He whom I had accompanied to the midst of the river; whom I had imagined
that I saw sink to rise no more, was now before me. Though incapable of
precluding the groundless belief of preternatural visitations, I was
able to banish the phantom almost at the same instant at which it
appeared. Welbeck had escaped from the stream alive; or had, by some
inconceivable means, been restored to life.
The first was the most plausible conclusion. It instantly engendered a
suspicion, that his plunging into the water was an artifice, intended to
establish a belief of his death. His own tale had shown him to be versed
in frauds, and flexible to evil. But was he not associated with Colvill?
and what, but a compact in iniquity, could bind together such men?
While thus musing, Welbeck's countenance and gesture displayed emotions
too vehement for speech. The glances that he fixed upon me were
unsteadfast and wild. He walked along the floor, stopping at each
moment, and darting looks of eagerness upon me. A conflict of passions
kept him mute. At length, advancing to the bed, on the side of which I
was now sitting, he addressed me:--
"What is this? Are you here? In defiance of pestilence, are you actuated
by some demon to haunt me, like the ghost of my offences, and cover me
with shame? What have I to do with that dauntless yet guiltless front?
With that foolishly-confiding and obsequious, yet erect and
unconquerable, spirit? Is there no means of evading your pursuit? Must I
dip my hands, a second time, in blood; and dig for you a grave by the
side of Watson?"
These words were listened to with calmness. I suspected and pitied the
man, but I did not fear him. His words and his looks were indicative
less of cruelty than madness. I looked at him with an air compassionate
and wistful. I spoke with mildness and composure:--
"Mr. Welbeck, you are unfortunate and criminal. Would to God I could
restore you to happiness and virtue! but, though my desire be strong, I
have no power to change your habits or rescue you from misery.
"I believed you to be dead. I rejoice to find myself mistaken. While you
live, there is room to hope that your errors will be cured; and the
turmoils and inquietudes that have hitherto beset your guilty progress
will vanish by your reverting into better paths.
"From me you have nothing to fear. If your welfare will be promoted by
my silence on the subject of your history, my silence shall be
inviolate. I deem not lightly of my promises. They are given, and shall
not be recalled.
"This meeting was casual. Since I believed you to be dead, it could not
be otherwise. You err, if you suppose that any injury will accrue to you
from my life; but you need not discard that error. Since my death is
coming, I am not averse to your adopting the belief that the event is
fortunate to you.
"Death is the inevitable and universal lot. When or how it comes, is of
little moment. To stand, when so many thousands are falling around me,
is not to be expected. I have acted an humble and obscure part in the
world, and my career has been short; but I murmur not at the decree that
makes it so.
"The pestilence is now upon me. The chances of recovery are too slender
to deserve my confidence. I came hither to die unmolested, and at peace.
All I ask of you is to consult your own safety by immediate flight; and
not to disappoint my hopes of concealment, by disclosing my condition to
the agents of the hospital."
Welbeck listened with the deepest attention. The wildness of his air
disappeared, and gave place to perplexity and apprehension.
"You are sick," said he, in a tremulous tone, in which terror was
mingled with affection. "You know this, and expect not to recover. No
mother, nor sister, nor friend, will be near to administer food, or
medicine, or comfort; yet you can talk calmly; can be thus considerate
of others--of me; whose guilt has been so deep, and who has merited so
little at your hands!
"Wretched coward! Thus miserable as I am and expect to be, I cling to
life. To comply with your heroic counsel, and to fly; to leave you thus
desolate and helpless, is the strongest impulse. Fain would I resist it,
but cannot.
"To desert you would be flagitious and dastardly beyond all former acts;
yet to stay with you is to contract the disease, and to perish after
you.
"Life, burdened as it is with guilt and ignominy, is still dear--yet you
exhort me to go; you dispense with my assistance. Indeed, I could be of
no use; I should injure myself and profit you nothing. I cannot go into
the city and procure a physician or attendant. I must never more appear
in the streets of this city. I must leave you, then." He hurried to the
door. Again, he hesitated. I renewed my entreaties that he would leave
me; and encouraged his belief that his presence might endanger himself
without conferring the slightest benefit upon me.
"Whither should I fly? The wide world contains no asylum for me. I lived
but on one condition. I came hither to find what would save me from
ruin,--from death. I find it not. It has vanished. Some audacious and
fortunate hand has snatched it from its place, and now my ruin is
complete. My last hope is extinct.
