The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson -
Swanston Edition Vol. 4 (of 25), by Robert Louis Stevenson
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Title: The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 4 (of 25)
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Other: Andrew Lang
Release Date: December 17, 2009 [EBook #30700]
Language: English
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THE WORKS OF
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
SWANSTON EDITION
VOLUME IV
_Of this SWANSTON EDITION in Twenty-five
Volumes of the Works of ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON Two Thousand and Sixty Copies
have been printed, of which only Two Thousand
Copies are for sale._
_This is No._ .......
[Illustration: TREE AT SWANSTON BEARING INITIALS OF R. L. S.]
THE WORKS OF
ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON
VOLUME FOUR
LONDON : PUBLISHED BY CHATTO AND
WINDUS : IN ASSOCIATION WITH CASSELL
AND COMPANY LIMITED : WILLIAM
HEINEMANN : AND LONGMANS GREEN
AND COMPANY MDCCCCXI
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
THE SUICIDE CLUB
PAGE
STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE CREAM TARTS 5
THE STORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK 37
THE ADVENTURE OF THE HANSOM CABS 65
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
STORY OF THE BANDBOX 86
STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN IN HOLY ORDERS 111
THE STORY OF THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS 127
THE ADVENTURE OF PRINCE FLORIZEL AND A DETECTIVE 159
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
CHAPTER
I. TELLS HOW I CAMPED IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD, AND BEHELD A
LIGHT IN THE PAVILION 167
II. TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FROM THE YACHT 174
III. TELLS HOW I BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH MY WIFE 180
IV. TELLS IN WHAT A STARTLING MANNER I LEARNED THAT I WAS
NOT ALONE IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD 189
V. TELLS OF AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN NORTHMOUR, CLARA, AND
MYSELF 197
VI. TELLS OF MY INTRODUCTION TO THE TALL MAN 202
VII. TELLS HOW A WORD WAS CRIED THROUGH THE PAVILION WINDOW 208
VIII. TELLS THE LAST OF THE TALL MAN 214
IX. TELLS HOW NORTHMOUR CARRIED OUT HIS THREAT 221
A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT 227
THE SIRE DE MALÉTROIT'S DOOR 250
PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR 273
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
TO
ROBERT ALAN MOWBRAY STEVENSON
IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THEIR YOUTH AND THEIR ALREADY OLD AFFECTION
NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS
THE SUICIDE CLUB
STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN WITH THE CREAM TARTS
During his residence in London, the accomplished Prince Florizel of
Bohemia gained the affection of all classes by the seduction of his
manner and by a well-considered generosity. He was a remarkable man even
by what was known of him; and that was but a small part of what he
actually did. Although of a placid temper in ordinary circumstances, and
accustomed to take the world with as much philosophy as any ploughman,
the Prince of Bohemia was not without a taste for ways of life more
adventurous and eccentric than that to which he was destined by his
birth. Now and then, when he fell into a low humour, when there was no
laughable play to witness in any of the London theatres, and when the
season of the year was unsuitable to those field sports in which he
excelled all competitors, he would summon his confidant and Master of
the Horse, Colonel Geraldine, and bid him prepare himself against an
evening ramble. The Master of the Horse was a young officer of a brave
and even temerarious disposition. He greeted the news with delight, and
hastened to make ready. Long practice and a varied acquaintance of life
had given him a singular facility in disguise; he could adapt, not only
his face and bearing, but his voice and almost his thoughts, to those of
any rank, character, or nation; and in this way he diverted attention
from the Prince, and sometimes gained admission for the pair into
strange societies. The civil authorities were never taken into the
secret of these adventures; the imperturbable courage of the one and the
ready invention and chivalrous devotion of the other had brought them
through a score of dangerous passes; and they grew in confidence as time
went on.
One evening in March they were driven by a sharp fall of sleet into an
Oyster Bar in the immediate neighbourhood of Leicester Square. Colonel
Geraldine was dressed and painted to represent a person connected with
the Press in reduced circumstances; while the Prince had, as usual,
travestied his appearance by the addition of false whiskers and a pair
of large adhesive eyebrows. These lent him a shaggy and weather-beaten
air, which, for one of his urbanity, formed the most impenetrable
disguise. Thus equipped, the commander and his satellite sipped their
brandy and soda in security.
The bar was full of guests, male and female; but though more than one of
these offered to fall into talk with our adventurers, none of them
promised to grow interesting upon a nearer acquaintance. There was
nothing present but the lees of London and the commonplace of
disrespectability; and the Prince had already fallen to yawning, and was
beginning to grow weary of the whole excursion, when the swing doors
were pushed violently open, and a young man, followed by a couple of
commissionaires, entered the bar. Each of the commissionaires carried a
large dish of cream tarts under a cover, which they at once removed; and
the young man made the round of the company, and pressed these
confections upon every one's acceptance with an exaggerated courtesy.
Sometimes the offer was laughingly accepted; sometimes it was firmly, or
even harshly, rejected. In these latter cases the new-comer always ate
the tart himself, with some more or less humorous commentary.
At last he accosted Prince Florizel.
"Sir," said he, with a profound obeisance, proffering the tart at the
same time between his thumb and forefinger, "will you so far honour an
entire stranger? I can answer for the quality of the pastry, having
eaten two dozen and three of them myself since five o'clock."
"I am in the habit," replied the Prince, "of looking not so much to the
nature of a gift as to the spirit in which it is offered."
"The spirit, sir," returned the young man, with another bow, "is one of
mockery."
"Mockery!" repeated Florizel. "And whom do you propose to mock?"
"I am not here to expound my philosophy," replied the other, "but to
distribute these cream tarts. If I mention that I heartily include
myself in the ridicule of the transaction, I hope you will consider
honour satisfied and condescend. If not, you will constrain me to eat my
twenty-eighth, and I own to being weary of the exercise."
"You touch me," said the Prince, "and I have all the will in the world
to rescue you from this dilemma, but upon one condition. If my friend
and I eat your cakes--for which we have neither of us any natural
inclination--we shall expect you to join us at supper by way of
recompense."
The young man seemed to reflect.
"I have still several dozen upon hand," he said at last; "and that will
make it necessary for me to visit several more bars before my great
affair is concluded. This will take some time; and if you are
hungry----"
The Prince interrupted him with a polite gesture.
"My friend and I will accompany you," he said; "for we have already a
deep interest in your very agreeable mode of passing an evening. And now
that the preliminaries of peace are settled, allow me to sign the treaty
for both."
And the Prince swallowed the tart with the best grace imaginable.
"It is delicious," said he.
"I perceive you are a connoisseur," replied the young man.
Colonel Geraldine likewise did honour to the pastry; and every one in
that bar having now either accepted or refused his delicacies, the young
man with the cream tarts led the way to another and similar
establishment. The two commissionaires, who seemed to have grown
accustomed to their absurd employment, followed immediately after; and
the Prince and the Colonel brought up the rear, arm-in-arm, and smiling
to each other as they went. In this order the company visited two other
taverns, where scenes were enacted of a like nature to that already
described--some refusing, some accepting, the favours of this vagabond
hospitality, and the young man himself eating each rejected tart.
On leaving the third saloon the young man counted his store. There were
but nine remaining, three in one tray and six in the other.
"Gentlemen," said he, addressing himself to his two new followers, "I am
unwilling to delay your supper. I am positively sure you must be hungry.
I feel that I owe you a special consideration. And on this great day for
me, when I am closing a career of folly by my most conspicuously silly
action, I wish to behave handsomely to all who give me countenance.
Gentlemen, you shall wait no longer. Although my constitution is
shattered by previous excesses, at the risk of my life I liquidate the
suspensory condition."
With these words he crushed the nine remaining tarts into his mouth, and
swallowed them at a single movement each. Then, turning to the
commissionaires, he gave them a couple of sovereigns.
"I have to thank you," said he, "for your extraordinary patience."
And he dismissed them with a bow apiece. For some seconds he stood
looking at the purse from which he had just paid his assistants, then,
with a laugh, he tossed it into the middle of the street, and signified
his readiness for supper.
In a small French restaurant in Soho, which had enjoyed an exaggerated
reputation for some little while, but had already begun to be forgotten,
and in a private room up two pair of stairs, the three companions made a
very elegant supper, and drank three or four bottles of champagne,
talking the while upon indifferent subjects. The young man was fluent
and gay, but he laughed louder than was natural in a person of polite
breeding; his hands trembled violently, and his voice took sudden and
surprising inflections, which seemed to be independent of his will. The
dessert had been cleared away, and all three had lighted their cigars,
when the Prince addressed him in these words:--
"You will, I am sure, pardon my curiosity. What I have seen of you has
greatly pleased but even more puzzled me. And though I should be loth to
seem indiscreet, I must tell you that my friend and I are persons very
well worthy to be entrusted with a secret. We have many of our own,
which we are continually revealing to improper ears. And if, as I
suppose, your story is a silly one, you need have no delicacy with us,
who are two of the silliest men in England. My name is Godall,
Theophilus Godall; my friend is Major Alfred Hammersmith--or at least,
such is the name by which he chooses to be known. We pass our lives
entirely in the search for extravagant adventures; and there is no
extravagance with which we are not capable of sympathy."
"I like you, Mr. Godall," returned the young man; "you inspire me with a
natural confidence; and I have not the slightest objection to your
friend the Major, whom I take to be a nobleman in masquerade. At least,
I am sure he is no soldier."
The Colonel smiled at this compliment to the perfection of his art; and
the young man went on in a more animated manner.
"There is every reason why I should not tell you my story. Perhaps that
is just the reason why I am going to do so. At least, you seem so well
prepared to hear a tale of silliness that I cannot find it in my heart
to disappoint you. My name, in spite of your example, I shall keep to
myself. My age is not essential to the narrative. I am descended from my
ancestors by ordinary generation, and from them I inherited the very
eligible human tenement which I still occupy and a fortune of three
hundred pounds a year. I suppose they also handed on to me a harebrain
humour, which it has been my chief delight to indulge. I received a good
education. I can play the violin nearly well enough to earn money in the
orchestra of a penny gaff, but not quite. The same remark applies to the
flute and the French horn. I learned enough of whist to lose about a
hundred a year at that scientific game. My acquaintance with French was
sufficient to enable me to squander money in Paris with almost the same
facility as in London. In short, I am a person full of manly
accomplishments. I have had every sort of adventure, including a duel
about nothing. Only two months ago I met a young lady exactly suited to
my taste in mind and body; I found my heart melt; I saw that I had come
upon my fate at last, and was in the way to fall in love. But when I
came to reckon up what remained to me of my capital, I found it amounted
to something less than four hundred pounds! I ask you fairly--can a man
who respects himself fall in love on four hundred pounds? I concluded,
certainly not; left the presence of my charmer, and slightly
accelerating my usual rate of expenditure, came this morning to my last
eighty pounds. This I divided into two equal parts; forty I reserved for
a particular purpose; the remaining forty I was to dissipate before the
night. I have passed a very entertaining day, and played many farces
besides that of the cream tarts which procured me the advantage of your
acquaintance; for I was determined, as I told you, to bring a foolish
career to a still more foolish conclusion; and when you saw me throw my
purse into the street the forty pounds were at an end. Now you know me
as well as I know myself: a fool, but consistent in his folly; and, as I
will ask you to believe, neither a whimperer nor a coward."
From the whole tone of the young man's statement it was plain that he
harboured very bitter and contemptuous thoughts about himself. His
auditors were led to imagine that his love affair was nearer his heart
than he admitted, and that he had a design on his own life. The farce of
the cream tarts began to have very much the air of a tragedy in
disguise.
"Why, is this not odd," broke out Geraldine, giving a look to Prince
Florizel, "that we three fellows should have met by the merest accident
in so large a wilderness as London, and should be so nearly in the same
condition?"
"How?" cried the young man. "Are you, too, ruined? Is this supper a
folly like my cream tarts? Has the devil brought three of his own
together for a last carouse?"
"The devil, depend upon it, can sometimes do a very gentlemanly thing,"
returned Prince Florizel; "and I am so much touched by this coincidence
that, although we are not entirely in the same case, I am going to put
an end to the disparity. Let your heroic treatment of the last cream
tarts be my example."
So saying, the Prince drew out his purse and took from it a small bundle
of bank-notes.
"You see, I was a week or so behind you, but I mean to catch you up and
come neck-and-neck into the winning-post," he continued. "This," laying
one of the notes upon the table, "will suffice for the bill. As for the
rest----"
He tossed them into the fire, and they went up the chimney in a single
blaze.
The young man tried to catch his arm, but as the table was between them
his interference came too late.
"Unhappy man," he cried, "you should not have burned them all! You
should have kept forty pounds."
"Forty pounds!" repeated the Prince. "Why, in Heaven's name, forty
pounds?"
"Why not eighty?" cried the Colonel; "for to my certain knowledge there
must have been a hundred in the bundle."
"It was only forty pounds he needed," said the young man gloomily. "But
without them there is no admission. The rule is strict. Forty pounds for
each. Accursed life, where a man cannot even die without money!"
The Prince and the Colonel exchanged glances.
"Explain yourself," said the latter. "I have still a pocket-book
tolerably well lined, and I need not say how readily I should share my
wealth with Godall. But I must know to what end: you must certainly tell
us what you mean."
The young man seemed to awaken: he looked uneasily from one to the
other, and his face flushed deeply.
"You are not fooling me?" he asked. "You are indeed ruined men like me?"
"Indeed, I am for my part," replied the Colonel.
"And for mine," said the Prince, "I have given you proof. Who but a
ruined man would throw his notes into the fire? The action speaks for
itself."
"A ruined man--yes," returned the other suspiciously, "or else a
millionaire."
"Enough, sir," said the Prince; "I have said so, and I am not accustomed
to have my word remain in doubt."
"Ruined?" said the young man. "Are you ruined, like me? Are you, after a
life of indulgence, come to such a pass that you can only indulge
yourself in one thing more? Are you"--he kept lowering his voice as he
went on--"are you going to give yourselves that last indulgence? Are you
going to avoid the consequences of your folly by the one infallible and
easy path? Are you going to give the slip to the sheriff's officers of
conscience by the one open door?"
Suddenly he broke off and attempted to laugh.
"Here is your health!" he cried, emptying his glass, "and good-night to
you, my merry ruined men."
Colonel Geraldine caught him by the arm as he was about to rise.
"You lack confidence in us," he said, "and you are wrong. To all your
questions I make answer in the affirmative. But I am not so timid, and
can speak the Queen's English plainly. We too, like yourself, have had
enough of life, and are determined to die. Sooner or later, alone or
together, we meant to seek out death and beard him where he lies ready.
Since we have met you, and your case is more pressing, let it be
to-night--and at once--and, if you will, all three together. Such a
penniless trio," he cried, "should go arm-in-arm into the halls of
Pluto, and give each other some countenance among the shades!"
Geraldine had hit exactly on the manners and intonations that became the
part he was playing. The Prince himself was disturbed, and looked over
at his confidant with a shade of doubt. As for the young man, the flush
came back darkly into his cheek, and his eyes threw out a spark of
light.
"You are the men for me!" he cried, with an almost terrible gaiety.
"Shake hands upon the bargain!" (his hand was cold and wet). "You little
know in what a company you will begin the march! You little know in what
a happy moment for yourselves you partook of my cream tarts! I am only a
unit, but I am a unit in an army. I know Death's private door. I am one
of his familiars, and can show you into eternity without ceremony and
yet without scandal."
They called upon him eagerly to explain his meaning.
"Can you muster eighty pounds between you?" he demanded.
Geraldine ostentatiously consulted his pocket-book, and replied in the
affirmative.
"Fortunate beings!" cried the young man. "Forty pounds is the
entry-money of the Suicide Club."
"The Suicide Club," said the Prince, "why, what the devil is that?"
"Listen," said the young man; "this is the age of conveniences, and I
have to tell you of the last perfection of the sort. We have affairs in
different places; and hence railways were invented. Railways separated
us infallibly from our friends; and so telegraphs were made that we
might communicate speedily at great distances. Even in hotels we have
lifts to spare us a climb of some hundred steps. Now, we know that life
is only a stage to play the fool upon as long as the part amuses us.
There was one more convenience lacking to modern comfort: a decent, easy
way to quit that stage; the back stairs to liberty; or, as I said this
moment, Death's private door. This, my two fellow-rebels, is supplied by
the Suicide Club. Do not suppose that you and I are alone, or even
exceptional, in the highly reasonable desire that we profess. A large
number of our fellowmen, who have grown heartily sick of the performance
in which they are expected to join daily, and all their lives long, are
only kept from flight by one or two considerations. Some have families
who would be shocked, or even blamed, if the matter became public;
others have a weakness at heart and recoil from the circumstances of
death. That is, to some extent, my own experience. I cannot put a pistol
to my head and draw the trigger; for something stronger than myself
withholds the act; and although I loathe life, I have not strength
enough in my body to take hold of death and be done with it. For such as
I, and for all who desire to be out of the coil without posthumous
scandal, the Suicide Club has been inaugurated. How this has been
managed, what is its history, or what may be its ramifications in other
lands, I am myself uninformed; and what I know of its constitution, I
am not at liberty to communicate to you. To this extent, however, I am
at your service. If you are truly tired of life, I will introduce you
to-night to a meeting; and if not to-night, at least some time within
the week, you will be easily relieved of your existences. It is now
(consulting his watch) eleven; by half-past, at latest, we must leave
this place; so that you have half an hour before you to consider my
proposal. It is more serious than a cream tart," he added, with a smile;
"and I suspect more palatable."
"More serious, certainly," returned Colonel Geraldine; "and as it is so
much more so, will you allow me five minutes' speech in private with my
friend Mr. Godall?"
"It is only fair," answered the young man. "If you will permit, I will
retire."
"You will be very obliging," said the Colonel.
As soon as the two were alone--"What," said Prince Florizel, "is the use
of this confabulation, Geraldine? I see you are flurried, whereas my
mind is very tranquilly made up. I will see the end of this."
"Your Highness," said the Colonel, turning pale; "let me ask you to
consider the importance of your life, not only to your friends, but to
the public interest. 'If not to-night,' said this madman; but supposing
that to-night some irreparable disaster were to overtake your Highness's
person, what, let me ask you, what would be my despair, and what the
concern and disaster of a great nation?"
"I will see the end of this," repeated the Prince in his most deliberate
tones; "and have the kindness, Colonel Geraldine, to remember and
respect your word of honour as a gentleman. Under no circumstances,
recollect, nor without my special authority, are you to betray the
incognito under which I choose to go abroad. These were my commands,
which I now reiterate. And now," he added, "let me ask you to call for
the bill."
Colonel Geraldine bowed in submission; but he had a very white face as
he summoned the young man of the cream tarts, and issued his directions
to the waiter. The Prince preserved his undisturbed demeanour, and
described a Palais-Royal farce to the young suicide with great humour
and gusto. He avoided the Colonel's appealing looks without ostentation,
and selected another cheroot with more than usual care. Indeed, he was
now the only man of the party who kept any command over his nerves.
The bill was discharged, the Prince giving the whole change of the note
to the astonished waiter; and the three drove off in a four-wheeler.
They were not long upon the way before the cab stopped at the entrance
to a rather dark court. Here all descended.
After Geraldine had paid the fare, the young man turned, and addressed
Prince Florizel as follows:--
"It is still time, Mr. Godall, to make good your escape into thraldom.
And for you too, Major Hammersmith. Reflect well before you take another
step; and if your hearts say no--here are the cross-roads."
"Lead on, sir," said the Prince, "I am not the man to go back from a
thing once said."
"Your coolness does me good," replied their guide. "I have never seen
any one so unmoved at this conjuncture; and yet you are not the first
whom I have escorted to this door. More than one of my friends has
preceded me, where I knew I must shortly follow. But this is of no
interest to you. Wait me here for only a few moments; I shall return as
soon as I have arranged the preliminaries of your introduction."
And with that the young man, waving his hand to his companions, turned
into the court, entered a doorway and disappeared.
"Of all our follies," said Colonel Geraldine in a low voice, "this is
the wildest and most dangerous."
"I perfectly believe so," returned the Prince.
"We have still," pursued the Colonel, "a moment to ourselves. Let me
beseech your Highness to profit by the opportunity and retire. The
consequences of this step are so dark, and may be so grave, that I feel
myself justified in pushing a little further than usual the liberty
which your Highness is so condescending as to allow me in private."
"Am I to understand that Colonel Geraldine is afraid?" asked his
Highness, taking his cheroot from his lips, and looking keenly into the
other's face.
"My fear is certainly not personal," replied the other proudly; "of that
your Highness may rest well assured."
"I had supposed as much," returned the Prince, with undisturbed
good-humour; "but I was unwilling to remind you of the difference in our
stations. No more--no more," he added, seeing Geraldine about to
apologise; "you stand excused."
And he smoked placidly, leaning against a railing, until the young man
returned.
"Well," he asked, "has our reception been arranged?"
"Follow me," was the reply. "The President will see you in the cabinet.
And let me warn you to be frank in your answers. I have stood your
guarantee; but the club requires a searching inquiry before admission;
for the indiscretion of a single member would lead to the dispersion of
the whole society for ever."
The Prince and Geraldine put their heads together for a moment. "Bear me
out in this," said the one; and "bear me out in that," said the other;
and by boldly taking up the characters of men with whom both were
acquainted, they had come to an agreement in a twinkling, and were ready
to follow their guide into the President's cabinet.
There were no formidable obstacles to pass. The outer door stood open;
the door of the cabinet was ajar; and there, in a small but very high
apartment, the young man left them once more.
"He will be here immediately," he said with a nod, as he disappeared.
Voices were audible in the cabinet through the folding-doors which
formed one end; and now and then the noise of a champagne cork, followed
by a burst of laughter, intervened among the sounds of conversation. A
single tall window looked out upon the river and the embankment; and by
the disposition of the lights they judged themselves not far from
Charing Cross station. The furniture was scanty, and the coverings worn
to the thread; and there was nothing movable except a hand-bell in the
centre of a round table, and the hats and coats of a considerable party
hung round the wall on pegs.
