THE EXECUTIONER'S HISTORY.
On the following evening Smithers presented himself, according to
appointment, at Markham Place.
Richard received him in the library, and treated him altogether with a
condescension and a degree of kindness which made a deep impression on
the mind of the executioner.
Our hero then proceeded to acquaint him with the good fortune of
Katharine, and the arrangement which had been made to supply him with
the means to establish him in business.
"But do not imagine that this is all which you are to expect at
Katherine's hands," said Richard. "As time progresses, and I find that
you are determined not only to persevere in a respectable course of
life, but also to make amends, by your altered manner, for the harshness
which you have exhibited towards your son on so many occasions,—it will
be my pleasing duty to recommend Katherine's trustee, who is disposed to
place implicit confidence in me, to grant you such occasional pecuniary
succour as may enable you to extend the business, whatever it may be, in
which you intend to embark."
"I cannot find words to express my gratitude to you, sir," said
Smithers; "and I hope that when you see Kate again, you will ask her
forgiveness in my name for all the unkindness I have shown her at
different times."
"You shall see her yourself—she wishes you and your son to call upon
her," answered Richard; "and Mr. Bennet, to whom I communicated every
thing, has sent you both an invitation to pass an entire day at his farm
so soon as you can find leisure to avail yourself of the offer."
"Then that shall be to-morrow, sir," exclaimed Smithers; "for now that
Katherine has such good prospects, I may as well communicate something
to her which she probably will not regret to hear."
And for a few moments Smithers appeared to be absorbed in deep thought.
"And I don't know why I should keep any secret away from you, sir," he
continued, suddenly breaking silence; "you have done so much for Kate,
and you have produced so great a change in my mind, that I ought to
conceal nothing from you. In one word, then, sir—Katherine Wilmot is no
more my niece than she is yours."
"Not your niece!" ejaculated Richard.
"No relation whatever in the world to me," replied Smithers. "I never
had either brother or sister; neither had my wife: and thus you see,
sir, Kate cannot be my niece."
"But she believes herself to be so related to you," said Markham, who
was not altogether displeased to learn that the young female for whom he
experienced a fraternal interest, was not even a connexion of the Public
Executioner.
"The story is somewhat a long one—and to me a melancholy subject,"
continued Smithers; "but if you will have patience to listen to it, I
shall have nerve to relate it."
"Proceed," said Markham. "I feel deeply interested in the topic which
now occupies us."
"You will then excuse me, sir, if I begin by telling you something about
myself," resumed Smithers; "because it is more or less connected with
Kate's early history."
Smithers settled himself in a comfortable position in his chair, and
then related the following history:—
"My father was a grocer, in a large way of business, at Southampton. He
was a widower; and I was his only son. I was considered to be a steady,
exemplary young man; and I can safely say that I attended studiously to
my father's business. I never frequented public-houses, but went to
church regularly of a Sunday, and was fond of reading good books. Next
door to us there lived a corn-dealer of the name of Wilmot;—he also was
a widower, and had one child. This was a beautiful girl, about a year or
two younger than myself, and whose name was Harriet. The two families
had been acquainted for a long, long time; and Harriet and myself were
playmates in our infancy. We were therefore very intimate together; and
the friendship of childhood ripened into love as we grew up. And, oh!
how I did adore that girl! From amidst all the coarse, worldly, and
abominable ideas which have of late years crowded in my brain, I have
ever singled out that one bright—pure—and holy sentiment as a star that
points to a blissful episode in my life. And she loved me in return! Our
parents were pleased when they saw our attachment; and it was understood
that our marriage should take place on the day that I attained my
one-and-twentieth year. It only wanted seven or eight months to that
period, when an event occurred which quite changed the prospect of
affairs. The local bank failed, and old Wilmot was ruined."
