VIOLA.
The Resurrection Man and the stock-broker pursued their way in silence
to the very entrance of the alley leading to the side door of the
dwelling of the former.
There they halted, the Resurrection Man observing that they must wait
for Mr. Chichester.
Tomlinson took advantage of the interval to implore the Resurrection Man
not to communicate to Chichester the secret relating to Michael Martin.
"Do not be afraid," was the answer: "I am as close as Newgate-door when
people conduct themselves as they ought to do. One individual for whom I
do business never knows what I am engaged in for another--unless his own
bad behaviour forces me to blab. So make yourself quite easy upon that
score."
Chichester now made his appearance; and the Resurrection Man led the way
up the alley.
Having opened the door of the house, he admitted his two companions into
the back-room on the ground-floor, and then struck a light.
The appearance of the place was precisely the same as when we described
it on the first occasion of the Rattlesnake's visit to that department
of the building.
Tomlinson shuddered as he cast his eyes around the naked and gloomy
walls.
"Holloa!" ejaculated Chichester, taking up the mask, which lay on the
table, in his hands: "I suppose that this--"
"Hush!" said the Resurrection Man, glancing towards Tomlinson, as much
as to desire Chichester not to allow the stock-broker to know more of
the secrets connected with the treatment of the prisoner, than was
possible; for Tidkins, who possessed a profound knowledge of human
nature, was well aware that certain compunctious feelings still floated
in the mind of Tomlinson, and that he was, after all, but a very coward
in the ways of crime.
Chichester covered the mask with the cloak, while the stock-broker was
engaged in scanning the appearance of the chamber.
When Tomlinson had completed his survey, and while he was still
wondering where the means of communication with the apartment of the
alleged lunatic could be, he happened to turn in the direction of the
chimney-piece, when to his surprise he perceived the hearth-stone
raised, and the Resurrection Man half down the subterranean staircase
which that strangely contrived trap-door had disclosed to view.
Tomlinson shuddered--and hesitated whether he should proceed further in
the matter; but his scruples vanished when he heard the voice of the
Resurrection Man desiring--or rather commanding him--to follow him down
that flight of stone steps.
Guided by Tidkins, who carried the candle, which was fixed in one of the
large tin shades before described, Tomlinson descended the stairs, and
found himself in a vaulted passage, about twenty feet long, and four
broad. There were four strong doors, studded with thick iron nails, on
each side.
"You see, this house was built for a lunatic asylum many--many years
ago, when treatment wasn't quite so humane as it is now," whispered the
Resurrection Man to Tomlinson; "but it hadn't been used as such for the
last thirty years till the other day."
"And did you hire the establishment for the purpose of restoring it to
its original uses?" demanded Tomlinson, shuddering, as he glanced around
on the damp walls on which the strong light of the candle fell.
"Not I, indeed," answered Tidkins, abruptly.
Chichester had now descended into the subterranean passage.
"This is the cell," said the Resurrection Man; and, approaching one of
the doors, he placed a key in the lock.
During the few seconds that intervened until the door was thrown open,
Tomlinson experienced a perfect age of mental agony. He felt as if he
were about to perpetrate some hideous crime--a murder of the blackest
dye. The perspiration poured off his forehead: he trembled from head to
foot; his brain felt oppressed; there was a weight upon the pit of his
stomach; his eye-balls throbbed.
Yes--he was a very coward in guilt!
The door flew open.
The Resurrection Man entered first, and advanced into the middle of a
small arched cell--a stone tomb, built to immure the living!
A decent bed, a table, a chair, a wash-hand-stand, and a lamp, which was
lighted, together with a few other necessaries, composed the furniture
of that dungeon.
And stretched upon the bed, with her clothes on, lay the victim of this
cruel persecution.
The glare of the Resurrection Man's candle fell upon a pale, but not
unpleasing countenance: the long chesnut hair spread, dishevelled, over
the arm that supported the head.
The sleep of that lady was deep but uneasy--such a slumber as might be
supposed to fall upon the eyes of the criminal the night before his
execution.
Her bosom heaved convulsively; and from her lips escaped a stifled sob
as the three men entered the cell.
Chichester was about to place his hand upon her shoulder in order to
arouse her, when she opened her eyes, and started up to a sitting
posture on the bed.
"Villains!" she exclaimed: "would you murder me?"
