We must now beg leave to retrograde a little in regard to time: and,
in order to bring every character in our story to the same point, must
turn for a while to a personage of whom we have heard nothing since
the day after Edward de Vaux's arrival at Morley House.
The beautiful world in which we live, the multitude of blessings by
which we are surrounded, and that beneficent ordination by which the
human mind in its natural state is rendered capable of resting
satisfied with whatever portion is allotted to it, would make the
earth that we inhabit an Eden indeed, if Satan had not supplied us
with easy steps to lead us to misery. Our passions form the first
round of the ladder; then come our follies close above them; then
follow next our vices; these, with brief intervals, are succeeded by
crimes; and all beyond is wretchedness. Every crime, too, is prolific
in miseries--its legitimate children--who not only return to prey upon
their proper parent, but ravage far and wide the hearts of thousands
of others. Not only is it on the grand scale when the glory-seeking
felon calls the dogs of war to tear the prostrate carcass of some
peaceful country, and, by his individual fault, render millions
wretched; but each petty individual crime, like the one small seed
from which mighty forests spring, is but the germ of gigantic and
incalculable consequences; and no one knows to what remote and
unforeseen events each trifling action may ultimately lead: no one can
tell to whose bosom the error he commits may not bring despair, or how
many hearts may be laid desolate by the sin or the folly of the
moment.
The father of Edward de Vaux--for to him we must now turn--had gone on
in the usual road by which small errors grow into great crimes. He had
committed follies, and yielded to passions. Passions had hardened into
vices, and vices had ultimately hurried him beyond what he would at
first have dreamed possible for a reasonable creature to perpetrate.
In the story we have heard told by the gipsy, the part that he had
acted was in no degree overdrawn by the narrator, though there were
some secrets in Lord Dewry's breast alone, which neither, indeed,
justified nor even palliated his crime--for such deeds admit not of
palliation,--but which showed, at least, that the crowning act itself
was not accompanied by many of the circumstances which seemed to
aggravate it. Overwhelmed by a debt that he could not pay,
disappointed of relief from a source that had never before failed, Mr.
De Vaux had set out from London to meet his brother in a state of mind
which approached insanity, and was, in fact, despair. Hardened by many
years of vice, he had retained very few of those Christian principles
which had not been wanting in his early education; and there remained,
certainly, not sufficient virtue of any kind to make him view an
escape from disgrace, by an act of suicide, as any thing unmanly or
infamous in itself. He had determined, then, either to obtain from his
brother the full sum he demanded, by whatever means might suggest
themselves at the moment--threats, supplications, or remonstrances--or
to terminate his own existence on the spot,--principally with a view
to avoid the shame he anticipated in London if he could not discharge
his obligations, but partly, also, with a savage desire of inflicting
bitter regrets upon his brother for the obduracy of his refusal.
As the most retired spot for executing this purpose, he had chosen the
point where we have seen that he had waited his brother's coming; and
there a busy devil, that had been stirring at his heart all the way
down, renewed its suggestions with tenfold importunity. He saw before
him some of the rich lands of Lord Dewry; he saw them smiling with the
promise of abundance; all seemed happy in the world but his own heart;
all seemed prosperous but himself. His brother, notwithstanding his
late loss, appeared in his eyes peculiarly blessed; and again and
again the fiend within asked him what right by nature had his brother,
because he was the elder, to the sole possession of all those
advantages which, the same evil spirit lyingly told him, would have
kept him from vice and misery, had they been equally divided between
them? His brother arrived while he was in this mood. The first means
he employed to obtain what he wanted were entreaty and persuasion; and
when these failed, he had recourse to threats and violence. Lord Dewry
retorted with reproach and reprehension; and his brother, in a moment
of frantic passion, brought the curse of Cain upon his own head.
The agony of remorse was the first thing that succeeded; but
self-preservation and the enjoyment of that which he had so dearly
purchased, became the next considerations, and he bent all the
energies of a keen and daring mind to that purpose. He mastered his
own feelings, both bodily and mental; and, after returning to London
with a degree of speed and perseverance that killed the horse which
bore him, he overcame both personal fatigue and anguish of heart, and
showed himself on the evening of his return at two private parties and
one public place; and, what is more, he showed himself with a smiling
countenance and an unembarrassed air. But when it was all over--the
examination of the facts, the taking possession of the property, and
the removal of those who could betray him--the excitement which had
been caused by danger passed away; that bubble, the hope of happiness
without virtue, burst under his rude touch, and left his heart to
remorse for ever.
Knowing that he must often see his brother's child, though at first
the sight was full of agony, he forced himself, by a great effort, to
endure it, till he had overcome the pain by habit; and at the same
time the lingering remains of some better feelings in his heart made
him look upon every generous or kindly thing that he could do towards
her as an act of atonement for the crime he had committed.