Smithers paused for a moment, heaved a deep sigh, and then continued
thus:—
"Wilmot immediately came to my father and addressed him in these words:
'_The failure of the bank will throw me into the Gazette, if I cannot
raise twelve or fifteen hundred pounds within a week to sustain my
credit. That difficulty being overcome, I have no doubt of retrieving
myself altogether._' My father expressed his great delight at hearing
this latter announcement, but instinctively buttoned up his
breeches-pockets. Wilmot proceeded to state that he could raise the sum
he required if my father would guarantee its repayment. My father was a
money-making, close man; and this proposal astounded him. He refused it
point blank: Wilmot begged and implored him to save him from ruin;—but
all in vain. In the course of ten days the name of Joseph Wilmot,
corn-dealer, figured in the list of Bankrupts."
Again Smithers paused for a few moments.
"I must tell you, sir," he continued, "that I did all I could to
persuade my father to help Wilmot in this business; but my prayers and
entreaties had been poured forth entirely without effect. I, however,
took an opportunity of seeing Harriet, and assuring her that my
affection was based upon no selfish motive, but that her father's
misfortunes endeared _her_ more than ever to me. My father viewed
matters in quite a different light, and spoke to me openly of the
impossibility of my marrying a girl without a penny. I remonstrated with
him on the cruelty, injustice, and dishonour of such conduct; but he cut
me very short by observing that '_his money was his own—he had made it
by his industry—he could leave it to whom he chose—and that if I
insisted upon marrying Harriet Wilmot I need not darken his threshold
afterwards_.' I replied that I was resolved to consult my own
inclinations, and also to do honour to my vows and promises towards
Harriet."
"You acted in a generous manner," observed Markham; "although you
opposed the wishes of your own father."
"I had no secrets from Harriet," said Smithers; "and I assured her that
if she would espouse a man who had nothing but his honest name and
exertions to depend upon, I was ready to make her mine. She answered me,
with tears in her eyes, that she could never consent to be the cause of
marring all my prospects in life, and that, much as she loved me, she
would release me from my vows. I wept in concert with her;—for I was not
_then_ hard-hearted, sir,—nor had my countenance become impressed with
that brutal severity which I know—I feel, it has long, long worn."
"As the countenance is more or less the index of the soul," said
Markham, "so will yours resume all its former serenity of expression."
"Well—well, sir: let me hope so! I do not wish to die with the word
'EXECUTIONER' traced upon my features. But I will continue my story.
Harriet seemed firm in her generous purpose not to be the cause of my
ruin: I however implored her to reflect upon the misery into which her
decision would plunge me. I then left her. The next morning I heard that
Wilmot and his daughter had departed from their house, and had gone—no
one knew whither. Malignant people said that the old man was afraid to
face his creditors in the local Bankruptcy-court: I thought otherwise. I
felt persuaded that Harriet had prevailed upon her father, by some means
or another, to leave;—and I now considered her lost to me for ever. My
sorrow was great; but I redoubled my attention to business in order to
distract my mind from contemplating the misfortune that had befallen me.
Weeks and months passed away; and the wound in my heart was closed, but
it was still painful. One day, during a temporary indisposition which
confined my father to his room, I was turning over some papers in his
desk, seeking for an invoice which I required, when I perceived a letter
addressed to my father and signed _Joseph Wilmot_. The date especially
attracted my attention, because I remembered that this letter must have
been written on the very day that I had the last interview with Harriet.
I hesitated not a moment to read it; and its contents revealed to me the
cause of that precipitate departure which has so distressed me. Indeed,
the letter was in answer to one which Wilmot acknowledged to have just
before received from my father. It appears that my father had written to
offer old Wilmot two hundred pounds if he would quit the town, with his
daughters, and that Wilmot should give a note of hand for this amount,
which security my father engaged himself not to enforce so long as
Wilmot remained away and left me in ignorance of his future place of
residence. Wilmot consented to this arrangement: he was a ruined man
without a shilling; and he gladly availed himself of the means of
embarking in business elsewhere. This stratagem on the part of my father
I discovered through Wilmot's letter. I said nothing about the letter to
my father: I concluded that he had merely acted under the impression
that he was consulting my welfare; and moreover the injury appeared to
be irrevocable. Well, sir—six months passed away after the departure of
Wilmot and his daughter, and my father, who was usually so cautious and
prudent, was induced to embark some money in the purchase of smuggled
goods. The excise officers discovered the transaction; and a fine was
imposed which swept away every farthing of the sum which my father had
been accumulating by the industry and toil of years. It broke his heart:
he died, and left me a ruined business, instead of a decent competence.
