THE EARL'S WILL.
Not a word had been heard in Keswick of the proposed return of the
old lord,--for the Earl was now an old man,--past his sixtieth year,
and in truth with as many signs of age as some men bear at eighty.
The life which he had led no doubt had had its allurements, but it
is one which hardly admits of a hale and happy evening. Men who make
women a prey, prey also on themselves. But there he was, back at
Lovel Grange, and no one knew why he had come, nor whence, nor how.
To Lovel Grange in those days, now some forty years ago, there was no
road for wheels but that which ran through Keswick. Through Keswick
he had passed in the middle of the night, taking on the post-horses
which he had brought with him from Grassmere, so that no one in the
town should see him and his companion. But it was soon known that
he was there, and known also that he had a companion. For months he
resided thus, and no one saw him but the domestics who waited upon
him. But rumours got abroad as to his conduct, and people through the
county declared that Earl Lovel was a maniac. Still his property was
in his own control, and he did what it listed him to do.
As soon as men knew that he was in the land, claim after claim was
made upon him for money due on behalf of his wife, and loudest among
the claimants was Thomas Thwaite, the tailor. He was loudest and
fiercest among the claimants, but was loud and fierce not in enmity
to his old friend the Countess, but with a firm resolve to make the
lord pay the only price of his wickedness which could be exacted from
him. And if the Earl could be made to pay the claims against him
which were made by his wife's creditors, then would the law, so far,
have decided that the woman was his wife. No answer was made to any
letter addressed to the Earl, and no one calling at the Grange could
obtain speech or even sight of the noble owner. The lord's steward at
the Grange referred all comers to the lord's attorneys in London, and
the lord's attorneys simply repeated the allegation that the lady was
not the lord's wife. At last there came tidings that an inquiry was
to be made as to the state of the lord's health and the state of the
lord's mind, on behalf of Frederic Lovel, the distant heir to the
title. Let that question of the lord's marriage with Josephine Murray
go as it might, Frederic Lovel, who had never seen his far-away
cousin, must be the future earl. Of that there was no doubt;--and new
inquiries were to be made. But it might well be that the interest of
the young heir would be more deeply involved in the marriage question
than in other matters concerning the family. Lovel Grange and the few
mountain farms attached to the Cumberland estate must become his, let
the frantic Earl do what damage he might to those who bore his name;
but the bulk of the property, the wealth of the Lovels, the great
riches which had enabled this mighty lord to live as a beast of prey
among his kind, were at his own disposal. He had one child certainly,
the Lady Anna, who would inherit it all were the father to die
intestate, and were the marriage proved. The young heir and those
near to him altogether disbelieved the marriage,--as was natural.
They had never seen her who now called herself the Countess, but
who for some years after her child was born had called herself Mrs.
Murray,--who had been discarded by her own relations, and had taken
herself to live with a country tailor. As years had rolled by the
memory of what had really occurred in Applethwaite Church had become
indistinct; and, though the reader knows that that marriage was
capable of easy proof,--that there would have been but little
difficulty had the only difficulty consisted in proving that,--the
young heir and the distant Lovels were not assured of it. Their
interest was adverse, and they were determined to disbelieve. But the
Earl might, and probably would, leave all his wealth to a stranger.
He had never in any way noticed his heir. He cared for none that
bore his name. Those ties in the world which we call love, and deem
respectable, and regard as happy, because they have to do with
marriage and blood relationship as established by all laws since
the days of Moses, were odious to him and ridiculous in his sight,
because all obligations were distasteful to him,--and all laws,
except those which preserved to him the use of his own money. But now
there came up the great question whether he was mad or sane. It was
at once rumoured that he was about to leave the country, and fly back
to Sicily. Then it was announced that he was dead.
And he was dead. He had died at the age of sixty-seven, in the arms
of the woman he had brought there. His evil career was over, and his
soul had gone to that future life for which he had made it fit by the
life he had led here. His body was buried in Applethwaite churchyard,
in the further corner of which long, straggling valley parish Lovel
Grange is situated. At his grave there stood no single mourner;--but
the young lord was there, of his right, disdaining even to wear a
crape band round his hat. But the woman remained shut up in her own
chamber,--a difficulty to the young lord and his lawyer, who could
hardly tell the foreigner to pack and begone before the body of her
late--lover had been laid in the grave. It had been simply intimated
to her that on such a date,--within a week from the funeral,--her
presence in the house could not longer be endured. She had flashed
round upon the lawyer, who had attempted to make this award known to
her in broken French, but had answered simply by some words of scorn,
spoken in Italian to her waiting-maid.