Such were some of the motives, or, rather, such were some of the
facts, which had influenced Lord Dewry in all his actions for the last
twenty years. For a time, indeed, he had affected gayety which he did
not feel, and mingled in society which had lost all charm for him; but
the revellings of the never-dying worm upon his heart's inmost core
would make themselves felt, and gradually he drew back from the world,
gave himself up to solitude and stately reclusion, forgot what it was
to smile, and only mingled with his fellow-men to pour forth upon them
the gall and bitterness that welled from an everlasting source in his
own bosom.
Remorse, however, was not the only fiend that preyed upon his heart:
fear, too, had its share. We have said, and said truly, that he was
corporeally as brave a man as ever lived: he knew not what bodily fear
is; but that is a very, very different affection of the complicated
being, man, from the mental terrors, the daily doubts, the hourly
apprehensions, that crowded upon him in solitude and retirement.
Corporal pain, the simple act of dying, he feared not, and there yet
lingered in his mind some faint traces of his early faith, suggesting
vague ideas of atonement made for man's crimes, which led him to
believe that the anguish which he suffered below might be received in
place of repentance, and procure him pardon hereafter; so that, on
ordinary occasions, he felt no tangible dread even of the awful
separation of soul and body. But this was not all: the torturing
uncertainty of his fate was a bitter portion of his curse. He knew
that there were two men in the world who could, at any time, doom him
to disgrace and death; or at least, if, by the precautions he had
taken, their success in any attempt of the kind had been rendered
doubtful, yet their knowledge of the dreadful secret of his state
rendered all that he possessed--honour, fortune, rank, even existence
itself--precarious; and he felt, as he looked around him, that he was
living in a gilded dream, which the next moment might vanish, and
leave him to misery and despair.
At first, when, perhaps, it might have been in his power to implicate
the gipsy as the murderer of his brother, and, by pursuing him as
such, to have crushed one strong source of evidence against himself,
two powerful causes had operated to deter him from such a course. He
knew that Sir William Ryder, though implicated by accidental
circumstances in his crime, was of too generous a nature to connive at
any further evil to which the desire of concealing it might lead him.
But it would be doing him injustice not to say that he himself had
shrunk from the very thought. His heart was not hardened enough for
that: he felt that there was too much blood upon his hand already; and
although the idea did cross his mind, yet at that time remorse was
stronger than fear, and even had Sir William Ryder not existed, he
would have chosen rather to bear apprehension than a greater load of
regret.
Time, however, had now altered such feelings; he was accustomed to
remorse, but no time can harden the heart to fear; and the first
imagination which crossed his mind, when, at the end of twenty years,
he again saw the gipsy, was to destroy him. The reader may recollect a
conversation in the beginning of this work, wherein Pharold detailed
the particulars of an interview he had had with the peer; and it may
easily be conceived, that from that interview Lord Dewry perceived at
once that the moment was come when he must try his strength with those
who had the power to injure him, and silence them for ever, or yield
for ever to his fate; and with a strong determination, but a mind
fearfully agitated, he instantly resolved to crush those he feared, if
human ingenuity, backed by wealth, and power, and a daring
disposition, could accomplish such an object.
Such had been the state of his mind when he so unexpectedly visited
the house of Mrs. Falkland, and found new cause for apprehension in
the conversation of Colonel Manners. But his coming thither had not
for its sole object to meet and welcome his newly-returned son. He had
learned, by instant and close inquiry after the gipsy had left him,
that parties of his race had been seen lying in the neighbourhood of
Morley Wood, with the view, it was supposed, of poaching on the open
and ill-protected grounds in that district; and suspecting, from his
conversation with Pharold, that on the refusal he had given, Sir
William Ryder himself might return to England, he hastened over to his
sister's house, which lay within a few miles of his property of
Dimden, in order, if possible, to pursue means of destroying the
actual witness of his crime, before the arrival of the only other
person who even suspected it.
Let it not be supposed--although there were in reality no means at
which Lord Dewry would now have hesitated to effect his purpose--that
he deliberately, and boldly, and undisguisedly proposed to his own
heart to bring about the gipsy's death. No, no: the great power of
evil is too well aware how horrible his naked suggestions are, not to
furnish them with a veil, flimsy enough, it is true, but still
sufficient to cover some part of their deformity. No! Lord Dewry
only proposed--at least, he cheated himself into thinking so--to
detect the gipsy or his comrades in some unlawful exploit, which might
give an excuse for removing them for ever from the country, and at the
same time might render any evidence they might tender against himself,
not only suspicious, but almost inadmissible.
