Very shortly after Messrs. Mudflint and Bloodsuck had gone to pay this,
their long-expected visit, to the governor of York Castle, Mr. Parkinson
required possession of the residence of each of them, in Yatton, to be
delivered up to him on behalf of Lord Drelincourt, allowing a week's
time for the removal of the few effects of each; after which period had
elapsed, the premises in question were completely cleared of everything
belonging to their late odious occupants--who, in all human probability,
would, infinitely to the delight of Dr. Tatham and all the better sort
of the inhabitants, never again be there seen or heard of. In a similar
manner another crying nuisance--viz. the public-house known by the name
of The Toper's Arms--was got rid of; it having been resolved upon by
Lord Drelincourt, that there should be thenceforth but one in Yatton,
viz.,--the quiet, old, original Aubrey Arms, and which was quite
sufficient for the purposes of the inhabitants. Two or three other
persons who had crept into the village during the Titmouse dynasty were
similarly dealt with, infinitely to the satisfaction of those left
behind; and by Christmas-day the village was beginning to show signs of
a return to its former condition. The works going on at the Hall gave an
air of cheerful bustle and animation to the whole neighborhood, and
afforded extensive employment at a season of the year when it was most
wanted. The chapel and residence of the Rev. Mr. Mudflint underwent a
rapid and remarkable alteration. The fact was, that Mr. Delamere had
conceived the idea, which, with Lord Drelincourt's consent, he
proceeded to carry immediately into execution, of pulling down the
existing structure, and raising in its stead a very beautiful school,
and filling it with scholars, and providing a matron for it, by way of
giving a pleasant surprise to Kate on her return to Yatton. He engaged a
well-known architect, who submitted to him a plan of a very beautiful
little Gothic structure, adapted for receiving some eighteen or twenty
scholars, and also affording a permanent residence for the mistress. The
scheme being heartily approved of by Mr. Delamere and Dr. Tatham, whom
he had taken into his counsels in the affair, they received a pledge
that the school should be completed and fit for occupation within three
months' time. There was to be, in the front, a small and tasteful
tablet, bearing the inscription--
_=C. A.=_
_=Fundatrix.=_
18--.
The mistress of Kate's former school gladly relinquished a similar
situation which she held in another part of the county, in order to
return to her old one at Yatton; and Dr. Tatham was, in the first
instance, to select the scholars, who were to be clothed at Delamere's
expense, in the former neat and simple attire which had been adopted by
Miss Aubrey. How he delighted to think of the charming surprise which he
was thus preparing for his lovely mistress, and by which, at the same
time, he was securing for her a permanent and interesting memento in the
neighborhood!
About this time there came a general election; the nation being
thoroughly disgusted with the character and conduct of a great number of
those who had, in the direful hubbub of the last election, contrived to
creep into the House of Commons. Public affairs were, moreover, getting
daily into a more deranged and dangerous condition: in fact, the
Ministers might have been compared to a parcel of little mischievous and
venturesome boys, who had found their way into the vast and complicated
machinery of some steam-engine, and set it into a fearful motion, which
they could neither understand nor govern; and from which they were only
too glad to escape safely--if possible--and make way for those whose
proper business it was to attend to it. All I have to do, however, at
present, with that most important political movement, is to state its
effect upon the representation of the borough of Yatton. Its late
member, Mr. Tittlebat Titmouse, it completely annihilated. Of course, he
made no attempt to stand again; nor, in fact, did any one in the same
interest. The _Yorkshire Stingo_, in its very last number, (of which
twelve only were sold,) tried desperately to get up a contest, but in
vain. Mr. Going Gone--and even Mr. Glister--were quite willing to have
stood--but, in the first place, neither of them could afford to pay his
share of the expenses of erecting the hustings; and, secondly, there
were insurmountable difficulties in the way of either of them procuring
even a pseudo qualification.[21] Besides, the more sensible of even the
strong Liberal electors had become alive to the exquisite absurdity of
returning such persons as Titmouse, or any one of his class. Then the
Quaint Club had ceased to exist, partly through the change of political
feeling which was rapidly gaining ground in the borough, and partly
through terror of the consequences of bribery, of which the miserable
fate of Mudflint and Bloodsuck was a fearful instance. In fact, the
disasters which had befallen those gentlemen, and Mr. Titmouse, had
completely paralyzed and crushed the Liberal party at Yatton, and
disabled it from ever attempting to contend against the paramount and
legitimate influence of Lord Drelincourt. The result of all this was,
the return, without a contest, of the Honorable Geoffrey Lovel Delamere
as the representative of the borough of Yatton in the new Parliament; an
event, which he penned his first frank[22] in communicating to a certain
young lady then in London. Nothing, doubtless, could be more delightful
for Mr. Delamere; but in what a direful predicament did the loss of his
seat place the late member, Mr. Titmouse! Just consider for a moment.
Mr. Flummery's promise to him of a "place," had vanished, of course,
into thin air--having answered its purpose of securing Mr. Titmouse's
vote up to the very moment of the dissolution; an event which Mr.
Flummery feared would tend to deprive himself of the honor of serving
his country in any official capacity for some twenty years to come--if
he should so long live, and the country so long survive his exclusion
from office. Foiled thus miserably in this quarter, Mr. Titmouse applied
himself with redoubled energy to render available his other resources,
and made repeated and most impassioned applications to Mr. O'Gibbet--who
never took, however, the slightest notice of any of them: considering
very justly that Mr. Titmouse was no more entitled to receive back, than
he had originally been to lend, the £500 in question. As for Mr.
O'Doodle and Mr. M'Squash they, like himself, were thrown out of
Parliament; and no one upon earth seemed able to tell whither they had
gone, or what had become of them, though there were a good many people
who made it their business to inquire into the matter very anxiously.
That quarter, therefore, seemed at present quite hopeless. Then there
was an Honorable youngster, who owed him a hundred pounds; but he, the
moment that he had lost his election, caused it to be given out to any
one interested in his welfare--and there suddenly appeared to be a great
many such--that he was gone on a scientific expedition to the South
Pole, from which he trusted, though he was not very sanguine, that he
should, one day, come back.--All these things drove Mr. Titmouse very
nearly beside himself--and certainly his position was a little
precarious. When Parliament was dissolved, he had in his pocket a couple
of sovereigns, the residue of a five-pound note, out of which, _mirabile
dictu_, he had actually succeeded in teasing Mr. Flummery on the evening
of the last division; and these two sovereigns, a shirt or two, the
articles actually on his person, and a copy of _Boxiana_, were all his
assets to meet liabilities of about a hundred thousand pounds; and the
panoply of Parliamentary "privilege" was dropping off, as it were,
hourly. In a very few days' time, in fact, he would be at the mercy of a
terrific host of creditors, who were waiting to spring upon his little
carcass like so many famished wolves. Every one of them had gone on with
his action up to _judgment_ for both debt and costs--and had his _Ca.
Sa._ and _Fi. Fa._[23] ready for use at an instant's notice. There were
three of these injured gentlemen--the three Jews, Israel Fang, Mordecai
Gripe, and Mephibosheth Mahar-shalal-hash-baz--who had entered into a
solemn vow with one another that they would never lose sight of Titmouse
for one moment, by day or by night, whatever pains or expense it might
cost them--until, the period of privilege having expired, they should be
at liberty to plunge their talons into the body of their little debtor.
There were, in fact, at least a hundred of his creditors ready to pounce
upon him the instant that he should make the slightest attempt to quit
the country. His lodgings consisted, at this time, of a miserable little
room in a garret at the back of a small house in Westminster, not far
from the Houses of Parliament, and of the two, inferior to the room in
Closet Court, Oxford Street, in which he was first presented to the
reader. Here he would often lie in bed half the day, drinking
weak--because he could not afford strong--brandy and water, and
endeavoring to consider "what the devil" he had done with the immense
sums of money which had been at his disposal--how he would act, if by
some lucky chance he should again become wealthy--and, in short, "what
the plague was now to become of him." What was he to do? Whither should
he go?--To sea?--Then it must be as a common sailor--if any one would
now take him! Or suppose he were to enlist? "Glorious war, and all
that," _et cetera_; but both these schemes pre-supposed his being able
to escape from his creditors, who, he had a vehement suspicion, were on
the look-out for him in all directions. Every review that he thus took
of his hopeless position and prospects, ended in a fiendish degree of
abhorrence of his parents, whose fault alone it was--in having brought
him into the world--that he had been thus turned out of a splendid
estate of ten thousand a-year, and made worse than a beggar. He would
sometimes spring out of bed, convulsively clutching his hands together,
and wishing himself beside their grave, to tear them out of it. He
thought of Mr. Quirk, Mr. Snap, and Mr. Tag-rag, with fury; but whenever
he adverted to Mr. Gammon, he shuddered all over, as if in the presence
of a baleful spectre. For all this, he preserved the same impudent strut
and swagger in the street which had ever distinguished him. Every day of
his life he walked towards the scenes of his recent splendor, which
seemed to attract him irresistibly. He would pass the late Earl of
Dreddlington's house, in Grosvenor Square, staring at it, and at the
hatchment suspended in front of it. Then he would wander on to Park
Lane, and gaze with unutterable feelings--poor little wretch!--at the
house which once had been his and Lady Cecilia's, but was then occupied
by a nobleman, whose tasteful equipage and servants were often standing
at and before the door. He would, on some of those occasions, feel as
though he should like to drop down dead, and be out of all his misery.
If ever he met and nodded, or spoke to those with whom he had till
recently been on the most familiar terms, he was encountered by a steady
stare, and sometimes a smile, which withered his very heart within him,
and made the last three years of his life appear to have been but a
dream. The little dinner that he ate--for he had almost entirely lost
his appetite through long addiction to drinking--was at a small tavern,
at only a few doors' distance from his lodgings, and where he generally
spent his evenings, for want of any other place to go to; and he formed
at length a sort of intimacy with a good-natured and very respectable
gentleman, who came nearly as often thither as Titmouse himself, and
would sit conversing with him very pleasantly over his cigar and a glass
of spirits and water. The oftener Titmouse saw him, the more he liked
him; and at length, taking him entirely into his confidence, unbosomed
himself concerning his unhappy present circumstances, and still more
unhappy prospects. This man was a brother of Mahar-shalal-hash-baz the
Jew, and a sheriff's officer, keeping watch upon his movements, night
and day, alternately with another who had not attracted Titmouse's
notice. After having canvassed several modes of disposing of himself,
none of which were satisfactory to either Titmouse or his friend, he
hinted that he was aware that there were lots of the enemy on the
look-out for him, and who would be glad to get at him; but he knew, he
said, that he was as safe as in a castle for some time yet to come; and
he also mentioned a scheme which had occurred to him--but this was all
in the strictest confidence--viz. to write to Lord Drelincourt, (who
was, after all, his relation of some sort or other, and ought to be
devilish glad to get into all his, Titmouse's, property so easily,) and
ask him for some situation under government, either in France, India, or
America, and give him a trifle to set him up at starting, and help him
to "nick the bums!" His friend listened attentively, and then protested
that he thought it an excellent idea, and Mr. Titmouse had better write
the letter and take it at once. Upon this Titmouse sent for pen, ink,
and paper; and while his friend leaned back calmly smoking his cigar,
and sipping his gin and water, poor Titmouse wrote the following epistle
to Lord Drelincourt--the very last which I shall be able to lay before
the reader:--
"To the Right HON. LORD DRELINCOURT, My Lord--
"Natrally situated In The Way which I Am With y^r lordship Most
Unpleasantly Addressing you On A Matter of that Nature most Painful
To My feelings Considering My surprising Forlorn Condition, And So
Sudden Which Who c^d Have A Little While Ago suppos'd. Y^r Lordship
(of Course) Is Aware That There Is No fault of Mine, But rather My
Cursed Parents w^h Ought To be Ashamed of Themselves For Their
Improper Conduct w^h Was never made Acquainted with till Lately
with Great Greif. Alas. I Only Wish I Had Never Been Born, or Was
Dead and Cumfortable in An Erly Grave. I Humbly, My Lord,
Endevoured To Do My Duty when In the Upper Circles and Especially
to the People, which I Always voted for, _Steady_, in The House,
And Never Injured Any One, Much less you, My Lord, if You Will
Believe Me, For I surely w^d. Not Have Come Upon You In the Way I
did My Lord But Was obliged, And Regret, &c. I Am Most Truly
Miserable, Being (Betwixt You and Me, my Lord) over Head and Years
in debt, And Have Nothing To pay With and out of _The House_ So
Have No Protection and Fear am Going Very Fast To y^e. Dogs, my
Lord, Swindle O'Gibbet, Esq. M.P. Owes me £500 (borrowed Money) and
Will not Pay and is a Shocking Scamp, but (depend upon it) I will
stick To Him Like a Leach. Of Course Now your Lordship Is Got into
y^e Estate &c. you Will Have y^e Rents, &c., but Is Not _Half_ The
_Last Quarter_ Mine Seeing I Was in possession w^h is 9-10ths of
y^e law. But gave it All up To you willingly Now For what can't Be
cur'd, Must Be Indur'd can y^r lordship Get me _Some Foreign_
Appointment _Abroad_ w^h sh^d be much obliged for and Would Get Me
out of the Way of Troubling y^r lordship about the Rents w^h
_freely give Up_. You Being Got To _that High Rank_ w^h was to
Have Been mine can do What You please doubtless. Am Sorry To Say I
am Most Uncommon Hard Up Since I Have Broke up. And am nearly Run
Out. Consider my Lord How Easy I Let You Win y^e Property. When
might Have Given Your Lordship Trouble. If you will Remember this
And Be So obliging to _Lend me_ a £10 Note (For y^e Present) Will
much oblige
"Your Lordship's to Command,
"Most obed^t
"TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE.
