I had been some time at home, and had pretty nearly recovered from my
wounds. Susan frequently went up to see Jane; and the ladies treated
her, notwithstanding what had occurred, as kindly as ever; but the
captain ceased to inquire after me, and he evidently had not got over
his annoyance, and still believed that Susan and I, if we had not
encouraged Harry, might have at all events prevented him from falling in
love with Miss Fanny. The poor young lady had not recovered her
spirits; and Susan said she was afraid that if anything should happen to
Harry it would bring her to her grave. This of course made us more than
ever anxious to hear again from Jerry. At last one day the postman
brought a letter to our door and demanded three shillings for it, which
I willingly paid, for I saw at a glance that it was from my old
shipmate. I have it still by me; here it is:--
"Dear old Ship--
"What I told you in my last has prepared you for the news I have now to
give. I thought over what Mr Pengelley had told me, and could not help
hoping that we should at last find out all about Harry Saint George.
"The very first time that I saw Mrs Stafford (though I did not know her
name then) she told me that her husband had been an officer on board the
_Royal George_, and that he was lost when the ship went down; but she
said nothing more at that time. When, however, I heard that she had had
a little boy who had disappeared with her young sister-in-law, I at once
jumped to the conclusion that the young lady who had come to your house
was Miss Stafford, and that the little boy was her nephew. It struck me
that nothing was more likely than that Miss Stafford should have set off
to see her brother, and consult with him what was best to be done for
the safety of his son; but, as you know, it's a very different matter to
guess a thing and to prove it. Still I am almost as certain as I am of
my own existence, that the little boy you saved from the wreck was Harry
Stafford's son; but my thinking so won't get him his rights. Biddulph
Stafford and I were young men together before I went off to sea, and
many a wild prank we played; some of them such as I don't like to think
about. There was an act of his, indeed, which, if known, would bring
him under the power of the law; and I feel sure that if I were to
introduce myself to him, and let him know that I was acquainted with it,
and could bring witnesses to prove his guilt, long ago as it happened, I
might gain an influence over him, which I might exercise for Harry's
benefit. Sir Mostyn Stafford, you will understand, is still alive, and
all Biddulph's scheming and plotting has hitherto gained him no
advantage. My first idea was to go and give him his choice, either to
acknowledge Harry, or to take the consequences of having his crime made
known; he might, however, set me at defiance. The difficulty would be
to prove that the young lady you saw was Miss Stafford, and then that
the child saved from the wreck was the same little boy she had brought
with her. The first thing to be done, as it seemed to me, was to learn
from Mrs Stafford if she knew how her little boy was likely to have
been dressed; and if she described him as you had seen him, it would
settle the matter in our minds, and we might possibly get Mr Pengelley,
or some other lawyer, to take up the case, and try to gain his rights
for your young Harry. As soon as this idea occurred to me, I went back
to Mr Pengelley; he thought that I might be right, but told me to wait
till he had obtained some more certain information as to how the
Stafford estates were settled. This took up some time, for lawyers seem
to me to have a peculiarly slow way of setting about a business;
probably they find from experience that `Slow and steady wins the race.'
At last he sent for me, and told me that I might go off and see Mrs
Stafford, and gain all I could from her. I of course lost not a moment.
She recognised me at once, though she was naturally surprised to find
how I was changed. I introduced the subject cautiously. I then asked
her if she thought it possible that her son was still alive? She said
that sometimes she had hopes, but then she could not understand how it
was that her sister-in-law had never written to her. At last I asked
her if she could describe what her son was like? `Yes,' she said, `for
I have his portrait, which Emily sent me a few days only before her
mother's death.' `Will you allow me to see it?' I asked; and going to
her room she returned with a small well-done drawing of a little boy,
exactly like what Harry might have been, and dressed as you described
him, in a sailor's jacket and trousers and round hat.
"`You see him in a dress I made for him myself, and sent only a short
time before. I also made a copy of it, which I forwarded to my poor
husband on board the _Royal George_.'
"`Did it ever occur to you, ma'am,' I asked, `that your sister may have
gone to see her brother on board the _Royal George_, and taken the
little boy with her?'
"`Yes, indeed,' she answered, `I thought that possible; but when I heard
that all the women and children on board had perished, I knew that if
such were the case, both Emily and my child must have been lost also.'
"`Did you ever hear, ma'am, that a little boy was saved from the wreck?'
I said.
"`No,' she answered. `Mr Biddulph Stafford, who kindly came here at
the time, and told me all about it, did not mention that any child was
saved; but oh! say, was such really the case? Could my boy have been on
board and escaped the fate which overtook his father?'
"I thought it time to describe to the poor mother how a young lady came
with a little boy, exactly like the picture she had just shown me, to
your cottage, and how you had saved the same child after the ship had
gone down, and that the same boy was now an officer in the navy.
"`Oh, merciful Providence, he must be my own boy! I should know him
even now, he cannot be so changed,' she exclaimed.
"I told her, though I did not wish to raise her hopes to disappoint
them, that I felt sure she was right. But then I suggested that though
she might be confident that Harry Saint George was her son, it might be
very difficult to prove it so as to enable him to obtain his rights.
"`If we could prove that Miss Stafford went to Ryde with her nephew, it
would greatly assist the case,' I observed.
