Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow.
KING RICHARD III.
It was not until long after noon of the day of trial that Affidavy
woke from the stupefaction into which he was plunged by the cup he
had so craftily qualified; and then it was some time before he could
summon his recollection, and conceive where he was. He found himself
in a cell obviously of the prison; for the single window that lighted
it was strongly grated, and the door fast bolted on the outside.
There was a bed hard by, in which, as was apparent from its
condition, some one had passed the night; but who that might have
been he knew not, no one being now visible. As for himself, he found
that his couch had been nothing better than the hard floor; and close
by where he lay, he discovered a pool of coagulated blood. He was
seized with alarm, and finding the door refuse all egress, he ran to
the window, and beheld in the yard which it overlooked, a sight that,
besides filling him with new terror, conveyed an inkling to his mind
of his true situation and its cause. This was nothing less than the
dead bodies of two men, lying stiff and gory upon a bench, without
even a cloth to conceal them from the light of day.
"Botheration, and God bless my soul!" he cried, "I'm a ruined man!"
"Done up,--as clean as a skinned eel," said a voice at his back; and,
looking round, he beheld his friend, the jailer, enter the cell, with
a grim smile on his visage, which was not much improved in beauty by
a red handkerchief, that swathed it round from jaw to top-knot. "Done
up, Teffy, my boy, as slick as a new bolt. Who'll you have for your
counsel?--or do you think of pleading your own cause? Ods bobs, you
can make a good speech;--I always said that for you."
"Counsel!--cause!--speech!" echoed the man of law;--"God bless our
two souls!"
"Amen,--or e'er a one of 'em," said Lingo, with solemn utterance;
"for I'm thinking it will go hard with one of us. Howsomever, I'm
glad to see you in your senses. Sorry you had so hard a bed of it;
but howsomever, when they hang your client up there, I'll give you
better quarters. I reckon, it will be imprisonment for life with you;
though some says, they are to try you on the capital charge of aiding
and 'betting with the tories, which is clean hanging treason."
"God bless our two souls!" said Affidavy, with an air of wo and
terror so irresistibly ludicrous, that Lingo, perceiving his
utterance failed to supply any further expressions, burst into a loud
laugh, and threw himself on the vacant bed, where he rolled over and
over, giving way to mirth and triumph together.
"Blarney and ods bobs!" he cried, after he had amused himself awhile
in this fashion; "and so you thought to come the humbug over _me_,
old Teff! Ha, ha, ha! I always said you could make a good speech, and
so you can; but as to pulling straws with Bob Lingo, why I never said
no such thing, for I won't lie for no man. How did you like the
cock-tail, with the cherry-bounce and doctor's stuff in it? Ods bobs,
did you think I could go any such liquor as that? But now you see
what you've come to,--clean done up, broke, smashed, pounded into
hominy, and cribbed under lock and key. So much for not playing fair,
and making honest snacks of the plunder! Where's them seventeen
guineas in goold? and the note for two thousand more? Oh, you old
ox-fly! would you have sucked the poor young feller's blood?"
At the mention of these valuables, Affidavy, who stood mute with
surprise and dismay, clapped his hands into his pockets, first into
one and then the other, and groaned to find them empty. "You've
robbed me, Bob Lingo!" he said.
"As clean as ever I curried a horse," said the jailer, betaking
himself to his own pockets, and displaying both the money and the
treacherous note, the latter of which he moved before Affidavy's eyes
with peculiar glee, saying,
"Here's evidence that'll be a smasher; and then the bottle of
laudanum! Oh, you old Teff," he cried, shaking his fist, but more in
exultation than anger, "when you mean to p'ison any of your friends,
don't you go for to get the p'ison the same day; lay it up a month
before-hand. Ods bobs, if you wasn't as poor as a rat, I'd have an
action ag'in you on my own account, for an attempt to murder. But,
ods bobs, I do think now you look like a singed cat,--I do,
Affidavy!"