I struggled on for a year, just keeping my head above water, but
dreadfully crippled for want of capital. At length I learnt, from a
friend, that I had found favour in the sight of a wealthy neighbour's
daughter, who was some six or seven years older than myself. I made the
best of this circumstance; and, to save myself from total ruin, in a
short time married the female alluded to. The fruit of this union was a
son—the poor deformed creature whom you have seen. He was not, however,
so afflicted at his birth: how he come to be so, I will presently tell
you."
Smithers uttered these words in a tone of deep feeling.
"I had married for money, sir," he continued; "and I married unhappily.
My wife was of a temper befitting a demon. Then she was addicted to
drink; and in her cups she was outrageous. My home grew miserable: and I
began to neglect the business; and, to avoid my wife in her drunken
humours, I went to the public-house. Then also my temper was so sorely
tried that it gave way under the accumulated weight of domestic
wretchedness. I grew harsh and uncourteous to my customers; I retaliated
against my wife in her own fashion of ill-treatment—by means of stormy
words and heavy blows; and, when I was weary of all that, I rushed to
the public-house, where I endeavoured to drown my cares in strong drink.
In a word, three years after my marriage, I was compelled to abandon my
business in Southampton; and, with about a hundred pounds in my
pocket—the wrecks of all that my wife had brought me—I removed, with her
and the child, to London. On our arrival, I took a small tobacconist's
shop in High Street, St. Giles's, and exerted myself to the utmost to
obtain an honest livelihood; and for some time my wife seemed inclined
to second me. The ruin which our disputes and evil courses had entailed
upon us appeared to have made a deep impression upon her mind. She
carefully avoided strong drink, and declared her resolution never to
take any thing stronger than beer. But one day she was prevailed upon by
a female friend to accept a little spirits; and a relapse immediately
followed. She came home intoxicated; we had fresh quarrels—renewed
disputes; and I myself went in an evil hour to the nearest public-house.
From that moment we pursued pretty well the same courses that had ruined
us in Southampton; and this conduct led to similar results. I was forced
to give up the snuff and cigar shop; and we moved into that identical
house in St. Giles's which I now inhabit, and where you first saw me."
Smithers passed his hand over his forehead, as if to alleviate the
acuteness of painful recollections.
He then pursued his narrative in the following manner:—
"Our sole hope and only resource now consisted in being able to let the
greater portion of the house; and as we had managed to save our little
furniture from the wreck of the business in High Street, we had still a
decent prospect before us. My wife again promised reformation; and, as I
never took to drink except when driven to it by her conduct, I was by no
means unwilling to second her in her resolutions of economy. We soon let
our lodgings, and I did a little business by selling groceries on
commission for a wholesale house to which I managed to obtain an
introduction. In this way we got on pretty well for a time; and now I
come to the most important part of my story."
Richard drew his chair, by a mechanical movement as it were, closer to
that of the executioner, and prepared to listen with redoubled
attention, if possible.