"No such thing, my dear," said Chichester. "We have merely come to
terminate this unpleasant business in the way proposed by Mr. Tidkins."
"The wretch!" cried Viola, casting a glance of doubt and uncertainty at
both Tomlinson and the Resurrection Man.
"Ah! I dare say I am, ma'am, in _your_ estimation," said Tidkins,
coolly. "Oh! you needn't look at me in that way, ma'am. I will
acknowledge that I am your keeper in this establishment; and that it's
me who has been good enough to bring you food every night."
"The wretch!" again cried the unhappy lady, while a profound shudder
seemed to convulse her whole frame as she surveyed the Resurrection Man
from head to foot. "It is you, then," she continued, leaping from the
bed, and confronting the miscreant, "it is you who have dared to
practise upon my fears in a manner the most diabolical--the most
cowardly;--you who have chosen the solemn hour of midnight for your
visits, and who have come in a guise calculated to fill my mind with the
most horrible imaginings!"
"Remember our agreement, ma'am," said Tidkins, sternly. "You pledged
yourself to forget the past upon certain conditions: we are here to
fulfil those conditions. Do you mean to keep your word? or must we leave
you to your solitude?"
"Who is this gentleman?" demanded Viola, casting a penetrating glance
upon Tomlinson.
"The stock-broker, my dear," answered Chichester: "the person who will
receive your signature to a certain little paper--"
"Then, sir," interrupted the lady, addressing herself to James
Tomlinson, "as you exercise an honourable profession, prove yourself an
honourable man in this respect. You see before you a powerless female,
who was weak enough to bestow her hand upon a villain--a villain that
has immured her, by the aid of another villain of even a deeper dye than
himself, in this horrible vault! Perhaps they have told you that I am
mad, sir; but do I speak like one whose reason has abandoned her? or
would you receive the signature of a person who knew not what she
signed? Oh! no, sir--you cannot believe that I am in mental darkness!
you must perceive the full extent of the villany that has been practised
against me, for the purpose of plundering me of that property which I
received from my former husband! Oh! if you be a man possessing one
spark of honour--as I must suppose that you are--"
"Come--a truce to all this," said Mr. Chichester. "The gentleman to whom
you are addressing yourself knows the whole affair, and will act _with_
and _for_ me."
"Is this true, sir?" asked the unhappy lady, casting a glance of mingled
terror and supplication upon the stock-broker, and clasping her hands
together: "can this be true? Is it possible that a person exercising an
honourable profession can league with wretches of their stamp?"--and she
pointed disdainfully towards the Resurrection Man and Chichester. "Oh!
no, it cannot be! At least, hear me! I married that man--"
"Don't I tell you that Mr. Tomlinson knows all," cried Chichester,
impatiently. "We did not come to debate upon the past, but to settle for
the future."
"You have come, then, to plunder a weak, helpless, persecuted female,"
continued Viola. "But do you know, sir, the terrible means that have
been adopted to wring from me a consent to part with half the property
which was bequeathed to me by a man that loved me--a man who toiled for
years and years to amass the fortune that must now be devoted to the
extravagances of a spendthrift? Would you believe to what an extent the
cruelty, the cowardice of that man,"--and she pointed to Tidkins,--"has
been carried to terrify me into compliance with the demands of his
employer? Sir, for three weeks and three days have I been a prisoner in
this dungeon; and every night--without fail--has that miscreant visited
me in a disguise which, in such a place, and at such an hour, would make
the stoutest heart palpitate with horror,--a disguise of such a nature
that this is the first time that I have seen his face; for on the fatal
evening when I was seized and brought to this dungeon, every thing was
involved in utter obscurity;--and then, when the door opened again, and
a light gleamed in upon me,--O God! it was carried by a person dressed
in a dark cloak and a white mask--like a being of another world!"
"Surely you did not go to such extremes as this?" exclaimed Tomlinson,
turning sharply round upon the Resurrection Man.
"Whatever I did, or did not, is nothing to the present business,"
replied Tidkins, brutally. "If any thing is going to be done, let it be
done at once; if not, the lady will remain here till she chooses to
consent to the terms proposed to her."
Tomlinson glanced, with a look of deep sympathy, towards the lady, who
stood in an attitude of supplication and despair before him. Her
dishevelled hair hung loosely over her shoulders: her countenance,
though not beautiful, was naturally interesting, and was now rendered
more so by its extreme pallor and by the expression of profound
melancholy which it wore; and her mild blue eyes were raised towards him
as if to implore his aid--his compassion.
