efforts of those on the lighter had not been able to raise us further.
In the midst of Vanderhoek's ravings, I thought I heard a sound above,
unlike that of the apparatus by which the bell was wrought. It was a
creaking, crashing sound, as if the bell were forcing up some heavy
piece of wood with which it was encumbered. The thought struck me
instantly that the cause of all our misfortunes lay in the drifting of
some large piece of the wreck over the top of the bell, which had got
entangled with the air-tubes and chain, and defied all the efforts of
the workmen to raise us. The creaking sound continued, and, mixing with
the whizzing of the air-tubes, the grating of the chain, and the
roarings and yells of Vanderhoek, made the scene more dismal than it had
yet been. I was in danger of my life--but momentarily redeemed, as it
were, from the precincts of eternity--every minute, from the fierceness
of the raving being beside me; and I could scarcely hope that all those
protracted efforts of the workmen would ever raise us from the immense
depth at which we were thus fixed by some great cause. I looked in the
placid face of the corpse, and wished that I were as far removed as her
spirit was from these complicated evils of the lower deep, and the
scarcely less remediable ills of the upper world. But I was soon roused
from my dark reverie: a louder crash than I had yet heard sounded over
the bell, and produced such an effect upon the excited mind of
Vanderhoek, that he roused his body suddenly, and struck a fierce blow
at me with the iron instrument he still held in his hand. He had
over-calculated his partially-recovered strength, and tumbled into the
sea alongside of the corpse. I hesitated whether I should aid him in
getting up. I saw him struggling and clinging by the garments of the
body, which he tore--so tender was the material--into shreds. As his
hold gave way, he clutched the body itself, which, sinking with his
weight, disappeared, leaving him to clamber for support round the lower
part of the benches. I could not see him drown, though I shuddered at
the danger which awaited me when he might recover his position. At that
very moment I distinctly felt the bell ascending; and a fierce whirling
and boiling of the waters rushing into the void, would in an instant
have sucked him down to rise no more, if I had not seized him by the
bushy hair of the head. In that position I held him as firmly as my
impaired strength would permit. The bell still ascended, and the buoying
power of the water kept him swimming, and made him obey my slightest
impulse. The submersion and the contact into which he had come with the
corpse had manifestly removed the effects of the liquor, and his
imploring eye was eloquent in its appeal to me to continue my grasp.
This I did while the bell continued to ascend; the light began to
increase in the yolks of glass; and the voices of the men in the lighter
greeted my ear. In a moment afterwards, I saw the light of the sun
shining red through the windows; in another moment the circle of bright
effulgence between the bell and the sea met my enraptured eye. A loud
cry of terror came from the workmen as they saw the body of Vanderhoek
swimming in the sea. They ceased their process of raising; and swinging
the bell to a side, some one got hold of the German, and I let go the
grasp of his hair. Two or three more turns of the crane brought the bell
on a level with the lighter. I sprung down upon the deck, and fell back
in a swoon.
When I recovered, I saw several people standing round me, among whom
there was an individual who claimed, for a time, my undivided gaze. He
was a tall, handsome individual, dressed in deep mournings. He had a
white pocket handkerchief in his hands, which he applied frequently to
his eyes; and he looked at me anxiously as he saw me recovering from the
effects of the syncope into which I had fallen. He was proceeding to put
some questions to me, when Mr. W---- interfered, and stated that I ought
to be allowed time to collect my energies before my mind was led again
into the subject of what I had suffered during the time we were in the
deep. I was, accordingly, assisted on shore; and, having been put to
bed, slept for several hours so soundly that I do not think a single
image of what I had seen and heard during that dismal scene occurred to
my fancy; but, when in the act of wakening, a confused influx of ideas,
all derived from the source of my sufferings, rushed into my mind, and
for a few minutes I conceived that I was still in the bell, that I heard
the sound of the air tubes, saw Jenkins fall, the corpse lying beside
me, Vanderhoek hanging by my grasp of his hair, and all the minutiae of
horrors that then encompassed me; a commotion which comes over me often
yet, like a species of monomania, when I will start up, and cling to the
bedposts, and scream for terror. It being known that I was awake, Mr.
