, +which the infamous notoriety of the first has identified with his +name, both as a noun and a verb. The London journals teem with the +fullest accounts, headed with the most inviting particulars of the +most revolting details. Nine months, perhaps, elapse, and he dies, +without confession, is hanged and dissected, and all in three lines +of the smallest type in an obscure corner of the fourth page of the +same newspaper. Here the benefit of the example is lost, and nobody +can tell exactly why. The interval that has elapsed is rarely blamed +for it. Nobody out of prison holds the stop-watch for him that is +within. I remember, some years back, a fashionable offender, whose +name was in every body’s mouth at the time, being sentenced to five +years’ confinement in ---- gaol; his liberation was, at length, +announced in the papers. It became the subject of conversation. No +one could believe that any how he could have stayed his whole time, +and bets were made and lost upon the utter impossibility of the +fact. And yet, though to those who had “_thus doft the world_ aside, +and bid it pass,” and had kept no count of time, the fact seemed +impossible, to the individual himself, how endless had seemed the +early snail-like creeping days, how tedious the last lingering hours! + +But though the first part of these reflections were meant for the +benefit of my friend George, whom we left on his way to the county +gaol, the last seem exclusively devoted to the reader, and as, +perhaps, he may think being longer detained by them as cruel as would +be George’s protracted confinement, I hasten to the week preceding +the one in which the Assizes were to be held. + +The time of George’s confinement had not extended at all near +to the full period to which, if his offence had happened at a +different moment, it might have stretched; but was within the +average length previous to trial. Still it had been long enough to +work a considerable effect upon his feelings, which were naturally +good; and with a strongly reviving anxiety that his existence might +be preserved, came a steadfast purpose, if his prayer should be +granted, to lead a new life. He had passed, as usual, much of his +day in solitary meditation, when one evening the door of his cell +was opened by the turnkey, who ushered in a respectable-looking +gentleman, dressed in black, whom the gaoler proposed to leave alone +with George, saying, as he went out, “You may speak your mind freely +to this gemman; he’s come to sarve you in a professional _pint_, and +he never meddles but where there’s a chance; he’s not one of them +carrion beaks, as we calls those who hover about them who are as safe +bespoke as if they were already doomed.” + +The professional gentleman, when left alone with George, proceeded +to tell him, that from the examination he had already made into his +case, he thought it by no means a bad one. The worst point was the +confession he had been foolish enough to make and sign; but he was +in hopes that there were informalities and illegalities in the terms +of that confession which would at once prevent its being recorded +as evidence, and therefore also prevent his being obliged to have +recourse to a last expedient, which he hinted he thought he had in +his power, to procure his acquittal. “But,” added he, “you may depend +upon it that, if you are only sincere with me, every possible pains +shall be taken, for I am directed to spare no expense.” + +“But I beg you will spare it, though,” said George, “I’m not going to +have the hard-earned savings of my poor uncle squandered to save such +a prodigal as I have been.” + +“I beg your pardon, but it is not from your uncle I have received +those directions. No part of the costs will fall on him.” + +“On whom then? for I’ve not a stiver to give you, if that’s your +hope.” + +“I am not at liberty to explain farther,” replied the solicitor. “But +it is sufficient for you to know, that I do not intend any demand on +you, and am myself quite easy on the subject. With respect to your +uncle, the only communication I have had with him has been on the +subject of his daughter’s testimony. She was subpœnaed on the other +side, but from the conversation I had during my visit to your uncle, +I thought her testimony was so likely to be favourable to you, that, +upon hearing this, her previous distress was changed to eagerness on +the subject; and she now expresses perfect readiness to come forward.” + +“Bless her! does she indeed?” said George, “and to speak in my +behalf! A word from her cannot fail to do me good: it must tell with +every one.” + +After this they proceeded more in detail to arrange the particulars +of the defence. The same professional gentleman had, as he told +George, been to Bankside Farm, and upon expressing there the same +anonymous commission to spare no expense in the defence, Lucy knew +not to whom she could trace, at the same time, the will and the power +so to act, except, perhaps, to the Lady who had been so kind to her +at Hornscliff Abbey. + +The evening preceding the day of trial at length arrived. +This was, as usual on such occasions, fixed for Friday, as was +considerately explained to George by the turnkey, that he might have +four-and-twenty hours more to prepare, in case of any awkward result, +as murderers must die within eight-and-forty hours of conviction; +and, as Sunday does not count, they, by this arrangement, gain one +day more. + +Lucy came into the town on that evening, accompanied by her father, +and also by her aunt, who had upon this occasion made the effort +to leave a home from which she had never stirred for many years, +conceiving it to be her duty to support her beloved niece through +this painful trial, and knowing that, if she did not go, her +sister-in-law would have thought she must: and Alice was aware that +her mother’s presence must inevitably be the source of additional, +though unintentional, torment to Lucy. It was settled, that on +no account would it be proper for Lucy to visit George in prison, +even if her character of witness would not have prevented her from +obtaining admission; but Alice Darnell, by the indulgence of the +governor of the prison, had a long interview with her unfortunate +nephew, and, as he expressed himself, it was from that alone that +he had derived the only true consolation of which he had for long +partaken. But poor Alice’s efforts to maintain her composure before +him, combined with the unusual exertion which the whole expedition +had occasioned her, had so shattered her already broken spirits, that +she was utterly unequal to accompany her niece to court next morning, +and it was with her father alone, that Lucy attended there. + +The Grand Jury had, the day before, found a “true bill” against +George Darnell for “wilful murder;” and against Christopher Collett, +and three other of the smugglers, as accessaries after the fact; and +had thrown out the bills against the others. + + + + + CHAPTER X. + + Are you acquainted with the difference + That holds the present question in the court? + Is not this the boy redeemed from death? + SHAKSPEARE. + + Can the sea yield up its dead alive? + + +The Judge took his seat on the bench at nine o’clock: on one side of +him was the high-sheriff, and on the other sat an acquaintance of +the sheriff’s, a fair-haired good-looking young man, who seemed a +silent but apparently an interested spectator of all the proceedings; +and to him the Judge turned frequently during what followed, making +easy courteous remarks, occasionally in a tone of levity which +perhaps did not quite become the person from whom they emanated, or +the occasion on which they were expressed: nor did they seem to be +particularly acceptable to him to whom they were addressed, for he +very faintly re-echoed his Lordship’s chuckling accompaniment to his +own pleasantry. + +The prisoners having been placed at the bar, and the pleadings +having been opened from his first brief by Mr. Spencer, a proceeding +which in any hands always seems calculated to make the matter a +thousand times more unintelligible to a simple-minded jury, the case +was stated by a senior counsel, whose practice was so exclusively +confined to the criminal court, that it was said of him, by the +witlings below him, “that he never took any daily exercise but on the +_rope-walk_.” The first witness then called was Lucy Darnell. This +was an awful moment for poor George, when on such an occasion he +heard that name shouted in the court by the crier, and taken up by +the javelin-men. + +Except that one moment when, as he was brought back handcuffed, he +had met her half distracted on the beach, he had not seen her since +they parted in anger before the cave. And now, as she appeared at +this summons and mounted the elevated witness-box, a murmur of +admiration ran through the court, so little did her appearance +coincide with what any one who had not seen her, had formed to +themselves as their idea of the sort of girl who was likely to be +mixed up in a transaction of this kind. The effect was universal. +Even the old Judge expressed his favourable feelings in rather too +lively a sally to the fair young man beside him. Mr. Bailey senior, +the leading counsel for the prosecution, altered his usual address to +persons in her situation, of “my good girl,” into “Miss Darnell.” +Tutored as she had been by her aunt, and determined as she was not to +cast her eyes to the bar, Lucy got through all the first questions +tolerably well, interspersed as they were with repeated desires +from Mr. Bailey, “that she would raise her voice,” and “lift up her +head,” and “look at my Lord and the gentlemen of the jury;” and at +length, interrupted by a request, conveyed by him in an unusually +courteous manner, that she would remove her bonnet,--a suggestion +offered to him who made it by a learned brother, who, from where he +sat, could not see her face,--she chose rather to comply at once with +this request, than to make any difficulties, and in consequence, +the graceful contour of her face and throat, except where partially +concealed by the luxuriant clusters of her fine light-brown hair, +became visible to all. This was followed by another of those general +murmurs of approbation peculiarly remarked in courts of justice, +because, perhaps, there least of all they ought to find vent. + +To all the first questions, as, “What’s your name?” “Where do you +live?” “What is your father?” “Do you know George Darnell?” “Did +you know a person of the name of Churchill?” “Do you remember the +evening of the 19th of the month of----?” the reader will readily +have anticipated her answers, and they were given with the same +facility, which any of my readers themselves, if they have paid +courteous attention to these pages, could have replied. But when it +came to the act in question, and she was required to speak accurately +to the blow given, old Bailey and his young witness no longer pulled +so well together. She having stated that she was so far off at the +time, that she could not speak positively as to anything more than +seeing the deceased fall: it was then again, “Come, my good girl, you +must try and recollect yourself.” For Mr. Bailey, perhaps, suspecting +that there was a flaw in George’s confession, was very anxious to +have it confirmed on this point. At last, not being able to weather +this difficulty, he was provoked to say, “Come, my good girl, if +the deceased Churchill had been your sweetheart, instead of the +prisoner at the bar, I think this is not exactly the sort of evidence +you would have given.” At this, one of the prisoner’s counsel, who +had been affecting to take notes, but who was, in fact, sketching +the witness’s profile on a scrap of paper before him, finding his +avocation interrupted by the flood of tears which burst from her at +this unjust remark, addressed the Judge, saying, “My Lord, my learned +friend forgets this is his own witness.” The Judge was, for a moment, +prevented from replying, by the amusement he seemed to experience +from the fair young man beside him, who probably, from being easily +excited, and unused to the decorum required in courts of justice, +had started up, as if to resent the insult offered to the young +person, to whose testimony he had throughout been very attentive. His +Lordship smiled for a moment, and then phlegmatically said, + +“Mr. Bailey, you may as well not persevere in these remarks.” + +As soon as the poor witness was sufficiently composed to be enabled +to go on with her testimony, she was farther interrogated with +respect to the deceased, his habits and character, and whether he was +likely to provoke offence. To all of which she replied warmly and +fervently in his favour. The examination in chief being concluded, +the junior sketching counsel on the other side would have proceeded +to ask her some questions, but, as the solicitor for the defence had +complied with the directions to spare no expense, he had engaged Mr. +Serjeant Leaderly, who had then been pleading in the other court, and +having just been summoned, the consequence was, an immense bustle +and rustling of silk gowns, and many obtrusive heads were somewhat +roughly tapped by the javelin-men, to make room for the learned +Serjeant, and at length he arrived, and took his place on the seat +immediately under the bench, when the Judge handed over a paper to +him, with, + +“Take a sandwich, brother Leaderly; they have been sent me by my +learned brother in the other court. I suppose, as they are _hung_ +beef, he thought the venue ought to lie here; at any rate, I can’t +deny that _he’s_ on the _civil side_ now,” chuckling audibly, and +turning round to the fair young man for applause, who, by the +constrained expression of his countenance, seemed to think that the +ermine and the toga, no more than grey hairs, became a fool and a +jester. + +Mr. Serjeant Leaderly, mumbling his sandwich the while, and turning +over the folios of his brief, at length began: + +“My good girl, you knew the deceased (what’s his name?) Churchill; +did he ever himself follow the nautical calling?” + +“Sir?” + +“Was he involved in these smuggling transactions himself?” + +“I believe not, Sir.” + +“What was his habit while he resided in your house?” + +“His habit was to walk out with me, whenever mother would let him.” + +“Yes, yes, I dare say; but I don’t mean that.