How shall I describe the occurrences of this day, the most memorable
and eventful in my life? A new life is opening for me. I am
overwhelmed at the happiness which is within my grasp. As I walked
home from Doctor Louis's house through the darkness a spirit walked by
my side, illumining the gloom and filling my heart with gladness.
At one o'clock I presented myself at Doctor Louis's house. He met me
at the door, expecting me, and asked me to come with him to a little
room he uses as a study. I followed him in silence. His face was
grave, and but for its kindly expression I should have feared it was
his intention to revoke the permission he had given me to speak to his
daughter on this day of the deep, the inextinguishable love I bear for
her. He motioned me to a chair, and I seated myself and waited for him
to speak.
"This hour," he said, "is to me most solemn."
"And to me, sir," I responded.
"It should be," he said, "to you perhaps, more than to me; but we are
inclined ever to take the selfish view. I have been awake very nearly
the whole of the night, and so has my wife. Our conversation--well,
you can guess the object of it."
"Lauretta, sir."
"Yes, Lauretta, our only child, whom you are about to take from us." I
trembled with joy, his words betokening a certainty that Lauretta
loved me, an assurance I had yet to receive from her own sweet lips.
"My wife and I," he continued, "have been living over again the life
of our dear one, and the perfect happiness we have drawn from her. I
am not ashamed to say that we have committed some weaknesses during
these last few hours, weaknesses springing from our affection for our
Home Rose. In the future some such experience may be yours, and then
you will know--which now is hidden from you--what parents feel who are
asked to give their one ewe lamb into the care of a stranger." I
started. "There is no reason for alarm, Gabriel," he said, "because I
have used a true word. Until a few short months ago you were really a
stranger to us."
"That has not been against me, sir," I said, "and is not, I trust."
"There is no such thought in my mind, Gabriel. There is nothing
against you except--except," he repeated, with a little pitiful smile,
"that you are about to take from us our most precious possession.
Until to-day our dear child was wholly and solely ours; and not only
herself, but her past was ours, her past, which has been to us a
garden of joy. Henceforth her heart will be divided, and you will have
the larger share. That is a great deal to think of, and we have
thought of it, my wife and I, and talked of it nearly all the night.
Certain treasures," he said, and again the pitiful smile came on his
lips, "which in the eyes of other men and women are valueless, still
are ours." He opened a drawer, and gazed with loving eyes upon its
contents. "Such as a little pair of shoes, a flower or two, a lock of
her bright hair."
"May I see it, sir?" I asked, profoundly touched by the loving accents
of his voice.
"Surely," he replied, and he passed over to me a lock of golden hair,
which I pressed to my lips. "The little head was once covered with
these golden curls, and to us, her parents, they were as holy as they
would have been on the head of an angel. She was all that to us,
Gabriel. It is within the scope of human love to lift one's thoughts
to heaven and God; it is within its scope to make one truly fit for
the life to come. All things are not of the world worldly; it is a
grievous error to think so, and only sceptics can so believe. In the
kiss of baby lips, in the touch of little hands, in the myriad sweet
ways of childhood, lie the breath of a pure religion which God
receives because of its power to sanctify the lowest as well as the
highest of human lives. It is good to think of that, and to feel that,
in the holiest forms of humanity, the poor stand as high as the rich."
He paused a while before he continued. "Gabriel, it is an idle phrase
for a father holding the position towards you which I do at the
present moment, to say he has no fears for the happiness of his only
child."
"If you have any, sir," I said, "question me, and let me endeavour to
set your mind at ease. In one respect I can do so with solemn
earnestness. If it be my happy lot to win your daughter, her welfare,
her honour, her peace of mind, shall be the care of my life. These
assured, happiness should follow. I love Lauretta with a pure heart;
no other woman has ever possessed my love; to no other woman have I
been drawn; nor is it possible that I could be. She is to me part of
my spiritual life. I am not as other men, in the ordinary acceptation.
In my childhood's life there was but little joy, and the common
pleasures of childhood were not mine. From almost my earliest
remembrances there was but little light in my parents' house, and in
looking back upon it I can scarcely call it a home. The fault was not
mine, as you will admit. May I claim some small merit--not of my own
purposed earning, but because it was in me, for which I may have
reason to be grateful--from the fact that the circumstances of my
early life did not corrupt me, did not drive me to a searching for low
pleasures, and did not debase me? It seemed to me, sir, that I was
ever seeking for something in the heights and not in the depths. Books
and study were my comforters, and I derived real pleasures from them.
They served to satisfy a want, and, although I contracted a melancholy
mood, I was not unhappy. I know that this mood is in me, but when I
think of Lauretta it is dispelled. I seem to hear the singing of
birds, to see flowers around me, to bathe in sunshine. Perhaps it
springs from the fervour of my love for her; but a kind of belief is
mine that I have been drawn hither to her, that my way of life was
measured to her heart. What more can I say, sir?"
"You have said much," said Doctor Louis, "to comfort and assure me,
and have, without being asked, answered questions which were in my
mind. Do you remember a conversation you had with my wife in the first
days of your convalescence, commenced I think by you in saying that
the happiest dream of your life was drawing to a close?"
"I was thinking of Lauretta. Even in those early days I felt that I
loved her."
"I understand that now," said Doctor Louis. "My wife replied that life
must not be dreamt away, that it has duties."
"I remember the conversation well, sir."
"My wife said that one's ease and pleasures are rewards, only
enjoyable when they have been worthily earned; and when you asked,
'Earned in what way?' she answered, 'In accomplishing one's work in
the world.'"
"Yes, sir, her words come back to me."
"There is something more," said Doctor Louis, with sad sweetness,
"which I should not recall did I not hold duty before me as my chief
beacon. Inclination and selfish desire must often be sacrificed for
it. You will understand how sadly significant this is to me when I
recall what followed. Though, to be sure," he added, in a slightly
gayer tone, "we could visit you and our daughter, wherever your abode
happened to be. Continuing your conversation with my wife, you said,
'How to discover what one's work really is, and where it should be
properly performed?' My wife answered, 'In one's native land.'"
"Those were the words we spoke to one another, sir."
"It was my wife who recalled them to me, and I wish you--in the event
of your hopes being realised--to bear them in mind. It would be
painful to me to see you lead an idle life, and it would be injurious
to you. This quiet village opens out no opportunities to you; it is
too narrow, too confined. I have found my place here as an active
worker, but I doubt if you would do so."
"There is time to think of it, sir."
"Plenty of time. And now, if you like, we will join my wife and
daughter."
"Have you said anything to Lauretta, sir?"
"No. I thought it best, and so did her mother, that her heart should
be left to speak for itself."
Lauretta's mother received me with tender, wistful solicitude, and I
observed nothing in Lauretta to denote that she had been prepared for
the declaration I had come to make. After lunch I proposed to Lauretta
to go out into the garden, and she turned to her mother and asked if
she would accompany us.