"P.S.--I Leave This with my _Own Hand_ That you May be Sure and get
it. Remember me to Miss A. and Lady D."
Mr. Titmouse contented himself with telling his new friend merely the
substance of the above epistle, and, having sealed it up, he asked his
companion if he were disposed for a walk to the West End; and on being
answered in the affirmative, they both set off for Lord Drelincourt's
house in Dover Street. When they had reached it, his friend stepped to a
little distance; while Titmouse, endeavoring to assume a confident air,
hemmed, twitched up his shirt-collar, and knocked and rang with all the
boldness of a gentleman coming to dinner. Open flew the door in a
moment; and--
"My Lord Drelincourt's--isn't it?" inquired Titmouse, holding his letter
in his hand, and tapping his ebony cane pretty loudly against his legs.
"Of course it is! What d'ye want?" quoth the porter, sternly, enraged at
being disturbed at such an hour by such a puppy of a fellow as then
stood before him--for the bloom was off the finery of Titmouse; and who
that knew the world would call, and with such a knock, at seven o'clock
with a letter? Titmouse would have answered the fellow pretty sharply,
but was afraid of endangering the success of his application: so, with
considerable calmness, he replied--
"Oh--Then have the goodness to deliver this into his Lordship's own
hand--it's of great importance."
"Very well," said the porter, stiffly, not dreaming what a remarkable
personage was the individual whom he was addressing, and the next
instant shut the door in his face.
"Dem impudent blackguard!" said he, as he rejoined his friend--his heart
almost bursting with mortification and fury; "I've a great mind to call
to-morrow, 'pon my soul--and get him discharged!"
He had dated his letter from his lodgings, where, about ten o'clock on
the ensuing morning, a gentleman--in fact, Lord Drelincourt's man of
business--called, and asking to see Mr. Titmouse, gave into his hands a
letter, of which the following is a copy:--
"_Dover Street, Wednesday Morning._
"Lord Drelincourt, in answer to Mr. Titmouse's letter, requests his
acceptance of the enclosed Bank of England Note for Ten Pounds.
"Lord D. wishes Mr. Titmouse to furnish him with an address, to
which any further communications on the part of Lord D. may be
addressed."
On repairing to the adjoining tavern, soon after receiving the above
most welcome note, Mr. Titmouse fortunately (!) fell in with his friend,
and, with somewhat of an air of easy triumph, showed him Lord
Drelincourt's note, and its enclosure. Some time afterwards, having
smoked each a couple of cigars and drank a couple of tumblers of brandy
and water, Mr. Titmouse's companion got very confidential, and in a low
whisper said, that he had been thinking over Mr. Titmouse's case ever
since they were talking together the night before; and for five pounds
would put him in the way of escaping all danger immediately, provided no
questions were asked by Mr. Titmouse; for he, the speaker, was running a
great risk in what he was doing. Titmouse placed his hand over his
heart, exclaiming, "Honor--honor!" and having called for change from the
landlord, gave a five-pound note into the hand of his companion, who
thereupon, in a mysterious undertone, told him that by ten o'clock the
next morning he would have a hackney-coach at the door of his lodgings,
and would at once convey him safely to a vessel then in the river, and
bound for the south of France; where Mr. Titmouse might remain till he
had in some measure settled his affairs with his creditors. Sure enough,
at the appointed time, the promised vehicle drew up at the door of the
house where Titmouse lodged; and within a few moments' time he came
down-stairs with a small portmanteau, and entered the coach where sat
his friend, evidently not wishing to be recognized or seen by anybody
passing. They talked together earnestly and eagerly as they journeyed
eastward; and just as they arrived opposite a huge dismal-looking
building, with a large door, and immensely high walls, the coach
stopped. Three or four persons were standing, as if they had been in
expectation of an arrival; and, requesting Mr. Titmouse to alight for a
moment, his friend opened the coach door from within, and let down the
steps. The moment that poor Titmouse had got out, he was instantly
surrounded, and seized by the collar by those who were standing by; his
perfidious "friend" had disappeared; and almost petrified with amazement
and fright, and taken quite off his guard by the suddenness of the
movement, poor Titmouse was hurried through the doorway of the King's
Bench Prison, the three Jews following close at his heels, and conducted
into a very gloomy room. There he seemed first to awake to the horrors
of his situation, and went into a paroxysm of despair and fury. He
sprang madly towards the door, and on being repulsed by those standing
beside him, stamped violently about the room, shouting, "Murder, murder!
thieves!" Then he pulled his hair, shook his head with frantic
vehemence, and presently sank into a seat, from which, after a few
moments, he sprang wildly, and broke his cane into a number of pieces,
scattering them about the room like a madman. Then he cried
passionately; more, in fact, like a frantic school-girl, than a man; and
struck his head violently with his fists. All this while the three Jews
were looking on with a grin of devilish gratification at the little
wretch's agony. His frenzy lasted so long that he was removed to a
strong room, and threatened with being put into a strait waistcoat if he
continued to conduct himself so outrageously. The fact of his being thus
safely housed, soon became known, and within a day or two's time, the
miserable little fellow was completely overwhelmed by his creditors;
who, absurd and unavailing as were their proceedings, came rushing down
upon him, one after another, with as breathless an impetuosity as if
they had thought him a mass of solid gold, which was to become the spoil
of him who could first seize it. The next day his fate was announced to
the world by paragraphs in all the morning newspapers, which informed
their readers that "yesterday Mr. Titmouse, late M.P. for Yatton, was
secured by a skilful stratagem, just as he was on the point of quitting
this country for America, and lodged in the King's Bench Prison, at the
suit of three creditors, to the extent of upwards of sixty thousand
pounds. It is understood that his debts considerably exceed the sum of
one hundred and fifty thousand pounds." As soon as he had become calm
enough to do so--viz. three or four days after his incarceration--he
wrote a long, dismal epistle to Lord Drelincourt, and also one to Miss
Aubrey, passionately reminding them both that he was, after all, of the
same blood with themselves, only luck had gone for them and against him,
and therefore he hoped they would "remember him, and do something to get
him out of his trouble." He seemed to cling to them as though he had a
claim upon them--instead of being himself Lord Drelincourt's debtor to
the amount of, _at least_, twenty thousand pounds, had his Lordship,
instead of inclining a compassionate ear to his entreaties, chosen to
fling his heavy claim, too, into the scale against him. This, however,
was a view of the case which never occurred to poor Titmouse. Partly of
their own accord, and partly at Miss Aubrey's earnest entreaty, Lord
Drelincourt and Mr. Delamere went to the King's Bench Prison, and had a
long interview with him--his Lordship being specially anxious to
ascertain, if possible, whether Titmouse had been originally privy to
the monstrous fraud by means of which he had succeeded in possessing
himself of Yatton, at so fearful a cost of suffering to those whom he
had deprived of it. While he was chattering away, more after the fashion
of a newly-caged ape, than a MAN, with eager and impassioned tone and
gesticulation--with a profuse usage of his favorite phraseology--"'Pon
my soul!" "'Pon my life!" "By Jove!" and of several shocking oaths, for
which he was repeatedly and sternly rebuked by Lord Drelincourt, with
what profound and melancholy interest did the latter regard the strange
being before him, and think of the innumerable extraordinary things
which he had heard concerning him! Here was the widowed husband of the
Lady Cecilia, and son-in-law of the Earl of Dreddlington--that broken
pillar of pride!--broken, alas! in the very moment of imaginary
magnificence! Here was the late member of Parliament for the borough of
Yatton, whose constituency had deliberately declared him possessed of
their complete confidence!--on whose individual vote had several times
depended the existence of the king's ministry, and the passing of
measures of the greatest possible magnitude! This was he whom all
society--even the most brilliant--had courted as a great lion.--This was
the sometime owner of Yatton! who had aspired to the hand of Miss
Aubrey! who had for two years revelled in every conceivable species of
luxury, splendor, and profligacy! Here was the individual at whose
instance--at whose nod--Lord Drelincourt had been deprived of his
liberty, ruthlessly torn from the bleeding bosom of his family, and he
and they, for many, many weary months, subjected to the most harassing
and heart-breaking privations and distresses! On quitting him, Lord
Drelincourt put into his hand a ten-pound note, with which Titmouse
seemed--though he dared not say so--not a little disappointed. His
Lordship and Mr. Delamere were inclined, upon the whole--for Titmouse
had displayed some little cunning--to believe that he had not been aware
of his illegitimacy till the issue of the ecclesiastical proceedings had
been published; but from many remarks he let fall, they were satisfied
that Mr. Gammon must have known the fact from a very early period--for
Titmouse spoke freely of the constant mysterious threats he was in the
habit of receiving from Mr. Gammon. Lord Drelincourt had promised
Titmouse to consider in what way he could serve him; and during the
course of the day instructed Mr. Runnington to put the case into the
hands of some attorney of the Insolvent Debtors' Court, with a view of
endeavoring to obtain for the unfortunate little wretch the "_benefit
of the Act_." As soon as the course of practice would admit of it, he
was brought up in the ordinary way before the court, which was quite
crowded by persons either interested as creditors, or curious to see so
celebrated a person as TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE. The commissioners were
astounded at the sight of the number and magnitude of his liabilities--a
hundred thousand pounds at least!--against which he had nothing to set
except the following items:--
Cash lent Swindle O'Gibbet, Esq. M. P £500
Do. do. Phelim O'Doodle 200
Do. do. Micah M'Squash 100
--together with some other similar but lesser sums; but for none of them
could he produce any vouchers, except for the sum lent to the Hon. Empty
Belly, who had been imprudent enough to give him his I. O. U. Poor
Titmouse's discharge was most vehemently opposed on the part of his
creditors--particularly the three Jews--whose frantic and indecorous
conduct in open court occasioned the chief commissioner to order them to
be twice removed. _They_ would have had Titmouse remanded to the day of
his death! After several adjourned and lengthened hearings, the court
pronounced him not to be entitled to his discharge till he should have
remained in prison for the space of eighteen calendar months; on hearing
which he burst into a fit of loud and bitter weeping, and was removed
from court, wringing his hands and shaking his head in perfect despair.