--Did he ever wear a +short round-cut jacket?” + +“I can’t remember that he ever did.” + +“Will you undertake to say that he never did wear a short round-cut +jacket?” + +“No, I cannot.” + +“Will you pretend to deny that he ever did wear a short round-cut +jacket?” + +“No; I cannot say positively that he never did.” + +The turn of this examination having so little to do with the previous +course of the trial, of which Mr. Serjeant Leaderly had not heard a +word, surprised several. And one or two briefless juniors who were +sitting together, whispered, + +“A short round-cut jacket! What can Leaderly be driving at? Spencer, +that’s you he’s describing. Spencer, that must be a cut at you.” + +“No,” retorted the other, “it’s the reverse of a cut at Spencer, for +he seems to think thereby to hang a tail.” + +But Leaderly, perhaps, not having had time to do more than ascertain +that this was a principal witness for the prosecution, and thinking +it his business to discredit her, evidently somehow imagined he had +made a point, and he continued, + +“Then do you mean to tell me, Lucy Darnell, that you cannot answer my +question simply and decidedly, yes or no?” + +“I cannot say positively.” + +“Oh! you cannot say positively. We must try somehow, and bring you to +the point; you will recollect you are on your oath, or is that a fact +you do recollect?” + +“Yes, Sir, certainly,” said Lucy, mildly but firmly. + +At this moment a messenger from the other court whispered, from +behind the railing, to Mr. Serjeant Leaderly, that the important +cause of Scurry _versus_ Waitfort was just called on; upon which the +Serjeant, nodding apart, said, + +“And being upon your oath, which, it appears, you do recollect, you +mean to tell my lord and the gentlemen of the jury, that you cannot +recollect whether Churchill either did or did not ever wear a short +round-cut jacket?” + +“No, I cannot, indeed.” + +“My Lord, I shall ask the witness no farther questions,” said the +Serjeant, with the self-satisfied air of a man who had settled the +whole business; and gathering up his papers into his bag, and with +the same rustling of silk gown and tapping of intervening heads, he +made his exit. And this was all the benefit George derived from the +first lawyer on the circuit having been engaged in his behalf. + +At this period of the trial the Judge interfered. He was, or he would +never have been on the bench, barring that one defect, an unfortunate +incontinence of waggery, a very quick-sighted person as to the weak +points in a cause; and when he could exercise the power of retention +upon the flow of his pleasantry till a fitting occasion, he was an +excellent judge. He said, “Gentlemen of the jury, I don’t think +this will do at all. It don’t appear clear that the body of this +unfortunate gentleman was ever found. Now, Lucy Darnell, listen to +me; don’t distress yourself. I am not going to ask you any question +which need have that effect. It appears that you knew this Churchill +very well, and therefore would have been able to recognize him +however changed. Now don’t turn your head away, nobody’s going to +frighten you; look at me, and answer my question. When was the last +time you saw Churchill, dead or alive?” + +As the Judge finished his question, Lucy, preparing to answer it, +raised her eyes in the direction she had been desired; a ray of +sunshine, through the sky-light above, fell full upon the countenance +of the fair young man on the bench; and Lucy, uttering a piercing +scream, dropped lifeless at the bottom of the witness-box. The +impression which had produced this sudden effect was, that the +person before her was no other than Churchill, and though somewhat +changed in many respects from the state in which she had lately known +him, yet still gazing on her with the same fond interest which his +countenance had expressed on the night on which they last had been +parted.--It certainly was Churchill, or rather Lord Castleton, she +then beheld. + +It was thought best for her recovery to remove her from the +court, though no one guessed the cause of this emotion, which +was attributed to the severe discipline, in the shape of cross +examination, to which she had been subjected; and as no one besides +Lord Castleton suspected that his living apparition had produced this +powerful effect, he, without any danger of enlightening them on that +subject, to which he was still averse, speedily afterwards himself +left the court. The reader will foresee George’s acquittal, from +the turn which the Judge’s examination had taken, because, however +the matter might have been for a time involved in mystery from +the confused nature of the depositions taken by Mr. Spencer, upon +enquiry it turned out, that there was no proof of any murder having +been actually committed, from any dead body having been discovered. +We shall therefore take the liberty of inviting the reader also to +leave the court, as what has been recorded was only so far as was +thought necessary for the progress of the story, and with no ambition +of broaching a paraphrase of the celebrated “Causes Celèbres” of a +neighbouring country; and still less with the bad taste of attempting +a parody of our own. + + + + + CHAPTER XI. + + ’Twas strange: in youth, all action, and all life, + Burning for pleasure, not averse from strife, + Woman--the field--the ocean--all that gave + Promise of gladness, peril of a grave, + In turn he tried. + BYRON. + + There be land rats, and water rats, land thieves, and water thieves. + SHAKSPEARE. + + +It is always irksome, in the progress of an “ower true tale,” when +any circumstance has to be explained through the medium of an +extraordinary coincidence, knowing, as one does, that any instance of +the kind, particularly the fortuitous appearance of a necessary agent +at the appointed moment, occurring as such things do in actual life, +and passing unheeded, yet when recorded on paper they are received +with a revulsion of incredulity. The chances of events sometimes +mould themselves into strange combinations. It was but two or three +years back that two men threw themselves down at the same day and +the same hour, one from the leaning tower of Pisa, the other from +St. Mark’s at Venice. There could have been no possible connexion +between these acts. But if a similar coincidence had been interwoven +in a framework of fiction, it would have caused the manufacture to be +rejected as unworkmanlike. If, on the other hand, the same sort of +combination, had favoured a superstitious presentiment, it would have +been taken as an undeniable confirmation of the preternatural. + +I have volunteered this preface, though hardly, I think, a necessary +one, before explaining the manner in which Lord Castleton’s life +was preserved: to do which effectually, it will be necessary to +allude a little to one or two incidents in his early life. It will +have been collected, though merely from Alice Darnell’s collateral +tale, that he lost his father when very young; and it will also have +been inferred from the same source, that, during his earlier years, +he could have seen but little of his mother, who had lived separate +from her husband on the Continent. Young Somers remained under his +grandfather’s roof, whilst his mother was amusing herself abroad, +and his father was constantly shifting about in country quarters +with his militia regiment. His infantine years would therefore have +been deprived of any but mercenary female superintendence, except +for the unremitting care of his foster-mother: whose affection for +him was certainly too pure and truly maternal, to be attributed to +any mercenary motives. She had sought, and easily obtained from his +grandfather, the permission to continue her care of him long, very +long after he had completely outgrown the discharge of her original +functions. The only condition with which this request was mixed up, +was not for remuneration, for that, being in easy circumstances, +was not an object, though, left to Lord Castleton, it followed as a +matter of course,--but was, that she might be allowed to have her +own son, the foster-brother of young Somers, also under the roof. +This was thought, at the time, rather an advantage than otherwise, by +the grandfather of our hero; but it turned out quite the contrary, +for the characters of both the parties concerned. It accustomed the +young heir to require a dependent companion, and it habituated the +future yeoman to notions of expense quite beyond his rank in life. +One thing, however, it certainly promoted, a lasting attachment +between the boys: this, on the side of Somers, subject to the alloy +of caprice, and occasional forgetfulness of a superior; on the part +of Harry, ripening into that feeling of utter devotion to its object, +which the relation of foster-brother in the earlier stages of society +was said constantly to produce; and which has not been entirely +without example in our own times. + +The earliest event which made a permanent impression on either of the +boys, was the melancholy end of Colonel Somers. Old Lord Castleton, +being at the time it happened very infirm, and almost bedridden, had, +upon being informed of his son’s self-inflicted death, sent Nurse +Carter to make the necessary arrangements for his remains. + +She had, upon her return from the seaport where it was mentioned he +had destroyed himself, collected her two young charges round her, +and, with the irresistible desire of her age and station to make +the most of a shocking story, had not spared them the slightest +particular of what she had heard and seen. Much of this, of course, +only served to frighten them out of their wits for many nights +afterwards, but, as she put it in the shape of warning, she took a +locket which she had found round the deceased’s neck, and hung it +round young Somers, saying, “I know not what this may mean, but your +father wore it till his death; do you wear it till yours, and mayhap +the sight of it may sometime save you from rashly daring the same +fate.” + +Old Lord Castleton lived enough to appoint guardians for his +grandson, quite independent of the mother, whose second marriage he +much disapproved. The immediate effect of most of this was, that +young Somers remained much longer than perhaps he ought to have done +with the Carters. But at length he was sent to a public school, and +from thence to the University; and of course, for some time, lost +sight entirely of young Henry Carter. But the latter had been long +enough with him to contract habits which did not exactly enable him +to confine his attention to the process which intervenes between +the plough and the reaping-hook. On the contrary, his exclusive +preferences of the horse-race and the cock-pit soon engrossed him +entirely. His mother did not live long enough to suffer all the +uneasiness that these confirmed habits, on his part, would have +caused her, but died in the firm confidence that the day of the +return of her dear young Lord, when of age, to take possession of the +lands of his ancestors, would be the date of the commencement of a +brilliant career for the only other object of her equally divided +solicitude, his early playmate and foster-brother. + +In the mean time Harry Carter fell, step by step, into the most +desperate courses, and went on from one extravagance to another. He +was at length so completely ruined that he was obliged to decamp, and +make for the nearest seaport, hardly knowing whether he would seek +out his patron, who was still on the Continent, or start for America +with some choice companions, who were thither bound, and who tried to +persuade him to try his luck with them. His option, however, on this +subject, was rendered superfluous by a press-gang, who entered the +public-house where they were assembled, and carried them all on board +a tender; from thence Harry Carter, in due time, was transferred to +a man-of-war, which was to cruise in the Mediterranean. Though not +inclined to work if he could help it,--when he could not, he made the +best of a bad job, and soon became an able seaman. + +It so happened, that once being ashore at a small retired bay on the +Island of Sicily, he and others of his messmates got into a broil +with some of the natives, and, as it had originated in an imputed +act of sacrilege on their part, they were in great danger from the +offended feelings of the priest-ridden peasants, who, congregating +in numbers around them, cut off their retreat to their boats. Harry +Carter, who was foremost in the defence, though he had not been a +ringleader in the outrage, was himself sore beset, when a party of +English travellers, who had been making the tour of the