The severe laws in regard to poaching, and the loose and lawless
habits of the gipsies themselves, he doubted not would furnish the
means; and his great object was to discover an offence of such
magnitude, and to obtain proofs so clear, that great severity would be
warranted and the justice of the accusation undeniable. It might cross
his mind that, in the pursuit of these views, a gipsy or a keeper
might be killed, that the charge of murder might be added to that of
poaching, and that a felony might rid him of the enemy of his repose
for ever. Such a thing might cross his mind, and be viewed with no
great dissatisfaction; but, at the same time, he denied to himself
that such was his object. "No: God forbid! But, if it did happen, he
should of course take advantage of it to silence for ever the voice of
one who had been witness to the _unfortunate accident_ by which, in a
moment of hasty passion, his brother had been deprived of life, and
who seemed disposed to abuse the knowledge he unhappily possessed."
Such had been the thoughts of Lord Dewry as he travelled over to Mrs.
Falkland's house on the night of his son's arrival, and such were the
thoughts that again took possession of him as soon as the passion in
which he had left her subsided on the following morning.
"With Sir William Ryder," he thought, as the carriage rolled rapidly
on towards Dimden--"with Sir William Ryder I shall easily be able to
deal single-handed, if once I can remove his confederate. He used to
be a simple, frank-hearted, foolish fellow; but I must, by some means,
keep him from any further meeting with Edward. I have already remarked
that the boy sees there is some mystery; and a bare hint would awaken
suspicions that I would rather die than he should even dream of. But
this man--this Pharold--must be my first care; and my next must be to
procure such proofs of my having been in London at the time of my
brother's death that suspicion itself shall be silenced, if either of
the villains dare to open his lips."
The manner in which this latter object was to be accomplished became
the next consideration; but ere Lord Dewry could come to any
determination upon the subject, the lodge of Dimden Park, and the old
woman who opened the gates, courtesying to the ground as the carriage
rolled through, met his eyes, and told him that he must reserve that
matter for after-thought.
The place that he was now entering had been the favourite habitation
of his brother, where his days of happiness and sunshine had been
passed, and whence his virtues had made themselves felt and beloved
through all the country round. There were many recollections and
associations then connected with that spot which, as it may easily be
conceived, were not a little painful to the man who now entered it:
and although he sometimes visited the house, and had once or twice in
twenty years spent a day within its walls, yet he had never been able
to vanquish the distress that the sight occasioned him so far as to
live in it for any length of time. He now beheld it in a state which
added to the pain whereof other circumstances had rendered it
fruitful. It was not exactly going to ruin, for he had given strict
orders, and paid large annual sums, for the express purpose of keeping
the grounds in order and the house in repair; but those orders had
been given from a distance, and had been received with a conviction
that the master's eye would never inspect their execution very
minutely. There were long tufts of grass in the walks and on the
roads, though here and there was to be seen a faint and lazy effort to
clear away, by the exertions of a few hours, the shameful negligence
of many a day. Some of the trees, which had been felled years before,
were rotting in the long dank grass; and the fences which had been
placed to keep the deer within their proper bounds lay flat upon the
ground, overturned and broken. The road over which the carriage rolled
was channelled with deep unmended ruts; and the fine old house, with
its closed windows and smokeless chimneys, stood in its wide, open
esplanade, like the palace of damp and desertion. Lord Dewry bit his
lip, and muttered audibly, "This must be amended. The scoundrels did
not expect me to visit the place, and have been shamefully negligent.
I will send them away."
But as he thought thus, his other purposes crossed his mind, and
brought with it one of those annoying and degrading convictions which
so often follow evil actions and crooked policy. He felt that when he
was about to engage his park-keepers in an action which his own heart
told him was base, he could not dare to treat them severely for the
faults they had themselves committed; and to a proud and violent man
the restraint which he was obliged to put upon his passions was bitter
enough. As the carriage approached the house, hasty symptoms of
opening windows and unbarring doors showed that his coming had been
remarked; and as he had no ambiguous commands to lay upon the old
servants who had been left to keep the mansion in order, upon them
fell the full weight of his indignation. When the first angry burst
was over, he ordered the old man to call the principal park-keeper;
and while he was absent upon that errand, strode gloomily through the
dreary chambers, feeling his heart more dark and comfortless than even
the long-deserted apartments amid which he stood. He then called for
pen and ink, which, after some difficulty, he obtained, and wrote and
despatched the note which we have seen delivered to Marian de Vaux.
At length the park-keeper appeared, a bold and sturdy fellow, with no
inconsiderable portion of shrewd cunning in his countenance, to which
had been superadded at present an air of dogged preparation,
occasioned by the tidings of Lord Dewry's anger, which the old man had
given him as they walked along towards the house.
"Harvey," said the peer, as the man presented himself, "you have
suffered the park to get into a terrible state. I must have all this
changed. Those fences must be put up; those trees cleared away: speak
to Wilson about the road, and tell him if ever I see it in that state
again I shall discharge him; and--do not answer me, but listen; for I
came over to speak to you upon matters of more importance.--What are
you waiting for, John?"
"I thought your lordship might want me," said the old man, who had
lingered in the room.
