TODD TAKES A LOOK AT HIS OLD QUARTERS IN FLEET STREET.
The village of Hampstead was, at the time of which we write, really a
village. It still retains many of its old houses and picturesque
beauties, but it is not quite such a little retired spot as it was. If
ever any one walked through Hampstead, however, who was less inclined
than another to pause and speculate upon its beauties, certainly that
man was our doubtful acquaintance, Sweeney Todd.
He did not think it quite prudent to stop in the High Street to solace
himself with any worldly comforts, although he saw several public-houses
very temptingly open, but passing right on, he descended Red Lion Hill,
and paused at a little inn at the foot of it, that is to say, on the
London side of the pretty village.
Brandy was Todd's request, and he was met by a prompt, "Yes, sir;" but
Todd had, among his varied experiences, to find out what Hampstead
brandy was, and the moment he placed a portion of it in his mouth, his
eyes goggled furiously, and spitting it out, he said, in a voice of
anger--
"This is some mistake."
"Mistake, sir?"
"Yes; I asked for brandy, and you have given me the rinsings of some
bottles and dirty glasses."
"Oh, dear no, sir; that brandy is the very best that you will get in all
Hampstead."
"The best in all Hampstead!" repeated Todd, with a groan; "what must the
worst be, I wonder?"
"I assure you, sir, it is considered to be very good."
"Considered?" said Todd. "Then, my friend, there's your money, and as
the brandy is considered to be so good, you can drink it; but having
some respect, from old companionship, for my inside, I decline it. Good
evening."
With these words, Todd laid a shilling upon the bar, and strode away.
"Well," said the publican, "how singular! that's the eighth person who
has refused that one quartern of brandy and paid for it. Here, wife, put
this back into the bottle again, and shake it up well."
Todd pursued his route down Haverstock Hill, until he came to the then
straggling district of Camden Town, and there he did find a house at
which he got just a tolerable glass of brandy, and feeling very much
invigorated by the drop, he walked on more rapidly still; and a thought
took possession of him, which, although it was perhaps not unattended
with danger, might turn out to be a very felicitous one.
During his career in the shop in Fleet Street, he had collected a number
of watches from the pockets of the murdered persons, but he had always
been afraid to attempt the disposal of the best of them.
The fact was, that at that time everybody had not a watch as at present.
It was an expensive article, and Mr. So-and-so's watch was as well known
as Mr. So-and-so himself; so that it would have been one of the most
hazardous things possible for Todd to have brought suspicion upon
himself by going about disposing of the watches of his victims. It was
the same, too, with some other costly articles, such as rings, lockets,
and so on; and as he had realised as much money as he could previous to
his arrangements for leaving England, Todd had left some of this
description of property to perish in the fire, which he hoped to be the
means of igniting in old Fleet Street upon his departure.
Now, as he crept along by Tottenham-Court-Road, he mused upon the state
of things.
"If," he muttered, "I could only get into my late house in Fleet Street,
I know where to lay my hand upon portable property, which was not worth
my consideration while I had thousands of pounds in gold, but which now
would be a fortune to me in my reduced circumstances. If I could but lay
my hand upon it!"
The more Todd thought over this proposition, the more pleased he was
with it; and by the time he had indulged himself with two more glasses
of brandy, it began to assume, to his mind, a much more tangible shape.
"It may be done," he said, "it surely may be done. If I could only make
my way in the church it might be done well, and surely one of these
picklocks that I have about me might enable me to do that."
The picklock he alluded to was one that he had put in his pocket to
accommodate Mr. Lupin, when they were both so intent upon their escape
from Newgate, and when Mr. Lupin was foolish enough to believe that Todd
really had two thousand pounds buried in Caen Wood, Hampstead. There was
one thing, however, which made Todd pause. He did not think he was
sufficiently disguised to venture into the locality of his old
residence, and, unfortunately for him, he was rather a peculiar-looking
man. His great chance, however, was, that in Fleet Street surely no one
would now think of looking for Sweeney Todd.
"I must be bold," he said, "I must be bold and resolute. It will not do
to shrink now. I will buy a knife."