island on +foot, coming up at the moment, interfered between them at no little +risk to themselves; which danger was however removed, as soon as +they came to explain matters; the quarrel having originated in +misapprehension, and the attack having been provoked by the universal +impatience of Englishmen, who, if from ignorance of the language +of a people they cannot make use of their tongues, immediately +have recourse to their hands. Harry Carter at once, through all +the alterations of intervening years, recognized the playmate of +his youth, Somers, now Lord Castleton, who was much hurt at the +condition in life, that of a common sailor, in which he now found his +foster-brother; which he could not help in some degree attributing +to his own forgetfulness and neglect. But Carter would not allow him +to reproach himself on the subject; and, as his duty prevented his +farther stay, the parting between the foster-brothers was as sudden +as the meeting was unexpected, and, in preparing to shove off, Harry +Carter said, “It’s not like we should often meet again, as we used +to do, my Lord: but now I have seen you, you’ve come like a guardian +angel upon me, and I shall only pray that, if there ever should be an +occasion in which you should stand in need of the like assistance, +that may be the moment I may next cross your path.” + +And this fervently devoted expression of his wishes, was heard and +granted; for they next met at that most critical moment in Morden Bay. + +At the Peace, Henry Carter had been discharged from the navy, and +soon afterwards falling in with Kit Collett, a free trader’s life +had too many temptations for his own confirmed irregular habits for +him to resist the offers made him by that person to join him in +“_La Pie voleuse_.” It so happened, that, being one of the sharpest +and cleverest of the crew, he had been employed by his Captain +confidentially, not long before this last venture, upon a line of +coast on which they had not previously made a descent. He was sent to +make a survey of it, and arrange matters with some loose characters +in the neighbourhood for furthering their scheme. + +In the early part of the labours of that eventful evening, Harry +Carter had worked with all the zeal of a principal in stowing the +kegs, thinking that much of the responsibility as to the success of +the venture devolved on him who had so warmly counselled it. But when +the wounded man was shot into the cave, by two of his comrades, with +much less care than they had bestowed upon the other more valuable +burthens with which they had been charged, Harry Carter’s natural +good-nature induced him to devote a little more attention than any +of his messmates seemed inclined to pay to their fellow-creature. +This kindly disposition soon acquired an unexpected inducement to +continue its good offices. The first thing that peculiarly excited +his attention was, that upon attempting to stanch the wound which was +just above the temple, he found that the hair which had clotted into +it was false, being part of a wig which covered a plentiful crop of +natural hair, of a different colour. The cave was already obscure, +yet the light, crisply curling locks, which he now discovered, seemed +to him to be such as he had never seen but on one person before. +The apparent impossibility of a surmise which supposed so altered a +condition in life, at first staggered him; yet it was evident, from +the discovery he had just made, that the person, whoever he was, had +for some reason or another assumed a disguise. It was difficult, even +if the wounded man had been in a state to reply to verbal inquiries, +to make any safely, whilst all his comrades were perpetually passing. +He bethought him of the locket which his mother had put round +Somers’s neck when a boy, with the positive injunction, never, under +any circumstances, to remove it. This injunction, he knew, for some +time had been rigidly observed. He remembered the form and shape of +it himself, and he determined to be decided in his conduct by the +circumstance of finding the locket there or not. + +“If it is there,” thought he, “not only shall I feel sure that it +really is my foster-brother, but I shall feel myself enforced as much +by my mother’s memory, as by my own more recent vow, to do all in my +power to save him.” + +It was while endeavouring to ascertain this point by searching within +his clothes that Lucy found him, as she thought, employed in plunder. +If he had not actually had his hand on the locket when she addressed +him, the obvious interest taken in him by a girl in that rank of +life would again have staggered him, as he could only imagine that +the disguise must have been temporarily assumed for the purpose, +perhaps, of detecting that very illicit act in which they were then +engaged. But still the locket was there, and in neither that nor the +features, as far as he could discern them, could he be mistaken; and +therefore his determination was fixed, at all risks, to save him. +He was aware, however, that much immediate risk to himself might be +incurred, without even a chance of effecting that object. Any open +assistance would now have been set down for mutiny, and there is no +legal discipline so severe as that which binds lawless men together +in moments of danger. But he quickly formed in his head a plan which +he thought could not fail. + +He had been celebrated as one of the best swimmers in the navy: +it was, then, without any uneasiness that he assisted to convey +Castleton to the boat, and even helped to shove it off, knowing +that the lugger would come quite as near the shore as the surf +would permit; and the moment when the smugglers would be in all +the confusion of holding on till the coble was empty, was that he +had fixed for the execution of his intended escape with Castleton, +trusting to the darkness of the night and the roar of the breakers +to assist him in escaping unobserved. Till this time arrived, he sat +stanching the temple of the wounded man with his hand, that he might +not be too much exhausted by previous loss of blood to be able to +sustain even his passive share in the escape. The confusion of the +smugglers at that moment was increased by hearing that another sail, +supposed to be a revenue cutter, was in sight; and this confusion +was even more serviceable to him than he had anticipated. + +Not only did he succeed in dropping overboard himself unnoticed, +but also in pulling Castleton after him: in supporting himself to +do which, his bloody hand had made that strongly marked impression, +as of struggling fingers, which Captain Scudd had naturally enough +interpreted to have been left by some one who had endeavoured to +save himself when thrown over. Bearing his still unconscious burthen +lashed to him in that manner which a skilful swimmer knows would +least impede his own efforts, it is possible that he may have risen +for a moment on the breakers in the manner Lucy imagined she had +seen; but, carefully directing his course where he knew there was +least surf and easiest landing, Carter made for the shore, which he +reached just in time, being almost too much exhausted by the double +weight he had carried to have been able to have struggled farther. + + + + + CHAPTER XII. + + And I have thrust myself into this maze, + Haply to wive and thrive as I may best. + SHAKSPEARE. + + It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable + sequestration. + + +Once on shore, while pausing to recover himself, he gazed with a +proud feeling of satisfaction on the still insensible being whom he +had thus providentially rescued; for Carter had been engaged in too +many frays not to know that the wound was not in itself dangerous, +though a severe one; but he also knew enough of the comrades he had +just left to feel certain that upon the first confirmation of the +report of a revenue cutter nearing them, which he had heard just as +he was jumping overboard, a second blow, more sure, would inevitably +have fallen on their already half-lifeless victim: and, tied in a +sack with stones, he would too surely have sought the bottom, to +prevent the possibility of his bearing witness against them. + +As soon as Harry Carter was sufficiently recovered again to take up +the motionless body, which as yet showed no symptom of returning +life, he made at once for a lone hut in a cleft between two rocks, +from which an almost impassable road led up into the open country. + +Here, as he expected, he found a light cart in the charge of one of +the loose characters who were in league with the smugglers, and whom +he had directed to meet him there on that evening so provided, in +case “_La Pie voleuse_” should have chanced to bring, as part of her +cargo, any smaller articles of more value, which might as well have +been removed, under the cover of the darkness, to one of those most +complete of all possible devices for concealment which are found in +the centre of a populous town. + +His confidant was not a little surprised when he beheld him bearing, +as he thought, a corpse, instead of, as he had expected, lace gloves +or ladies’ shoes. + +“I say, messmate, holloa!” he cried out, “this is no go, if you’ve +been after a burking job here. You told me I was to carry light +articles, and you fig me off with a stiff ’un. I was never in the +mole-catching line myself, and shouldn’t like to be twigged grubbing.” + +“Hold your peace, you lubber,” said Carter, “the man’s not dead, nor +like to die; and if he doesn’t, this will turn out the best job you +ever did yet of all your days. If you’ll only just carry him to yon +place where we were to have taken t’other things, you’ll have earned +as good a brace of RAGS, as sure as your name’s John Smutt; and +perhaps ten times as many more, if you’re only just mum a bit, and +don’t say a word about all this, if we find he wishes you not.” + +“Oh! I’ll say nout aboot it. The objections are all about doing it; +once done, there’ll be little to be gained, I take, to either of us, +by having it blowed. But, let us feel:--why, his fin moved--sure +enough, he’s alive. Well, that’s another guess sort of case, +certainly; so I’ll just pop him in here, where he’ll lie as snug as +possible; and I only hope he’ll live to think of that hush-money you +talk about. What’s it?--ten times ten. Why, that’s a hundred pounds. +A hundred pounds!!” + +The journey thus arranged was performed expeditiously, and without +observation, in the covered cart; and by break of day they reached +the large inland town, to which they were bound. Here, in the +first instance, Castleton was conveyed to an obscure lodging, as +Carter thought that there he would be better concealed, till with +returning consciousness he might himself be consulted, how far he +wished his late adventure to be known. It will at once be seen, that +if Castleton was not anxious that it should be made the subject +of enquiry, the less that was said about it the better for Carter +himself, who was now rather in an awkward position with both the +parties in any investigation that might be undertaken. + +The contusion on the temple, which was Castleton’s principal injury, +though a severe one, quickly progressed towards recovery, under the +anxious care of his present attendant; and he now suffered most from +the weakness ensuing from loss of blood, by a cut which he had also +received in his fall. + +His faculties were, after a time, perfectly restored; and upon +recognising Carter, and ascertaining the particulars of his escape, +his gratitude to his deliverer knew no bounds. His first step was to +have himself moved to a more decent lodging, still without assuming +his own name, and to confirm Carter’s bargain with his confederate, +of a hundred pounds, upon condition of his saying nothing about the +sort of cargo his cart had contained. This sum was to be paid in six +months, provided that at the end of the time nothing was known about +the adventure; a remote date for payment being suggested by Carter, +who thought that his acquaintance would be more easily constrained +by future expectation than by past favours; and in this Castleton +acquiesced, being very anxious, for a variety of mixed reasons, that +his late adventure should not be made the subject of gossip. + +When almost recovered from the effects of his late accident, Henry +Carter one day brought him the circumstantial account of the arrest +of George Darnell and the gang of smugglers, and of their committal, +George as his murderer, and the others as accessaries after the fact. +Castleton could not for a moment doubt what ought to be his conduct +under such circumstances: at once to show himself to the authorities, +who had entertained the charge, and to state the facts of the case; +bearing, as he did, in his own living person the only utterly +incontrovertible evidence against the truth of such an accusation. +But it was not so easy for him to make up his mind to take this step, +as to convince himself that it was what he ought to do; and he at +length succeeded in persuading his reason, that, peculiarly situated +as he was, there were very good excuses (he went no farther than +that) for his adopting a different line of conduct. + +He had ulterior, and, as he thought, truly beneficial views for +the parties most interested, in his decision of this question; and +he felt his pride would prevent him from maintaining his present +intentions, if a public disclosure of all the facts was to take +place. The sight of Lucy’s agony at his sufferings, and her