"Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!"
_Hamlet._
"Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye"
_Macbeth._
The Court had been opened, and was crowded with lawyers, petit
jurors, witnesses, and excited spectators. A criminal trial of
such interest as the present one had not occurred there for years;
and the business in the Civil Courts had virtually been adjourned,
so great was the determination of the pleaders therein to be present,
and witness the conducting of a case so calculated to call forth
the powers of the renowned and venerable advocate. All conspired
to show that an extraordinary scene was to be enacted there that
day. The Judge was more than usually grave, attentive and deliberate;
the Crown Prosecutor wary, and complete in his preparations; the
legal, technical, and clerical grounds of exception and demur,
before the Crown was allowed to take up the burden of proof, were
entered and explored by the advocate, as one who reconnoitres before
committing his feet to dark and dangerous precincts, where any one
of his advancing steps may prove to be fatal.
And now the case had been laid before the jury, and the witnesses
for the prosecution, each as he testified touching the fearful
crime laid to the charge of the prisoner at the bar, were being
subjected to the terrible ordeal of a cross-examination by the
advocate; who all eye all ear appeared, as in his earlier days;
quick to detect, prompt to demand, stern to insist, at watch and
ward at every point; so that his client seemed to have found in
him an irresistible champion, and the crowd, to all of whom he was
familiar, considered his success as certain, just as the veteran
soldiery anticipate a triumph from the General, who has so often
led them to victory that they deem him to have become invincible.
But to the thoughtful and more observant, at times he showed signs
of preoccupation, strangely at variance with his present undoubted
supremely master mood; and as the trial proceeded these fits of
wandering from the point increased in duration and intensity. An
anxious expression settled on his countenance; his usually energetic
but measured movements when he was thus engaged became irregular
and nervous; and he frequently cast glances towards the entrance,
as if expecting the arrival of some one; and twice in the midst of
withering cross-examinations, stopped short at the sight of
individuals elbowing their way through the crowd; gazing upon them
enquiringly and with an air of expectation, until, passing, they
became embedded in the serried mass of spectators; when, with a
look of disappointment, he resumed his task, and again with consummate
talent and characteristic vigor, did battle for his client, whose
dark distinction in the dock went nigh unnoticed, from the settled
attention bestowed on his defender, just as the prominently exhibited
prize is sometimes overlooked and temporarily forgotten, in the
observation compelled to the rare skill shown by the competing
players.
But whilst the father was thus tasking every power of his trained
intellect, and crowning his career with forensic fires, that now,
in the evening of his genius, burned even more signally, than they
had done in the midst of its meridian splendors;--whilst thus
calling upon his great gifts, that, like to antique jewels brightened
by abrasion in the wearing, shone yet the more from the polish of
experience; and while lending a legal learning that, as a rapier
which, ever ready and ever in requisition, has acquired no rust,
was the more available from long practice combined with intuitive
tact;--whilst all this was passing in high and public court, the
ignoble son was awaking in a low lodging; weary and stiff after
the raid of the past night, anxious and timid from a sense of guilt,
and fearful of a future calling to account. His first wish was to
discover whether his sire was yet informed of the disappearance of
his ward. He knew that his father was retained in the trial which
had been fixed for that day, and had there been any whom he could
conveniently have sent to ascertain whether or not the advocate
was in court, he would have despatched one thither, but he could
prevail upon none about him to go for love, and money he had none
to offer. His mother, alarmed at her master's discovery of the
participation by Narcisse in their successful conspiracy, and not
knowing where to find the latter, had despatched a messenger to
the lodging of their bold and insolent accomplice, Alphonse Duchatel,
requesting him to warn her son to avoid his father during that day.
But the messenger failed to find him, and Narcisse at last arose,
dressed, and, prompted by a curiosity that overcame his apprehensions,
approached the Court House.