"No, no, not I," replied the peer: "retire, and shut the door; but
take care what you are about, for in future I shall come over at
least every month; and if I find the house is not properly attended to
after this warning, you and your wife go out of it without another
word.--Now, Harvey, tell me," he continued, as the old man withdrew
with a low and deprecating bow, "have you many poachers here?"
"Why, no, my lord," replied the park-keeper, his face brightening up
to find that the anticipated storm had blown away; "we have not had
much of that work doing lately, though I dare say we soon shall have."
"And why so?" demanded Lord Dewry. "I am glad to hear that poaching is
on the decrease. What makes you think it will revive again?"
"As to revive, my lord, why, I don't know," replied the man; "but I
doubt we shall soon have more of it--so I think. It's just the time,
you see, my lord--long moonlight nights, and a good deal of the
out-door work over."
The man paused; but these were not the reasons the peer had hoped to
hear him assign for his apprehensions of more extended poaching, and
found that he must bring him nearer to the point by some direct
course. "We have a great deal of poaching near the hall," he said:
"Wise tells me that there are a number of bad characters continually
in the woods, gipsies and thieves of all descriptions."
"Ay, for the matter of that we have gipsies enough just now, too,"
replied the keeper; "and that's the reason, my lord, why I said I
thought we should soon hear of more poaching: but I did not like to
mention it, you see. Why, there, I saw no longer ago than yesterday,
up in Morley Wood, I dare say a score of them--lazy beggars! D--n
them, I hate those fellows, and so I told 'em--beg your lordship's
pardon."
Lord Dewry found that he was now on the right course; but, afraid of
pursuing the matter so eagerly as to cause suspicions which might
perhaps tell against himself hereafter, he replied with a tranquil
countenance, "It would not surprise me if these were the same that
have been plundering and poaching in a most desperate manner near the
hall."
"O, no doubt they are the same, my lord," replied the keeper; "and as
to poaching, they were at it last night, or I have no ears: I heard a
gun--I am sure I heard a gun--though I got up, and went all over the
grounds without finding them. But I heard a gun--I am sure enough of
that, anyhow."
"Oh, if that be the case," said Lord Dewry, "we must really take
serious measures for their apprehension and conviction. They once
murdered a gamekeeper, those gipsies, not far from here; and it is
dangerous to honest men to let them be in the country."
"Ay, that it is, my lord," said the keeper; "they'd murder any one as
soon as look at him. They nearly murdered me once. I wish we could get
rid of them, that I do, anyhow."
"And so do I, too," replied Lord Dewry, solemnly; "I do not like men's
lives risked continually, nor their property plundered at every turn,
solely because these gipsies are suffered to continue in the kingdom.
I declare I would give fifty guineas to any one who could convict them
in such a manner as to ensure their being sent out of the country
without fail. I do not like my people continually exposed to their
attacks."
"Your lordship is very kind and very generous," said the keeper; "and
if your lordship would really give the fifty guineas, I dare say we
could find some young fellows that would join in and take a hand in
catching them."
"But we must first be able to prove that they have committed some
offence," replied Lord Dewry, thoughtfully.
"Oh, they have committed offences enough, my lord," answered the
keeper; "and if your lordship give fifty guineas, we shall soon have
plenty to help in catching them."
The peer paused for a moment or two without any direct reply; but he
then answered, "What I have said I mean, Harvey: the fifty guineas I
would give of course to the man by whose means they were principally
brought to justice; but I would do more, and pay handsomely every one
concerned in actually taking them. Do you think they have ever shot
any of the deer?" he added after a short pause.
"No, my lord, no!" answered the keeper, fearful that blame might fall
upon himself; "I will answer for it they have not done that."
"I am sorry for it," said Lord Dewry, dryly. The man stared, and the
peer proceeded:--"I am sorry for it; because, you see, Harvey, the
offence would be the heavier, and we might get rid of them for ever if
we could prove such a thing against them; whereas this poaching,
especially if it be a first offence, will only take them out of the
way for a time, and then turn them back upon us more enraged against
us than ever."
"That's true, my lord, that's true," replied the keeper, whose
perceptions were sufficiently acute, and who began to see that his
master had a very potent distaste to the race of gipsies, although his
mind, proceeding in its habitual train, did not fail to conclude that
the peer's motives for hating them were the same which would have
actuated himself had he been in the peer's situation, namely, wrath at
their having destroyed the peculiar objects of his veneration, game,
and anger at their having outwitted him in his endeavours to preserve
it. He went no further in his investigations of his lord's designs,
though he himself had peculiar motives of his own; but, possessing
goodly powers of detestation himself, he easily conceived that the
baron would not scruple at any plausible stratagem for the purpose of
obtaining his object. "That's true, my lord, that's true," replied he;
"but do you know, I should not wonder if they did some night shoot a
fat buck upon his moonlight walk; and I dare say, for the matter of
that, we could get them to do it very soon."