energetic +interference on his behalf on the beach, hallowed as that impression +had been by his again relapsing into death-like insensibility, +had removed any lingering doubts he had entertained as to making +her his wife; and that was now the object nearest his heart. His +principal notion in assuming the disguise, and seeking Bankside +Farm, in execution of the project he had formed, was to be himself +sure that the person who could, in such an assumed character, win +her affections, must be loved for himself alone, and that he might +then enjoy the happy consciousness that his bride had not been +influenced in her preference of him, by any of the outward advantages +of his worldly situation: advantages which he had found not without +their influence upon women even in the highest rank. Yet this was a +satisfaction which he wished as much as possible to keep to himself. +Indeed he did not feel sure that the success of the very object he +had in view would appear to the fashionable denizens of the world so +self-evident, if they were merely made acquainted with the simple +facts of the case. They would be apt, without enquiring into the +way in which he might have won her affections, to imagine it just +possible, if they knew from how low a rank in life he had raised the +future Lady Castleton, that she might be influenced in her acceptance +of him by those extraneous advantages of fortune, which must +certainly have as much weight with her, as with those who, from want +of contrast, could not be expected to value them even so highly as +the low-born peasant. It was, therefore, no part of his scheme, that +it should ever be precisely known in the world who Lady Castleton +had been; and in directing his steps a second time towards Morden +Bay, he was much decided by thinking, that if further observation +there confirmed his early recollections, not only the peculiarly +delicate and refined nature of Lucy’s beauty might, unquestioned, +bear transplanting into any rank in life, but from the very secluded +spot where she had been brought up, and the retired habits of her +parents, her former home need never be traced, even by the prying +and the curious. All these were conditional accompaniments of his +scheme, without which he would never have formed it originally; and +without which, even now, desperately in love with Lucy as he was, or +thought he was, he would still hesitate as to its accomplishment. +And yet all these encouraging considerations were threatened with +complete overthrow, if, by discovering himself, in order to procure +George’s release, he was obliged to disclose any circumstance of his +late adventures. The very extraordinary nature of the facts he would +have to relate, coupled, as they would be, with his own well-known +name, would immediately circulate the wonderful tale in every shape +of paragraph, pamphlet, and perhaps ballad. Then the numberless jokes +which would be circulated, about the supposed rivalry between “The +Noble Lord” and “The Smuggler Cousin,” to which the facts of the +case, when disclosed, would give more than a plausible appearance +of truth! Then that very lawless lad, with all the innuendoes about +doubtful preference between them, was to be his cousin. His cousin! +A convicted smuggler! For though his own appearance would free him +from the charge of wilful murder, the revenue prosecutions would +only be confirmed by the publicity thus given to the transactions in +which they had originated; whereas, if by any other means the danger +from the first prosecution for murder could be averted, without his +being obliged to appear himself ostensibly in it, he did not despair +subsequently, by the exertion of his interest indirectly, to procure +the other to be dropped, at least as against George and the crew. As +all these considerations passed in succession through his mind, they +might have kept him undecided how to act; but the increased force of +his attachment to Lucy, craving, urgent, and engrossing as it then +was, if it still could not be dignified with the name of love, in +its most exalted sense, impelled him to take the course most likely +to get the better of these difficulties, which he foresaw might yet +interfere to prevent his making her his wife. + +He, therefore, sent for his confidential man of business, to whom +he told all, and from whom he was happy to hear that the conceited +carelessness with which Mr. Spencer had perverted all the facts which +had been prepared for him in the examination before the magistrate, +rendered it most probable that an acquittal might be easily procured +without his being obliged to disclose himself; and his lawyer having, +in consequence, been entrusted with the management of the defence, +Lord Castleton entered the court with the intention of only coming +forward himself as a last resource. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII. + + Your father’s image is so hit in you, + His very air, that I should call you + As I did him. + + Surely I saw a form, a proud, bright form, + Standing beside my couch. + + +When Lord Castleton had made his arrangement for watching the +progress of the trial, and the conduct of the Darnell family in it, +one of the last enquiries he had made previously to going to court, +was the exact situation of the lodgings they had taken in town; and +thither he directed his steps upon leaving the court by a different +door from that which Lucy had been carried out. + +Alice Darnell had remained in a most painful state of agitating +suspense, pacing the little parlour in which she had been left by +her brother and his daughter. It was so long since she had heard the +busy hum of men; the little lodging where she had now been left to +her solitary fancies and thickening recollections, was so like one to +which she had been used in happier days, then long gone by; the Babel +sound of many voices in the peculiarly thronged streets, were such as +had not met her ear since on that dreadful night she had forced her +way through the crowds of the theatre, to learn her husband’s fate: +all these combined, had worked her into a dreadful state of nervous +excitement, when a knock was heard at the street door, and she opened +that of the apartment at the head of the stairs, thinking that it was +probably some one from the courts, bringing her intelligence. + +A stranger ascended the obscured staircase, and Alice, upon his +raising his head slowly, receded from the door without uttering a +word, but keeping her eyes intently fixed upon him as he entered the +room. She pressed her hands against her brain, muttering, “Somers! +Churchill! Who is it? Oh merciful powers, deprive me not of my +senses! The grave might, for some special purpose, have been made +to render up or one or other of these departed spirits; but this +confused vision which recalls them both at once, can only be the +creature of my disordered imagination.” + +“Miss Alice Darnell,” said Castleton, “excuse this intrusion, I +entreat you. It was your niece I sought, for the purpose of offering +her an explanation of my conduct. I regret that my sudden appearance +should have so discomposed you, who, as well as the rest of your +family, will have much to forgive in my past conduct; but I trust, +that the future will not give you any thing of which to complain.” + +“Who is it then? Churchill indeed restored to life; but not as I saw +you last! The resemblance is much stronger! the hair so like! But I +must not pursue that train, or indeed think of myself at all, if I +mean to keep my spirits and my senses to support others. But if you +are here, what is the trial then about? Where is my niece--my poor +misguided nephew?” + +“I will explain all to you, Miss Darnell. The manner in which I have +always heard Lucy speak of you, forbids any mystery where you are +the person concerned. Your nephew either now is, or soon will be, +safe. And for your beloved niece--allow me, before I explain myself +farther, to ask--I am sure my Lucy could never conceal any thing from +you--Do you think--you know not how much hangs on your answer--do you +think she could be really, truly happy, in sharing somewhat a more +exalted lot in life with him whom she only knew as the poor painter +Churchill? Perhaps it has been providentially ordained that I should +have this opportunity of asking a candid reply to that question +from you. If your answer must dash my hopes at once, it may be in +mercy ordained that I should hear it from you, that I may no longer +unwarrantably trespass on the tranquillity of one whose interest +I may have failed in exciting. But I implore you, if you can give +me any encouragement to think otherwise, to do so now. A young and +artless girl may perhaps succeed in concealing the nature of her +sentiments from him who seeks to awaken partiality; but--forgive me +if I address you thus the first time of our meeting;--but it seems +to me, that through Lucy, I already know you thoroughly; and all +my hopes depend upon the impression of her feelings towards myself +formed by you,--her ever watchful guardian genius, from whom she +never could have attempted concealment.” + +“It was even thus that Somers looked--it was even thus that Somers +pleaded; and it is not by my lips that such pleadings can be +pronounced vain,” said Alice Darnell, half to herself. “Strange +similarity!” she continued, “yes, even to the inexplicable mystery +of the transaction from which all the mischief in my own case +arose.” Then more decidedly addressing herself to her anxiously +expectant listener, she said: “Forgive me if, till you have +completely cleared away all the mystery in which your proceedings +have been involved, I must decline at present giving any answer +to your enquiries--enquiries which even then you would be hardly +authorised in making of me, and which, perhaps, I should be as little +justified in answering for another; for imprudent as is that woman +who herself opens her heart to him who conceals his intentions, most +unpardonable would she be who, under similar circumstances, betrayed +the confidence of another. Not only should my niece’s sentiments, if +favourable, not through me be known, but, if necessary, they should +themselves be checked, and controlled, till your explanation is +complete.” + +“Excuse me, if, in my anxiety to have my doubts removed, I have +myself omitted to be as explicit as I had intended. I commenced by +stating that from you I would have no concealment. But from a name +which I have heard you several times appear to connect with me, I +thought you had some clue to the knowledge I came to impart. Your +niece has only known me as Churchill, but Somers is my name, though +Castleton is the title by which I am called. But you are ill--are +agitated--” interrupting himself, in sudden alarm. For as Castleton +had proceeded in this apparently natural explanation, the gaze of +Alice had become more intensely fixed on his countenance, and at the +abrupt mention of that fatal name, so long enshrined in the secret +recesses of her heart, the sorrows of years passed from her mind, +and for one short fleeting moment she believed she saw before her +the lover of her youth, the husband of her heart--the adored, the +departed Somers. All the blood in her exhausted frame seemed to rush +to her face, as starting from her chair, she staggered one step +towards him, wildly exclaiming: “Somers! my own, my lost--my God! +no--Forgive me, you shall know all.” + +And then, bursting into an agonizing flood of tears, she gradually +resumed her composure enough to answer the kind enquiries of her +astonished visitor; who, greatly touched and alarmed at the extent of +her emotion, almost forgot his own urgent anxieties, and asked with +great interest how he had unintentionally distressed her. + +“No, go on, my Lord, I entreat you; one moment’s bewildering +astonishment at the disclosure you have just made, if you knew all, +you could not but expect from me; but my object is not to revive past +griefs of my own; but to guard the future of another from similar +danger. I own that while exacting candour from you, concealment on my +part comes with an ill grace; but my demand is founded upon a desire +to secure a happy future to her whom you profess to love, and for +whom alone I now live. My own silence arises from an anxious wish +to spare a recital, which you might think injurious to the memory of +one whom we are equally bound to guard from reproach. Yes, my Lord, +strange as it may appear to you, there was another person in whom we +were mutually deeply interested. At a future time, perhaps, if you +require it, I shall be bound to be explicit; but now I conjure you +by your professed attachment, by your desire to have your own doubts +removed, proceed with your own explanation.” + +Castleton, when so adjured, proceeded at once to recount his early +admiration of Lucy; and he detailed with so much unaffected candour +the motives which had induced him a second time to visit Bankside +Farm; and he dwelt with so much fervour upon the still increasing +force of his passion, as he became better acquainted with its object; +and the whole was urged in that soft winning manner, so like one +which his auditress had formerly known to be resistless; that any +previous unfavourable impression was soon removed from Alice’s mind; +most willing, as she was, to be convinced of his sincerity. + +By this means he soon acquired a most powerful advocate, had it +been necessary, in his favour with Lucy; but before they had +completely arranged