Meantime the advocate, tortured by increasing alarm, and with his
imagination filling with tragic touches the picture of the possible
fate of Amanda, had lost both recollection and temper; and for the
first time when conducting a cross-examination, had been not merely
baffled, but successfully bearded and insulted by an irritated
witness, to relieve himself from whom, he was obliged abruptly to
bid him leave the box. The occurrence stung him to the quick, though
he strove to hide his chagrin;--no wonder. Taken at disadvantage,
and in a moment of weakness, the old pleader was obliged to perceive
that the wager of mental duel between himself and the witness had
been decided against him; and to feel that, in an unsought encounter
and fair affray, he had been publicly worsted. To add to his
mortification, the witness walked from the box with the air of a
conqueror, and cast an insolent look of triumph around the court
and upon his antagonist, whose discomfiture was so signal as to be
evident to judge, jurors, witnesses, spectators, all. Still more
to increase the advocate's perturbation, the heat of the court had
become excessive, and the rebuff--which, at an earlier period of
his career, and with an unwounded heart, would have provoked only
such a grim and threatening smile as a powerful wrestler might
wear, when, in the careless security of proud contempt, he had been
thrown by a boy--now, in the self-esteem of age and the anguish
of bereavement, moved him almost to madness. Seizing his gown, he
half cast it from his form, regardless of decorum, and stood the
picture of misery, rage, and scorn.
Just then the court arose for a brief recess. Glad to breathe for
a moment the fresher air, the spectators retired, the jury returned
into their room, the sheriff and the crown prosecutor sauntered to
their respective offices, the panel of petit jurors escaped in a
body, the prisoner withdrew from the front of the dock, and sat
unseen, pondering his chances between the gallows and an
acquittal;--even the criers of the court abandoned their posts,
and the younger members of the bar, who usually gathered round the
advocate on these occasions, greeting him with pleasant compliments,
and polite and reverent attentions, seeing him thus moody, drifted
to the lobby, and in it paid court to some other, and secondary
legal luminary who was there holding his levee. For awhile the
advocate was left alone; then, emerging through the large folding
doors into the corridor or lobby, now cumbered with the gossipping
groups, through which he passed, solitary and in his gown, like
Caesar in his robe passing through the midst of the conspirators,
he proceeded past the doors of the offices occupied by the various
crown officials. None spoke to the old man, he spoke to none, but
his breast burned in agony, and a cloud was on his brow, like the
smoke that wreathes around the crater of a volcano. His eyes seemed
to shoot forth sparks, and his lips were muttering. Anger and sorrow
were upon his face, but, turning a corner in the building, he was
now hidden from the view of the multitude, and strode along the
main corridor towards the huge double staircase that, midway therein,
wound down to the dim entrance hall, that was divided by ponderous
doors from the esplanade between the building and the busy street.
A low, massive balustrade guarded the bridge-like portion of the
corridor that hung between the heads of the twin flights of stairs,
and whence, on looking down, was seen the paved abyss below.
Approaching this part, what did he behold but the truant Narcisse,
unconscious of his presence, ascending one of these flights of
stairs. At the sight of him the gloomy elements of his soul seemed
to flash within him and explode, rending all resolution of restraint,
and leaving him a puppet of some destructive power, as he stood
eyeing his son's approach, as the cat eyes that of the marauding
mouse, motionless, allowing the culprit to draw near, until,
detected, he stood, too nigh to retreat, too terrified to advance,
and, as the fascinated bird drops into the open jaws of the serpent,
fell resistless into the grasp of the advocate's extended hand.
Then, as the firedamp when met by the miner's candle must explode,
or as the liberated lightning must rend the cloud, though the latter
be near Jove's throne, so the frenzied father, regardless, nay,
forgetful, of the place, the time, the occasion, of himself and
natural ties, assailed the scared Narcisse, clutching him by the
throat with the strength of a maniac, and pushing him backwards
against the balustrade, and holding him there transfixed, while,
with eyes seething with wrath beneath the blanched, and big,
umbrageous brows, and showing like a sudden opening of the infernal
pit, he cried: "Demon, degenerate dog, where hast thou been walking
to and fro in the earth? whom helping to devour? Ah, son of Satan,
ah! Aroint thee, Imp, Abortion."