"What sort of a den is this?" said Geraldine.
"That is what I have come to see," replied the Prince. "If they keep
live devils on the premises, the thing may grow amusing."
Just then the folding-door was opened no more than was necessary for the
passage of a human body; and there entered at the same moment a louder
buzz of talk, and the redoubtable President of the Suicide Club. The
President was a man of fifty or upwards; large and rambling in his gait,
with shaggy side whiskers, a bald top to his head, and a veiled grey
eye, which now and then emitted a twinkle. His mouth, which embraced a
large cigar, he kept continually screwing round and round and from side
to side, as he looked sagaciously and coldly at the strangers. He was
dressed in light tweeds, with his neck very open in a striped shirt
collar; and carried a minute-book under one arm.
"Good-evening," said he, after he had closed the door behind him. "I am
told you wish to speak with me."
"We have a desire, sir, to join the Suicide Club," replied the Colonel.
The President rolled his cigar about in his mouth.
"What is that?" he said abruptly.
"Pardon me," returned the Colonel, "but I believe you are the person
best qualified to give us information on that point."
"I?" cried the President. "A Suicide Club? Come, come! this is a frolic
for All Fools' Day. I can make allowances for gentlemen who get merry
in their liquor; but let there be an end to this."
"Call your club what you will," said the Colonel; "you have some company
behind these doors, and we insist on joining it."
"Sir," returned the President curtly, "you have made a mistake. This is
a private house, and you must leave it instantly."
The Prince had remained quietly in his seat throughout this little
colloquy; but now, when the Colonel looked over to him, as much as to
say, "Take your answer and come away, for God's sake!" he drew his
cheroot from his mouth, and spoke--
"I have come here," said he, "upon the invitation of a friend of yours.
He has doubtless informed you of my intention in thus intruding on your
party. Let me remind you that a person in my circumstances has
exceedingly little to bind him, and is not at all likely to tolerate
much rudeness. I am a very quiet man, as a usual thing; but, my dear
sir, you are either going to oblige me in the little matter of which you
are aware, or you shall very bitterly repent that you ever admitted me
to your ante-chamber."
The President laughed aloud.
"That is the way to speak," said he. "You are a man who is a man. You
know the way to my heart, and can do what you like with me. Will you,"
he continued, addressing Geraldine, "will you step aside for a few
minutes? I shall finish first with your companion, and some of the
club's formalities require to be fulfilled in private."
With the words he opened the door of a small closet, into which he shut
the Colonel.
"I believe in you," he said to Florizel, as soon as they were alone;
"but are you sure of your friend?"
"Not so sure as I am of myself, though he has more cogent reasons,"
answered Florizel, "but sure enough to bring him here without alarm. He
has had enough to cure the most tenacious man of life. He was cashiered
the other day for cheating at cards."
"A good reason, I daresay," replied the President; "at least, we have
another in the same case, and I feel sure of him. Have you also been in
the Service, may I ask?"
"I have," was the reply; "but I was too lazy--I left it early."
"What is your reason for being tired of life?" pursued the President.
"The same, as near as I can make out," answered the Prince:
"unadulterated laziness."
The President started. "D--n it," said he, "you must have something
better than that."
"I have no more money," added Florizel. "That is also a vexation,
without doubt. It brings my sense of idleness to an acute point."
The President rolled his cigar round in his mouth for some seconds,
directing his gaze straight into the eyes of this unusual neophyte; but
the Prince supported his scrutiny with unabashed good temper.
"If I had not a deal of experience," said the President at last, "I
should turn you off. But I know the world; and this much any way, that
the most frivolous excuses for a suicide are often the toughest to stand
by. And when I downright like a man, as I do you, sir, I would rather
strain the regulation than deny him."
The Prince and the Colonel, one after the other, were subjected to a
long and particular interrogatory: the Prince alone; but Geraldine in
the presence of the Prince, so that the President might observe the
countenance of the one while the other was being warmly cross-examined.
The result was satisfactory; and the President, after having booked a
few details of each case, produced a form of oath to be accepted.
Nothing could be conceived more passive than the obedience promised, or
more stringent than the terms by which the juror bound himself. The man
who forfeited a pledge so awful could scarcely have a rag of honour or
any of the consolations of religion left to him. Florizel signed the
document, but not without a shudder; the Colonel followed his example
with an air of great depression. Then the President received the entry
money; and without more ado, introduced the two friends into the
smoking-room of the Suicide Club.
The smoking-room of the Suicide Club was the same height as the cabinet
into which it opened, but much larger, and papered from top to bottom
with an imitation of oak wainscot. A large and cheerful fire and a
number of gas-jets illuminated the company. The Prince and his follower
made the number up to eighteen. Most of the party were smoking, and
drinking champagne; a feverish hilarity reigned, with sudden and rather
ghastly pauses.
"Is this a full meeting?" asked the Prince.
"Middling," said the President.--"By the way," he added, "if you have
any money, it is usual to offer some champagne. It keeps up a good
spirit, and is one of my own little perquisites."
"Hammersmith," said Florizel, "I may leave the champagne to you."
And with that he turned away and began to go round among the guests.
Accustomed to play the host in the highest circles, he charmed and
dominated all whom he approached; there was something at once winning
and authoritative in his address; and his extraordinary coolness gave
him yet another distinction in this half-maniacal society. As he went
from one to another he kept both his eyes and ears open, and soon began
to gain a general idea of the people among whom he found himself. As in
all other places of resort, one type predominated: people in the prime
of youth, with every show of intelligence and sensibility in their
appearance, but with little promise of strength or the quality that
makes success. Few were much above thirty, and not a few were still in
their teens. They stood, leaning on tables and shifting on their feet;
sometimes they smoked extraordinarily fast, and sometimes they let
their cigars go out; some talked well, but the conversation of others
was plainly the result of nervous tension, and was equally without wit
or purport. As each new bottle of champagne was opened, there was a
manifest improvement in gaiety. Only two were seated--one in a chair in
the recess of the window, with his head hanging and his hands plunged
deep into his trousers pockets, pale, visibly moist with perspiration,
saying never a word, a very wreck of soul and body; the other sat on the
divan close by the chimney, and attracted notice by a trenchant
dissimilarity from all the rest. He was probably upwards of forty, but
he looked fully ten years older; and Florizel thought he had never seen
a man more naturally hideous, nor one more ravaged by disease and
ruinous excitements. He was no more than skin and bone, was partly
paralysed, and wore spectacles of such unusual power that his eyes
appeared through the glasses greatly magnified and distorted in shape.
Except the Prince and the President, he was the only person in the room
who preserved the composure of ordinary life.
There was little decency among the members of the club. Some boasted of
the disgraceful actions, the consequences of which had reduced them to
seek refuge in death; and the others listened without disapproval. There
was a tacit understanding against moral judgments; and whoever passed
the club doors enjoyed already some of the immunities of the tomb. They
drank to each other's memories, and to those of notable suicides in the
past. They compared and developed their different views of death--some
declaring that it was no more than blackness and cessation; others full
of a hope that that very night they should be scaling the stars and
commercing with the mighty dead.
"To the eternal memory of Baron Trenck, the type of suicides!" cried
one. "He went out of a small cell into a smaller, that he might come
forth again to freedom."
"For my part," said a second, "I wish no more than a bandage for my eyes
and cotton for my ears. Only they have no cotton thick enough in this
world."
A third was for reading the mysteries of life in a future state; and a
fourth professed that he would never have joined the club if he had not
been induced to believe in Mr. Darwin.
"I could not bear," said this remarkable suicide, "to be descended from
an ape."
Altogether, the Prince was disappointed by the bearing and conversation
of the members.
"It does not seem to me," he thought, "a matter of so much disturbance.
If a man has made up his mind to kill himself, let him do it, in God's
name, like a gentleman. This flutter and big talk is out of place."
In the meanwhile Colonel Geraldine was a prey to the blackest
apprehensions; the club and its rules were still a mystery, and he
looked round the room for some one who should be able to set his mind at
rest. In this survey his eye lighted on the paralytic person with the
strong spectacles; and seeing him so exceedingly tranquil, he besought
the President, who was going in and out of the room under a pressure of
business, to present him to the gentleman on the divan.
The functionary explained the needlessness of all such formalities
within the club, but nevertheless presented Mr. Hammersmith to Mr.
Malthus.
Mr. Malthus looked at the Colonel curiously, and then requested him to
take a seat upon his right.
"You are a new-comer," he said, "and wish information? You have come to
the proper source. It is two years since I first visited this charming
club."
The Colonel breathed again. If Mr. Malthus had frequented the place for
two years there could be little danger for the Prince in a single
evening. But Geraldine was none the less astonished, and began to
suspect a mystification.
"What!" cried he, "two years! I thought--but indeed I see I have been
made the subject of a pleasantry."
"By no means," replied Mr. Malthus mildly. "My case is peculiar. I am
not, properly speaking, a suicide at all; but, as it were, an honorary
member. I rarely visit the club twice in two months. My infirmity and
the kindness of the President have procured me these little immunities,
for which besides I pay at an advanced rate. Even as it is, my luck has
been extraordinary."
"I am afraid," said the Colonel, "that I must ask you to be more
explicit. You must remember that I am still most imperfectly acquainted
with the rules of the club."
"An ordinary member who comes here in search of death, like yourself,"
replied the paralytic, "returns every evening until fortune favours him.
He can even, if he is penniless, get board and lodging from the
President: very fair, I believe, and clean, although, of course, not
luxurious; that could hardly be, considering the exiguity (if I may so
express myself) of the subscription. And then the President's company is
a delicacy in itself."
"Indeed!" cried Geraldine, "he had not greatly prepossessed me."
"Ah!" said Mr. Malthus, "you do not know the man: the drollest fellow!
What stories! What cynicism! He knows life to admiration, and, between
ourselves, is probably the most corrupt rogue in Christendom."
"And he also," asked the Colonel, "is a permanency--like yourself, if I
may say so without offence?"
"Indeed, he is a permanency in a very different sense from me," replied
Mr. Malthus. "I have been graciously spared, but I must go at last. Now
he never plays. He shuffles and deals for the club, and makes the
necessary arrangements. That man, my dear Mr. Hammersmith, is the very
soul of ingenuity. For three years he has pursued in London his useful
and, I think I may add, his artistic calling; and not so much as a
whisper of suspicion has been once aroused. I believe himself to be
inspired. You doubtless remember the celebrated case, six months ago,
of the gentleman who was accidentally poisoned in a chemist's shop? That
was one of the least rich, one of the least racy, of his notions; but
then, how simple! and how safe!"
"You astound me," said the Colonel. "Was that unfortunate gentleman one
of the----" He was about to say "victims"; but bethinking himself in
time, he substituted--"members of the club?"
In the same flash of thought it occurred to him that Mr. Malthus himself
had not at all spoken in the tone of one who is in love with death; and
he added hurriedly--
"But I perceive I am still in the dark. You speak of shuffling and
dealing; pray, for what end? And since you seem rather unwilling to die
than otherwise, I must own that I cannot conceive what brings you here
at all."
"You say truly that you are in the dark," replied Mr. Malthus with more
animation. "Why, my dear sir, this club is the temple of intoxication.
If my enfeebled health could support the excitement more often, you may
depend upon it I should be more often here. It requires all the sense of
duty engendered by a long habit of ill-health and careful regimen, to
keep me from excess in this, which is, I may say, my last dissipation. I
have tried them all, sir," he went on, laying his hand on Geraldine's
arm, "all, without exception, and I declare to you, upon my honour,
there is not one of them that has not been grossly and untruthfully
overrated. People trifle with love. Now, I deny that love is a strong
passion. Fear is the strong passion; it is with fear that you must
trifle if you wish to taste the intensest joys of living. Envy me--envy
me, sir," he added with a chuckle, "I am a coward!"
Geraldine could scarcely repress a movement of repulsion for this
deplorable wretch; but he commanded himself with an effort, and
continued his inquiries.
"How, sir," he asked, "is the excitement so artfully prolonged? and
where is there any element of uncertainty?"
"I must tell you how the victim for every evening is selected," returned
Mr. Malthus; "and not only the victim, but another member, who is to be
the instrument in the club's hands, and death's high priest for that
occasion."
"Good God!" said the Colonel, "do they then kill each other?"
"The trouble of suicide is removed in that way," returned Malthus with a
nod.
"Merciful heavens!" ejaculated the Colonel, "and may you--may I--may
the--my friend, I mean--may any of us be pitched upon this evening as
the slayer of another man's body and immortal spirit? Can such things be
possible among men born of women? Oh! infamy of infamies!"
He was about to rise in his horror, when he caught the Prince's eye. It
was fixed upon him from across the room with a frowning and angry stare.
And in a moment Geraldine recovered his composure.
"After all," he added, "why not? and since you say the game is
interesting, _vogue la galère_--I follow the club!"
Mr. Malthus had keenly enjoyed the Colonel's amazement and disgust. He
had the vanity of wickedness; and it pleased him to see another man give
way to a generous movement, while he felt himself, in his entire
corruption, superior to such emotions.
"You now, after your first moment of surprise," said he, "are in a
position to appreciate the delights of our society. You can see how it
combines the excitement of a gaming-table, a duel, and a Roman
amphitheatre. The Pagans did well enough; I cordially admire the
refinement of their minds; but it has been reserved for a Christian
country to attain this extreme, this quintessence, this absolute of
poignancy. You will understand how vapid are all amusements to a man who
has acquired a taste for this one. The game we play," he continued, "is
one of extreme simplicity. A full pack--but I perceive you are about to
see the thing in progress. Will you lend me the help of your arm? I am
unfortunately paralysed."
Indeed, just as Mr. Malthus was beginning his description, another pair
of folding-doors was thrown open, and the whole club began to pass, not
without some hurry, into the adjoining room. It was similar in every
respect to the one from which it was entered, but somewhat differently
furnished. The centre was occupied by a long green table, at which the
President sat shuffling a pack of cards with great particularity. Even
with the stick and the Colonel's arm, Mr. Malthus walked with so much
difficulty that everyone was seated before this pair and the Prince, who
had waited for them, entered the apartment; and, in consequence, the
three took seats close together at the lower end of the board.
"It is a pack of fifty-two," whispered Mr. Malthus. "Watch for the ace
of spades, which is the sign of death, and the ace of clubs, which
designates the official of the night. Happy, happy young men!" he added.
"You have good eyes, and can follow the game. Alas! I cannot tell an ace
from a deuce across the table."
And he proceeded to equip himself with a second pair of spectacles.
"I must at least watch the faces," he explained.
The Colonel rapidly informed his friend of all that he had learned from
the honorary member, and of the horrible alternative that lay before
them. The Prince was conscious of a deadly chill and a contraction about
his heart; he swallowed with difficulty, and looked from side to side
like a man in a maze.
"One bold stroke," whispered the Colonel, "and we may still escape."
But the suggestion recalled the Prince's spirits.
"Silence!" said he. "Let me see that you can play like a gentleman for
any stake, however serious."
And he looked about him, once more to all appearance at his ease,
although his heart beat thickly, and he was conscious of an unpleasant
heat in his bosom. The members were all very quiet and intent; every one
was pale, but none so pale as Mr. Malthus. His eyes protruded; his head
kept nodding involuntarily upon his spine; his hands found their way,
one after the other, to his mouth, where they made clutches at his
tremulous and ashen lips. It was plain that the honorary member enjoyed
his membership on very startling terms.
"Attention, gentlemen!" said the President.
And he began slowly dealing the cards about the table in the reverse
direction, pausing until each man had shown his card. Nearly every one
hesitated; and sometimes you would see a player's fingers stumble more
than once before he could turn over the momentous slip of pasteboard. As
the Prince's turn drew nearer, he was conscious of a growing and almost
suffocating excitement; but he had somewhat of the gambler's nature, and
recognised almost with astonishment that there was a degree of pleasure
in his sensations. The nine of clubs fell to his lot; the three of
spades was dealt to Geraldine; and the queen of hearts to Mr. Malthus,
who was unable to suppress a sob of relief. The young man of the cream
tarts almost immediately afterwards turned over the ace of clubs, and
remained frozen with horror, the card still resting on his finger; he
had not come there to kill, but to be killed; and the Prince in his
generous sympathy with his position almost forgot the peril that still
hung over himself and his friend.
The deal was coming round again, and still Death's card had not come
out. The players held their respiration, and only breathed by gasps. The
Prince received another club; Geraldine had a diamond; but when Mr.
Malthus turned up his card a horrible noise, like that of something
breaking, issued from his mouth; and he rose from his seat and sat down
again, with no sign of his paralysis. It was the ace of spades. The
honorary member had trifled once too often with his terrors.
Conversation broke out again almost at once. The players relaxed their
rigid attitudes, and began to rise from the table and stroll back by
twos and threes into the smoking-room. The President stretched his arms
and yawned, like a man who has finished his day's work. But Mr. Malthus
sat in his place, with his head in his hands, and his hands upon the
table, drunk and motionless--a thing stricken down.
The Prince and Geraldine made their escape at once. In the cold night
air their horror of what they had witnessed was redoubled.
"Alas!" cried the Prince, "to be bound by an oath in such a matter! to
allow this wholesale trade in murder to be continued with profit and
impunity! If I but dared to forfeit my pledge!"
"That is impossible for your Highness," replied the Colonel, "whose
honour is the honour of Bohemia. But I dare, and may with propriety,
forfeit mine."
"Geraldine," said the Prince, "if your honour suffers in any of the
adventures into which you follow me, not only will I never pardon you,
but--what I believe will much more sensibly affect you--I should never
forgive myself."
"I receive your Highness's commands," replied the Colonel. "Shall we go
from this accursed spot?"
"Yes," said the Prince. "Call a cab in Heaven's name, and let me try to
forget in slumber the memory of this night's disgrace."
But it was notable that he carefully read the name of the court before
he left it.
The next morning, as soon as the Prince was stirring, Colonel Geraldine
brought him a daily newspaper, with the following paragraph marked:--
"MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT.--This morning, about two o'clock, Mr.
Bartholomew Malthus, of 16 Chepstow Place, Westbourne Grove, on his
way home from a party at a friend's house, fell over the upper
parapet in Trafalgar Square, fracturing his skull and breaking a leg
and an arm. Death was instantaneous. Mr. Malthus, accompanied by a
friend, was engaged in looking for a cab at the time of the
unfortunate occurrence. As Mr. Malthus was paralytic, it is thought
that his fall may have been occasioned by another seizure. The
unhappy gentleman was well known in the most respectable circles, and
his loss will be widely and deeply deplored."
"If ever a soul went straight to Hell," said Geraldine solemnly, "it was
that paralytic man's."
The Prince buried his face in his hands, and remained silent.
"I am almost rejoiced," continued the Colonel, "to know that he is dead.
But for our young man of the cream tarts I confess my heart bleeds."
"Geraldine," said the Prince, raising his face, "that unhappy lad was
last night as innocent as you and I; and this morning the guilt of blood
is on his soul. When I think of the President, my heart grows sick
within me. I do not know how it shall be done, but I shall have that
scoundrel at my mercy as there is a God in heaven. What an experience,
what a lesson, was that game of cards!"
"One," said the Colonel, "never to be repeated."
The Prince remained so long without replying that Geraldine grew
alarmed.
"You cannot mean to return," he said. "You have suffered too much and
seen too much horror already. The duties of your high position forbid
the repetition of the hazard."
"There is much in what you say," replied Prince Florizel, "and I am not
altogether pleased with my own determination. Alas! in the clothes of
the greatest potentate what is there but a man? I never felt my weakness
more acutely than now, Geraldine, but it is stronger than I. Can I
cease to interest myself in the fortunes of the unhappy young man who
supped with us some hours ago? Can I leave the President to follow his
nefarious career unwatched? Can I begin an adventure so entrancing, and
not follow it to an end? No, Geraldine, you ask of the Prince more than
the man is able to perform. To-night, once more, we take our places at
the table of the Suicide Club."
Colonel Geraldine fell upon his knees.
"Will your Highness take my life?" he cried. "It is his--his freely; but
do not, O do not! let him ask me to countenance so terrible a risk."
"Colonel Geraldine," replied the Prince, with some haughtiness of
manner, "your life is absolutely your own. I only looked for obedience;
and when that is unwillingly rendered, I shall look for that no longer.
I add one word: your importunity in this affair has been sufficient."
The Master of the Horse regained his feet at once.
"Your Highness," he said, "may I be excused in my attendance this
afternoon? I dare not, as an honourable man, venture a second time into
that fatal house until I have perfectly ordered my affairs. Your
Highness shall meet, I promise him, with no more opposition from the
most devoted and grateful of his servants."
"My dear Geraldine," returned Prince Florizel, "I always regret when you
oblige me to remember my rank. Dispose of your day as you think fit, but
be here before eleven in the same disguise."
The club, on this second evening, was not so fully attended; and when
Geraldine and the Prince arrived there were not above half a dozen
persons in the smoking-room. His Highness took the President aside and
congratulated him warmly on the demise of Mr. Malthus.
"I like," he said, "to meet with capacity, and certainly find much of it
in you. Your profession is of a very delicate nature, but I see you are
well qualified to conduct it with success and secrecy."
The President was somewhat affected by these compliments from one of his
Highness's superior bearing. He acknowledged them almost with humility.
"Poor Malthy!" he added, "I shall hardly know the club without him. The
most of my patrons are boys, sir, and poetical boys, who are not much
company for me. Not but what Malthy had some poetry too; but it was of a
kind that I could understand."
"I can readily imagine you should find yourself in sympathy with Mr.
Malthus," returned the Prince. "He struck me as a man of a very original
disposition."
The young man of the cream tarts was in the room, but painfully
depressed and silent. His late companions sought in vain to lead him
into conversation.