"Yes, Mervyn! I will stay with you. I will hold your head. I will put
water to your lips. I will watch night and day by your side. When you
die, I will carry you by night to the neighbouring field; will bury you,
and water your grave with those tears that are due to your incomparable
worth and untimely destiny. Then I will lay myself in your bed, and wait
for the same oblivion."
Welbeck seemed now no longer to be fluctuating between opposite
purposes. His tempestuous features subsided into calm. He put the
candle, still lighted, on the table, and paced the floor with less
disorder than at his first entrance.
His resolution was seen to be the dictate of despair. I hoped that it
would not prove invincible to my remonstrances. I was conscious that his
attendance might preclude, in some degree, my own exertions, and
alleviate the pangs of death; but these consolations might be purchased
too dear. To receive them at the hazard of his life would be to make
them odious.
But, if he should remain, what conduct would his companion pursue? Why
did he continue in the study when Welbeck had departed? By what motives
were those men led hither? I addressed myself to Welbeck:--
"Your resolution to remain is hasty and rash. By persisting in it, you
will add to the miseries of my condition; you will take away the only
hope that I cherished. But, however you may act, Colvill or I must be
banished from this roof. What is the league between you? Break it, I
conjure you, before his frauds have involved you in inextricable
destruction."
Welbeck looked at me with some expression of doubt.
"I mean," continued I, "the man whose voice I heard above. He is a
villain and betrayer. I have manifold proofs of his guilt. Why does he
linger behind you? However you may decide, it is fitting that he should
vanish."
"Alas!" said Welbeck, "I have no companion, none to partake with me in
good or evil. I came hither alone."
"How?" exclaimed I. "Whom did I hear in the room above? Some one
answered my interrogations and entreaties, whom I too certainly
recognised. Why does he remain?"
"You heard no one but myself. The design that brought me hither was to
be accomplished without a witness. I desired to escape detection, and
repelled your solicitations for admission in a counterfeited voice.
"That voice belonged to one from whom I had lately parted. What his
merits or demerits are, I know not. He found me wandering in the forests
of New Jersey. He took me to his home. When seized by a lingering
malady, he nursed me with fidelity and tenderness. When somewhat
recovered, I speeded hither; but our ignorance of each other's character
and views was mutual and profound.
"I deemed it useful to assume a voice different from my own. This was
the last which I had heard, and this arbitrary and casual circumstance
decided my choice."
This imitation was too perfect, and had influenced my fears too
strongly, to be easily credited. I suspected Welbeck of some new
artifice to baffle my conclusions and mislead my judgment. This
suspicion, however, yielded to his earnest and repeated declarations. If
Colvill were not here, where had he made his abode? How came friendship
and intercourse between Welbeck and him? By what miracle escaped the
former from the river, into which I had imagined him forever sunk?
"I will answer you," said he, with candour. "You know already too much
for me to have any interest in concealing any part of my life. You have
discovered my existence, and the causes that rescued me from destruction
may be told without detriment to my person or fame.
"When I leaped into the river, I intended to perish. I harboured no
previous doubts of my ability to execute my fatal purpose. In this
respect I was deceived. Suffocation would not come at my bidding. My
muscles and limbs rebelled against my will. There was a mechanical
repugnance to the loss of life, which I could not vanquish. My struggles
might thrust me below the surface, but my lips were spontaneously shut,
and excluded the torrent from my lungs. When my breath was exhausted,
the efforts that kept me at the bottom were involuntarily remitted, and
I rose to the surface.
"I cursed my own pusillanimity. Thrice I plunged to the bottom, and as
often rose again. My aversion to life swiftly diminished, and at length
I consented to make use of my skill in swimming, which has seldom been
exceeded, to prolong my existence. I landed in a few minutes on the
Jersey shore.
"This scheme being frustrated, I sunk into dreariness and inactivity. I
felt as if no dependence could be placed upon my courage, as if any
effort I should make for self-destruction would be fruitless; yet
existence was as void as ever of enjoyment and embellishment. My means
of living were annihilated. I saw no path before me. To shun the
presence of mankind was my sovereign wish. Since I could not die by my
own hands, I must be content to crawl upon the surface, till a superior
fate should permit me to perish.
"I wandered into the centre of the wood. I stretched myself on the mossy
verge of a brook, and gazed at the stars till they disappeared. The next
day was spent with little variation. The cravings of hunger were felt,
and the sensation was a joyous one, since it afforded me the practicable
means of death. To refrain from food was easy, since some efforts would
be needful to procure it, and these efforts should not be made. Thus was
the sweet oblivion for which I so earnestly panted placed within my
reach.
