“Each fiercely grapples with his foe.”
… “Have I then murder’d thee!”
To account for Sir Archibald Oswald’s disappearance from Arandale, and
the subsequent discovery of his body in the lake, we must accompany
him in a walk before breakfast, on the morning after he had evinced
so much emotion the previous evening; first of a furious description,
when Henry’s voice arrested his attention; and finally, of a tender
and subdued nature, when, on hearing Julia sing, all violence had not
only been allayed, but, unconscious tears had flowed over his haggard
countenance.
Having retired without supper, and, consequently, without the excess
in wine, which, with him, too frequently formed the principal part of
that meal, the unhappy Oswald slept better than was his custom. He rose
earlier; he felt some degree of composure; a lucid interval was probably
approaching.
He wandered into the deep woods that surround Arandale Castle. The
solitude they afforded was of a cheering and animated kind. Stately deer
crossed his path; birds sang, and peacocks screamed in every branch, and
the cawing rooks were, as usual, in busy motion, in and over the tops of
all the high old trees.
The path he chanced to take, led him to the sheet of water before
noticed. Our old acquaintances, the two swans, were slowly sailing on
its calm surface. Half the quiet bosom of the lake was in deep shadow
from the great trees, which seemed resting the weight of their branches
upon it. The other half shone brightly in the early sun; and every
leaf, every blade of grass, which, amid so much cover, the rays of light
could reach, was glittering with dew. The morning air was exhilarating.
Oswald’s broken heart felt soothed by the influence of surrounding
objects. He stood contemplating the scene with calmer feelings than were
common to him. There was a peculiar stillness in the moment; the next,
the sound of approaching footsteps fell on his ear. He looked round, and
beheld, as he believed, one who had long been the object of his search,
and of his hatred, coming towards him.
Oswald stamped on the earth, uttered a yell, at once of triumph and
defiance. His eyes flashed with the fire of phrenzy; he gnashed his
teeth; his whole countenance became distorted with the horrible rage
of a maniac. Henry paused! for it was, indeed, this unfortunate son of
a desperate father, whom the bewildered perceptions of the madman had
mistaken for that father. A father whose very memory could thus entail
on his offspring, not only the wild vengeance of others, but almost a
necessity in himself to become the perpetrator of crime, actual, if not
intentional.
Henry saw, and endeavoured to avoid Oswald; but the unhappy being crossed
his path, and seized on his throat with violence, reiterating, “Villain!
villain! villain!” accusing him of deeds of the blackest dye, and calling
upon him with threats and imprecations to restore the rights of his
son! At first Henry, to do him justice, only sought to escape; next,
only to defend himself: but when it became evident that the maniac’s
purpose was to put him to death, and that, with that purpose, was coupled
an insane glee at the immediate prospect of its fulfilment; and that,
added to all this, Henry began to feel himself actually threatened with
strangulation; his own angry passions kindled, and he put his strength
to the struggle. Oswald, however, having at first fastened on Henry’s
cravat, maintained his hold with the ferocious tenacity of a bull-dog,
and pursued his advantage with the supernatural force derived from
phrenzy. There were moments when Henry gave himself up for lost! It was
now that he forgot his assailant’s age and imbecility of mind, and with
all the strength of youthful sinews clasped his arms round the old man’s
waist, and, in a few seconds, brought him to the ground. Here the sight
of Oswald’s grey hairs lying amid the grass and fallen leaves might
have recalled better feelings; but even here the poor maniac’s fury was
unabated: his countenance still expressed his horrible intention, and his
hand still grasped the cravat of Henry. In the latter the instinct of
self-preservation grew each moment more fierce.
The efforts of Oswald, even in this prostrate position, continued for a
time as frantic as ever. When, suddenly, all became still: the hands had
relaxed their hold, and Henry gazed in mute horror and unavailing remorse
on a passive—nay, a lifeless form!—himself as motionless.
“Self-defence is not murder!” he at length murmured. “Self-defence is not
murder!” he repeated. But no false arguments could stifle the shocking
conviction to which his suddenly cooled faculties had awakened. The
conviction that a too fatal fierceness had accompanied the pressure with
which he had held the fallen madman to the earth after immediate danger
to himself had ceased. The vital breath, suspended by wild excitement and
frantic exertion, might have, would have returned had not that cruelly
continued pressure impeded the efforts of nature.
Such feelings, however, shortly yielded to a dread of the consequences
of what had happened; attended thus by, at least, very suspicious
circumstances.
He stood up, and looked all round him. It was solitude everywhere; and
Oswald’s hat had rolled into the lake. He seized the thought, drew the
body towards the margin, and pushed it in also.
It sunk, and the water closed over it. Henry gazed on the spot whence it
had disappeared, till the last spreading circle had melted away; then,
turned to depart. But, started and shuddered on beholding full, attentive
eyes fixed upon him, as it were observing his movements! For a moment,
he felt detected; but the next, recovered from his panic, for the eyes
were only those of a stately deer. The animal stood at a little distance,
beneath a tree; his face turned full round, his head proudly erect,
sustaining the weight of his branching horns.