"How bitterly I wish," he cried, "that I had never brought you to this
infamous abode! Begone, while you are clean-handed. If you could have
heard the old man scream as he fell, and the noise of his bones upon the
pavement! Wish me, if you have any kindness to so fallen a being--wish
the ace of spades for me to-night!"
A few more members dropped in as the evening went on, but the club did
not muster more than the devil's dozen when they took their places at
the table. The Prince was again conscious of a certain joy in his
alarms; but he was astonished to see Geraldine so much more
self-possessed than on the night before.
"It is extraordinary," thought the Prince, "that a will, made or unmade,
should so greatly influence a young man's spirit."
"Attention, gentlemen!" said the President, and he began to deal.
Three times the cards went all round the table, and neither of the
marked cards had yet fallen from his hand. The excitement as he began
the fourth distribution was overwhelming. There were just cards enough
to go once more entirely round. The Prince, who sat second from the
dealer's left, would receive, in the reverse mode of dealing practised
at the club, the second last card. The third player turned up a black
ace--it was the ace of clubs. The next received a diamond, the next a
heart, and so on; but the ace of spades was still undelivered. At last
Geraldine, who sat upon the Prince's left, turned his card; it was an
ace, but the ace of hearts.
When Prince Florizel saw his fate upon the table in front of him, his
heart stood still. He was a brave man, but the sweat poured off his
face. There were exactly fifty chances out of a hundred that he was
doomed. He reversed the card; it was the ace of spades. A loud roaring
filled his brain, and the table swam before his eyes. He heard the
player on his right break into a fit of laughter that sounded between
mirth and disappointment; he saw the company rapidly dispersing, but his
mind was full of other thoughts. He recognised how foolish, how
criminal, had been his conduct. In perfect health, in the prime of his
years, the heir to a throne, he had gambled away his future and that of
a brave and loyal country. "God," he cried, "God forgive me!" And with
that the confusion of his senses passed away, and he regained his
self-possession in a moment.
To his surprise, Geraldine had disappeared. There was no one in the
card-room but his destined butcher consulting with the President, and
the young man of the cream tarts, who slipped up to the Prince and
whispered in his ear--
"I would give a million, if I had it, for your luck."
His Highness could not help reflecting, as the young man departed, that
he would have sold his opportunity for a much more moderate sum.
The whispered conference now came to an end. The holder of the ace of
clubs left the room with a look of intelligence, and the President,
approaching the unfortunate Prince, proffered him his hand.
"I am pleased to have met you, sir," said he, "and pleased to have been
in a position to do you this trifling service. At least, you cannot
complain of delay. On the second evening--what a stroke of luck!"
The Prince endeavoured in vain to articulate something in response, but
his mouth was dry and his tongue seemed paralysed.
"You feel a little sickish?" asked the President, with some show of
solicitude. "Most gentlemen do. Will you take a little brandy?"
The Prince signified in the affirmative, and the other immediately
filled some of the spirit into a tumbler.
"Poor old Malthy!" ejaculated the President, as the Prince drained the
glass. "He drank near upon a pint, and little enough good it seemed to
do him!"
"I am more amenable to treatment," said the Prince, a good deal revived.
"I am my own man again at once, as you perceive. And so, let me ask you,
what are my directions?"
"You will proceed along the Strand in the direction of the City, and on
the left-hand pavement, until you meet the gentleman who has just left
the room. He will continue your instructions, and him you will have the
kindness to obey; the authority of the club is vested in his person for
the night. And now," added the President, "I wish you a pleasant walk."
Florizel acknowledged the salutation rather awkwardly, and took his
leave. He passed through the smoking-room, where the bulk of the players
were still consuming champagne, some of which he had himself ordered and
paid for; and he was surprised to find himself cursing them in his
heart. He put on his hat and greatcoat in the cabinet, and selected his
umbrella from a corner. The familiarity of these acts, and the thought
that he was about them for the last time, betrayed him into a fit of
laughter which sounded unpleasantly in his own ears. He conceived a
reluctance to leave the cabinet, and turned instead to the window. The
sight of the lamps and the darkness recalled him to himself.
"Come, come, I must be a man," he thought, "and tear myself away."
At the corner of Box Court three men fell upon Prince Florizel, and he
was unceremoniously thrust into a carriage, which at once drove rapidly
away. There was already an occupant.
"Will your Highness pardon my zeal?" said a well-known voice.
The Prince threw himself upon the Colonel's neck in a passion of relief.
"How can I ever thank you?" he cried. "And how was this effected?"
Although he had been willing to march upon his doom, he was overjoyed to
yield to friendly violence, and return once more to life and hope.
"You can thank me effectually enough," replied the Colonel, "by avoiding
all such dangers in the future. And as for your second question, all has
been managed by the simplest means. I arranged this afternoon with a
celebrated detective. Secrecy has been promised and paid for. Your own
servants have been principally engaged in the affair. The house in Box
Court has been surrounded since nightfall, and this, which is one of
your own carriages, has been awaiting you for nearly an hour."
"And the miserable creature who was to have slain me--what of him?"
inquired the Prince.
"He was pinioned as he left the club," replied the Colonel, "and now
awaits your sentence at the Palace, where he will soon be joined by his
accomplices."
"Geraldine," said the Prince, "you have saved me against my explicit
orders, and you have done well. I owe you not only my life, but a
lesson; and I should be unworthy of my rank if I did not show myself
grateful to my teacher. Let it be yours to choose the manner."
There was a pause, during which the carriage continued to speed through
the streets, and the two men were each buried in his own reflections.
The silence was broken by Colonel Geraldine.
"Your Highness," said he, "has by this time a considerable body of
prisoners. There is at least one criminal among the number to whom
justice should be dealt. Our oath forbids us all recourse to law; and
discretion would forbid it equally if the oath were loosened. May I
inquire your Highness's intention?"
"It is decided," answered Florizel; "the President must fall in duel. It
only remains to choose his adversary."
"Your Highness has permitted me to name my own recompense," said the
Colonel. "Will he permit me to ask the appointment of my brother? It is
an honourable post, but I dare assure your Highness that the lad will
acquit himself with credit."
"You ask me an ungracious favour," said the Prince, "but I must refuse
you nothing."
The Colonel kissed his hand with the greatest affection; and at that
moment the carriage rolled under the archway of the Prince's splendid
residence.
An hour after, Florizel in his official robes, and covered with all the
orders of Bohemia, received the members of the Suicide Club.
"Foolish and wicked men," said he, "as many of you as have been driven
into this strait by the lack of fortune shall receive employment and
remuneration from my officers. Those who suffer under a sense of guilt
must have recourse to a higher and more generous Potentate than I. I
feel pity for all of you, deeper than you can imagine; to-morrow you
shall tell me your stories; and as you answer more frankly, I shall be
the more able to remedy your misfortunes. As for you," he added, turning
to the President, "I should only offend a person of your parts by any
offer of assistance; but I have instead a piece of diversion to propose
to you. Here," laying his hand on the shoulder of Colonel Geraldine's
young brother, "is an officer of mine who desires to make a little tour
upon the Continent; and I ask you, as a favour, to accompany him on
this excursion. Do you," he went on, changing his tone, "do you shoot
well with the pistol? Because you may have need of that accomplishment.
When two men go travelling together, it is best to be prepared for all.
Let me add that, if by any chance you should lose young Mr. Geraldine
upon the way, I shall always have another member of my household to
place at your disposal; and I am known, Mr. President, to have long
eyesight, and as long an arm."
With these words, said with much sternness, the Prince concluded his
address. Next morning the members of the club were suitably provided for
by his munificence, and the President set forth upon his travels, under
the supervision of Mr. Geraldine, and a pair of faithful and adroit
lackeys, well trained in the Prince's household. Not content with this,
discreet agents were put in possession of the house in Box Court, and
all letters or visitors for the Suicide Club or its officials were to be
examined by Prince Florizel in person.
_Here_ (says my Arabian author) _ends The Story of_ THE YOUNG MAN WITH
THE CREAM TARTS, _who is now a comfortable householder in Wigmore
Street, Cavendish Square. The number, for obvious reasons, I suppress.
Those who care to pursue the adventures of Prince Florizel and the
President of the Suicide Club, may read_
THE STORY OF THE PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK
Mr. Silas Q. Scuddamore was a young American of a simple and harmless
disposition, which was the more to his credit as he came from New
England--a quarter of the New World not precisely famous for those
qualities. Although he was exceedingly rich, he kept a note of all his
expenses in a little paper pocket-book; and he had chosen to study the
attractions of Paris from the seventh story of what is called a
furnished hotel in the Latin Quarter. There was a great deal of habit in
his penuriousness; and his virtue, which was very remarkable among his
associates, was principally founded upon diffidence and youth.
The next room to his was inhabited by a lady, very attractive in her air
and very elegant in toilette, whom, on his first arrival, he had taken
for a Countess. In course of time he had learned that she was known by
the name of Madame Zéphyrine, and that whatever station she occupied in
life it was not that of a person of title. Madame Zéphyrine, probably in
the hope of enchanting the young American, used to flaunt by him on the
stairs with a civil inclination, a word of course, and a knock-down look
out of her black eyes, and disappear in a rustle of silk, and with the
revelation of an admirable foot and ankle. But these advances, so far
from encouraging Mr. Scuddamore, plunged him into the depths of
depression and bashfulness. She had come to him several times for a
light, or to apologise for imaginary depredations of her poodle; but his
mouth was closed in the presence of so superior a being, his French
promptly left him, and he could only stare and stammer until she was
gone. The slenderness of their intercourse did not prevent him from
throwing out insinuations of a very glorious order when he was safely
alone with a few males.
The room on the other side of the American's--for there were three rooms
on a floor in the hotel--was tenanted by an old English physician of
rather doubtful reputation. Dr. Noel, for that was his name, had been
forced to leave London, where he enjoyed a large and increasing
practice; and it was hinted that the police had been the instigators of
this change of scene. At least he, who had made something of a figure in
earlier life, now dwelt in the Latin Quarter in great simplicity and
solitude, and devoted much of his time to study. Mr. Scuddamore had made
his acquaintance, and the pair would now and then dine together
frugally in a restaurant across the street.
Silas Q. Scuddamore had many little vices of the more respectable order,
and was not restrained by delicacy from indulging them in many rather
doubtful ways. Chief among his foibles stood curiosity. He was a born
gossip; and life, and especially those parts of it in which he had no
experience, interested him to the degree of passion. He was a pert,
invincible questioner, pushing his inquiries with equal pertinacity and
indiscretion; he had been observed, when he took a letter to the post,
to weigh it in his hand, to turn it over and over, and to study the
address with care; and when he found a flaw in the partition between his
room and Madame Zéphyrine's, instead of filling it up, he enlarged and
improved the opening, and made use of it as a spy-hole on his
neighbour's affairs.
One day, in the end of March, his curiosity growing as it was indulged,
he enlarged the hole a little further, so that he might command another
corner of the room. That evening, when he went as usual to inspect
Madame Zéphyrine's movements, he was astonished to find the aperture
obscured in an odd manner on the other side, and still more abashed when
the obstacle was suddenly withdrawn and a titter of laughter reached his
ears. Some of the plaster had evidently betrayed the secret of his
spy-hole, and his neighbour had been returning the compliment in kind.
Mr. Scuddamore was moved to a very acute feeling of annoyance; he
condemned Madame Zéphyrine unmercifully: he even blamed himself; but
when he found, next day, that she had taken no means to baulk him of his
favourite pastime, he continued to profit by her carelessness, and
gratify his idle curiosity.
That next day Madame Zéphyrine received a long visit from a tall,
loosely-built man of fifty or upwards, whom Silas had not hitherto seen.
His tweed suit and coloured shirt, no less than his shaggy
side-whiskers, identified him as a Britisher, and his dull grey eye
affected Silas with a sense of cold. He kept screwing his mouth from
side to side and round and round during the whole colloquy, which was
carried on in whispers. More than once it seemed to the young New
Englander as if their gestures indicated his own apartment; but the only
thing definite he could gather by the most scrupulous attention was this
remark, made by the Englishman in a somewhat higher key, as if in answer
to some reluctance or opposition--
"I have studied his taste to a nicety, and I tell you again and again
you are the only woman of the sort that I can lay my hands on."
In answer to this, Madame Zéphyrine sighed, and appeared by a gesture to
resign herself, like one yielding to unqualified authority.
That afternoon the observatory was finally blinded, a wardrobe having
been drawn in front of it upon the other side; and while Silas was still
lamenting over this misfortune, which he attributed to the Britisher's
malign suggestion, the _concierge_ brought him up a letter in a female
handwriting. It was conceived in French of no very rigorous orthography,
bore no signature, and in the most encouraging terms invited the young
American to be present in a certain part of the Bullier Ball at eleven
o'clock that night. Curiosity and timidity fought a long battle in his
heart; sometimes he was all virtue, sometimes all fire and daring; and
the result of it was that, long before ten, Mr. Silas Q. Scuddamore
presented himself in unimpeachable attire at the door of the Bullier
Ball Rooms, and paid his entry money with a sense of reckless devilry
that was not without its charm.
It was Carnival time, and the Ball was very full and noisy. The lights
and the crowd at first rather abashed our young adventurer, and then,
mounting to his brain with a sort of intoxication, put him in possession
of more than his own share of manhood. He felt ready to face the devil,
and strutted in the ball-room with the swagger of a cavalier. While he
was thus parading, he became aware of Madame Zéphyrine and her
Britisher in conference behind a pillar. The cat-like spirit of
eavesdropping overcame him at once. He stole nearer and nearer on the
couple from behind, until he was within earshot.
"That is the man," the Britisher was saying; "there--with the long blond
hair--speaking to a girl in green."
Silas identified a very handsome young fellow of small stature, who was
plainly the object of this designation.
"It is well," said Madame Zéphyrine. "I shall do my utmost. But,
remember, the best of us may fail in such a matter."
"Tut!" returned her companion; "I answer for the result. Have I not
chosen you from thirty? Go; but be wary of the Prince. I cannot think
what cursed accident has brought him here to-night. As if there were not
a dozen balls in Paris better worth his notice than this riot of
students and counter-jumpers! See him where he sits, more like a
reigning Emperor at home than a Prince upon his holidays!"
Silas was again lucky. He observed a person of rather a full build,
strikingly handsome, and of a very stately and courteous demeanour,
seated at table with another handsome young man, several years his
junior, who addressed him with conspicuous deference. The name of Prince
struck gratefully on Silas's Republican hearing, and the aspect of the
person to whom that name was applied exercised its usual charm upon his
mind. He left Madame Zéphyrine and her Englishman to take care of each
other, and threading his way through the assembly, approached the table
which the Prince and his confidant had honoured with their choice.
"I tell you, Geraldine," the former was saying, "the action is madness.
Yourself (I am glad to remember it) chose your brother for this perilous
service, and you are bound in duty to have a guard upon his conduct. He
has consented to delay so many days in Paris; that was already an
imprudence, considering the character of the man he has to deal with;
but now, when he is within eight-and-forty hours of his departure, when
he is within two or three days of the decisive trial, I ask you, is this
a place for him to spend his time? He should be in a gallery at
practice; he should be sleeping long hours and taking moderate exercise
on foot; he should be on a rigorous diet, without white wines or brandy.
Does the dog imagine we are all playing comedy? The thing is deadly
earnest, Geraldine."
"I know the lad too well to interfere," replied Colonel Geraldine, "and
well enough not to be alarmed. He is more cautious than you fancy, and
of an indomitable spirit. If it had been a woman I should not say so
much, but I trust the President to him and the two valets without an
instant's apprehension."
"I am gratified to hear you say so," replied the Prince; "but my mind is
not at rest. These servants are well-trained spies, and already has not
this miscreant succeeded three times in eluding their observation and
spending several hours on each in private, and most likely dangerous,
affairs? An amateur might have lost him by accident, but if Rudolph and
Jérome were thrown off the scent, it must have been done on purpose, and
by a man who had a cogent reason and exceptional resources."
"I believe the question is now one between my brother and myself,"
replied Geraldine, with a shade of offence in his tone.
"I permit it to be so, Colonel Geraldine," returned Prince Florizel.
"Perhaps, for that very reason, you should be all the more ready to
accept my counsels. But enough. That girl in yellow dances well."
And the talk veered into the ordinary topics of a Paris ball-room in the
Carnival.
Silas remembered where he was, and that the hour was already near at
hand when he ought to be upon the scene of his assignation. The more he
reflected the less he liked the prospect, and as at that moment an eddy
in the crowd began to draw him in the direction of the door, he
suffered it to carry him away without resistance. The eddy stranded him
in a corner under the gallery, where his ear was immediately struck with
the voice of Madame Zéphyrine. She was speaking in French with the young
man of the blond locks who had been pointed out by the strange Britisher
not half an hour before.
"I have a character at stake," she said, "or I would put no other
condition than my heart recommends. But you have only to say so much to
the porter, and he will let you go by without a word."
"But why this talk of debt?" objected her companion.
"Heavens!" said she, "do you think I do not understand my own hotel?"
And she went by, clinging affectionately to her companion's arm.
This put Silas in mind of his billet.
"Ten minutes hence," thought he, "and I may be walking with as beautiful
a woman as that, and even better dressed--perhaps a real lady, possibly
a woman of title."
And then he remembered the spelling, and was a little downcast.
"But it may have been written by her maid," he imagined.
The clock was only a few minutes from the hour, and this immediate
proximity set his heart beating at a curious and rather disagreeable
speed. He reflected with relief that he was in no way bound to put in an
appearance. Virtue and cowardice were together, and he made once more
for the door, but this time, of his own accord, and battling against the
stream of people which was now moving in a contrary direction. Perhaps
this prolonged resistance wearied him, or perhaps he was in that frame
of mind when merely to continue in the same determination for a certain
number of minutes produces a reaction and a different purpose.
Certainly, at least, he wheeled about for a third time, and did not
stop until he had found a place of concealment within a few yards of the
appointed place.
Here he went through an agony of spirit, in which he several times
prayed to God for help, for Silas had been devoutly educated. He had now
not the least inclination for the meeting; nothing kept him from flight
but a silly fear lest he should be thought unmanly; but this was so
powerful that it kept head against all other motives; and although it
could not decide him to advance, prevented him from definitely running
away. At last the clock indicated ten minutes past the hour. Young
Scuddamore's spirit began to rise; he peered round the corner and saw no
one at the place of meeting; doubtless his unknown correspondent had
wearied and gone away. He became as bold as he had formerly been timid.
It seemed to him that if he came at all to the appointment, however
late, he was clear from the charge of cowardice. Nay, now he began to
suspect a hoax, and actually complimented himself on his shrewdness in
having suspected and out-manoeuvred his mystifiers. So very idle a
thing is a boy's mind!
Armed with these reflections, he advanced boldly from his corner; but he
had not taken above a couple of steps before a hand was laid upon his
arm. He turned and beheld a lady cast in a very large mould and with
somewhat stately features, but bearing no mark of severity in her looks.
"I see that you are a very self-confident lady-killer," said she; "for
you make yourself expected. But I was determined to meet you. When a
woman has once so far forgotten herself as to make the first advance,
she has long ago left behind her all considerations of petty pride."
Silas was overwhelmed by the size and attractions of his correspondent
and the suddenness with which she had fallen upon him. But she soon set
him at his ease. She was very towardly and lenient in her behaviour; she
led him on to make pleasantries, and then applauded him to the echo; and
in a very short time, between blandishments and a liberal exhibition of
warm brandy, she had not only induced him to fancy himself in love, but
to declare his passion with the greatest vehemence.
"Alas!" she said; "I do not know whether I ought not to deplore this
moment, great as is the pleasure you give me by your words. Hitherto I
was alone to suffer; now, poor boy, there will be two. I am not my own
mistress. I dare not ask you to visit me at my own house, for I am
watched by jealous eyes. Let me see," she added; "I am older than you,
although so much weaker; and while I trust in your courage and
determination, I must employ my own knowledge of the world for our
mutual benefit. Where do you live?"
He told her that he lodged in a furnished hotel, and named the street
and number.
She seemed to reflect for some minutes, with an effort of mind.
"I see," she said at last. "You will be faithful and obedient, will you
not?"
Silas assured her eagerly of his fidelity.
"To-morrow night, then," she continued, with an encouraging smile, "you
must remain at home all the evening; and if any friends should visit
you, dismiss them at once on any pretext that most readily presents
itself. Your door is probably shut by ten?" she asked.
"By eleven," answered Silas.
"At a quarter past eleven," pursued the lady, "leave the house. Merely
cry for the door to be opened, and be sure you fall into no talk with
the porter, as that might ruin everything. Go straight to the corner
where the Luxembourg Gardens join the Boulevard; there you will find me
waiting you. I trust you to follow my advice from point to point: and
remember, if you fail me in only one particular, you will bring the
sharpest trouble on a woman whose only fault is to have seen and loved
you."
"I cannot see the use of all these instructions," said Silas.
"I believe you are already beginning to treat me as a master," she
cried, tapping him with her fan upon the arm. "Patience, patience! that
should come in time. A woman loves to be obeyed at first, although
afterwards she finds her pleasure in obeying. Do as I ask you, for
Heaven's sake, or I will answer for nothing. Indeed, now I think of it,"
she added, with a manner of one who has just seen further into a
difficulty, "I find a better plan of keeping importunate visitors away.
Tell the porter to admit no one for you, except a person who may come
that night to claim a debt; and speak with some feeling, as though you
feared the interview, so that he may take your words in earnest."
"I think you may trust me to protect myself against intruders," he said,
not without a little pique.
"That is how I should prefer the thing arranged," she answered coldly.
"I know you men; you think nothing of a woman's reputation."
Silas blushed and somewhat hung his head; for the scheme he had in view
had involved a little vain-glorying before his acquaintances.
"Above all," she added, "do not speak to the porter as you come out."
"And why?" said he. "Of all your instructions, that seems to me the
least important."
"You at first doubted the wisdom of some of the others, which you now
see to be very necessary," she replied. "Believe me, this also has its
uses; in time you will see them; and what am I to think of your
affection, if you refuse me such trifles at our first interview?"
