The wheel is come full circle!--_King Lear_, Act. V.
At length the time is arrived when Edward Nicholas is to be tried for
his life on the charge of high treason. Within a fortnight after his
surrender, a Special Commission was sent down to try him; and the trial
is to take place at the county town of Dolgelly.[1] At an early hour,
Bertram, who had slept in Dolgelly, presented himself at the door of
the court-house: early as it was, however, he found the entrance
already thronged by a crowd unusually numerous for so unpopulous a
neighbourhood. Amongst them were many women, grieving by anticipation
that the
cruel thunders of the law should descend, for charges so frivolous as
high treason, upon this young and accomplished soldier--whose fine
person, winning manners, and chivalrous protection of women in many
desperate affrays of the smugglers, had gained him all female hearts
far and near in Merionethshire. There were also some fierce faces in
the crowd--of smugglers and freebooters: amongst these Bertram
recognized several of his friends from the _Fleurs-de-lys_; and at
their head stood Captain le Harnois, who appeared to have recovered
surprizingly from his 'cons_o_mption,' and was at this moment
surrounded by several of his own 'mourners.' Bertram moved as near as
he could to the captain, whom he perceived to be in conversation with
some person immediately in advance, and lurking from general view under
the overshadowing bulk of the noble captain's massy figure.
"_What's_ your name, do you say?" asked the captain, lowering his ear,
"Bilberry?"
"Dulberry, I say," replied the other angrily: "Samuel Dulberry, late
twist manufacturer in Manchester."
"Dulberry is it? Why, Dulberry, then: what, man! I'll not rob you of
it. Now, Dulberry, I'll tell you what: you're in luck; you've not got
such a d---d hulk of a body to take care of as I have. You'll do all
the better for a gimblet. So mind now, Dulberry: as soon as the door
opens, take your head in your hands and begin to bore with it. You
shall be the wedge: I'll be the mallet. Never you look behind: I'll
take care of all that. Mind your own duty; once bore a hole for me, and
my name's not le Harnois if I don't send you 'home.'"
Though Mr. Dulberry could not perhaps wholly approve of the captain's
rather authoritative tone, nor of the captain's figures of speech,
which, to a man who had read Blackstone, seemed a little too much to
confound the distinctions of 'things' and 'persons'--yet, as he saw the
benefits of such an arrangement, he made no objection, but submitted to
act in the humble relation of screw to a screw-driver--or, to keep to
the captain's image, submitted to be "driven home" as a nail by the
great hammer of Captain le Harnois.
He began immediately by breaking a weak phalanx of women, who sought to
re-unite in his rear; but they found that they must first of all
circumnavigate the great rock of Captain le Harnois; and, long before
that could be effected, so many of the Fleurs-de-lys' people pressed
after in the captain's wake that this confluence of the female
bisections never took place. In a moment after the doors of the court
opened; a rush took place; Bertram was carried in by the torrent; and
in half a minute found himself comfortably lodged in an elevated
corner. From this he overlooked the court, and he could perceive that
the captain had well performed his promise of driving Mr. Dulberry
home: the reformer was advanced to the very utmost verge of the
privileged space, and obliged to support himself against the pressure
behind by clasping a pillar: as the captain in turn clasped Mr.
Dulberry, and enfolded him, as one box in a 'nest' of boxes is made to
inclose another, the poor reformer's station was an unhappy one: and,
though he had quietly submitted to the captain so long as their joint
interests were concerned in supporting him, it was clear to Bertram
from the fierce looks of the reformer, as he kept turning round his
head, that this 'nestling' of Captain le Harnois was now taking his
revenge, by reading to that arbitrary person a most rigorous lecture on
the bill of rights. It was equally clear that the captain was in rueful
perplexity as to Mr. Dulberry's meaning; not knowing whether to
understand his jargon, so wholly new to himself, as bearing a warlike
or an amorous character--those being the two sole categories or
classifications of the noble captain's whole stock of ideas. Luckily,
to prevent any quarrel between parties so interested in maintaining a
good understanding as the screw and the screw-driver, betting commenced
at this time in very loud terms on various contingencies of the
approaching trial.[2] Ten guineas to ten were offered freely that the
prisoner was acquitted, but found few takers. Mr. Dulberry said that he
would have taken it if the jury had not been packed. Three to four that
the trial was over before twelve o'clock;--this was taken cautiously.
