Here’s a good world!
Knew you of this fair work?
King John.
JULIA MANNERING to MATILDA MARCHMONT
‘I must take up the thread of my story, my dearest Matilda, where I broke
off yesterday.
‘For two or three days we talked of nothing but our siege and its
probable consequences, and dinned into my father’s unwilling ears a
proposal to go to Edinburgh, or at least to Dumfries, where there is
remarkably good society, until the resentment of these outlaws should
blow over. He answered with great composure that he had no mind to have
his landlord’s house and his own property at Woodbourne destroyed; that,
with our good leave, he had usually been esteemed competent to taking
measures for the safety or protection of his family; that, if he remained
quiet at home, he conceived the welcome the villains had received was not
of a nature to invite a second visit, but should he show any signs of
alarm, it would be the sure way to incur the very risk which we were
afraid of. Heartened by his arguments, and by the extreme indifference
with which he treated the supposed danger, we began to grow a little
bolder, and to walk about as usual. Only the gentlemen were sometimes
invited to take their guns when they attended us, and I observed that my
father for several nights paid particular attention to having the house
properly secured, and required his domestics to keep their arms in
readiness in case of necessity.
‘But three days ago chanced an occurrence of a nature which alarmed me
more by far than the attack of the smugglers.
‘I told you there was a small lake at some distance from Woodbourne,
where the gentlemen sometimes go to shoot wild-fowl. I happened at
breakfast to say I should like to see this place in its present frozen
state, occupied by skaters and curlers, as they call those who play a
particular sort of game upon the ice. There is snow on the ground, but
frozen so hard that I thought Lucy and I might venture to that distance,
as the footpath leading there was well beaten by the repair of those who
frequented it for pastime. Hazlewood instantly offered to attend us, and
we stipulated that he should take his fowling-piece. He laughed a good
deal at the idea of going a-shooting in the snow; but, to relieve our
tremors, desired that a groom, who acts as gamekeeper occasionally,
should follow us with his gun. As for Colonel Mannering, he does not like
crowds or sights of any kind where human figures make up the show, unless
indeed it were a military review, so he declined the party.
‘We set out unusually early, on a fine, frosty, exhilarating morning, and
we felt our minds, as well as our nerves, braced by the elasticity of the
pure air. Our walk to the lake was delightful, or at least the
difficulties were only such as diverted us,--a slippery descent, for
instance, or a frozen ditch to cross, which made Hazlewood’s assistance
absolutely necessary. I don’t think Lucy liked her walk the less for
these occasional embarrassments.
‘The scene upon the lake was beautiful. One side of it is bordered by a
steep crag, from which hung a thousand enormous icicles all glittering in
the sun; on the other side was a little wood, now exhibiting that
fantastic appearance which the pine trees present when their branches are
loaded with snow. On the frozen bosom of the lake itself were a multitude
of moving figures, some flitting along with the velocity of swallows,
some sweeping in the most graceful circles, and others deeply interested
in a less active pastime, crowding round the spot where the inhabitants
of two rival parishes contended for the prize at curling,--an honour of
no small importance, if we were to judge from the anxiety expressed both
by the players and bystanders. We walked round the little lake, supported
by Hazlewood, who lent us each an arm. He spoke, poor fellow, with great
kindness to old and young, and seemed deservedly popular among the
assembled crowd. At length we thought of retiring.
‘Why do I mention these trivial occurrences? Not, Heaven knows, from the
interest I can now attach to them; but because, like a drowning man who
catches at a brittle twig, I seize every apology for delaying the
subsequent and dreadful part of my narrative. But it must be
communicated: I must have the sympathy of at least one friend under this
heart-rending calamity.
‘We were returning home by a footpath which led through a plantation of
firs. Lucy had quitted Hazlewood’s arm; it is only the plea of absolute
necessity which reconciles her to accept his assistance. I still leaned
upon his other arm. Lucy followed us close, and the servant was two or
three paces behind us. Such was our position, when at once, and as if he
had started out of the earth, Brown stood before us at a short turn of
the road! He was very plainly, I might say coarsely, dressed, and his
whole appearance had in it something wild and agitated. I screamed
between surprise and terror. Hazlewood mistook the nature of my alarm,
and, when Brown advanced towards me as if to speak, commanded him
haughtily to stand back, and not to alarm the lady. Brown replied, with
equal asperity, he had no occasion to take lessons from him how to behave
to that or any other lady. I rather believe that Hazlewood, impressed
with the idea that he belonged to the band of smugglers, and had some bad
purpose in view, heard and understood him imperfectly. He snatched the
gun from the servant, who had come up on a line with us, and, pointing
the muzzle at Brown, commanded him to stand off at his peril. My screams,
for my terror prevented my rinding articulate language, only hastened the
catastrophe. Brown, thus menaced, sprung upon Hazlewood, grappled with
him, and had nearly succeeded in wrenching the fowling-piece from his
grasp, when the gun went off in the struggle, and the contents were
lodged in Hazlewood’s shoulder, who instantly fell. I saw no more, for
the whole scene reeled before my eyes, and I fainted away; but, by Lucy’s
report, the unhappy perpetrator of this action gazed a moment on the
scene before him, until her screams began to alarm the people upon the
lake, several of whom now came in sight. He then bounded over a hedge
which divided the footpath from the plantation, and has not since been
heard of. The servant made no attempt to stop or secure him, and the
report he made of the matter to those who came up to us induced them
rather to exercise their humanity in recalling me to life, than show
their courage by pursuing a desperado, described by the groom as a man of
tremendous personal strength, and completely armed.