"No, my child," said the mother, "I have things in the house to attend
to."
So Lauretta and I went out alone.
It was a lovely day, and Lauretta had thrown a light lace scarf over
her head. She was in gay spirits, not boisterous, for she is ever
gentle, and she endeavoured to entertain me with innocent prattle, to
which I found it difficult to respond. In a little while this forced
itself upon her observation, and she asked me if I was not well.
"I am quite well, Lauretta," I replied.
"Then something has annoyed you," she said.
No, I answered, nothing had annoyed me.
"But there _is_ something," she said.
"Yes," I said, "there _is_ something."
"Tell me," she said.
We were standing by a rosebush, and I plucked one absently, and
absently plucked the leaves. She looked at me in silence for a moment
or two and said, "This is the first time I have ever seen you destroy
a flower."
"I was not thinking of it," I said; and was about to throw it away
when an impulse, born purely of love for what was graceful and sweet,
restrained me, and I put it into my pocket. In this the most
impressive epoch in my life no sentiment but that of tenderness could
hold a place in my heart and mind.
"Well?" she said, still not suspecting. "Tell me."
"Lauretta," I said, taking her hand, which she left willingly in mine,
"will you listen to the story of my life?"
"You have already told me much," she said.
"You have heard only a part," I said, and I gently urged her to a
seat. "I wish you to know all; I wish you to know me as I really am."
"I know you as you really are," she said, and then a faint colour came
to her cheeks, and she trembled slightly, seeing a new meaning in my
earnest glances.
"May I tell you? May I sit beside you?"
"Yes," she said, and gently withdrew her hand from mine.
I told her all, withholding only from her those mysterious promptings
of my lonely hours which I knew would distress her, and to which I was
convinced, with her as my companion through life, there would be for
ever an end. Of even those promptings I gave her some insight, but so
toned down--for her sweet sake, not for mine--as to excite only her
sympathy. Apart from this, I was at sincere pains that she should see
my life as it had really been, a life stripped of the joys of
childhood; a life stripped of the light of home; a life dependent upon
itself for comfort and support. Then, unconsciously, and out of the
suffering of my soul--for as I spoke it seemed to me that a cruel
wrong had been perpetrated upon me in the past--I contrasted the young
life I had been condemned to live with that of a child who was blessed
with parents whose hearts were animated by a love the evidences of
which would endure all through his after life as a sweet and purifying
influence. The tears ran down her cheeks as I dwelt upon this part of
my story. Then I spoke of the happy chance which had conducted me to
her home, and of the happiness I had experienced in my association
with her and hers.
"Whatever fate may be mine," I said, "I shall never reflect upon these
experiences, I shall never think of your dear parents, without
gratitude and affection. Lauretta, it is with their permission I am
here now by your side. It is with their permission that I am opening
my heart to you. They know we are here together. I love you, Lauretta,
and if you will bless me with your love, and place your hand in mine,
all my life shall be devoted to your happiness. You can bring a
blessing into my days; I will strive to bring a blessing into yours."
My arm stole round her waist; her head drooped to my shoulder, so that
her face was hidden from my ardent gaze; the hand I clasped was not
withdrawn.
"Lauretta," I whispered, "say 'I love you, Gabriel.'"
"I love you, Gabriel," she whispered; and heaven itself opened out to
me.
Half an hour later we went in to her mother, and the noble woman held
out her arms to her daughter. As the maiden nestled to her breast, she
said, holding out a hand to me, which I reverently kissed, "God in His
mercy keep guard over you! His blessing be upon you both!"
* * * * *
These are my last written words in the record I have kept. From this
day I commence a new life.
BOOK THE SECOND.
IN WHICH THE SECRET OF THE INHERITANCE TRANSMITTED TO GABRIEL CAREW IS
REVEALED IN A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM ABRAHAM SANDIVAL, ESQ., ENGLAND,
TO HIS FRIEND, MAXIMILIAN GALLENGA, ESQ., CONTRA COSTA CO.,
CALIFORNIA.
I.
My Dear Max,--For many months past you have complained that I have
been extremely reticent upon domestic matters, and that I have said
little or nothing concerning my son Reginald, who, since you quitted
the centres of European civilisation to bury yourself in a sparsely
populated Paradise, has grown from childhood to manhood. A ripe
manhood, my dear Max, such as I, his father, approve of, and to the
future development of which, now that a grave and strange crisis in
his life has come to a happy ending, I look forward with loving
interest. It is, I know, your affection for Reginald that causes you
to be anxious for news of him. Well do I remember when you informed me
of your fixed resolution to seek not only new scenes but new modes of
life, how earnestly you strove to prevail upon me to allow him to
accompany you.
"He is young and plastic," you said, "and I can train him to
happiness. The fewer the wants, the more contented the lot of man."
You wished to educate Reginald according to the primitive views to
which you had become so strongly wedded, and you did your best to
convert me to them, saying, I remember, that I should doubtless suffer
in parting with Reginald, but that it was a father's duty to make
sacrifices for his children. You did not succeed. My belief was, and
is, that man is born to progress, and that to go back into
primitiveness, to commence again, as it were, the history of the world
and mankind, as though we had been living in error through all the
centuries, is a folly. I did not apply this criticism to you; I
regarded your new departure not as a folly, but as a mistake. I doubt
even now whether it has made you happier than you were, and I fancy
I detect here and there in your letters a touch of sadness and
regret--of which perhaps you are unconscious--that you should have cut
yourself away from the busy life of multitudes of people. However, it
is not my purpose now to enlarge upon this theme. The history I am
about to relate is personal to myself and to Reginald, whose destiny
it has been to come into close contact with a family, the head of
which, Gabriel Carew, affords a psychological study as strange
probably as was ever presented to the judgment of mankind.
There are various reasons for my undertaking a task which will occupy
a great deal of time and entail considerable labour. The labour will
be interesting to me, and its products no less interesting to you, who
were always fond of the mystical. I have leisure to apply myself to
it. Reginald is not at present with me; he has left me for a few weeks
upon a mission of sunshine. This will sound enigmatical to you, but
you must content yourself with the gradual and intelligible unfolding
of the wonderful story I am about to narrate. Like a skilful narrator
I shall not weaken the interest by giving information and presenting
pictures to you in the wrong places. The history is one which it is my
opinion should not be lost to the world; its phases are so remarkable
that it will open up a field of inquiry which may not be without
profitable results to those who study psychological mysteries. A few
years hence I should not be able to recall events in their logical
order; I therefore do so while I possess the power and while my memory
is clear with respect to them.
You will soon discover that neither I nor Reginald is the principal
character in this drama of life. That position is occupied by Mr.
Gabriel Carew, the owner of an estate in the county of Kent, known as
Rosemullion.