"Nay, nay," cried the peer in a tone of moderation, "take care what
you are about, Harvey; for if any one were to discover that you
instigated them, you might get transported; and though of course I
would take care that none of my servants was a loser by his zeal in my
service, yet I should not like you to get into any scrape."
"Your lordship is very kind," said the man; "but I will take care that
I get into no scrape; and as to any one hearing me say any thing about
it, no fear of that, for I will never say a word to any one but your
lordship; and but little will I say even now. But I know how to manage
the matter; and if I can get some stout hands to help me and the two
under-keepers in taking the fellows, when once we have found out when
they are about the job, I'll rid the country of them soon enough--a
set of lazy, thieving beggars."
"Why, Harvey," said the peer, with a complacent smile, "you do not
seem fond of these gipsies, I think."
"I fond of them, my lord!" said the man. "No, no! I owe them an old
grudge, which I have long thought to pay. One of them nearly killed me
once when I was a younker, now near twenty years ago, just for being a
little over-civil to one of their women. I might have had my revenge
at the time; but I was weak and sick with the bruises, and I was
spoony enough to let him get off; but he'll not do so again if I catch
hold of him."
"But pray, Harvey," said the peer, "how do you propose to obtain
such information in regard to when and where these men are to be
caught--for they must be caught in the fact, remark--as to enable you
to seize them with any certainty? Do you know any of their gang
personally?"
"Not I, my lord," replied the man; "but, do you see, my lord, I know a
man up in the village, called Harry Saxon, who hears a good deal about
all those sorts of people, and I will get him just to put it into
their heads to--"
"Hush, hush, Harvey!" interrupted the nobleman, but a tone as to
express much disapprobation. "Do not tell me what you intend to do,
but merely how you are to learn when and where to catch them."
"Why, _he_ will tell me all that, to be sure, my lord," replied the
keeper. "He's a good sort of man, and won't disoblige me, I'll
warrant."
"And pray what is his usual occupation?" demanded the peer in a casual
way.
"Oh, he sells venison to the dealers in London," replied the keeper;
and then suddenly perceiving that he was on the edge of a precipice,
he added, "that is, when any of the gentlemen in the neighbourhood
want to kill off some of their bucks, he buys them and sends them up
to London. I have heard, too," he continued, seeing that his lord
listened with an unmoved countenance, as if to something of course--"I
have heard, too, that he sends up many a good brace of partridges, and
many a pheasant and a hare: but he is a good sort of man, upon the
whole; and when he knows a keeper, like, he will not let the people
poach and that upon the grounds that he keeps, and that's what makes
us have so much game here. I'll warrant the game is better preserved
here than anywhere else in the country."
The peer made no observations upon these disjointed pieces of
information; but in his own mind concluded, and not without reason,
that his keeper was a very great scoundrel. He took care, however,
neither by word, look, nor action, to suffer the man he was making use
of to perceive what sort of a character he was establishing in his
opinion; being fully resolved in his own mind, however, to discharge
him as soon after he had served the present purpose as might be found
convenient.
Deceit, like every other art, has been wonderfully perfected and
refined since first it took its origin in the rude, uncultivated human
breast. There can be no doubt whatever that when one man entertains an
opinion which he wishes to conceal from another, the first natural
effort of his mind would be to tell him the direct contrary; and much
refinement and experience in the art must have been acquired before
the necessity was ascertained of doing things more delicately, and
implying, rather than saying, that one believes another to be an
honest man, when one is sure he is a great rogue. As the world
proceeded, however, and the liberal science of deceit became so
thoroughly studied as to force one, with very few exceptions, to say,
as said the Psalmist, "All men are liars," a new refinement was
introduced, and it became necessary to know when to cover one's own
opinion by a skilful implication of the reverse, when, returning to
the original and simple mode, in plain terms to announce the direct
contrary of what one feels, and to deceive the most thoroughly by the
appearance of the utmost candour.
In the present instance Lord Dewry chose the latter means, and ended
the conversation with the keeper by saying, "Well, Harvey, well! I
believe you are a very honest fellow. There are ten guineas for you to
give the men you are obliged to employ, an earnest of their reward;
and if you succeed in catching these gipsies, so as to convict them
either of deer-stealing or aggravated poaching, you may count upon
fifty guineas and my favour, besides having all your _bona fide_
expenses paid."
The man made a low bow, though he did not understand at all what _bona
fide_ meant; and the peer with a slow step walked to his carriage. The
old man and woman who kept the house followed half a step behind,
troubling him all the way by questions concerning the superintendence
of the place, in regard to which their directions had been full and
explicit years before, but by re-demanding which they meant, as usual
on such occasions, to insinuate a justification of their late
negligence, implying that if they had been properly instructed they
would have behaved better. Short and severe were the replies of the
baron; and when the carriage-door was at length closed, and the
vehicle rolled away, he sunk into thought, feeling that at least one
part of his plan was in a fair way for execution, but feeling,
likewise, deep, deep in his heart's core, the melancholy
conviction--not the less poignant because he strove not to see
it--that one crime was lashing him on with a fiery scourge to the
commission of many more.