"It was twelve years ago last January," continued Smithers, "that I
returned home one evening, after a hard day's application to business,
when the first thing my wife told me was that our back room on the
second floor, which had long been to let, was at length taken. She added
that our new lodger was a female of about eight-and-twenty or thirty,
and had a little girl of four years old. My wife also stated that she
was afraid the poor creature was in a dreadful state of health, and was
not very comfortably off, as all her own and her child's things were
contained in a small bundle which she brought with her. When my wife
asked for a reference she evaded the inquiry by paying a week's rent in
advance; and this pittance was taken from a purse containing a very
slender stock of money. I inquired if the new lodger had given any name;
but my wife replied that she had not asked her for it. The next day I
was taken unwell, and was compelled to stay at home; but my wife went
out with our boy, who was then six years old, to pass a few hours with a
friend. I was sitting in the little parlour all alone, and thinking of
the past, when I heard a gentle knock at the door. I opened it, and saw
a nice little girl, about four years old, standing in the passage. She
asked me to let my wife step up to her mother, who was very ill. I took
the child in my arms, and went up to my new lodger's room, to say that
my wife was out, but that if I could render any assistance I should be
most happy to do so. I knocked at the door; it opened—but the female who
appeared uttered a piercing scream, and fell back senseless on the
floor. She had recognised me; and I, too, had recognised her,—recognised
her in spite of her altered appearance and her faded beauty. It was
Harriet Wilmot!"
The executioner paused, averted his head for a moment, and wiped away a
tear.
He then continued his narrative.
"I instantly did my best to recover her. I fetched vinegar, and bathed
her forehead; and in a few minutes she opened her eyes. I laid her upon
the bed; and she motioned me to give her the child. This I did; and she
pressed it rapturously to her bosom. I stood gazing upon the affecting
scene, with tears in my eyes; but I said nothing. She extended her hand
towards me, and murmured in a faint tone, '_Is it then in your home that
I am come to breathe my last?_'—I implored her to compose herself, and
assured her that she should meet with every attention. She glanced
tenderly upon her child, and large tears rolled down her faded cheeks.
Oh! she was so altered that it was no wonder if my wife, who had known
her years before at Southampton, had not recognized her! I asked her if
I should procure medical attendance. She could not answer me: a dreadful
faintness seemed to come over her. I told her that I would return
immediately; and I hurried for a doctor. The medical man came with me;
and we found the poor creature speechless, but still sensible. He shook
his head with significant hopelessness at me: I understood him—she was
dying! The surgeon hastened back home, and speedily returned with
various drugs and medicines. But all was of no avail; the poor creature
was on the threshold of the grave. The doctor told me what to do, and
then took his leave, promising to return in a couple of hours. I seated
myself by the side of the bed, and anxiously watched the patient, who
had gradually sunk into a deep slumber. I also amused myself with, and
pacified the little girl. In this way hour after hour passed; and at
length my wife came home. But in what a state did she return? Her
friend—the same, as I afterwards learnt, who had before seduced her away
from the paths of temperance—had accomplished this feat a second time.
My wife was in a disgusting state of intoxication. Not finding me in our
sitting-room, she came up stairs to search for me. The moment I heard
her, I stepped out of Harriet's chamber to meet her, and request her
assistance in behalf of the dying woman—for as yet I knew not the state
in which my wife had returned. But when she saw me come from that room,
she rushed upon me like a tigress: her jealousy was suddenly excited to
an ungovernable fit of passion. She tore my face with her nails, and
dragged out my hair by handfuls. I implored her to hear me; she
raved—she stormed—she declared she would have the life of the woman in
whose chamber I had been. Then my own anger was fearfully roused: I
caught her by the throat, and I do believe that I should have strangled
her, had not John—our boy—at that instant caught hold of my legs and
begun to kick and pinch me with all his might—for he always took his
mother's part. I was now rendered as infuriate as a goaded bull: I
hurled my wife away from me, and with one savage blow—may God forgive
me!—I knocked the child backwards down the stairs."
Here Smithers covered his face with his hands, and the tears trickled
through his fingers.
"The lodgers rushed up to the floor where this horrible scene took
place," he continued, after a long pause; "and I, in that moment of my
excited and bewildered senses, justified my conduct by declaring that
the woman who lay dying in the next room was my own sister. My wife was
insensible, and could not contradict me; and thus the tale was believed.