[Illustration: "Demon! degenerate dog! where hast thou been walking
to and fro on the earth?"]
The astonished wretch strove to reply, but terror and strangulation
forbade him; and the enraged parent, like an incarnate storm, at
arm's-length shook him, as the dog shakes the rat which it has
caught, or the lion its prey; and each moment the shuddering youth,
hearing his father's deep curses, and stiffening with horror, was
urged further and yet further over the abyss, and still with aimless,
outstretched arms, and disparted, claw-like fingers, strove to
clutch the advocate's gown; while with upturned and beseeching eyes
starting from their sockets, and still half on the balustrade and
half in air, with nothing but the grasp of his adversary retaining
him, he hung, while the arm that held him quivered, and surged
uneasily from side to side, as if irresolute whether to plunge him
or to draw him back; until a growl of satisfaction, followed by an
execration, gurgling in the advocate's throat, announced the coming
climax: the arm was jerked outwards, the clenched fingers unclutched
themselves, like an automaton's, and the miserable mannikin tumbled
with a yell down to the stones beneath. An instant all was silent,
then a faint groan rose from the bruised form, that the next moment
lay on the bloody flags a senseless corpse. Drawing a loud sigh
of indescribable relief, after his fearful and protracted agitation,
the advocate--and now murderer--stood glaring downwards with fixed
eyes and yet clenched teeth; then, sickening at the horrid sight
which loomed beneath, turned and leaned for support against the
balustrade over which he had cast his child. Hearing the noise of
the scuffle, some stragglers from the mixed crowd on the lobby came
running to the spot, and one enquired of the advocate if he were
seized with a sudden sickness. But he only pointed downwards to
where lay his ill-fated victim; and shook his head, looking all
woebegone, in mad, mute misery. Astonished, some descended, and
bearing the body up the stairs, laid it on a bench that stood
against the wall, and opposite its destroyer; while a still increasing
and motley multitude, including jurors, witnesses, constables,
criers, counsellors, clerks of the court, crown prosecutor, sheriff,
and lastly, the judge himself, hurrying, gathered round the scene
of the catastrophe. A surgeon who happened to have been subpoened
upon the current trial, opened a vein, but the blood refused to
flow; and a barrister, stripping himself of his gown, threw it over
the body as a pall. No one dared enquire the origin of what he saw,
until the judge arriving, demanded: "Who has done this?"
"I," feebly answered the advocate, ghastly pale, and yet leaning
for support on the fatal balustrade. Alas! what a change! His
countenance was grown haggard, and his white hair hung dishrevelled
about his collapsed visage, like icicles round the pinched countenance
of Winter. Despair was in his look, and he uttered the name of
Amanda, and gazed bewildered around him, as if awaking from a
sorrowful dream; and now began to whimper, to gaze upon the pall-like
gown, and now to call upon the spirit that had flown--as a scared
bird from a bush--forth from the body that lay beneath it.
"Narcisse," he feebly cried, "Narcisse, my son,--for thou wert
yet my son,--Narcisse, Narcisse," he reiterated piteously; and the
Sheriff advanced in his purple gown, and girt with his golden hilted
sword, laid his hand on the shoulder of the old man, the lately
proud advocate, but now wretched culprit, as a sign of his being
put under arrest. But none else moved; the Sheriff himself shrinking
from ordering the constable to give effect to the signal. All seemed
transfixed with pain or chained with horror, as in tremulous tones
of touching tenderness the slayer continued to call upon the dead.