"Now, what is to be done?" demanded Chichester.
"It is for this gentleman to decide," said the lady, still gazing upon
Tomlinson's countenance. "You may well suppose that I am desirous to
recover the liberty which has thus been infamously violated;--but if
you, sir, possess one germ of generous feeling--one spark of honour--one
gleam of humanity in your soul, do not--do not lend yourself to this
infamy! Command these men to restore me to freedom--they cannot refuse
to obey you! Oh! sir--hear me--do not avert your head: hear me--hear me,
I implore you!"
"This is quite enough of folly for one time," ejaculated the
Resurrection Man: "I have been an idiot myself to listen to it so long.
Mr. Tomlinson, are you prepared to receive the signature of this lady to
the deed that will transfer to her husband a certain portion of her
property?"--then, approaching his lips to the stock-broker's ear, he
murmured in a low whisper, "Hesitate--and I denounce your late clerk
within an hour!"
These words operated like magic upon the weak-minded and timid James
Tomlinson. He no longer beheld the supplicating woman before him: he
only saw his own danger.
Accordingly, he advanced towards the table, drew forth a document from
his pocket, and said, in a cold tone, "I am ready to receive that lady's
signature."
The Resurrection Man produced an ink-bottle and pens (with which he had
purposely provided himself beforehand) from his pocket; and placed them
upon the table.
Tomlinson seated himself in the chair, and proceeded to fill up the
paper.
"In whose favour is the transfer to be made?" he demanded.
"Then, sir, you are determined to league with my oppressors?" said
Viola, in a tone expressive of concentrated feelings of indignation and
despair.
"Madam, I am unfortunately compelled--"
"Say no more, sir," interrupted the lady, with a contemptuous curl of
the lip. "If you came hither a villain, I must be mad indeed to hope to
make you an honest man by any reasoning of mine."
"Madam, you wrong me, by heavens!" ejaculated Tomlinson, throwing down
the pen.
But at the same moment his wrist was seized with a grasp of iron, and a
well-known voice whispered in his ear, "Hesitate another moment, and I
denounce you and your cashier together!"
Tomlinson became docile as a child, resumed the pen, and said, "In whose
favour is this transfer to be made?"
"In that of Mr. Arthur Chichester," answered Viola, firmly.
"What is the amount to be so transferred?"
"Eight thousand pounds, being part of a sum now standing in my name in
the Three-and-a-Half per cents.," replied the injured woman, still with
an outward composure, which was not, however, the reflection of her
inward feelings.
Tomlinson filled up the paper according to the instructions which he
received.
Then, addressing himself to Viola, but without turning his eyes towards
her, he said, "You are aware, madam, that this document is ante-dated by
two months?"
"I am, sir."
"Nothing now remains, then, madam, save for you to sign it."
Viola advanced slowly towards the table, took up the pen, and seemed to
be about to affix her signature to the deed, when--as if suddenly
recollecting herself--she turned towards the stock-broker, and
exclaimed, "What guarantee have I that my freedom is to follow this
concession on my part?"
"To-morrow evening, at dusk, you shall be conveyed home," exclaimed
Chichester, seeing that Tomlinson gave no answer.
"And why not this evening--now--the moment that document is signed?"
"Because I should prefer laying my hand on the money first," was the
reply.
"Mr. Tomlinson," cried the lady, "I have more confidence in you than in
either of these men: I am willing even to believe that some
circumstance, unknown to me, compels you unwillingly to become their
instrument on this occasion."
"By heavens, you speak the truth, madam!" ejaculated Tomlinson, warmly.
"I believe you. Now, sir, promise me on your most solemn word of
honour--by every thing you consider sacred--- that to-morrow evening at
nine o'clock I shall be released from this dungeon."
"I promise--I swear that you shall be conveyed home to-morrow evening at
nine o'clock," answered Tomlinson. "But, in return, madam, will you
pledge yourself as solemnly that your lips shall ever remain closed with
regard to this proceeding?"
"Oh! yes--I do--I do," answered the poor creature, clasping her hands
together--for she could even feel grateful to the man who, while leagued
with others against her, yet pledged himself to her release from that
horrible cell.
"Secresy on all sides is one of the conditions of the present
arrangement," said Chichester.