Silas confounded himself in explanations and apologies; in the middle of
these she looked up at the clock and clapped her hands together with a
suppressed scream.
"Heavens!" she cried, "is it so late? I have not an instant to lose.
Alas, we poor women, what slaves we are! What have I not risked for you
already?"
And after repeating her directions, which she artfully combined with
caresses and the most abandoned looks, she bade him farewell and
disappeared among the crowd.
The whole of the next day Silas was filled with a sense of great
importance; he was now sure she was a countess; and when evening came he
minutely obeyed her orders and was at the corner of the Luxembourg
Gardens by the hour appointed. No one was there. He waited nearly half
an hour, looking in the face of every one who passed or loitered near
the spot; he even visited the neighbouring corners of the Boulevard and
made a complete circuit of the garden railings; but there was no
beautiful countess to throw herself into his arms. At last, and most
reluctantly, he began to retrace his steps towards his hotel. On the way
he remembered the words he had heard pass between Madame Zéphyrine and
the blond young man, and they gave him an indefinite uneasiness.
"It appears," he reflected, "that every one has to tell lies to our
porter."
He rang the bell, the door opened before him, and the porter in his
bed-clothes came to offer him a light.
"Has he gone?" inquired the porter.
"He? Whom do you mean?" asked Silas, somewhat sharply, for he was
irritated by his disappointment.
"I did not notice him go out," continued the porter, "but I trust you
paid him. We do not care, in this house, to have lodgers who cannot meet
their liabilities."
"What the devil do you mean?" demanded Silas, rudely. "I cannot
understand a word of this farrago."
"The short, blond young man who came for his debt," returned the other.
"Him it is I mean. Who else should it be, when I had your orders to
admit no one else?"
"Why, good God! of course he never came," retorted Silas.
"I believe what I believe," returned the porter, putting his tongue into
his cheek with a most roguish air.
"You are an insolent scoundrel," cried Silas, and, feeling that he had
made a ridiculous exhibition of asperity, and at the same time
bewildered by a dozen alarms, he turned and began to run upstairs.
"Do you not want a light, then?" cried the porter.
But Silas only hurried the faster, and did not pause until he had
reached the seventh landing and stood in front of his own door. There he
waited a moment to recover his breath, assailed by the worst
forebodings, and almost dreading to enter the room.
When at last he did so he was relieved to find it dark, and to all
appearance untenanted. He drew a long breath. Here he was, home again in
safety, and this should be his last folly as certainly as it had been
his first. The matches stood on a little table by the bed, and he began
to grope his way in that direction. As he moved, his apprehensions grew
upon him once more, and he was pleased, when his foot encountered an
obstacle, to find it nothing more alarming than a chair. At last he
touched curtains. From the position of the window, which was faintly
visible, he knew he must be at the foot of the bed, and had only to feel
his way along it in order to reach the table in question.
He lowered his hand, but what it touched was not simply a
counterpane--it was a counterpane with something underneath it like the
outline of a human leg. Silas withdrew his arm and stood a moment
petrified.
"What, what," he thought, "can this betoken?"
He listened intently, but there was no sound of breathing. Once more,
with a great effort, he reached out the end of his finger to the spot he
had already touched; but this time he leaped back half a yard, and stood
shivering and fixed with terror. There was something in his bed. What it
was he knew not, but there was something there.
It was some seconds before he could move. Then, guided by an instinct,
he fell straight upon the matches, and, keeping his back towards the
bed, lighted a candle. As soon as the flame had kindled, he turned
slowly round and looked for what he feared to see. Sure enough, there
was the worst of his imaginations realised. The coverlid was drawn
carefully up over the pillow, but it moulded the outline of a human body
lying motionless; and when he dashed forward and flung aside the sheets,
he beheld the blond young man whom he had seen in the Bullier Ball the
night before, his eyes open and without speculation, his face swollen
and blackened, and a thin stream of blood trickling from his nostrils.
Silas uttered a long, tremulous wail, dropped the candle and fell on his
knees beside the bed.
Silas was awakened from the stupor into which his terrible discovery had
plunged him, by a prolonged but discreet tapping at the door. It took
him some seconds to remember his position; and when he hastened to
prevent any one from entering it was already too late. Dr. Noel, in a
tall nightcap, carrying a lamp which lighted up his long white
countenance, sidling in his gait, and peering and cocking his head like
some sort of bird, pushed the door slowly open, and advanced into the
middle of the room.
"I thought I heard a cry," began the Doctor, "and fearing you might be
unwell I did not hesitate to offer this intrusion."
Silas, with a flushed face and a fearful beating heart, kept between the
Doctor and the bed; but he found no voice to answer.
"You are in the dark," pursued the Doctor; "and yet you have not even
begun to prepare for rest. You will not easily persuade me against my
own eyesight; and your face declares most eloquently that you require
either a friend or a physician--which is it to be? Let me feel your
pulse, for that is often a just reporter of the heart."
He advanced to Silas, who still retreated before him backwards, and
sought to take him by the wrist; but the strain on the young American's
nerves had become too great for endurance. He avoided the Doctor with a
febrile movement, and, throwing himself upon the floor, burst into a
flood of weeping.
As soon as Dr. Noel perceived the dead man in the bed his face
darkened; and hurrying back to the door, which he had left ajar, he
hastily closed and double-locked it.
"Up!" he cried, addressing Silas in strident tones; this is no time for
weeping. "What have you done? How came this body in your room? Speak
freely to one who may be helpful. Do you imagine I would ruin you? Do
you think this piece of dead flesh on your pillow can alter in any
degree the sympathy with which you have inspired me? Credulous youth,
the horror with which blind and unjust law regards an action never
attaches to the doer in the eyes of those who love him; and if I saw the
friend of my heart return to me out of seas of blood he would be in no
way changed in my affection. Raise yourself," he said; "good and ill are
a chimera; there is nought in life except destiny, and however you may
be circumstanced there is one at your side who will help you to the
last."
Thus encouraged, Silas gathered himself together, and in a broken voice,
and helped out by the Doctor's interrogations, contrived at last to put
him in possession of the facts. But the conversation between the Prince
and Geraldine he altogether omitted, as he had understood little of its
purport, and had no idea that it was in any way related to his own
misadventure.
"Alas!" cried Dr. Noel, "I am much abused, or you have fallen innocently
into the most dangerous hands in Europe. Poor boy, what a pit has been
dug for your simplicity! into what a deadly peril have your unwary feet
been conducted! This man," he said, "this Englishman, whom you twice
saw, and whom I suspect to be the soul of the contrivance, can you
describe him? Was he young or old? tall or short?"
But Silas, who, for all his curiosity, had not a seeing eye in his head,
was able to supply nothing but meagre generalities, which it was
impossible to recognise.
"I would have it a piece of education in all schools!" cried the Doctor
angrily. "Where is the use of eyesight and articulate speech if a man
cannot observe and recollect the features of his enemy? I, who know all
the gangs of Europe, might have identified him, and gained new weapons
for your defence. Cultivate this art in future, my poor boy; you may
find it of momentous service."
"The future!" repeated Silas. "What future is there left for me except
the gallows?"
"Youth is but a cowardly season," returned the Doctor; "and a man's own
troubles look blacker than they are. I am old, and yet I never despair."
"Can I tell such a story to the police?" demanded Silas.
"Assuredly not," replied the Doctor. "From what I see already of the
machination in which you have been involved, your case is desperate upon
that side; and for the narrow eye of the authorities you are infallibly
the guilty person. And remember that we only know a portion of the plot;
and the same infamous contrivers have doubtless arranged many other
circumstances which would be elicited by a police inquiry, and help to
fix the guilt more certainly upon your innocence."
"I am then lost, indeed!" cried Silas.
"I have not said so," answered Dr. Noel, "for I am a cautious man."
"But look at this!" objected Silas, pointing to the body. "Here is this
object in my bed: not to be explained, not to be disposed of, not to be
regarded without horror."
"Horror?" replied the Doctor. "No. When this sort of clock has run down,
it is no more to me than an ingenious piece of mechanism, to be
investigated with the bistoury. When blood is once cold and stagnant, it
is no longer human blood; when flesh is once dead, it is no longer that
flesh which we desire in our lovers and respect in our friends. The
grace, the attraction, the terror, have all gone from it with the
animating spirit. Accustom yourself to look upon it with composure; for
if my scheme is practicable you will have to live some days in constant
proximity to that which now so greatly horrifies you."
"Your scheme?" cried Silas. "What is that? Tell me speedily, Doctor;
for I have scarcely courage enough to continue to exist."
Without replying, Dr. Noel turned towards the bed, and proceeded to
examine the corpse.
"Quite dead," he murmured. "Yes, as I had supposed, the pockets empty.
Yes, and the name cut off the shirt. Their work has been done thoroughly
and well. Fortunately, he is of small stature."
Silas followed these words with an extreme anxiety. At last the Doctor,
his autopsy completed, took a chair and addressed the young American
with a smile.
"Since I came into your room," said he, "although my ears and my tongue
have been so busy, I have not suffered my eyes to remain idle. I noted a
little while ago that you have there, in the corner, one of those
monstrous constructions which your fellow-countrymen carry with them
into all quarters of the globe--in a word, a Saratoga trunk. Until this
moment I have never been able to conceive the utility of these
erections; but then I began to have a glimmer. Whether it was for
convenience in the slave-trade, or to obviate the results of too ready
an employment of the bowie-knife, I cannot bring myself to decide. But
one thing I see plainly--the object of such a box is to contain a human
body."
"Surely," cried Silas, "surely this is not a time for jesting."
"Although I may express myself with some degree of pleasantry," replied
the Doctor, "the purport of my words is entirely serious. And the first
thing we have to do, my young friend, is to empty your coffer of all
that it contains."
Silas, obeying the authority of Dr. Noel, put himself at his
disposition. The Saratoga trunk was soon gutted of its contents, which
made a considerable litter on the floor; and then--Silas taking the
heels and the Doctor supporting the shoulders--the body of the murdered
man was carried from the bed, and, after some difficulty, doubled up and
inserted whole into the empty box. With an effort on the part of both,
the lid was forced down upon this unusual baggage, and the trunk was
locked and corded by the Doctor's own hand, while Silas disposed of what
had been taken out between the closet and a chest of drawers.
"Now," said the Doctor, "the first step has been taken on the way to
your deliverance. To-morrow, or rather to-day, it must be your task to
allay the suspicions of your porter, paying him all that you owe; while
you may trust me to make the arrangements necessary to a safe
conclusion. Meantime, follow me to my room, where I shall give you a
safe and powerful opiate; for, whatever you do, you must have rest."
The next day was the longest in Silas's memory; it seemed as if it would
never be done. He denied himself to his friends, and sat in a corner
with his eyes fixed upon the Saratoga trunk in dismal contemplation. His
own former indiscretions were now returned upon him in kind; for the
observatory had been once more opened, and he was conscious of an almost
continual study from Madame Zéphyrine's apartment. So distressing did
this become that he was at last obliged to block up the spy-hole from
his own side; and when he was thus secured from observation he spent a
considerable portion of his time in contrite tears and prayer.
Late in the evening Dr. Noel entered the room carrying in his hand a
pair of sealed envelopes without address, one somewhat bulky, and the
other so slim as to seem without enclosure.
"Silas," he said, seating himself at the table, "the time has now come
for me to explain my plan for your salvation. To-morrow morning, at an
early hour, Prince Florizel of Bohemia returns to London, after having
diverted himself for a few days with the Parisian Carnival. It was my
fortune, a good while ago, to do Colonel Geraldine, his Master of the
Horse, one of those services, so common in my profession, which are
never forgotten upon either side. I have no need to explain to you the
nature of the obligation under which he was laid; suffice it to say
that I knew him ready to serve me in any practicable manner. Now, it was
necessary for you to gain London with your trunk unopened. To this the
Custom House seemed to oppose a fatal difficulty; but I bethought me
that the baggage of so considerable a person as the Prince is, as a
matter of courtesy, passed without examination by the officers of
Custom. I applied to Colonel Geraldine, and succeeded in obtaining a
favourable answer. To-morrow, if you go before six to the hotel where
the Prince lodges, your baggage will be passed over as a part of his,
and you yourself will make the journey as a member of his suite."
"It seems to me, as you speak, that I have already seen both the Prince
and Colonel Geraldine; I even overheard some of their conversation the
other evening at the Bullier Ball."
"It is probable enough; for the Prince loves to mix with all societies,"
replied the Doctor. "Once arrived in London," he pursued, "your task is
nearly ended. In this more bulky envelope I have given you a letter
which I dare not address; but in the other you will find the designation
of the house to which you must carry it along with your box, which will
there be taken from you and not trouble you any more."
"Alas!" said Silas, "I have every wish to believe you; but how is it
possible? You open up to me a bright prospect, but, I ask you, is my
mind capable of receiving so unlikely a solution? Be more generous, and
let me further understand your meaning."
The Doctor seemed painfully impressed.
"Boy," he answered, "you do not know how hard a thing you ask of me. But
be it so. I am now inured to humiliation; and it would be strange if I
refused you this, after having granted you so much. Know, then, that
although I now make so quiet an appearance--frugal, solitary, addicted
to study--when I was younger, my name was once a rallying-cry among the
most astute and dangerous spirits of London; and while I was outwardly
an object for respect and consideration, my true power resided in the
most secret, terrible, and criminal relations. It is to one of the
persons who then obeyed me that I now address myself to deliver you from
your burden. They were men of many different nations and dexterities,
all bound together by a formidable oath, and working to the same
purposes; the trade of the association was in murder; and I who speak to
you, innocent as I appear, was the chieftain of this redoubtable crew."
"What?" cried Silas. "A murderer? And one with whom murder was a trade?
Can I take your hand? Ought I so much as to accept your services? Dark
and criminal old man, would you make an accomplice of my youth and my
distress?"
The Doctor bitterly laughed.
"You are difficult to please, Mr. Scuddamore," said he; "but I now offer
you your choice of company between the murdered man and the murderer. If
your conscience is too nice to accept my aid, say so, and I will
immediately leave you. Thenceforward you can deal with your trunk and
its belongings as best suits your upright conscience."
"I own myself wrong," replied Silas. "I should have remembered how
generously you offered to shield me, even before I had convinced you of
my innocence, and I continue to listen to your counsels with gratitude."
"That is well," returned the Doctor; "and I perceive you are beginning
to learn some of the lessons of experience."
"At the same time," resumed the New Englander, "as you confess yourself
accustomed to this tragical business, and the people to whom you
recommend me are your own former associates and friends, could you not
yourself undertake the transport of the box, and rid me at once of its
detested presence?"
"Upon my word," replied the Doctor, "I admire you cordially. If you do
not think I have already meddled sufficiently in your concerns, believe
me, from my heart I think the contrary. Take or leave my services as I
offer them; and trouble me with no more words of gratitude, for I value
your consideration even more lightly than I do your intellect. A time
will come, if you should be spared to see a number of years in health of
mind, when you will think differently of all this, and blush for your
to-night's behaviour."
So saying, the Doctor arose from his chair, repeated his directions
briefly and clearly, and departed from the room without permitting Silas
any time to answer.
The next morning Silas presented himself at the hotel, where he was
politely received by Colonel Geraldine, and relieved, from that moment,
of all immediate alarm about his trunk and its grisly contents. The
journey passed over without much incident, although the young man was
horrified to overhear the sailors and railway porters complaining among
themselves about the unusual weight of the Prince's baggage. Silas
travelled in a carriage with the valets, for Prince Florizel chose to be
alone with his Master of the Horse. On board the steamer, however, Silas
attracted his Highness's attention by the melancholy of his air and
attitude as he stood gazing at the pile of baggage; for he was still
full of disquietude about the future.
"There is a young man," observed the Prince, "who must have some cause
for sorrow."
"That," replied Geraldine, "is the American for whom I obtained
permission to travel with your suite."
"You remind me that I have been remiss in courtesy," said Prince
Florizel, and advancing to Silas, he addressed him with the most
exquisite condescension in these words:
"I was charmed, young sir, to be able to gratify the desire you made
known to me through Colonel Geraldine. Remember, if you please, that I
shall be glad at any future time to lay you under a more serious
obligation."
And he then put some questions as to the political condition of America,
which Silas answered with sense and propriety.
"You are still a young man," said the Prince; "but I observe you to be
very serious for your years. Perhaps you allow your attention to be too
much occupied with grave studies. But, perhaps, on the other hand, I am
myself indiscreet and touch upon a painful subject."
"I have certainly cause to be the most miserable of men," said Silas;
"never has a more innocent person been more dismally abused."
"I will not ask you for your confidence," returned Prince Florizel. "But
do not forget that Colonel Geraldine's recommendation is an unfailing
passport; and that I am not only willing, but possibly more able than
many others, to do you a service."
Silas was delighted with the amiability of this great personage; but his
mind soon returned upon its gloomy preoccupations; for not even the
favour of a Prince to a Republican can discharge a brooding spirit of
its cares.
The train arrived at Charing Cross, where the officers of the Revenue
respected the baggage of Prince Florizel in the usual manner. The most
elegant equipages were in waiting; and Silas was driven, along with the
rest, to the Prince's residence. There Colonel Geraldine sought him out,
and expressed himself pleased to have been of any service to a friend of
the physician's, for whom he professed a great consideration.
"I hope," he added, "that you will find none of your porcelain injured.
Special orders were given along the line to deal tenderly with the
Prince's effects."
And then, directing the servants to place one of the carriages at the
young gentleman's disposal, and at once to charge the Saratoga trunk
upon the dickey, the Colonel shook hands and excused himself on account
of his occupations in the princely household.
Silas now broke the seal of the envelope containing the address, and
directed the stately footman to drive him to Box Court, opening off the
Strand. It seemed as if the place were not at all unknown to the man,
for he looked startled and begged a repetition of the order. It was
with a heart full of alarms that Silas mounted into the luxurious
vehicle, and was driven to his destination. The entrance to Box Court
was too narrow for the passage of a coach; it was a mere footway between
railings, with a post at either end. On one of these posts was seated a
man, who at once jumped down and exchanged a friendly sign with the
driver, while the footman opened the door and inquired of Silas whether
he should take down the Saratoga trunk, and to what number it should be
carried.
"If you please," said Silas. "To number three."
The footman and the man who had been sitting on the post, even with the
aid of Silas himself, had hard work to carry in the trunk; and before it
was deposited at the door of the house in question, the young American
was horrified to find a score of loiterers looking on. But he knocked
with as good a countenance as he could muster up, and presented the
other envelope to him who opened.
"He is not at home," said he, "but if you will leave your letter and
return to-morrow early, I shall be able to inform you whether and when
he can receive your visit. Would you like to leave your box?" he added.
"Dearly," cried Silas; and the next moment he repented his
precipitation, and declared, with equal emphasis, that he would rather
carry the box along with him to the hotel.
The crowd jeered at his indecision, and followed him to the carriage
with insulting remarks; and Silas, covered with shame and terror,
implored the servants to conduct him to some quiet and comfortable house
of entertainment in the immediate neighbourhood.
The Prince's equipage deposited Silas at the Craven Hotel in Craven
Street, and immediately drove away, leaving him alone with the servants
of the inn. The only vacant room, it appeared, was a little den up four
pairs of stairs, and looking towards the back. To this hermitage, with
infinite trouble and complaint, a pair of stout porters carried the
Saratoga trunk. It is needless to mention that Silas kept closely at
their heels throughout the ascent, and had his heart in his mouth at
every corner. A single false step, he reflected, and the box might go
over the banisters and land its fatal contents, plainly discovered, on
the pavement of the hall.
Arrived in the room, he sat down on the edge of his bed to recover from
the agony that he had just endured; but he had hardly taken his position
when he was recalled to a sense of his peril by the action of the boots,
who had knelt beside the trunk, and was proceeding officiously to undo
its elaborate fastenings.
"Let it be!" cried Silas. "I shall want nothing from it while I stay
here."
"You might have let it lie in the hall, then," growled the man; "a thing
as big and heavy as a church. What you have inside I cannot fancy. If it
is all money, you are a richer man than we."
"Money?" repeated Silas, in a sudden perturbation. "What do you mean by
money? I have no money, and you are speaking like a fool."
"All right, captain," retorted the boots with a wink. "There's nobody
will touch your lordship's money. I'm as safe as the bank," he added;
"but as the box is heavy, I shouldn't mind drinking something to your
lordship's health."
Silas pressed two Napoleons upon his acceptance, apologising, at the
same time, for being obliged to trouble him with foreign money, and
pleading his recent arrival for excuse. And the man, grumbling with even
greater fervour, and looking contemptuously from the money in his hand
to the Saratoga trunk, and back again from the one to the other, at last
consented to withdraw.
For nearly two days the dead body had been packed into Silas's box; and
as soon as he was alone the unfortunate New Englander nosed all the
cracks and openings with the most passionate attention. But the weather
was cool, and the trunk still managed to contain his shocking secret.
He took a chair beside it, and buried his face in his hands, and his
mind in the most profound reflection. If he were not speedily relieved,
no question but he must be speedily discovered. Alone in a strange city,
without friends or accomplices, if the Doctor's introduction failed him,
he was indubitably a lost New Englander. He reflected pathetically over
his ambitious designs for the future; he should not now become the hero
and spokesman of his native place of Bangor, Maine; he should not, as he
had fondly anticipated, move on from office to office, from honour to
honour; he might as well divest himself at once of all hope of being
acclaimed President of the United States, and leaving behind him a
statue, in the worst possible style of art, to adorn the Capitol at
Washington. Here he was, chained to a dead Englishman doubled up inside
a Saratoga trunk; whom he must get rid of, or perish from the rolls of
national glory!
I should be afraid to chronicle the language employed by this young man
to the Doctor, to the murdered man, to Madame Zéphyrine, to the boots of
the hotel, to the Prince's servants, and, in a word, to all who had been
ever so remotely connected with his horrible misfortune.