"`I will look over all her letters to me, and see if she ever mentioned
that she thought of so doing,' she said. `I have some also which my
husband wrote to her during their mother's illness, and he may possibly
have expressed a wish to see her and our boy. But surely, even should I
not discover anything of the sort, Sir Mostyn Stafford will be convinced
that my son is his nephew, and would not refuse to acknowledge him.'
"About that, I said, I could not be sure; but I advised her not on any
account to let Mr Biddulph Stafford know that she had gained tidings of
her son, lest he might influence Sir Mostyn. I told her that I was sure
my brother-in-law, Mr Pengelley, would, with the evidence she was able
to bring forward, undertake her case; and I offered, should Harry Saint
George be in England, to go to Ryde and bring him back with me.
"`I am indeed most grateful,' she answered. `I must not leave my poor
father, or I would go myself to see my son, for that he is my boy I have
not a doubt on my mind.'
"Just as I was about to leave the room, my eye fell on a small portrait
of a lady hanging against the wall, and it occurred to me that it might
be that of Miss Stafford. I asked the question. Mrs Stafford said it
was; and I proposed taking it with me to know whether you and your wife
could recognise it, and perhaps others might be found who may have seen
her on board the _Royal George_ to do so likewise.
"She at once took down the portrait, which with that of her son she
carefully packed up and entrusted to my care. After again cautioning
her against Mr Biddulph Stafford, I wished her good-bye, and returned
with the information I had gained to my worthy brother-in-law, who, on
hearing it, said that he was convinced in his own mind that Harry Saint
George was the son of Henry Stafford, and that he would undertake his
case, though he advised me to caution you and him not to be too sanguine
about gaining it; at the same time you might be sure that Mrs Stafford
would acknowledge him, and that he would thus, which he would probably
value more than fortune, be able in the eyes of his friends to establish
his right to bear his father's name.
"Mr Pengelley hopes that you will on no account let anyone learn the
history I have now given you till everything is prepared. Should
Biddulph Stafford bear that young Harry is discovered, he will stir
heaven and earth to prevent him from establishing his rights. I might,
as I before said, by threatening to expose the crime of his early days,
gain a power over him; but as it occurred so long ago, he might feel
himself safe and set me at defiance. At all events be cautious, and let
no one but Harry and your wife, who, from what I saw of her, is, I
should judge, a discreet woman, know anything of the matter."
This letter, as may be supposed, threw Susan and me into a great state
of agitation. We could talk of nothing else, and kept looking out every
moment for Jerry's arrival; we could not help grieving that Harry was
not at home, for we could take no steps without him. We were sorry,
too, that we could not consult with Captain Leslie, as Jerry had
forbidden us to speak to anyone on the subject. He, I was sure, could
be trusted, though he had been so much offended with Harry for venturing
to look up to Miss Fanny; but the state of the case was now greatly
altered; and should Harry be able to prove that he was heir to Sir
Mostyn Stafford, instead of being without name or family, I knew of
course that the captain would no longer think of forbidding him to marry
his daughter.
I had one day walked down to the beach, when a wherry from Portsmouth
came to an anchor, and soon after a boat reached the shore with several
people in her. Among them was a one-legged man, with white hair, who
looked to my eyes like an old post-captain or admiral. I went up to
him, at first with some doubt in my mind, but soon saw that it was no
other than my old shipmate Jerry.
He put out his hand and shook mine cordially, saying as he did so, "You
are less changed than I am, Ben, but years make a difference in a man.
Stay, I must not lose sight of my valise. Once upon a time I should
have made nothing of carrying it myself, but I am not as strong on my
pins as I used to be. Can you get someone to take it up to your house?
We will keep him in sight, however; because, as you may guess, I should
not like to lose it."
I said that I would carry it myself, and, taking it out of the boat,
shouldered it and walked up alongside Jerry, who stumped along with much
less briskness than formerly; indeed I saw that he was greatly aged
since we last met. On reaching home, after Susan had welcomed him, he
caught her eye turned towards the valise.
"You are anxious to see the portraits I wrote about," he observed,
getting up and opening it. The first he took out was that of the little
boy.
"That's like him all over," exclaimed Susan. "I should have known it
even if I had not expected to see it; and it's just the same as the one
I have upstairs, though that is terribly faded."
"Please get it, Mrs Truscott, and we will compare the two," said Jerry.
She quickly brought the little picture we had so carefully preserved;
though the colours were almost gone, the lines were sufficiently clear
to remove any manner of doubt in our minds that the one was a copy of
the other.
"And now, what do you think of this?" producing a portrait of Miss
Stafford.
"The very young lady who came to our house," exclaimed Susan. "Owing to
the sad circumstances of her death, her features are more impressed on
my mind than those of anyone I ever met, and I am sure those who know
Harry would say that he is wonderfully like her."
I agreed with my wife, and Jerry said that he thought so likewise from
what he recollected of him; indeed we had not a shadow of doubt on our
minds that our dear Harry was the son of Henry Stafford.
"Oh, how I wish he was at home!" cried Susan; "he cannot fail to gain
his rights; and then he might marry dear Miss Fanny and be so happy.
Ben, I must go and tell her what we have found out about his family, and
that she may be sure all will come right. It will do her all the good
in the world, for she has been very sadly since her father forbid Harry
to come to the house and got him sent off to sea; sometimes I have
thought that the poor dear would break her heart."