Henry envied him! And now striking hastily into a walk, that led towards
the Castle, he debated with himself, in great agitation, whether he
should mention what had happened to Lord Arandale, pleading the dreadful
necessity of self-defence, against a maniac, who would else have taken
his life; or, whether he should remain silent, and suffer it to be
supposed that Oswald had drowned himself. That such a man should commit
an act of suicide could not surprise any one, and Henry, therefore,
determined on the latter alternative.
It was on this occasion that he entered the breakfast-room on the first
morning of the races, just as Lady Arandale was enquiring of the butler,
if any one had been in Sir Archibald’s room. It was at this breakfast
that Lady Susan had observed on Henry’s not having any appetite.
It may now too be imagined what his feelings of consternation must have
been, when, within an hour after, little Arthur, mistaking him for
Edmund, laid hold of the side of his coat, and asked him, in a cautious
whisper, where his poor papa was.
The body of Sir Archibald Oswald, over which we have seen the peaceful
surface of the waters close, rose again at the usual time. But before any
one had chanced to visit a place so sequestered, both it and the hat had
been gently borne along towards a narrow outlet, at the further end of
the lake, and received into the strait, or pass, which was too confined
to allow of their further progress.
And here they might still have lain, had not the work people, mentioned
by the Earl, found it necessary to clear this pass.
END OF VOL. II.
_Gunnell and Shearman, 13, Salisbury Square._
ERRATA.
VOL. I.
Page 105, Line 14, _for_ “claim to the attribute,” _read_ “claim to _be_
the attribute.”
---- 115, ---- 2, _for_ “but bestows,” _read_ “but _to_ bestow.”
---- 126, ---- 16, _for_ “There the wife,” _read_ “_These_ the wife.”
---- 159, ---- 5, _for_ “comeb ene,” _read_ “_come bene_.”
---- 160, ---- 13, _for_ “wha was,” _read_ “wha _wad_.”
---- 162, ---- 7, _for_ “she was doon-lying,” _read_ “she was _at the_
doon-lying.”
---- 238, ---- 10, _for_ “dirk and threw,” _read_ “dirk threw.”
---- 269, ---- 2, _for_ “pore, but before,” _read_ “port before.”
---- 274, ---- 13, _for_ “over three,” _read_ “over board three.”
---- 286, ---- 3, _for_ “animate,” _read_ “an innate.”
---- 295, ---- 16, _for_ “feed on,” _read_ “feed with.”
---- 315, ---- 3, _for_ “In the next,” _read_ “For the next.”
---- 328, ---- In the motto, _for_ “Ingall,” _read_ “Fingall.”
---- 341, ---- 9, _for_ “lef,” _read_ “left.”
---- 342, ---- 20, _for_ “fiends,” _read_ “fiend.”
VOL. II.
Page 17, Line 3, _for_ “laugh,” _read_ “laugh, it.”
---- 62, ---- 6, _for_ “Gentlemen!” _read_ “Julia.”
---- 200, ---- 8, _for_ “stop all,” _read_ “strip all.”
---- 243, ---- 6, _for_ “beauty o,” _read_ “beauty of.”
---- 261, ---- 3, _for_ “hey,” _read_ “they.”
---- 269, ---- 2, _for_ “Misses,” _read_ “Messrs.”
---- 276, ---- 15, _for_ “ne mar,” _read_ “ne war.”
---- 299, ---- 14, _for_ “frigate in question,” _read_ “frigate.”
---- 300, ---- 17, _for_ “me from out,” _read_ “me out.”
VOL. III.
Page 12, Line 2, _for_ “the sigh expressed,” _read_ “_tho’_ expressed.”
---- 32, ---- 8, _for_ “chrelins,” _read_ “cluelines.”
---- 79, ---- 13, _for_ “perverted word,” _read_ “world.”
---- 99, ---- 2, _for_ “them,” _read_ “him.”
---- 112, ---- 1, _for_ “prevailed to,” _read_ “prevailed _on_ to.”
---- 181, ---- 6, _for_ “There was,” _read_ “_This_ was.”
---- 185, ---- 12, _for_ “every time,” _read_ “every _day_.”
---- 201, ---- 4, _for_ “rising,” _read_ “rose.”
---- 202, ---- 1, _for_ “traversed _on_ the,” _read_ “traversed the.”
---- 204, ---- 18, _for_ “heroine imp_ell_ed by her,” _read_ “heroine
_and_ her.”
---- 226, ---- 4, _for_ “one half,” _read_ “_remit_ one half.”
---- 230, ---- 14, _for_ “disclosures had been made?” _read_
“disclo_sure_ had been made _under almost any
other circumstances_?”
---- 254, ---- 21, _for_ “_ou hene_,” _read_ “_our heroine_.”
---- 375, ---- 16, _for_ “safety had,” _read_ “safety which had.”
---- 377, ---- 3, _for_ “took_ed_,” _read_ “_took_.”
---- 403, ---- 13, _for_ “outlaw of,” _read_ “outlaw with.”
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent spelling
and hyphenation in the original document have been preserved.
The errata for this volume (II) have been corrected.
End of Project Gutenberg's First Love, Volume 2 (of 3), by Margracia Loudon