He slunk down to dinner about seven at night; but the yellow coffee-room
appalled him, the eyes of the other diners seemed to rest on his with
suspicion, and his mind remained upstairs with the Saratoga trunk. When
the waiter came to offer him cheese, his nerves were already so much on
edge that he leaped half-way out of his chair and upset the remainder of
a pint of ale upon the table-cloth.
The fellow offered to show him to the smoking-room when he had done; and
although he would have much preferred to return at once to his perilous
treasure, he had not the courage to refuse, and was shown downstairs to
the black, gas-lit cellar, which formed, and possibly still forms, the
divan of the Craven Hotel.
Two very sad betting men were playing billiards, attended by a moist,
consumptive marker; and for the moment Silas imagined that these were
the only occupants of the apartment. But at the next glance his eye
fell upon a person smoking in the farthest corner, with lowered eyes and
a most respectable and modest aspect. He knew at once that he had seen
the face before; and, in spite of the entire change of clothes,
recognised the man whom he had found seated on a post at the entrance to
Box Court, and who had helped him to carry the trunk to and from the
carriage. The New Englander simply turned and ran, nor did he pause
until he had locked and bolted himself into his bedroom.
There, all night long, a prey to the most terrible imaginations, he
watched beside the fatal boxful of dead flesh. The suggestion of the
boots that his trunk was full of gold inspired him with all manner of
new terrors, if he so much as dared to close an eye; and the presence in
the smoking-room, and under an obvious disguise, of the loiterer from
Box Court convinced him that he was once more the centre of obscure
machinations.
Midnight had sounded some time, when, impelled by uneasy suspicions,
Silas opened his bedroom door and peered into the passage. It was dimly
illuminated by a single jet of gas; and some distance off he perceived a
man sleeping on the floor in the costume of an hotel under-servant.
Silas drew near the man on tiptoe. He lay partly on his back, partly on
his side, and his right fore-arm concealed his face from recognition.
Suddenly, while the American was still bending over him, the sleeper
removed his arm and opened his eyes, and Silas found himself once more
face to face with the loiterer of Box Court.
"Good-night, sir," said the man pleasantly.
But Silas was too profoundly moved to find an answer, and regained his
room in silence.
Towards morning, worn out by apprehension, he fell asleep on his chair,
with his head forward on the trunk. In spite of so constrained an
attitude and such a grisly pillow, his slumber was sound and prolonged,
and he was only awakened at a late hour and by a sharp tapping at the
door.
He hurried to open, and found the boots without.
"You are the gentleman who called yesterday at Box Court?" he asked.
Silas, with a quaver, admitted that he had done so.
"Then this note is for you," added the servant, proffering a sealed
envelope.
Silas tore it open, and found inside the words: "Twelve o'clock."
He was punctual to the hour; the trunk was carried before him by several
stout servants; and he was himself ushered into a room, where a man sat
warming himself before the fire with his back towards the door. The
sound of so many persons entering and leaving, and the scraping of the
trunk as it was deposited upon the bare boards, were alike unable to
attract the notice of the occupant; and Silas stood waiting, in an agony
of fear, until he should deign to recognise his presence.
Perhaps five minutes had elapsed before the man turned leisurely about,
and disclosed the features of Prince Florizel of Bohemia.
"So, sir," he said, with great severity, "this is the manner in which
you abuse my politeness. You join yourself to persons of condition, I
perceive, for no other purpose than to escape the consequences of your
crimes; and I can readily understand your embarrassment when I addressed
myself to you yesterday."
"Indeed," cried Silas, "I am innocent of everything except misfortune."
And in a hurried voice, and with the greatest ingenuousness, he
recounted to the Prince the whole history of his calamity.
"I see I have been mistaken," said his Highness, when he had heard him
to an end. "You are no other than a victim, and since I am not to punish
you may be sure I shall do my utmost to help.--And now," he continued,
"to business. Open your box at once, and let me see what it contains."
Silas changed colour.
"I almost fear to look upon it," he exclaimed.
"Nay," replied the Prince, "have you not looked at it already? This is a
form of sentimentality to be resisted. The sight of a sick man, whom we
can still help, should appeal more directly to the feelings than that of
a dead man who is equally beyond help or harm, love or hatred. Nerve
yourself, Mr. Scuddamore,"--and then, seeing that Silas still hesitated,
"I do not desire to give another name to my request," he added.
The young American awoke as if out of a dream, and with a shiver of
repugnance addressed himself to loose the straps and open the lock of
the Saratoga trunk. The Prince stood by, watching with a composed
countenance and his hands behind his back. The body was quite stiff, and
it cost Silas a great effort, both moral and physical, to dislodge it
from its position, and discover the face.
Prince Florizel started back with an exclamation of painful surprise.
"Alas!" he cried, "you little know, Mr. Scuddamore, what a cruel gift
you have brought me. This is a young man of my own suite, the brother of
my trusted friend; and it was upon matters of my own service that he has
thus perished at the hands of violent and treacherous men. Poor
Geraldine," he went on, as if to himself, "in what words am I to tell
you of your brother's fate? How can I excuse myself in your eyes, or in
the eyes of God, for the presumptuous schemes that led him to this
bloody and unnatural death? Ah, Florizel! Florizel! when will you learn
the discretion that suits mortal life, and be no longer dazzled with the
image of power at your disposal? Power!" he cried; "who is more
powerless? I look upon this young man whom I have sacrificed, Mr.
Scuddamore, and feel how small a thing it is to be a Prince."
Silas was moved at the sight of his emotion. He tried to murmur some
consolatory words, and burst into tears. The Prince, touched by his
obvious intention, came up to him and took him by the hand.
"Command yourself," said he. "We have both much to learn, and we shall
both be better men for to-day's meeting."
Silas thanked him in silence with an affectionate look.
"Write me the address of Doctor Noel on this piece of paper," continued
the Prince, leading him towards the table; "and let me recommend you,
when you are again in Paris, to avoid the society of that dangerous man.
He has acted in this matter on a generous inspiration; that I must
believe; had he been privy to young Geraldine's death he would never
have despatched the body to the care of the actual criminal."
"The actual criminal!" repeated Silas in astonishment.
"Even so," returned the Prince. "This letter, which the disposition of
Almighty Providence has so strangely delivered into my hands, was
addressed to no less a person than the criminal himself, the infamous
President of the Suicide Club. Seek to pry no further in these perilous
affairs, but content yourself with your own miraculous escape, and leave
this house at once. I have pressing affairs, and must arrange at once
about this poor clay, which was so lately a gallant and handsome youth."
Silas took a grateful and submissive leave of Prince Florizel, but he
lingered in Box Court until he saw him depart in a splendid carriage on
a visit to Colonel Henderson of the police. Republican as he was, the
young American took off his hat with almost a sentiment of devotion to
the retreating carriage. And the same night he started by rail on his
return to Paris.
_Here_ (observes my Arabian author) _is the end of_ THE HISTORY OF THE
PHYSICIAN AND THE SARATOGA TRUNK. _Omitting some reflections on the
power of Providence, highly pertinent in the original, but little suited
to our Occidental taste, I shall only add that Mr. Scuddamore has
already begun to mount the ladder of political fame, and by last advices
was the Sheriff of his native town._
THE ADVENTURE OF THE HANSOM CABS
Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich had greatly distinguished himself in one of
the lesser Indian hill wars. He it was who took the chieftain prisoner
with his own hand; his gallantry was universally applauded; and when he
came home, prostrated by an ugly sabre-cut and a protracted
jungle-fever, society was prepared to welcome the Lieutenant as a
celebrity of minor lustre. But his was a character remarkable for
unaffected modesty; adventure was dear to his heart, but he cared little
for adulation; and he waited at foreign watering-places and in Algiers
until the fame of his exploits had run through its nine days' vitality
and begun to be forgotten. He arrived in London at last, in the early
season, with as little observation as he could desire; and as he was an
orphan and had none but distant relatives who lived in the provinces, it
was almost as a foreigner that he installed himself in the capital of
the country for which he had shed his blood.
On the day following his arrival he dined alone at a military club. He
shook hands with a few old comrades, and received their warm
congratulations; but as one and all had some engagement for the evening,
he found himself left entirely to his own resources. He was in dress,
for he had entertained the notion of visiting a theatre. But the great
city was new to him; he had gone from a provincial school to a military
college, and thence direct to the Eastern Empire; and he promised
himself a variety of delights in this world for exploration. Swinging
his cane, he took his way westward. It was a mild evening, already dark,
and now and then threatening rain. The succession of faces in the
lamplight stirred the Lieutenant's imagination; and it seemed to him as
if he could walk for ever in that stimulating city atmosphere and
surrounded by the mystery of four million private lives. He glanced at
the houses, and marvelled what was passing behind those warmly-lighted
windows; he looked into face after face, and saw them each intent upon
some unknown interest, criminal or kindly.
"They talk of war," he thought, "but this is the great battlefield of
mankind."
And then he began to wonder that he should walk so long in this
complicated scene, and not chance upon so much as the shadow of an
adventure for himself.
"All in good time," he reflected. "I am still a stranger, and perhaps
wear a strange air. But I must be drawn into the eddy before long."
The night was already well advanced when a plump of cold rain fell
suddenly out of the darkness. Brackenbury paused under some trees, and
as he did so he caught sight of a hansom cabman making him a sign that
he was disengaged. The circumstance fell in so happily to the occasion
that he at once raised his cane in answer, and had soon ensconced
himself in the London gondola.
"Where to, sir?" asked the driver.
"Where you please," said Brackenbury.
And immediately, at a pace of surprising swiftness, the hansom drove off
through the rain into a maze of villas. One villa was so like another,
each with its front garden, and there was so little to distinguish the
deserted lamp-lit streets and crescents through which the flying hansom
took its way, that Brackenbury soon lost all idea of direction. He would
have been tempted to believe that the cabman was amusing himself by
driving him round and round and in and out about a small quarter, but
there was something business-like in the speed which convinced him of
the contrary. The man had an object in view, he was hastening towards a
definite end; and Brackenbury was at once astonished at the fellow's
skill in picking a way through such a labyrinth, and a little concerned
to imagine what was the occasion of his hurry. He had heard tales of
strangers falling ill in London. Did the driver belong to some bloody
and treacherous association? and was he himself being whirled to a
murderous death?
The thought had scarcely presented itself, when the cab swung sharply
round a corner and pulled up before the garden gate of a villa in a long
and wide road. The house was brilliantly lighted up. Another hansom had
just driven away, and Brackenbury could see a gentleman being admitted
at the front door and received by several liveried servants. He was
surprised that the cabman should have stopped so immediately in front of
a house where a reception was being held; but he did not doubt it was
the result of accident, and sat placidly smoking where he was, until he
heard the trap thrown open over his head.
"Here we are, sir," said the driver.
"Here!" repeated Brackenbury. "Where?"
"You told me to take you where I pleased, sir," returned the man with a
chuckle, "and here we are."
It struck Brackenbury that the voice was wonderfully smooth and
courteous for a man in so inferior a position; he remembered the speed
at which he had been driven; and now it occurred to him that the hansom
was more luxuriously appointed than the common run of public
conveyances.
"I must ask you to explain," said he. "Do you mean to turn me out into
the rain? My good man, I suspect the choice is mine."
"The choice is certainly yours," replied the driver; "but when I tell
you all, I believe I know how a gentleman of your figure will decide.
There is a gentleman's party in this house. I do not know whether the
master be a stranger to London and without acquaintances of his own; or
whether he is a man of odd notions. But certainly I was hired to kidnap
single gentlemen in evening dress, as many as I pleased, but military
officers by preference. You have simply to go in and say that Mr. Morris
invited you."
"Are you Mr. Morris?" inquired the Lieutenant.
"Oh, no," replied the cabman. "Mr. Morris is the person of the house."
"It is not a common way of collecting guests," said Brackenbury: "but
an eccentric man might very well indulge the whim without any intention
to offend. And suppose that I refuse Mr. Morris's invitation," he went
on, "what then?"
"My orders are to drive you back where I took you from," replied the
man, "and set out to look for others up to midnight. Those who have no
fancy for such an adventure, Mr. Morris said, were not the guests for
him."
These words decided the Lieutenant on the spot.
"After all," he reflected, as he descended from the hansom, "I have not
had long to wait for my adventure."
He had hardly found footing on the side-walk, and was still feeling in
his pocket for the fare, when the cab swung about and drove off by the
way it came at the former break-neck velocity. Brackenbury shouted after
the man, who paid no heed, and continued to drive away; but the sound of
his voice was overheard in the house, the door was again thrown open,
emitting a flood of light upon the garden, and a servant ran down to
meet him holding an umbrella.
"The cabman has been paid," observed the servant in a very civil tone;
and he proceeded to escort Brackenbury along the path and up the steps.
In the hall several other attendants relieved him of his hat, cane, and
paletot, gave him a ticket with a number in return, and politely hurried
him up a stair adorned with tropical flowers, to the door of an
apartment on the first story. Here a grave butler inquired his name, and
announcing, "Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich," ushered him into the
drawing-room of the house.
A young man, slender and singularly handsome, came forward and greeted
him with an air at once courtly and affectionate. Hundreds of candles,
of the finest wax, lit up a room that was perfumed, like the staircase,
with a profusion of rare and beautiful flowering shrubs, A side-table
was loaded with tempting viands. Several servants went to and fro with
fruits and goblets of champagne. The company was perhaps sixteen in
number, all men, few beyond the prime of life, and, with hardly an
exception, of a dashing and capable exterior. They were divided into two
groups, one about a roulette-board, and the other surrounding a table at
which one of their number held a bank of baccarat.
"I see," thought Brackenbury, "I am in a private gambling saloon, and
the cabman was a tout."
His eye had embraced the details, and his mind formed the conclusion,
while his host was still holding him by the hand; and to him his looks
returned from this rapid survey. At a second view Mr. Morris surprised
him still more than on the first. The easy elegance of his manners, the
distinction, amiability, and courage that appeared upon his features,
fitted very ill with the Lieutenant's preconceptions on the subject of
the proprietor of a hell; and the tone of his conversation seemed to
mark him out for a man of position and merit. Brackenbury found he had
an instinctive liking for his entertainer; and though he chid himself
for the weakness, he was unable to resist a sort of friendly attraction
for Mr. Morris's person and character.
"I have heard of you, Lieutenant Rich," said Mr. Morris, lowering his
tone; "and believe me I am gratified to make your acquaintance. Your
looks accord with the reputation that has preceded you from India. And
if you will forget for a while the irregularity of your presentation in
my house, I shall feel it not only an honour, but a genuine pleasure
besides. A man who makes a mouthful of barbarian cavaliers," he added
with a laugh, "should not be appalled by a breach of etiquette, however
serious."
And he led him towards the sideboard and pressed him to partake of some
refreshment.
"Upon my word," the Lieutenant reflected, "this is one of the
pleasantest fellows and, I do not doubt, one of the most agreeable
societies in London."
He partook of some champagne, which he found excellent; and observing
that many of the company were already smoking, he lit one of his own
Manillas, and strolled up to the roulette-board, where he sometimes made
a stake and sometimes looked on smilingly on the fortune of others. It
was while he was thus idling that he became aware of a sharp scrutiny to
which the whole of the guests were subjected. Mr. Morris went here and
there, ostensibly busied on hospitable concerns; but he had ever a
shrewd glance at disposal; not a man of the party escaped his sudden,
searching looks; he took stock of the bearing of heavy losers, he valued
the amount of the stakes, he paused behind couples who were deep in
conversation; and, in a word, there was hardly a characteristic of any
one present but he seemed to catch and make a note of it. Brackenbury
began to wonder if this were indeed a gambling-hell: it had so much the
air of a private inquisition. He followed Mr. Morris in all his
movements; and although the man had a ready smile, he seemed to
perceive, as it were under a mask, a haggard, careworn, and preoccupied
spirit. The fellows around him laughed and made their game; but
Brackenbury had lost interest in the guests.
"This Morris," thought he, "is no idler in the room. Some deep purpose
inspires him; let it be mine to fathom it."
Now and then Mr. Morris would call one of his visitors aside; and after
a brief colloquy in an ante-room, he would return alone, and the
visitors in question reappeared no more. After a certain number of
repetitions, this performance excited Brackenbury's curiosity to a high
degree. He determined to be at the bottom of this minor mystery at once;
and strolling into the ante-room, found a deep window recess concealed
by curtains of the fashionable green. Here he hurriedly ensconced
himself; nor had he to wait long before the sound of steps and voices
drew near him from the principal apartment. Peering through the
division, he saw Mr. Morris escorting a fat and ruddy personage, with
somewhat the look of a commercial traveller, whom Brackenbury had
already remarked for his coarse laugh and under-bred behaviour at the
table. The pair halted immediately before the window, so that
Brackenbury lost not a word of the following discourse:--
"I beg you a thousand pardons!" began Mr. Morris, with the most
conciliatory manner; "and, if I appear rude, I am sure you will readily
forgive me. In a place so great as London accidents must continually
happen; and the best that we can hope is to remedy them with as small
delay as possible. I will not deny that I fear you have made a mistake
and honoured my poor house by inadvertence; for, to speak openly, I
cannot at all remember your appearance. Let me put the question without
unnecessary circumlocution--between gentlemen of honour a word will
suffice--Under whose roof do you suppose yourself to be?"
"That of Mr. Morris," replied the other, with a prodigious display of
confusion, which had been visibly growing upon him throughout the last
few words.
"Mr. John or Mr. James Morris?" inquired the host.
"I really cannot tell you," returned the unfortunate guest. "I am not
personally acquainted with the gentleman, any more than I am with
yourself."
"I see," said Mr. Morris. "There is another person of the same name
farther down the street; and I have no doubt the policeman will be able
to supply you with his number. Believe me, I felicitate myself on the
misunderstanding which has procured me the pleasure of your company for
so long; and let me express a hope that we may meet again upon a more
regular footing. Meantime, I would not for the world detain you longer
from your friends. John," he added, raising his voice, "will you see
that this gentleman finds his great-coat?"
And with the most agreeable air Mr. Morris escorted his visitor as far
as the ante-room door, where he left him under conduct of the butler. As
he passed the window, on his return to the drawing-room, Brackenbury
could hear him utter a profound sigh, as though his mind was loaded with
a great anxiety, and his nerves already fatigued with the task on which
he was engaged.
For perhaps an hour the hansoms kept arriving with such frequency that
Mr. Morris had to receive a new guest for every old one that he sent
away, and the company preserved its number undiminished. But towards the
end of that time the arrivals grew few and far between, and at length
ceased entirely, while the process of elimination was continued with
unimpaired activity. The drawing-room began to look empty: the baccarat
was discontinued for lack of a banker; more than one person said
good-night of his own accord, and was suffered to depart without
expostulation; and in the meanwhile Mr. Morris redoubled in agreeable
attentions to those who stayed behind. He went from group to group and
from person to person with looks of the readiest sympathy and the most
pertinent and pleasing talk; he was not so much like a host as like a
hostess, and there was a feminine coquetry and condescension in his
manner which charmed the hearts of all.
As the guests grew thinner, Lieutenant Rich strolled for a moment out of
the drawing-room into the hall in quest of fresher air. But he had no
sooner passed the threshold of the ante-chamber than he was brought to a
dead halt by a discovery of the most surprising nature. The flowering
shrubs had disappeared from the staircase; three large furniture-waggons
stood before the garden gate; the servants were busy dismantling the
house upon all sides; and some of them had already donned their
great-coats and were preparing to depart. It was like the end of a
country ball, where everything has been supplied by contract.
Brackenbury had indeed some matter for reflection. First, the guests,
who were no real guests, after all, had been dismissed; and now the
servants, who could hardly be genuine servants, were actively
dispersing.
"Was the whole establishment a sham?" he asked himself. "The mushroom of
a single night which should disappear before morning?"
Watching a favourable opportunity, Brackenbury dashed upstairs to the
higher regions of the house. It was as he had expected. He ran from room
to room, and saw Although the house had been painted and papered, it
was not only uninhabited at present, but plainly had never been
inhabited at all. The young officer remembered with astonishment its
specious, settled, and hospitable air on his arrival. It was only at a
prodigious cost that the imposture could have been carried out upon so
great a scale.
Who, then, was Mr. Morris? What was his intention in thus playing the
householder for a single night in the remote west of London? And why did
he collect his visitors at hazard from the streets?
Brackenbury remembered that he had already delayed too long, and
hastened to join the company. Many had left during his absence; and,
counting the Lieutenant and his host, there were not more than five
persons in the drawing-room--recently so thronged. Mr. Morris greeted
him, as he re-entered the apartment, with a smile, and immediately rose
to his feet.
"It is now time, gentlemen," said he, "to explain my purpose in decoying
you from your amusements. I trust you did not find the evening hang very
dully on your hands; but my object, I will confess it, was not to
entertain your leisure, but to help myself in an unfortunate necessity.
You are all gentlemen," he continued, "your appearance does you that
much justice, and I ask for no better security. Hence, I speak it
without concealment, I ask you to render me a dangerous and delicate
service; dangerous because you may run the hazard of your lives, and
delicate because I must ask an absolute discretion upon all that you
shall see or hear. From an utter stranger the request is almost
comically extravagant; I am well aware of this; and I would add at once,
if there be any one present who has heard enough, if there be one among
the party who recoils from a dangerous confidence and a piece of
Quixotic devotion to he knows not whom--here is my hand ready, and I
shall wish him good-night and God-speed with all the sincerity in the
world."
A very tall, black man, with a heavy stoop, immediately responded to
this appeal.
"I commend your frankness, sir," said he; "and, for my part, I go. I
make no reflections; but I cannot deny that you fill me with suspicious
thoughts. I go myself, as I say; and perhaps you will think I have no
right to add words to my example."
"On the contrary," replied Mr. Morris, "I am obliged to you for all you
say. It would be impossible to exaggerate the gravity of my proposal."