The house he had just visited, and the scenes through which he was
passing, had not been without their effect. They had recalled to his
mind his brother, who had there lived so long the object of his envy,
and now of his deep regret. That brother's virtues, his kindness, his
noble generosity, tried to the very utmost by his excesses and
demands, often, often returned reproachfully to his mind. All the good
and affectionate acts which had seemed as nothing while his own
passions and interests existed in opposition, and while his brother
lived, had been estimated with terrible exactness as soon as his own
hand had placed the impassable barrier of death between them; and the
sight of that house now, as it always did, recalled every memory that
could aggravate remorse, and stir into an intenser blaze the
unquenchable fire that burned his heart.
There, too, he had himself been educated from infancy to manhood; over
those lawns and walks he had played in the guileless innocence of
youth; under those trees he had sat a thousand times with the dead, in
the sweet and hopeful summer-days of boyhood. Their arms clasped round
each other's necks, or their hands locked in each other, they had
wandered in their hours of play through the calm green shades of the
park, or sat beneath the stately oak, reading some lighter book than
that appointed for their daily studies. He remembered it all well; and
many an individual day, too, would come forward from the crowd of
early memories, and stand before his eyes bright and distinct as if it
were hardly yet numbered with the past. He could call back even the
feelings of those times, the noble and enthusiastic glow of their
bosoms when they had read together some great actions, some generous
self-devotion, some pious act of friendship, some deed of mighty
patriotism; and now, what had those feelings become? In his brother
they were extinct in death, or, rather, glorifying him in a brighter
world; and with him himself they were but memories; with him it was
the feelings that were dead, while he himself lived but to remember
them. Nor was his a heart to scoff at their memory as some men might
have done. Perhaps, indeed, had his crimes been lighter--had they but
reached the grade of vices--had they been of that character which
man's blind selfishness can dress up in other garbs, and cover beneath
a light robe of wit, or of what we call philosophy, he might have
sneered at the sweet and innocent days that forced themselves upon his
recollection, and have parried all that was painful in them by a jest.
But the terrible, irrevocable, awful deed that he had committed had
been weighty enough, not only to break the elastic spring of gayety in
his heart for ever, but to leave those sweet early hours of guileless
happiness and noble feeling which still flattered him with the thought
that he had not always been base, or cruel, or depraved, the least
painful of all that series of painful things whereof his memory was
alone composed. And yet remorse mingled its poison even with them, and
perhaps rendered the agony they produced on the present occasion more
poignant, because on that point his heart was not hardened to the
lash.
He cast the memories from him as the vehicle rolled on, for he found
not only that they were painful, but that other thoughts of the
imperious present must have way; and that though he trusted by a new
crime to remove some part of the danger of his situation, yet that it
was necessary to contemplate his position in every point of view, in
order to guard against all that might happen. But here, perhaps, his
feelings were even less enviable than those from which he turned.
Personal danger, not abstract and distinct, but accompanied by shame,
and scorn, and detection, was the first image that presented itself
to his mind. To meet the hatred and contempt of the whole world,
to be exposed in a court of justice, and on a public scaffold to be
pointed and hooted at by the rude populace--to be called the
fratricide, the murderer--to undergo the horrors of imprisonment,
suspense, trial, condemnation, and execution--and to plunge, loaded
with a brother's blood and many another sin, into the wide, dim,
terrible hereafter--such were the only objects of his anticipation, if
his present schemes should fail.
Nor was it at all strange that he should feel them now much more
poignantly than at the time which immediately followed his brother's
death, though, perhaps, the years which had elapsed might have
rendered his safety less in danger now than then. But at that period
he had little time to reflect; and his whole mind had been occupied in
acting. He had seen and felt the immediate peril, and had apprehended
many a vague horror; but imagination had not had time to act--she had
not had time to call up and particularize, as she had since done with
terrible minuteness, all the awful and agonizing scenes that await the
detected murderer.
As he leaned back in his carriage, and with closed eyes thought
of all the past and all the future, the mingling emotions that
agitated his breast were dreadful indeed. Bitter, bitter
remorse--strong, lasting, never-sleeping remorse--was for the moment
paramount; and could he have seen any way of avoiding shame and death
but by new evil, he would have resigned much, he would have resigned
all, to follow it. But there was no means before him of escaping all
the horrors that threatened, but either to destroy those he feared or
to destroy himself: he had but the choice of two great crimes; and
the terrors of the endless future, aggravated by the condemnation of
self-destruction, were too great for him to think of attempting his
own life. As we have before said, it was not that he feared death; for
often in his moods of deepest despondency he thought that if some one
were to take away his life as he had taken that of his brother, it
might be received, together with his long remorse, as some atonement
for the past; but he feared to make it his own act, and to double,
instead of diminishing, the load upon his own head; and in the
desperate choice which was before him he yielded to the common
weakness of human nature, and chose that crime of which punishment was
most remote.