Ten to seven that Mr. Justice ---- did _not_ yawn six times before the
peroration of Mr. ---- (who led for the crown); this was taken pretty
freely. A thousand to one that the prisoner did not show the white
feather; in spite of the immense odds, this was not listened to; so
generally was the prisoner's character established for imperturbable
firmness.
At this moment a general buz announced the commencement of some
profounder interest: a trampling of horses outside announced the
arrival of Captain Nicholas with his escort from Walladmor. Bertram
closed his eyes from the shock which he anticipated at the sight of the
prisoner; and, when he next opened them, the court was set, the
prisoner was placed at the bar, and his arraignment opened in the
customary form for levying war against our sovereign lord the king.
All present were interested more or less by the striking appearance and
serene deportment of the prisoner. His face appeared to Bertram
somewhat more faded and care-worn than when he had last seen him: but
on the whole it bore the marks of fine animal health and spirits,
struggling severely with some internal suffering of mind.
The trial proceeded in the usual manner, but with unusual rapidity, as
the prisoner challenged none of the jury, nor called any witnesses. The
crown lawyers painted the prisoner's guilt in the most alarming
colours; insisting much on his extraordinary talents both military and
civil as a leader in popular tumults. The witnesses deposed with
tolerable consistency to his having tampered with them for purposes
connected with some design upon Harlech castle. The capture of one
outwork of Harlech was established. And at length the prisoner was
called on for his defence.
With his usual self-possession, and with an air of extreme good humour
except when he had occasion to speak of the counsel who opened the
case, Captain Nicholas spoke as follows:
"My lord, and gentlemen of the jury,--I should be sorry to treat with
levity any charge which I see that you treat with solemnity. The charge
of treason is here, I find, a very grave one: though elsewhere I have
known it as common and as trivial as assault and battery. However, be
that as it may, I trust there can be no offence in my noticing without
much gravity the attempt of the learned gentleman who opened the case
for the crown to aggravate the matter against me by representing that I
had engaged in an enterprize which had shaken the king of England on
his throne.
"Shake the king of England upon his throne I gentlemen, I have not that
vanity: and you must excuse my laughing a little. I am well assured
that it was never in my power nor that of much more potent persons to
alarm so great a prince. We all know that, if the kings of this earth
were to assemble in council, they would find it hard to devise that
message which could make a king of England turn pale. As to Harlech,
you gentlemen of the jury well know what Harlech is. A bathing place on
the coast, not far from Harlech, I mean Barmouth, is said to have a
little resemblance to Gibraltar; a _very_ little, I think: but, as to
Harlech, I can assure you that it has none at all: it is as unlike
Gibraltar as it is possible for any castle to be--whether as to
fortifications or garrison. The fortifications run more hazard every
month from treasonable west winds than ever they did from me; and, as
to the garrison, it musters (I think) or _did_ muster at that time
sixteen invalids. I will not say that the west wind is as full of peril
to _them_, for I think it will take an east wind to affect them
seriously: but this I venture to affirm, that, with five such English
seamen as I once seduced from his Britannic majesty's ship Bellerophon,
for a certain patriot service in South America, I would undertake to
make myself master of Harlech castle in ten minutes; and yet,
gentlemen, I doubt not but the king of England could have found five
other men in his service that would have singed our beards and perhaps
retaken it in twenty minutes.
"My lord, I see that you disapprove of this style in a prisoner on his
defence. Let me say then at once--that, though I pay every respect to
the king of so great a nation, and would have been proud to have held a
commission under his majesty, yet, as I do not hold one, nor ever did,
I think it can scarcely be said that I owe him any duty, or can have
committed any treason against him. It is my vanity to call myself an
Englishman; and I sometimes believe that I _am_ one. But I am sure
_that_ is more of my free love to England, than of any claim which
England can show to my services. For I have lived, from the earliest
time I can remember, chiefly upon the sea; possibly was born there: and
that I speak English as my native language cannot prove me an
Englishman; for I speak Spanish and Portuguese as fluently. So far from
having received any favours from England, or the king of England--I
protest that his Britannic majesty is almost the only great potentate
in the Christian world to whom at one time or other I have _not_ sworn
allegiance. For so young a man this may seem a bold assertion: but the
truth is--I have borne arms from my childish days; have seen a good
deal of land service: and, as to naval service, my unhappy lot having
thrown me so early upon the society of sea-rovers, I have positively
sailed under the flag of every maritime state in Christendom. I cannot
see, therefore, how I can be viewed as an English subject: and if I
were to allow myself the magnificent language adopted by my learned
enemy who opened the case for the crown, I might rather claim to be
considered as a foreign power making unsuccessful war upon the king of
England in his castle of Harlech, and now taken prisoner in my final
invasion of his territories. In that case, the learned gentleman will
recollect that--if I should escape from this court by the verdict of
the jury, I shall have a right to consider him as an ally of that great
prince, and to treat him accordingly by land or sea.