My labours will be thrown away unless you are prepared to read what I
shall write with unquestioning faith. I shall set down nothing but the
truth, and you must accept it without a thought of casting doubt upon
it. That you will wonder and be amazed is certain; it would, indeed,
be strange otherwise; for in all your varied experiences (you led a
busy and eventful life before you left us) you met with none so
singular and weird as the events which I am about to bring to your
knowledge. You must accept also--as the best and most suitable form
through which you will be made familiar not only with the personality
of Gabriel Carew, but with the mysterious incidents of his life--the
methods I shall adopt in the unfolding of my narrative. They are such
as are frequently adopted with success by writers of fiction, and as
my material is fact, I am justified in pressing it into my service. I
am aware that objection may be taken to it on the ground that I shall
be presenting you with conversations between persons of which I was
not a witness, but I do not see in what other way I could offer you an
intelligent and intelligible account of the circumstances of the
story. All that I can therefore do is to promise that I will keep a
strict curb upon my imagination and will not allow it to encroach upon
the domains of truth. With this necessary prelude I devote myself to
my task.
II.
Before, however, myself commencing the work there is something
essential for you to do. Accompanying my own manuscript is a packet,
carefully sealed and secured, on the outer sheet of which is written,
"Not to be disturbed or opened until instructions to do so are given
by Abraham Sandival to his friend Maximilian Gallenofa." The
precaution is sufficient to whet any man's curiosity, but is not taken
to that end. It is simply in pursuance of the plan I have designed, by
which you will become possessed of all the details and particulars for
the proper understanding of what I shall impart to you. The packet, my
dear Max, is neither more nor less than a life record made by Gabriel
Carew himself up to within a few months of his marriage, which took
place twenty years ago in the village of Nerac. The lady Gabriel Carew
married was the daughter of Doctor Louis, a gentleman of rare
acquirements, and distinguished both for his learning and benevolence.
There is no evidence in the record as to whether its recital was
spread over a number of years, or was begun and finished within a few
months; but that matters little. It bears the impress of absolute
truth and candour, and apart from its startling revelations you will
recognise in it a picturesqueness of description hardly to be expected
from one who had not made a study of literature. Its perusal will
perplexedly stir your mind, and in the feelings it will excite towards
Gabriel Carew there will most likely be an element of pity, the reason
for which you will find it difficult to explain. "Season your
admiration for a while;" before I am at the end of my task the riddle
will be solved.
As I pen these words I can realise your perplexity during your perusal
of the record as to the manner in which my son Reginald came be
associated with so strange a man as the writer. But this is a world of
mystery, and we can never hope to find a key to its spiritual
workings. With respect to this particular mystery nothing shall be
hidden from you. You will learn how I came to be mixed up in it; you
will learn how vitally interwoven it threatened to be in Reginald's
life; you will learn how Gabriel Carew's manuscript fell into my
hands; and the mystery of his life will be revealed to you.
Now, my dear Max, you can unfasten the packet, and read the record.
III.
I assume that you are now familiar with the story of Gabriel Carew's
life up to the point, or within a few months, of his marriage with
Lauretta, and that you have formed some opinion of the different
persons with whom he came in contact in Nerac. Outside Nerac there was
only one person who can be said to have been interested in his fate;
this was his mother's nurse, Mrs. Fortress, and you must be deeply
impressed by the part she played in the youthful life of Gabriel
Carew. Of her I shall have to speak in due course.
I transport you in fancy to Nerac, my dear Max, where I have been not
very long ago, and where I conversed with old people who to this day
remember Gabriel Carew and his sweet wife Lauretta, whom he brought
with him to England some little time after their marriage. It is not
likely that the incidents in connection with Gabriel Carew and his
wife will be forgotten during this generation or the next in that
loveliest of villages.
When you laid aside Carew's manuscript he had received the sanction of
Lauretta's mother to his engagement with the sweet maid, and the good
woman had given her children her blessing. Thereafter Gabriel Carew
wrote: "These are my last written words in the record I have kept.
From this day I commence a new life." He kept his word with respect to
his resolve not to add another word to the record. He sealed it up and
deposited it in his desk; and it is my belief that from that day he
never read a line of its contents.
We are, then, my dear Max, in Nerac, you and I in spirit, in the
holiday time of the open courtship of Gabriel Carew and Lauretta.
Carew is occupying the house of which it was his intention to make
Lauretta the mistress, and there are residing in it, besides the
ordinary servants, Martin Hartog, the gardener, and his daughter, with
whom, from Carew's record, Emilius was supposed to be carrying on an
intrigue of a secret and discreditable nature. It is evident, from the
manner in which Carew referred to it, that he considered it
dishonourable. The name of this girl was Patricia.
There remain to be mentioned, as characters in the drama then being
played, Doctor Louis, Eric, and Father Daniel.
The crimes of the two ruffians who had attempted to enter Doctor
Louis's house remained for long fresh in the memories of the
villagers. They were both dead, one murdered, the other executed for a
deed of which only one person in Nerac had an uneasy sense of his
innocence--Father Daniel. The good priest, having received from the
unfortunate man a full account of his life from childhood, journeyed
shortly afterwards to the village in which he had been born and was
best known, for the purpose of making inquiries into its truth. He
found it verified in every particular, and he learnt, moreover, that
although the hunchback had been frequently in trouble, it was rather
from sheer wretchedness and poverty than from any natural brutality of
disposition that he had drifted into crime. It stood to his credit
that Father Daniel could trace to him no acts of cruel violence;
indeed, the priest succeeded in bringing to light two or three
circumstances in the hunchback's career which spoke well for his
humanity, one of them being that he was kind to his bedridden mother.
Father Daniel returned to Nerac much shaken by the reflection that in
this man's case justice had been in error. But if this were so, if the
hunchback were innocent, upon whom to fix the guilt? A sadness weighed
upon the good priest's heart as he went about his daily duties, and
gazed upon his flock with an awful suspicion in his mind that there
was a murderer among them, for whose crime an innocent man had been
executed.
Gabriel Carew was happy. The gloom of his early life, which threatened
to cast dark shadows over all his days, seemed banished for ever. He
was liked and respected in the village in which he had found his
happiness; his charities caused men and women to hold him in something
like affectionate regard; he was Father Daniel's friend, and no case
of suffering or poverty was mentioned to him which he was not ready to
relieve; in Doctor Louis's home he held an honoured place; and he was
loved by a good and pure woman, who had consented to link her fate
with his. Surely in this prospect there was nothing that could be
productive of aught but good.
The sweetness and harmony of the time, however, were soon to be
disturbed. After a few weeks of happiness, Gabriel Carew began to be
troubled. In his heart he had no love for the twin brothers, Eric and
Emilius; he believed them to be light-minded and unscrupulous, nay,
more, he believed them to be treacherous in their dealings with both
men and women. These evil qualities, he had decided with himself, they
had inherited from their father, Silvain, whose conduct towards his
unhappy brother Kristel had excited Gabriel Carew's strong abhorrence.
