A LINK IN CLAUDIA'S FATE.
For who knew, she thought, what the amazement,
The irruption of clatter and blaze meant.
And if, in this minute of wonder,
No outlet 'mid lightning and thunder,
Lay broad and her shackles all shivered,
The captive at length was delivered?
--_Robert Browning._
Claudia had awakened one morning with one of those nervous headaches
that were becoming habitual to her. She had taken a narcotic
sedative and gone to sleep again, and slept throughout the day.
It was night when she awoke again, and became immediately conscious
of an unusual commotion in the castle--a commotion that reached her
ears, even over the thick drugget with which the stairs and halls
were covered, and through the strong doors and heavy hangings with
which her chamber was protected. Whether it was this disturbance
that had broken her rest, she did not really know. She listened
intently. There was a swift and heavy running to and fro, and a
confusion of tongues, giving voices in mingled tones of fear, grief,
rage, consternation, expostulation, and every key of passionate
emotion and excitement.
Lady Vincent reached forth her hand and rang the bell, and then
listened, but no one answered it. She rang again, with no better
success. After waiting some little time she rang a violent peal,
that presently brought the housekeeper hurrying into the room, pale
as death, and nearly out of breath.
"Mrs. Murdock, I have rung three times. I have never before had
occasion to ring twice for attendance," said Lady Vincent, in a
displeased tone.
"Ou, me leddy, ye will e'en forgi'e me this ance, when ye come to
hear the cause," panted the housekeeper.
"What has happened?" demanded Claudia.
"Ou, me leddy! sic an' awfu' event."
"What is it, then?"
"Just murther--no less!"
"Murder!" exclaimed Claudia, starting up and gazing at the speaker
with horror-distended eyes.
"Just murther!" gasped the housekeeper, sinking down in the armchair
beside her lady's bed, because in truth her limbs gave way beneath
her.
"Who? what? For Heaven's sake, speak!"
"The puir bit lassie--" began the dame; but her voice failed, and
she covered her face with her apron and began to howl.
Claudia gazed at her in consternation and horror for a minute, and
then again demanded:
"What lassie? Who is murdered? For the Lord's sake try to answer
me!"
"Puir Ailsie! puir wee bit lassie!" wailed the woman.
"Ailsie! what has happened to her?" demanded Lady Vincent,
bewildered with panic.
"She's found murthered!" howled the housekeeper.
"Ailsie! Heaven of heavens, no!" cried Claudia, wound up to a pitch
of frenzied excitement.
"Aye is she; found lying outside the castle wall, wi' her puir
throat cut fra ear to ear!" shrieked the dame, covering up her face
to smother the cries she could not suppress.
"Mercy of Heaven, how horrible!" exclaimed Lady Vincent, throwing
her hands up to her face, and falling back on her pillow.
"Puir Ailsie! puir, bonnie lassie!" howled the dame, rocking her
body to and fro.
"Who did it?" gasped Claudia, under her breath.
"Ah! that's what we canna come at; naebody kens."
"I cannot rest here any longer. Ring the bell, Mrs. Murdock, and
hand me my dressing gown. I must get up and go downstairs. Good
Heavens! a poor, innocent girl murdered in this house, and her
murderer allowed to escape!" exclaimed Claudia, throwing the bed-
clothes off her and rising in irrepressible excitement.
"Ah, me leddy, I fear, I greatly fear, she was no that innocent as
your leddyship thinks, puir bairn! Nae that I would say onything
about it, only it's weel kenned noo. Puir Ailsie! she lost her
innocence before she lost her life, me leddy. And I greatly
misdoubt, he that reft her of the ane reft her of the ither!" sobbed
the dame, as she assisted Claudia to put on her crimson silk
dressing gown.
"Now give me a shawl; I must go below."
"Nay, nay, me leddy, dinna gang! It's awfu' wark doon there. They've
brought her in, and laid her on the ha' table, and a' the constables
and laborers are there, forbye the servants. It's nae place for you,
me leddy. Your leddyship could na stand it."
