From house to house, from street to street,
The rapid rumour flies;
Incredulous ears it finds, and hands
Are lifted in surprise;
And tongues through all the astonished town
Are busier now than eyes.
Southey.
"So, Mistress Miniver, the old house is like to wear a new sign before
many days. There'll be a change in the arms, methinks."
"Not while my name's Miniver, Master Colan," answered the plump hostess
of the Trevethlan Arms.
"Maybe you'd not object to change that, dame," suggested the farmer.
Mrs. Miniver played with a well-sized bunch of keys that hung from her
girdle.
"Ay, ay," said Colan--
"'The key of the locker the good-wife keeps,
The good-wife's busy, the good-man sleeps.'
"I fancy you sat in St. Michael's chair the day you were married,
Mistress Miniver."
"I'll tell you one who did, farmer," said the hostess, laughing merrily;
"and that's the lady of Pendar'l. God forbid I should ever say of
Trevethlan! And d'ye mind what I said, Master Colan? Didn't I foretell
what would happen if ever Squire Randolph and Miss Mildred came
together? And you see they're wooed and married and all."
"There's not much good like to come of it for Trevethlan," observed the
farmer. "They say the mother's as cold as stone."
"Mayhap some folks wouldn't care if she were," said Germoe the tailor,
who had come up during the last few words.
"Oh, neighbours," cried the light-hearted hostess, thrusting her hands
into the pockets of her white apron, "take my word, it'll all come right
in the end. It's natural to fret and fume a little, but it all blows
over. The squire'll bring home his bride by furry-time, I warrant."
"'Twill be time he did," quoth Germoe; "for the castle's getting awful
lonesome and dismal. How Mr. Griffith and his dame can bide there, is
more than I can tell; and, as for old Jeffrey, he's as dumb as any of
the ghosts they say walk there."
"Tales to quiet babes, friend Germoe," said Mrs. Miniver. "Old
Jeffrey'll run up our flag again before the oak's in leaf."
"You were always so comfortable, dame," remarked Colan. "But how'll they
get over the trial at Bodmin yonder? There's an uncommon mystery about
that marriage, Mistress Miniver."
"Tell you what, farmer," quoth the hostess more gravely, "I care a deal
more for our poor folks that are in the jail at Bodmin. Do you know,
they say it's a hanging matter?"
"And our Mercy's sweetheart among them, dame," said Germoe.
"If our Mercy's sweetheart is there," Mrs. Miniver said, "it is to bring
them to ruin. And I heard he did come down here a little ago. It's young
Sinson, I mean, Master Germoe."
"They say his old grandame takes on quite fearful-like," said Breage the
general merchant, who now joined the little party under the shade of the
old chestnut. "She sits all day, moaning, and rocking herself, and
breaks out with something about her daughter, our late squire's lady,
and then brings herself up quite short."
"Her Michael's plenty on his mind, neighbours," quoth Mrs. Miniver; "you
may take your oath of that. I don't wonder old Maud's a bit uneasy. But,
hey-day! who comes here?"
For a horseman rode rapidly on to the far end of the green, crossed it
straight without drawing rein, and proceeded up the ascent of the
base-court.
"What's in the wind now?" asked farmer Colan.
But curiosity tied the tongues of the circle. They watched the stranger
while he held a short parley with Jeffrey, and at last dismounted with
apparent impatience, and attached his bridle to a ring in the wall. The
old porter opened the gate and conducted him within, soon emerging again
himself, and seeming to examine the panting quadruped at the porch.
Several of the villagers came and joined the group beneath the chestnut.
They soon began to discuss this visit in low voices. Whether fear or
hope predominated in their explanations, it might not be easy to
determine. But the freshness of a sunny April morning might seem likely
to inspire the latter feeling, even as it had been evident in Mrs.
Miniver's share of the dialogue recorded above.
Presently Griffith was seen to come forth from the castle-gate, and
after exchanging a few words with Jeffrey, to descend the hill with the
stranger, who took his reins upon his arm. The excitement of the
villagers increased. As the steward drew near, a similar expression
might be read in his own face. He came up and told Mrs. Miniver he
wanted the one chaise which she still kept, got ready immediately. A
dozen voices demanded the news.