"Narcisse, my son, my son," he cried in agony; "Oh, I have killed
thee, child; oh, thou art dead, dead, dead.--But thou didst steal
thy sister; yes, I know thou didst; ay, that thou didst, and hast
delivered her to dishonor, therefore have I killed thee. Come,
Amanda, come hither, dearest, and behold thy brother; behold thy
father, see what he has done, and all for thee. Yes, I did it, all
you curious crowd. Amanda, oh, where art thou? let me see thee ere
I die: Amanda dear, Amanda;" and at the words, Amanda, leaning on
the arm of Claude, and followed by the elder Montigny and Andre
Duchatel, appeared upon the corridor, a sweet smile playing upon
her features, and hastening forwards she fell upon the neck of her
guardian, who was still leaning against the balustrade, pale,
haggard and forlorn. Her companions, restrained by astonishment
and fear, gazed aloof and mute, whilst the wretched criminal, eyeing
them with a look of misery and suspicion, in a tone of inexpressible
sadness at length exclaimed:
"Come you to see me, then, before I die; do you come to triumph
over me, Seigneur Montigny? Look, see there, but do not touch it,
for it is abhorred, abominable, a foul spirit, a black imp of hell.
Amanda, art thou found?--Do not tremble, girl, do not weep; my
daughter, child, for, without a figure, thou art my daughter; art,
to the very letter, love, my child. Oh, we have much to tell each
other; see what I have done--but hear me, then condemn me. Oh,
Amanda, it is bliss to see, to feel thee here;--but here, here in
this breast is sadness. I have been a rash and hasty fool, a madman,
if you will, but no, no murderer; we kill mere vermin, we exterminate
rats, roaches; and what worse than that is this which I have done.
Pshaw, he was a reptile, a black beetle that came flying against
me. He, my son! Oh, slander, where wilt thou not cast thy slime?
the thing that the deceitful, wily woman palmed upon me, he my son,
thy brother? preposterous conception. Yet sad has been the creature's
end; and sad, sad, sad, I felt this morning when I left my home,
with a presentiment which seemed to say, that I should never enter
it again; and that presentiment is now fulfilled. Fate urged me
on. Unnatural hate has pushed me to the ledge, and now I sink to
lose myself in the abyss. Oh, foul fate! this deed foul, foul!
Fair, fair Amanda, close thine eyes on this enormity; or be content
to see it, yet not understand it, for knowledge here would surely
drive thee mad."
"Oh, sir, am I not mad, delirious?" enquired Amanda: "Oh, my kind
guardian, my good angel, more than father, friend. What have you
done? you have done nothing evil!" and she sobbed upon his bosom,
and Claude stood transfixed and silent, until his eyes meeting
those of the advocate, he demanded passionately:
"Sir, what may this mean; what horrible allusions drop like venom
from your tongue; whence comes this change; tell me, I charge you,
sir, why are you now so shaken, so wandering in your noble intellect,
even mad; you whom I left this morning, sad indeed, yet sane?"
"I do not know whether I was sane or not when I did what I have
done, or whether I am so just now; but for this scene, which must
appear most strange to you, see there what shall explain it all,"
replied the advocate; and the gown was partially withdrawn from
the corpse by one of the spectators, and Claude with his male
companions gazed upon it aghast, whilst Amanda turning away in
terror and uttering a feeble moan, hid her face in the old man's
breast.
"How has this happened?" Claude demanded at last with a voice hoarse
and guttural with abhorrence; and the advocate shrugging his
shoulders cynically replied:
"A bruise, a fatal fall; strange that he should have died of it.