"Anyone who has stood six weeks of the ordinary life in this house
can stand anything else under the sun!" exclaimed Claudia, wrapping
herself in the large India shawl that was handed her, and hurrying
downstairs.
She was met by old Katie, who was on her way to answer the bell that
had been rung for her, and who, as soon as she saw her mistress,
raised both her hands in deprecation, and in her terror began to
speak as if Lady Vincent were still a child and she was still her
nurse and keeper:
"Now, Miss Claudia, honey, you jes' go right straight back ag'in!
Dis aint no place for sich as you, chile. You mustn't go down dar
and look at dat gashly objeck, honey. 'Cause no tellin' what de
quoncequinces mightn't be. Now mind what your ole Aunt Katie say to
you, honey, and turn back like a good chile."
While old Katie was coaxing her Lady Vincent was looking over the
balustrade down into the hall below, which was filled to suffocation
with a motley crowd, who were pressing around some object extended
upon the table, and which Claudia could only make out in the
obscurity by the gleam of the white cloth with which it was covered.
Without stopping to answer old Katie, she pushed her aside and
hurried below.
The crowd had done with loud talking and an awe-struck silence
prevailed, broken only now and then by a half-suppressed murmur of
fear or horror.
Forgetting her fastidiousness for once, Lady Vincent pushed her way
through this crowd of "unwashed" workmen, whose greasy, dusty, and
begrimed clothes soiled her bright, rich raiment as she passed, and
among whom the mingled fumes of tobacco, whisky, garlic, and coal-
smoke formed "the rankest compound of villainous smells that ever
offended nostrils."
Claudia did not mind all this. She pressed on, and they gave way for
her a little as she approached the table. Three constables stood
around it to guard the dead body from the touch of meddlesome hands.
On seeing Lady Vincent with the air of one having authority, the
constable that guarded the head of the table guessed at her rank,
and officiously turned down the white sheet that covered the dead
body, and revealed the horrible object beneath--the ghastly face
fallen back, with its chin dropped, and its mouth and eyes wide open
and rigid in death; and the gaping red wound across the throat cut
so deep that it nearly severed the head from the body. With a
suppressed shriek Claudia clapped her hands to her face to shut out
the awful sight.
At the same moment she felt her arm grasped by a firm hand, and her
name called in a stern voice: "Lady Vincent, why are you here?
Retire at once to your chamber."
Claudia, too much overcome with horror to dispute the point,
suffered the viscount to draw her out of the crowd to the foot of
the stairs. Here she recovered herself sufficiently to inquire:
"What has been done, my lord? What steps have been taken towards the
discovery and arrest of this poor girl's murderer?"
"All that is possible has been done, or is doing. The coroner has
been summoned; the inspector has been sent for; a telegram has been
dispatched to Scotland Yard in London for an experienced detective.
Rest easy, Lady Vincent. Here, Mistress Gorilla! Attend your lady to
her apartment."
This last order was addressed to Katie, who was still lingering on
the stairs, and who was glad to receive this charge from Lord
Vincent.
"Come along, Miss Claudia, honey," she said, as soon as the viscount
had left them; "come along. We can't do no good, not by staying here
no longer. My lordship was right dar. Dough why he do keep on a-
calling of me Mrs. Gorilla is more'n I can 'count for. Not dat I
objects to de name; 'cause I do like the name. I think's it a perty
name, sweet perty name, so soft and musicky; only you see, chile, it
aint mine; and I can't think what could put it in my lordship's head
to think it was."
Lady Vincent paid no attention to the innocent twaddle of poor old
Katie, though at a less horrible moment it might have served to
amuse her. She hurried as fast as her agitation would permit her
from the scene of the dreadful tragedy, unconscious how closely this
poor murdered girl's fate would be connected with her own future
destiny. She gained the shelter of her own apartments and shut
herself up there, while the investigations into the murder
proceeded.
It is not necessary for us to go deeply into the revolting details
of the events that followed. The coroner arrived the same evening,
impaneled his jury and commenced the inquest. Soon after the
inspector came from Banff. And the next morning a skillful detective
arrived from London. And the investigation commenced in earnest.