"I hardly know what to say, my friends," Griffith answered. "But if the
tidings are well founded, they are good news for all who love
Trevethlan."
"Hurrah," shouted the assembly.
It was a work of some little time to prepare Mrs. Miniver's chaise, for
the horses which were to draw it, were usually engaged in agricultural
pursuits. But it was ready at last, and the steward drove off.
The stranger remained to give his animal rest, and was of course
assailed with a host of questions. But all he could say was that an
attorney at Bodmin had sent him with a letter to Mr. Griffith of
Trevethlan Castle, and especially desired him to lose no time on the
road. In about an hour he remounted, and rode away in a more leisurely
manner than he had arrived.
In order to explain the occurrence which caused so much commotion in the
hamlet, we must revert to the proceedings of Michael Sinson. Smarting
under the discomfiture of all his long-cherished desires, driven
ignominiously from the house of his patroness, and attributing his fall
to the man against whom he had borne hatred even from childhood, Michael
left London, with the intention of trying to implicate Randolph in the
burning of Pendarrel. He imagined that he had a perfect hold upon his
mistress in spite of her proud indifference, and turned his immediate
attention to the overthrow of his successful rival. Restless and
cunning, he was never happy now except when engaged in some intrigue,
and his recent triumph at Bodmin had given him new zest for the work.
With such ideas he obtained admission to the prisoners charged with the
incendiarism, and sought, as craftily as he could, to extract some
information reflecting upon the disinherited owner of Trevethlan Castle.
But he sought in vain: there were no tidings of the kind to give. Then
Sinson went to his old grandmother, and bore her peevish humours for a
short time, still seeking intelligence to further his designs. He met
his too faithful Mercy, and endeavoured to find such in her knowledge of
what passed within the castle walls. But again he was baffled. He had to
deal with natures very different from his own.
Finally, he once more repaired to the congenial atmosphere of the gaol,
and tried to gain the confidence of the ringleader of the mob, Gabriel
Denis. Here he met his match. The old smuggler was as wary as himself.
He bent an attentive ear to Michael's suggestions, how it was supposed
the fire was the result of a long-devised plot, how a considerable
reward would be paid, and a free pardon granted to any one who would
furnish a true history of the affair. And Sinson insinuated dark hints
concerning the late owner of Trevethlan, how he had a quarrel of many
years' standing with the family of Pendarrel, how some people thought he
was in the secret of the incendiaries, and how, if it were so, his
impeachment would be the means of liberating a number of the inferior
criminals. In short, Gabriel drew him on, until by degrees he had
disclosed all his plan, and the smuggler was fully aware, that, true or
false, a certain story would bring a certain price.
Now in prison, Denis had become rather intimate with Edward Owen. They
both kept somewhat apart from their accused confederates. And Gabriel
was full of wild adventure, in different quarters of the globe, which
served to while away the dreary hours of confinement. So, among other
things, the smuggler told Owen of the suggestions which were made to him
by Sinson. The young peasant started.
"That's the villain that betrayed my master in the trial the other day,"
he said. "Have nought to say to him, Gabriel. He'd sell his best friend.
I ought to know him well. He's driven the squire from the castle, and
now he would bring him to shame. No, no; the squire knew nought about
the fire, that I can warrant."
"Trust me, Edward," Denis answered; "I am too deep for him by a fathom
and a half. But what's this ye say about the squire? Driven from the
castle?"
"Did ye not hear then," said Owen. "This Michael brought a fellow to
swear away the marriage of the last squire, and so they are going to
turn the son out of the castle. It passes to them whose house was
burned. And Michael is in their pay. Sorrow on the day when a Trevethlan
took a bride from under the thatch."
"I ought to mind that day well," the smuggler said, musing.
"You!" Owen exclaimed.
"'T will be twenty-one-two-three, twenty-three years, next September. I
mind it well. The parson was killed. What did folks say about it?"
"I was scarce born," Edward answered. "But I ha' heard it made a great
noise in the country. Some said it was Will Watch's people, and some
that the Squire knew more about it than he'd choose to tell."
"That was wrong," said Denis.
"What!" cried his companion.
"I mean 'twas none of his people at the time. And what's this ye say
about the marriage?"