W---- and the stranger came to me. It was their object to get an account
of all that had occurred during my descent. I gave it as nearly as I
could recollect, and, when I came to describe the appearance and figure
of the corpse of the female, I saw the stranger change colour, his frame
trembled, his lips turned pale, and he rose and walked through the room
as if afraid to listen to my narrative.
"What means this?" said I to Mr. W----, in a low tone.
"The female whose body you saw in the bell," he replied, "was the wife
of Mr. G----. He stands before you. He was saved from the wreck, and she
perished."
"Good God! and I have already given a part of the shocking detail," I
responded.
The stranger heard me, as he paced the room, returned, and sat down by
my bedside.
"I am not satisfied that it was my Agnes," he exclaimed, in broken
accents, while the tears flowed over his cheeks. "There was a
waiting-maid along with us--describe her more particularly. _I can
listen._"
As he uttered these words, I could perceive that he contracted his
nerves, his hands were clenched, and over his frame there passed a
shiver that seemed to mock the resolution to confirm the mind by a mere
physical action. I proceeded to give a fuller account of her dress and
ear-ring, the character of her face and figure, so far as I could
discover them. Every word seemed to enter his very soul. He turned round
again. There was something he wished to say, but he hesitated, trembled,
and stammered.
"Was that fair form mutilated?" he asked, at length, "O God! I picture
my Agnes torn by monsters of the deep, and hideous urchins resting on
her bosom. Yet, why do I ask knowledge that must sit for ever on my
heart, and engender visions that in the hours of night must torture my
soul, to the end of my pilgrimage in this dark world?"
I hesitated to say more; the orbless socket--the torn stump of the
arm--the limpets that clung to her skin--the bosom pierced by
Vanderhoek's mattock, were all before me, and shook my soul. But why
should I have added an artificial misery to wretchedness like his? I
would not dwell on the subject. The stranger imputed my disinclination
to satisfy his morbid desire for information to its true cause. A
paroxysm of sorrow seized him. He rose suddenly, took his hat, and,
covering his pallid face with his handkerchief, rushed out of the room.
How often have I thought of that individual! I never saw him again; but
his image is for ever associated with the vision of that corpse, shining
in the sickly green hue of the medium in which it lay. The body was
never found; he never saw it. And was it not well for him? What would
have been his agony, to have seen the beloved of his bosom as I saw her,
to have treasured up in his mind the lineaments of that face, the
harrowing minutiae of her mutilated form?
I got an account from Mr. W---- of what took place on board of the
lighter while the bell was down. It was a long time, he said, before
anything was suspected to be wrong, as the men often remain down for an
hour without a single signal coming from them. The difficulty of working
the air-pumps first roused their suspicions; and when they found that
the bell would not respond to the action of the crane, they knew at once
that it had got fixed among some part of the wreck. I need not detail
their efforts to relieve us; they are possessed of no interest; the
result is known; but who shall know, as I experienced, the horrors of
that period?
My patient, when he had finished his narrative, put his hand over his
eyes, and shuddered. I could do little for an individual thus situated;
but I visited him often, more with a view to the benefit of science,
than from any hope of rescuing him from the dominion of the power he
had, like Frankenstein, created, to satisfy a diseased craving of the
mind, and trembled at after it was formed, as he found himself helpless
and weak in his energies to exorcise it. The continued brooding of his
sick fancy over all the strange forms he had seen, produced, in a still
greater degree, a weakness of the mind itself, that is, a weakness as
regards the sane condition of the mind; for his imagination, drawing a
morbid _pabulum_ from his disease, grew stronger and stronger in its
capacity to invest the images he gloated over with more fearful
characteristics, till often, as I was informed, he started up in the
middle of the night and screamed out that he was in the present act of
suffering again all he had already experienced. But what struck me as
still more remarkable in this victim, was, that any change that took
place upon him for the better, in respect of his physical economy, was,
while accompanied by a partial release from the domination of his old
fancies, generally attended by a kind of new-born desire for another and
a new supply of his stimulant visions. This discovery I made one day,
when, as I felicitated myself on having effected a confirmation of his
nerves, by the application of a course of tonics, I told him that I
myself was on the eve of encountering all the unpleasant feelings
attendant upon the performance of a painful operation on a very
beautiful patient, whose life might too likely fall a sacrifice to her
desire to get quit of a mortal disease. His eye brightened, he held out
his hands, and supplicated me to allow him to be present, under the
assumed character of a surgeon. My refusal produced disappointment and
chagrin; and he often afterwards harped on the cruelty of my resolution
to discomfit him. He afterwards went to another part of the country to
reside with his relations; and the last notice I had of him was, that he
was seen bending his skeleton body over the blackened corpses of several
individuals who had been burnt to death in the conflagration of a large
dwelling-house in the town where he resided.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF WILLIE SMITH.