Many witnesses were examined; extensive searches were made, and all
measures taken to find out some clew to the murderer, but in vain.
The police held possession of the premises for nearly a week, and
the coroner's jury sat day after day; but all to no purpose, as far
as the discovery of the perpetrator of the crime was concerned. This
seemed one of the obstinate murders that, in spite of the old
proverb to the contrary, will not "out."
On Saturday night the baffled coroner's jury returned their
unsatisfactory verdict: "The deceased, Ailsie Dunbar, came to her
death by a wound inflicted in her throat with a razor held in the
hands of some person unknown to the jury."
And the house was rid of coroner, jury, inspector, detective,
country constables and all; and the poor girl's body was permitted
to be laid in the earth; and the household breathed freely again.
The same evening Lord Vincent, being alone in his dressing room,
rang his bell; and his valet as usual answered it.
"Come in here, Frisbie. Shut the door after you, and stand before
me," said his lordship.
"Yes, my lord," answered the servant, securing the door and standing
before his master.
Lord Vincent sat with his back to the window and his face in the
shadow, while the light from the window fell full on the face of the
valet, who stood before him. This was a position Lord Vincent always
managed to secure, when he wished to read the countenance of his
interlocutor, without exposing his own.
"Well, Frisbie, they are gone," said his lordship, looking wistfully
into the face of his servant.
"Yes, my lord," replied the latter, looking down.
"And--without discovering the murderer of Ailsie Dunbar," he
continued, in a meaning voice.
"Yes, my lord," replied the valet, with the slightest possible
quaver in his tone.
"That must be a very great relief to your feelings, Frisbie," said
the viscount.
"I--have not the honor to understand your lordship," faltered
Frisbie, changing color.
"Haven't you? Why, that is strange! My meaning is clear enough. I
say it must be a very great relief to your feelings, Frisbie, to
have the inquest so well over, and all the law-officers out of the
house. You must have endured agonies of terror while they were here.
I know I should in your place. Why, I expected every day that you
would bolt, though that would have been the worst thing you could
possibly have done, too, for it would have been sure to direct
suspicion towards you, and you would have been certain to be
recaptured before you could have got out of England," said Lord
Vincent coolly.
"I--I--my lord--I have not the honor--to--to--under----" began the
man, but his teeth chattered so that he could not enunciate another
syllable.
"Oh, yes! you have the honor, if you consider it such. You
understand me well enough. What is the use of attempting to deceive
me? Frisbie, I was an eye-witness to the death of Ailsie Dunbar,"
said his lordship emphatically, and fixing his eyes firmly upon the
face of his valet.
Down fell the wretch upon his knees, with his hands clasped, his
face blanched, and his teeth chattering.
"Oh, my lord, mercy, mercy! It was unpremeditated, indeed it was! it
was an accident! it was done in the heat of passion! and--and--she
did it herself!" gasped the wretch, so beside himself with fright
that he did not clearly know what he was talking about.
"Frisbie, stop lying. Did it herself, eh? I saw you do the deed. The
razor was in your hands. She struggled and begged, poor creature,
and cut her poor hands in her efforts to save her throat; but you
completed your purpose effectually before I could appear and prevent
you from murdering her. Then I kept your secret, since no good could
have come of my telling it."
"Mercy, mercy, my lord! indeed it was unpremeditated! It was done in
the heat of passion. She had driven me mad with jealousy!"
"Bosh! what do you suppose I care whether you committed the crime in
hot blood or cold blood? whether it was the result of a momentary
burst of frenzy or of a long premeditated and carefully arranged
plan? It is enough for me to know that I saw you do the deed. You
murdered that girl, and if the coroner's jury had not been just
about the stupidest lot of donkeys that ever undertook to sit on a
case, you would be now in jail waiting your trial for murder before
the next assizes."
"Mercy, mercy, my lord! I am in your power!"
"Hold your tongue and get up off your knees and listen to me, you
cowardly knave. Don't you know that if I had wished to hang you I
could have done so by lodging information against you? Nonsense! I
don't want to hang you. I think, with the Quaker, that hanging is
the worst use you can put a man to. Now, I don't want to put you to
that use. I have other uses for you. Get up, you precious knave!"