the manner in which he should proceed towards +the accomplishment of his object, a bustle in the passage below +announced, as they rightly imagined, the return of Lucy herself. + +As Castleton had already recounted to Alice Darnell the shock that +his unexpected apparition in court had caused to her niece, she +prudently recommended that he should not again present himself to +her till she had herself ascertained whether the poor girl’s nerves +had yet recovered from the agitation they had experienced. With +this view, beseeching him to await her return where he then was, +she went out to meet her niece, with the intention of communicating +with her first in her own room, before she informed her who was +there awaiting her: and it was fortunate that she so decided, for +she found Lucy in a much worse state than she had anticipated. Her +delicate frame, and soft and sensitive nature, were not calculated +to sustain any great nervous excitement. Her mental faculties, clear +and just as they generally were, and adequately sustained, under +ordinary circumstances, by the constant desire to be right herself +and to do wrong to no one, wanted nevertheless that practical energy +which might support them in any extraordinary trial. She had for +many hours fought against the weakness of her nature, in striving to +go successfully through the effort of her examination; and the last +shock,--the apparition, as she thought, of Churchill, had completely +upset her. + +The delay in her return from the court had been caused by a +succession of fainting-fits, in the intervals of which her intellects +had been far from settled. She had been attended, in a waiting-room, +by the best medical adviser of the place, who happened to be in +court; and after a conveyance had been procured to remove her home, +he had recommended that, upon returning there, all agitating subjects +should be avoided, and the most perfect quiet rigidly enforced during +the rest of the day. + +These transactions were explained to Alice in a few words by her +brother, before he returned into court to hear George’s fate, +the uncertainty about which, he could not help thinking, was the +main cause of his daughter’s indisposition. The aunt, therefore, +accompanied her charge to her own back-room, and darkening it as +much as possible, persuaded her to stretch herself on the bed. Lucy +knew her aunt perfectly, and tacitly complied with her desire; but, +as far as could be gathered from the low mutterings that continued +at intervals, her faculties seemed still confused. All this time, +Castleton remained in the place where he had been left by Alice, +fixed like a statue, afraid to stir, lest the least motion on +his part should disturb the invalid; bitterly regretting his own +inconsiderate appearance in court, and venting reproaches on his own +head, which, but that the same fear which kept him stationary checked +his utterance, would have been as loud as they were heartfelt. + +At length Alice slowly opened the intermediate door, and putting her +finger on her lip, whispered-- + +“I think she sleeps now. She is still far far from composed, and it +would be quite impossible that she should be fit to see you to-day; +nor, indeed, do I think it ought to be risked at all, till I have +had an opportunity of first explaining much to her, if such occasion +should recur on her partial recovery. How much have I authority from +you to say?” + +“Say all--every thing--you cannot possibly say enough; for words were +never coined that could express all I feel.” + +“Hush,” interrupted Alice; “I hear her voice again, and I think +repeating your name. Step softly this way; and if she repeats it +again, as she did but now, no explanation I could give to the +question you asked me could be one half so satisfactory;” and she +placed him just within the doorway of the obscure apartment. + +“Aunt Alice,” called Lucy from the bed. “Aunt Alice; quick, dear +aunt. Hast seen him? where is he? and why is the morning so dark--so +dismal dark? when he’s come back, so gay too, on purpose to marry me. +I knew he couldn’t have it in his heart to die, when he loved me so; +and I’m sure I’d rather have died a thousand deaths myself, than that +he should so have perished.” + +There was more even in the tone with which these words were uttered, +than in the disjointed and incoherent sentences themselves, which +confirmed Castleton in his conviction that he was beloved. And so +Alice Darnell construed what she heard; for, as she again motioned +him to retire, she said, + +“You cannot surely, my dear Lord, have any more questions to ask of +me now. If you have, trust to my ready-getting answers for you before +to-morrow. She must have rest and quiet now; but with these all will +soon be well again. The ills that spring from a surfeit of happiness, +may in this world be left to their own cure; while there are scars +that misfortune has graven, which any casual coincidence may re-open, +and no time can completely heal. Good b’ye, my dear Lord; and in the +midst of your own happiness, think again of what you proposed to do +for my poor nephew George.” + +Lord Castleton having, in the course of his explanation to Alice, +in which he had candidly confessed his dislike that his connexion +with the smuggling transactions should be published to the world, +intimated his intention of providing for George in a manner that +should be satisfactory to all his family. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV. + + Oh, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes! + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Alice Darnell had made good and sufficient use of the interval +left her, to execute the task of explaining the past, and opening +the future to the parties concerned. For before that time next +day, she had succeeded in clearing the coast, not only of her +brother, but, what was perhaps more difficult, of her nephew George, +whose acquittal the day before upon both charges, had, thanks to +the clumsiness of Mr. Spencer, been complete. With some little +difficulty Alice had persuaded him, as well as his uncle, that it +would be better for them to keep out of the way; and Castleton had +been for some time established with Lucy, in undisturbed possession +of the little lodging-house parlour. + +Whilst he was opening to her, by degrees, the brilliant prospects +which he proposed to her to share with him, she sat on the sofa +beside him, holding one hand in both of hers, and looking up at him +with an expression of innocent adoration, such as could only be +pourtrayed upon a countenance of such unrivalled sweetness. As, after +detailing his views for their own future, he turned to describe what +he proposed to do for the different members of her own family, she +interrupted him with-- + +“Oh, my dear Lord! but that you are even much more good than great, +I should wonder at your kindness to poor George, not only to bear +him no ill-will for daring to lift his lowly hand against your life, +but even to propose to serve him so effectually, and exactly in the +way he would like best. To procure him a birth in a king’s ship, by +which, in time, he may become an admiral, for George is very clever +in that line, though rude and unlettered in others--think of that, +aunt Alice!” addressing her aunt, who had then entered the room, +which she occasionally quitted. “Think of that, that George may +live to be an admiral, and all through the kind forgiving goodness +of my own dear Lord here,” added she, pressing his hand, which she +held against her heart, and then dropping her head, and looking up +timidly from under her brows, as if she thought she had been too +demonstrative; then turning the subject, she said, “But George is to +go away then, to-day? and didn’t he wish to see me?” + +“Yes, he shall see you, when my Lord is obliged to go and arrange his +other necessary matters,” replied Alice; part of whose plan was, in +every possible way to avoid flurry to her niece, whose spirits were +hardly yet settled. She therefore decided that she should not see +more than one person at a time; and, as restored composure was her +great object, she determined, that least of all ought Lucy to see +Castleton and George together. + +Lord Castleton, whose intimate friend had just taken the command of +a frigate commissioned for Halifax, and under sailing orders, had +written the strongest recommendation of George, begging his friend +to take him as a supernumerary midshipman, and, if occasion should +occur, to promote him. As it is not always necessary to analyze +motives for liberal actions, so, certainly, no one of the parties who +were to benefit either directly or otherwise by this recommendation, +estimated how much the peculiar value of the arrangement, in Lord +Castleton’s eyes, was enhanced, by the ship taking so immediate a +departure for so distant a station. + +Alice Darnell had, upon a consideration of all the bearings of the +case, been disposed to acquiesce in what was rather the suggestion +offered, than the condition proposed by Lord Castleton, that the +marriage should be strictly private; and that, indeed, it need never +be exactly known what had been the previous condition in life, where +the previous residence, of his future wife. She was as much justified +by her own early experience of the great world, as she was guided +by her partiality for her niece, in imagining, that there was a +natural unaffected grace in Lucy’s manner, which would prevent her +former very humble state from being suspected, if not promulgated. +Her early recollections of the world, at the same time, served to +remind her that, if that humble origin was known, defects, supposed +inseparable from it, would be imagined, even though they did not +exist. + +On the other hand, concealment on this head, if desirable, was +rendered peculiarly practicable, from the utter solitude in which +Lucy had been brought up, never having had even an acquaintance out +of her own thinly-scattered and secluded neighbourhood. Her brother, +too, Alice felt, however well calculated to fill with credit the +state to which he was born, would be unfit, as he would be unwilling, +to be placed in any other; and his wife, however willing she might be +to make the experiment, would be infinitely more unfit than Richard +Darnell to accompany her daughter into that exalted sphere in which +she was now to move. + +Alice Darnell could not help rejoicing that the absence of her +sister-in-law upon this occasion, removed any difficulty that might +have been expected from her not being so well aware as every body +who was acquainted with her was, how impossible it would be that she +should share with Lucy all the advantages of her new situation. + +“I should have thought,” said Alice, addressing Castleton, “that you +of all men would have been least likely to persuade me to overlook +all the ills that sometimes spring from mystery in the married +state. But mystery, where it affects the character of the connexion +to be formed, or where it only relates to circumstances which that +connexion itself supersedes, is quite distinct; and therefore I am +inclined to agree with you, that it is better the marriage should +take place here privately, and as soon as the special licence can be +procured, that when my brother and I return home, we may announce it +to her mother as an event completed.” + +This being settled, Castleton said to Lucy, “I must leave you now to +take steps for the licence. Farewell for the present, and only for +the _present_, for it is a word that the future shall teach _us_ to +forget to use.” + +Castleton having left the room, Alice desired George to come in, to +take leave of his cousin, as he was to depart that afternoon. He was +dressed in a manner better calculated to suit his new character of +gentleman; but never looked so awkward, or seemed so little at his +ease. He walked first straight for the window, then half towards +Lucy, but turned to the fireplace, and from thence back to the +window, without saying a word. From thence he was gently drawn away +by his cousin, who said, “Come, dear cousin George, have you nothing +pretty to say to your poor little Lucy? I am sure I wish _you_ joy of +your promotion with all my heart.” + +“And I am as sure that in all mine, there is no other wish than that +your promotion, if you like so to call it, may be attended with every +earthly happiness. Perhaps I’d better go at once. Good b’ye.” + +“Nay stay, dear George, it is not enough that we should separate +with these wishes, without settling how we may be informed whether +they are fulfilled or not. I can never forget those days, when we +neither of us ever formed a thought that the other didn’t know; and +believe me, till we meet again, I shall have no greater pleasure than +hearing from you, and how you are getting on;--and now you may put +a direction that will easier reach its mark, than poor Lucy Darnell, +Bankside Farm, England. Wasn’t that the way you wrote to me last, you +said? You’ll try again, won’t you, dear?” + +“No, I think I’d better not; it wouldn’t be altogether suitable, I +think, with your new situation. When you get accustomed to all these +fine folk, there will be much in George Darnell you’ll wish altered; +and I shouldn’t like to bring shame on you, Lucy.” + +“Bring shame on me! that you could never do, but by such courses as +you have lately followed; and to these I have no fear you will turn +again. Do not bring shame on yourself by such means, and you can +never bring shame on