As soon as this result had been communicated to Lord Drelincourt, (who
had taken special care that his name should not be among those of Mr.
Titmouse's creditors,) he came to the humane determination of allowing
him a hundred and fifty pounds a-year for his life, _payable weekly_, to
commence from the date of his being remanded to prison.--For the first
month or so he spent all his weekly allowance in brandy and water and
cigars, within three days after receiving it. Then he took to gambling
with his fellow-prisoners; but, all of a sudden, he turned over quite a
new leaf. The fact was, that he had become intimate with an unfortunate
literary hack, who used to procure small sums by writing articles for
inferior newspapers and magazines; and at his suggestion, Titmouse fell
to work upon several quires of foolscap: the following being the title
given to his projected work by his new friend--
"UPS and DOWNS:
Being
Memoirs of My Life,
by
TITTLEBAT TITMOUSE, Esq.,
Late M. P. for Yatton."
He got so far on with his task as to fill three quires of paper; and it
is a fact that a fashionable publisher got scent of the undertaking,
came to the prison, and offered him three hundred pounds for his
manuscript, provided only he would undertake that it should fill three
volumes. This greatly stimulated Titmouse; but unfortunately he fell ill
before he had completed the first volume, and never, during the
remainder of his confinement, recovered himself sufficiently to proceed
further with his labors. I once had an opportunity of glancing over what
he had written, which was really very curious, but I do not know what
has since become of it. During the last month of his imprisonment he
became intimate with a villanous young Jew attorney, who, under the
pretence of commencing proceedings in the House of Lords (!) for the
recovering of the Yatton property once more from Lord Drelincourt,
contrived to get into his own pockets more than one-half of the weekly
sum allowed by that nobleman to his grateful pensioner! On the very day
of his discharge, Titmouse--not comprehending the nature of his own
position--went off straight to the lodgings of Mr. Swindle O'Gibbet to
demand payment of the five hundred pounds due to him from that honorable
gentleman, to whom he became a source of inconceivable vexation and
torment. Following him about with a sort of insane and miserable
pertinacity, Titmouse lay in wait for him now at his lodgings--then at
the door of the House of Commons; dogged him from the one point to the
other; assailed him with passionate entreaties and reproaches in the
open street: went to the public meetings over which Mr. O'Gibbet
presided, or where he spoke, (always on behalf of the rights of
conscience and the liberty of the subject,) and would call out--"Pay me
my five hundred pounds! I want my money! Where's my five hundred
pounds?" on which Mr. O'Gibbet would point to him, call him an
"impostor! a liar!" furiously adding that he was only hired by the
enemies of the people to come and disturb their proceedings: whereupon
(which was surely a new way of paying old debts) Titmouse was always
shuffled about--his hat knocked over his eyes--and he was finally kicked
out, and once or twice pushed down from the top to the bottom of the
stairs. The last time that this happened, poor Titmouse's head struck
with dreadful force against the banisters; and he lay for some time
stunned and bleeding. On being carried to a doctor's shop, he was
shortly afterwards seized with a fit of epilepsy. This seemed to have
given the finishing stroke to his shattered intellects; for he sank soon
afterwards into a state of idiocy. Through the kindness and at the
expense of Lord Drelincourt, he was admitted an inmate of a private
lunatic asylum, in the Curtain Road, near Hoxton, where he still
continues. He is very harmless; and after dressing himself in the
morning with extraordinary pains--never failing to have a glimpse
visible of his white pocket-handkerchief out of the pocket in the breast
of his surtout--nor to have his boots very brightly polished--he
generally sits down with a glass of strong and warm toast and water, and
a colored straw, which he imagines to be brandy and water, and a cigar.
He complained, at first, that the brandy and water was very weak; but he
is now reconciled to it, and sips his two tumblers daily with an air of
tranquil enjoyment. When I last saw him he was thus occupied. On my
approaching him, he hastily stuck his quizzing-glass into his eye, where
it was retained by the force of muscular contraction, while he stared at
me with all his former expression of rudeness and presumption. 'Twas at
once a ridiculous and a mournful sight.
I should have been very glad, if, consistently with my duty as an
impartial historian, I could have concealed some discreditable features
in the conduct of Mr. Tag-rag, subsequently to his unfortunate
bankruptcy. I shall not, however, dwell upon them at greater length than
is necessary. His creditors were so much dissatisfied with his conduct,
that not one of them could be prevailed upon to sign his
certificate,[24] by which means he was prevented from re-establishing
himself in business, even had he been able to find the means of so
doing; since, in the eye of our law, any business carried on by an
uncertificated bankrupt, is so carried on by him only as a trustee for
his creditors.--His temper getting more and more soured, he became at
length quite intolerable to his wife, whom he had married only for her
fortune, (£800, and the good-will of her late husband's business, as a
retail draper and hosier, in Little Turn-stile, Holborn.) When he found
that Mrs. Tag-rag would not forsake her unhappy daughter, he snapped his
fingers at her, and, I regret to say, told her that she and her
daughter, and her respectable husband, might all go to the devil
together--but he must shift for himself; and, in plain English, he took
himself off. Mr. Dismal Horror found that he had made a sad business of
it, in marrying Miss Tag-rag, who brought him two children in the first
nineteen months, and seemed likely to go on at that rate for a long time
to come, which made Mr. Horror think very seriously of following the
example of his excellent father-in-law--viz. deserting his wife. They
had contrived to scrape together a bit of a day-school for young
children, in Goswell Street; but which was inadequate to the support of
themselves, and also of Mrs. Tag-rag, who had failed in obtaining the
situation of pew-opener to a neighboring dissenting chapel. The scheme
he had conceived, he soon afterwards carried into effect; for, whereas
he went out one day saying he should return in an hour's time, he
nevertheless came not back at all. Burning with zeal to display his
pulpit talents, he took to street-preaching, and at length succeeded in
getting around him a group of hearers, many of them most serious and
attentive pickpockets, with dexterous fingers and devout faces, wherever
he held forth, which was principally in the neighborhood of the Tower
and Smithfield--till he was driven away by the police, who never
interfered with his little farce till he had sent his hat round; when,
to preserve the peace, they would rush in, disperse the crowd, and
taking him into custody, convey him to the police-office, where, in
spite of his eloquent defences, he several times got sentenced to three
months' imprisonment, as an incorrigible disturber of the peace, and in
league with the questionable characters, who--the police declared--were
invariably members of every congregation he addressed. One occasion of
his being thus taken into custody was rather a singular one:--Mr.
Tag-rag happened to be passing while he was holding forth, and, unable
to control his fury, made his way immediately in front of the
impassioned preacher; and, sticking his fists in his side a-kimbo,
exclaimed, "_Aren't_ you a nice young man now?"--which quite
disconcerted his pious son-in-law, who threw his hymn-book in his
father-in-law's face, which bred such a disturbance that the police
rushed in, and took them both off to the police-office; where such a
scene ensued as beggars all description. What has since become of Mr.
Horror, I do not know; but the next thing I heard of Mr. Tag-rag was his
entering into the employ of no other a person than Mr. Huckaback, who
had been for some time settled in a little shop in the neighborhood of
Leicester Square. Having, however, inadvertently shown in to Mr.
Huckaback one of the creditors to whom he had given special orders to be
denied, that gentleman instantly turned him out of the shop, in a fury,
without character or wages; which latter, nevertheless, Tag-rag soon
compelled him, by the process of the Court of Bequests, to pay him;
being one week's entire salary. In passing one day a mock auction, on
the left-hand side of the Poultry, I could not help pausing to admire
the cool effrontery with which the Jew in the box was putting up showy
but worthless articles to sale to four patient puffers--his entire
audience--and who bid against one another in a very business-like way
for everything which was thus proposed for their consideration. Guess my
astonishment and concern, when one of the aforesaid puffers, who stood
with his back towards me, happened to look round for a moment, to
discover in him my friend Mr. Tag-rag!! His hat was nicely brushed, but
all the "_nap_" was off; his coat was clean, threadbare, and evidently
had been made for some other person; under his arm was an old cotton
umbrella; and in his hands, which were clasped behind him, were a pair
of antiquated black gloves, doubled up, only for show, evidently not
for use. Notwithstanding, however, he had sunk thus low, there happened
to him, some time afterwards, one or two surprising strokes of good
fortune. First of all, he contrived to get a sum of three hundred pounds
from one of his former debtors, who imagined that Tag-rag was authorized
by his assignees to receive it. Nothing, however, of the kind; and
Tag-rag quietly opened a small shop in the neighborhood of St. George's
in the East, and began to scrape together a tolerable business. Reading
one day a flourishing speech in Parliament, on the atrocious enormity of
calling upon Dissenters to pay Church-rates--it occurred to Mr. Tag-rag
as likely to turn out a good speculation, and greatly increase his
business, if he were to become a martyr for conscience sake; and after
turning the thing about a good deal in his mind, he determined on
refusing to pay the sum of twopence-halfpenny, due in respect of a rate
which had been recently made for the repair of the church steeple, then
very nearly falling down. In a very civil and unctuous manner, he
announced to the collector his determination to refuse the payment on
strictly conscientious grounds. The collector expostulated--but in vain.
Then came the amazed churchwardens--Tag-rag, however, was inflexible.
The thing began to get wind, and the rector, an amiable and learned
man--and an earnest lover of peace in his parish--came to try his powers
of persuasion--but he might have saved himself the trouble; 'twas
impossible to divert Mr. Tag-rag's eye from the glorious crown of
martyrdom he had resolved upon earning. Then he called on the minister
of the congregation where he "worshipped," and with tears and agitation
unbosomed himself upon the subject, and besought his counsel. The
intelligent and pious pastor got excited; so did his leading people. A
meeting was called at his chapel, the result of which was a declaration
that Mr. Tag-rag's conduct was most praiseworthy and noble--that he had
taken his stand upon a great principle--and deserved to be supported.
Several leading members of the congregation, who had never dealt with
him before, suddenly became customers of his. The upshot of the matter
was, that after a prodigious stir, Mr. Tag-rag became a victim in right
earnest; and was taken into custody by virtue of a writ _De Contumace
Capiendo_, amid the indignant sympathy and admiration of all those
enlightened persons who shared his opinions. In a twinkling he shot up,
as it were, into the air like a rocket, and became popular, beyond his
most sanguine expectations. The name of the first Church-rate martyr
went the round of every paper in the United Kingdom; and at length came
out a lithographed likeness of his odious face, with his precious
autograph appended, so--
"THOMAS TAG-RAG, CHURCH-RATE MARTYR."