The lodgers removed my wife and my child to their bed-room; and the same
surgeon who had attended upon Harriet was instantly sent for. Alas! his
skill was all in vain. My wife never rallied again, save to give way to
dreadful hysterical fits: in a few weeks, during which she lingered in
that manner, she breathed her last;—and my son became deformed, as you
have seen him!"
Again the miserable man paused, and gave way to his emotions.
Several minutes elapsed ere he continued his narrative; and Markham also
remained wrapped in a profound silence.
At length the executioner proceeded thus:—
"The condition into which my rage had thrown my wife and child on that
memorable day, did not prevent me from watching by the death-bed of
Harriet Wilmot. I even attended to her little girl as if she had been my
own. I felt my heart yearn towards that poor woman whom I had once known
so beautiful and had loved so tenderly. She slept on,—slept throughout
that long and weary night; and there I remained, watching by her
bed-side. In the morning the doctor came: Harriet awoke, and smiled when
she saw me. Then she made signs that she wished to write. Her powers of
speech had deserted her. The medical man addressed her in a kind tone,
and said that if she had any thing to communicate she had better do so,
as she was very, very ill. She thanked him with a glance for his
candour, and for the delicate manner in which he bade her prepare for
death. I placed writing materials before her; and she wrote a few lines,
which were, however, so blotted by tears——"
"I have already been made acquainted with the contents of the only
legible portion which still remains of that letter," interrupted our
hero.
"And you are, then, aware, sir, that allusion is made to a certain Mr.
Markham?" said Smithers.
"Perfectly," replied Richard. "The late Mr. Reginald Tracy communicated
that fact to me."
"The poor creature breathed her last ere she could terminate that
letter," continued the executioner. "She suddenly dropped her pen,
turned one agonising glance upon her child, fell back, and expired. I
buried her as decently as my means would permit; and I determined to
take care of Katherine. I repeated my original statement that the little
girl was my niece; and, in order not to throw shame upon the memory of
her mother, I represented her as having been a widow when she came to my
house. I have before said that my wife never sufficiently recovered her
senses to contradict this story; and my son John was too young at the
time to be aware that it was a fiction."
"And did you never institute any inquiries into the meaning of that
allusion to Mr. Markham in the letter?" inquired Richard.
"I obtained various _Directories_ and _Guides_, and found that there
were thirty or forty persons of that name residing in London, and whose
addresses were given in those books. I called upon several; but none
knew any thing of the business which took me to them. Then I abandoned
the task as hopeless: for I reflected that there might be others of the
same name who were _not_ to be found in the _Directories_; and I was not
even assured that the Mr. Markham alluded to dwelt in London."
"Thus you never obtained any farther clue to Katharine's parentage?"
"Never," answered Smithers. "The little child herself, when questioned
by me soon after her mother's death, did not recollect having ever seen
any one whom she called _Papa_; and from all I could learn from the
orphan girl, her mother must have been living for some time in London
before she came to my house. But where this residence was, I could not
ascertain. One thing, however, I discovered, which seemed to proclaim
the illegitimacy of Katherine's birth: she said that her mamma's name
was Wilmot. That was her maiden name!"
"Poor Katherine!" said Richard.
"And now I have told you all, sir, that concerns her early history—at
least all that I know. Some time after my wife's death, evil reports got
abroad concerning me. It was said that my brutality had produced her
death; and my son was a living reproach against me. No one would employ
me—no one would lodge in my house. It was then that I accepted the
office of Public Executioner,—to save myself from starving, and to give
bread to my own son and the little orphan girl. By degrees my temper,
already ruined by the conduct of my wife, became confirmed in its
ferocity and cruel callousness. I grew brutal—savage—inhuman. I felt the
degradation of my calling—I saw that I was shunned by all the world. I
was looked upon as a monster who had murdered his wife and made his son
deformed;—but the provocation and the circumstances were never mentioned
to palliate the enormity of that double crime. At length I heard all the
reproaches, and did not take the trouble to state facts in order to
justify myself. But all this was enough to brutalize me,—especially when
added to the duties of my new calling. In time I even began to ill-treat
that poor orphan girl whom I had at first looked upon as my own child.