If I thocht the world would tak the least interest in the matter, I wad
tell it the where an' the when o' my birth, in conformity wi' auld use
an' wont in the case o' biographical sketches; but, takin it for granted
that the world cares as little about me as I care about it--an', Gude
kens, that's little aneuch, thanks to the industry o' my faither, that
made me independent o't!--I shall merely say, wi' regard to the
particulars above alluded to, that I was born in a certain thrivin,
populous bit touny in the south, an' that I am, at this present writin,
somewhat aulder than I was yesterday. I dinna choose to be mair
particular on the point, because I dinna see that my age has onything
mair to do wi' my story, than the ages o' witnesses hae wi' their
evidence. Bein born in the usual way, in the usual way was I
christened--(_Anglice_, baptised); but hereon hangs a tale, or rather a
dizzen o' them. My faither's name was Willie Smith, my paternal
grandfather's name was Willie Smith, I had an uncle whase name was
Willie Smith, an' twa cousins whase names were Willie Smith; an' it was
determined that I should be a Willie Smith too, in order, I suppose, to
mak sure o' perpetuatin that very rare an' euphonious family name. But,
oh, that they had ca'ed me Nebuchadnezzar, or Fynmackowl, or
Chrononhotonthologos, or ony name in the sma'est degree distinctive, an'
no that confounded ane, that seems to me to belang to every third man I
meet. It wad hae saved me a world o' misery, an' disappointment, an'
suffering o' a' sorts. It's just incredible the mischief that simple
circumstance has wrought me--I mean, the ca'in me Willie Smith. It may
appear, I dare say, a harmless aneuch thing to you, guid reader, but, my
feth, ca' ye yersel Willie Smith just for ae twelvemonth, an' ye'll find
it's nae such joke as ye may think, especially if there be half-a-dizzen
o' Willie Smiths leevin in the same street wi' ye; whilk is a' but
certain to be the case, gang to where ye like. I ken I could never get
oot o' their neighbourhood, an' mony a shift an' change I hae made for
that express purpose. I maun confess, however, that the name's no
a'thegither without its advantages. Mony a scrape I hae got skaithless
oot o', when I was a boy, in consequence o' its frequency. In the first
schule I was at, there war three Willie Smiths, besides me, an' it was
thus almost impossible, in many cases, to ascertain which was the real
delinquent when mischief had been perpetrated; an' the result was, that
the wrang Willie Smith was as often punished as the right ane; but as I,
of course, was frequently in the former predicament, I am no sure that,
if the account were fairly balanced, I wad be found to hae been a great
gainer after a'. Latterly, however, I certainly was not; for the
maister, finding the difficulty o' distinguishing between the Smiths,
an' that the course o' justice was thus interrupted, at last adopted the
sure plan o' whippin a' the Willie Smiths thegither, whenever any one o'
the unfortunate name was charged wi' ony transgression. We were thus
incorporated, as it were, rolled into one, and dealt wi' accordingly, in
a' cases o' punishment.