As is shown in the comments he makes in his record, all his sympathy
was with Kristel, and he had contracted a passionate antipathy against
Silvain, whom he believed to be guilty of the blackest treachery in
his dealings with Avicia. This antipathy he now transferred to
Silvain's sons, Eric and Emilius, and they needed to be angels, not
men, to overcome it.
Not that they tried to win Carew's good opinion. Although his feelings
for them were not openly expressed, they made themselves felt in the
consciousness of these twin brothers, who instinctively recognised
that Gabriel Carew was their enemy. Therefore they held off from him,
and repaid him quietly in kind. But this was a matter solely and
entirely between themselves and known only to themselves. The three
men knew what deep pain and grief it would cause not only Doctor Louis
and his wife, but the gentle Lauretta, to learn that they were in
enmity with each other, and one and all were animated by the same
desire to keep this antagonism from the knowledge of the family. This
was, indeed, a tacit understanding between them, and it was so
thoroughly carried out that no member of Doctor Louis's family
suspected it; and neither was it suspected in the village. To all
outward appearance Gabriel Carew and Eric and Emilius were friends.
It was not the brothers but Carew who, in the first instance, was to
blame. He was the originator and the creator of the trouble, for it is
scarcely to be doubted that had he held out the hand of a frank
friendship to them, they would have accepted it, even though their
acceptance needed some sacrifice on their parts. The reason for this
qualification will be apparent to you later on in the story, and you
will then also understand why I do not reveal certain circumstances
respecting the affection of Eric and Emilius for Martin Hartog's
daughter, Patricia, and for the female members of the family of Doctor
Louis. It would be anticipating events. I am relating the story in the
order in which it progressed, and, so far as my knowledge of it goes,
according to the sequence of time.
Certainly the dominant cause of Gabriel Carew's hatred for the
brothers sprang from his jealousy of them with respect to Lauretta.
They and she had been friends from childhood, and they were regarded
by Doctor Louis and his wife as members of their family. This in
itself was sufficient to inflame so exacting a lover as Carew. He
interpreted every innocent little familiarity to their disadvantage,
and magnified trifles inordinately. They saw his sufferings and were,
perhaps, somewhat scornful of them. He had already shown them how deep
was his hatred of them, and they not unnaturally resented it. After
all, he was a stranger in Nerac, a come-by-chance visitor, who had
usurped the place which might have been occupied by one of them had
the winds been fair. Instead of being overbearing and arrogant he
should have been gracious and conciliating. It was undoubtedly his
duty to be courteous and mannerly from the first day of their
acquaintance; instead of which he had, before he saw them, contracted
a dislike for them which he had allowed to swell to monstrous and
unjustifiable proportions.
Gabriel Carew, however, justified himself to himself, and it may be
at once conceded that he had grounds for his feelings which were to
him--and would likely have been to some other men--sufficient. These
may now be set forth.
When a lover's suspicious and jealous nature is aroused it does not
from that moment sleep. There is no rest, no repose for it. If it
require opportunities for confirmation or for the infliction of
self-suffering, it is never difficult to find them. Imagination steps
in and supplies the place of fact. Every hour is a torture; every
innocent look and smile is brooded over in secret. A most prolific,
unreasonable, and cruel breeder of shadows is jealousy, and the evil
of it is that it breeds in secret.
Gabriel Carew set himself to watch, and from the keen observance of a
nature so thorough and intense as his nothing could escape. He was an
unseen witness of other interviews between Patricia Hartog and
Emilius; and not only of interviews between her and Emilius but
between her and Eric. He formed his conclusions. The brothers were
playing false to each other, and the girl was playing false with both.
This was of little account; he had no more than a passing interest in
Patricia, and although at one time he had some kind of intention of
informing Martin Hartog of these secret interviews, and placing the
father on his guard--for the gardener seemed to be quite unaware that
an intrigue was going on--he relinquished the intention, saying that
it was no affair of his. But it confirmed the impressions he had
formed of the character of Eric and Emilius, and it strengthened him
in his determination to allow no intercourse between them and the
woman he loved.
An additional torture was in store for him, and it fell upon him like
a thunderbolt. One day he saw Emilius and Lauretta walking in the
woods, talking earnestly and confidentially together. His blood
boiled; his heart beat so violently that he could scarcely distinguish
surrounding objects. So violent was his agitation that it was many
minutes before he recovered himself, and then Lauretta and Emilius had
passed out of sight. He went home in a wild fury of despair.
He had not been near enough to hear one word of the conversation, but
their attitude was to him confirmation of his jealous suspicion that
the young man was endeavouring to supplant him in Lauretta's
affections. In the evening he saw Lauretta in her home, and she
noticed a change in him.
"Are you ill, Gabriel?" she asked.
"No," he replied, "I am quite well. What should make me otherwise?"
The bitterness in his voice surprised her, and she insisted that he
should seek repose. "To get me out of the way," he thought; and then,
gazing into her solicitous and innocent eyes, he mutely reproached
himself for doubting her. No, it was not she who was to blame; she was
still his, she was still true to him; but how easy was it for a friend
so close to her as Emilius to instil into her trustful heart evil
reports against himself! "That is the first step," he thought. "What
must follow is simple. These men, these villains, are capable of any
treachery. Honour is a stranger to their scheming natures. How shall I
act? To meet them openly, to accuse them openly, may be my ruin.
They are too firmly fixed in the affections of Doctor Louis and his
wife--they are too firmly fixed in the affections of even Lauretta
herself--for me to hope to expose them upon evidence so slender. Not
slender to me, but to them. These treacherous brothers are conspiring
secretly against me. I will meet them with their own weapons. Secrecy
for secrecy. I will wait and watch till I have the strongest proof
against them, and then I will expose their true characters to Doctor
Louis and Lauretta."
Having thus resolved, he was not the man to swerve from the plan he
laid down. The nightly vigils he had kept in his young life served him
now, and it seemed as if he could do without sleep. The stealthy
meetings between Patricia and the brothers continued, and before long
he saw Eric and Lauretta in the woods together. In his espionage he
was always careful not to approach near enough to bring discovery upon
himself.
In an indirect manner, as though it was a matter which he deemed of
slight importance, he questioned Lauretta as to her walks in the woods
with Eric and Emilius.
"Yes," she said artlessly, "we sometimes meet there."
"By accident?" asked Gabriel Carew.
"Not always by accident," replied Lauretta. "Remember, Gabriel, Eric
and Emilius are as my brothers, and if they have a secret----" And
then she blushed, grew confused, and paused.
These signs were poisoned food indeed to Carew, but he did not betray
himself.
"Have they a secret?" he asked, with assumed carelessness.