me. If you mean that, because I’m a lady, shame +could spring from the homeliness of true and tried affection, that +would be shame of my own making; ay, and worse than I could bear.” + +“Ay, you speak all this out of kindness, and like yourself, dear +Lucy: and so you feel now, I’m sure. But a time will come--and what’s +more, it ought to come--when the less you see, or even perhaps hear +of me, the better. I will not bring up now all about our former +parting, and all that. I was much older than you were then, and +things you said made more impression on me than they were like to do +on yourself; but it’s all for the best. He that’s won you, has done +his taste credit, to find you out, quite out of his line as you were, +and I’m bound to speak well of him, for he’s behaved nobly to me; and +I’ve no doubt he’ll try and make you happy, and he ought to succeed, +for he’s plenty of helps to try with; but all I can say is, that you +can’t want to hear of ME, and I shouldn’t like to intrude.” + +“Why shouldn’t I want to hear of you? You talk of the helps he has, +by which I suppose you mean power and wealth. But what would be one’s +first wish to put them to, but to assist one’s friends? And who would +be the first of friends whom one would seek out at the end of the +world to serve? Why, who but you, dear George.” + +“Ay, all that’s as you feel now; and I don’t mean to say that any +change could ever make you hard or unfeeling, but I can’t but think +that it an’t in nature that this should always remain the same. I +dare say you judge me a little altered now; so I am, perhaps. I have +turned more things over in my head lately, than I did in all my +life before. A prison’s quite the school of thought. You’re going, +on t’other hand, to one perpetual holiday of the mind,--and every +thing else if you like. It will be an existence of which you’ve no +idea. Well! it mayn’t suit after all. But if so, it’s no short voyage +you’re bound on. You’ll never have Bankside Farm and Morden Bay to +leeward again; and, therefore, you had better not have cousin George +to pilot your thoughts the way they must never turn. But as it’s much +more like you’ll find all sunshine around you, I would not like to +be the one black spot on your horizon; and when not in sight, you +must soon forget to care about the humble playmate of your youth, who +feels even in parting from you so completely that your unhappiness +must make his, that he heartily prays that this last may be the case. +Prosper in your new line of life, and that you may do so, take not +with you a thought of your old one. Once more, a long good b’ye.” + +“Good b’ye, dearest George,” said Lucy, throwing herself for the last +time into his arms. + +“No, Lucy; that’s more than I can bear,” cried George, tearing +himself away, and rushing from her presence. + + + + + CHAPTER XV. + + This is the prettiest low-born lass that ever + Ran on the greensward; nothing she does or seems, + But smacks of something greater than herself, + Too noble for this place. + SHAKSPEARE. + + The best maker of all marriages + Combine your hearts in one, your states in one! + + +“Come, lassie,” said Farmer Darnell as he entered, and found her +still in tears. “Come, that’ll be only a sunsh_oi_ny shower I guess, +without which they say our hopes never ripen; but your’s are all fit +for harvesting; so, cheer up, cheer up, my darling child.” + +“Oh! father, it’s more than a passing sorrow parting with one’s +earliest friend. I am not ungrateful for the great bounties shown +me; and to think that the noblest, the handsomest, the best of men, +should have condescended like to seek me, when I’m sure there’s not a +high-born lady amongst whom he’s lived, but must have been only too +happy if he’d have turned his eyes on any one of them! Yet, I’ve just +seen, perhaps, the last of George. I shall soon also be separated +from you; and what I lose seems all as strange to me as what I gain. +I see the sudden end of every feeling and thought of which I cannot +recollect the beginning. I would, I feel, at the same time willingly +die in grateful adoration of him who is only much too great and good +for me; but it comes in some sort to this, for so completely new an +existence has something in it of the character of death.” + +“Nay, my bonny bairn,” said her father; “take it not in _sick_e a +fasheous style. It comes sair to me ’tis true, to part wi’ that has +been my sole fireside comfort since it first s_u_pped pap--since it +first climbed upon my knee, by thrusting its little fingers into +t’ button-holes. But for thee, my child, you’ve only gettin now a +station you were always fitter to hold than to boide wi’ the loike +o’ us. I can’t quite make it clear why it should be so; it were the +same wi’ Alice afore you. You and she are quite another guess sort o’ +class from your mither and me. It’s agin all the rules of breeding +stock that so it should be; but so it is, and that’s a’ that I know.” + +“But, my dear father, my heart tells me of no such distinction; and +won’t let me think of parting from you without such a pang here, as +teaches me that ’tis to you I truly belong.” + +“As to parting, and all that, my dear child, it’s not a church-yard +separation to which we’re bound to resign ourselves. But it’s along +wi’ Alice I’ve been settling that I should make but a rummish concern +of it in t’ great world. And it’s not any pride, or any thing of that +kind, of my Lord’s that would come atwixt us. No, nothing has been +kinder like than your Lord has been. And he’s just been talking it +’ower out there, and how he would never wish you to forget the best +of fathers. That’s what he called me. And when I thought of you, and +heard him say so, if he’d made me a lord like himself, I could not +have been prouder than of that title. And he added that he’d make +it his care a year should never pass without your coming somehow +or other to see us; and that showed his consideration like. But, +lord, when I thought it was a question of once a year or so, wi’ a +_somehow or other_ tacked to it, I could not but feel like an auld +hen that reared a ducklin, and saw the great waters afore her, into +which she mun never follow her. And here I stand cackling like just +such another auld fool, instead of being thankful for all favours, +as I should be. And after all, when I make myself out a hen, it’s +your mother’s part I’m taking of. And she do cackle sometimes, sure +enough.” + +“As you mention my mother, I must say, my dear father, that I hope +you and aunt Alice won’t have me married, as I heard you settling, +without her being brought over. For though I cannot say that in +all respects it is quite as much pain to be separated from her as +from you, my own kindest father; yet, if it is a brilliant, it is a +strange, and to all concerned, a somewhat perilous career on which I +am about to enter; and what safeguard so good at such a moment as to +have asked and deserved a mother’s blessing.” + +“Why that’s a’ true enough, and pretty and like yourself to think +so; but it were to spare a power o’ fash she’d mak, that we settled +it t’other way. That is, it were your aunt, she promised me it should +be all her doing. For it were not like I should take it on myself, +and to gang back there all alone afterwards. But here’s sister, talk +it over wi’ she.” + +But when Alice found her niece make such a point of her mother’s +presence, she did not think herself justified in adhering to her +first arrangement; she therefore proposed that her brother should +write to her, and should offer to go as far as Mayton, to meet her; +but this part he seemed to have particular reasons of his own for +disliking. + +“What! meet she at Mayton? that wouldn’t be altogether quite +suitable. Stop at Queen’s Head! Bide at the widow’s till she came +there to find me out! No, sister, I don’t see why I should gi’ up my +share of the last days o’ my darling child, along o’ she. There are +coaches fra’ Mayton here, let her take one o’ they.” + +As this suggestion seemed reasonable enough, it was not opposed; +and as Castleton, however much he might deprecate Mrs. Darnell’s +presence, could not but honour Lucy’s scruples, he made no objection, +only hoping still that she might not come; which wish seemed more +likely to be gratified from the somewhat obscure nature of Farmer +Darnell’s communication, which ran thus: + + “Respected Wife, + + “This comes first to let you know George is gitten well shot + of his bad job, and now he’s gone to better himself; next to + require your presence at this presint, as soon as evrey bit + quait convenient. I’ve considered you’d loike to see t’ gude + looks has comed to Lucy, sine we comed here; she’s now the + most beautiful prospect ony one ever seed; and she’s quoite + fit to be married ony day, she thinks, if you’d only come. I + can’t enter into ony more particular observations by reason + of the post knowing it, only this; you’ll find curb bridle + for t’ poney on a broken peg behind door in t’ cowshed; put + him on a crupper, for there’s a tail about his tumbling down + wi’ Joe Ostler on Langden bank. But you’ll plaise to call to + mind purticklar that t’ Angel is the house at Mayton, from + which stage coach starts. + + “Your fond sarvant and humble husband to command, + RICHARD DARNELL.” + +As Richard Darnell, in writing this letter, had his own misgivings +that some of the words might not be spelt exactly right, he thought +it best no one but himself should see it, and therefore put it +himself into the post without showing it to any one, only letting +them know that he had written a letter, which he felt sure would +bring the good woman. But as soon as she could be expected, instead +came the following answer: + + “RICHARD DARNELL, + + “You must be clean demented to send me such a daft epistle. If + the name had never been on t’ bottom, I should have guessed it + could but have been your’n; for it’s just of a piece wi’ all + the rest. As for George being cleared of this sad affair, it’s + right to be thankfull for any sinner that’s spared. But where, + pray, is he gone? To better himself, you say! If he’s really + minded in penitence to better himself, and I’m sure there’s + need on’t, only let me take him in hand, there’s no need of + his going vagabonding again for that. As for what you say + about Lucy, I knew how it would be, you’d be sure to spoil + her. I’m not going to tramp after her, to see her good looks, + as you call it. If she can’t come to me, let her gang her ain + gait, and not expect her elders to fash themselves about the + like of she. I don’t make out what you mean by her having + getting good looks: if it’s only her foolish prettiness you + commend, as I suppose by your saying she’s the most beautiful + prospect ever seen, I’d have you to recollect, that when you + were i’ that city afore, you thought some one else the most + beautiful prospect you ever seed. Though I’m thankful I never + set my head o’ such vanities. But it’s like you, a _cretur_ + made up of hand and mouth, ever whilst you live to think all’s + best that’s by you. I’ll be bound the truest thing that’s in + your letter is, that the silly chit thinks herself fit to be + married. If so, let her be so without me. I thought not long + ago she’d been ready to demean herself by throwing herself at + the head of Painter Churchill. If so, as I said afore, it’s + all her ain affair. + + “This from your loving wife, + “MARGARET DARNELL. + + “Postscript. It was so like you to put best bridle on broken + peg in t’ cowshed. But it’s just of a piece wi’ all the rest.” + +When Farmer Darnell had spelt through this somewhat lengthy, though +unsatisfactory reply, he saw that he had somehow made a mess of +it, and he did not feel quite certain whether he had sufficiently +explained his daughter’s marriage as a fact, not as a surmise. He +took it, full of perplexity, to his sister, who not having seen her +brother’s, to which this was an answer, never suspected that in point +of fact it had never been clearly explained that it was to witness +the great alliance of her daughter she was summoned; and as she +knew enough of the unhappy and worrying temper of her sister-in-law, +to think it possible from the first an ungracious answer might be +returned, she therefore thought it best that her mother’s declining +to come should be communicated to Lucy, omitting those details in her +answer which might be hurtful to her feelings. And this plan suited +the impatience of Castleton, and the inclinations of the farmer; +and therefore it was settled that the wedding should be no longer +postponed. + +It was a gay-looking morning, in early spring, which shone +auspiciously on the happy scene, when the select family circle, to +whom alone the secret had been confided, sought the parish church +of St. ----, in the city of ----, armed with the special licence, +which in due form permitted the union of the Right Honourable Egbert +Athelstan Somers Lord Castleton to Lucy Darnell. + +Though no high-born kindred crowded round the altar, or lightly +tripped, or swept in state up the empty aisles, which struck chill +and damp upon the little party as they first quitted the light and +buoyant atmosphere without; yet in the whole line of Lord Castleton’s +ancestry, even including that progenitor who had won a stately dame, +through whom, as his name denoted, was traced his descent to the +heptarchy--never had any of his forefathers led to the altar a more +lovely object, or one in outward appearance more distinguished and +refined, than