Here he burst into another roar, having indulged which, he rose, and
satisfied with the terror he had inflicted, proceeded very coolly to
inform the discomfited prisoner that his case was not so bad as he
thought; that he had not 'blowed him' yet; and that he didn't know
whether he would, for he was a merciful man in his way. "I smoked
you, Affidavy," said he, "as soon as I heard you talk of _your_
client, and saw you show that 'ere guinea,--'specially when you fell
so much in love with me of a sudden, and with the jail here. I sent
Hans after you, and he saw you ride out on the prisoner's horse; and,
ods bobs, I thought of sending some so'diers to dog after you; but
they was all out in the bushes already. Then I went to the doctor's
shop, to get some laudanum for an aching tooth, and said he, 'Vy
there's Affidafy has peen pying laudanum for an aching tooth,
too!'--Oho! said I; and then, old boy, I was ready for you. And you
see the end! while you was lying snorting here like a corn-fed pig,
we was knocking the tories on the head at the yard-gate. And then we
had the coroner on 'em, and you no wiser; and the magistrates and all
the town inquiring into the fuss, and you no wiser; and there,
indeed, there's your client, poor fellow, they're trying in court as
hard as they can, the evidence all over, the speeches half done, and
still, Affidavy, my boy, you no wiser. Ha, ha! I do think you look
like an apple-dumpling that's tumbled out of the pot, and staring up
out of the ashes!"
"Well, Bob," said Affidavy, with an attempt at a laugh, that ended in
a groan, "I knock under to you: you've beat me hollow. But now, if
you please, and with many thanks to you for not blabbing, I'll take
that wallet, and the guineas; and as for the silver, why I don't care
if you keep it."
"No, I reckon not," said Lingo, with a grin. "But, I'm thinking,
you'll just take the silver yourself, and be thankful I let you off
so easy. What, man, do you suppose I'll run the risk of defending you
from a prosecution--a criminal prosecution, d'ye see--by holding my
tongue, for nothing? Don't go to be such a fool."
"Well then," said Theophilus, with a groan, "do as you like, and let
me out."
"Not so fast, neither," said Lingo; and then added, with a nod of the
head, "I reckon there's more of the shiners where these come from?"
"Well," said Affidavy, "what then?"
"Why then," said Lingo, "I don't care if I run a risk with you, and
go snacks."
"Will you?" said Affidavy. "Then, ehem, humph!--You know what I mean;
and there's a thousand a-piece on that note!"
"The ready, old boy, the ready! hang all your paper promises; I go
for the ready."
"Well then, let me out, and I'll state the case to one we know of.
But, I fear, the ready's not to be had--We'll take a second note of
the prisoner."
"Ods bobs! are you there with your notes still? Now if you come to
that, I reckon I can do all that without assistance, and no snacks
neither. And so good by to you."
With that the jailer, giving the attorney another nod, flung out of
the cell, taking good care, however, to lock the door behind him;
leaving Affidavy to suspect, as he did, that Lingo was resolved to
manage the case, and reap the harvest, on his own account.
"Oh the villain!" sighed the disconsolate attorney. "But I'll be even
with him yet. Let me see--hum--good! the rascal is already
implicated, having concealed my--faugh! So he will not dare to accuse
me now. Well, I'll see through it by and by. That cursed laudanum! I
do think it has turned my brain into a dough-cake--Very well--Was
there ever such an ass!--That I should let such a jolterhead get the
upper hand of me!--I wonder what's the matter with my ribs!--Nothing
to drink!--no, botheration, nor to eat, neither.--Very well, Bob
Lingo; I'll remember you."
He then sought to relieve the perplexity of his mind by walking
about; but the excessive and unnatural debauch had bereft him of
strength, so that he was soon compelled to sit down upon the bed,
where he found the stupor, which had not yet entirely deserted his
faculties, returning and growing upon him, in spite of all his
efforts to resist it. In a word, he became again very drowsy, and
fearing lest some additional evil should befall him if caught again
napping, he rose up and looked from the window, to divert his mind
from its lethargy. He saw, from the ruddy hue of the sunshine on the
neighbouring roofs, and the golden tinge of the floating clouds, that
the day was already declining; by which he perceived how long he had
already slept, and wondered that, after such a siege of slumber, he
should so soon feel any inclination to sleep again. But, while he
wondered, he found the clouds and house-tops blending their outlines
together on his vision, while the hum of the village grew confused in
his ear. He stalked about again, then again sat down on the bed;
when, fearing lest that should seduce him into slumber, and being
incapable of remaining longer upon his feet, he betook himself to a
corner, where he sat down on the floor, pursuing his meditations; and
there, after much nodding, musing, and scratching of head, he fell,
in spite of all efforts to the contrary, fast asleep.