My schule days owre, I began the world in the capacity o' shopman to
my faither, wha was a hosier to business, and carried on a sma', but
canny trade in that line. He wasna to ca' wealthy, but he was in easy
aneuch circumstances, an' had laid by a trifle, which was intended for
me, his only son an' heir. I was now in my twentieth year, the heyday of
youth; an', why should I hesitate to say it, a sensible, judicious,
well-meanin, an' good-lookin lad, but (I hesitate to say this, though)
wi' a great deal mair sentiment in my nature than was at a' necessary
for a hosier. How I had come by it, Heaven knows; but so it was. I was
fu' o' romance, an' fine feelin, an' a' that sort o' thing, an' wi' a
heart most annoyingly susceptible o' the tender passion. It was just
like tinder, as somebody has said--I think it was Burns--catched fire in
an instant. For some time, however, as is the case with most youths, I
dare say, my love was general, and was pretty equally divided amongst
_all_ the young and good-lookin o' the other sex whom I happened to see
or meet wi'; but it at length concentrated, an' dwelt on one object
alone--(this was a case o' love at first sicht)--a beautiful an' amiable
girl, wha attended the same kirk in which I sat. I hadna the slightest
personal acquaintance wi' her, nor ony access to her society; but this
didna hinder me adorin her in my secret heart, nor prevent me puttin
doon stockins to customers when they asked for nightcaps. In short,
before I kent whar I was, I was plump owre head an' ears in love,
distractin love, wi' my fair enslaver, an' rendered useless baith to
mysel an' every ither body. Never did the tender passion so engross, so
absorb the feelins an' faculties o' a human bein, as it did those o' me,
Willie Smith the hosier, on this occasion. I was absolutely beside
mysel, an' felt as if livin and breathin in a world o' my ain. This
continued for several months; an' yet, durin all that time, I had
remained content wi' worshippin the object o' my adoration at a
distance, an' that only on Sundays, for I rarely saw her through the
week. Whan I said, however, that I was content wi' this state o'
matters, I am no sure that I hae said precisely what was true. Had I
said that I lacked courage to mak ony nearer advances, I wad, perhaps,
hae expressed mysel fully mair correctly. This was, in fact, the case; I
couldna muster fortitude aneuch to break the ice, an' yet I didna want
encouragement either. My fair captivator soon discovered the state o' my
feelins regardin her, as she couldna but do, for my een war never aff
her, an' my looks war charged wi' an expression that was easily aneuch
interpreted. She therefore--at least I thocht sae--kent perfectly weel
how the laun lay; an' if I didna mak a guid use o' the impression I had
made in my turn--for this I thocht I saw too in sundry little nameless
things--the faut was my ain, as I didna want such encouragement as a
modest and virtuous girl could, under the circumstances, haud oot to a
lover. She looked wi' an interest on me, which she couldna conceal
whanever we met, an' I frequently detected the corner o' her bright blue
eye turned towards me in the kirk. Often, also, have I seen her sittin
in melancholy abstraction when she should hae been listenin to the
minister; but could _I_ blame her, whan she was thinkin o' me? Of
_that_, from all I could see an' mark, I was satisfied.
At length, unable to endure the distraction o' my feelins langer, and
encouraged by the wee symptoms o' reciprocal affection which I had
marked in my enslaver, assurin me o' my bein on pretty safe ground, I
cam to the desperate resolution o' makin a decisive move in the
business. I resolved to _write_ my beloved; to confess my passion, and
to beg that she would allow me to introduce myself to her. This
resolution, however, I fand it much easier to adopt than to execute.
There was a faint-heartedness aboot me that I couldna get the better o';
and a score o' sheets o' paper perished in the attempts I made to
concoct something suitable to the occasion. At length, I succeeded; that
is, I accomplished such a letter as I felt convinced I couldna surpass,
although I wrought at it for a twelvemonth.
Havin faulded this letter, which I did wi' a tremblin hand and
palpitatin heart, I clapt it into my pocket-book, whar it lay for three
days, for want o' courage to dispatch it, and, in some sort, for want o'
opportunity too; for if I sent it by the post, there was a danger o't
fa'in into the hands o' Lizzy's faither--Lizzy Barton bein the name o'
my enthraller; and there was naebody else that I could think o' employin
in the business. At length, however, I determined to dispatch it at a'
hazards. There was a wee bit ragged, smart, intelligent laddie, that
used to be constantly playing at bools aboot oor shop-door, and whom we
sometimes sent on bits o' sma' messages through the toun; and on him I
determined to devolve the important mission of deliverin my letter.
Accordingly, ae day when my faither was oot, and naebody in the shop but
mysel--
"Jock," cried I, waggin the boy in, "come here a minnit." Jock instantly
leaped to his feet--for he was on his knees, most earnestly engaged in
plunkin, at the moment--and, crammin a handfu o' bools into his pocket,
was, in a twinklin, before me; when, wipin his nose wi' the sleeve o'
his jacket, and looking up in my face as he spoke--
"What's yer wull, sir?" said Jock.
"Do ye ken Mr. Barton's, Jock?" said I.
"Brawly, sir," replied Jock.