"And if the lady breaks that condition," added the Resurrection Man,
"she would repent it; for let her be surrounded by friends--let her be
protected by a regiment of soldiers--let her take refuge in the Queen's
palace, I would still find means to tear her away, and bring her back to
this dungeon."
Tomlinson and the lady both cast a glance of mingled horror and surprise
at the formidable individual who thus spoke so confidently of his power
and resolution.
There was a moment's pause.
Viola then took up the pen, and, with a firm hand, affixed her signature
to the document.
"I am now at your mercy," she said, in a tone rather of supplication
than of menace or mistrust.
"You need not be afraid that we shall deceive you, my dear," observed
Chichester, with a smile.
A reply rose to the lips of his injured wife; but she suppressed
it--though with difficulty. She was no doubt afraid to irritate the man
in whose power she still found herself, by giving utterance to her
thoughts.
"No--there's nothing to be afraid of," said the Resurrection Man. "The
lady has fulfilled her part of the bargain, and we will perform ours. As
for her keeping this little business dark, I feel confident about
_that_: she would not like to stand the chance of coming here again;
and, as for making a disturbance merely to get back the money, that
would be useless, when once it had found its way into the pockets of her
husband."
[Illustration]
Having concluded this brutal speech, the Resurrection Man desired his
companions to await his return for a moment, while he proceeded to fetch
the lady her provisions for the next four-and-twenty hours.
He accordingly hastened up the steps to the little back room, whence he
speedily returned with his basket in his hand.
"You see that I expected how all this would end," he observed, with a
hideous smile; "and so I prepared a little treat for the lady. Here's a
prime fowl; that brown paper contains ham; here's a new loaf; and this
is a bottle of as excellent sherry as one need drink."
The Resurrection Man placed the articles, as he enumerated them, upon
the table; and Viola was pleased as she contemplated them--because she
perceived in this indulgence an earnest that the promise of her
persecutors would be fulfilled with respect to her restoration to
liberty.
"We must now take leave of Mrs. Chichester," said Tidkins. "To-morrow
evening, ma'am, at nine precisely, you shall be free."
The three men then left the dungeon.
But ere the door closed upon the inmate once more, she moved forward,
caught Tomlinson by the hand, and said in an emphatic tone, "Remember
your solemn promise!"
"Do not be alarmed, madam. There can be no interest to detain you here
beyond to-morrow."
Viola retreated into the dungeon; and the door was shut.
She heard the three persons who had just left her retire from the
subterranean prison: the closing of the trap-door also fell upon her
ears.
Clasping her hands together, she exclaimed, "God grant that they may not
deceive me!"
And then a vague terror stole upon her,--a horrible, an absorbing dread
lest those men intended to immure her for life in that solitary cell, or
else restore her to liberty only when they should have extorted from her
the remainder of her fortune.
"Oh! fool that I was, to sign that paper!" she exclaimed, in a paroxysm
of despair. "Will men, who are capable of such villany--such atrocity
as this that they have practised towards me,--will they remain satisfied
with a portion of the gold that has allured them to violate every
principle of honour and humanity? Oh! no--no! and perhaps--to conceal
their crime the more effectually--they will not hesitate to imbrue their
hands in my blood!"
Overpowered by this idea, the unhappy woman threw herself upon the bed,
and wept bitterly.
That torrent of tears relieved her; and in a few minutes she grew
somewhat composed.
Then came reflections of a less painful nature.
"Still--still there was something honest in the appearance of that
stock-broker: there was something feeling in his words! He was
performing a task against which his soul revolted. He commiserated my
condition: oh! yes--he sympathised with me! In him is my hope--my only
hope! I need not quite despair!"
She thus reasoned herself into a state of comparative calmness; and then
a feeling of weakness came over her. She grew faint--her head swam
round.
She rose, and walked up and down the cell to dispel the sensation that
thus oppressed her; and suddenly she recollected that many hours had
elapsed since she had eaten any thing. Her eyes fell upon the viands
which the Resurrection Man had placed on the table; and she hastened to
break her long fast. When she had partaken of a morsel of food, she
poured some wine into a glass and drank it.
Scarcely, however, had she swallowed the liquor, when she felt herself
overpowered by a deep drowsiness; the glass dropped from her hands; she
rose from the chair, advanced a few paces, and then fell upon the bed in
a state of insensibility.