"It was wrong of me to speak," said Lauretta, "after my promise to say
nothing to a single soul in the village."
"And most especially," said Carew, hitting the mark, "to me."
She grew more confused. "Do not press me, Gabriel."
"Only," he continued, with slight persistence, "that it must be a
heart secret."
She was silent, and he dropped the subject.
From the interchange of these few words he extracted the most
exquisite torture. There was, then, between Lauretta and the brothers
a secret of the heart, known only to themselves, to be revealed to
none, and to him, Gabriel Carew, to whom the young girl was affianced,
least of all. It must be well understood, in this explanation of what
was occurring in the lives of these young people at that momentous
period, that Gabriel Carew never once suspected that Lauretta was
false to him. His great fear was that Eric and Emilius were working
warily against him, and were cunningly fabricating some kind of
evidence in his disfavour which would rob him of Lauretta's love. They
were conspiring to this end, to the destruction of his happiness, and
they were waiting for the hour to strike the fatal blow. Well, it was
for him to strike first. His love for Lauretta was so all-absorbing
that all other considerations--however serious the direct or indirect
consequences of them--sank into utter insignificance by the side of
it. He did not allow it to weigh against Lauretta that she appeared to
be in collusion with Eric and Emilius, and to be favouring their
schemes. Her nature was so guileless and unsuspecting that she could
be easily led and deceived by friends in whom she placed a trust. It
was this that strengthened Carew in his resolve not to rudely make the
attempt to open her eyes to the perfidy of Eric and Emilius. She would
have been incredulous, and the arguments he should use against his
enemies might be turned against himself. Therefore he adhered to the
line of action he had marked out. He waited, and watched, and
suffered. Meanwhile, the day appointed for his union with Lauretta was
approaching.
IV.
Within a fortnight of that day Gabriel Carew's passions were roused to
an almost uncontrollable pitch.
It was evening, and he saw Eric and Emilius in the woods. They were
conversing with more than ordinary animation, and appeared to be
discussing some question upon which they did not agree. Carew saw
signs which he could not interpret--appeals, implorings, evidences of
strong feeling on one side and of humbleness on the other, despair
from one, sorrow from the other; and then suddenly a phase which
startled the watcher and filled him with a savage joy. Eric, in a
paroxysm, laid hands furiously upon his brother, and it seemed for a
moment as if a violent struggle were about to take place.
It was to the restraint and moderation of Emilius that this
unbrotherly conflict was avoided. He did not meet violence with
violence; after a pause he gently lifted Eric's hands from his
shoulders, and with a sad look turned away, Eric gazing at his
retreating figure in a kind of bewilderment. Presently Emilius was
gone, and only Eric remained.
He was not long alone. From an opposite direction to that taken by
Emilius the watcher saw approaching the form of the woman he loved,
and to whom he was shortly to be wed. That her coming was not
accidental, but in fulfilment of a promise was clear to Gabriel Carew.
Eric expected her, and welcomed her without surprise. Then the two
began to converse.
Carew's heart beat tumultuously; he would have given worlds to hear
what was being said, but he was at too great a distance for a word to
reach his ears. For a time Eric was the principal speaker, Lauretta,
for the most part, listening, and uttering now and then merely a word
or two. In her quiet way she appeared to be as deeply agitated as the
young man who was addressing her in an attitude of despairing appeal.
Again and again it seemed as if he had finished what he had to say,
and again and again he resumed, without abatement of the excitement
under which he was labouring. At length he ceased, and then Lauretta
became the principal actor in the scene. She spoke long and forcibly,
but always with that gentleness of manner which was one of her
sweetest characteristics. In her turn she seemed to be appealing to
the young man, and to be endeavouring to impress upon him a sad and
bitter truth which he was unwilling, and not in the mood, to
recognise. For a long time she was unsuccessful; the young man walked
impatiently a few steps from her, then returned, contrite and humble,
but still with all the signs of great suffering upon him. At length
her words had upon him the effect she desired; he wavered, he held out
his hands helplessly, and presently covered his face with them and
sank to the ground. Then, after a silence, during which Lauretta gazed
compassionately upon his convulsed form, she stooped and placed her
hand upon his shoulder. He lifted his eyes, from which the tears were
flowing, and raised himself from the earth. He stood before her with
bowed head, and she continued to speak. The pitiful sweetness of her
face almost drove Carew mad; it could not be mistaken that her heart
was beating with sympathy for Eric's sufferings. A few minutes more
passed, and then it seemed as if she had prevailed. Eric accepted the
hand she held out to him, and pressed his lips upon it. Had he at that
moment been within Gabriel Carew's reach, it would have fared ill with
both these men, but Heaven alone knows whether it would have averted
what was to follow before the setting of another sun, to the
consternation and grief of the entire village. After pressing his lips
to Lauretta's hand, the pair separated, each going a different way,
and Gabriel Carew ground his teeth as he observed that there were
tears in Lauretta's eyes as well as in Eric's. A darkness fell upon
him as he walked homewards.
V.
The following morning Nerac and the neighbourhood around were agitated
by news of a tragedy more thrilling and terrible than that in which
the hunchback and his companion in crime were concerned. In attendance
upon this tragedy, and preceding its discovery, was a circumstance
stirring enough in its way in the usually quiet life of the simple
villagers, but which, in the light of the mysterious tragedy, would
have paled into insignificance had it not been that it appeared to
have a direct bearing upon it. Martin Hartog's daughter, Patricia, had
fled from her home, and was nowhere to be discovered.
This flight was made known to the villagers early in the morning by
the appearance among them of Martin Hartog, demanding in which house
his daughter had taken refuge. The man was distracted; his wild words
and actions excited great alarm, and when he found that he could
obtain no satisfaction from them, and that every man and woman in
Nerac professed ignorance of his daughter's movements, he called down
heaven's vengeance upon the man who had betrayed her, and left them to
search the woods for Patricia.
The words he had uttered in his imprecations when he called upon a
higher power for vengeance on a villain opened the villagers' eyes.
Patricia had been betrayed. By whom? Who was the monster who had
worked this evil?
While they were talking excitedly together they saw Gabriel Carew
hurrying to the house of Father Daniel. He was admitted, and in the
course of a few minutes emerged from it in the company of the good
priest, whose troubled face denoted that he had heard the sad news of
Patricia's flight from her father's home. The villagers held aloof
from Father Daniel and Gabriel Carew, seeing that they were in earnest
converse. Carew was imparting to the priest his suspicions of Eric and
Emilius in connection with this event; he did not mention Lauretta's
name, but related how on several occasions he had been an accidental
witness of meetings between Patricia and one or other of the brothers.
