If Angerona, the secret divinity said to have presided over the fate
of ancient Rome, could hear the many barbarous and unromantic names of
inns, the Isles Britanniques, the Hotel de l'Europe, the Ville de
Paris, etc., which are daily vociferated in the ancient capital of
empires, doubtless her ears would be more offended than were told,
they were formerly, on any one pronouncing her own harmonious title.
It was to the principal hospitium, however, in the Piazza di Spagna,
that the carriages of Count Lieberg and Sir Morley Ernstein took their
way in the middle of one of those winter months when Rome is fullest.
The streets were crowded with vehicles of all kinds, as the travelling
companions passed along; and so many fair English faces were to be
seen in every direction, that it was difficult for them not to believe
themselves in that part of Bond-street, where, at about four o'clock
of the day, during five months of the year, there seems to be an
inextricable impediment to the advance or retreat of any sort of
carriage whatsoever.
The first order to their respective couriers, given both by Morley
Ernstein and Lieberg after they had taken seizin of their apartments,
was to proceed to the post-office and enquire for their letters.
Lieberg, indeed, seemed the most anxious, and it is to be remarked.
that he had kept up with England a much more constant and regular
correspondence than his friend.
During the couriers' absence, however, the two comrades occupied
themselves in different ways, according to their several characters
and habits. Lieberg, with that regular attention to his own comfort
which never deserted him, proceeded to arrange the rooms, of which he
took possession, with scrupulous care of their neatness, grace, and
convenience. His books were assigned to their particular station;
trinkets and ornaments took their place upon one table; implements for
writing and drawing were laid upon another; a few small miniature
pictures of faces pleasant to the eye were displayed where they could
be seen in the best light, and, in short, in half-an-hour the room
looked as different as possible from that which it was when he entered
it, and represented as nearly as can be conceived the interior of his
lodging in Sackville-street.
Morley Ernstein, on the contrary, walked up and down the saloon, which
was common to both their apartments, with eyes fixed upon the ground,
and a sad and pensive brow. He was arranging the chamber of his own
breast while Lieberg was busy with the contents of his carriage, and
the agitation of all his feelings was too great to admit of his
attending to other things.
It may be asked, then, if Lieberg--whose passions I have represented
as intense and strong, and whose keen and active mind was always in
movement--if he had no thoughts to occupy him as well as his
companion. Yes, reader, he had; and busy were those thoughts all the
time, but their activity interrupted nothing else, for there were no
contending emotions in his breast--there was no struggle there between
good and evil--no regret for aught that had passed--no hesitation in
regard to what was to come. It is only when feeling rises up to war
with feeling, when principles combat passions, and when, from the
great battle-field of the present, our fugitive thoughts fly from both
hosts of good and evil into the wide surrounding country of the past
and the future, and struggle as they run--it is only then, I say,
that, taken up entirely with the strife within, man can attend but
little to the idle things without.
What were Morley's sensations the reader may well divine. It is true,
no new event of any importance had occurred to grieve or agitate him;
but every one must have felt, when any abiding sorrow is at the heart,
how a fresh scene will sometimes rouse it, as if from sleep, and with
it all its host of painful memories.
In about half-an-hour the courier returned with the letters. There
were several to each of the gentlemen; but the two or three first that
each of them opened, seemed to excite very little interest, for they
were read carelessly, in one instance, eliciting a passing smile, in
another, a momentary look of thought, and then cast aside. At length,
however, Lieberg came to one which brought a dark look of triumph upon
his handsome features; and after reading it twice, he folded it
carefully up and put it by, turning his bright dark eyes slowly to the
countenance of Morley, who now stood in one of the windows, perusing
with anxious attention a long letter of several sheets. The young
Englishman's brow was contracted, his lip was curled, his eye
straining on the paper. When he had read one sheet he re-read it, and
then glanced more rapidly over the second and third which seemed to be
written in another hand.
But we must turn to the first sheet, and give the reader some account
of its contents. It was addressed to Morley by his guardian, Mr.
Hamilton, and conveyed some of the most unpleasant tidings that could
meet his eye, as far as his pecuniary affairs were concerned.