Subscriptions were entered into on his behalf; and as they were paid
into his hands from time to time, he kept quietly increasing his
purchases of linen-drapery and enlarging his business, in a most
decisive and satisfactory manner. Nothing could exceed the accounts
brought in to the poor martyr of the extent to which his custom was
increasing; for in each window of his shop hung a copy of his portrait,
attracting the eye of every passenger. But he was not the only person
who rejoiced in this state of things; there being others who had a deep
stake in his success, and whom--forgetful of the maxim that one should
begin nothing till one has well considered the end of it--he had not at
first adverted to, viz. HIS ASSIGNEES--to whom belonged, in point of
law, the rattling business he was carrying on, and who were watching his
movements with lively interest. He was suddenly struck dumb with dismay
and astonishment when he heard of this unexpected issue of the affair,
and began to fear that he had "missed his providential way." His
assignees, however, seemed to think that they had got into _theirs_--and
enlarged the premises, and greatly increased the stock, profiting by the
continually augmenting popularity of Tag-rag. From the moment of this
dismal discovery, his ardor in the Great Cause wonderfully declined; and
he would have jumped at any decent excuse for getting out of the thing
altogether. And, indeed, when he came to think of it--where was the
difficulty? He had fought a good fight--he had maintained a great
principle--he had borne the heat and burden of the day!--But while the
martyr was thus musing within himself, powerful forces were coming into
the field to his succor--viz. the Society for the Promotion of Civil and
Religious Discord; who having caused all the proceedings against Tag-rag
to be laid before an ambitious little Radical Barrister, he discovered a
fatal flaw in them--viz. that in the _Significavit_, the word "Bishop"
was spelled "_Bisop_," (_i.e._ without the "h.") The point was argued
with prodigious pertinacity, and incredible ingenuity, by four counsel
on each side; each party vehemently declaring that if he failed, the
laws of England would be shaken to their very foundation: an intimation
which not a little agitated the court. After great deliberation,
however, the objection, "being in favor of liberty," was held to
prevail; all the proceedings were quashed; and Mr. Tag-rag was
consequently declared entitled to his discharge!--On this he was invited
to a grand tea-party by the leading friends of the voluntary principle,
given in Hackney Fields, where, amid a concourse of at least a hundred
souls, (including women and children,) Tag-rag (inwardly shuddering,
however, at the thought) avowed himself ready to go again to the stake,
"if Providence should require it." That seemed not, however, likely to
be the case; for the churchwardens, having already had to pay some
£1,750 odd in the shape of costs, resolved never to meddle with him any
more. He succeeded in prevailing on his assignees to take him into the
shop, in order to carry on the business upon their account, and as their
servant--for which they allowed him two pounds a-week. Out of this,
however, he was soon after compelled by the parish authorities to allow
twelve shillings a-week to Mrs. Tag-rag; and on making her the first
payment, he actually spit in the poor woman's face! Dr. Johnson used to
say that _patriotism_ was the last refuge of a scoundrel. Now-a-days,
however, it is _Church-rate Martyrdom_; and Tag-rag has had many
imitators!
I must not, however, conclude this part of my long history, without
adverting to what befell the surviving partners of Mr. Gammon, namely,
Messrs. Quirk and Snap. The former had horrible misgivings as to the
true cause of Mr. Gammon's death--having a strange inward persuasion
that he had destroyed himself. When he heard of the event, very
suddenly, from the laundress, he was seized with a fit of trembling
which lasted for several days. He dared not attend the funeral--or go to
Mr. Gammon's chambers, while his corpse lay there. Mr. Snap, however,
had younger and firmer nerves; and resolved to gratify his natural and
very delicate curiosity, by seeing "how Mr. Gammon looked in his
coffin." The day after the enlightened coroner's inquest had been held,
therefore, he went to the chambers for that purpose, and was shown by
the sobbing laundress into the silent and gloomy bedroom where the
remains of Mr. Gammon lay awaiting burial. The coffin lay on trestles
near the window, which of course was darkened; and Mr. Snap, having
taken off his hat, removed the coffin-lid and the face-cloth, and
_there_ was the cold stern countenance of Mr. Gammon, before him! In
spite of himself, Mr. Snap trembled as he looked, and for a moment
doubted whether in gazing at the _yellow effigy of him that was_, he
really beheld the late Mr. Gammon; so fixed, so rigid, were the
features--so contracted of their proportions, and disfigured by the
close-fitting frilled cap. What determination was yet visible in the
compressed lips! The once keen and searching eyes of Mr. Gammon were now
hid forever beneath the heavy and clammy eyelids; and the ample brow was
no longer furrowed by the workings of the active and powerful spirit
which had "jumped the world to come!" Mr. Snap gazed for several minutes
in silence, and his heart beat a little quicker than usual.
"Oh, sir!" sobbed the laundress at length, as she, too, advanced to look
again at the countenance of her deceased master, and from which she
seldom took her eyes long together when alone--"he was the kindest and
best of men! He was indeed!" Mr. Snap said nothing, but presently took
hold of the cold, thin, stiff fingers of Mr. Gammon's right hand,
squeezed them gently, and then replaced the hand in its former position.
"I hope he's happy, dear soul!" cried the laundress, gazing at him
through her tears.
"Yes, of course he is--no doubt," replied Mr. Snap, in a somewhat lower
tone of voice than he had spoken in before, and slowly returned to the
sitting-room; whither the laundress followed him as soon as she had
replaced the face-cloth and coffin-lid.
"Got a drop of brandy in the room, Mrs. Brown?" he inquired, and passed
his hand across his face, which had grown very pale.
She gave him what he asked for; he drank it, and sighed.
"Devilish ugly look that cap gives him--eh, Mrs. Brown? Hardly knew
him."
"Ay, poor soul; but it don't much signify how the _face_ looks if the
heart's all right. He was always so kind to me; I shall never get
another master like him!"
"Died _very_ suddenly, Mrs. Brown; didn't he?"
"Ay, he did, sir! His troubles broke his heart!"
"He'd quite enough of them to do so!" replied Snap, significantly, and
took his departure. He was one of the few who attended the funeral, and
the day on which it took place was the gloomiest he had ever known.
Mr. Gammon being gone, old Mr. Quirk seemed to have quite lost the use
of his head, and could attend to nothing. As for "the matters of the
affidavits," which he had been ordered by the Court of King's Bench to
answer, it was impossible to do so, except by acknowledging the facts
they stated to be true; and he was, in the ensuing term, struck off the
roll of attorneys, and ceased to be any longer a "gentleman, one of the
attorneys of our lord the king, before the king himself." In short, he
was completely broken up. He was quickly compelled to part with Alibi
House--in fact, with all his property; and very narrowly escaped being
thrown into a prison, there to end his days. During the last week of his
stay at Alibi House, while all his effects were being sold, he was
observed to sit down for hours together before a certain picture covered
with black crape; and once or twice he lifted up the crape, and gazed
with a horrid look at the object before him, as if he were meditating
something very mysterious and dismal. Nothing, however, happened. If he
had ever wished to hang himself, he never could succeed in screwing his
courage up to the sticking-place. He prevailed on a friend to buy in,
for him, that particular picture; and it was almost the only article
that he took with him to the small lodgings to which he removed with his
daughter, on the sale of Alibi House. As for poor Miss Quirk, I pity her
from my very soul; for, though rather a weak girl, she was perfectly
good-natured; and the reader will probably join in my indignation
against Mr. Toady Hug, when he hears that that gentleman, on seeing the
unfortunate turn which affairs took with Miss Quirk, owing to no fault
of hers, at the very moment when he ought to have clung closest to the
poor girl, deserted her, after having been engaged to be married to her
ever since the period of her having been disappointed of the affections
of Mr. Titmouse. It was, however, the business of the firm of Quirk,
Gammon, and Snap, that he had desired to marry; and finding that it no
longer existed, he considered himself justified in rescinding the
contract on the ground of a failure of consideration. Snap, hearing of
this, instantly tendered his own "heart" in lieu of that of Mr. Hug--and
was accepted. He kept this very quiet, however, till the fate of the
action for a breach of promise of marriage, which he persuaded Miss
Quirk to allow him to bring in her name against Mr. Hug, should have
been decided--as it soon was; for I should have mentioned that no
attempt had been made by any one to strike _Snap_ off the rolls. He
retained a Mr. Heartbreak, a most eloquent counsel in such cases: and as
Mr. Toady Hug defended himself in what he imagined to be a very splendid
speech, the jury immediately found a verdict against him of five hundred
pounds--a little fortune for Miss Quirk, if Hug could have paid it. But
the fact was, that he could _not_; and after a long negotiation between
Snap and him, it was settled that there should be a sort of secret
partnership between them; and that Hug should work out the damages, by
doing Mr. Snap's business for a quarter only of the proper fees--the
full fee, however, for appearance's sake among his brethren, was to be
marked on his brief. Shortly after this Snap got married, and took a
little house in Saffron Hill, only two doors from the old office; and,
as he had always anxiously cultivated the acquaintance of the leading
thieves, he soon got into a very respectable connection. A year
afterwards, Mrs. Snap made him the happy father of a quaint-looking
little child; which, being a boy, his father, out of reverence for his
deceased friend and partner, Mr. Gammon, caused to be christened by the
name of "_Oily Snap_." Old Mr. Quirk lingered on for about a couple of
years longer, most inconveniently to Snap, when he died of a broken
heart; and as Snap assisted in depositing the revered remains of his
father-in-law in St. Andrew's church-yard, he could not help thinking
within himself what a _horrid_ thing it would be, were the old gentleman
to get up again, and come back and establish himself for another couple
of years, in their little back parlor!
Let us now, however, turn to characters worthier of our notice, of our
sympathy, and our congratulation.
Two or three days after the assembling of the new Parliament, Lord
Drelincourt was introduced by two of his brother barons, (one of whom
was Lord De la Zouch,) with the usual formalities, into the House of
Lords. As he stood at the table while being sworn in, tranquil and
dignified, there was such an expression of noble simplicity and
_goodness_ in his features--which had not even then, however, entirely
lost the traces of the anxiety and suffering through which he had passed
during the last three years--as touched me to the very soul; and I
fervently wished him health and long life to enjoy his new honors. He
looked quite commanding in his ample ermine and scarlet robes; and
having, with the pen which was tendered him, inscribed on the roll the
name "DRELINCOURT"--(that of very nearly the most ancient barony in
England)--and formally taken his seat on the barons' bench, and received
the congratulations of his brother peers who came crowding around
him--he stepped up to the woolsack, and grasped with silent energy the
hand of the new Lord Chancellor, Lord Wolstenholme, who, composed and
commanding in his appearance and bearing, and familiar with his position
as if he had occupied it for more years than _days_, welcomed the
newly-introduced peer with infinite warmth and cordiality. This was Sir
Charles Wolstenholme, the Attorney-General of a few short months before,
and he to whose masterly ability and unwavering friendship Lord
Drelincourt was mainly, if not indeed altogether, indebted for the
position which he then occupied. They sat talking together for some
time; and the Chancellor happening to mention the ludicrous and yet
intolerable pressure to which he was subject for everything he had to
give away--particularly in the _livings_ which fell to his
disposal--instanced a small one in Devonshire of four hundred a-year, of
which he had had notice only two hours before coming to the House, since
which time he had had upwards of a dozen applications for it from so
many peers then present! "Now, as a small _memento_ of to-day,
Drelincourt," said he, with a smile, "can you give me the name of any
man who wants, and in your judgment would suit, such a living?"
"Oh, my dear Lord Chancellor!" replied Lord Drelincourt, with eager
delight, "I know a man--a very able, exemplary, _starving_ friend of
mine, Mr. Neville--the Rev. Ralph Neville. He will do honor to your
choice!"
"'Tis his!" replied the Chancellor; "give me his name and address--he
shall have it offered him this very evening, if he live in town."
Lord Drelincourt, overjoyed, wrote down Mr. Neville's name and address,
and gave it to the Chancellor; and having reminded him that their dinner
hour was seven precisely, (the Chancellor had been for some time engaged
to dinner with him on that day,) Lord Drelincourt somewhat hastily
quitted the House, resolved to be himself the first bearer to poor Mr.