He slept long and soundly; and the shadows of night had been long
gathered over the earth, before certain sounds in the narrow
apartment, mingling with his dreams, imparted to them the horrors of
nightmare, and then suddenly dispelled them. He was awakened by a
human groan, hollow and sepulchral, but so loud that he deemed it was
breathed just at his ear; and looking up, he beheld a spectacle that
caused his hair to bristle with terror. It was, as he perceived, dark
night; but a lamp, standing upon a little table near the bed, poured
a dim and ghastly light over the cell, sufficient to reveal the few
objects it contained. Upon the bed sat a tall man, in his night-gear,
with a visage of death-like hue, and eyes staring out of his head,
which he rolled now to the right hand and now to the left, as if
gazing upon objects invisible to the attorney; although Affidavy was
accustomed to declare afterwards, when good cheer made him
communicative, that he distinctly saw at the right hand of the sick
man, and not fifteen feet from himself, a figure as of a man swathed
in a bloody sheet, that stood gazing the other in the face, and
gradually melted into the obscurity, as he himself surveyed it more
intently. Be that as it may, there was enough of the ghostly and
terrific in the appearance and expressions of the sick man, to keep
the attorney cowering with fear in his corner, without any addition
of horrors from the world of spirits; and accordingly, Affidavy sat
looking on and listening, without the power to move, or even to rise.
The sick man continued to roll his eyes, occasionally uttering deep
groans, and now and then muttering expressions that showed the horror
of his mind, without, at first, clearly disclosing the cause.
"Ay, wave your hand," he heard him say, as if addressing some phantom
revealed only to his own senses; "wave your hand, and point to the
bloody throat: it was well aimed, boy, well aimed, and it was well
done. I care not for _you_: it is the other that moves me; for him I
killed with a lie, and there he sits smiling! His face is black and
swollen, yet he smiles; his arms are bound behind, yet he smiles; a
rope is round his neck, yet he smiles.--Ay, smile, boy, smile! that
smile is heavier on my heart than the frown of the soldier!--A smile!
men would call that poor revenge; but we, boy, ha, ha! we know
better!"
He then fell back upon the bed, and lay for a moment quiet; so that
Affidavy had leisure to recall his spirits, and penetrate the
mystery, which had at first so deeply appalled him. His first thought
was, that he was enclosed with some wounded refugee, captured in the
toils to which he himself had unwittingly brought him; but
remembering presently that he had seen two bodies stretched in the
yard below, and had good reason, from Lingo's expressions, to believe
the third man had made his escape, he perceived that this must be
some prisoner of an earlier date; and he knew that, the night before,
there were but three in Lingo's charge. With the person of the
unfortunate Hyland he was already well acquainted, and Dancy Parkins
was, it might be said, his old acquaintance. His thoughts reverted
immediately to Sterling, whom he had never seen; and he remembered,
at the same time, that Lingo had hinted to him the ease with which he
might weaken this man's testimony, if that were desirable, by
convicting him of insanity. "Oho, the dog, Lingo!" said he to
himself; "he has shut me up with a madman then? Now, if he should be
dangerous, God bless our two souls!--Ha! there, he's rising again!
God bless our two souls!"
"They are gone then?" muttered the wretch, in whose sunken features,
hollow voice, and altered spirit, one would with difficulty have
recognised the humorous, bold, and reckless adventurer; "they are
gone; but it will not be long. Hah!" he added, fixing his eye, with a
fearful stare, upon the vacant wall, "you come again, and frowning!
Yet I fear not: other men have shed blood, and lived happy. It is not
for you, but for the other--him that lies across my feet smiling!
Hah, what!" he screamed, rather than said, as his eye, wandering
towards the foot of the bed, suddenly fell upon the figure of
Affidavy, in his corner, now cowering low with terror, "are there
_three_? Devil! you lie!" he exclaimed, leaping out of bed, "there
were but two--him that I shot, and him that I killed with false
witness. Ha, ha, ha! these are juggling fiends! devils of
legerdemain! that make a man worse than he is! You look me in the
face--Well! I look back:--do you think to fright me? Look at me then,
and say, if you dare, that _I_ hurt you!"
And with these words, he advanced towards Affidavy, who now perceived
that his right arm was swathed in bandages across his breast, as if
maimed by some injury. But his left hand he brandished with menacing
gesticulation, and his countenance was covered with a ghastly frown;
so that Affidavy feared nothing less than that he should be
immediately torn to pieces. From this apprehension, which deprived
him of the power of raising a finger in self-defence, he was relieved
by the sudden appearance of the jailer, who, entering the cell with
an oath, seized upon the madman, and shook him with violence, until
he groaned with pain, suffering himself to be pushed back upon the
bed.
"I'll have the law of you, Bob Lingo!" said the attorney, starting up
from an ecstasy of fear to lanch into a tumult of rage; "I'll have
the law of you, you villain! and what's more, I'll chouse you out of
your fees and bribes,--your cheating and tampering with the prisoner,
Hyland Gilbert: he's an innocent man, you rascal, and you know it!
and here's this man Sterling has avowed the murder himself."