It has been said, the lower in the scale of being, the higher the
tenacity of life. Yet here is an inferior intelligence dies of as
little corporeal damage, as might a poet or a philosopher. There
is no certainty in speculation, for by this experiment it has been
proved, that the bulls-eye in the stable window, in falling is as
fragile as the palace's clearest pane of crystal. Who would have
thought it? A dunce, that no one would have branded for having
brains, has from a mere tumble given up the ghost. Bury him, bury
him; I am sorry for it, but cannot howl," and at these last words
a howl was heard from below, and soon Babet Blais came rushing
along the corridor, wringing her hands, and frantically demanding:
"Where is he, where is my boy, my sweet Narcisse?" and threw herself
upon the corpse of her son. The advocate looked on with a bitter
smile, and when he beheld her covering with kisses the cold, coarse
features, exclaimed: "How these things love each other!--but when
he was alive she would give him the food out of her mouth, draw
for him the blood from her veins, sacrifice the immortal soul in
her body with lies and patent perjury and crookedest excuses, if
so was that she might screen him and his faults, deceiving
me.--Beshrew thee, woman!--but wherefore should I curse thee? thou
art what thou wert made to be, even as I am that which I was made
to be, a desolation and a miserable man:" and when he ceased Babet
started from her knees, and, looking on him with new born fierceness,
cried: "Monster, not master; man killer, son killer,--oh, you have
killed my own, my dear Narcisse! murdered my son, my boy, my child,
my only joy:" and she again cast herself upon the body, and, with
her face nestling in the dead bosom, sobbed and wept aloud.
The advocate seemed softened, and, looking at Claude, demanded:
"Who is there that shall not fulfil his fate? for this I was born,
and for it I shall die." The sheriff again essayed to remove him,
but he sank at his touch, as the dust of an ancient corpse falls
before the breath of the outer atmosphere, and with mortality
moulding his visage: "Stay," he said, "let me die here; death has
arrested me, he needs no warrant." A spasm passed over his face,
his frame slightly quivered; and looking beseechingly at Claude,
the latter bent tenderly over him, and he thus began: "It were
foolish in me to suppose that you have not heard of my irregularities.
You will not be astonished, then, when I call this girl my child,
no longer my mere ward, but mine own child, so late acknowledged.
Amanda, child,"--and his voice faltered, while he spoke with
increasing difficulty,--"will you acknowledge me in this disgrace,
receiving with the name of father that of felon? Mona Macdonald is
your mother, to whom I have promised marriage till my way down to
perdition is paved with broken oaths, as false as her love was
true, and as hot as was the fire which fell from heaven, when Elijah
strove with Baal's prophets, and that licked up the water in the
trench, as did those burning oaths of mine so often dry up her
tears. Give me your hand, Claude; Seigneur Montigny, give me yours.
I see a change within you towards this lady. Stand not between her
and your son, as you would wish no sin to stand betwixt yourself
and Heaven at Judgment." Then in a low tone meant only for Claude's
ear, he whispered, gasping:
[Illustration: "Quick, I am dying: bend over me: let me perceive
your breath, for I am blind."]
"Think all I would have said, if there were time, and we were
happier. Farewell for ever; I cannot tarry, neither would I do it
now. I have outlived myself by near an hour, for I was not myself
when I performed this deed." And again a spasm passed over his
frame, his eyes grew fixed and glazed, and he earnestly exclaimed:
"Gather near me all who love me, and all to love whom is my duty.
Quick, quick; for a film overspreads my eyes, the throes of death
are tearing down this frame. Quick, I am dying. Bend over me; let
me perceive your breath, for I am blind. Bend, bend;--stoop yet
lower; I cannot feel you, for each sense grows dull; stoop lower
yet.--Oh, soul, why all this haste? Amanda, Claude, poor, missing
Mona, I have somewhat more to say to you; quick, listen, listen,
or it will be too late. Pshaw! pshaw! it _is_ too late, too late,
too late!" And his head fell backwards, and with his arms clasped
convulsively around the necks of Claude and Amanda, the advocate,
like his son, was a corpse. On the following day both of them were
laid in the English burying ground, but no stone marks the spot,
and in vain the stranger seeks to discover it. None are able, or
care, to point it out, restrained by a superstitious awe. A few
octogenarians still remember him, and look grave and shake the
head, when questioned as to the story and fate of the talented and
terrible Advocate of Montreal.
END