"But I am slipping back into that style by which I was sorry to
perceive that I gave offence before. I must apologize by charging it
upon the example set me by the learned counsel, who should better
understand the proper style for a court of justice than I can be
supposed to do. I was endeavouring to show that I am not properly a
subject of his Britannic majesty's; or, if I am, it is more than either
he or I can be sure of. To this I shall add two remarks: first, that I
was bred up among pirates--and not trained to any respect for the
institutions or law of civil societies: a circumstance which I would
wish to have its weight--not, gentlemen, in your verdict, but in the
judgments which charitable men shall hereafter pronounce upon my
character. Secondly, whereas the learned gentleman in the silk gown
insinuated that I was familiar with murderers, and that I looked with
indifference upon shedding human blood--this insinuation, gentlemen of
the jury, I am sure you will not regard; for nothing has appeared this
day in evidence to support any charge of that kind--which, as a soldier
of an honourable republic, I repel with indignation. Except in battle,
or in self-defence, I have never shed any human blood. And, if I did
not fear to be misinterpreted in one quarter where I would blush to
speak of any thing I had done (though it had been a thousand times
more) as pretending to the value of a service--I might produce cases
even in this country where I have saved the lives of others at some
hazard to my own. But I forbear; and leave this to be of service to my
memory rather than to my cause in this court.
"With that view it is that I have made these two last statements: I
press them upon your attention by no means as a prisoner at the bar,
but as a man who is not insensible, both on his own account and for
their sakes who have honoured him with some portion of their regard, to
the opinion which may be hereafter formed of his character. The first
is a consideration which certainly will have its weight with all the
candid: the second is at least as valid as the insinuation to which it
applies: it is the only sort of defence which it is possible for me to
make to a calumny so general and uncircumstantial.
"Now, gentlemen, let me say in conclusion why I do not urge any thing
to influence your verdict. In point of law, so far as I have collected
it from the speeches of the learned counsel, it would be impossible to
say any thing to the purpose. The question you have to decide upon, I
understand to be this; whether I did or did not levy war upon his
Majesty's garrison of sixteen firelocks and his castle of Harlech.
Since the date of the Harlech war I have been present in South America
in so many enterprises, even more desperate, that I cannot pretend to
recal every circumstance: I am apt to confound them with one another.
But the general fact of this expedition against Harlech I think the
witnesses for the crown have established tolerably well. Some of them
indeed gave their evidence in rather unmilitary language, and seemed to
be unduely impressed with the magnitude of that war: but their meaning
was good! and their dates, I dare say, all perfectly correct. I am sure
I have no witnesses to call on my part that could shake either their
history, their chronology, their geography, or in fact any one thing
that is theirs--excepting always their martial tactics, which certainly
are susceptible of improvement. As to cross-examining them, or any
thing of that sort,--I am sure they all want to dine: and I would be
sorry to leave an uncharitable impression of myself amongst so many
respectable yeomen, by detaining them under such circumstances. And,
gentlemen of the jury, if you will excuse me as a soldier for jesting
with you at parting, I am sure that _you_ also wish to be out hunting
on such a fine day as this. And I will acknowledge that I should myself
be disposed to view a prisoner's case as very atrocious who kept me
needlessly in court in such weather as this. As to the learned counsel,
_their_ hunt is in the court: and undoubtedly, by making so few
doubles, I have afforded them but poor sport. I shall not even take
exception to the name by which I am indicted. But the lawyers (though I
feel for _them_ also) are the minority in this court. And besides they
have as little power to save me, as the learned gentleman in the silk
gown apparently has the will. You it is, gentlemen of the jury, that are
the arbiters of my fate: and, if I wished to gain a favourable verdict
from you, I conceive (as I said before) that in so hopeless a case as
mine I could take no more rational course towards that end than by giving
you as little trouble as possible.