"It was not for me to place a construction upon these meetings," said
Carew, "nor did it appear to me that I was called upon to mention it
to any one. It would have been natural for me to suppose that Martin
Hartog was fully acquainted with his daughter's movements, and that,
being of an independent nature, he would have resented any
interference from me. He is Patricia's father, and it was believed by
all that he guarded her well. Had he been my equal I might have
incidentally asked whether there was anything serious between his
daughter and these brothers, but I am his master, and therefore was
precluded from inviting a confidence which can only exist between men
occupying the same social condition. There is, besides, another reason
for my silence which, if you care to hear, I will impart to you."
"Nothing should be concealed from me," said Father Daniel.
"Although," said Gabriel Carew, "I have been a resident here now for
some time, I felt, and feel, that a larger knowledge of me is
necessary to give due and just weight to the unfavourable opinion I
have formed of two men with whom you have been acquainted from
childhood, and who hold a place in your heart of which they are
utterly unworthy. Not alone in your heart, but in the hearts of my
dearest friends, Doctor Louis and his family.
"You refer to Eric and Emilius," said the priest.
"Yes, I refer to them."
"What you have already said concerning them has deeply pained me. I do
not share your suspicions. Their meetings with Hartog's daughter were,
I am convinced, innocent. They are incapable of an act of baseness;
they are of noble natures, and it is impossible that they should ever
have harboured a thought of treachery to a young maiden."
"I am more than justified," said Gabriel Carew, "by the expression of
your opinion, in the course I took. You would have listened with
impatience to me, and what I should have said would have recoiled on
myself. Yet now I regret that I did not interfere; this calamity might
have been avoided, and a woman's honour saved. Let us seek Martin
Hartog; he may be in possession of information to guide us."
From the villagers they learnt that Hartog had gone to the woods, and
they were about to proceed in that direction when another, who had
just arrived, informed them that he had seen Hartog going to Gabriel
Carew's house. Thither they proceeded, and found Hartog in his
cottage. He was on his knees, when they entered, before a box in which
his daughter kept her clothes. This he had forced open, and was
searching. He looked wildly at Father Daniel and Carew, and
immediately resumed his task, throwing the girl's clothes upon the
floor after examining the pockets. In his haste and agitation he did
not observe a portrait which he had cast aside, Carew picked it up and
handed it to Father Daniel. It was the portrait of Emilius.
"Does this look like innocence?" inquired Carew. "Who is the more
likely to be right in our estimate of these brothers, you or I?"
Father Daniel, overwhelmed by the evidence, did not reply. By this
time Martin Hartog had found a letter which he was eagerly perusing.
"This is the villain," he cried. "If there is justice in heaven he has
met with his deserts. If he still lives he shall die by my hands!"
"Hush, hush!" murmured Father Daniel. "Vengeance is not yours to deal
out. Pray for comfort--pray for mercy."
"Pray for mercy!" cried Hartog with a bitter laugh. "I pray for
vengeance! If the monster be not already smitten, Lord, give him into
my hands! I will tear him limb from limb! But who, who is he? The
cunning villain has not even signed his name!"
Father Daniel took the letter from his unresisting hand, and as his
eyes fell upon the writing he started and trembled.
"Emilius's?" asked Gabriel Carew.
"Alas!" sighed the priest.
It was indeed the writing of Emilius. Martin Hartog had heard Carew's
inquiry and the priest's reply.
"What!" he cried. "That viper!" And without another word he rushed
from the cottage. Carew and the priest hastily followed him, but he
outstripped them, and was soon out of sight.
"There will be a deed of violence done," said Father Daniel, "if the
men meet. I must go immediately to the house of these unhappy brothers
and warn them."
Carew accompanied him, but when they arrived at the house they were
informed that nothing had been seen of Eric and Emilius since the
previous night. Neither of them had been home nor slept in his bed.
This seemed to complicate the mystery in Father Daniel's eyes,
although it was no mystery to Carew, who was convinced that where
Patricia was there would Emilius be found. Father Daniel's grief and
horror were clearly depicted. He looked upon the inhabitants of Nerac
as one family, and he regarded the dishonour of Martin Hartog's
daughter as dishonour to all. Carew, being anxious to see Lauretta,
left him to his inquiries. Dr. Louis and his family were already
acquainted with the agitating news.
"Dark clouds hang over this once happy village," said Doctor Louis to
Carew.
He was greatly shocked, but he had no hesitation in declaring that,
although circumstances looked black against the twin brothers, his
faith in them was undisturbed. Lauretta shared his belief, and
Lauretta's mother also. Gabriel Carew did not combat with them; he
held quietly to his views, convinced that in a short time they would
think as he did. Lauretta was very pale, and out of consideration for
her Gabriel Carew endeavoured to avoid the all-engrossing subject.
That, however, was impossible. Nothing else could be thought or spoken
of. Again and again it was indirectly referred to. Once Carew remarked
to Lauretta, "You said that Eric and Emilius had a secret, and you
gave me to understand that you were not ignorant of it. Has it any
connection with what has occurred?"
"I must not answer you, Gabriel," she replied; "when we see Emilius
again all will be explained."
Little did she suspect the awful import of those simple words. In
Carew's mind the remembrance of the story of Kristel and Silvain was
very vivid.
"Were Eric and Emilius true friends?" he asked.
Lauretta looked at him piteously; her lips quivered. "They are
brothers," she said.
"You trust me, Lauretta?" he said.
"Indeed I do," she replied. "Thoroughly."
"You love me, Lauretta?"
"With my whole heart, Gabriel."
She gazed at him in tender surprise; for weeks past he had not been so
happy. The trouble by which he had been haunted took flight.
"And yet," he could not help saying, "you have a secret, and you keep
it from me!"
His voice was almost gay; there was no touch of reproach in it.
"The secret is not mine, Gabriel," she said, and she allowed him to
pass his arm around her; her head sank upon his breast. "When you know
all, you will approve," she murmured. "As I trust you, so must you
trust me."
Their lips met; perfect confidence and faith were established between
them, although on Lauretta's side there had been no shadow on the love
she gave him.
It was late in the afternoon when Carew was informed that Father
Daniel wished to speak to him privately. He kissed Lauretta and went
out to the priest, in whose face he saw a new horror.
"I should be the first to tell them," said Father Daniel in a husky
voice, "but I am not yet strong enough. They will learn soon enough
without me. It is known only to a few."
"What is known?" asked Carew. "Is Emilius found?"
"No," replied the priest, "but Eric is. I would not have him removed
until the magistrate, who is absent and has been sent for, arrives.
Come with me."
In a state of wonder Carew accompanied Father Daniel out of Doctor
Louis's house, and the priest led the way to the woods.
"Why in this direction?" inquired Gabriel Carew. "We have passed the
house in which the brothers live."
"Wait," said Father Daniel solemnly. "They live there no longer."
The sun was setting, and the light was quivering on the tops of the
distant trees. Father Daniel and Gabriel Carew plunged into the woods.
There were scouts on the outskirts, to whom the priest said, "Has the
magistrate arrived?"