"Well, gentlemen, what do you say?" said the tall man, addressing the
others. "We have had our evening's frolic; shall we all go homeward
peaceably in a body? You will think well of my suggestion in the
morning, when you see the sun again in innocence and safety."
The speaker pronounced the last words with an intonation which added to
their force; and his face wore a singular expression, full of gravity
and significance. Another of the company rose hastily, and, with some
appearance of alarm, prepared to take his leave. There were only two who
held their ground, Brackenbury and an old red-nosed cavalry Major; but
these two preserved a nonchalant demeanour, and, beyond a look of
intelligence which they rapidly exchanged, appeared entirely foreign to
the discussion that had just been terminated.
Mr. Morris conducted the deserters as far as the door, which he closed
upon their heels; then he turned round, disclosing a countenance of
mingled relief and animation, and addressed the two officers as follows.
"I have chosen my men like Joshua in the Bible," said Mr. Morris, "and I
now believe I have the pick of London. Your appearance pleased my hansom
cabmen; then it delighted me; I have watched your behaviour in a strange
company, and under the most unusual circumstances: I have studied how
you played and how you bore your losses; lastly, I have put you to the
test of a staggering announcement, and you received it like an
invitation to dinner. It is not for nothing," he cried, "that I have
been for years the companion and the pupil of the bravest and wisest
potentate in Europe."
"At the affair of Bunderchang," observed the Major, "I asked for twelve
volunteers, and every trooper in the ranks replied to my appeal. But a
gaming party is not the same thing as a regiment under fire. You may be
pleased, I suppose, to have found two, and two who will not fail you at
a push. As for the pair who ran away, I count them among the most
pitiful hounds I ever met with.--Lieutenant Rich," he added, addressing
Brackenbury, "I have heard much of you of late; and I cannot doubt but
you have also heard of me. I am Major O'Rooke."
And the veteran tendered his hand, which was red and tremulous, to the
young Lieutenant.
"Who has not?" answered Brackenbury.
"When this little matter is settled," said Mr. Morris, "you will think I
have sufficiently rewarded you; for I could offer neither a more
valuable service than to make him acquainted with the other."
"And now," said Major O'Rooke, "is it a duel?"
"A duel after a fashion," replied Mr. Morris, "a duel with unknown and
dangerous enemies, and, as I gravely fear, a duel to the death. I must
ask you," he continued, "to call me Morris no longer; call me, if you
please, Hammersmith; my real name, as well as that of another person to
whom I hope to present you before long, you will gratify me by not
asking, and not seeking to discover for yourselves. Three days ago the
person of whom I speak disappeared suddenly from home; and, until this
morning, I received no hint of his situation. You will fancy my alarm
when I tell you that he is engaged upon a work of private justice. Bound
by an unhappy oath, too lightly sworn, he finds it necessary, without
the help of law, to rid the earth of an insidious and bloody villain.
Already two of our friends, and one of them my own born brother, have
perished in the enterprise. He himself, or I am much deceived, is taken
in the same fatal toils. But at least he still lives and still hopes,
as this billet sufficiently proves."
And the speaker, no other than Colonel Geraldine, proffered a letter,
thus conceived:--
"MAJOR HAMMERSMITH,--On Wednesday, at 3 A.M., you will be admitted by
the small door to the gardens of Rochester House, Regent's Park, by a
man who is entirely in my interest. I must request you not to fail me
by a second. Pray bring my case of swords, and, if you can find them,
one or two gentlemen of conduct and discretion to whom my person is
unknown. My name must not be used in this affair.
T. GODALL."
"From his wisdom alone, if he had no other title," pursued Colonel
Geraldine, when the others had each satisfied his curiosity, "my friend
is a man whose directions should implicitly be followed. I need not tell
you, therefore, that I have not so much as visited the neighbourhood of
Rochester House; and that I am still as wholly in the dark as either of
yourselves as to the nature of my friend's dilemma. I betook myself, as
soon as I had received this order, to a furnishing contractor, and, in a
few hours, the house in which we now are had assumed its late air of
festival. My scheme was at least original; and I am far from regretting
an action which has procured me the services of Major O'Rooke and
Lieutenant Brackenbury Rich. But the servants in the street will have a
strange awakening. The house which this evening was full of lights and
visitors they will find uninhabited and for sale to-morrow morning. Thus
even the most serious concerns," added the Colonel, "have a merry side."
"And let us add a merry ending," said Brackenbury.
The Colonel consulted his watch.
"It is now hard on two," he said. "We have an hour before us, and a
swift cab is at the door. Tell me if I may count upon your help."
"During a long life," replied Major O'Rooke, "I never took back my hand
from anything, nor so much as hedged a bet."
Brackenbury signified his readiness in the most becoming terms; and
after they had drunk a glass or two of wine, the Colonel gave each of
them a loaded revolver, and the three mounted into the cab and drove off
for the address in question.
Rochester House was a magnificent residence on the banks of the canal.
The large extent of the garden isolated it in an unusual degree from the
annoyances of neighbourhood. It seemed the _parc aux cerfs_ of some
great nobleman or millionaire. As far as could be seen from the street,
there was not a glimmer of light in any of the numerous windows of the
mansion; and the place had a look of neglect, as though the master had
been long from home.
The cab was discharged, and the three gentlemen were not long in
discovering the small door, which was a sort of postern in a lane
between two garden walls. It still wanted ten or fifteen minutes of the
appointed time; the rain fell heavily, and the adventurers sheltered
themselves below some pendent ivy, and spoke in low tones of the
approaching trial.
Suddenly Geraldine raised his finger to command silence, and all three
bent their hearing to the utmost. Through the continuous noise of the
rain, the steps and voices of two men became audible from the other side
of the wall; and, as they drew nearer, Brackenbury, whose sense of
hearing was remarkably acute, could even distinguish some fragments of
their talk.
"Is the grave dug?" asked one.
"It is," replied the other; "behind the laurel hedge. When the job is
done, we can cover it with a pile of stakes."
The first speaker laughed, and the sound of his merriment was shocking
to the listeners on the other side.
"In an hour from now," he said.
And by the sound of the steps it was obvious that the pair had
separated, and were proceeding in contrary directions.
Almost immediately after the postern door was cautiously opened, a white
face was protruded into the lane, and a hand was seen beckoning to the
watchers. In dead silence the three passed the door, which was
immediately locked behind them, and followed their guide through several
garden alleys to the kitchen entrance of the house. A single candle
burned in the great paved kitchen, which was destitute of the customary
furniture; and as the party proceeded to ascend from thence by a flight
of winding stairs, a prodigious noise of rats testified still more
plainly to the dilapidation of the house.
Their conductor preceded them, carrying the candle. He was a lean man,
much bent, but still agile; and he turned from time to time and
admonished silence and caution by his gestures. Colonel Geraldine
followed on his heels, the case of swords under one arm, and a pistol
ready in the other. Brackenbury's heart beat thickly. He perceived that
they were still in time; but he judged from the alacrity of the old man
that the hour of action must be near at hand; and the circumstances of
this adventure were so obscure and menacing, the place seemed so well
chosen for the darkest acts, that an older man than Brackenbury might
have been pardoned a measure of emotion as he closed the procession up
the winding stair.
At the top the guide threw open a door and ushered the three officers
before him into a small apartment, lighted by a smoky lamp and the glow
of a modest fire. At the chimney corner sat a man in the early prime of
life, and of a stout but courtly and commanding appearance. His attitude
and expression were those of the most unmoved composure; he was smoking
a cheroot with much enjoyment and deliberation, and on a table by his
elbow stood a long glass of some effervescing beverage which diffused an
agreeable odour through the room.
"Welcome," said he, extending his hand to Colonel Geraldine. "I knew I
might count on your exactitude."
"On my devotion," replied the Colonel, with a bow.
"Present me to your friends," continued the first; and, when that
ceremony had been performed, "I wish, gentlemen," he added, with the
most exquisite affability, "that I could offer you a more cheerful
programme; it is ungracious to inaugurate an acquaintance upon serious
affairs; but the compulsion of events is stronger than the obligations
of good-fellowship. I hope and believe you will be able to forgive me
this unpleasant evening; and for men of your stamp it will be enough to
know that you are conferring a considerable favour."
"Your Highness," said the Major, "must pardon my bluntness. I am unable
to hide what I know. For some time back I have suspected Major
Hammersmith, but Mr. Godall is unmistakable. To seek two men in London
unacquainted with Prince Florizel of Bohemia was to ask too much at
Fortune's hands."
"Prince Florizel!" cried Brackenbury in amazement.
And he gazed with the deepest interest on the features of the celebrated
personage before him.
"I shall not lament the loss of my incognito," remarked the Prince, "for
it enables me to thank you with the more authority. You would have done
as much for Mr. Godall, I feel sure, as for the Prince of Bohemia; but
the latter can perhaps do more for you. The gain is mine," he added,
with a courteous gesture.
And the next moment he was conversing with the two officers about the
Indian army and the native troops, a subject on which, as on all others,
he had a remarkable fund of information and the soundest views.
There was something so striking in this man's attitude at a moment of
deadly peril that Brackenbury was overcome with respectful admiration;
nor was he less sensible to the charm of his conversation or the
surprising amenity of his address. Every gesture, every intonation, was
not only noble in itself, but seemed to ennoble the fortunate mortal for
whom it was intended; and Brackenbury confessed to himself with
enthusiasm that this was a sovereign for whom a brave man might
thankfully lay down his life.
Many minutes had thus passed, when the person who had introduced them
into the house, and who had sat ever since in a corner, and with his
watch in his hand, arose and whispered a word into the Prince's ear.
"It is well, Dr. Noel," replied Florizel aloud; and then addressing the
others, "You will excuse me, gentlemen," he added, "if I have to leave
you in the dark. The moment now approaches."
Dr. Noel extinguished the lamp. A faint, grey light, premonitory of the
dawn, illuminated the window, but was not sufficient to illuminate the
room; and when the Prince rose to his feet, it was impossible to
distinguish his features or to make a guess at the nature of the emotion
which obviously affected him as he spoke. He moved towards the door, and
placed himself at one side of it in an attitude of the wariest
attention.
"You will have the kindness," he said, "to maintain the strictest
silence, and to conceal yourselves in the densest of the shadow."
The three officers and the physician hastened to obey, and for nearly
ten minutes the only sound in Rochester House was occasioned by the
excursions of the rats behind the woodwork. At the end of that period, a
loud creak of a hinge broke in with surprising distinctness on the
silence; and shortly after, the watchers could distinguish a slow and
cautious tread approaching up the kitchen stair. At every second step
the intruder seemed to pause and lend an ear, and during these
intervals, which seemed of an incalculable duration, a profound disquiet
possessed the spirit of the listeners. Dr. Noel, accustomed as he was to
dangerous emotions, suffered an almost pitiful physical prostration; his
breath whistled in his lungs, his teeth grated one upon another, and his
joints cracked aloud as he nervously shifted his position.
At last a hand was laid upon the door, and the bolt shot back with a
slight report. There followed another pause, during which Brackenbury
could see the Prince draw himself together noiselessly as if for some
unusual exertion. Then the door opened, letting in a little more of the
light of the morning; and the figure of a man appeared upon the
threshold and stood motionless. He was tall, and carried a knife in his
hand. Even in the twilight they could see his upper teeth bare and
glistening, for his mouth was open like that of a hound about to leap.
The man had evidently been over the head in water but a minute or two
before; and even while he stood there the drops kept falling from his
wet clothes and pattered on the floor.
The next moment he crossed the threshold. There was a leap, a stifled
cry, an instantaneous struggle; and before Colonel Geraldine could
spring to his aid, the Prince held the man, disarmed and helpless, by
the shoulders.
"Dr. Noel," he said, "you will be so good as to re-light the lamp."
And relinquishing the charge of his prisoner to Geraldine and
Brackenbury, he crossed the room and set his back against the
chimney-piece. As soon as the lamp had kindled the party beheld an
unaccustomed sternness on the Prince's features. It was no longer
Florizel, the careless gentleman; it was the Prince of Bohemia, justly
incensed and full of deadly purpose, who now raised his head and
addressed the captive President of the Suicide Club.
"President," he said, "you have laid your last snare, and your own feet
are taken in it. The day is beginning; it is your last morning. You have
just swum the Regent's Canal; it is your last bathe in this world. Your
old accomplice, Dr. Noel, so far from betraying me, has delivered you
into my hands for judgment. And the grave you had dug for me this
afternoon shall serve, in God's almighty providence, to hide your own
just doom from the curiosity of mankind. Kneel and pray, sir, if you
have a mind that way; for your time is short, and God is weary of your
iniquities."
The President made no answer either by word or sign; but continued to
hang his head and gaze sullenly on the floor, as though he were
conscious of the Prince's prolonged and unsparing regard.
"Gentlemen," continued Florizel, resuming the ordinary tone of his
conversation, "this is a fellow who has long eluded me, but whom, thanks
to Dr. Noel, I now have tightly by the heels. To tell the story of his
misdeeds would occupy more time than we can now afford; but if the canal
had contained nothing but the blood of his victims, I believe the wretch
would have been no drier than you see him. Even in an affair of this
sort I desire to preserve the forms of honour. But I make you the
judges, gentlemen--this is more an execution than a duel; and to give
the rogue his choice of weapons would be to push too far a point of
etiquette. I cannot afford to lose my life in such a business," he
continued, unlocking the case of swords; "and as a pistol-bullet travels
so often on the wings of chance, and skill and courage may fall by the
most trembling marksman, I have decided, and I feel sure you will
approve my determination, to put this question to the touch of swords."
When Brackenbury and Major O'Rooke, to whom these remarks were
particularly addressed, had each intimated his approval, "Quick, sir,"
added Prince Florizel to the President, "choose a blade and do not keep
me waiting; I have an impatience to be done with you for ever."
For the first time since he was captured and disarmed the President
raised his head, and it was plain that he began instantly to pluck up
courage.
"Is it to be stand up?" he asked eagerly, "and between you and me?"
"I mean so far to honour you," replied the Prince.
"Oh, come!" cried the President. "With a fair field, who knows how
things may happen? I must add that I consider it handsome behaviour on
your Highness's part; and if the worst comes to the worst I shall die by
one of the most gallant gentlemen in Europe."
And the President, liberated by those who had detained him, stepped up
to the table and began, with minute attention, to select a sword. He was
highly elated, and seemed to feel no doubt that he should issue
victorious from the contest. The spectators grew alarmed in the face of
so entire a confidence, and adjured Prince Florizel to reconsider his
intention.
"It is but a farce," he answered; "and I think I can promise you,
gentlemen, that it will not be long a-playing."
"Your Highness will be careful not to overreach," said Colonel
Geraldine.
"Geraldine," returned the Prince, "did you ever know me fail in a debt
of honour? I owe you this man's death, and you shall have it."
The President at last satisfied himself with one of the rapiers, and
signified his readiness by a gesture that was not devoid of a rude
nobility. The nearness of peril, and the sense of courage, even to this
obnoxious villain, lent an air of manhood and a certain grace.
The Prince helped himself at random to a sword.
"Colonel Geraldine and Doctor Noel," he said, "will have the goodness to
await me in this room. I wish no personal friend of mine to be involved
in this transaction. Major O'Rooke, you are a man of some years and a
settled reputation--let me recommend the President to your good graces.
Lieutenant Rich will be so good as lend me his attentions: a young man
cannot have too much experience in such affairs."
"Your Highness," replied Brackenbury, "it is an honour I shall prize
extremely."
"It is well," returned Prince Florizel; "I shall hope to stand your
friend in more important circumstances."
And so saying he led the way out of the apartment and down the kitchen
stairs.
The two men who were thus left alone threw open the window and leaned
out, straining every sense to catch an indication of the tragical events
that were about to follow. The rain was now over; day had almost come,
and the birds were piping in the shrubbery and on the forest-trees of
the garden. The Prince and his companions were visible for a moment as
they followed an alley between two flowering thickets; but at the first
corner a clump of foliage intervened, and they were again concealed from
view. This was all that the Colonel and the Physician had an opportunity
to see, and the garden was so vast, and the place of combat evidently so
remote from the house, that not even the noise of sword-play reached
their ears.
"He has taken him towards the grave," said Dr. Noel, with a shudder.
"God," cried the Colonel, "God defend the right!"
And they awaited the event in silence, the Doctor shaking with fear, the
Colonel in an agony of sweat. Many minutes must have elapsed, the day
was sensibly broader, and the birds were singing more heartily in the
garden before a sound of returning footsteps recalled their glances
towards the door. It was the Prince and the two Indian officers who
entered. God had defended the right.
"I am ashamed of my emotion," said Prince Florizel; "I feel it is a
weakness unworthy of my station, but the continued existence of that
hound of hell had begun to prey upon me like a disease, and his death
has more refreshed me than a night of slumber. Look, Geraldine," he
continued, throwing his sword upon the floor, "there is the blood of the
man who killed your brother. It should be a welcome sight. And yet," he
added, "see how strangely we men are made! my revenge is not yet five
minutes old, and already I am beginning to ask myself if even revenge be
attainable on this precarious stage of life. The ill he did, who can
undo it? The career in which he amassed a huge fortune (for the house
itself in which we stand belonged to him)--that career is now a part of
the destiny of mankind for ever; and I might weary myself making thrusts
in carte until the crack of judgment, and Geraldine's brother would be
none the less dead, and a thousand other innocent persons would be none
the less dishonoured and debauched! The existence of a man is so small a
thing to take, so mighty a thing to employ! Alas!" he cried, "is there
anything in life so disenchanting as attainment?"
"God's justice has been done," replied the Doctor. "So much I behold.
The lesson, your Highness, has been a cruel one for me; and I await my
own turn with deadly apprehension."
"What was I saying?" cried the Prince. "I have punished, and here is the
man beside us who can help me to undo. Ah, Dr. Noel! you and I have
before us many a day of hard and honourable toil; and perhaps, before we
have done, you may have more than redeemed your early errors."
"And in the meantime," said the Doctor, "let me go and bury my oldest
friend."
_And this_ (observes the erudite Arabian) _is the fortunate conclusion
of the tale. The Prince, it is superfluous to mention, forgot none of
those who served him in this great exploit; and to this day his
authority and influence help them forward in their public career, while
his condescending friendship adds a charm to their private life. To
collect_, continues my author, _all the strange events in which this
Prince has played the part of Providence were to fill the habitable
globe with books. But the stories which relate to the fortunes of_ THE
RAJAH'S DIAMOND _are of too entertaining a description, says he, to be
omitted. Following prudently in the footsteps of this Oriental, we shall
now begin the series to which he refers with the_ STORY OF THE BANDBOX.
THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND
STORY OF THE BANDBOX
Up to the age of sixteen, at a private school and afterwards at one of
those great institutions for which England is justly famous, Mr. Harry
Hartley had received the ordinary education of a gentleman. At that
period he manifested a remarkable distaste for study; and his only
surviving parent being both weak and ignorant, he was permitted
thenceforward to spend his time in the attainment of petty and purely
elegant accomplishments. Two years later, he was left an orphan and
almost a beggar. For all active and industrious pursuits, Harry was
unfitted alike by nature and training. He could sing romantic ditties,
and accompany himself with discretion on the piano; he was a graceful
although a timid cavalier; he had a pronounced taste for chess; and
nature had sent him into the world with one of the most engaging
exteriors that can well be fancied. Blond and pink, with dove's eyes and
a gentle smile, he had an air of agreeable tenderness and melancholy and
the most submissive and caressing manners. But when all is said, he was
not the man to lead armaments of war or direct the councils of a State.
A fortunate chance and some influence obtained for Harry, at the time of
his bereavement, the position of private secretary to Major-General Sir
Thomas Vandeleur, C.B. Sir Thomas was a man of sixty, loud-spoken,
boisterous, and domineering. For some reason, some service the nature of
which had been often whispered and repeatedly denied, the Rajah of
Kashgar had presented this officer with the sixth known diamond of the
world. The gift transformed General Vandeleur from a poor into a
wealthy man, from an obscure and unpopular soldier into one of the lions
of London society; the possessor of the Rajah's Diamond was welcome in
the most exclusive circles; and he had found a lady, young, beautiful,
and well-born, who was willing to call the diamond hers even at the
price of marriage with Sir Thomas Vandeleur. It was commonly said at the
time that, as like draws to like, one jewel had attracted another;
certainly Lady Vandeleur was not only a gem of the finest water in her
own person, but she showed herself to the world in a very costly
setting; and she was considered by many respectable authorities as one
among the three or four best-dressed women in England.
Harry's duty as secretary was not particularly onerous; but he had a
dislike for all prolonged work; it gave him pain to ink his fingers; and
the charms of Lady Vandeleur and her toilettes drew him often from the
library to the boudoir. He had the prettiest ways among women, could
talk fashions with enjoyment, and was never more happy than when
criticising a shade of ribbon or running on an errand to the milliner's.
In short, Sir Thomas's correspondence fell into pitiful arrears, and my
Lady had another lady's maid.
At last the General, who was one of the least patient of military
commanders, arose from his place in a violent access of passion, and
indicated to his secretary that he had no further need for his services,
with one of those explanatory gestures which are most rarely employed
between gentlemen. The door being unfortunately open, Mr. Hartley fell
downstairs head-foremost.
He arose somewhat hurt and very deeply aggrieved. The life in the
General's house precisely suited him; he moved, on a more or less
doubtful footing, in very genteel company, he did little, he ate of the
best, and he had a lukewarm satisfaction in the presence of Lady
Vandeleur, which, in his own heart, he dubbed by a more emphatic name.
Immediately after he had been outraged by the military foot, he hurried
to the boudoir and recounted his sorrows.
"You know very well, my dear Harry," replied Lady Vandeleur, for she
called him by name like a child or a domestic servant, "that you never
by any chance do what the General tells you. No more do I, you may say.
But that is different. A woman can earn her pardon for a good year of
disobedience by a single adroit submission; and, besides, no one is
married to his private secretary. I shall be sorry to lose you; but
since you cannot stay longer in a house where you have been insulted, I
shall wish you good-bye, and I promise you to make the General smart for
his behaviour."