Neville of the delightful intelligence of his promotion. His carriage,
with Lady Drelincourt and Miss Aubrey in it, had been standing for some
time near the House, awaiting his return, in order to drive once or
twice round the Park before dinner; but you may guess the kind of
transport with which they heard him give directions for their being
driven to St. George's in the East, and the object of his errand. When
Lord Drelincourt's equipage--simple and elegant, and with the coronet
painted on the panels so small as not to _challenge_ the observation of
every passenger--drew up opposite the humble lodgings of Mr. Neville, he
and his little sick wife were sitting at tea, for which purpose he had a
few minutes before propped her up upon the sofa, on which she was
obliged to recline during the greater part of each day. Prettily
flustered were both of them on seeing the carriage roll up, the steps
let down, and hearing Lord Drelincourt, followed quickly by Lady
Drelincourt and Miss Aubrey, (it was the first time that they had seen
the former two except as Mr. and Mrs. Aubrey,) knock at the door. Oh,
how sweet was the office of communicating such news as that which they
had brought to Mr. and Mrs. Neville! He, on hearing it, turned
immediately, and as it were instinctively, to his pale suffering wife,
with full eye and quivering lip--and she returned the look he gave her!
Well he knew that the true source of her frail health was their
privation and miserably straitened circumstances, and that the
intelligence which they had just received, would, as it were, pour into
the broken heart the oil of gladness and of health. There was not the
slightest change in the deportment of his distinguished visitors; but
his own was, in spite of all he could do to the contrary, consciously
subdued, and a little embarrassed. What thankfulness was in his heart!
How was the great, barren, frowning world around him, turned into a
smiling paradise! No longer would they be unable to supply their few and
modest wants! No longer deny themselves the innocent enjoyments of life,
and cheerful intercourse with society! Soon would he be in the
independent exercise of the delightful duties of the pastoral office!
And what a thoughtfulness of their humble interests had been evinced by
Lord Drelincourt in the first moments of his own excitement and triumph!
To all parties, that was, indeed, an occasion of the outgoing of hearts
towards each other; and Lord and Lady Drelincourt, before leaving, had
insisted on seeing Mr. and Mrs. Neville at dinner in Dover Street,
before they left town, as they expected would shortly be the case.
As I have already intimated, Lord Drelincourt had that evening a select
dinner party; and there was a little incident connected with it, which
will, I think, serve to set forth, were it necessary, his considerate
good-nature. His guests consisted of the Lord Chancellor and Lady
Wolstenholme, Lord and Lady De la Zouch, Mr. Delamere, three or four
other friends, Mr. Runnington, and a Mr. Staveley, a former fellow-pupil
of Lord Drelincourt's, and whom he had left still studying closely in
the chambers of Mr. Mansfield. Lord Drelincourt had always entertained a
very friendly feeling towards Mr. Staveley, who was a young man of very
strong understanding, great industry, sound principle, and perfect
frankness and simplicity of character. Mr. Aubrey had from the first
observed the depression of spirits to which his companion was subject,
and which, in the course of their subsequent unreserved communications
with each other, he had discovered to be occasioned by the sad
precariousness of his pecuniary circumstances, and the absence of all
prospect or apparent chance of professional connection. It seemed that
the relative by whose liberality alone he had been enabled to enter
himself a student at Lincoln's Inn, and become a pupil of Mr.
Mansfield's, had died suddenly, leaving his nephew almost totally
destitute. Was it not likely that he was just such a person as would
excite the yearning sympathies of his now ennobled fellow-student?
Indeed it was so; and the reason of Lord Drelincourt's asking him to
dinner on the present occasion was, to give him a personal introduction
to two individuals capable of being hereafter of vast service to any
candidate (possessed of industry, energy, and talent) for professional
business and distinction; namely, Mr. Runnington, as a solicitor of
first-rate eminence, great personal respectability, and amiability of
character--and the Lord Chancellor; with both of whom, as may easily be
believed, Lord Drelincourt had much personal influence. Mr. Staveley was
the first guest that arrived, and he found Lord Drelincourt alone in the
drawing-room. His Lordship seized the opportunity of conversing with his
friend unrestrainedly upon the topics above alluded to, and of assuring
him that he might always rely on any good offices which it might be in
his Lordship's power to perform for him. He spoke to his desponding
companion in a tone of earnest and inspiriting encouragement. "Come,
come, my dear Staveley," said he, "_exporrige frontem_! It would seem to
be the tendency of close and solitary legal study to make a man despair,
and distrust the utility of his labors! But--go straight on!--Constancy,
honor, industry, and talent, will inevitably clear the way for their
possessor, and also in due time force him forward. Ah! believe me, I
know what your feelings are; for very recently I shared them, but always
endeavored to master them. As for the want of a connection, I can only
say that I knew but one attorney and solicitor in all London--my own--a
Mr. Runnington, (who dines with me to-day;)--but had I known none, I
should not have been disheartened, so long as I had health of body and
mind, and the means of pursuing my studies"----Here Lord Drelincourt's
quick ear caught a faint and half-suppressed sigh, uttered by his
companion.--"I did my best while engaged in the study of the law, and am
sure that I shall never have occasion to regret it; and I frankly tell
you, Staveley, I was as poor as a church mouse the whole time--over head
and ears in debt; and, but for the kindness of this very Mr. Runnington,
who lent me three hundred pounds, I never could have entered Mr.
Mansfield's chambers, or formed your acquaintance."--While saying this,
Lord Drelincourt was looking very keenly indeed at his companion.--"The
law," continued his Lordship, "is a noble profession! I should have
become an enthusiast in it had I continued to devote myself to its study
and practice;--by the way, will you accept, as a little _memento_ of our
friendship--which I trust you will not permit to be broken off,
Staveley--my few law-books? Of course, I have no further occasion for
those which relate to the more practical"----Here one of the doors
opened, and Lady Drelincourt and Miss Aubrey--oh, you beautiful
Kate!--entered, looking each of them exceedingly lovely, and receiving
Mr. Staveley with a charming cordiality and courtesy; for they had often
heard Lord Drelincourt mention his name. The other guests then made
their appearance, in quick succession; and Lord Drelincourt made a point
of introducing Mr. Staveley, in very flattering terms, to the
Chancellor, who received him with great urbanity, as indeed did Mr.
Runnington. 'Twas truly a delightful dinner party--all were in high
spirits. As for the Lord Chancellor, he took an opportunity during the
evening of pressing on Lord Drelincourt the acceptance of an important
office under the new government--one which they were exceedingly anxious
to have satisfactorily filled, and to which would be annexed a seat in
the cabinet!--Lord Drelincourt, however, firmly declined the brilliant
offer, on the plea of the repose which he felt to be requisite, both for
his family and himself, and also the attention due to his private
affairs, to which it would be necessary to devote his personal
superintendence for some time to come.--But to return for a moment to
Mr. Staveley. Soon after he had sat down to breakfast the next morning,
a servant of Lord Drelincourt's brought to his chambers a parcel, which,
in fact, consisted of the books of which his Lordship had begged his
acceptance over-night. With what peculiar interest did Mr. Staveley
glance over them, finding in every page slight pencil marks, evidencing
the careful reading of their former owner. In laying down the first book
which he had opened, something fell from it upon the floor, which, on
his picking it up, proved to be a letter addressed to himself, in the
handwriting of Lord Drelincourt. On opening it, what were his feelings
on seeing it contain an enclosure of a draft on his Lordship's banker
for the sum of £300, which he begged Mr. Staveley to accept as a loan,
to be repaid whenever and however he might think fit; and in terms of
the most earnest delicacy, reminding him of the circumstance which his
Lordship had named over-night; namely, his own acceptance of a similar
sum from Mr. Runnington. Mr. Staveley colored under a conflict of
emotions, which subsided quickly, into one strong and deep feeling of
gratitude towards his truly noble and generous friend; and that morning
he wrote a letter, acknowledging in fitting terms the munificent act of
Lord Drelincourt, and enclosing his note-of-hand for the amount; both of
which, however, on his receiving them, Lord Drelincourt, with a
good-natured smile, put into the fire, that there might exist no
evidence whatever of the transaction between himself and Mr. Staveley.
His Lordship did not even take Lady Drelincourt in this matter into his
confidence.
At length every arrangement had been made in London for their quitting
it, and at Yatton for their arrival. The last article of furniture, a
magnificent piano for Lady Drelincourt, had gone down a fortnight
before. Lord and Lady De la Zouch, together with Mr. Delamere, had been
at Fotheringham for some time; and the accounts which they gave in their
letters, of the scene which might be expected on the memorable occasion
of Lord Drelincourt's resuming possession of Yatton, threw them all into
a flutter of excitement. From Mr. Delamere's accounts, it would seem as
if the day _of their return_ was to be a sort of jubilee. He himself had
been to and fro twenty times between Yatton and Fotheringham; an entire
unanimity of feeling existed, it seemed, with reference to all the
leading arrangements, between himself, Mr. Griffiths, Dr. Tatham, Lord
and Lady De la Zouch, and the Earl and Countess of Oldacre, whom it had
been deemed expedient to take into their counsels upon the occasion; and
a difficult negotiation concerning a certain fine military band,
belonging to a regiment stationed only eleven miles off, had been
brought to a most satisfactory termination! Dr. Tatham wrote letters to
them, especially to Miss Aubrey, almost every day, and, in fact, they
all began to imagine themselves already at Yatton, and in the midst of
the delicious bustle that was going on there.
At length, the long-expected day for their setting off arrived--the 5th
day of May 18--. About ten o'clock in the forenoon might have been seen
standing, opposite Lord Drelincourt's door in Dover Street, two roomy
travelling carriages and four. Several newly engaged servants had gone
down two or three days before, in charge of a large van full of luggage;
and in the first carriage were going only Lord and Lady Drelincourt and
Miss Aubrey, his Lordship's valet and Lady Drelincourt's maid sitting in
the rumble behind; while the second carriage was occupied by little
Charles and Agnes, and their attendants, together with Harriet, Miss
Aubrey's faithful and pretty little maid. Everything being at length
ready, the word was given, crack went the whips, and away they rolled on
their memorable and exciting journey. There was an evident air of
expectation and interest along the road, for a long while before they
approached Yatton; for in fact it was generally known that Lord
Drelincourt, who, it was believed, had passed through a series of
romantic adventures, was going down to take possession of the ancient
family estate in Yorkshire. How the hearts of the travellers yearned
towards the dear old familiar objects on each side of the road, which,
as they advanced at a rapid pace, they passed with increasing frequency!
At length they reached the last posting-house, which was within twelve
miles of Yatton, and where there were manifest symptoms of preparation
and stir. Eight very fine horses were brought out in a twinkling, and
the harness appeared both new and gay. Mrs. Spruce, the landlady,
together with her two daughters, all of them dressed with unusual
smartness, stood at the inn door, courtesying repeatedly; and on Lady
Drelincourt and Kate seeing them, they beckoned them to the carriage
door, and inquired after their health, with such a kindness and interest
in their manner, as almost brought tears into their eyes.
"So you have not forgotten us, Mrs. Spruce?" asked Lord Drelincourt,
with a gay smile, as they handed a couple of glasses of water into the
carriage, at the request of Lady Drelincourt and Kate, who were
evidently getting very nervous with their proximity to Yatton, and the
exciting scenes which must there be awaiting them.
"Oh, my Lord, forgotten your Lordship! No, my Ladies, not for one minute
since the dismal day you all went--my Lord! There's _such_ a stir, my
Ladies, along the road--you'll see it all when you get a mile farther
on!--Of course, your Lordship and your Ladyships know what's going to be
done at the Hall"----
"Ah, ah! so I hear! Well--good-day, Mrs. Spruce!" cried Lord
Drelincourt, and the next moment they had dashed off, in their last
stage, and at a thundering pace, to be sure. It was nearly twelve
o'clock at noon, and the day was bright and beautiful--and there was a
fresh and exhilarating breeze stirring, which oft came laden with the
rich scents of summer fields.