"Three days of abstinence, and reverie, and solitude, succeeded. On the
evening of the fourth, I was seated on a rock, with my face buried in my
hands. Some one laid his hand upon my shoulder. I started and looked up.
I beheld a face beaming with compassion and benignity. He endeavoured to
extort from me the cause of my solitude and sorrow. I disregarded his
entreaties, and was obstinately silent.
"Finding me invincible in this respect, he invited me to his cottage,
which was hard by. I repelled him at first with impatience and anger,
but he was not to be discouraged or intimidated. To elude his
persuasions I was obliged to comply. My strength was gone, and the vital
fabric was crumbling into pieces. A fever raged in my veins, and I was
consoled by reflecting that my life was at once assailed by famine and
disease.
"Meanwhile, my gloomy meditations experienced no respite. I incessantly
ruminated on the events of my past life. The long series of my crimes
arose daily and afresh to my imagination. The image of Lodi was
recalled, his expiring looks and the directions which were mutually
given respecting his sister's and his property.
"As I perpetually revolved these incidents, they assumed new forms, and
were linked with new associations. The volume written by his father, and
transferred to me by tokens which were now remembered to be more
emphatic than the nature of the composition seemed to justify, was
likewise remembered. It came attended by recollections respecting a
volume which I filled, when a youth, with extracts from the Roman and
Greek poets. Besides this literary purpose, I likewise used to preserve
in it the bank-bills with the keeping or carriage of which I chanced to
be entrusted. This image led me back to the leather case containing
Lodi's property, which was put into my hands at the same time with the
volume.
"These images now gave birth to a third conception, which darted on my
benighted understanding like an electrical flash. Was it not possible
that part of Lodi's property might be enclosed within the leaves of this
volume? In hastily turning it over, I recollected to have noticed leaves
whose edges by accident or design adhered to each other. Lodi, in
speaking of the sale of his father's West-India property, mentioned that
the sum obtained for it was forty thousand dollars. Half only of this
sum had been discovered by me. How had the remainder been appropriated?
Surely this volume contained it.
"The influence of this thought was like the infusion of a new soul into
my frame. From torpid and desperate, from inflexible aversion to
medicine and food, I was changed in a moment into vivacity and hope,
into ravenous avidity for whatever could contribute to my restoration to
health.
"I was not without pungent regrets and racking fears. That this volume
would be ravished away by creditors or plunderers was possible. Every
hour might be that which decided my fate. The first impulse was to seek
my dwelling and search for this precious deposit.
"Meanwhile, my perturbations and impatience only exasperated my disease.
While chained to my bed, the rumour of pestilence was spread abroad.
This event, however, generally calamitous, was propitious to me, and was
hailed with satisfaction. It multiplied the chances that my house and
its furniture would be unmolested.
"My friend was assiduous and indefatigable in his kindness. My
deportment, before and subsequent to the revival of my hopes, was
incomprehensible, and argued nothing less than insanity. My thoughts
were carefully concealed from him, and all that he witnessed was
contradictory and unintelligible.
"At length, my strength was sufficiently restored. I resisted all my
protector's importunities to postpone my departure till the perfect
confirmation of my health. I designed to enter the city at midnight,
that prying eyes might be eluded; to bear with me a candle and the means
of lighting it, to explore my way to my ancient study, and to ascertain
my future claim to existence and felicity.
"I crossed the river this morning. My impatience would not suffer me to
wait till evening. Considering the desolation of the city, I thought I
might venture to approach thus near, without hazard of detection. The
house, at all its avenues, was closed. I stole into the back court. A
window-shutter proved to be unfastened. I entered, and discovered
closets and cabinets unfastened and emptied of all their contents. At
this spectacle my heart sunk. My books, doubtless, had shared the common
destiny. My blood throbbed with painful vehemence as I approached the
study and opened the door.
"My hopes, that languished for a moment, were revived by the sight of my
shelves, furnished as formerly. I had lighted my candle below, for I
desired not to awaken observation and suspicion by unclosing the
windows. My eye eagerly sought the spot where I remembered to have left
the volume. Its place was empty. The object of all my hopes had eluded
my grasp, and disappeared forever.
"To paint my confusion, to repeat my execrations on the infatuation
which had rendered, during so long a time that it was in my possession,
this treasure useless to me, and my curses of the fatal interference
which had snatched away the prize, would be only aggravations of my
disappointment and my sorrow. You found me in this state, and know what
followed."