And I have thrust myself into this maze,
Haply to wive and thrive as I may best.
SHAKSPEARE.
It was a violent commencement, and thou shalt see an answerable
sequestration.
Once on shore, while pausing to recover himself, he gazed with a
proud feeling of satisfaction on the still insensible being whom he
had thus providentially rescued; for Carter had been engaged in too
many frays not to know that the wound was not in itself dangerous,
though a severe one; but he also knew enough of the comrades he had
just left to feel certain that upon the first confirmation of the
report of a revenue cutter nearing them, which he had heard just as
he was jumping overboard, a second blow, more sure, would inevitably
have fallen on their already half-lifeless victim: and, tied in a
sack with stones, he would too surely have sought the bottom, to
prevent the possibility of his bearing witness against them.
As soon as Harry Carter was sufficiently recovered again to take up
the motionless body, which as yet showed no symptom of returning
life, he made at once for a lone hut in a cleft between two rocks,
from which an almost impassable road led up into the open country.
Here, as he expected, he found a light cart in the charge of one of
the loose characters who were in league with the smugglers, and whom
he had directed to meet him there on that evening so provided, in
case “_La Pie voleuse_” should have chanced to bring, as part of her
cargo, any smaller articles of more value, which might as well have
been removed, under the cover of the darkness, to one of those most
complete of all possible devices for concealment which are found in
the centre of a populous town.
His confidant was not a little surprised when he beheld him bearing,
as he thought, a corpse, instead of, as he had expected, lace gloves
or ladies’ shoes.
“I say, messmate, holloa!” he cried out, “this is no go, if you’ve
been after a burking job here. You told me I was to carry light
articles, and you fig me off with a stiff ’un. I was never in the
mole-catching line myself, and shouldn’t like to be twigged grubbing.”
“Hold your peace, you lubber,” said Carter, “the man’s not dead, nor
like to die; and if he doesn’t, this will turn out the best job you
ever did yet of all your days. If you’ll only just carry him to yon
place where we were to have taken t’other things, you’ll have earned
as good a brace of RAGS, as sure as your name’s John Smutt; and
perhaps ten times as many more, if you’re only just mum a bit, and
don’t say a word about all this, if we find he wishes you not.”
“Oh! I’ll say nout aboot it. The objections are all about doing it;
once done, there’ll be little to be gained, I take, to either of us,
by having it blowed. But, let us feel:--why, his fin moved--sure
enough, he’s alive. Well, that’s another guess sort of case,
certainly; so I’ll just pop him in here, where he’ll lie as snug as
possible; and I only hope he’ll live to think of that hush-money you
talk about. What’s it?--ten times ten. Why, that’s a hundred pounds.
A hundred pounds!!”
The journey thus arranged was performed expeditiously, and without
observation, in the covered cart; and by break of day they reached
the large inland town, to which they were bound. Here, in the
first instance, Castleton was conveyed to an obscure lodging, as
Carter thought that there he would be better concealed, till with
returning consciousness he might himself be consulted, how far he
wished his late adventure to be known. It will at once be seen, that
if Castleton was not anxious that it should be made the subject
of enquiry, the less that was said about it the better for Carter
himself, who was now rather in an awkward position with both the
parties in any investigation that might be undertaken.
The contusion on the temple, which was Castleton’s principal injury,
though a severe one, quickly progressed towards recovery, under the
anxious care of his present attendant; and he now suffered most from
the weakness ensuing from loss of blood, by a cut which he had also
received in his fall.
His faculties were, after a time, perfectly restored; and upon
recognising Carter, and ascertaining the particulars of his escape,
his gratitude to his deliverer knew no bounds. His first step was to
have himself moved to a more decent lodging, still without assuming
his own name, and to confirm Carter’s bargain with his confederate,
of a hundred pounds, upon condition of his saying nothing about the
sort of cargo his cart had contained. This sum was to be paid in six
months, provided that at the end of the time nothing was known about
the adventure; a remote date for payment being suggested by Carter,
who thought that his acquaintance would be more easily constrained
by future expectation than by past favours; and in this Castleton
acquiesced, being very anxious, for a variety of mixed reasons, that
his late adventure should not be made the subject of gossip.
When almost recovered from the effects of his late accident, Henry
Carter one day brought him the circumstantial account of the arrest
of George Darnell and the gang of smugglers, and of their committal,
George as his murderer, and the others as accessaries after the fact.