the lowly maid who now clung anxiously to him for +support. + +The wedding-robe which she wore had been chosen by him, and though +simple was tasteful; and her aunt’s care had prevented any glaring +defects in the mode of wearing it, which her unpractised ignorance +might otherwise have betrayed; though her toilet was a task which +the perfect proportion of her slight and elegant form rendered easy. +The delicate and finely chiseled contour of her features, and the +unstudied grace of her whole figure, even to the tapering fingers of +the small hand, whose gentle pressure on Lord Castleton’s arm seemed +to claim protection--all these marked her as fitted to adorn that +exalted station to which she was then to be raised. + +The quiet dignity of Alice Darnell’s whole deportment showed her a +fitting chaperon on such an occasion for the future peeress. To be +sure, the honest farmer, though dressed in his very best, did not +seem quite of a piece with the other performers in the ceremony; but +nobody could feel this more thoroughly than he did himself; and so +unaffectedly, as to be compatible with great pride in his daughter, +and no shame for himself; and therefore he kept in the back-ground, +exulting yet retiring. + +As Lucy knelt at the altar, unconsciously in an attitude which +sculptors might have studied for the line of grace, Castleton fixed +upon her an ardent gaze of unmeasured admiration, which, as the +ceremony concluded, and they rose to depart, she repaid with the mild +expression of intense devotion rather than of passion. + +“God save your Ladyship!” cried Farmer Darnell, coming up and +kissing her, trying to bury his feelings in a tone of banter, but in +vain:--“God save you! Lady ----. Good b’ye, my own darling Lucy!” and +he retired to gulp down his emotion. Her aunt also took leave of her +here, to avoid the parting in the streets. + +Castleton supported her trembling frame tenderly to the carriage; +and, as soon as they had entered, pressed her to his heart, +saying--“My own, own Lucy, now!” And as the carriage rattled rapidly +through the narrow streets of the city, they were soon out of sight +of the farmer and his sister, who had followed to the door of the +church, to watch the departure of what they both loved best in the +world. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI. + + ----There + Shall sweet Bianca practise how to bride it. + SHAKSPEARE. + + So this begins our happy honeymoon. + + Honour, high honour, and renown to Hymen! + + +A Honeymoon! ’Tis a strange term!--an ambiguous definition of the +period of time which it describes: a singular compound of two +incongruous parts--honey and moon. What has the moon, “the inconstant +moon,” to do with that whose “sweets do pall with sameness?” Is there +any sly sarcasm conveyed in the term?--any lurking insinuation, +that where a blessing has been “daily swallowed by men’s eyes, they +surfeited with honey;” and that, as the match-making Friar Lawrence +says, “is loathsome in its own deliciousness?” But, no--it cannot +be. When at sea for a meaning, one seeks the aid of a Dictionary to +pilot one back to sense, and Johnson defines a honeymoon as “the +first month after marriage, when there is nothing but tenderness and +pleasure;” and as this lexicographical lover had tried it himself, +he must have spoken from an experience of his own sensations,--for, +with all the merits of his laborious compilation, he is never known +to have given a signification in direct opposition to his own +feelings and prejudices. It is a curious image this raises to one’s +mind--Doctor Johnson passing a whole month in which there was nothing +but “tenderness and pleasure!” + +For these sensations also must, to exist, have been reciprocal; +he must have found another who would lavish similar tenderness +on him,--derive parallel pleasure from him. And our wonderment +increases that such should have been the impression which he chose to +perpetuate in folio sheets for ever, when one recollects that he was +married to a woman twice his own age; and as it is insinuated by one +of his female gossips, he had begun by being in love with his future +bride’s daughter. Add to this, that his own account of his ride to +church does not accord with the immediate prelude to a honied sequel. +Johnson, about to become a bridegroom, in love, and on horseback, at +one and the same time, is an image almost to upset gravity. He states +that on their ride from Birmingham to Derby, they quarrelled two or +three times about the pace, and says, “I was not to be made the slave +of caprice, and I resolved to begin as I meant to end; I therefore +pushed on briskly till I was fairly out of her sight; I contrived +that she should soon come up with me; when she did, I observed her to +be in tears.” + +Here does not seem to have been much tenderness on his part, or +one would think much pleasure on hers: but there is no disputing +about tastes; and even after this unpropitious beginning, Johnson, +upon experience, defines the honey-moon as “a month in which there +is nothing but tenderness and pleasure.” There have been, however, +others not so well calculated to pamper themselves with such +unalloyed lusciousness, who have found the taste of the honey infused +with a well-known taint of bitterness; and others may have suspected +that some of the wax had, in that honied space, somewhat clogged the +wings of time. For, admitting to the fullest extent-- + + “Domestic happiness, the only bliss + Of Paradise that has survived the fall;” + +yet it is not the growth of an hour. It is not slipped on with the +wedding-ring. At the altar the staple only is riveted, for which +habit has yet to forge, link by link, those imperceptible bonds which +chain the heart within the domestic circle. Mutual good understanding +must be established by slow degrees. In the vegetable world a graft +is an unsightly excrescence at first; and no more in temper and +tastes, than in trees, is the fruit of such an experiment borne on +the instant. How much tacit, perhaps unconscious, compromise must +gradually be matured, before, as Thomson says-- + + “Thought meeting thought, and will preventing will, + With boundless confidence;” + +he pronounces-- + + “Happy they the happiest of their kind.” + +If, therefore, as I suspect, even amongst those who have afterwards +experienced the most perfect domestic happiness, there have +occasionally been in some of the four-and-twenty hours of some of the +eight-and-twenty days of this mellifluous month some moments when +slight restraint and transient disappointment have mixed themselves +up with that tenderness and pleasure which are said to monopolise it; +if it is a probationary period, which is not sufficient to establish +the whole foundation of happiness for the future, it is sometimes +quite sufficient to dispel some of the bright illusions of the past; +this variegated month will sometimes make sad inroads into the +permanence of that sort of love that-- + + “Is but a bright beguiling spell, + Which only lives whilst passion glows.” + +The passion of love sometimes revels in contradiction. It gains +strength by opposition; it attracts by separation; it smiles most +upon its exacted sacrifices; it entrenches itself most behind broken +duties; its fairest hopes are gathered in the wildest field of fear, +but its vigour is apt to be lost in regular set garden culture; it +pines upon stated indulgence; it dwindles when its shoots are in set +form nailed to the wall; when its early blossom is success, its only +fruit is satiety. + +If there ever was a blissful honey-moon! If?--There have been +myriads; those of a mixed character, for which I have been +endeavouring to account, are but the exceptions. In the very first +class of blissful honey-moons, was that of Castleton and Lucy;--most +happy positively, in its exemptions from any of the causes which I +have mentioned as occasionally chequering that happiness: and most +happy comparatively, with their mutual experience of the past: and +I fear I must forestall so far as to add, also comparatively with +their future wedded life. Here there was no unsettled compromise of +tastes, no gradual adaptation of former habits; for the companion was +no more new to Lucy, than was the existence to which she had been +transferred. The very atmosphere she breathed was strange to her; and +in entering upon that new existence, she had but one all-engrossing +object--to study in her own manner the happiness of him to whose +destiny she was united. + +Castleton was by nature affectionate; but he must have been +insensible indeed, if he had not shared with more fervour, and +almost equal freshness, every feeling of one so beautiful and so +gracious, so tender and so devoted, as his gentle bride. Besides, he +had another security against her fondness palling upon possession, +if such a thing could otherwise have been possible. It was an +original experiment he had attempted, so far successful, whose +future progress he had to watch; and this blended occupation with his +enjoyment. And there was certainly occupation enough in explaining +many rudiments of conduct in her present sphere, of which Lucy was +completely ignorant. Anxious as she was to learn, and eager as +she was to adopt, any suggestion of his, in spite of her natural +quickness, he sometimes found it difficult to make her comprehend +his meaning, from some ideas being perfectly new to her, which were +so interwoven with his early nature that he could not recollect and +identify their first impression. Castleton being, himself, a person +of very cultivated mind, and having been much in a society famed for +ready memory and apt illustration, had adopted, perhaps more than any +one else, a sort of shorthand turn of conversation, a comprehensive +cypher, known only to the initiated; in which a half-hinted +allusion, or trite quotation, was often meant to awaken a whole train +of ideas: such an inclination he was, of course, obliged to check in +all his communications with Lucy. This made his instructions often +much more circumlocutory, and consequently protracted, than they +would otherwise have been; and though it was impossible to imagine a +more gentle tutor, or a more docile pupil, yet even blended as it was +with the soft dalliance of those first days of exclusive devotion, +there was something irksome to both parties, in the perpetual +recurrence of such topics. + +Instruction, however mildly conveyed, infallibly destroys that +feeling of equality, in exact proportion to which confidence is +generally found to exist. Every day Castleton felt more and more +how impossible it would be to ask Lucy’s opinion on any of those +subjects on which she was profoundly ignorant; and every day Lucy +became more aware of her deficiencies, and more anxious therefore to +conceal them from him; and that she could only do by acquiescing in +her ignorance, for there was no one else from whom she could seek +information. There were some points on which she would even have +endeavoured to extract knowledge from the servants; but dreading, +from her former habits, nothing so much as too great a familiarity +in this respect, Castleton had made it one of his first desires to +her, that she would confine her communications with them, to asking +for what she wanted. To this, as to every other desire of his, she +yielded, as far as she could, implicit obedience; but it was often +a great exertion on her part to do so. Of her own maid she had felt +from the first a considerable awe; and to such a degree did this +continue, that she could not conceive any fatigue from labour equal +to the burthen of her assistance. Being naturally of a disposition +both active and obliging, it was quite new to her to have any thing +done for her which she could do for herself. For some time she had as +great a horror of touching a bell-rope, as others have in touching +the string of a shower-bath; and when services were obtruded on her +by the domestics as a matter of course, she had much difficulty in +checking the exuberance of her gratitude. + +At home, Big Betsey, mentioned above as the maid of all work, +never considered as any part of her multitudinous duties the +waiting on Miss Lucy, who she not only said “mought moind herself,” +but sometimes called to her, almost authoritatively, to “lend a +hauping haund.” It was, probably, in consequence of the habit thus +engendered, that Lady Castleton was one day caught “lending a helping +hand” to an overloaded under laundry-maid, who had been sent by her +superior with a wicker-bound snowy freight of her Ladyship’s own +superfine linen. But of all the irksome feelings caused by Lucy’s +new position, there was none from which she suffered more, than +_waiting_ to be _waited on_. And it was hinted in the hall, that when +my Lord was not in the room, my Lady got up to help herself to what +she wanted from the sideboard!! And it was whispered in the female +conclave of the housekeeper’s room, that her Ladyship seemed even to +like to--lace her own stays!! + + + + + CHAPTER XVII. + + I would detain you here some + Month or two before you venture. + + How often have I told you ’twould be thus, + How often said my dignity would last + But till ’twere known. + + Set on towards London. + SHAKSPEARE. + + +It had been a _real_ Spring-day, by which we mean one not often +realized, but such a Spring-day as even smoke-dried poets fancy. Lucy +was seated in her own pretty boudoir, which Castleton had arranged +for her with infinite taste. She was making-up and combining with +great care a nosegay of choicest flowers, which she had gathered +from the neighbouring conservatory, into which on one side her +apartment opened; with this she was decorating a beautiful marble +vase, presented to her by her husband, which always stood on the +table beside her. Castleton had been absent that morning on a distant +ride, on business connected with his property; she had previously +been interrupted, and was now anxious, before his return, to finish +this trivial, but to her interesting occupation: for the vase never +met her husband’s eye, studded with its varied scents and gaily +diversified colours, without eliciting the observation, “No one +could arrange these half so prettily as you.” And it required to be +aware, as she was, of her manifold deficiencies, to feel the peculiar +pleasure derived in hearing the repetition of these words from the +lips she loved. She was still thus engaged, when Castleton entered, +and throwing himself on the sofa beside her, interrupted her task by +taking one of her hands in his, pressing his palm against hers--then +tenderly parting her fingers, by entwining his own between them; +whilst, passing his other arm round her waist, he drew her towards +him, and looking fondly in her face, said to himself, “They must, at +any rate, have thought her very beautiful.” + +The origin of this reflection was, that on coming home by the +high-road he had met his nearest neighbour, Mrs. Eresby, with her +two daughters, returning from a visit they had during that morning +volunteered to the bride. On perceiving him, Mrs. Eresby had stopped +the carriage for a moment, and after expressing regrets at missing +him, had said, “Charmed with Lady Castleton--so very natural and +perfectly unaffected.” + +In bowing, the only possible reply to this compliment, he thought +he had intercepted the telegraph of a smile between Miss Eresby +and her sister Arabella, who sat opposite to each other on the +side of the carriage into which he was leaning.