‘Hazlewood was conveyed home, that is, to Woodbourne, in safety; I trust
his wound will prove in no respect dangerous, though he suffers much. But
to Brown the consequences must be most disastrous. He is already the
object of my father’s resentment, and he has now incurred danger from the
law of the country, as well as from the clamorous vengeance of the father
of Hazlewood, who threatens to move heaven and earth against the author
of his son’s wound. How will he be able to shroud himself from the
vindictive activity of the pursuit? how to defend himself, if taken,
against the severity of laws which, I am told, may even affect his life?
and how can I find means to warn him of his danger? Then poor Lucy’s
ill-concealed grief, occasioned by her lover’s wound, is another source
of distress to me, and everything round me appears to bear witness
against that indiscretion which has occasioned this calamity.
‘For two days I was very ill indeed. The news that Hazlewood was
recovering, and that the person who had shot him was nowhere to be
traced, only that for certain he was one of the leaders of the gang of
smugglers, gave me some comfort. The suspicion and pursuit being directed
towards those people must naturally facilitate Brown’s escape, and I
trust has ere this ensured it. But patrols of horse and foot traverse the
country in all directions, and I am tortured by a thousand confused and
unauthenticated rumours of arrests and discoveries.
‘Meanwhile my greatest source of comfort is the generous candour of
Hazlewood, who persists in declaring that, with whatever intentions the
person by whom he was wounded approached our party, he is convinced the
gun went off in the struggle by accident, and that the injury he received
was undesigned. The groom, on the other hand, maintains that the piece
was wrenched out of Hazlewood’s hands and deliberately pointed at his
body, and Lucy inclines to the same opinion; I do not suspect them of
wilful exaggeration, yet such is the fallacy of human testimony, for the
unhappy shot was most unquestionably discharged unintentionally. Perhaps
it would be the best way to confide the whole secret to Hazlewood; but he
is very young, and I feel the utmost repugnance to communicate to him my
folly. I once thought of disclosing the mystery to Lucy, and began by
asking what she recollected of the person and features of the man whom we
had so unfortunately met; but she ran out into such a horrid description
of a hedgeruffian, that I was deprived of all courage and disposition to
own my attachment to one of such appearance as she attributed to him. I
must say Miss Bertram is strangely biassed by her prepossessions, for
there are few handsomer men than poor Brown. I had not seen him for a
long time, and even in his strange and sudden apparition on this unhappy
occasion, and under every disadvantage, his form seems to me, on
reflection, improved in grace and his features in expressive dignity.
Shall we ever meet again? Who can answer that question? Write to me
kindly, my dearest Matilda; but when did you otherwise? Yet, again, write
to me soon, and write to me kindly. I am not in a situation to profit by
advice or reproof, nor have I my usual spirits to parry them by raillery.
I feel the terrors of a child who has in heedless sport put in motion
some powerful piece of machinery; and, while he beholds wheels revolving,
chains clashing, cylinders rolling around him, is equally astonished at
the tremendous powers which his weak agency has called into action, and
terrified for the consequences which he is compelled to await, without
the possibility of averting them.
‘I must not omit to say that my father is very kind and affectionate. The
alarm which I have received forms a sufficient apology for my nervous
complaints. My hopes are, that Brown has made his escape into the sister
kingdom of England, or perhaps to Ireland or the Isle of Man. In either
case he may await the issue of Hazlewood’s wound with safety and with
patience, for the communication of these countries with Scotland, for the
purpose of justice, is not (thank Heaven) of an intimate nature. The
consequences of his being apprehended would be terrible at this moment. I
endeavour to strengthen my mind by arguing against the possibility of
such a calamity. Alas! how soon have sorrows and fears, real as well as
severe, followed the uniform and tranquil state of existence at which so
lately I was disposed to repine! But I will not oppress you any longer
with my complaints. Adieu, my dearest Matilda! ‘JULIA MANNERING.’