"No, father," was the answer, "we expect him every moment."
Father Daniel nodded and passed on.
"What does all this mean?" asked Gabriel Carew.
And again the priest replied, "Wait."
From that moment until they arrived at the spot to which Father Daniel
led him, Carew was silent. What had passed between him and Lauretta
had so filled his soul with happiness that he bestowed but little
thought upon a vulgar intrigue between a peasant girl and men whom he
had long since condemned. They no longer troubled him; they had passed
for ever out of his life, and his heart was at rest. Father Daniel and
he walked some distance into the shadows of the forest and the night.
Before him he saw lights in the hands of two villagers who had
evidently been stationed there to keep guard.
"Father Daniel?" they cried in fearsome voices.
"Yes," he replied, "it is I."
He conducted Gabriel Carew to a spot, and pointed downwards with his
finger; and there, prone and still upon the fallen leaves, lay the
body of Eric stone dead, stabbed to the heart!
"Martin Hartog," said the priest, "is in custody on suspicion of this
ruthless murder."
"Why?" asked Gabriel Carew. "What evidence is there to incriminate
him?"
"When the body was first discovered," said the priest, "your gardener
was standing by its side. Upon being questioned his answer was, 'If
judgment has not fallen upon the monster, it has overtaken his
brother. The brood should be wiped off the face of the earth.' He
spoke no further word."
VI.
Gabriel Carew was overwhelmed by the horror of this discovery. The
meeting between the brothers, of which he had been a secret witness on
the previous evening, and during which Eric had laid violent hands on
Emilius, recurred to him. He had not spoken of it, nor did he mention
it now. There was time enough. If Martin Hartog confessed his guilt
the matter was settled; if he did not, the criminal must be sought
elsewhere, and it would be his duty to supply evidence which would
tend to fix the crime upon Emilius. He did not believe Martin Hartog
to be guilty; he had already decided within himself that Emilius had
murdered Eric, and that the tragedy of Kristel and Silvain had been
repeated in the lives of Silvain's sons. There was a kind of
retribution in this which struck Gabriel Carew with singular force.
"Useless," he thought, "to fly from a fate which is preordained. When
he recovered from the horror which had fallen on him upon beholding
the body of Eric, he asked Father Daniel at what hour of the day the
unhappy man had been killed.
"That," said Father Daniel, "has yet to be determined. No doctor has
seen the body, but the presumption is that when Martin Hartog,
animated by his burning craving for vengeance, of which we were both a
witness, rushed from his cottage, he made his way to the woods, and
that he here unhappily met the brother of the man whom he believed to
be the betrayer of his daughter. What followed may be easily
imagined."
The arrival of the magistrate put a stop to the conversation. He
listened to what Father Daniel had to relate, and some portions of the
priest's explanations were corroborated by Gabriel Carew. The
magistrate then gave directions that the body of Eric should be
conveyed to the courthouse; and he and the priest and Carew walked
back to the village together.
"The village will become notorious," he remarked. "Is there an
epidemic of murder amongst us that this one should follow so closely
upon the heels of the other?" Then, after a pause, he asked Father
Daniel whether he believed Martin Hartog to be guilty.
"I believe no man to be guilty," said the priest, "until he is proved
so incontrovertibly. Human justice frequently errs."
"I bear in remembrance," said the magistrate, "that you would not
subscribe to the general belief in the hunchback's guilt."
"Nor do I now," said Father Daniel.
"And you," said the magistrate, turning to Gabriel Carew, "do you
believe Hartog to be guilty?"
"I do not," replied Carew.
"Do your suspicions point elsewhere?" asked the magistrate.
"This is not the time or place," said Carew, "for me to give
expression to any suspicion I may entertain. The first thing to be
settled is Hartog's complicity in this murder."
"True," said the magistrate.
"Father Daniel believes," continued Carew, "that Eric was murdered
to-day, within the last hour or two. That is not my belief."
"The doctors will decide that," said the magistrate. "If the deed was
not, in your opinion, perpetrated within the last few hours, when do
you suppose it was done?"
"Last night," Carew replied.
"Have you any distinct grounds for the belief?"
"None. You have asked me a question which I have answered. There is no
matter of absolute knowledge involved in it; if there were I should be
able to speak more definitely. Until the doctors pronounce there is
nothing more to be said. But I may say this: if Hartog is proved to be
innocent, I may have something to reveal in the interests of justice."
The magistrate nodded and said, "By the way, where is Emilius, and
what has he to say about it?"
"Neither Eric nor Emilius," replied Father Daniel, "slept at home last
night, and since yesterday evening Emilius has not been seen."
The magistrate looked grave. "Is it known where he is? He should be
instantly summoned."
"Nothing is known of him," said Father Daniel. "Inquiries have been
made, but nothing satisfactory has been elicited."
The magistrate glanced at Carew, and for a little while was silent.
Shortly after they reached the court-house the doctors presented their
report. In their opinion Eric had been dead at least fourteen or
fifteen hours, certainly for longer than twelve. This disposed of the
theory that he had been killed in the afternoon. Their belief was that
the crime was committed shortly after midnight. In that case Martin
Hartog must be incontestably innocent. He was able to account for
every hour of the previous day and night. He was out until near
midnight; he was accompanied home, and a friend sat up with him till
late, both keeping very quiet for fear of disturbing Patricia, who was
supposed to be asleep in her room, but who before that time had most
likely fled from her home. Moreover, it was proved that Martin Hartog
rose in the morning at a certain time, and that it was only then that
he became acquainted with the disappearance of his daughter. Father
Daniel and Gabriel Carew were present when the magistrate questioned
Hartog. The man seemed indifferent as to his fate, but he answered
quite clearly the questions put to him. He had not left his cottage
after going to bed on the previous night; he believed his daughter to
be in her room, and only this morning discovered his mistake. After
his interview with Father Daniel and Gabriel Carew he rushed from the
cottage in the hope of meeting with Emilius, whom he intended to kill;
he came upon the dead body of Eric in the woods, and his only regret
was that it was Eric and not Emilius.
"If the villain who has dishonoured me were here at this moment," said
Martin Hartog, "I would strangle him. No power should save him from my
just revenge!"
The magistrate ordered him to be set at liberty, and he wandered out
of the court-house a hopeless and despairing man. Then the magistrate
turned to Carew, and asked him, now that Hartog was proved to be
innocent, what he had to reveal that might throw light upon the crime.
Carew, after some hesitation, related what he had seen the night
before when Emilius and Eric were together in the forest.
"But," said the magistrate, "the brothers were known to be on the most
loving terms."
"So," said Carew, "were their father, Silvain, and his brother Kristel
until a woman stepped between them. Upon this matter, however, it is
not for me to speak. Perhaps Doctor Louis can enlighten you."