Then the will was read in the presence of the young earl;--for there
was a will. Everything that the late lord had possessed was left, in
one line, to his best-beloved friend, the Signorina Camilla Spondi;
and it was stated, and very fully explained, that Camilla Spondi was
the Italian lady living at the Grange at the date on which the will
was made. Of the old lord's heir, the now existing Earl Lovel, no
mention was made whatever. There were, however, two other clauses
or parts in the will. There was a schedule giving in detail the
particulars of the property left to Camilla Spondi; and there was
a rambling statement that the maker of the will acknowledged Anna
Murray to be his illegitimate daughter,--that Anna Murray's mother
had never been the testator's legitimate wife, as his real wife,
the true Countess Lovel, for whom he had separately made adequate
provision, was still alive in Sicily at the date of that will,--and
that by a former will now destroyed he had made provision for
Anna Murray, which provision he had revoked in consequence of
the treatment which he had received from Josephine Murray and
her friends. They who believed the statements made in this will
afterwards asserted that Anna had been deprived of her inheritance by
the blow with which the tailor had felled the Earl to the earth.
To Camilla Spondi intimation was given of the contents of the Earl's
will as far as they concerned her; but she was told at the same time
that no portion of the dead man's wealth would be placed in her hands
till the courts should have decided whether or no the old lord had
been sane or insane when he signed the document. A sum of money was,
however, given her, on condition that she should take her immediate
departure;--and she departed. With her personally we need have no
further concern. Of her cause and of her claim some mention must be
made; but in a few pages she will drop altogether from our story.
A copy of the will was also sent to the lawyers who had hitherto
taken charge of the interests of the repudiated Countess, and it
was intimated that the allowance hitherto made to her must now of
necessity cease. If she thought fit to prosecute any further claim,
she must do so by proving her marriage;--and it was explained to her,
probably without much of legal or precise truth in the explanation,
that such proof must include the disproving of the assertion made in
the Earl's will. As it was the intention of the heir to set aside
that will, such assurance was, to say the least of it, disingenuous.
But the whole thing had now become so confused that it could hardly
be expected that lawyers should be ingenuous in discussing it.
The young Earl clearly inherited the title and the small estate at
Lovel Grange. The Italian woman was primâ facie heiress to everything
else,--except to such portion of the large personal property as the
widow could claim as widow, in the event of her being able to prove
that she had been a wife. But in the event of the will being no will,
the Italian woman would have nothing. In such case the male heir
would have all if the marriage were no marriage;--but would have
nothing if the marriage could be made good. If the marriage could
be made good, the Lady Anna would have the entire property, except
such portion as would be claimed of right by her mother, the widow.
Thus the Italian woman and the young lord were combined in interest
against the mother and daughter as regarded the marriage; and the
young lord and the mother and daughter were combined against the
Italian woman as regarded the will;--but the young lord had to act
alone against the Italian woman, and against the mother and daughter
whom he and his friends regarded as swindlers and impostors. It was
for him to set aside the will in reference to the Italian woman,
and then to stand the brunt of the assault made upon him by the
soi-disant wife.
In a very short time after the old Earl's death a double compromise
was offered on behalf of the young Earl. The money at stake was
immense. Would the Italian woman take £10,000, and go her way back
to Italy, renouncing all further claim; and would the soi-disant
Countess abandon her title, acknowledge her child to be illegitimate,
and go her way with another £10,000;--or with £20,000, as was soon
hinted by the gentlemen acting on the Earl's behalf? The proposition
was one somewhat difficult in the making, as the compromise, if made
with both, would be excellent, but could not be made to any good
effect with one only. The young Earl certainly could not afford to
buy off the Italian woman for £10,000, if the effect of such buying
off would only be to place the whole of the late lord's wealth in the
hands of his daughter and of his daughter's mother.
The Italian woman consented. She declared with Italian energy that
her late loving friend had never been a day insane; but she knew
nothing of English laws, and but little of English money. She would
take the £10,000,--having had a calculation made for her of the
number of lire into which it would run. The number was enormous, and
she would take the offer. But when the proposal was mentioned to the
Countess, and explained to her by her old friend, Thomas Thwaite, who
had now become a poor man in her cause, she repudiated it with bitter
scorn,--with a scorn in which she almost included the old man who
had made it to her. "Is it for that, that I have been fighting?" she
said.