"Well, it was always thought to be made by this parson, whose body they
found under the cliff. But now Michael brings a fellow to swear 'twas no
such thing, but he married them himself, and, he not being a parson, the
marriage falls to the ground, and the squire's son is put out of the
castle. That's what it is."
The smuggler mused for some time.
"Edward," then he said, "'tis a long time since that night, and little I
deemed to have it brought back like this. I have sailed many a league
since then, and half of it has been forgotten. And why should I
recollect it to-day? Will it do me good or harm? But there's nought left
me to care for now; nought but the little lass that the revenue thieves
carried off when they had shot my poor Felipa. And then this fire; one
can hardly be worse off than one is. And I should like to put a check on
this sneaking knave, that wanted to draw me into a lie. So sit thee
down, lad, and listen to the rights of all this story:--
"'Tis twenty-three years ago, I was much such another as ye are now.
But, to say the truth, fonder of the wrestling-ring than of the plough,
and better pleased at a wake than at a sermon. Moreover, I knew the
country well, and when I set a snare at night you may rely it was not
empty in the morning. Well, it was that spring or summer, there came to
lodge at Madam Sennor's--a little house on the cliff, not over far from
Trevethlan Castle--one Mr. Ashton, that was a clergyman. Somehow or
other he fell in with me, and used to get me to guide him, as it were,
about the country,--a thing that suited my idle ways very well. Now I
soon found that Mr. Ashton was not over much like a parson, but did not
care to go to a wake himself, and could read the glance of a girl's eye
as well as another. So he and I grew to be in a way more companionable
than suited my station perhaps; but I don't know it, for he was often
very ill off for money. Be it as it will, we got on very well together.
"So, while we were on this footing, says Mr. Ashton to me one
day,--Wyley, he says, here's Mr. Trevethlan, of the Castle, wants me to
marry him specially, or something, he called it, and I am to take a
witness with me. Will you come? says he. And he told me the particulars;
as how it was a young peasant girl, and there would be money to be had
for the business, and so I agreed to go. Well, he took me with him to
the castle, and Mr. Trevethlan met us himself on the outside, and
brought us just into the great hall without our seeing a single soul.
And there were a young woman, and also an old one, that I understood was
her mother. So Mr. Trevethlan gave Mr. Ashton a prayer-book, and he read
the office between the parties, and I was put to give the
bride--Margaret something was her name--away. And I recollect that
Ashton, being somewhat nervous, dropped the ring, and the mother
muttered it was no good sign.
"When it was over, Mr. Trevethlan put a purse into Ashton's hand, and we
went our way. But I thought there must be something wrong in the
business, and therefore I chose to consider that Ashton did not give me
my fair share of the price. However, it was not a thing to talk over in
the high road, and I knew well where to find him. He used to walk along
the cliff every evening; and there, just as it was getting dusk, I went
to meet him. We had some high words, and as I came towards him he
stepped backwards, not recollecting how near he was to the edge, and he
went over.
"I was terribly frightened,--nothing, I knew, could go over there and
live. I thought I was charged with the murder. I lay down, trembling,
and put my head beyond the edge. I fancied I could see him just move. I
lurked thereabout, on and off, not knowing what to do, till it came to
be quite dark. Then I saw lights at one or two points, and began to
think the people were already on the search. But it was not so; and the
truth was all in my favour.
"The lights were the country folk's signals to Will Watch's lugger, that
was then running in. Luckily for me, as I thought, she took up a berth a
good way off the spot where Ashton lay. All the country turned out to
run the cargo. And I crept down by myself to the beach, and came to
where he had fallen, and there I found him stone-dead. I don't know what
it was moved me, but I fancied that if the body were not owned nothing
could be done. And, in that thought, I took off the clothes, and buried
them in a nook of the cliff, which I could show to this day. For
himself, I could see, by the light from the water, he was so much hurt
that no one would know him. I should say, that I got the money which had
been the cause of our difference. Well, when this was all over, my fears
grew worse and worse. I thought it would have been better to have left
him alone. At last I went among the throng of folks that were busy
running the kegs, and got on board the lugger. She took me over to
Holland, and from there I shipped myself for the Spanish Indies, and
lived a roving life.
"But I tired of it at length, and had got a wife--my poor Felipa--and a
little girl. So I came home. Lived quiet a while, until I was sure that
no one knew me by my old name, and that the tale of Ashton's death was
nigh forgotten, and then took to the cabin on the hill. The rest you
know."