"I have heard something of the story of these hapless brothers," said
the magistrate, pondering, "but am not acquainted with all the
particulars. I will send for Doctor Louis."
Carew then asked that he should be allowed to go for Doctor Louis, his
object being to explain to the doctor, on their way to the magistrate,
how it was that reference had been made to the story of Silvain and
Kristel which he had heard from the doctor's lips. He also desired to
hint to Doctor Louis that Lauretta might be in possession of
information respecting Eric and Emilius which might be useful in
clearing up the mystery.
"You have acted right," said Doctor Louis sadly to Gabriel Carew; "at
all risks justice must be done. Ah! how the past comes back to me! And
is this to be the end of that fated family? I cannot believe that
Emilius can be guilty of a crime so horrible!"
His distress was so keen that Carew himself, now that he was freed
from the jealousy by which he had been tortured with respect to
Lauretta, hoped also that Emilius would be able to clear himself of
the charge hanging over him. But when they arrived at the magistrate's
court they were confronted by additional evidence which seemed to tell
heavily against the absent brother. A witness had come forward who
deposed that, being out on the previous night very late, and taking a
short cut through the woods to his cottage, he heard voices of two men
which he recognised as the voices of Emilius and Eric. They were
raised in anger, and one--the witness could not say which--cried out,
"Well, kill me, for I do not wish to live!"
Upon being asked why he did not interpose, his answer was that he did
not care to mix himself up with a desperate quarrel; and that as he
had a family he thought the best thing he could do was to hasten home
as quickly as possible. Having told all he knew he was dismissed, and
bade to hold himself in readiness to repeat his evidence on a future
occasion.
Then the magistrate heard what Doctor Louis had to say, and summed up
the whole matter thus:
"The reasonable presumption is, that the brothers quarrelled over some
love affair with a person at present unknown; for although Martin
Hartog's daughter has disappeared, there is nothing as yet to connect
her directly with the affair. Whether premeditatedly, or in a fit of
ungovernable passion, Emilius killed his brother and fled. If he does
not present himself to-morrow morning in the village he must be sought
for. Nothing more can be done to-night."
It was a melancholy night for all, to Carew in a lesser degree than to
the others, for the crime which had thrown gloom over the whole
village had brought ease to his heart. He saw now how unreasonable had
been his jealousy of the brothers, and he was disposed to judge them
more leniently.
On that night Doctor Louis held a private conference with Lauretta,
and received from her an account of the unhappy difference between the
brothers. As Silvain and Kristel had both loved one woman, so had Eric
and Emilius, but in the case of the sons there had been no supplanting
of the affections. Emilius and Patricia had long loved each other, and
had kept their love a secret, Eric himself not knowing it. When
Emilius discovered that his brother loved Patricia his distress of
mind was very great, and it was increased by the knowledge that was
forced upon him that there was in Eric's passion for the girl
something of the fierce quality which had distinguished Kristel's
passion for Avicia. In his distress he had sought advice from
Lauretta, and she had undertaken to act as an intermediary, and to
endeavour to bring Eric to reason. On two or three occasions she
thought she had succeeded, but her influence over Eric lasted only as
long as he was in her presence. He made promises which he found it
impossible to keep, and he continued to hope against hope. Lauretta
did not know what had passed between the brothers on the previous
evening, in the interview of which I was a witness, but earlier in the
day she had seen Emilius, who had confided a secret to her keeping
which placed Eric's love for Patricia beyond the pale of hope. He was
secretly married to Patricia, and had been so for some time. When
Gabriel Carew heard this he recognised how unjust he had been towards
Emilius and Patricia in the construction he had placed upon their
secret interviews. Lauretta advised Emilius to make known his marriage
to Eric, and offered to reveal the fact to the despairing lover, but
Emilius would not consent to this being immediately done. He
stipulated that a week should pass before the revelation was made;
then, he said, it might be as well that all the world should know
it--a fatal stipulation, against which Lauretta argued in vain. Thus
it was that in the last interview between Eric and Lauretta, Eric was
still in ignorance of the insurmountable bar to his hopes. As it
subsequently transpired, Emilius had made preparations to remove
Patricia from Nerac that very night. Up to that point, and at that
time nothing more was known; but when Emilius was tried for the murder
Lauretta's evidence did not help to clear him, because it established
beyond doubt the fact of the existence of an animosity between the
brothers.
On the day following the discovery of the murder, Emilius did not make
his appearance in the village, and officers were sent in search of
him. There was no clue as to the direction which he and Patricia had
taken, and the officers, being slow-witted, were many days before they
succeeded in finding him. Their statement, upon their return to Nerac
with their prisoner, was, that upon informing him of the charge
against him, he became violently agitated and endeavoured to escape.
He denied that he made such an attempt, asserting that he was
naturally agitated by the awful news, and that for a few minutes he
scarcely knew what he was doing, but, being innocent, there was no
reason why he should make a fruitless endeavour to avoid an inevitable
inquiry into the circumstances of a most dreadful crime.
He was much broken down by his position. No brother, he declared, had
ever been more fondly loved than Eric was by him, and he would have
suffered a voluntary death rather than be guilty of an act of violence
towards one for whom he entertained so profound an affection. In the
preliminary investigations he gave the following explanation of all
within his knowledge. What Lauretta had stated was true in every
particular; neither did he deny Carew's evidence nor the evidence of
the villager who had deposed that, late on the night of the murder,
high words had passed between him and Eric.
"The words," said Emilius, "'Well, kill me, for I do not wish to
live!' were uttered by my poor brother when I told him that Patricia
was my wife. For although I had not intended that this should be known
until a few days after my departure, my poor brother was so worked up
by his love for my wife, that I felt I dared not, in justice to him
and myself, leave him any longer in ignorance. For that reason, and
thus impelled, pitying him most deeply, I revealed to him the truth.
Had the witness whose evidence, true as it is, seems to bear fatally
against me, waited and listened, he would have been able to testify in
my favour. My poor brother for a time was overwhelmed by the
revelation. His love for my wife perhaps did not die immediately away;
but, high-minded and honourable as he was, he recognised that to
persevere in it would be a guilty act. The force of his passion became
less; he was no longer violent--he was mournful. He even, in a
despairing way, begged my forgiveness, and I, reproachful that I had
not earlier confided in him, begged _his_ forgiveness for the
unconscious wrong I had done him. Then, after a while, we fell
into our old ways of love; tender words were exchanged; we clasped
each other's hand; we embraced. Truly you who hear me can scarcely
realise what Eric and I had always been to each other. More than
brothers--more like lovers. Heartbroken as he was at the conviction
that the woman he adored was lost to him, I was scarcely less
heartbroken that I had won her. And so, after an hour's loving
converse, I left him; and when we parted, with a promise to meet again
when his wound was healed, we kissed each other as we had done in the
days of our childhood."
END OF VOL. II.
RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LONDON AND BUNGAY.