"Ods bobs!" said Lingo, "what do you mean?"
"I mean what I say," cried Affidavy, whom rage, the desire of
requiting upon Lingo some of the disappointments he had himself
endured, and a sudden prospect that seemed to open on him of
retrieving his lost fortune, had restored to the possession of his
faculties. "I mean, that my client, Hyland Gilbert, whom you cheated
out of my services, is an innocent man; and that there lies the true
criminal. He has confessed the whole matter; murder and
perjury--murder and perjury, you villain! do you hear that? and I'll
make him depose the particulars, you cheating, covetous, conniving
rapscallion! and so chouse you out of all your expected fees, you
rascal! botheration, I will!--Harkee, you Sterling!" he said, now
advancing boldly towards the object of his late fears, "you've
blabbed all, and so you may as well confess at once. I overheard all
you said; and my testimony will settle the matter; so, for the good
of your soul, confess. You're a dying man; the devil's as good as got
you already--you'll not last a day longer; so confess, confess, and
don't damn yourself for ever, by hanging an innocent man. What! do
you pretend to deny it?" he continued, adopting a course of
persuasion founded on what he had witnessed of the prisoner's
hallucinations--"do you see that young man there, with the bloody
throat, frowning? Look--I know him well--it is young Harry Falconer!"
"Ay," said Sterling, rolling his eyes to the wall; "but where is the
other?"
"Why, they are hanging him; and all because you swore falsely against
him."
"Is he alive yet?" muttered Sterling; "I thought he was dead. Send me
a priest, and I'll confess."
"A priest! A magistrate, you mean."
"It is all one--I am a dying man; there is something wrong
here,--_here_," he murmured, striking his forehead. "I will do
reparation--ask me what you will; but drive Henry Falconer out of the
room; ay, and take that young Hawk off my feet--he chills them to the
marrow."
"It was _your_ pistol killed Henry Falconer?" cried the lawyer.
"Ay; I shot him over Gilbert's shoulder. I fired at both; either
would have served me. But who was the _third_ one? Old Falconer did
not die!"
"A justice of the peace, Lingo! do you hear?" said Affidavy, grinning
with triumph. "I reckon I'll sort you, you covetous, cheating dog!"
"Come, squire, don't be mad," whispered the jailer, with two or three
significant winks: "We'll go snacks yet."
"What, you rascal, do you think to bribe me to keep silence? Oho! you
cormorant, I've got the play now in my own hands; and we _won't_ go
snacks: I work on my own foundation. You've heard the man's words
here; deny them if you can. Send for a squire, or refuse at your
peril: I'll bawl out the window, and raise the town."
"There's no need of being contractious," said Lingo, coolly. "I sent
Hanschen for old Squire Leger an hour ago; for I reckon I was a
leetle before you! The man asked for him of his own accord, while you
was a snoozing in the corner; for it's a gone case with him, and he
knows it."
The lawyer was petrified at this announcement; it was a new and
mortal disappointment; for he designed to make profitable use to
himself of his discovery; and to complete his confusion, the door was
opened at that moment, and Hanschen entered, ushering in the worthy
Schlachtenschlager, whom he had lighted upon by accident, after
searching in vain for the other magistrate, after whom he had been
sent an hour before. The attorney groaned; with one hand he grasped
the Squire's extended palm, and the other he shook in the face of
Lingo, who grinned, and winked, and nodded at him, with the most
provoking good-humour. But Affidavy was not a man to be disheartened
even in such an extremity; he no longer dreaded an exposure of his
extra-professional services on the prisoner's behalf; and he
perceived that there was still a field, although a narrow one, on
which to display his zeal. Trusting therefore to his skill to make
his client sensible of the full merit of his labour, he addressed
himself to the task of shriving the discovered felon, with a tact and
sagacity that were soon perceived to be as useful as they were really
indispensable.
It was found that Sterling was in a very critical state, his bodily
powers being completely wrecked, and his mind so much unhinged that
he could scarce answer two consecutive questions without wandering.