"Weel, Jock, my man," continued I, but wi' a degree o' trepidation that
I had great difficulty in concealin frae the boy, "tak this letter, and
go to Mr. Barton's wi't, and rap canny at the door, and ask if Miss
Barton's in. If she's in, ask a word o' her; and, when she comes, slip
this letter into her haun. If she's no in, bring back the letter to me,
and let naebody see't. Mind it's for _Miss Barton_, Jock, and nae ane
else. Sae ye maunna be paveein't aboot, but keep it carefully hidden
under yer jacket, till ye see Miss Barton hersel; then whup it oot, and
slip it into her hand that way;"--and here I fugled the proper motion to
Jock. "Noo, Jock," I continued, "if ye go through this job correctly and
cleverly, I'll gie ye a saxpence." Jock's eyes glistened wi' delight at
the magnificence o' the promised reward, so far transcendin what he had
been accustomed to receive. He wad hae thocht himsel handsomely paid wi'
a ha'penny, and wad hae run sax miles ony day for a penny.
Having dispatched Jock, after seein the letter carefully buttoned up
inside his jacket, I waited his return wi' a painfulness o' suspense,
and intensity o' feelin, that I wad rather leave to the reader's
imagination, than attempt to describe. It was most distressin--most
agitatin. At length, Jock appeared--I mean in the distance. My heart
began to beat violently. He bounced into the shop; my trepidation became
excessive; my knees trembled; my lips grew as white as paper; I could
hardly speak. At last--
"Jock," said I, wi' a great effort, "did ye see her?"
"Yes," said Jock, "and I gied her the letter."
"And what did she say?"
"She asked wha it was frae."
"And ye tell't her?"
"Ay."
"And what did she say then?"
"She just leugh, pleased-like; and her face grew red, and she stappit it
in her bosom, and said, 'Vera weel, my man:' and syne shut the door."
Oh, what pen could describe the feelins o' joy, o' transport, that were
mine at this ecstatic moment! She had smiled wi' delight on hearin my
name; she had blushed when my letter was put into her hands; and she had
put that letter--oh, delicious thought!--into her bosom. The proof o'
her love was conclusive. There was nae mistakin what were her feelins
towards me. Jock's artless tale had put that beyond a' doot. I was noo
put nearly distracted wi' joy. But, if the merely gracious reception of
my letter was capable o' inspirin me wi' this feelin, what degree o'
happiness could be imparted by a reply to it, and that o' the most
favourable kind? (It could be ascertained by the Rule o' Three.) That
degree o' happiness, whatever it is, was bestowed on me. In the course
of the ensuing day, I received the following sweet billet by the
postman, written by Lizzy's own dear hand:--
"Miss Barton presents her compliments to Mr. Smith, and will be happy of
his company to tea, to-morrow evening, at six o'clock."
Oh, hoo I noo langed for the "to-morrow evenin at six o'clock!" And yet
I trembled at its approach, wi' an undefined, but overwhelmin feelin o'
mingled love and shame, and hope and fear. It was just what I may ca' a
delightfully painfu' predicament. Regardless, however, o' my feelins,
the appointed hour cam round, and whan it did, it saw me dressed in my
best, and, wi' a flutterin heart, stan'in at Lizzy's faither's door, wi'
the knocker in my hand. I knocked. I heard a movement o' the sneck
behind. The door opened, and my angel stood before me. I smiled and
blushed intensely, without sayin a word. Miss Barton stared at me wi' a
look o' cauld composed surprise. At length--
"Miss Barton," I stammered oot, "I am come, according to your
invitation, to"----
"My invitation, sir!" said Miss Barton, noo a little confused, an'
blushin in her turn. "What invitation? I haena the pleasure o' ony
acquaintance wi' ye, sir. Ye're a perfect stranger to me."
"I houp no a'thegither, Miss Barton," replied I, makin an abortive
attempt at a captivatin smile. "I took the liberty o' addressin a letter
to ye yesterday; an' here's yer invitation on the back o't," continued
I, an' noo puttin her ain card into her hands. The puir lassie looked
confounded, an', in great agitation, said--
"Oh, sir, it's a mistak! I'm so sorry. It's an entire mistak on my
part. Yer'e no the person at a' I meant. I thocht the letter was frae
anither gentleman--a different person a'thegither. It's the name has
misled me. I am really so sorry." An' she curtsied politely to me, an'
shut the door.