"But, gentlemen, in conclusion I will tell you that I do _not_ wish for
a favourable verdict; and, if I did, I should not be here: for I have
had it in my power to escape a hundred times over. The truth is--lest
any man should misunderstand me as though it were an evil conscience or
vicious habits that had made me weary of life at so early an age,--the
truth is briefly this: and let it be the apology, my lord and gentlemen
of the jury, for any tone of occasional carelessness or (as you may think)
levity in what I have said--I have embarked my whole heart on one single
interest: from the unhappy circumstances which beset me, I have in that
quarter no hope: and, without hope there, life is to me of no value.
And you cannot take from me any thing that I shall more willingly part
with."
The judge briefly summed up by telling the jury that their duty was
plain: yet, as three points had arisen which might perplex their views
of the case, he would first dispose of these. The prisoner had
intimated that he was indicted by a false name. But, as it had
sufficiently appeared in evidence that he was generally known by this
name, that was no matter for their inquiry. He had also alleged that he
owed no allegiance to the crown of England: if so, the onus of proof
lay upon the prisoner, who had adduced none whatever. Neither could
such proof avail him: for, to justify his attack upon Harlech Castle,
he must show a positive commission from some power at war with this
country. But that was impossible, for the time of the attack was one of
profound peace. Finally, it had been alleged, in the course of the
trial, that the prisoner was insane. Now, although it had sufficiently
appeared from the evidence given that he was a man of extraordinary and
various talents, still _that_ was not impossible; and, upon the whole,
had some countenance from the style of his address--for defence he
would not call it. However as no direct evidence had been called to
that point, the jury would do well to leave it wholly out of their
consideration; they might be assured it would obtain whatever attention
was due to it in another quarter.--Some indulgence was also due to the
prisoner on the ground of his unhappy training in early life, though he
had himself refused to urge it with that view. This also might be
considered elsewhere, but was not to influence their verdict. The sole
question for _them_ was, as to the overt acts of war. Two witnesses had
prevaricated about the date of a particular incident: if they thought
_that_ of importance, they would give the prisoner the full benefit of
their doubts. The prisoner had in fact admitted the main fact himself:
and had said nothing tending to change the natural construction of it.
He had simply endeavoured to underrate the importance of Harlech
Castle, but that was of no consequence: a place, weak in itself, may be
reputed strong; and, by encouraging people to rise in a period of
general political ferment, may do all the mischief that could attach to
the seizure of a much stronger place. However, in any case, that made
no difference. They had to consider the single question he had
mentioned: if they thought _that_ of no importance, they would find the
prisoner guilty on all the counts in the indictment.
* * * * * *
Meantime, as it was beginning to grow dusk, Sir Morgan Walladmor was
sitting in his library, and reviewing the case of Captain Nicholas.
Many noble traits of character, which had come to Sir Morgan's
knowledge in past years,--his talents,--and his youth,--all pleaded for
him powerfully: the benignant old man felt concerned that he should in
any way have been made instrumental to his condemnation: for of _that_
he had not much doubt; and he was considering through what channel he
could best exert his influence in obtaining some mitigation of his
sentence; when a door opened; a person, moving with a noiseless and
stealthy foot, entered; and, on raising his head. Sir Morgan saw before
him Mrs. Gillie Godber. As a person privileged to go whithersoever she
would, Sir Morgan would not have felt much surprise at seeing her at
this time or in this place: but there was something unusual in her
appearance which excited his attention. Her eyes were fierce and
glittering; but her manner was unnaturally soft and specious: and she
seemed bent on some mission of peculiar malignity. Sir Morgan motioned
to her to take a chair: but she was always rigidly punctilious in
accepting no favor or attention in Walladmor Castle; and at present she
seemed not to observe his courtesy, but leaned forward with her hands
against the back of a chair.
"Well, Sir Morgan Walladmor! so, then, Edward Nicholas is gone to his
trial?"
"He is; God send him a good deliverance!"
"So, so?" said she laughing, "times are changed at Walladmor. A good
deliverance, eh? What, good deliverance to a smuggler?"
"Yes, Mrs. Godber,--even to a smuggler who happens to need it; but
Captain Nicholas is not a smuggler."
"No, but he is worse: he has been a captain of smugglers, and he is a
traitor."
"Whether he is a traitor, we do not yet know, Mrs. Godber. As a leader
of smugglers he has at least the excuse of his unfortunate situation
and his youth."
"Those were no excuses, Sir Morgan, twenty-four years ago."
"Woe is me, Mrs. Godber, that they were not!"