Castleton could not for a moment doubt what ought to be his conduct
under such circumstances: at once to show himself to the authorities,
who had entertained the charge, and to state the facts of the case;
bearing, as he did, in his own living person the only utterly
incontrovertible evidence against the truth of such an accusation.
But it was not so easy for him to make up his mind to take this step,
as to convince himself that it was what he ought to do; and he at
length succeeded in persuading his reason, that, peculiarly situated
as he was, there were very good excuses (he went no farther than
that) for his adopting a different line of conduct.
He had ulterior, and, as he thought, truly beneficial views for
the parties most interested, in his decision of this question; and
he felt his pride would prevent him from maintaining his present
intentions, if a public disclosure of all the facts was to take
place. The sight of Lucy’s agony at his sufferings, and her energetic
interference on his behalf on the beach, hallowed as that impression
had been by his again relapsing into death-like insensibility,
had removed any lingering doubts he had entertained as to making
her his wife; and that was now the object nearest his heart. His
principal notion in assuming the disguise, and seeking Bankside
Farm, in execution of the project he had formed, was to be himself
sure that the person who could, in such an assumed character, win
her affections, must be loved for himself alone, and that he might
then enjoy the happy consciousness that his bride had not been
influenced in her preference of him, by any of the outward advantages
of his worldly situation: advantages which he had found not without
their influence upon women even in the highest rank. Yet this was a
satisfaction which he wished as much as possible to keep to himself.
Indeed he did not feel sure that the success of the very object he
had in view would appear to the fashionable denizens of the world so
self-evident, if they were merely made acquainted with the simple
facts of the case. They would be apt, without enquiring into the
way in which he might have won her affections, to imagine it just
possible, if they knew from how low a rank in life he had raised the
future Lady Castleton, that she might be influenced in her acceptance
of him by those extraneous advantages of fortune, which must
certainly have as much weight with her, as with those who, from want
of contrast, could not be expected to value them even so highly as
the low-born peasant. It was, therefore, no part of his scheme, that
it should ever be precisely known in the world who Lady Castleton
had been; and in directing his steps a second time towards Morden
Bay, he was much decided by thinking, that if further observation
there confirmed his early recollections, not only the peculiarly
delicate and refined nature of Lucy’s beauty might, unquestioned,
bear transplanting into any rank in life, but from the very secluded
spot where she had been brought up, and the retired habits of her
parents, her former home need never be traced, even by the prying
and the curious. All these were conditional accompaniments of his
scheme, without which he would never have formed it originally; and
without which, even now, desperately in love with Lucy as he was, or
thought he was, he would still hesitate as to its accomplishment.
And yet all these encouraging considerations were threatened with
complete overthrow, if, by discovering himself, in order to procure
George’s release, he was obliged to disclose any circumstance of his
late adventures. The very extraordinary nature of the facts he would
have to relate, coupled, as they would be, with his own well-known
name, would immediately circulate the wonderful tale in every shape
of paragraph, pamphlet, and perhaps ballad. Then the numberless jokes
which would be circulated, about the supposed rivalry between “The
Noble Lord” and “The Smuggler Cousin,” to which the facts of the
case, when disclosed, would give more than a plausible appearance
of truth! Then that very lawless lad, with all the innuendoes about
doubtful preference between them, was to be his cousin. His cousin!
A convicted smuggler! For though his own appearance would free him
from the charge of wilful murder, the revenue prosecutions would
only be confirmed by the publicity thus given to the transactions in
which they had originated; whereas, if by any other means the danger
from the first prosecution for murder could be averted, without his
being obliged to appear himself ostensibly in it, he did not despair
subsequently, by the exertion of his interest indirectly, to procure
the other to be dropped, at least as against George and the crew. As
all these considerations passed in succession through his mind, they
might have kept him undecided how to act; but the increased force of
his attachment to Lucy, craving, urgent, and engrossing as it then
was, if it still could not be dignified with the name of love, in
its most exalted sense, impelled him to take the course most likely
to get the better of these difficulties, which he foresaw might yet
interfere to prevent his making her his wife.
He, therefore, sent for his confidential man of business, to whom
he told all, and from whom he was happy to hear that the conceited
carelessness with which Mr. Spencer had perverted all the facts which
had been prepared for him in the examination before the magistrate,
rendered it most probable that an acquittal might be easily procured
without his being obliged to disclose himself; and his lawyer having,
in consequence, been entrusted with the management of the defence,
Lord Castleton entered the court with the intention of only coming
forward himself as a last resource.