"My dear Morley (the letter said), I am distressed not to know exactly
where to find you, as I have to write to you on business of a very
urgent nature. I shall, however, address this letter to Rome, trusting
that you may receive it ere long. A fortnight ago I received what I
then considered a very extraordinary application from a solicitor,
informing me that a bill in chancery was about to be filed against you
immediately, for the recovery of the estate of Warmstone Castle, your
title to which he maintained to be bad. At first I felt inclined to
treat the affair with contempt, but upon this legal gentleman calling
upon me again, I saw him, and found that several eminent lawyers had
been engaged in the affair, and consequently that it was more serious
than I at first imagined. At the same time there was a degree of
fairness about the tone of the opposite party, which induced me to
meet them in the same manner, and I have had two interviews with all
the parties in which I find they ground their claim upon the following
assertions. You are aware, I dare say, that your father became
possessed of Warmstone by purchase from a Mr. Barham. The sum given
was ninety-three thousand pounds, and the title at the time seemed
perfectly good. A will, however, and deed of settlement is now
produced, showing that this Mr. Barham did not succeed to the estate
as his father's direct heir, but under this will and settlement, by
which the estate was strictly tied up. The father left but one son,
indeed, the person who sold the estate to your father, but that son at
the time the will was signed was married and had a child, and the will
strictly limits the estate to that child and his children, appointing
in a diffuse manner certain contingent provisions for younger
children, with which we have nothing to do. The youth who now claims
the property is the grandson of the person who sold the estate to your
father, and the papers necessary to prove his claim were discovered, I
hear, by a Mr. Carr, with whom I well remember your father once had a
severe dispute concerning what he believed to be a very nefarious
transaction in which poor Lady Malcolm suffered severely. Thus, as the
character of the finder of this document is undoubtedly very bad, and
the young man himself not the most prepossessing person in the world,
I naturally concluded that the will might be manufactured. The parties
gave me every opportunity of examining the document with my own lawyer
and yours; and your friend, Mr. Wills, whose eyes you know are very
sharp where your interests are concerned, remembered that there is an
old clerk still living who belonged to the house, the name of which is
upon one of the documents. This clerk, after some difficulty, was
discovered, and, I am sorry to say, he remembers distinctly having
seen the will itself, when it was submitted on some legal point to the
house with which he served his time. I have at once caused the whole
case to be laid before the highest legal authorities, and send you
their opinion. You will see that they believe you could keep the
claimants out of the estate for years, but must yield at last, as the
case is quite clear. It is for you to decide; but I think I know how
you will act. The worst part of the whole, however, is still to be
told: the estate has been in possession of your family for thirty
years, and though the fault lies not with you or yours, but in the
fraudulent conduct of the man who sold it, you are held to be
responsible for all the rents which have been received, and which now
amount to more than a hundred and fifty thousand pounds. You would
recover the ninety-three thousand pounds with interest, if the man who
sold the estate had left any effects; but the present claimant comes
in as heir of entail, and his grandfather who illegally sold the
estate died in poverty. Perhaps a composition may be entered into in
regard to these back rents, and, at all events, we must obtain time
for the payment, as, I believe, that after the purchase of the small
estate in Sussex, there remained no more of the guardianship account
than fifty thousand pounds, and it would take ten years of the whole
rents of the Morley Court property to clear off the sum still unpaid.
Unauthorized by you, I have of course not been able to act; but I beg
of you to write to me at once, giving me your own views."
The banker went on to consider the subject in various ways, but the
terrible fact remained, that one estate was virtually gone, another
deeply encumbered, and that all the long and careful savings of his
minority were to be swept away at once.
What was the effect upon Morley Ernstein? Very different from that
which might be supposed. The first blow was undoubtedly startling; he
looked round like one bewildered; re-read what Mr. Hamilton had
written; and then turning to the legal opinions inclosed, perused them
accurately. They confirmed but too fully the account which his banker
had given, and Morley Ernstein made up his mind in an instant. After
the first stunning effect of the intelligence was over, it seemed to
give him strength and energy; and merely telling Lieberg that he must
instantly answer the letter he had received, he quitted the room, sent
for his writing-desk, and applied himself busily, and with a steadfast
mind, to put down, in a letter to Mr. Hamilton, the resolutions which
he had immediately taken.