Owen listened to this narrative with wonder and joy, for he saw it would
be likely to restore his squire, as he called him, to all his rights.
"But why," said he after a silence, "why then did you not come forward
to claim the reward they offered?"
"I did not know of any such," Gabriel answered. "If I had, I should not
have heeded it till they drove me from my cottage. It matters not now.
Do what you will with the tale."
The young peasant gazed on the swarthy features which had been bronzed
by near a score of year's exposure to a tropical sun, and did not marvel
that the sea-faring wanderer had escaped unrecognised. He was in
communication with an attorney of the town for the purposes of his own
defence, and to him, with Gabriel's permission, he told the strange
tale. Its importance was at once perceived and acknowledged. And the
lawyer in question immediately despatched the news to Griffith by the
messenger whose arrival had excited the curiosity described in the
opening of this chapter. Thus Michael Sinson's artifices again recoiled
upon himself; by his attempted perversion of Gabriel Denis, he cut the
ground from under his own feet. He acquired some inkling of what had
transpired, and hurried back to London; more vexed than before at his
quarrel with Everope, of whose melancholy end he had as yet received no
information.
Denis, or Wyley, was nothing loth to repeat his story. Griffith, having
the knowledge which Owen was too young to possess, was able to confirm
him on several points. The narrative was verified in every possible
manner, and a copy transmitted to Winter, while the steward returned to
Trevethlan, to confirm it still further, by disinterring the buried
clothes.
In the flush of his exultation, he did not attempt to conceal the
purpose of his journey, and the greater part of the villagers turned out
spontaneously to assist in the quest which he undertook without loss of
time. Gabriel had described with great exactitude the spot to be
searched, for he remembered it very well. And indeed there were many
people still living who could point out the place where the body was
found. Near at hand, a long narrow rift ran into the face of the
precipice, and at its extreme end, where the billows of every winter
increased the depth of superincumbent sand, Wyley stated he had
deposited the garments which would identify the wearer. The cleft was
too narrow for more than one man to dig at a time, and the excitement of
the crowd behind him increased with every stroke of his spade. The
smuggler appeared to have told the truth. A quantity of half-destroyed
garments were discovered, and among them a pocket-book containing a
pencil-case and a ring. The clothes were worthless for any object; but
of these last-mentioned articles Griffith took possession, and forwarded
them to London, in order that they might be submitted to Mr. Ashton's
friends for recognition.
"Hurrah for Trevethlan!" shouted Colan, in a conclave held at Dame
Miniver's that night, "and a health to our squire and our bonny young
mistress!"
Loud acclamations and deep draughts gave a welcome to the toast.
"'Tis a strange thing," said the general merchant, "that this matter
should have been so long quiet. The times that I've walked by that rift
in the cliff yonder, and never seen anything."
"Why?" asked the hostess; "and what would ye expect to see, neighbour
Breage? Every winter as passed only packed the sand higher and higher."
"But there might have been a sign, dame, there might have been a sign."
"It shows there was no murder done, at any rate," observed another of
the company.
"Still," persisted Breage, "I wonder there was no dream came to point to
the place; and especially seeing how hard it has gone with the squire."
"It's like to go hard enough with this Denis or Wyley," Colan remarked.
"The fire of Pendar'l was black enough against him, and this story won't
tell any way for him."
"But it will for our Edward Owen," said Germoe. "It will turn to his
good, and I am glad of it."
"Ay," exclaimed Dame Miniver, "and besides that, I hear talk how he
fought for the lady of Pendar'l that night, and beat off some that would
harm her."
"We shall have him among us again afore long," said farmer Colan. "And
Gabriel will be like to confess all the rights of it before he dies."
"Well," said the pertinacious Breage, "if he confesses to murder, I
shall never believe in any sign or token again."
The suspicion here indicated that the smuggler had told only half the
truth, prevailed very generally in the hamlet, and many of the villagers
thought that he had wilfully thrown the clergyman over the cliff. But we
are willing to ascribe the popular feeling to the common love of the
worst in criminal matters, and to believe that Wyley was sincere. He was
probably prepared for robbery, but not for murder. The revelry at the
Trevethlan Arms was protracted till a late hour.