"Oh, my lord! put me to any use your lordship wishes, and no matter
what it is, I will serve you faithfully in it!" said the wretch,
rising from his knees and standing in a cowed and deprecating manner
before his master.
"It is perfectly clear to me, Frisbie, that you settled that girl to
silence a troublesome claimant of whom you could not rid yourself in
any other way."
"Your lordship knows everything. It was so, my lord. She was all the
time bothering me about broken promises and all that."
"And so you settled all her claims by one blow. Well, you have got
rid of the woman that troubled you; and now I mean that you shall
help me to get rid of one who troubles me."
"In--in--in the same manner, my lord?" gasped the man, in an
accession of deadly terror.
"No, you insupportable fool! I am not a master butcher, to give you
such an order as that. Noblemen are not cut-throats, you knave! You
shall rid me of my troublesome woman in a safer way than that. And
you shall do it as the price of my silence as to your own little
affair."
"I am your lordship's obedient, humble servant. Your lordship will
do what you please with me. I am absolutely and unreservedly at your
lordship's disposal," whined the criminal.
"Well, I should think you were, when I hold one end of a rope of
which the other end is around your neck. Come closer and stoop down
until you bring your ear to a level with my lips, for I must speak
low," said his lordship.
The man obeyed.
And Lord Vincent confided to his confederate a plan against the
peace and honor of his viscountess of so detestable and revolting a
nature that even this ruthless assassin shrunk in loathing and
disgust from the thought of becoming a participator in it. But he
was, as he had said, absolutely and unreservedly at the disposal of
Lord Vincent, who held one end of the rope of which the other was
around his own neck, and so he ended in becoming the confederate and
instrument of the viscount.
When this was all arranged Lord Vincent dismissed the valet with the
words:
"Now be at ease, Frisbie; for as long as you are faithful to me I
will be silent in regard to you."
And as the second dinner-bell had rung some little time before, Lord
Vincent stepped before the glass, brushed his hair, and went
downstairs.
As soon as he had left the room another person appeared upon the
scene. Old Katie came out from the thick folds of a window curtain
and stood in the center of the room with up-lifted hands and up-
rolled eyes, and an expression of countenance indescribable by any
word in our language.
For more than a minute, perhaps while one could slowly count a
hundred, she stood thus. And then, dropping her hands and lowering
her eyes, she walked soberly up to Lord Vincent's tall dressing-
glass, plucked the parti-colored turban off her head and looked at
herself, muttering:
"No! it aint white, nor likewise gray! dough I did think, when dat
creeping coldness come stealing through to roots of my h'ar, when I
heerd dem wilyuns at deir deblish plot, as ebery libbing ha'r on my
head was turned on a suddint white as snow; as I've heerd tell of
happening to people long o' fright. But dar! my ha'r is as good as
new, dough it has had enough to turn it gray on a suddint in dis
las' hour! Well, laws! I do think as Marse Ishmael Worth mus' be
somefin of a prophet, as well as a good deal of a lawyer! He telled
me to watch ober de peace and honor of Lady Vincent. Yes, dem was
his berry words--peace and honor. Well, laws! little did I think how
much dey would want watching ober. Anyways, I've kep' my word and
done my duty. And I've found out somefin as all de crowners, and
constables and law-fellows couldn't find out wid all deir larnin'.
And dat is who kilt poor misfortunate Miss Ailsie, poor gal! And
I've found out somefin worse 'an dat, dough people might think there
couldn't be nothing worse; but deir is. And dat is dis deblish plot
agin my ladyship. Oh, dem debils! Hanging is too good for my
lordship and his sham wally--wally sham! but it's all de same. And
now I go right straight and tell my ladyship all about it," said
Katie, settling her turban on her head and hurrying from the room.
She met Lady Vincent, elegantly dressed in a rose-colored brocade
and adorned with pearls, on her way to the dinner-table.