"My dear Mr. Hamilton," he said, "I will never defend an untenable
cause. The present case is one in which it is very difficult, if not
impossible, for the law to deal justly with both parties, and proves
the utter absurdity of the axiom, which we hear so continually
repeated by lawyers, that according to English law there is no wrong
without a remedy. A notorious and shameful fraud was evidently
committed in the sale of the Warmstone estate to my father, and in the
concealment of the entail. The law has now only to judge which must
suffer--myself, or the persons on whom it was entailed. Perhaps it is
right that I should be the victim; but, at all events, a wrong is done
and suffered somewhere. You have my full authority to concede the
whole question, to give up Warmstone to the rightful owners, and to
make the best arrangement that you can for paying the back rents with
as little inconvenience as possible. All that I have in the funds must
be immediately sold out for that purpose; but you say that there will
still remain about a hundred thousand pounds to be paid. Morley Court
I will part with on no account--not an acre of it; and the other
little estate in Sussex, if sold, would still be but a drop of water
in the ocean. What I propose, then, is this: immediately to cut off
every superfluous expense, and to live as so many do, comfortably and
happily upon the rents of the Sussex estate--seven hundred and thirty
pounds per annum, I think we made it. This is not poverty, my dear
sir, though the change is certainly great to me, but still I can
endure it without a murmur. The Morley Court estate I propose to place
immediately in the hands of trustees, for the purpose of paying off
the debt. In the first place, the house and grounds must be kept up in
the most thorough repair; the game must be properly protected; none of
the old servants or labourers must be discharged. I would rather
deprive myself of every superfluity than such should be the case. As
near as I can recollect, not having my accounts with me, these charges
amount to about eleven hundred per annum. That paid, there will still
remain between nine and ten thousand per annum, to discharge the
amount now claimed, and in eleven years it will be done. I have a
considerable sum with me here, in money and letters of credit; but
there are various things to be paid, some old people and pensioners to
be provided for, and thus I shall soon get through that which I have.
I think these proposals are so fair that they will not be refused,
especially if by any chance one of those extraordinary coincidences,
which sometimes cross us in life, has occurred in this instance, as I
am led to suspect by some words in your letter. Is the young man you
mention a fair-haired, pale-faced lad, with a look of sickly
dissipation about him? If so, I rather imagine I once saved him from
the gallows, and it is his sister, in regard to whom I wrote you a
long epistle. Shakspeare says that our bad deeds turn round and whip
us; but it would seem that our good deeds do so too, if I am to lose
almost all I possess in consequence of having interposed between this
youth and destruction. I am sorry to say that owing to the uncertain
course I have pursued, your letter has been lying here for two
months;"--and Morley went on to enter into the details of the changes
he intended to make in his own mode of living, and to give directions
for all the necessary papers to be forwarded for his signature as
speedily as possible. When he had concluded, he returned to the
saloon, where he found Lieberg seated near one of the windows, gazing
forth in meditation.
"I am afraid, Morley," said the latter, as soon as he heard his
friend's step, "that you have had bad tidings from England."
"I have," replied Morley. "You are a strange reader of human
countenances, Lieberg. I thought I had guarded mine so carefully that
no emotion could be apparent."
"It is my belief," rejoined Lieberg, "that everything that seems
extraordinary may be accounted for with the most perfect ease; so that
there is not a miracle, from the creation of this world down to
Aaron's voracious walking-stick, which ate up the walking-sticks of
all the Egyptians, that could be explained to us in a single word,
only that poor fool Eve, after having eaten half the apple, stopped
short in a fright, and was not wise enough to make even one good meal
of the tree of knowledge. See how everything that we think strange
becomes ridiculously simple when it is explained. You judge me a great
reader of countenances; now, I never looked at your face at all, but
merely read my letters while you read yours, and there found news
which of course has reached you."
"That I have lost a considerable property," replied Morley, "and have
to pay back rents to an immense amount."
"And are you aware to whom?" demanded Lieberg.
"I suppose, from the similarity of the name, and from the description
of my friend, Mr. Hamilton," Morley answered, "it is to that William
Barham of whom you and I know a good deal."