"So, so, so?" said she, chuckling with stifled laughter: "is it come to
that? so then a worm may turn again, a poor worm may turn again--when
it is trod upon. And the worm may be a snake. God sends snakes for
those that need them." Then, pointing to the armorial bearings of the
house of Walladmor emblazoned on the antique chairs, she said--"The
snake, Sir Morgan, _my_ snake. Sir Morgan Walladmor, my pretty
snake--she stung your Falcon; your Falcon, and--your Doves!"
"She did indeed!" and Sir Morgan groaned with the remembrance.
"Aye, aye. That summer night she stung--she stung! Oh!
sweet--sweet--sweet is revenge, Sir Morgan. Is it not, Sir Morgan?"
"God forbid!--God forbid!--Yet, if _that_ be sweet, you have had it."
"Aye, but not all. We are not yet come to our death-beds: and, before
then, the snake may sting again. All is not finished yet:--what think
you, Sir Morgan, will be the end? what _should_ be the end?"
"If you speak of our death-beds, Mrs. Godber,--peace, as I humbly
presume to hope, the peace of christian charity and mutual forgiveness.
Frail creatures that we are! the best will need forgiveness; the
guiltiest, I trust, who brings a contrite heart, will not ask it in
vain." Then, after a pause, he added solemnly--"You also, Mrs. Godber,
will need forgiveness."
She fixed her eyes intently upon him, at the same time slowly drawing
from her pocket two parcels. One was a packet of letters. She laid them
upon the library table; and, striking her hand upon them with emphasis,
she said--"Read those, when you will: they are letters from Captain
Donneraile and Winifred Griffiths."
Sir Morgan trembled and would have taken the letters: but at this
moment the trampling of horses was heard in the great court, upon which
the library windows looked out: it was now growing dark; and the
torches of the horsemen suddenly irradiated the room, and flashed upon
the eyes of Mrs. Godber. Sir Morgan shuddered at their expression.
She opened the other parcel; and said, with something of a commanding
tone, "Come here! come here!"
Mechanically almost he followed her to the window: she opened and
displayed a baby's frock: the light of the torches fell strong upon it,
and Sir Morgan recognized it well; for it bore in embroidered colours
the bloody hand and the antient crest of Walladmor--by which marks it
had been advertized through Europe.
"Where had you this, Mrs. Godber?"
said he commanding his emotions: but at that instant Sir Charles
Davenant entered the room; and he turned to him with a convulsive
eagerness.--
"The verdict. Sir Charles? What is the verdict?"
"Guilty: judgment has passed: the prisoner is to be executed on
Wednesday next."
Sir Morgan still controled himself:---he turned back to Mrs. Godber;
and, taking both her withered hands into his, he said in the fervent
accents of one who supplicates for liberation from torment, but in
whispering tones that were audible to none but her--
"Mrs. Godber, as you hope hereafter to rejoin your own boy, tell
me--where is that unhappy child of mine that once wore this dress?"
Slowly she released her hands: slowly her face relaxed into a smile:
she looked down into the court: the escort of dragoons had formed in
two ranks, leaving a lane to the door of the Falcon tower: the
sheriff's carriage had drawn up: the prisoner was descending: the
torch-light glared upon him. She drew in her breath with a hissing
sound; pressed her hands together; and then, with an energy that seemed
to crowd the whole luxury of her long vengeance into that single action
and that single word, she threw out both arms at once, pointed to
Edward Nicholas, and, with a yell, she ejaculated--"_There!_"
Sir Morgan fell to the ground like one smitten by lightning; and long
weeks of unconsciousness gave to him the balm of oblivion.
FOOTNOTES TO "CHAPTER XX.":
[Footnote 1: Harlech, if we remember, is the true county-town of
Merionethshire: but, Dolgelly being the larger and more central place,
if a man has any county business (for example, if he wants hanging or
so) he goes to Dolgelly.]
[Footnote 2: This is a satiric hit of the German author at an English
foible which cannot be denied: we wish no nation that we could mention
had worse. That the satire in this case however is not carried beyond
the limits of probability--is evident from the following paragraph
which appeared in many of the morning papers during the third week of
last October:
"It is scarcely credible, and yet we are positively assured of the
fact, that bets to a large amount are depending upon the issue of Mr.
Fauntleroy's trial; and that the books of some of the frequenters of
Tattersall's and the One Tun, are not less occupied with wagers upon
the fate of a fellow-creature than with those upon the Oaks, Derby, and
St. Leger. To persons who are not aware of the brutalizing effect of
gambling upon the mind, this circumstance will be a matter of
astonishment; and even the more experienced can scarcely view with
indifference so gross an outrage on common decency."]