Harry's countenance fell; tears came into his eyes, and he gazed on Lady
Vandeleur with a tender reproach.
"My Lady," said he, "what is an insult? I should think little indeed of
any one who could not forgive them by the score. But to leave one's
friends; to tear up the bonds of affection----"
He was unable to continue, for his emotion choked him, and he began to
weep.
Lady Vandeleur looked at him with a curious expression.
"This little fool," she thought, "imagines himself to be in love with
me. Why should he not become my servant instead of the General's? He is
good-natured, obliging, and understands dress; and besides, it will keep
him out of mischief. He is positively too pretty to be unattached."
That night she talked over the General, who was already somewhat ashamed
of his vivacity; and Harry was transferred to the feminine department,
where his life was little short of heavenly. He was always dressed with
uncommon nicety, wore delicate flowers in his button-hole, and could
entertain a visitor with tact and pleasantry. He took a pride in
servility to a beautiful woman; received Lady Vandeleur's commands as so
many marks of favour; and was pleased to exhibit himself before other
men, who derided and despised him, in his character of male lady's-maid
and man-milliner. Nor could he think enough of his existence from a
moral point of view. Wickedness seemed to him an essentially male
attribute, and to pass one's days with a delicate woman, and principally
occupied about trimmings, was to inhabit an enchanted isle among the
storms of life.
One fine morning he came into the drawing-room and began to arrange some
music on the top of the piano. Lady Vandeleur, at the other end of the
apartment, was speaking somewhat eagerly with her brother, Charlie
Pendragon, an elderly young man, much broken with dissipation, and very
lame of one foot. The private secretary, to whose entrance they paid no
regard, could not avoid overhearing a part of their conversation.
"To-day or never," said the lady. "Once and for all, it shall be done
to-day."
"To-day, if it must be," replied the brother, with a sigh. "But it is a
false step, a ruinous step, Clara; and we shall live to repent it
dismally."
Lady Vandeleur looked her brother steadily and somewhat strangely in the
face.
"You forget," she said; "the man must die at last."
"Upon my word, Clara," said Pendragon, "I believe you are the most
heartless rascal in England."
"You men," she returned, "are so coarsely built, that you can never
appreciate a shade of meaning. You are yourselves rapacious, violent,
immodest, careless of distinction; and yet the least thought for the
future shocks you in a woman. I have no patience with such stuff. You
would despise in a common banker the imbecility that you expect to find
in us."
"You are very likely right," replied her brother; "you were always
cleverer than I. And, anyway, you know my motto: The family before all."
"Yes, Charlie," she returned, taking his hand in hers, "I know your
motto better than you know it yourself. 'And Clara before the family!'
Is not that the second part of it? Indeed, you are the best of brothers,
and I love you dearly."
Mr. Pendragon got up, looking a little confused by these family
endearments.
"I had better not be seen," said he. "I understand my part to a miracle,
and I'll keep an eye on the Tame Cat."
"Do," she replied. "He is an abject creature, and might ruin all."
She kissed the tips of her fingers to him daintily; and the brother
withdrew by the boudoir and the back stair.
"Harry," said Lady Vandeleur turning towards the secretary as soon as
they were alone, "I have a commission for you this morning. But you
shall take a cab; I cannot have my secretary freckled."
She spoke the last words with emphasis and a look of half-motherly pride
that caused great contentment to poor Harry; and he professed himself
charmed to find an opportunity of serving her.
"It is another of our great secrets," she went on archly, "and no one
must know of it but my secretary and me. Sir Thomas would make the
saddest disturbance; and if you only knew how weary I am of these
scenes! O Harry, Harry, can you explain to me what makes you men so
violent and unjust? But, indeed, I know you cannot; you are the only man
in the world who knows nothing of these shameful passions; you are so
good, Harry, and so kind; you, at least, can be a woman's friend; and,
do you know? I think you make the others more ugly by comparison."
"It is you," said Harry gallantly, "who are so kind to me. You treat me
like----"
"Like a mother," interposed Lady Vandeleur; "I try to be a mother to
you. Or, at least," she corrected herself with a smile, "almost a
mother. I am afraid I am too young to be your mother really. Let us say
a friend--a dear friend."
She paused long enough to let her words take effect in Harry's
sentimental quarters, but not long enough to allow him a reply.
"But all this is beside our purpose," she resumed. "You will find a
bandbox in the left-hand side of the oak wardrobe; it is underneath the
pink slip that I wore on Wednesday with my Mechlin. You will take it
immediately to this address," and she gave him a paper, "but do not, on
any account, let it out of your hands until you have received a receipt
written by myself. Do you understand? Answer, if you please--answer!
This is extremely important, and I must ask you to pay some attention."
Harry pacified her by repeating her instructions perfectly; and she was
just going to tell him more when General Vandeleur flung into the
apartment, scarlet with anger, and holding a long and elaborate
milliner's bill in his hand.
"Will you look at this, madam?" cried he. "Will, you have the goodness
to look at this document? I know well enough you married me for my
money, and I hope I can make as great allowances as any other man in the
service; but, as sure as God made me, I mean to put a period to this
disreputable prodigality."
"Mr. Hartley," said Lady Vandeleur, "I think you understand what you
have to do. May I ask you to see to it at once?"
"Stop," said the General, addressing Harry, "one word before you go."
And then, turning again to Lady Vandeleur, "What is this precious
fellow's errand?" he demanded. "I trust him no further than I do
yourself, let me tell you. If he had as much as the rudiments of
honesty, he would scorn to stay in this house; and what he does for his
wages is a mystery to all the world. What is his errand, madam? and why
are you hurrying him away?"
"I supposed you had something to say to me in private," replied the
lady.
"You spoke about an errand," insisted the General. "Do not attempt to
deceive me in my present state of temper. You certainly spoke about an
errand."
"If you insist on making your servants privy to our humiliating
dissensions," replied Lady Vandeleur, "perhaps I had better ask Mr.
Hartley to sit down. No?" she continued; "then you may go, Mr. Hartley.
I trust you may remember all that you have heard in this room; it may be
useful to you."
Harry at once made his escape from the drawing-room; and as he ran
upstairs he could hear the General's voice upraised in declamation, and
the thin tones of Lady Vandeleur planting icy repartees at every
opening. How cordially he admired the wife! How skilfully she could
evade an awkward question! with what secure effrontery she repeated her
instructions under the very guns of the enemy! and on the other hand,
how he detested the husband!
There had been nothing unfamiliar in the morning's events, for he was
continually in the habit of serving Lady Vandeleur on secret missions,
principally connected with millinery. There was a skeleton in the house,
as he well knew. The bottomless extravagance and the unknown liabilities
of the wife had long since swallowed her own fortune, and threatened day
by day to engulf that of the husband. Once or twice in every year
exposure and ruin seemed imminent, and Harry kept trotting round to all
sorts of furnishers' shops, telling small fibs, and paying small
advances on the gross amount, until another term was tided over, and the
lady and her faithful secretary breathed again. For Harry, in a double
capacity, was heart and soul upon that side of the war; not only did he
adore Lady Vandeleur and fear and dislike her husband, but he naturally
sympathised with the love of finery, and his own single extravagance was
at the tailor's.
He found the bandbox where it had been described, arranged his toilette
with care, and left the house. The sun shone brightly; the distance he
had to travel was considerable, and he remembered with dismay that the
General's sudden irruption had prevented Lady Vandeleur from giving him
money for a cab. On this sultry day there was every chance that his
complexion would suffer severely; and to walk through so much of London
with a bandbox on his arm was a humiliation almost insupportable to a
youth of his character. He paused, and took counsel with himself. The
Vandeleurs lived in Eaton Place; his destination was near Notting Hill;
plainly, he might cross the Park by keeping well in the open and
avoiding populous alleys; and he thanked his stars when he reflected
that it was still comparatively early in the day.
Anxious to be rid of his incubus, he walked somewhat faster than his
ordinary, and he was already some way through Kensington Gardens when,
in a solitary spot among trees, he found himself confronted by the
General.
"I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas," observed Harry, politely falling on one
side; for the other stood directly in his path.
"Where are you going, sir?" asked the General.
"I am taking a little walk among the trees," replied the lad.
The General struck the bandbox with his cane.
"With that thing?" he cried; "you lie, sir, and you know you lie!"
"Indeed, Sir Thomas," returned Harry, "I am not accustomed to be
questioned in so high a key."
"You do not understand your position," said the General. "You are my
servant, and a servant of whom I have conceived the most serious
suspicions. How do I know but that your box is full of tea-spoons?"
"It contains a silk hat belonging to a friend," said Harry.
"Very well," replied General Vandeleur. "Then I want to see your
friend's silk hat. I have," he added grimly, "a singular curiosity for
hats; and I believe you know me to be somewhat positive."
"I beg your pardon, Sir Thomas; I am exceedingly grieved," Harry
apologised; "but indeed this is a private affair."
The General caught him roughly by the shoulder with one hand, while he
raised his cane in the most menacing manner with the other. Harry gave
himself up for lost; but at the same moment Heaven vouchsafed him an
unexpected defender in the person of Charlie Pendragon, who now strode
forward from behind the trees.
"Come, come, General, hold your hand," said he; "this is neither
courteous nor manly."
"Aha!" cried the General, wheeling round upon his new antagonist, "Mr.
Pendragon! And do you suppose, Mr. Pendragon, that because I have had
the misfortune to marry your sister, I shall suffer myself to be dogged
and thwarted by a discredited and bankrupt libertine like you? My
acquaintance with Lady Vandeleur, sir, has taken away all my appetite
for the other members of her family."
"And do you fancy, General Vandeleur," retorted Charlie, "that because
my sister has had the misfortune to marry you, she there and then
forfeited her rights and privileges as a lady? I own, sir, that by that
action she did as much as anybody could to derogate from her position;
but to me she is still a Pendragon. I make it my business to protect her
from ungentlemanly outrage, and if you were ten times her husband I
would not permit her liberty to be restrained, nor her private
messengers to be violently arrested."
"How is that, Mr. Hartley?" interrogated the General. "Mr. Pendragon is
of my opinion, it appears. He too suspects that Lady Vandeleur has
something to do with your friend's silk hat."
Charlie saw that he had committed an unpardonable blunder, which he
hastened to repair.
"How, sir?" he cried; "I suspect, do you say? I suspect nothing. Only
where I find strength abused and a man brutalising his inferiors, I take
the liberty to interfere."
As he said these words he made a sign to Harry, which the latter was too
dull or too much troubled to understand.
"In what way am I to construe your attitude, sir?" demanded Vandeleur.
"Why, sir, as you please," returned Pendragon.
The General once more raised his cane, and made a cut for Charlie's
head; but the latter, lame foot and all, evaded the blow with his
umbrella, ran in, and immediately closed with his formidable adversary.
"Run, Harry, run!" he cried; "run, you dolt!"
Harry stood petrified for a moment, watching the two men sway together
in this fierce embrace; then he turned and took to his heels. When he
cast a glance over his shoulder he saw the General prostrate under
Charlie's knee, but still making desperate efforts to reverse the
situation; and the Gardens seemed to have filled with people, who were
running from all directions towards the scene of fight. This spectacle
lent the secretary wings; and he did not relax his pace until he had
gained the Bayswater Road, and plunged at random into an unfrequented
by-street.
To see two gentlemen of his acquaintance thus brutally mauling each
other was deeply shocking to Harry. He desired to forget the sight; he
desired, above all, to put as great a distance as possible between
himself and General Vandeleur; and in his eagerness for this he forgot
everything about his destination, and hurried before him headlong and
trembling. When he remembered that Lady Vandeleur was the wife of one
and the sister of the other of these gladiators, his heart was touched
with sympathy for a woman so distressingly misplaced in life. Even his
own situation in the General's household looked hardly so pleasing as
usual in the light of these violent transactions.
He had walked some little distance, busied with these meditations,
before a slight collision with another passenger reminded him of the
bandbox on his arm.
"Heavens!" cried he, "where was my head? and whither have I wandered?"
Thereupon he consulted the envelope which Lady Vandeleur had given him.
The address was there, but without a name. Harry was simply directed to
ask for "the gentleman who expected a parcel from Lady Vandeleur," and
if he were not at home to await his return. The gentleman, added the
note, should present a receipt in the handwriting of the lady herself.
All this seemed mightily mysterious, and Harry was above all astonished
at the omission of the name and the formality of the receipt. He had
thought little of this last when he heard it dropped in conversation;
but reading it in cold blood, and taking it in connection with the other
strange particulars, he became convinced that he was engaged in perilous
affairs. For half a moment he had a doubt of Lady Vandeleur herself; for
he found these obscure proceedings somewhat unworthy of so high a lady,
and became more critical when her secrets were preserved against
himself. But her empire over his spirit was too complete, he dismissed
his suspicions, and blamed himself roundly for having so much as
entertained them.
In one thing, however, his duty and interest, his generosity and his
terrors, coincided--to get rid of the bandbox with the greatest possible
despatch.
He accosted the first policeman and courteously inquired his way. It
turned out that he was already not far from his destination, and a walk
of a few minutes brought him to a small house in a lane, freshly
painted, and kept with the most scrupulous attention. The knocker and
bell-pull were highly polished: flowering pot-herbs garnished the sills
of the different windows; and curtains of some rich material concealed
the interior from the eyes of curious passengers. The place had an air
of repose and secrecy; and Harry was so far caught with this spirit that
he knocked with more than usual discretion, and was more than usually
careful to remove all impurity from his boots.
A servant-maid of some personal attractions immediately opened the door,
and seemed to regard the secretary with no unkind eyes.
"This is a parcel from Lady Vandeleur," said Harry.
"I know," replied the maid, with a nod. "But the gentleman is from home.
Will you leave it with me?"
"I cannot," answered Harry. "I am directed not to part with it but upon
a certain condition, and I must ask you, I am afraid, to let me wait."
"Well," said she, "I suppose I may let you wait. I am lonely enough, I
can tell you, and you do not look as though you would eat a girl. But be
sure and do not ask the gentleman's name, for that I am not to tell
you."
"Do you say so?" cried Harry. "Why, how strange! But indeed for some
time back I walk among surprises. One question I think I may surely ask
without indiscretion: Is he the master of this house?"
"He is a lodger, and not eight days old at that," returned the maid.
"And now a question for a question: Do you know Lady Vandeleur?"
"I am her private secretary," replied Harry, with a glow of modest
pride.
"She is pretty, is she not?" pursued the servant.
"Oh, beautiful!" cried Harry; "wonderfully lovely, and not less good and
kind!"
"You look kind enough yourself," she retorted; "and I wager you are
worth a dozen Lady Vandeleurs."
Harry was properly scandalised.
"I!" he cried. "I am only a secretary!"
"Do you mean that for me?" said the girl. "Because I am only a
housemaid, if you please." And then, relenting at the sight of Harry's
obvious confusion, "I know you mean nothing of the sort," she added;
"and I like your looks; but I think nothing of your Lady Vandeleur. Oh,
these mistresses!" she cried. "To send out a real gentleman like
you--with a bandbox--in broad day!"
During this talk they had remained in their original positions--she on
the doorstep, he on the side-walk, bare-headed for the sake of coolness,
and with the bandbox on his arm. But upon this last speech Harry, who
was unable to support such point-blank compliments to his appearance,
nor the encouraging look with which they were accompanied, began to
change his attitude, and glance from left to right in perturbation. In
so doing he turned his face towards the lower end of the lane, and
there, to his indescribable dismay, his eyes encountered those of
General Vandeleur. The General, in a prodigious fluster of heat, hurry,
and indignation, had been scouring the streets in chase of his
brother-in-law; but so soon as he caught a glimpse of the delinquent
secretary, his purpose changed, his anger flowed into a new channel, and
he turned on his heel and came tearing up the lane with truculent
gestures and vociferations.
Harry made but one bolt of it into the house, driving the maid before
him; and the door was slammed in his pursuer's countenance.
"Is there a bar? Will it lock?" asked Harry, while a salvo on the
knocker made the house echo from wall to wall.
"Why, what is wrong with you?" asked the maid. "Is it this old
gentleman?"
"If he gets hold of me," whispered Harry, "I am as good as dead. He has
been pursuing me all day, carries a sword-stick, and is an Indian
military officer."
"These are fine manners," cried the maid. "And what, if you please, may
be his name?"
"It is the General, my master," answered Harry. "He is after this
bandbox."
"Did not I tell you?" cried the maid in triumph. "I told you I thought
worse than nothing of your Lady Vandeleur; and if you had an eye in your
head you might see what she is for yourself. An ungrateful minx, I will
be bound for that!"
The General renewed his attack upon the knocker, and his passion growing
with delay, began to kick and beat upon the panels of the door.
"It is lucky," observed the girl, "that I am alone in the house; your
General may hammer until he is weary, and there is none to open for him.
Follow me!"
So saying she led Harry into the kitchen, where she made him sit down,
and stood by him herself in an affectionate attitude, with a hand upon
his shoulder. The din at the door, so far from abating, continued to
increase in volume, and at each blow the unhappy secretary was shaken to
the heart.
"What is your name?" asked the girl.
"Harry Hartley," he replied.
"Mine," she went on, "is Prudence. Do you like it?"
"Very much," said Harry. "But hear for a moment how the General beats
upon the door. He will certainly break it in, and then, in Heaven's
name, what have I to look for but death?"
"You put yourself very much about with no occasion," answered Prudence.
"Let your General knock, he will do no more than blister his hands. Do
you think I would keep you here if I were not sure to save you? Oh, no,
I am a good friend to those that please me! and we have a back door upon
another lane. But," she added, checking him, for he had got upon his
feet immediately on this welcome news, "But I will not show where it is
unless you kiss me. Will you, Harry?"
"That I will," he cried, remembering his gallantry, "not for your back
door, but because you are good and pretty."
And he administered two or three cordial salutes, which were returned to
him in kind.
Then Prudence led him to the back gate, and put her hand upon the key.
"Will you come and see me?" she asked.
"I will indeed," said Harry. "Do not I owe you my life?"
"And now," she added, opening the door, "run as hard as you can, for I
shall let in the General."
Harry scarcely required this advice; fear had him by the forelock; and
he addressed himself diligently to flight. A few steps, and he believed
he would escape from his trials, and return to Lady Vandeleur in honour
and safety. But these few steps had not been taken before he heard a
man's voice hailing him by name with many execrations, and, looking over
his shoulder, he beheld Charlie Pendragon waving him with both arms to
return. The shock of this new incident was so sudden and profound, and
Harry was already worked into so high a state of nervous tension, that
he could think of nothing better than to accelerate his pace and
continue running. He should certainly have remembered the scene in
Kensington Gardens; he should certainly have concluded that, where the
General was his enemy, Charlie Pendragon could be no other than a
friend. But such was the fever and perturbation of his mind that he was
struck by none of these considerations, and only continued to run the
faster up the lane.
Charlie, by the sound of his voice and the vile terms that he hurled
after the secretary, was obviously beside himself with rage. He, too,
ran his very best; but, try as he might, the physical advantages were
not upon his side, and his outcries and the fall of his lame foot on the
macadam began to fall farther and farther into the wake.
Harry's hopes began once more to arise. The lane was both steep and
narrow, but it was exceedingly solitary, bordered on either hand by
garden walls, overhung with foliage; and, for as far as the fugitive
could see in front of him, there was neither a creature moving nor an
open door. Providence, weary of persecution, was now offering him an
open field for his escape.
Alas! as he came abreast of a garden door under a tuft of chestnuts, it
was suddenly drawn back, and he could see inside, upon a garden path,
the figure of a butcher's boy with his tray upon his arm. He had hardly
recognised the fact before he was some steps beyond upon the other side.
But the fellow had had time to observe him; he was evidently much
surprised to see a gentleman go by at so unusual a pace; and he came out
into the lane and began to call after Harry with shouts of ironical
encouragement.
His appearance gave a new idea to Charlie Pendragon, who, although he
was now sadly out of breath, once more upraised his voice.
"Stop, thief!" he cried.
And immediately the butcher's boy had taken up the cry and joined in the
pursuit.
This was a bitter moment for the hunted secretary. It is true that his
terror enabled him once more to improve his pace, and gain with every
step on his pursuers; but he was well aware that he was near the end of
his resources, and should he meet any one coming the other way, his
predicament in the narrow lane would be desperate indeed.
"I must find a place of concealment," he thought, "and that within the
next few seconds, or all is over with me in this world."
Scarcely had the thought crossed his mind than the lane took a sudden
turning, and he found himself hidden from his enemies. There are
circumstances in which even the least energetic of mankind learn to
behave with vigour and decision, and the most cautious forget their
prudence and embrace foolhardy resolutions. This was one of those
occasions for Harry Hartley; and those who knew him best would have been
the most astonished at the lad's audacity. He stopped dead, flung the
bandbox over a garden wall, and leaping upward with incredible agility,
and seizing the cope-stone with his hands, he tumbled headlong after it
into the garden.
He came to himself a moment afterwards, seated in a border of small
rose-bushes. His hands and knees were cut and bleeding, for the wall had
been protected against such an escalade by a liberal provision of old
bottles; and he was conscious of a general dislocation and a painful
swimming in the head. Facing him across the garden, which was in
admirable order, and set with flowers of the most delicious perfume, he
beheld the back of a house. It was of considerable extent, and plainly
habitable; but, in odd contrast to the grounds, it was crazy, ill-kept,
and of a mean appearance. On all other sides the circuit of the garden
wall appeared unbroken.
He took in these features of the scene with mechanical glances, but his
mind was still unable to piece together or draw a rational conclusion
from what he saw. And when he heard footsteps advancing on the gravel,
although he turned his eyes in that direction, it was with no thought
either for defence or flight.
