Despite his rags and haggard appearance, his manner was defiant. He
had been twenty years in prison, but he had not lost his sense of
self-respect; degraded association had not stamped out his manliness.
He bore about him the signs of great suffering--of unmerited
suffering, as I knew while gazing upon him for the first time, but it
had not turned him into a savage, as has been the case with other men
who have been wrongly judged. Through the rough crust of habits
foreign to his nature which a long term of imprisonment had laid upon
him, I discerned an underlying dignity and nobility which bespoke him
gentleman. I discerned also in him the evidence of a tenacious purpose
from which death alone could turn him. That purpose had brought him to
Rosemullion, and, connected as I was with Gabriel Carew and his
family, it was necessary that I should learn its nature.
"Do you accost me," asked Emilius, "as friend or enemy?"
"As friend," I replied. "I ask you to believe me upon my honour, from
gentleman to gentleman."
His face flushed, and he looked searchingly at me to ascertain if I
was mocking him.
"When I saw you," said Emilius, "standing apart from that fiend in
human form, and saw him watching here by the copse in which I lay
concealed, I supposed you were both in league against me."
"I at least am guiltless of enmity towards you," I said. "It is truly
my wish to serve you if you will show me the way and I deem it right."
"What I have suffered," he said with a pitiful smile, "has not
embittered me against all the world. It would not ill become me to
disbelieve the protestations of a stranger, but I prefer the weaker
course. I have only two things to fear--irredeemable poverty, from
which I could not extricate myself--(I am not far from that pass at
the present, but I have still sufficient for two months' dry
bread)--and death before I achieve my purpose. May God so deal with
you as you deal honestly by me. I have not lost all comprehension of
human signs, and there is that in you which denotes a wish to know me
and perhaps to win my confidence. Sorely do I need a friend, a helping
hand; and like a drowning man I clutch at the first that offers
itself. Yet bitter as is my need, I ask you to turn from me at once if
your intentions are not honest."
"I will stay and prove myself," I said.
"Why have you remained out in the open," asked Emilius, "while that
monster, who for a brief space has put aside his murderous intent, has
re-entered his house?"
"It was an accident, and may be providential. At first I deplored it,
but now am thankful for it. I am thankful, too, that you made no
movement while Mr. Carew was standing on this spot."
"I am no coward," said Emilius with pride, "and yet I was afraid. As I
have told you, I do not want to die--just yet. He was armed; I am
without a weapon. But had it been otherwise I should not have risked a
conflict with him; my life is for a little while too precious to me.
My liberty, also, which he, a gentleman, against me, a vagrant, might
with little difficulty swear away. He has done worse than that without
scruple. Therefore, it behoved me to be wary. Were my errand here an
errand of revenge I should have a score, a terrible score, to settle
with him; but there is something of even greater weight to be
accomplished. I have said that I will trust you; in prison my word was
relied on, and it may be relied on here. It is not in doubt of you I
ask why the fiend who inhabits that house and you came out in concert
at such an hour?"
"We did not come out in concert," I replied. "Mr. Carew did not see
me; he was not aware of my presence."