Such were some of the emotions which agitated his mind as the
carriage rolled on towards his usual residence; but still the picture
of them is but faint and imperfect, as every picture of agitated
feelings must be. There were a thousand shades that escape the pen, a
thousand sudden changes for which it would be difficult to account.
Nevertheless, it must not be supposed that this varying and uncertain
mood was the general state of his mind, when no outward circumstance
had served to awaken antagonist feelings. On the contrary, he was
generally firm in his despair, with remorse for the predominant tone
of his whole sensations; but at the same time, with a stern
determination to hold all that for which he had paid so deep a price,
and to defend his own safety at any risk. It was only when some
association connected with other days touched a tenderer point in his
heart, and aroused some better feelings from their sleep of years,
that the winds and the tempests dashed against the dark dwelling-place
of his spirit, and threatened to level it with its foundation in the
sand. The mood seldom lasted long, however, and, indeed, could not
have done so without driving him to phrensy; and now, as he came
within sight of the plantations that skirted his other property, he
put on a firmer frame of mind, cast doubt, and fear, and hesitation
behind him, and called up those powers of quick, decisive thought and
vigorous action which had often in former days carried him through
many a scene of difficulty and danger.
"I have been as weak as a child," he said, when he looked back on all
the feelings to which he had given way--"I have been as weak as a
child; and that at a moment when I most need manly firmness: but it is
past, and I will not easily forget myself again!"
On the next day but one, at a very early hour, Lord Dewry again drove
over to Dimden, and had the pleasure of learning, by implications and
hints from his head park-keeper, that the plan which had been shadowed
out for entangling the gipsies was in a fair way for execution; and
yet his spirit was ill at rest, for he felt that his plan was an
imperfect one, and that at a thousand points it might fail. The
gipsies might be too wary; and, at all events, Pharold was not likely
to take part himself in such a scheme. If his companions were
implicated, and he were to escape, the natural consequence would be,
that his roused-up vengeance would take the ready means of sating
itself by betraying the fearful secret that he possessed; and thus the
attempt to remove him would but bring about more certainly the danger
that was apprehended. Yet what could he do? the peer asked himself. If
he could add one other link to the chain in which he had sought to
entangle the gipsy, it might render it complete, and prevent the
possibility of his escape. But what was that link to be? He could not
tell, and yet it served him as food for stern and eager meditation as
the carriage bore him rapidly home again, after having satisfied
himself that his scheme, as far as it went, was already in progress
towards its completion.
As he drove up to the door of the house, he remarked that one of his
grooms was walking a hard-ridden horse up and down upon the gravel,
while the dirty condition of the animal bespoke a long journey. As
such sights, however, were not at all uncommon, and the horse might
either belong to the steward, or to some stranger come on a visit of
curiosity to the house, it excited but little notice on the part of
the peer, who was entering without inquiry, when one of the servants
informed him that a gentleman was waiting his lordship's return in the
small library. Lord Dewry turned a little pale; for there was a
consciousness of danger and of the uncertainty of his condition at the
heart of the peer, that caused the blood to forsake his cheek at any
announcement of a visit, the import of which he did not know. He
rebuked the servant, however, for admitting any one to wait for him
during his absence; and ordered him never to do so again, adding, that
when he expected or wished to see any one, he would always give
intimation of his will.
The servant excused himself on account of the stranger's pressing and
determined manner, motives which did not in the least reconcile the
peer to his admission; but, without any further appearance of
distrust, he walked with slow and stately steps to the library, and
throwing open the door advanced towards a table, determined not to
afford his unwished-for guest a pretext for sitting down by even
approaching a chair himself.
The stranger's person merits some slight description, and even a more
detailed account of his clothing than is required on ordinary
occasions. He was a man perhaps four or five years younger than the
peer himself, thin, light, active, with a twinkling gray eye, somewhat
too full of moisture, and a number of those long radiating wrinkles
which, I believe, are called crows' feet, decorating the corners of
the eyelids. His general complexion was white, of that dry and
somewhat withered appearance which long habits of dissipation leave
behind, when dissipation is not combined with drunkenness. In every
glance there was a quick, sharp, prying expression, joined to a
somewhat subservient smile, which was strangely enough displayed upon
a cast of countenance, the natural expression of which was
pertinacious effrontery.
