The original motive of the myal-man, in conspiring the death of the
Custos Vaughan, would have been strong enough to urge him on without
this new instigation. As we have seen, it was one of deadly revenge--
simple, and easily understood.
Not so easily understood was that which actuated the Jew. On the
contrary, so secretly had he conceived his purposes, that no living
man--not even Chakra himself--had been made privy to them. Up to this
moment they may have appeared mysterious; and the time has arrived when
it becomes necessary to reveal them. The explanation will show them to
be only natural--only in keeping with the character of this crooked and
cruel old man.
It is scarce necessary to say that Jacob Jessuron was no type of his
race; nor, indeed, of any race. A German Jew by birth, it was not
necessarily this that made him either slave-dealer or slave-stealer.
Christians have taken their full share in both branches of the nefarious
trade; and equally with Jews and Mohammedans have they been guilty of
its most hideous enormities. It was not, therefore, because Jacob
Jessuron chanced to be a Jew that he was a trafficker in human flesh and
blood--any more than that he was a villainous man; but because he was
Jacob Jessuron--a representative of neither race nor nation, but simply
a character _sui generis_.
Without dwelling upon his general demerits, let us return to the more
particular theme of the motives which were instigating him to make a
victim of his neighbour Vaughan--a death victim: for his conversation
with Chakra showed that this was the very starting-point of his
intentions.
In the first place, he was well acquainted with the domestic history of
the planter--at least, with that portion of it that had transpired
subsequent to the latter's coming into possession of Mount Welcome. He
knew something of Mr Vaughan previously--while the latter was manager
of the Montagu Castle estate--but it was only after the Custos had
become his nearer neighbour, by removal to his present residence, that
the Jew's knowledge of him and his private affairs had become intimate
and accurate.
This knowledge he had obtained in various ways: partly by the
opportunities of social intercourse, never very cordial; partly through
business transactions; and, perhaps, more than all--at least, as
regarded some of the more secret passages of Mr Vaughan's history--from
the myal-man, Chakra.
Notwithstanding his grotesque hideousness, the Coromantee was gifted
with a rare though dangerous intelligence. He was _au fait_ to
everything that had occurred upon the plantation of Mount Welcome for a
past period of nearly forty years. As already hinted, he knew too much;
and it was this inconvenient omniscience that had caused him to be
consigned to the Jumbe Rock.
For more than one purpose had the Jew made use of the myal-man; and if
the latter was at present assisting him in his dark design, it was not
the first by many, both deep and dark, in which Chakra had lent him a
hand. Their secret partnership had been of long duration.
The Jew's knowledge of the affairs of Loftus Vaughan extended to many
facts unknown even to Chakra. One of these was, that his neighbour was
blessed with an English brother, who had an only son.
An artist was the English brother, without fortune--almost without name.
Many other circumstances relating to him had come to the knowledge of
Jessuron; among the rest, that the proud Custos knew little about his
poor English relatives, cared less, and scarcely kept up correspondence
with them.
In what way could this knowledge interest Jacob Jessuron?--for it did.
Thus, then: it was known to him that Loftus Vaughan had never been
married to the quadroon Quasheba. That circumstance, however, would
have signified little, had Quasheba been a white woman, or even a
"quinteroon"--in Jamaica termed a _mustee_, and by some fanciful
plagiarists, of late, pedantically styled "octoroon"--a title which, it
may here be stated, has no existence except in the romantic brains of
these second-hand _litterateurs_.
We repeat it--had the slave Quasheba been either a white woman, or even
a _mustee_, the fact of a marriage, or no marriage, would have signified
little--so far as regarded the succession of her offspring to the
estates of the father. It is true that, if not married, the daughter
would, by the laws of Jamaica--as by those of other lands--still have
been _illegitimate_; but for all that, she could have inherited her
father's property, _if left to her by will_: since in Jamaica no
_entail_ existed.
As things stood, however, the case was widely, and for the Lilly
Quasheba--Kate Vaughan--dangerously different. Her mother was _only a
quadroon_; and, married or unmarried, she, the daughter, could not
inherit--_even by will_--beyond the paltry legacy of 2000 pounds
currency, or 1500 pounds sterling!
Kate Vaughan was herself only a _mustee_--still wanting one step farther
from slavery to bring her within the protecting pale of freedom and the
enjoyment of its favours.
No will that Loftus Vaughan could decree, no testamentary disposition he
might make, could render his daughter his devisee--his heiress.
He might will his property to anybody he pleased: so long as that
anybody was a so-called _white_; but, failing to make such testament,
his estate of Mount Welcome, with all he possessed besides, must fall to
the next of his own kin--in short, to his nephew Herbert.
Was there no remedy for this unspeakable dilemma? No means by which his
own daughter might be saved from disinheritance?
There was. A special act might be obtained from the Assembly of the
Island.
Loftus Vaughan knew the remedy, and fully intended to adopt it. Every
day was he designing to set out for Spanish Town--the capital--to obtain
the _special act_; and every day was the journey put off.
It was the execution of this design that the Jew Jessuron of all things
dreaded most; and to prevent it was the object of his visit to the
temple of Obi.
Why he dreaded it scarce needs explanation.
Should Loftus Vaughan fail in his intent, Herbert Vaughan would be the
heir of Mount Welcome; and Herbert's heart was in the keeping of Judith
Jessuron.
So fondly believed the Jewess; and, with her assurance of the fact, so
also the Jew.
The _love-spell_ woven by Judith had been the first step towards
securing the grand inheritance. The second was to be the _death-spell_,
administered by Chakra and his acolyte.
Volume Two, Chapter XXVI.