"Oh Agnes! oh Kate! what a contrast is this to the day on which our
horses' heads, two years ago, were turned the other way!" exclaimed Lord
Drelincourt; but received only a faint reply, for his companions were
getting flurried and restless with the rapidly increasing evidences of
excitement on the road. As they advanced, they overtook vehicles of
every description, all containing people in gay holiday trim, and all
with their horses' heads turned one way; viz. towards the great centre
of attraction, Yatton. At length the augmenting number of carriages,
chaises, cars, gigs, vans, carts, wagons--many of them decked with
ribbons, flowers, and laurel boughs--compelled them to slacken their
speed, and gave them fuller opportunities of witnessing the joyful
enthusiasm with which their approach was greeted. Already they heard, or
imagined they heard, from the direction of Yatton, the sounds of voices
and music.
"I'm sure, Charles, I shall cry like a child"--quoth Kate, her eyes
suddenly filling with tears; and such was the case also with Lady
Drelincourt.
"And what, Kate, if you do?" cried her brother, joyfully, kissing and
embracing them affectionately.
"Charles! Charles!--I declare there's old Granny Grimston--it is
indeed!" cried Kate, eagerly, as they passed an old-fashioned
market-cart, in which sat, sure enough, the good creature Miss Aubrey
had mentioned, beside her daughter, to whom Kate waved her hand
repeatedly--for the former had been an old pensioner of the late Mrs.
Aubrey's.
Oh, what a sight burst upon them as soon as they had reached the turning
of the road which brought them full in view of Yatton--the village and
the Hall! They came, too, to a dead stand-still--'twas impossible to get
on for some time, for they seemed to have got suddenly into the middle
of some great fair! What a shout rent the air! Boughs of laurel were
waving in all directions, with wreaths and ribbons! Beautiful nosegays
were flung in through the carriage windows by men, women, and even
children, all dressed in their best and gayest attire! Here was formed
an equestrian procession that was to precede them into Yatton,
consisting of some hundred stout Yorkshire yeomen, chiefly tenants of
Lord Drelincourt and his neighbors. Louder and louder came the shouts of
welcome from all quarters, before and behind, intermingled at length, as
they entered the village, with the clash and clangor of cymbals, the
thundering of drums, the sounds of trumpets, trombones, clarionets, and
shrill inspiriting fifes. 'Twas really most exciting; and Lady
Drelincourt and Kate were already amply fulfilling their own
predictions. Their carriage suddenly stopped for some moments; and a
louder shout than had till then been heard, burst around them, while the
military band approached playing "Rule Britannia!" followed by a
procession of at least two hundred horsemen, headed by Delamere, and all
wearing his bright blue election colors! He thrust his hand into the
carriage, and grasping those of each of them, again rode off. Here an
attempt was made to take the horses out of Lord Drelincourt's carriage,
which he peremptorily forbade, acknowledging, however, the affectionate
enthusiasm which prompted the proposal, by repeatedly bowing in all
directions as they passed down the village. Flags and branches of laurel
hung from almost every window, and the crowd had become so great as to
prevent them frequently from moving on for more than a minute or two
together. At length they saw the dear old church, with its long, thin,
gray spire--no doubt its little bells were ringing as loudly as they
could be rung, but they were not heard; for the band at that moment,
when within a few yards of the park gates, struck up in fine style the
inspiriting air of "The King shall hae his ain again!" A great number of
carriages were drawn up on each side of the entrance to the park, and
the high antique iron gates and stone pillars were covered with wreaths
of flowers and branches of laurel. Immediately within the gates, on each
side, upon forms and stools, sat about a dozen of the oldest tenants on
the estate, male and female, who, on the approach of Lord Drelincourt,
lifted up their hands feebly towards heaven, while tears ran down their
eyes, and they implored a blessing on those who were re-entering their
own, after so long and cruel a separation from it. But here the eager
and affectionate eyes of the travellers lit upon an object infinitely
more interesting and affecting than any they had yet seen--'twas the
venerable figure of Dr. Tatham, who, with his hat off, stood with his
hand and his face elevated momentarily towards heaven, imploring a
blessing upon those who were approaching. Lord Drelincourt instantly
called for the carriage door to be opened, and within a moment or two's
time, he had grasped the little doctor's hands in his own; and Lady
Drelincourt and Kate, having also hastily alighted, had thrown their
arms around him, and kissed him, with the feelings of two daughters
towards a fond and venerated father. The little doctor was quite
overcome, and could scarcely say a word--indeed, they were all much
excited. At this point came up Mr. Delamere, who had dismounted at the
gate, and placing Kate's arm hastily, and with a proud and triumphant
air, within his own, while Lady Drelincourt was supported between her
husband and Dr. Tatham, the two children following, with their
attendants, immediately behind--in this manner they approached the Hall,
each side of the avenue being lined with the gayly-dressed gentry of the
neighborhood, collected from far and wide. When they reached the fine
old gateway, there shot up suddenly into the air, upon a flag-staff
planted upon the centre of the turret, a splendid crimson banner, while
the band within the court-yard struck up the spirit-stirring air, one
which no Englishman can listen to without emotion--"See the conquering
hero comes!" The moment that they had passed under the gateway, what a
gay and brilliant scene presented itself! Upon the steps fronting the
door, and indeed all around, stood the most distinguished persons in the
county, ready to greet the new-comers. There was the Lord-Lieutenant,
the High Sheriff, two of the county Members--Catholics and
Protestants--high Tories and high Whigs--there they were--the high-born,
the beautiful--the gifted, the good--all crowding with eager and
enthusiastic welcome around those who were thus returning to their own,
after so extraordinary and infamous an exclusion and banishment. To Lady
Drelincourt, to Miss Aubrey, to Lord Drelincourt himself, amid the
overpowering excitement of the moment, it appeared as though they were
in a vivid and dazzling dream; and they felt completely confused and
bewildered. Lady De la Zouch, and one or two others of their considerate
friends, observing the painful emotions with which Lady Drelincourt and
Miss Aubrey were very nearly overcome, succeeded in withdrawing them
for a while from the tumultuous scene into their chambers.
A splendid cold collation was spread in the hall for the immediate
friends and guests of Lord Drelincourt, while an immense entertainment,
of a more substantial description, was prepared under an awning, upon
the beautiful terrace at the back of the Hall, for about three hundred
people, consisting principally of the tenantry, their families and
friends. (Half-a-dozen feasts were going on in the village, for those
who were necessarily--from want of room--excluded from the terrace
tables.) The substantial business of the day--viz. feasting--was to
commence, both for gentle and simple, at three o'clock, shortly before
which period Lady Drelincourt and Miss Aubrey appeared in the
drawing-room, and then in the hall, infinitely the better for their
refreshing toilets. 'Tis true that their eyes looked somewhat impaired
by the excessive emotions occasioned by the events of the day--for they
had both been several times, during their brief absence, on the verge of
hysterics; yet for all that they looked a pair of as lovely women as
dear Old England, rich in delicate beauty as it is, could produce. They
both wore plain white muslin dresses, with small blue rosettes, which
Lady De la Zouch had intimated would give a certain person infinite
gratification--meaning the new member for the borough; for his colors
were blue--whereof there was a modest glimpse in his own surtout. Lord
Drelincourt also appeared greatly the better for his visit to his
dressing-room, and was in the highest possible spirits--as well he might
be, amid a scene so glorious and triumphant as that around him; all
people, high and low, rich and poor, without distinction of party, vying
with one another in doing him honor, and welcoming him back to the halls
of his ancestors. At length, it being announced that all was in
readiness, before sitting down to their own banquet, Lord Drelincourt,
with Lady Drelincourt on one arm, and his sister on the other, and
followed by Dr. Tatham, Mr. Runnington, and almost all his guests,
passed along under the old archway that led over the bridge to the
terrace, in order that the doctor might say grace before the feast
began: and the instant that Lord and Lady Drelincourt and Miss Aubrey
made their appearance, the shouting and clapping of hands, and waving of
handkerchiefs, that ensued, defies description, completely overpowering
Lady Drelincourt and Kate, and somewhat disturbing the equanimity of
Lord Drelincourt himself. 'Twas several minutes before the least
cessation occurred. At length, however, Mr. Griffiths, the steward, who
was to preside on the occasion, succeeded in directing attention to Dr.
Tatham, who stood uncovered ready to say grace, which he did as soon as
there was a decent approach to silence; he and those who had accompanied
him, then returning to the Hall. What a prodigious onslaught was
instantly made on the enormous masses of beef, boiled and roast--the
hams, the tongues, the fowls--and all the innumerable other good things
which were heaped upon those hospitable tables. There was ale _ad
libitum_; and, in addition to that, a bottle of port and of sherry to
each mess of four, which latter luxuries, however, were generally
reserved for the business which was to take place after the substantial
part of the feast had been discussed.
According to a previous arrangement, about four o'clock intimation was
given to the vast party upon the terrace, that Lord Drelincourt,
accompanied by his guests, would come and take their seats for a short
time at the head of the tables--his Lordship occupying the place of Mr.
Griffiths. After a great bustle the requisite space was obtained at the
head of the nearest table; and presently Dr. Tatham led in Lady
Drelincourt, and Mr. Delamere, Kate; followed by Lord Drelincourt and
all his visitors--their arrival being greeted in the same enthusiastic
manner as before. After they had selected their places, but before they
had sat down, Dr. Tatham returned thanks amid a sudden and decorous
silence; and then all, having resumed their seats, had an opportunity of
feasting their eager and fond eyes with the sight of those who had been
so cruelly torn from them, and so long estranged. Lord Drelincourt sat
at the head of the table, with Lady Drelincourt on one side and his
sister upon the other, both looking exceedingly animated and beautiful.
Beside Kate sat Mr. Delamere, his eyes greedily watching her every look
and motion; and beside Lady Drelincourt sat the venerable Dr. Tatham,
looking as happy and as proud as it was possible for him to look. After
sitting for some minutes conversing with those immediately around him,
during which time expectation had gradually hushed down the noise which
had prevailed on their entering, Lord Drelincourt slowly poured out a
glass of wine, his hand slightly trembling; and while Lady Drelincourt
and Kate leaned down their heads, and hid their faces, he slowly rose,
amid respectful and anxious silence. His voice was at all times clear
and melodious, his enunciation distinct and deliberate; so that every
word he uttered could be heard by all present. There were grace and
dignity in his countenance and gestures; and you felt, as you looked and
listened to him, that he was speaking from his heart. Thus he spoke:--
"Oh, my friends! what a happy moment is this to me and mine! What thanks
do I not owe to God for His great goodness in bringing us again together
in our former relations of mutual and uninterrupted respect and
affection! You must not, however, expect me to say much now, for I
cannot, because my heart is so full of love and respect to those whom I
see around me, and of gratitude to God. May He, my dear friends, who is
now beholding us, and marking the thoughts of our hearts, bless and
preserve you all, and enable me never to give you cause to regret having
thus affectionately welcomed me back again to my home! It pleased Him,
my friends, that I, and those whom you see near me, and whom I so
tenderly love, should be torn away suddenly, and for a long time, from
all that our hearts held dear. The pangs it cost us--bear with me, my
friends--the pangs it cost us"--here Lord Drelincourt was obliged to
pause for some moments. "We have, since we left you all, gone through
much affliction, a little privation, and some persecution. It was all,
however, God's ordering, and we have besought Him that we might at all
times feel and know it to be so, in order that we might never be
impatient or rebellious. Ah, my friends! He is wiser and kinder in His
dealings with us than we are often able to see; and as for myself, I
think I can say that I would not have lost the lessons which my recent
sufferings have taught me, for a thousand times my present advantages.