"For that in part," said the old man.
"No, Mr. Thwaite, not for that at all; but that my girl may have her
birth allowed and her name acknowledged."
"Her name shall be allowed and her birth shall be acknowledged," said
the tailor, in whose heart there was nothing base. "She shall be the
Lady Anna, and her mother shall be the Countess Lovel." The estate of
the Countess, if she had an estate, then owed the tailor some five or
six thousand pounds, and the compromise offered would have paid the
tailor every shilling and have left a comfortable income for the two
women.
"For myself I care but little," said the mother, taking the tailor's
hand in hers and kissing it. "My child is the Lady Anna, and I do not
dare to barter away her rights." This took place down at the cottage
in Cumberland, and the tailor at once went up to London to make known
the decision of the Countess,--as he invariably called her.
Then the lawyers went to work. As the double compromise could not be
effected, the single compromise could not stand. The Italian woman
raved and stamped, and swore that she must have her half million of
lire. But of course no right to such a claim had been made good to
her, and the lawyers on behalf of the young Earl went on with their
work. Public sympathy as a matter of course went with the young
Earl. As against the Italian woman he had with him every English man
and woman. It was horrible to the minds of English men and English
women that an old English Earldom should be starved in order that
an Italian harlot might revel in untold riches. It was felt by most
men and protested by all women that any sign of madness, be it what
it might,--however insignificant,--should be held to be sufficient
against such a claimant. Was not the fact that the man had made such
a will in itself sufficient proof of his madness? There were not a
few who protested that no further proof could be necessary. But with
us the law is the same for an Italian harlot and an English widow;
and it may well be that in its niceties it shall be found kinder to
the former than to the latter. But the Earl had been mad, and the
law said that he was mad when he had made his will,--and the Italian
woman went away, raging, into obscurity.
The Italian woman was conquered, and now the battle was open and free
between the young Earl and the claimant Countess. Applications were
made on behalf of the Countess for funds from the estate wherewith to
prove the claim, and to a certain limited amount they were granted.
Such had been the life of the late Earl that it was held that the
cost of all litigation resulting from his misdeeds should be paid
from his estate;--but ready money was wanted, immediate ready
money, to be at the disposal of the Countess to any amount needed
by her agent, and this was hardly to be obtained. By this time
public sympathy ran almost entirely with the Earl. Though it was
acknowledged that the late lord was mad, and though it had become
a cause of rejoicing that the Italian woman had been sent away
penniless, howling into obscurity, because of the old man's madness,
still it was believed that he had written the truth when he declared
that the marriage had been a mock marriage. It would be better for
the English world that the young Earl should be a rich man, fit to
do honour to his position, fit to marry the daughter of a duke, fit
to carry on the glory of the English peerage, than that a woman, ill
reputed in the world, should be established as a Countess, with a
daughter dowered with tens of thousands, as to whom it was already
said that she was in love with a tailor's son. Nothing could be more
touching, more likely to awaken sympathy, than the manner in which
Josephine Murray had been carried away in marriage, and then roughly
told by the man who should have protected her from every harshly
blowing wind of heaven, that he had deceived her and that she was not
his wife. No usage to which woman had ever been subjected, as has
been said before, was more adapted to elicit compassion and energetic
aid. But nineteen years had now passed by since the deed was done,
and the facts were forgotten. One energetic friend there still
was,--or we may say two, the tailor and his son Daniel. But public
belief ran against the Countess, and nobody who was anybody in the
world would give her her title. Bets were laid, two and three to one
against her; and it was believed that she was an impostor. The Earl
had all the glory of success over his first opponent, and the loud
boasting of self-confident barristers buoyed up his cause.
But loud-boasting barristers may nevertheless be wise lawyers, and
the question of a compromise was again mooted. If the lady would take
thirty thousand pounds and vanish, she should have the money clear
of deduction, and all expenses should be paid. The amount offered
was thought to be very liberal, but it did not amount to the annual
income that was at stake. It was rejected with scorn. Had it been
quadrupled, it would have been rejected with equal scorn. The
loud-boasting barristers were still confident; but--. Though it
was never admitted in words still it was felt that there might be
a doubt. What if the contending parties were to join forces, if
the Countess-ship of the Countess were to be admitted, and the
heiress-ship of the Lady Anna, and if the Earl and the Lady Anna were
to be united in holy wedlock? Might there not be a safe solution from
further difficulty in that way?