--“Very natural and +perfectly unaffected!” he thought, as he rode home, “What has she +been doing?” Certainly, if there was any quality which Castleton must +have most sought to secure by such means as he had resorted to in +the choice of a wife, it must have been that she should be “natural +and unaffected.” And yet it is true that this testimony of the first +person who had seen her to the success of his pursuit, gave him any +thing but pleasure.--“So you have had visitors this morning, Lucy; +how did you amuse them?” + +“Oh, they seemed to amuse each other very well; there were three of +them.” + +“How do you mean, amuse themselves? they did not, surely, talk to +each other much before you?” + +“Her the others called mother didn’t.” + +“My dear Lucy, I’m sure they never called her _mother_.” + +“Well then, mamma perhaps it was; I will remember, my dear Lord, what +you told me, never to say mother.” + +“And did they make many enquiries of you? ask many questions?” + +“Oh, such a many!” + +“So many, dearest love, you mean to say.” + +“Well, so I do, thank you; and then the mamma asked me, as she had +never seen me before, if I had not been much abroad; and I said, +never at all till I married; and then she said, ‘What! had I been +to Paris since?’ and I find she meant foreign parts by abroad. And +she told me that we ought to go to London soon; that the season was +advanced, and that the Pasta would come out soon this spring. What is +the Pasta--a plant?” + +“A plant! no, love. Pasta is a singer’s name, you could not be +expected to know that; but I hope you didn’t say any thing to show +them your ignorance?” + +“Oh, no; you told me, whenever I was completely puzzled, that silence +was best; so I said nothing. Pasta’s the name of a singer, then! +Oh, that accounts, for a moment after she the mamma said, that her +daughter Arabella sang delightfully, and asked me if I would sing +with her; so I said no, I’d much rather listen. That was right, +warn’t it? You see I knew you’d ask me all about it, so I recollected +it for you. Arabella then asked me if I would accompany her? so I +said, Wherever she liked,--where did she want to go? But, I suppose, +she altered her mind, for she sat down to the grand instrument you +had brought here for me to begin my lessons upon; and then she sang +such an extraordinary song--all coming from her throat. And the +sister asked me if I understood German? and I answered, No, nor +French neither.” + +“That was an unnecessary addition, my love.” + +“Well, so it was. Then the youngest sister explained to me, that it +was a song a Swiss peasant girl sang whilst she was milking her cow; +and I said that must be very difficult, to sing while milking a cow. +And then the mamma asked how I knew; and I said I had _tried_ very +_often_.” + +“How could you, dear Lucy, volunteer such an avowal?” + +“I thought you would be afraid of that; but it all did very well, for +the mother said I was so amusing, had so much natural wit, and they +all tried to persuade me I had said something clever.” + +“Well, go on--and what then?” + +“And then the lady took me aside, and began saying so much in praise +of you; and when she once got me on that subject, I was ready and +glib enough, I warrant you. But somehow, though I then found it so +much easier to speak, I find it more difficult to recollect exactly +what I said. Is not that strange? And then she said that my happiness +would excite so much envy in the great world; that you had been +admired, courted, nay, even loved by rich, noble, clever ladies. Why +was all this? and how could you ever think to leave all these, to +seek out from her quiet home your poor little Lucy?” + +“Oh, that’s a story of by-gone days. These were follies of my youth, +which I thought I had lived to repent.” + + ‘Nor knew, till seated by thy side, + My heart in all save hope the same.’ + +“Why, save hope, my dear Lord? What may you not only hope, but trust, +from my constant devotion?” + +“I did not mean to tie myself precisely to every word I uttered. It +was only a quotation. + +“And what is a quotation?” + +“A quotation is the vehicle in which imagination posts forward, when +she only hires her Pegasus from memory. Or sometimes it is only a +quit-rent, which the intellectual cultivator, who farms an idea, +pays to the original proprietor; or rather,”--(seeing that he was +not making the matter more intelligible by his explanation,)--“or +rather, it is when we convey our own thoughts by the means of the +more perfect expressions of some favourite author.” + +“But then, surely _you_ need not be driven to borrow, whose own words +always sound to me like a book. As for poor me, I wish I could talk +in quotations for ever; then I need not fear to make these mistakes, +which, as it is, I am afraid I am always like to do.” + +There was so much modesty, so lively a sense of her own deficiencies, +with so anxious a desire to remedy them, that Castleton could not, +upon the whole, derive other than a pleasant impression from the +result of this interview. + +It has been said that Lucy’s boudoir had been furnished in a manner +that showed the most studied care in the selection, the most +unlimited expenditure in the profusion of articles of luxury. Perhaps +Castleton had even rather exceeded in this respect, from knowing +how different had been the habits of her early life, and rather +wishing that she should, whilst they were still alone, get over the +trouble of being at her ease, rather than let the world witness the +awkwardness of her first impressions, and the difficulty of her +first endeavour not to be astonished at so much that was new. + +But there was one department to which he had prudently devoted his +attention, and this from a higher motive, an anxious desire to +cultivate the taste of his pupil-bride, in a manner which might be +an enjoyment, not a task. Her room had been hung with the choicest +“_chefs-d’œuvre_” both of ancient and modern art: the most attractive +subjects, treated in the most skilful manner, in an assortment +of cabinet pictures of various masters. This, at least, thought +Castleton, is an art for which she has shown a wonderful aptitude: +poetry I cannot as yet hope that she should fancy or comprehend; and +of any incipient love of general literature I as yet see no symptom; +but this is a taste which cannot fail to refine such a character as +hers. From Claude and from Poussin she may learn that classical +association will adorn and idealize even the material beauties of +nature; and from the good conception of some historical subject by +the great Italian masters, she may reverse the usual routine, and +from admiration of the manner in which these subjects are treated, +derive a taste for the subjects themselves. Then, thought he, I shall +always have the agreeable reflection, that it was by me alone this +taste was first formed, and that it was by a mutual partiality for +this art that community of feeling was first established between us. +Castleton had mistaken the effect for the cause; he was not aware, +that whilst she had readily followed all the movements of the pencil, +it was the hand that had guided it, not the lines that it traced, +which had given it peculiar value in her eyes. Another morning he had +been again absent on the business which had taken him from home the +day of Mrs. Eresby’s visit; and at the door of the boudoir he was met +by Lucy, who had watched for his returning step, and, drawing him +in after her with more than her usual demonstrations of delight at +seeing him again, with a most triumphant “Look there!” directed his +attention to the costly frames which, under his special direction, +had been carefully fitted to the varied gems of art mentioned above, +but which were, instead, now filled with flimsy drawings upon +different coloured papers; and upon nearer inspection he discovered +them to be his own hasty sketches, which had been thrown aside with +the character he had assumed, and forgotten in the attainment of the +object of that assumption. + +“Lucy, you cannot really have been so foolish, so childish, as to +remove those beautiful pictures for such wretched daubs as these?” +This was uttered hastily, and the look of triumph passed away at +the same moment from Lucy’s previously elated countenance, as, in +a desponding tone, she “bade him see that the pictures were still +there,” and that she had occupied herself that morning in cutting +with care and adapting the sketches to the different frames that +hung round her room, which operation had been completed by neatly +attaching the papers in each corner of the pictures with pins. + +“Take them down again, for heaven’s sake!” said Lord Castleton; “it +is a bitter disappointment to me, to see you had no taste whatever +for the beauties of these gems, which I selected for you with so much +care, and which, at least, I hoped you might appreciate. I wish you +would try, at least, to know the things you ought to admire.” + +“I am sure I always admired these,” said Lucy, sorrowfully, laying +the rejected sketches in a heap before Lord Castleton, and adding to +herself in a lower tone, “so pretty, and so like!” on observing the +upper one of the heap to be a home view of Bankside Farm, and its old +orchard and now deserted garden. But her husband’s good-humour was +not restored by the gentle submission of her looks and manners; he +took the sketches in his hand, and as he turned them over rapidly, +and as each and every one in which Morden Bay was commemorated +recalled the scene of some unpleasant event, some degrading doubt, +some unworthy conflict, which he wished for ever to blot from his own +mind, and hide from the prying curiosity of others, with a sudden +impulse he crushed them firmly together in his hands, and then flung +them on the blazing fire before him. Lucy at first started forward to +save them, but her habitual obedience and respect checked her first +hasty movement. She gazed fixedly on the blazing memorials of her +childhood home; and the first bitter tears she had shed since her +marriage chased each other down her cheeks, as she exclaimed, “Oh, +what a pity to destroy them! I loved them so; they were among the +few, the very few things which reminded me of you and dear Bankside +Farm together.” + +“Nay, do not distress yourself so, my dear Lucy. You need, I hope, +nothing to remind you of me, now I am always with you; and the rocks +and the trees of Morden Bay, for it was only inanimate forms that +were there commemorated, will remain the same till you see them +again,--the same the last as the first time you beheld them. But it +is the solitude in which you have been sometimes left lately which +has made you gloomy. Business makes it necessary that I should soon +go to London; we will start next week, and then you will be too +much occupied with seeing, and being seen, to have leisure for these +morbid reflections.” + + + + + END OF THE SECOND VOLUME. + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, + Dorset-street, Fleet-street. + + + + +Transcriber’s Note: + +Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent +hyphenation in the text. These were left unchanged, as were jargon, +dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings. Misspelled words were +not corrected. Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by +underscores, _like this_. Final stops missing at the end of sentences +were added. One unnecessary apostrophe was removed. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78689 *** |