"What has befallen me has satisfied me, and I hope you too, of the
slight hold we have of those advantages, of which we consider ourselves
surest. Who can tell, dear friends, what a day or an hour may bring
forth? And I hope I have also learned one of the great lessons of life,
better than I knew it before--that cheerful resignation to the will of
God is the only source of fortitude! God loves the voice of praise which
He hears _from the desert_! Never, dear friends, when we are in our
deepest difficulties and troubles--never, NEVER let us despair! Thank
God, I never did, or you would not perhaps have seen me here to-day. God
overrules everything for the real good of those who faithfully obey Him:
and in our own case, I can assure you, that the very things which we
looked upon as the cruellest and hardest to bear of all that had
happened to us, turned out to be the very means by which we have been
restored to the happiness which we are now met to celebrate! See how
good God has been to us! When I look around me, and see what I am
permitted to enjoy, and know what I _deserve_, I tremble.
"You all know, of course, that it has pleased God to place us a little
higher in point of mere worldly station than we were before; but I think
you will find that it has made only this difference in us; namely, that
we are more sensible of the importance of the duties which we have to
perform. 'Tis not, dear friends--I deeply feel--the mere coronet which
confers true distinction, but _how it is worn_. I, of course, have only
succeeded by birth, and, apparently, by accident, to that mark of
distinction which the merit of some other person had won for him long
ago. I trust I shall wear it with honor and humility, and that so--" he
paused for a moment,--"will my son, after me.
"And now, my dear friends, I must conclude. You see how much those who
are sitting near me are affected." Lord Drelincourt glanced fondly but
hastily at Lady Drelincourt and his sister, paused for some time, and
then in a lower tone resumed. "You may remember, some of you at least,
the evening before we left Yatton; what you then said to me"--here again
he paused, and for some time. "I have never forgotten that evening; the
thought of it has often been like balm poured into a broken heart.
"I have heard that since I left you all, things have gone very
differently from the way they went in my time. Oh, dear friends, there
shall be no more extortion--there shall be no more oppression, at
Yatton! I can, I think, answer for myself; and I think my little son
will not take after his father if--you shall see my children
presently--God bless you, dear friends! You see that I have now and
then been overcome while speaking; I know you will bear with me. Were
you in my place, and to look upon those whom I now look upon, you also
would be overcome. But let our tears now pass away! Rejoice, dear
friends, for it is a day of rejoicing! Be merry! be happy! I now from my
heart drink--we all drink--all your healths! Here are health, and peace,
and prosperity to you all! God bless you all!--God bless you all!"
Lord Drelincourt raised his glass to his lips, and drank off the wine it
contained, his hand visibly trembling the while. He then sat down,
evidently much subdued; and as for Lady Drelincourt, Miss Aubrey, and
Lady De la Zouch--nay, everybody present--they were deeply affected by
the simple and affectionate address that had fallen from Lord
Drelincourt; and which was followed by a long silence, infinitely more
expressive than the most vociferous responses. After a while, the band
commenced playing, in a very beautiful manner,
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot."
There were heard several attempts, from time to time, from different
quarters, to join in the chorus, but they were very faint and subdued;
and Lord Drelincourt, perceiving the true state of the case, suddenly
covered his face with his hands, and appeared for some moments
powerfully affected. Then, affectionately taking the hands of Kate and
Lady Drelincourt, he fondly whispered, that all their past sufferings
were surely that day richly recompensed; and fearing lest his presence,
and that of his distinguished guests, might be a check upon the freedom
and hilarity of the great company before him, he rose, and bowing
courteously to all around, and followed by those who had accompanied
him, withdrew amid most vehement and prodigious cheering. A few minutes
afterwards, according to Lord Drelincourt's promise, little Charles and
Agnes were led in amid a thousand exclamations of fondness and
admiration, (they were really very beautiful children;) and having had a
little drop of wine poured into each of their cups, they drank timidly,
as they were told, to the health of all present, and then skipped
hastily back whence they had come.
I shall not detain the reader, with whom I am so soon about to part
forever, with the description which I had prepared of the opening of
Kate's school on the morrow; though I think he would like to have been
present. A prettier one there is not in England; and if anything could
have increased Kate's love for him who had taken such pains to please
her in the matter, it was Dr. Tatham's informing her, a morning or two
afterwards, that Mr. Delamere had endowed her school with fifty pounds
a-year, forever. In proportion to Kate's sorrow on leaving her school,
upon the occasion of their all being driven from Yatton, it may easily
be believed, were her delight and gratitude, for this its complete and
more efficient restoration. The opening of it by Dr. Tatham, in her
presence, and also in that of Mr. Delamere, was doubtless an interesting
ceremony, yet not to be compared, perhaps, with one that occurred a
short month afterwards at Yatton, and in which the same three persons
were principally concerned!
* * * * *
----Here is a heavenly morning in June! and Kate lying trembling and
with beating heart, alone, in that old-fashioned chamber of hers, in
which she was first seen by the reader--or at least, where he obtained a
faint and dim vision of her.--'Tis very early, certainly; and as Kate
hath passed a strange, restless night, she is at length closing her eyes
in sleep; and as nothing is to be heard stirring, save yonder lark, that
is carrying his song higher and higher out of hearing every moment, she
will sleep for a while undisturbed.
* * * * *
--But _now_, rise, Kate! rise! It is your wedding morning! Early
though it be, here are your fair bridemaids seeking admittance, to deck
you in your bridal robes! Sweet Kate, why turn so pale, and tremble so
violently? It is truly a memorable day, one long looked forward to with
a fluttering heart--a day of delicious agitation and embarrassment; but
courage, Kate! courage! Cannot these three beautiful girls who, like the
Graces, are arraying you, as becomes your loveliness, with all their
innocent arts and archness, provoke one smile on your pale cheek? Weep,
then, if such be your humor; for it is the overflowing of joy, and will
relieve your heart!--But hasten! hasten! your lover is below, impatient
to clasp you in his arms! The maids of the village have been up with the
sun, gathering sweet flowers to scatter on your way to the altar! Hark,
how merrily, merrily ring the bells of Yatton church!--Nearer and nearer
comes the hour which cannot be delayed; and why, blushing and trembling
maiden, should you dread its approach? Hark--carriage after carriage is
coming crashing up to the Hall!--Now your maidens are placing on your
beautiful brow the orange blossoms--mysterious emblems:--
"The fruits of autumn, and the flowers of spring"--
and a long, flowing, graceful veil, shall conceal your blushes!--Now, at
length, she descends--and sinks into the arms of a fond and noble
brother, whose heart is too full for speech, as is that of her sister!
Shrink not, my beauteous Kate, from your lover, who approaches you, see
how tenderly and delicately! Is he not one of whom a maiden may be
proud? See the troops of ardent friends waiting to attend you, and do
you honor! Everywhere that the eye looks, are glistening gay wedding
favors, emblems of innocence and joy. Come, Kate--your brother waits;
you go with _him_ to church, but you will come back with ANOTHER! He who
loves you as a father, the venerable minister of God, is awaiting your
arrival! What a brilliant throng is in that little church!
Now her beautiful form is standing at the altar, beside her manly lover,
and the solemn ceremony has commenced, which is to unite, with Heaven's
awful sanction, these two young and happy and virtuous hearts!
'Tis done! Kate Aubrey! Kate Aubrey! where are you? She is no more--but,
as Mrs. Delamere, is sitting blushing and sobbing beside HER HUSBAND, he
elate with pride and fondness, as they drive rapidly back to the Hall.
In vain glances her eye at that splendid banquet, as it shrinks also
timidly from the glittering array of guests seated around it--and she
soon retires with her maidens to prepare for her agitating journey!
Well, they are gone! My pure and lovely Kate is gone! 'Tis hard to part
with her! But blessings attend her! Blessings attend you both! You
cannot forget dear YATTON, where all that is virtuous and noble will
ever with open arms receive you!
* * * * *
And now dear friends! farewell for many a day!
If e'er we meet again, I cannot say.
Together have we travell'd two long years,
And mingled sometimes smiles, and sometimes tears!
Now droops my weary hand, and swells my heart,--
I fear, good friends! we must forever part.
Forgive my many faults! and say of me,
He hath _meant_ well, that writ this history.
NOTES.
[Footnote 1: NOTE 1. Page 46.
"The show of hands" (says Lord Stowell, in _Anthony v. Seager_, 1 Hag.
Cons. Rep. 13) "is only a rude and imperfect declaration of the
sentiments of the electors."]
[Footnote 2: NOTE 2. Page 72.
The time within which a petition against the return of a member of
Parliament must be presented, has, for the last two centuries, been a
fortnight after the meeting of Parliament, or the return of the member.
This still continues the limited period. See stat. 2 and 3 Vict. c. 31,
§ 2. The allusion in the text, therefore, is to the day _after_ that,
beyond which a petition could not be presented; and if Gammon, on or
after that fifteenth day, had paid money for their votes to the members
of the Quaint Club, he might have done it with impunity, as far as
concerned the perilling Mr. Titmouse's seat. The legislature has lately,
however, made great exertions to put down the system of bribing; and by
statute 5 and 6 Vict. c. 102, passed on the 19th August 1842, has
invested the House of Commons with very formidable powers for that
purpose. If petitioners on the score of bribery, fearful of the strength
of the case which may be brought against themselves on the same ground,
agree with their opponents to abandon the charge of bribery, and
compromise the matter, the committee may nevertheless inquire into the
whole matter, and report the result to the House. And by the fourth and
fifth section of that act, a petition complaining of bribery may be
presented at any time _after_ the first fourteen days of the meeting of
Parliament, and within three calendar months next after some one or more
of the alleged acts of bribery shall have been committed; and the
inquiries of the committee are limited to acts of bribery committed
within three months before presenting the petition. The entire system of
election law has been also remodelled by several very recent statutes,
as will be explained in the next note.]
[Footnote 3: NOTE 3. Page 87.
For this purpose each party, attended by their counsel, agents, and
political friends, immediately withdrew to separate rooms, to fix upon
the eleven names which they would strike off. Having done this, they met
in a third room, before an officer of the House; and struck off name by
name alternately, till the thirty-three were reduced to eleven.--This
process was called "_Knocking out the brains of the Committee_:" for as
each party's object was to get rid of a decided and known political
opponent, the abler and more eminent he was, the greater the necessity
for getting rid of him. Those left were the more obscure members of the
House.]
[Footnote 4: NOTE 4. Page 87.