The causes that had brought him to this condition it was not easy to
imagine, unless by supposing he had received some fatal internal
injury during his struggle with Oran Gilbert; or by referring all at
once to the horror of mind with which, it seemed, he had been
affected from the moment he felt himself a homicide. A homicide he
was, as was soon made apparent; for being led on and assisted by the
questions of Affidavy, he confessed, without any reluctance or
attempt at equivocation, that he had sworn falsely in regard to the
exchange of pistols betwixt himself and Hyland, such exchange never
having taken place; and that he, and no other, had shot the pistol
that killed young Falconer. The reasons for this act were but
imperfectly developed; and the strongest seemed to be a bitter hatred
he had conceived against the deceased, in consequence of an indignity
offered him long since in the theatre, from which he had been hissed,
chiefly through Falconer's instrumentality. Such a cause for
vengeance may be understood by those who remember the rivers of blood
poured out at Lyons, ten years after, to satiate the rankling fury of
a Collot d'Herbois. It will be remembered in what manner he
volunteered, while in the swamp with Oran Gilbert, to take the life
of this unlucky youth; as well as the attempt he made upon it the
following night, in the park, when he discovered him struggling with
Hyland. It appeared, besides, that after having rendered himself into
the hands of the pursuers, and confessed his true name and character,
the reckless lieutenant pursued him with divers jests and jeers,
which were the more intolerable that his quarrel with the Gilberts
had left his mind in a state of furious passion; and an additional
incentive was offered by the scuffle between the two rivals, in which
any execution of vengeance would be so readily imputed to accident,
if traced to him at all. He succeeded beyond his expectations; the
object of his hatred lay a corpse before him--but from that moment
Sterling was another and a changed man. His mind was filled with
horror--not remorse, for to the last he testified nothing like
penitence--but with a nameless and oppressive dread, which was
increased tenfold by the reflection that this act had, or would in
the end, deprive a second fellow being of life, that second being the
unfortunate youth whom an extraordinary accident had imbued with a
belief that he was himself the murderer. Hence the singular turn of
his testimony, and his attempt to throw a doubt upon the prisoner's
guilt; until the sudden discovery of the damaged pistol struck him
with a fear, until then unfelt, for his own safety. He dreaded lest
his own weapons, which had been taken from him immediately after the
catastrophe, and from which, in the agitation of his spirits, he had
forgotten to remove the evidences of guilt, should be examined, and
thus suspicion diverted upon himself. To prevent this, he invented
the falsehood concerning the exchange, and thus screened himself from
suspicion, at the expense of a second act of murder. But from that
moment his horror became insupportable; and after struggling with it
in vain, and becoming persuaded that his own fate was drawing nigh,
he summoned Lingo, made a deliberate confession of his villany, and
desired that his deposition might be taken, before his madness, of
whose approaches he seemed conscious, should render reparation
impossible.
It was now taken, and with difficulty, but it was conclusive; and so
intent became all present upon the strange and impressive story, and,
after it was concluded, so eager were all to confirm it by inducing
repetitions of the most important circumstances, that even the sudden
sound of fire-arms on the square, followed by the outcries in
Hyland's cell, were unheard and unnoticed, until Hanschen suddenly
rushed among them, with the intelligence, as he expressed it, 'that
there fas murdter going on in the Hawk's room.'
All started up, leaving Sterling to rave, perhaps to die, alone, and
made their way to the prisoner's apartment, where Colonel Falconer
was found weltering in blood in the arms of Elsie and his son, a
rifle-bullet having penetrated his side, and lodged in the body; and
it was soon gathered, from the remorseful expressions of Hyland, that
it had been shot by a refugee--the last act of friendship that could
be rendered to a helpless and hopeless comrade.
"It was shot by Oran Gilbert," said Elsie Bell, "for there is none
left but him! Yes, Richard Falconer, I said it would come sooner or
later! It is well for you, too,--you will not see the death of your
son's murderer!"
"He is innocent!" said Affidavy, snatching at his client's hand.
"Botheration, my boy, we've found the true murderer! He has
confessed, and you are an innocent man. The pistol was shot by
Sterling! We'll clear you, or secure a free pardon."
"By Sterling!" murmured Colonel Falconer. "Then, oh heaven! then is
my son guiltless of his brother's blood!"
"I am, father, I am!" said Hyland; "but, wretch that I am, my madness
and folly have killed my father!"
"I die content.--I will do you justice, my son--I am not so faint as
before--They shall carry me to--to--I forget--it is no matter--Well,
well"--
With these words he fell into a swoon, in which he was at first
esteemed dead; but a surgeon having been sent for, and now entering
the cell, he declared, upon a hasty inspection of the wound, that it
was by no means mortal, and that there was every reason to
prognosticate a speedy recovery. The sufferer was then carried to the
inn, and put to bed; but with no such assurances of life as had been
pronounced in the prison. A consultation was called, the result of
which was a more rational declaration, that his days were already
numbered.