This was a pleasant idea to Todd. Buying a knife seemed almost like
getting half-way to his revenge, and he went into an obscure cutler's
shop, and bought a long double-edged knife, for which he gave two
shillings. He then carefully concealed it in his clothing.
After this, he hit upon a plan of operations which he thought would have
the effect of disguising him. At that period, wigs were so commonly worn
that it was nothing at all particular for a person to go into a
wig-makers, and select one--put it on--pay for it--and go away!
"Yes," said Todd, "I will buy a wig; for I have art enough and knowledge
of wigs to enable me to do so--as shall produce the greatest possible
change in my appearance. A wig, a wig will be the thing."
Todd had hardly well made this declaration than he came upon a
wig-makers, and in he went. Pointing to a wig that was on a block, and
which had a very clerical kind of look, he inquired the price of it.
"Oh, my dear sir," said the wig-maker, "that is much too old looking a
perriwig for you. Let me recommend you a much younger wig. Now, sir,
here's one that will take a matter of ten years off your age in a
moment."
Todd had discretion enough to know well that he could not make up young,
so he merely pointed to the wig again and enquired the price.
"Well, sir, it is a couple of guineas, but--"
Without another word, Todd laid down the couple of guineas, and putting
the wig upon his head he left the shop, certainly having given the
wig-maker an impression that he was the oddest customer he had had for
some time; but little did he suspect that that odd customer was the
criminal with whose name all London was ringing, and upon whose
head--with or without a wig--so heavy a price was set.
After this, Todd made his way to a shop where second-hand clothing was
bought and sold, and there he got accommodated with an old gray coat
that reached down to the calves of his legs, and he bought likewise a
very voluminous white cravat; and when he got into the street with these
articles, and purchased at another shop a walking cane, with a great
silver top to it, and put one hand behind his back and stooped very
much, and moved along as if he were afflicted with all the corns and
bunions that his toes could carry, and by bending his knees, decreased
his height six inches, no one could have known him.
At least, so Todd flattered himself.
In this way he tottered on until he got to the immediate neighbourhood
of Fleet Street. To be sure, with all his coolness and courage, he could
not help shaking a little when he came to that well remembered
neighbourhood.
"And I," he thought to himself, "and I by this time hoped and expected
to be far over the sea, instead of being such a wretch as I am now,
crawling about, as it were, amid pitfalls and all sorts of dangers!
Alas! alas!"
He really shook now, and it was quite astonishing how, with his old wig,
and his old gray coat and his stick, and his stooping posture, old and
venerable, yes, positively venerable, Sweeney Todd actually looked.
"Ain't you well, sir?" said a respectable man, stepping up to him. "Can
I assist you?"
Todd perpetrated about half a dozen wheezing coughs, and then, not sorry
for an opportunity of trying his powers of imitation of age, he replied
in a tremulous voice--
"Ah, sir! Yes--old age--old age, sir--eugh!--eugh!--oh, dear me, I feel
that I am on my last legs, and that they are on the shake--old age, sir,
will come on; but it's a comfort to look back upon a long life well
spent in deeds of charity!"
"Not a doubt of it," said the stranger. "I was only afraid, sir, you
were taken suddenly ill, as you stood there."
"Oh, no--no--eugh!--no. Thank you, sir."
"Good evening, sir."
"Good evening, my good sir. Oh, if I had you only in my old shop with a
razor at your throat, wouldn't I polish you off!" muttered Todd, as the
stranger left him.
In the course of another minute, Todd was on the Fleet Street side of
Temple Bar.
He could almost see his old house--that house in which he had passed
years of deep iniquity, and which he had hoped, ere that time, would
have been a heap of ruins. There it was, tall, dismal, and gaunt
looking. The clock of St. Dunstan's struck eleven.
"Eleven," he muttered. "A good hour. The streets are getting deserted
now, and no one will know me. I will stoop yet more, and try to look
older--older still."
Todd a little over acted his part, as he tottered down Fleet Street, so
that some individuals turned to look after him, which was a thing he
certainly did not wish, as his great object was to escape all
observation if possibly he could; so he corrected that, and went on
rather more strongly; and finally he came exactly opposite to his own
house, and getting partially into a door-way, he looked long and fixedly
at it.