The process of forming an election committee, as described in the text,
fell several times under the author's personal observation--in his
professional capacity--as late as till within the last five years, [this
note being written in 1845.] It was prescribed by a statute, which since
its enactment has been repeatedly amended and re-enacted, known by the
name of "THE GRENVILLE ACT," (stat. 10 Geo. III. c. 16.) It was long
regarded as a very masterly and successful mode of securing an impartial
committee. Thus speaks of it, for instance, Mr. Justice Coleridge, in a
note to his edition of _Blackstone's Commentaries_, (Vol. i. p. 187,
note 31:)--"This statute is justly celebrated for the wisdom and utility
of its provisions. One of its principal _objects_ is, to secure a fair
election of petition committees." This eulogy was penned in the year
1825; but even admitting it to have been _then_ justified by the working
of the system, its defects became subsequently the object of universal
regret and reprobation. For some years subsequently to the passing of
the Reform Bill, this constitution of election committees--depicted in
the text with rigorous fidelity--led to intolerable abuse, and merited
scandal and reproach. In the year 1844, after a previous ineffectual
remodelling of the system, was passed statute 7 and 8 Vict. c. 103,
entitled "An Act to amend the law for the trial of controverted
elections of members to serve in Parliament," (passed 9th August
1844,)--which created an entirely new system for the selection of these
committees--of which the following is an outline.--At the beginning of
every session, the Speaker appoints a "_general Committee of
Elections_," consisting of six members, who must be approved of by the
House--and then their appointment continues to the end of the session. A
list is then made of all the members of the House, liable to serve on
election committees, which is referred to this general committee; and
they select from it a certain number, not exceeding twelve, whom they
deem qualified to act as _chairmen_ of election committees; and who are
thereupon neither liable, nor eligible, to serve as _private_ members of
such committees. This body is called "the _Chairmen's Panel_." The
remaining members of the House, liable to serve, are then divided into
_five_ panels, of equal numbers; and the order in which these five
panels are to serve, is decided by lot, openly, by the clerk of the
House, at the table.--All election petitions are then referred to the
_general committee_, whose duty it is to select from the five panels,
according to the order in which they may have been drawn, FOUR members,
who are to serve as a select committee to try the petition referred to
them, in the order in which that petition may happen to stand in the
list of petitions--which is to be framed according to the provisions of
the Act in question. On the same day on which the general committee thus
choose the private members of the committee, but without knowing who
have been so chosen, the members of the _chairmen's panel_ select one of
their number to act as _chairman_ of the select committee; returning his
name to the general committee, as soon as the latter shall have informed
the chairmen's panel that the _four_ members have been chosen. When all
these arrangements have been completed, the parties in attendance are
called into the House, and the names of the chairman and the four
members read over to them; whereupon they withdraw, and this committee
of FIVE then proceed, in due course, to try the petition. If, through
illness, or other allowed excuse, the number should be reduced from five
to less than three, the committee is dissolved--unless the parties
choose to go on with _two_ members, or even ONE, who in such case will
lawfully constitute the committee.--Such is the scheme, devised with
anxious ingenuity, which has recently been adopted by the legislature,
for the all-important purpose of securing impartial election committees.
That it is a vast improvement on the system described in the text, seems
certain; but what will be its practical working, time alone can show.]
[Footnote 5: NOTE 5. Page 117.
These offences are now dealt with much more seriously; several late
statutes empowering the police magistrates to fine the offenders, and
even commit them to the tread-mill. The effect has been to interfere
seriously with this species of nocturnal amusement.]
[Footnote 6: NOTE 6. Page 227.
The reader will bear in mind, that, as explained in a note to the first
volume, arrest on mesne process was abolished a few years ago, by
statute 1 and 2 Vict. c. 110, (passed 16th August 1838.) The policy of
abandoning this system did not secure the unanimous approbation of the
Common Law Commissioners. One of the most learned of them dissented from
the report recommending the abolition of the system, and embodied his
reasons in a very elaborate supplemental report. That arrest on mesne
process was the means of inflicting an inconceivable amount of
unjustifiable suffering, and was often a mere vehicle for oppression--is
indisputable. The abolition of arrest on _final_ process stands on very
different grounds.]
[Footnote 7: NOTE 7. Page 241.
This is _now_ very far otherwise. Legal proceedings have been recently
prodigiously accelerated.]
[Footnote 8: NOTE 8. Page 241.
The reason why neither a Peer nor a Member of Parliament can be bail is,
that they are not liable to the ordinary process of the courts.--(Tidd's
_Practice_, p. 247, 9th ed.) The reason why attorneys and their clerks
cannot be bail, is to protect them from the importunities of their
clients.]
[Footnote 9: NOTE 9. Page 245.
_I. e._ "Special Jury."]
[Footnote 10: NOTE 10. Page 245.
A writ of _certiorari_ issues from the Court of Queen's Bench in
criminal cases, for the purpose of removing them into it from inferior
courts; and when the writ is granted, as it may be at the instance of
either the prosecutor or defendant, it entirely supersedes the
jurisdiction of the inferior court, and renders all subsequent
proceedings in it entirely erroneous and illegal--unless the Court of
Queen's Bench should think fit to remand the record to the inferior
court. A _prosecutor_ may obtain a certiorari as a matter of right; but
a defendant only at the discretion of the court.]
[Footnote 11: NOTE 11. Page 275.
Forgery was a capital offence down to the year 1830. By statute 1 and 2
Will. IV. c. 66, passed on the 23d July in that year, and statute 2 and
3 Will. IV. c. 123, passed on the 16th August 1832; and particularly by
statute 7 Will. IV. and 1 Vict. c. 84, passed on the 17th July 1837, the
punishment of death is abolished in all cases of forgery, and
transportation for life, or for years, or imprisonment, with solitary
confinement and hard labor, substituted.]
[Footnote 12: NOTE 12. Page 295.
Hamlet.]
[Footnote 13: NOTE 13. Page 298.
Bribery at elections of members of Parliament was always an offence _at
common law_, punishable by indictment and information; but there are no
traces of any prosecutions at common law for such an offence. In the
year 1729 the legislature interfered, and, by stat. 2 Geo. II. c. 24,
inflicted the penalties which were sought to be recovered by the actions
mentioned in the text. Mr. Rogers, in his excellent treatise on
_Election Law_, says that it is not difficult to account for the silence
of the books of common law on the subject of bribery. When the increase
of money, and the growing importance of a seat in the House of Commons,
gave rise to a frequent commission of this offence, the House began to
assert its exclusive judicial power over all matters affecting the
election of its members--and punished bribery as one of the highest
offences affecting the freedom of elections. Having thus made it a
matter of _privilege_, it would have been dangerous for prosecutors to
carry their complaints to any other tribunal. Even since the passing of
the Act in question, however, numerous cases are on record of
proceedings for bribery, by indictment and information--at the instance,
not only of private persons, but of the attorney-general prosecuting by
order of the House; which latter power has been greatly extended by the
statute referred to in a former note.--With reference to the particular
transaction of Gammon with Ben Bran, narrated in a former page, viz.
_promising after_ the election to pay the Quaint Club for the votes they
had given--that alone was held, in the case of _Lord Huntingtower_ v.
_Gardiner_, 1 Barn. & Or., 297, (A.D. 1823,) not to be an offence within
the statute 2 Geo. II. c. 24, § 27. But Gammon, it will be borne in
mind, had been fatally implicated, by his negotiation with the club for
the purchase of their votes, _before_ the day of the election. The
penalties sued for in the text, are to be understood as having been due
in respect of offences committed by other cases of bribery, as already
explained, than those affecting the Quaint Club.]
[Footnote 14: NOTE 14. Page 307.
The system of joint-stock companies' speculation, as described in the
foregoing and subsequent pages of the text, so far from being an
exaggeration, falls far short of a complete illustration of the
stupendous scale of swindling which has, during the last ten or fifteen
years, been tolerated in this great commercial country. At length,
however, in the year 1844, the legislature has struck a blow calculated
to demolish the whole fabric, or, at all events, prevent any similar
erection. By statute 7 and 8 Vict. c. 110, entitled, "An Act for the
Registration, Incorporation, and Regulation of Joint-stock Companies,"
passed on the 5th Sept. 1844; and by act 7 and 8 Vict. c. 111, entitled,
"An Act for facilitating the winding up the affairs of Joint-stock
Companies, unable to meet their engagements," passed on the same
day--such restrictions are placed upon fraud and improvidence, as are
calculated to paralyze much of their powers of practising upon public
credulity. Publicity and responsibility are two objects which are
effectually attained by the combined operation of these acts, which are
masterpieces of commercial legislation.]
[Footnote 15: NOTE 15. Page 367.
_I. e._--The proctors' setting forth of their client's name and
interest.]
[Footnote 16: NOTE 16. Page 392.
See the note to a preceding page in this volume, (_ante_, p. 307,) where
an explanation is given of the salutary change recently effected by the
legislature, in the law of joint-stock companies.]
[Footnote 17: NOTE 17. Page 415.
The present punishment of bigamy [or polygamy as, says Blackstone, (4
Comm. 163,) it ought to be called] is fixed by statute 9 Geo. IV. c. 31,
§ 22, which declares the offence of bigamy (whether the second marriage
have taken place in England or elsewhere) to be a felony liable to
transportation for seven years, and imprisonment with or without hard
labor, for any term not exceeding two years; subject, however, to a
proviso that the act shall not apply to any of the following cases: 1.
The case of a second marriage contracted out of England by any other
than a British subject. 2. The case of a person marrying again where
husband or wife shall have been continually absent from that person for
seven years then last past, and shall not have been known by such person
to be living during that time. 3. The case of any person who, at the
time of the second marriage, shall have been divorced _a vinculo_ from
the first marriage, or whose former marriage shall have been declared
void by any court of competent jurisdiction.
The meaning of the second of these exceptions is, that the husband or
wife shall not have been known by the other party at any period during
the seven years to be alive. _Regina_ v. _Cullen_, 9 _Car. & P._, 681.]
[Footnote 18: NOTE 18. Page 416.
It has been recently decided (the King _v._ Inhabitants of Wraxton, 4
Barn. and Adol., 640,) that to render a marriage invalid on the ground
stated in the text, _both parties_ must be aware of the false name being
adopted. See also, Wiltshire _v._ Prince, 3 Hagg. Ecc. Rep., 332.]
[Footnote 19: NOTE 19. Page 422.
Signing is not necessary to the validity of a bond or deed at Common
Law. The essential requisites are--_sealing and delivery_. See a very
interesting explanation of these matters in Vol. ii. pp. 305 _et seq._
of _Blackstone's Commentaries_.]
[Footnote 20: NOTE 20. Page 426.
An attorney cannot be thus compelled to answer matters _which would
amount to an indictable offence_; for that would be compelling him to
criminate himself. Upon this ground, applications like that in the text
are often discharged; but it affords no protection to an attorney where
the application is, not to show cause why he should not answer the
matter in the affidavit, but why he should not be struck off the 28th
roll.--See the distinction clearly explained in the case of Stephens
_v._ Hill, 10 M. and W.]
[Footnote 21: NOTE 21. Page 490.
The law regulating the "qualification," in respect of property,
requisite to render a man eligible for a seat in Parliament, has been
recently--viz., by stat. 1 and 2 Vict. c. 48,--altogether altered. Real
or _personal_ property to the extent of £600 a-year, now gives a
sufficient qualification to a _county_ member, and to the extent of 300,
to a member for a borough.]
[Footnote 22: NOTE 22. Page 491.
The privilege of franking letters, so long enjoyed by the members of
both Houses of Parliament, has been recently abolished. After the
introduction of the penny postage system, the privilege in question was
very greatly reduced in value and importance. By statute 3 and 4 Vict.
c. 96, § 56, (passed on the 10th August 1840,) "All privileges
whatsoever of sending letters by the post free of postage, or at a
reduced rate of postage, shall, except in the cases in that act
specified, wholly cease and determine."]
[Footnote 23: NOTE 23. Page 492.
These are the abbreviations of the technical words by which are known
the two writs of execution against a debtor's _person_, and his _goods_.
The former "Ca. Sa." represent the words addressed to the sheriff,
"_Ca_pias A. B. [the defendant] ad _sa_tisfaciendum." The latter
represent the words addressed to the sheriff, commanding him "ut _fi_eri
_fa_ciat"--that he should cause to be made, or realized, out of the
defendant's goods, the amount due to the plaintiff.]
[Footnote 24: NOTE 24. Page 505.
The certificate of a bankrupt no longer depends upon the mere will and
pleasure of his creditors, but upon the discretion of the commissioner,
or judge in bankruptcy, who has become acquainted with the whole conduct
of the bankrupt, and may grant, refuse, or postpone a certificate, and
annex such conditions to a grant of it as he may think fitting. This
very important and salutary alteration of the law was effected by
statute 5 and 6 Vict. c. 122, § 39, passed on the 12th August 1842. This
power has been exercised on several recent occasions, in a manner highly
satisfactory to the public, and creditable to the acuteness, discretion,
and firmness of the court.]
THE END.
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End of Project Gutenberg's Ten Thousand a-Year. Volume 3., by Samuel Warren