"Oh, my ladyship, I've found out somefin dreadful! I must tell you
all about it!" she exclaimed, in excitement, as she stopped her
mistress.
"Not now, Katie. Dinner is waiting. Go into my dressing room and
stop there until I come. I will not stay long in the drawing room
this evening," said Lady Vincent, who thought that Katie's news
would prove to be only some fresh rumors concerning the murder of
poor Ailsie.
"My ladyship, you had better stop now and hear me," pleaded the old
woman.
"I tell you dinner is waiting, Katie," said Lady Vincent, hurrying
past her.
Ah! she had better have stopped then, if she had only known it. Old
Katie groaned in the spirit and went to the dressing room as she was
bid.
She sat down before the fire and looked at the clock on the chimney
piece. It was just seven.
"Dat funnelly dinner will keep my ladyship an hour at the very
latest bit. It will be eight o'clock afore she comes back, Laws-a-
massy, what shall I do?" grunted the old woman impatiently.
Slowly, slowly, passed that hour of waiting. The clock struck eight.
"She'll be here every minute now," said old Katie, with a sigh of
relief.
But minute after minute passed and Claudia did not come. A half an
hour slipped away. Old Katie in her impatience got up and walked
about the room. She heard the rustle of silken drapery, and peeped
out. It was only Mrs. Dugald, in her rich white brocade dress,
passing into her own apartments.
"Nasty, wenemous, pison sarpint! I'll fix you out yet!" muttered old
Katie between her teeth, with a perfectly diabolical expression of
countenance, as she shook her head at the vanishing figure of the
beauty; for that was the unlucky way in which poor Katie's black
phiz expressed righteous indignation.
"I do wonder what has become of my ladyship. This is a-keeping of
her word like a ladyship oughter, aint it now? I go and look for
her," said Katie.
But just as she had opened the door for that purpose her eyes fell
upon the figure of the viscount, creeping with stealthy, silent,
cat-like steps towards the apartments of Mrs. Dugald, in which he
disappeared.
"Ah ha! dat's somefin' else. Somefin' goin' on in dere. Well, if I
don't ax myself to dat party, my name's not old Aunt Katie Mortimer,
dat's all!" said the old woman in glee, as she cautiously stole from
the room and approached the door leading into Mrs. Dugald's
apartments.
When at the door, which was ajar, she peeped in. The suite was
arranged upon the same plan as Lady Vincent's own. As Katie peered
in, she saw through the vista of three rooms into the dressing room,
which was the last of the suite. Before the dressing-room fire she
saw the viscount and Mrs. Dugald standing, their faces towards the
fire; their backs towards Katie.
She cautiously opened the door and stepped in, closing it silently
behind her. Then she crept through the intervening rooms and reached
the door of the dressing room, which was draped around with heavy
velvet hangings, and she concealed herself in their folds, where she
could see and hear everything that passed.
"How long is this to go on? Do you know that the presence of my
rival maddens me every hour of the day? Are you not afraid--you
would be, if you knew me!--that I should do some desperate deed? I
tell you that I am afraid of myself! I cannot always restrain my
impulses, Malcolm. There are moments when I doubt whether you are
not playing me false. And at such times I am in danger of doing some
desperate deed that will make England ring with the hearing of it,"
said Mrs. Dugald, with passionate earnestness.
"Faustina, you know that I adore you. Be patient a few days longer--
a very few days. The time is nearly ripe. I have at last found the
instrument of which I have been so much in need. This man, Frisbie.
He is completely in my power, and will be a ready tool. I will tell
you the whole scheme. But stop! first I must secure this interview
from interruption. Not a word of this communication must be
overheard by any chance listener," said Lord Vincent.
And to poor old Katie's consternation he passed swiftly to the outer
door of the suite of rooms, locked it and put the key in his pocket
and returned to the dressing room, the door of which remained open.