But, bad as I have been towards her when I thought that she encouraged
my son to thwart my will,—shamefully as I used her at times, I never
would have abandoned her;—for when she thought that I turned her out of
my house the day she went to Mr. Tracy's, it was only my brutal way of
letting her go to a place which I knew would be creditable to her, and
which, by what she told me, I saw she wished to take. Then I thought
within myself, '_Yes, even she will now gladly leave me_;'—and, in order
to conceal what I felt at that idea—and I _did_ feel deeply—I took
refuge in my own brutalized temper. But I sent her round all her things
in the evening—not forgetting her work-box, which I knew contained the
fragment that her poor mother wrote upon her death-bed. Moreover, when
she came to see me, I received her with no constrained kindness; for I
always liked her—even when I ill-used her;—and I was sorry to have
parted with her."
"The world, my good friend, has not altogether read your heart
correctly," said Richard.
"Thank you, sir,—thank you for that assurance," exclaimed Smithers; "and
when you _good friend_ me, sir—you, who are so noble-hearted, so
generous, so truly grand in your humanity—I could burst into tears."
"If my example please you," said Markham, kindly, "you will make me
happy by profiting by it. Oh! you shall yet live long to convince the
world that the human heart never can be so deadened to all good feelings
as to be beyond redemption!"
"I do not think I shall live to an old age, sir," observed Smithers,
sinking his voice to a mysterious whisper: "I have already had one
warning!"
"One warning!" repeated Richard, surprised at this strange announcement.
"Yes, Mr. Markham. One night I was lying in bed;—the candle was
flickering in the fire-place;—I happened to turn my eyes towards that
puppet which hangs in the loft where I used to sleep until within the
last few days,—and I saw _another face_ looking over its shoulder at
me."
"Another face!" ejaculated Markham: "what do you mean?"
"I mean, sir, _that Harriet Wilmot's countenance appeared above the
shoulder of the figure_!" answered Smithers, with a shudder.
"My good friend," said Markham, "your imagination was disordered at the
moment. The days of spectres and apparitions are gone by. The Almighty
does not address himself to man by means of terrors which nurses use to
frighten children. I will show you, by a simple process of reasoning,
that it is _impossible_ to _see_ a ghost—even if such a thing should
exist. You do not see with the eye precisely in the way in which you may
imagine. Strictly speaking, the eye does not see at all. The effect is
this: substantial objects are reflected in the retina of the eye as in a
mirror; and the impression is conveyed from the retina into the brain,
where it assumes a proper and suitable shape in the imagination or
conception. But in order that objects should so strike the retina of the
eye, they _must_ be _substantial_: they must have length, breadth, and
thickness;—they must displace so much air as to leave the void filled up
by their own forms. Now, even if the spirits of the departed be allowed
to revisit this earth, _no mortal eye can see them_, because they are
_unsubstantial_, and they cannot be reflected in the retina of the eye.
I have only entered into this explanation to convince you that an
unsettled mind or a disordered imagination—arising from either moral or
physical causes—can _alone_ conjure up phantoms."
"Well, sir, we will not talk any more upon _this_ subject, if you
please," said Smithers. "I understand what you say; and I thank you for
your goodness in explaining the matter to me. I now wish to ask you
whether you would rather that I should communicate all I have told you
to Katherine; or whether you will yourself?"
"My good friend," said Richard, "you acted so noble a part towards her
mother that this duty will better become you. Katherine will thank you
for your goodness towards her parent—especially as that goodness arose
from no interested motives; and you will rejoice in the grateful
outpourings of the heart of that orphan whom you reared, and to whom you
gave a home. To-morrow you and your son can visit her: the day after
to-morrow, in the evening, I wish both of you—yourself and your son—to
call upon me."
Smithers promised to obey our hero's desires in all respects, and then
took his leave,—wondering how any human being could possess such
influence over the heart, to humanize and reclaim it, as Richard
Markham.