"To be sure," rejoined Lieberg, with his eye flashing; "I felt certain
that something of the kind would happen at the time."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Morley, with much surprise; "how so?--why so?"
"Because," replied Lieberg, with his lip curling, "I never saw a man
caress a scorpion, or put a viper in his bosom, that, sooner or later,
he was not stung. Would to God I had hanged him!"
"I am much obliged to you for your kind interest," replied Morley,
with a melancholy smile; "but if the thing was destined to happen at
all, I am well pleased that it is as it is--not for the sake of that
weak and vicious young knave, but for his sweet sister's sake.
He will only use his fortune ill; but she will, of course, come in for
a part, and thus be placed in a station for which she was evidently
intended by Heaven. But now, Lieberg, let us speak of something more
immediate. I am sorry to say our companionship must soon end, as I
have assigned the greater part of my property to pay off this
unexpected debt, retaining to myself not more than seven hundred
a-year; all my expenses must, of course, be curtailed, and I can no
longer afford to travel in the way that befits you."
"Nonsense, Morley," replied his companion; "you can very easily reduce
your expenditure to the scale required, without depriving me of the
pleasure of your society, or yourself of the gratification and
advantage of travelling with so pleasant and instructive a companion
as myself. You can diminish your whole host of lackeys, send your old
grey-headed friend to England, and keep the most useful of your men.
Get rid of your courier, in the very first place, both because you
don't want him, one being quite enough for you and I; and, secondly,
because he is a very bad one, while mine is the best that ever cheated
a master, bullied an innkeeper, defrauded a postilion, or gave a hint
to a bandit. Then, as for the rest, we need not travel more rapidly
than suits your purse; you shall pay for whatever additional horses
are necessary to my carriage, in consequence of your being with me,
but, of course, no more; and, I can assure you, all this may be done
upon even less than you propose. Try, at least,--try for a few months!
If you refuse to do so, I shall conceive that you take advantage of
this circumstance to draw off your forces."
Morley felt that he could not refuse to make the experiment, though he
certainly had misgivings; but he steadfastly and strictly held his
resolution of curtailing all his expenses, from that very moment. He
explained to his servants, that he had met with a severe loss, and
though a younger and more active attendant might have been preferable,
in many respects, yet he retained no one about his person, but old
Adam Clay, knowing that the good man would feel pained not to serve
him, even though he were to pension him off, and leave him to spend
his latter days in peace. His carriage he immediately ordered to be
sold, and for want of knowledge how far his limited income would go,
denied himself, at first, many an indulgence which he could very well
afford. He divided his expenses into weeks, and almost into days, and
bound himself down to all those small and narrow economies which are
always a painful thing to a generous mind, and are only to be
compensated by the internal satisfaction of doing that which is just
and right.
Upon the whole, the circumstances in which he was so suddenly placed,
proved beneficial to the heart of Morley Ernstein. He had other
subjects for thought given him, besides the bitter disappointment
which he had endured. He had now matter for activity, energy,
determination, self-denial. He had to keep his spirit from repining at
petty evils, he had often to struggle with his inclinations upon small
points, and that habit gave him power to strive more successfully on
greater occasions.
The conduct of Lieberg towards him was, apparently, all that was kind.
At first, while he knew that the weight which had been suddenly cast
upon his young friend, had produced a great reaction of the mind, he
tempted him in no degree to go beyond the limits of a strict economy;
but as the immediate effect wore away, he certainly did cast
inducements in his companion's path, to spend money which might have
been spared. Two or three times, too, when tempted suddenly, Morley
forgot his altered circumstances, and yielded without consideration.
He bought things that were unnecessary, he gave an order which he was
sorry for but would not rescind; and Lieberg with pleasure saw a
probability of leading him to overstep the bounds of the income he had
left himself, and plunging him into difficulties which might bring on
more false steps to remedy.
For the present, however, Morley was safe; for the sum which he had
brought with him from England, was so much larger than he required, on
his reduced scale of expenditure, that he could fall back upon it at
any moment, though he did so with regret.
Thus passed a month in Rome; and though Morley Ernstein often thought
of Juliet Carr, and wondered whether she was or was not in the same
town with himself, he met her not in public or in private, while the
period of his stay in Rome wore rapidly away.