"Dere! if I aint cotch like an old rat in a trap, you may take my
hat! Don't care! I gwine hear all dey got to say. An' if dey find me
dey can't hang me for it, dat's one good thing! And maybe dey won't
find me, if I keep still till my lordship--perty lordship he is--
unlocks de door and goes out, and den I slip out myself, just as I
slipped in, and nobody none de wiser. Only if I don't sneeze. I feel
dreadful like sneezing. Nobody ever had such an unlucky nose as I
have got. Laws, laws, if I was to sneeze!" thought old Katie to
herself as she lurked behind the draperies.
But soon every sense was absorbed in listening to the villainous
plot that Lord Vincent was unfolding to his companion. It was the
very same plot that he had communicated to his valet, the atrocity
of which had shocked even that cut-throat. It did not shock
Faustina, however. She listened with avidity. She co-operated with
zeal. She suggested such modifications and improvements for securing
the success of the conspiracy, and the safety of the conspirators,
as only her woman's tact, inspired by the demon, could invent.
"Oh, the she-sarpint! the deadly, wenemous, pisonous sarpint!"
shuddered Katie, in her hiding-place. "I've heern enough this night
to hang the shamwally, and send all the rest on 'em to Bottommy Bay.
And I'll do it, too, if ever I live to get out'n this room alive."
But at that instant the catastrophe that Katie had dreaded occurred.
Katie sneezed--once, twice, thrice: "Hick-ket-choo! Hick-ket-choo!
Hick-ket-choo!"
Had a bombshell exploded in that room it could not have excited a
greater commotion. Lord Vincent sprang up, and in an instant had the
eavesdropper by the throat.
"Now, you old devil, what have you got to say for yourself?"
demanded the viscount, in a voice of repressed fury, as he shook
Katie.
"I say--Cuss my nose! There never was sich a misfortunate nose on
anybody's face--a-squoking out dat way in onseasonable hours!" cried
Katie.
"How dare you be caught eavesdropping in these rooms, you wretch?"
demanded the viscount, giving her another shake.
"And why wouldn't I, you grand vilyun? And you her a-plotting of
your deblish plots agin my own dear babyship--I mean my ladyship, as
is like my own dear baby! And 'wretch' yourself! And how dare you
lay your hands on me? on me, as has heern enough this precious night
to send you down to the bottom of Bottommy Bay, to work in de mud,
wid a chain and a weight to your leg, you rascal! and a man with a
whip over your head, you vilyun! 'Stead o' standin' dere sassin' at
me, you ought to go down on your bare knees, and beg and pray me to
spare you! Dough you needn't, neither, 'cause I wouldn't do it! no!
not if you was to wallow under my feet, I wouldn't. 'Cause soon as
eber I gets out'n dis room I gwine right straight to de queen and
tell her all about it; and ax her if she's de mist'ess of England
and lets sich goings on as dese go on in her kingdom. And if I can't
get speech of the queen, I going to tell de fust magistet I can
find--dere! And you, too, you whited salt-peter! you ought dis
minute to be pickin' of oakum in a crash gown and cropped hair! And
you shall be, too, afore many days, ef eber I lives to get out'n dis
house alive!" shrieked Katie, shaking her fist first at one culprit
and then at the other, and glaring inextinguishable hatred and
defiance upon both. For righteous wrath had rendered her perfectly
insensible to fear.
Meanwhile the viscount held her in a death-grip; his face was
ghastly pale; his teeth tightly clenched; his eyes starting.
"Faustina, she is as ignorant as dirt, but her threats are not vain.
If she leaves this room alive all is lost!" he exclaimed in
breathless excitement.
"She must not leave it alive!" said the fell woman.
Katie heard the fatal words, and opened her mouth to scream for
help. But the fingers of the viscount tightened around her throat
and strangled the scream in its utterance. And he bore her down to
the floor and placed his knee on her chest. And there was murder in
the glare with which he watched her death-throes.
"Faustina!" he whispered hoarsely, "help me! have you nothing to
shorten this?"
She flew to a cabinet, from which she took a small vial, filled with
a colorless liquid, and brought it to him.
He disengaged one hand to take it, and then stooped over his victim.
And in a few moments Katie ceased to struggle.
Then he arose from his knees with a low laugh, whispering.
"It is all right."