What thoughts, at that time, chased each other through the guilty mind
of that man, it is hard to say; but he stood like a statue, fixing his
regards upon the house for the space of about a quarter of an hour.
Once only he clapped his teeth together, and gave a sort of savage
growl.
It was lucky for Todd that no one saw him just then, or they would have
thought him rather an extraordinary old man.
The house was perfectly dark from top to bottom. The shutters of the
shop, of course, were all up, and the shutters of the first-floor
windows were likewise closed. The other windows had their old dingy
blinds all down; and, to all outward appearance, that den of murder was
deserted.
But Todd could not believe such to be the case. In his own mind, he felt
fully sure, that Sir Richard Blunt was not the man to leave the house
without some sort of custody; and he quite settled with himself, that
there was some one or more persons minding it, and, no doubt, by order,
sitting there in one of the back rooms, so that no light should show in
front.
"Curses on them all!" he muttered.
"Ah! you are looking at old Todd's house, sir?" said a voice.
Todd started; and close to him was a person smoking a pipe, and looking
as jolly as possible.
"Yes--yes," stammered Todd, for he was taken by surprise rather. "Oh,
yes, sir. I am amazed at the great wickedness of human nature."
"You may well, sir--you may well! Lord bless me! I never thought him a
good looking man, but I never thought any ill of him neither, and I have
seen him lots of times."
"Indeed, sir? Pray, what sort of man was he? I never saw him, as I live
in Soho; and I am so much in years now, that in the bustling day-time I
don't care to come into streets like this; for you see, sir, I can't
move about as I could sixty years ago; and the people--God help
them--are all in such a hurry now, and they push me here and there in
such a way, that my failing breath and limbs won't stand it;
and--and--eugh!--eugh! Oh, dear."
"Poor old gentleman! I don't wonder at your not liking the crowds. How
old may you be, sir?'"
"A matter of eighty-nine, sir. It's an old age to get to, but I--I am
younger than my brother, yet--Ha! ha! Oh dear, if it wasn't now for the
rheumatism and the lumbago and a pain in my shoulder, and a few other
little things, I should get on very well."
"Not a doubt of it. But you asked me what Todd was like, and I'll tell
you, sir. He was nigh upon six feet high, and his face was two feet of
it. He was just as ugly as any one you would wish to see for a pattern
in that way, and that's his house where he murdered all the people."
"Peace be to their souls!"
"Amen! And there are underground places that lead right away through the
vaults of St. Dunstan's to Bell-yard, where Mrs. Lovett's pie-shop was,
you know, sir."
"I have heard. Ah, dear--dear, I have heard. A very wicked woman,
indeed--very wicked; and yet, sir, it is to be hoped she has found mercy
in another world."
"There would need be plenty of it," said the man with the pipe, "if Mrs.
Lovett is to be accommodated with any."
"My friend," said Todd, "don't be profane; and now I must go, as I don't
like being out late."
"And so must I, for my pipe's out. I shall turn in, now. Good night,
sir, and a pleasant walk home to you."
"Thank you, sir, thank you--eugh! eugh! I think if it were not for my
cough, I should do very well."
Todd hobbled away, and the man, who lived in Bouverie Street, went home.
Todd had not got any real information from this man; but the brief
conversation he had had with him, had given him a sort of confidence in
his disguise, and in his power of acting, that he had not had before, so
that, upon the whole, he was not sorry for the little incident.
And now it was quite evident that the streets were getting very much
deserted. During the whole length of Fleet Street there was not half a
dozen persons to be seen at all, and Todd, after casting a rapid glance
around him to note if he were observed, suddenly crossed the way, and
boldly went up to the door of old St. Dunstan's Church.
When once close to the door of the old building, he was so much in
shadow that he felt tolerably secure from observation, but still he
lingered a little, for he did not want to do anything so hastily as to
rob it of its caution.
With his back against the church-door he glanced right and left, and
then for the space of five minutes he bent all his faculties to the one
task of ascertaining if any one was sufficiently near to watch him, and
he got perfectly satisfied that such was not the case. He stood securely
against the old church-door.
"So far," he muttered, "I am safe--quite safe."