His dress was well worn, and had not apparently been formed originally
of any very costly materials; but it had withal a smart cut, and a
smart look, which prevented the eye from detecting either the long
services it had rendered, or the coarseness of the stuff. It was of a
rather anomalous description, too, consisting of what was then called
a marone frock with a silver lace, a pair of buckskin breeches for
riding in, thunder and lightning silk stockings, just showing their
junction with the breeches above, and a pair of heavy boots; while
ruffles, and a frill of that species of lace which, seeming all darns
together, admits the most frequently of being mended, decorated his
wrists and his bosom.
Lord Dewry gazed at him as he rose from the chair in which he had been
sitting with a look which, if it did not absolutely express the stare
of utter strangeness, had very few signs of recognition in it. But the
other was neither to be abashed nor discomposed; and his manners,
which were those of a gentleman, softened down a good deal of the
effrontery which his demeanour displayed. Had he not been a gentleman,
and in the habit of mingling with gentlemen, his determined impudence
would have been insufferable; and even as things were, that impudence,
together with a certain affected swagger in tone and language, which
was very generally assumed by the puppies of the day, and which the
visiter caricatured, were quite sufficiently annoying, especially to
such a man as Lord Dewry. Conceiving at once that the peer was not
peculiarly delighted with his visit, the stranger advanced round the
table, and with a low bow addressed him ere he had time to speak.
"I perceive," he said, "that the lapse of time which has occurred
since we met, together with the accession of well-deserved fortunes
and dignities, and the cares consequent thereupon, has obliterated
from your memory, my lord, the person of a former friend. I must,
therefore, announce myself as Sir Roger Millington."
The peer bowed haughtily. "I once," he said, "had some acquaintance
with a person of that name; but, as you say, sir, the lapse of time
has been so great since we have held any communication with each
other, that I certainly did not expect it to be so suddenly renewed,
and far less to be favoured with an unannounced visit at a time which,
perhaps, may not be the most convenient."
"My lord," replied his companion, unrebuffed, "I am happy to find that
your lordship's memory extends to our acquaintance at least; and to
refresh it in regard to the degree of that acquaintance, I think I
could show you some letters in your lordship's hand, beginning, some,
'My dear friend!' some, 'My dear Millington!' some, 'Damn it, my dear
Millington!' with an elegant variety in the terms, whereby your
lordship was kind enough to express your friendship for your humble
servant."
Lord Dewry coloured highly between anger and shame; but he did not
feel at all the more disposed to receive Sir Roger Millington kindly
on account of these proofs of their former intimacy. He had not
forgotten, any more than his visiter, that they had once been choice
companions in both the elegant and inelegant debaucheries of a London
life; but a great change in situation, and a total change in feelings,
had made the peer as desirous of forgetting the past as the other was
of recalling it; and he hated him in proportion as he felt himself
thwarted. Sir Roger Millington, however, had calculated his game with
the utmost nicety; and once that nothing was to be obtained by gentler
means, and determined, therefore, if possible, to force him to the
object towards which he could not lead him. Such had been his motive
in the somewhat pointed and galling manner in which he had repeated
some of Lord Dewry's former expressions of regard, and he was not a
little gratified to see the colour rise in his cheek as he spoke.
Lord Dewry's reply, however, which immediately followed, was not quite
so much to his taste; for the peer also played his part skilfully; and
though, in reality, as angry as Sir Roger desired, he concealed his
anger, and replied in the same cold haughty tone. "You recall to me,
sir," he said, "days of which I am heartily ashamed, scenes of which
we have neither of us reason to be proud, and expressions which I
greatly wish could be retracted."
"I am sorry, as your lordship wishes it, that such a thing is not
possible," answered the persevering Sir Roger; "but I think, if you
will take a few moments to consider, your lordship may find reason to
change some of your sentiments. I may have become an altered man as
well as Lord Dewry; and if so, his lordship will have no cause to hate
or shun an old friend, because he once followed in a course which his
lordship led, and has since followed in his repentance. I hear that a
mutual friend of your lordship's and my own is coming to England soon,
if not already on his way from America--I mean Sir William Ryder; and
I should be sorry to have to tell him, on his return, that your
lordship casts off your old acquaintances. You had better consider of
it, my lord."
"I shall consider nothing, sir," replied the peer, "except that my
time is too valuable to be wasted in idle discourse, which can end in
nothing; and therefore I have the honour of wishing you good-morning."
Thus saying, he stood for about the space of a minute and a half,
expecting Sir Roger to leave the room; but being disappointed, he
himself turned upon his heel, with a curling lip and a flashing eye,
and quitted the library, leaving the door open behind him.
Sir Roger Millington stood for a moment or two in some embarrassment,
but at length impudence and necessity prevailed. "No," cried he; "no:
damn it, it will never do to be beaten when one has resolved on such
an attack. Curse me, if I don't die in the breach, like other heroes.
Why, if I cannot raise a hundred or two I'm done, that's clear. No,
no: I'll not stir;" and casting himself down into a chair, he coolly
took up a book and began to read.