The new-comer was a large, coarse, and very sordid personage, in
gardening clothes, and with a watering-pot in his left hand. One less
confused would have been affected with some alarm at the sight of this
man's huge proportions and black and lowering eyes. But Harry was too
gravely shaken by his fall to be so much as terrified; and if he was
unable to divert his glances from the gardener, he remained absolutely
passive, and suffered him to draw near, to take him by the shoulder, and
to plant him roughly on his feet, without a motion of resistance.
For a moment the two stared into each other's eyes, Harry fascinated,
the man filled with wrath and a cruel, sneering humour.
"Who are you?" he demanded at last. "Who are you to come flying over my
wall and break my _Gloire de Dijons_? What is your name?" he added,
shaking him; "and what may be your business here?"
Harry could not as much as proffer a word in explanation.
But just at that moment Pendragon and the butcher's boy went clumping
past, and the sound of their feet and their hoarse cries echoed loudly
in the narrow lane. The gardener had received his answer; and he looked
down into Harry's face with an obnoxious smile.
"A thief!" he said. "Upon my word, and a very good thing you must make
of it; for I see you dressed like a gentleman from top to toe. Are you
not ashamed to go about the world in such a trim, with honest folk, I
daresay, glad to buy your cast-off finery second-hand? Speak up, you
dog," the man went on; "you can understand English, I suppose; and I
mean to have a bit of talk with you before I march you to the station."
"Indeed, sir," said Harry, "this is all a dreadful misconception; and if
you will go with me to Sir Thomas Vandeleur's in Eaton Place, I can
promise that all will be made plain. The most upright person, as I now
perceive, can be led into suspicious positions."
"My little man," replied the gardener, "I will go with you no farther
than the station-house in the next street. The inspector, no doubt, will
be glad to take a stroll with you as far as Eaton Place, and have a bit
of afternoon tea with your great acquaintances. Or would you prefer to
go direct to the Home Secretary? Sir Thomas Vandeleur, indeed! Perhaps
you think I don't know a gentleman when I see one, from a common
run-the-hedge like you? Clothes or no clothes, I can read you like a
book. Here is a shirt that maybe cost as much as my Sunday hat; and that
coat, I take it, has never seen the inside of Rag-fair, and then your
boots----"
The man, whose eyes had fallen upon the ground, stopped short in his
insulting commentary, and remained for a moment looking intently upon
something at his feet. When he spoke his voice was strangely altered.
"What, in God's name," said he, "is all this?"
Harry, following the direction of the man's eyes, beheld a spectacle
that struck him dumb with terror and amazement. In his fall he had
descended vertically upon the bandbox, and burst it open from end to
end; thence a great treasure of diamonds had poured forth, and now lay
abroad, part trodden in the soil, part scattered on the surface in regal
and glittering profusion. There was a magnificent coronet which he had
often admired on Lady Vandeleur; there were rings and brooches,
ear-drops and bracelets, and even unset brilliants rolling here and
there among the rose-bushes like drops of morning dew. A princely fortune
lay between the two men upon the ground--a fortune in the most inviting,
solid, and durable form, capable of being carried in an apron, beautiful
in itself, and scattering the sunlight in a million rainbow flashes.
"Good God!" said Harry, "I am lost!"
His mind racked backwards into the past with the incalculable velocity
of thought, and he began to comprehend his day's adventures, to conceive
them as a whole, and to recognise the sad imbroglio in which his own
character and fortunes had become involved. He looked round him as if
for help, but he was alone in the garden, with his scattered diamonds
and his redoubtable interlocutor; and when he gave ear, there was no
sound but the rustle of the leaves and the hurried pulsation of his
heart. It was little wonder if the young man felt himself deserted by
his spirits, and with a broken voice repeated his last ejaculation--
"I am lost!"
The gardener peered in all directions with an air of guilt; but there
was no face at any of the windows, and he seemed to breathe again.
"Pick up a heart," he said, "you fool! The worst of it is done. Why
could you not say at first there was enough for two? Two?" he repeated,
"ay, and for two hundred! But come away from here, where we may be
observed; and, for the love of wisdom, straighten out your hat and brush
your clothes. You could not travel two steps the figure of fun you look
just now."
While Harry mechanically adopted these suggestions, the gardener,
getting upon his knees, hastily drew together the scattered jewels and
returned them to the bandbox. The touch of these costly crystals sent a
shiver of emotion through the man's stalwart frame; his face was
transfigured, and his eyes shone with concupiscence; indeed, it seemed
as if he luxuriously prolonged his occupation, and dallied with every
diamond that he handled. At last, however, it was done; and concealing
the bandbox in his smock, the gardener beckoned to Harry and preceded
him in the direction of the house.
Near the door they were met by a young man, evidently in holy orders,
dark and strikingly handsome, with a look of mingled weakness and
resolution, and very neatly attired after the manner of his caste. The
gardener was plainly annoyed by this encounter; but he put as good a
face upon it as he could, and accosted the clergyman with an obsequious
and smiling air.
"Here is a fine afternoon, Mr. Rolles," said he: "a fine afternoon, as
sure as God made it! And here is a young friend of mine who had a fancy
to look at my roses. I took the liberty to bring him in, for I thought
none of the lodgers would object."
"Speaking for myself," replied the Reverend Mr. Rolles, "I do not; nor
do I fancy any of the rest of us would be more difficult upon so small a
matter. The garden is your own, Mr. Raeburn; we must none of us forget
that; and because you give us liberty to walk there we should be indeed
ungracious if we so far presumed upon your politeness as to interfere
with the convenience of your friends. But, on second thoughts," he
added, "I believe that this gentleman and I have met before. Mr.
Hartley, I think. I regret to observe that you have had a fall."
And he offered his hand.
A sort of maiden dignity, and a desire to delay as long as possible the
necessity for explanation, moved Harry to refuse this chance of help,
and to deny his own identity. He chose the tender mercies of the
gardener, who was at least unknown to him, rather than the curiosity and
perhaps the doubts of an acquaintance.
"I fear there is some mistake," said he. "My name is Thomlinson and I am
a friend of Mr. Raeburn's."
"Indeed?" said Mr. Rolles. "The likeness is amazing."
Mr. Raeburn, who had been upon thorns throughout this colloquy, now felt
it high time to bring it to a period.
"I wish you a pleasant saunter, sir," said he.
And with that he dragged Harry after him into the house, and then into a
chamber on the garden. His first care was to draw down the blind, for
Mr. Rolles still remained where they had left him, in an attitude of
perplexity and thought. Then he emptied the broken bandbox on the table,
and stood before the treasure, thus fully displayed, with an expression
of rapturous greed, and rubbing his hands upon his thighs. For Harry,
the sight of the man's face under the influence of this base emotion
added another pang to those he was already suffering. It seemed
incredible that, from his life of pure and delicate trifling, he should
be plunged in a breath among sordid and criminal relations. He could
reproach his conscience with no sinful act; and yet he was now suffering
the punishment of sin in its most acute and cruel forms--the dread of
punishment, the suspicions of the good, and the companionship and
contamination of vile and brutal natures. He felt he could lay his life
down with gladness to escape from the room and the society of Mr.
Raeburn.
"And now," said the latter, after he had separated the jewels into two
nearly equal parts, and drawn one of them nearer to himself; "and now,"
said he, "everything in this world has to be paid for, and some things
sweetly. You must know, Mr. Hartley, if such be your name, that I am a
man of a very easy temper, and good-nature has been my stumbling-block
from first to last. I could pocket the whole of these pretty pebbles, if
I chose, and I should like to see you dare to say a word; but I think I
must have taken a liking to you; for I declare I have not the heart to
shave you so close. So, do you see, in pure kind feeling, I propose that
we divide; and these," indicating the two heaps, "are the proportions
that seem to me just and friendly. Do you see any objection, Mr.
Hartley, may I ask? I am not the man to stick upon a brooch."
"But, sir," cried Harry, "what you propose to me is impossible. The
jewels are not mine, and I cannot share what is another's, no matter
with whom, nor in what proportions."
"They are not yours, are they not?" returned Raeburn. "And you could not
share them with anybody, couldn't you? Well, now, that is what I call a
pity; for here am I obliged to take you to the station. The
police--think of that," he continued; "think of the disgrace for your
respectable parents; think," he went on, taking Harry by the wrist;
"think of the Colonies and the Day of Judgment."
"I cannot help it," wailed Harry. "It is not my fault. You will not come
with me to Eaton Place."
"No," replied the man; "I will not, that is certain. And I mean to
divide these playthings with you here."
And so saying he applied a sudden and severe torsion to the lad's wrist.
Harry could not suppress a scream, and the perspiration burst forth upon
his face. Perhaps pain and terror quickened his intelligence, but
certainly at that moment the whole business flashed across him in
another light; and he saw that there was nothing for it but to accede to
the ruffian's proposal, and trust to find the house and force him to
disgorge, under more favourable circumstances, and when he himself was
clear from all suspicion.
"I agree," he said.
"There is a lamb," sneered the gardener. "I thought you would recognise
your interests at last. This bandbox," he continued, "I shall burn with
my rubbish; it is a thing that curious folk might recognise; and as for
you, scrape up your gaieties and put them in your pocket."
Harry proceeded to obey, Raeburn watching him, and every now and again,
his greed rekindled by some bright scintillation, abstracting another
jewel from the secretary's share, and adding it to his own.
When this was finished, both proceeded to the front door, which Raeburn
cautiously opened to observe the street. This was apparently clear of
passengers; for he suddenly seized Harry by the nape of the neck, and
holding his face downward so that he could see nothing but the roadway
and the door steps of the houses, pushed him violently before him down
one street and up another for the space of perhaps a minute and a half.
Harry had counted three corners before the bully relaxed his grasp, and
crying, "Now be off with you!" sent the lad flying head-foremost with a
well-directed and athletic kick.
When Harry gathered himself up, half-stunned and bleeding freely at the
nose, Mr. Raeburn had entirely disappeared. For the first time, anger
and pain so completely overcame the lad's spirits that he burst into a
fit of tears and remained sobbing in the middle of the road.
After he had thus somewhat assuaged his emotion, he began to look about
him and read the names of the streets at whose intersection he had been
deserted by the gardener. He was still in an unfrequented portion of
West London, among villas and large gardens; but he could see some
persons at a window who had evidently witnessed his misfortune; and
almost immediately after a servant came running from the house and
offered him a glass of water. At the same time, a dirty rogue, who had
been slouching somewhere in the neighbourhood, drew near him from the
other side.
"Poor fellow," said the maid, "how vilely you have been handled, to be
sure! Why, your knees are all cut, and your clothes ruined! Do you know
the wretch who used you so?"
"That I do!" cried Harry, who was somewhat refreshed by the water; "and
shall run him home in spite of his precautions. He shall pay dearly for
this day's work, I promise you."
"You had better come into the house and have yourself washed and
brushed," continued the maid. "My mistress will make you welcome, never
fear. And see, I will pick up your hat. Why, love of mercy!" she
screamed, "if you have not dropped diamonds all over the street!"
Such was the case; a good half of what remained to him after the
depredations of Mr. Raeburn had been shaken out of his pockets by the
summersault, and once more lay glittering on the ground. He blessed his
fortune that the maid had been so quick of eye; "there is nothing so bad
but it might be worse," thought he; and the recovery of these few seemed
to him almost as great an affair as the loss of all the rest. But, alas!
as he stooped to pick up his treasures, the loiterer made a rapid
onslaught, overset both Harry and the maid with a movement of his arms,
swept up a double-handful of the diamonds, and made off along the street
with an amazing swiftness.
Harry, as soon as he could get upon his feet, gave chase to the
miscreant with many cries, but the latter was too fleet of foot, and
probably too well acquainted with the locality; for turn where the
pursuer would he could find no traces of the fugitive.
In the deepest despondency, Harry revisited the scene of his mishap,
where the maid, who was still waiting, very honestly returned him his
hat and the remainder of the fallen diamonds. Harry thanked her from his
heart, and being now in no humour for economy, made his way to the
nearest cabstand and set off for Eaton Place by coach.
The house, on his arrival, seemed in some confusion, as if a catastrophe
had happened in the family; and the servants clustered together in the
hall, and were unable, or perhaps not altogether anxious, to suppress
their merriment at the tatterdemalion figure of the secretary. He passed
them with as good an air of dignity as he could assume, and made
directly for the boudoir. When he opened the door an astonishing and
even menacing spectacle presented itself to his eyes; for he beheld the
General and his wife and, of all people, Charlie Pendragon, closeted
together and speaking with earnestness and gravity on some important
subject. Harry saw at once that there was little left for him to
explain--plenary confession had plainly been made to the General of the
intended fraud upon his pocket, and the unfortunate miscarriage of the
scheme; and they had all made common cause against a common danger.
"Thank Heaven!" cried Lady Vandeleur, "here he is! The bandbox,
Harry--the bandbox!"
But Harry stood before them silent and downcast.
"Speak!" she cried. "Speak! Where is the bandbox?"
And the men, with threatening gestures, repeated the demand.
Harry drew a handful of jewels from his pocket. He was very white.
"This is all that remains," said he. "I declare before Heaven it was
through no fault of mine; and if you will have patience, although some
are lost, I am afraid, for ever, others, I am sure, may be still
recovered."
"Alas!" cried Lady Vandeleur, "all our diamonds are gone, and I owe
ninety thousand pounds for dress!"
"Madam," said the General, "you might have paved the gutter with your
own trash; you might have made debts to fifty times the sum you mention;
you might have robbed me of my mother's coronet and ring; and Nature
might have still so far prevailed that I could have forgiven you at
last. But, madam, you have taken the Rajah's Diamond--the Eye of Light,
as the Orientals poetically termed it--the Pride of Kashgar! You have
taken from me the Rajah's Diamond," he cried, raising his hands, "and
all, madam, all is at an end between us!"
"Believe me, General Vandeleur," she replied, "that is one of the most
agreeable speeches that ever I heard from your lips; and since we are to
be ruined, I could almost welcome the change, if it delivers me from
you. You have told me often enough that I married you for your money;
let me tell you now that I always bitterly repented the bargain; and if
you were still marriageable, and had a diamond bigger than your head, I
should counsel even my maid against a union so uninviting and
disastrous.--As for you, Mr. Hartley," she continued, turning on the
secretary, "you have sufficiently exhibited your valuable qualities in
this house; we are now persuaded that you equally lack manhood, sense,
and self-respect; and I can see only one course open for you--to
withdraw instanter, and, if possible, return no more. For your wages you
may rank as a creditor in my late husband's bankruptcy."
Harry had scarcely comprehended this insulting address before the
General was down upon him with another.
"And in the meantime," said that personage, "follow me before the
nearest Inspector of Police. You may impose upon a simple-minded
soldier, sir, but the eye of the law will read your disreputable secret.
If I must spend my old age in poverty through your underhand intriguing
with my wife, I mean at least that you shall not remain unpunished for
your pains; and God, sir, will deny me a very considerable satisfaction
if you do not pick oakum from now until your dying day."
With that, the General dragged Harry from the apartment, and hurried him
down-stairs and along the street to the police-station of the district.
_Here_ (says my Arabian author) _ended this deplorable business of the
bandbox. But to the unfortunate secretary the whole affair was the
beginning of a new and manlier life. The police were easily persuaded of
his innocence; and, after he had given what help he could in the
subsequent investigations, he was even complimented by one of the chiefs
of the detective department on the probity and simplicity of his
behaviour. Several persons interested themselves in one so unfortunate;
and soon after he inherited a sum of money from a maiden aunt in
Worcestershire. With this he married Prudence, and set sail for Bendigo,
or, according to another account, for Trincomalee, exceedingly content,
and with the best of prospects._
STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN IN HOLY ORDERS
The Reverend Mr. Simon Rolles had distinguished himself in the Moral
Sciences, and was more than usually proficient in the study of Divinity.
His essay "On the Christian Doctrine of the Social Obligations" obtained
for him, at the moment of its production, a certain celebrity in the
University of Oxford; and it was understood in clerical and learned
circles that young Mr. Rolles had in contemplation a considerable
work--a folio, it was said--on the authority of the Fathers of the
Church. These attainments, these ambitious designs, however, were far
from helping him to any preferment; and he was still in quest of his
first curacy when a chance ramble in that part of London, the peaceful
and rich aspect of the garden, a desire for solitude and study, and the
cheapness of the lodging, led him to take up his abode with Mr. Raeburn,
the nurseryman of Stockdove Lane.
It was his habit every afternoon, after he had worked seven or eight
hours on St. Ambrose or St. Chrysostom, to walk for a while in
meditation among the roses. And this was usually one of the most
productive moments of his day. But even a sincere appetite for thought,
and the excitement of grave problems awaiting solution, are not always
sufficient to preserve the mind of the philosopher against the petty
shocks and contacts of the world. And when Mr. Rolles found General
Vandeleur's secretary, ragged and bleeding, in the company of his
landlord; when he saw both change colour and seek to avoid his
questions; and, above all, when the former denied his own identity with
the most unmoved assurance, he speedily forgot the Saints and Fathers in
the vulgar interest of curiosity.
"I cannot be mistaken," thought he. "That is Mr. Hartley beyond a doubt.
How comes he in such a pickle? why does he deny his name? and what can
be his business with that black-looking ruffian, my landlord?"
As he was thus reflecting, another peculiar circumstance attracted his
attention. The face of Mr. Raeburn appeared at a low window next the
door; and, as chance directed, his eyes met those of Mr. Rolles. The
nurseryman seemed disconcerted, and even alarmed; and immediately after
the blind of the apartment was pulled sharply down.
"This may all be very well," reflected Mr. Rolles; "it may be all
excellently well; but I confess freely that I do not think so.
Suspicious, underhand, untruthful, fearful of observation--I believe
upon my soul," he thought, "the pair are plotting some disgraceful
action."
The detective that there is in all of us awoke and became clamant in the
bosom of Mr. Rolles; and with a brisk, eager step, that bore no
resemblance to his usual gait, he proceeded to make the circuit of the
garden. When he came to the scene of Harry's escalade, his eye was at
once arrested by a broken rose-bush and marks of trampling on the mould.
He looked up, and saw scratches on the brick, and a rag of trouser
floating from a broken bottle. This, then, was the mode of entrance
chosen by Mr. Raeburn's particular friend! It was thus that General
Vandeleur's secretary came to admire a flower-garden! The young
clergyman whistled softly to himself as he stooped to examine the
ground. He could make out where Harry had landed from his perilous leap;
he recognised the flat foot of Mr. Raeburn where it had sunk deeply in
the soil as he pulled up the secretary by the collar; nay, on a closer
inspection, he seemed to distinguish the marks of groping fingers, as
though something had been spilt abroad and eagerly collected.
"Upon my word," he thought, "the thing grows vastly interesting."
And just then he caught sight of something almost entirely buried in the
earth. In an instant he had disinterred a dainty morocco case,
ornamented and clasped in gilt. It had been trodden heavily underfoot,
and thus escaped the hurried search of Mr. Raeburn. Mr. Rolles opened
the case, and drew a long breath of almost horrified astonishment; for
there lay before him, in a cradle of green velvet, a diamond of
prodigious magnitude and of the finest water. It was of the bigness of a
duck's egg; beautifully shaped, and without a flaw; and as the sun shone
upon it, it gave forth a lustre like that of electricity, and seemed to
burn in his hand with a thousand internal fires.
He knew little of precious stones; but the Rajah's Diamond was a wonder
that explained itself; a village child, if he found it, would run
screaming for the nearest cottage; and a savage would prostrate himself
in adoration before so imposing a fetich. The beauty of the stone
flattered the young clergyman's eyes; the thought of its incalculable
value overpowered his intellect. He knew that what he held in his hand
was worth more than many years' purchase of an archiepiscopal see; that
it would build cathedrals more stately than Ely or Cologne; that he who
possessed it was set free for ever from the primal curse, and might
follow his own inclinations without concern or hurry, without let or
hindrance. And as he suddenly turned it, the rays leaped forth again
with renewed brilliancy, and seemed to pierce his very heart.
Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without any conscious
deliverance from the rational parts of man. So it was now with Mr.
Rolles. He glanced hurriedly round; beheld, like Mr. Raeburn before him,
nothing but the sunlit flower-garden, the tall tree-tops, and the house
with blinded windows; and in a trice he had shut the case, thrust it
into his pocket, and was hastening to his study with the speed of guilt.
The Reverend Simon Rolles had stolen the Rajah's Diamond.
Early in the afternoon the police arrived with Harry Hartley. The
nurseryman, who was beside himself with terror, readily discovered his
hoard; and the jewels were identified and inventoried in the presence of
the secretary. As for Mr. Rolles, he showed himself in a most obliging
temper, communicated what he knew with freedom, and professed regret
that he could do no more to help the officers in their duty.
"Still," he added, "I suppose your business is nearly at an end."
"By no means," replied the man from Scotland Yard; and he narrated the
second robbery of which Harry had been the immediate victim, and gave
the young clergyman a description of the more important jewels that were
still not found, dilating particularly on the Rajah's Diamond.
"It must be worth a fortune," observed Mr. Rolles.
"Ten fortunes--twenty fortunes," cried the officer.
"The more it is worth," remarked Simon shrewdly, "the more difficult it
must be to sell. Such a thing has a physiognomy not to be disguised, and
I should fancy a man might as easily negotiate St. Paul's Cathedral."
"Oh, truly!" said the officer; "but if the thief be a man of any
intelligence, he will cut it into three or four, and there will be still
enough to make him rich."
"Thank you," said the clergyman. "You cannot imagine how much your
conversation interests me."
Whereupon the functionary admitted that they knew many strange things in
his profession, and immediately after took his leave.
Mr. Rolles regained his apartment. It seemed smaller and barer than
usual; the materials for his great work had never presented so little
interest; and he looked upon his library with the eye of scorn. He took
down, volume by volume, several Fathers of the Church, and glanced them
through; but they contained nothing to his purpose.
"These old gentlemen," thought he, "are no doubt very valuable writers,
but they seem to me conspicuously ignorant of life. Here am I, with
learning enough to be a Bishop, and I positively do not know how to
dispose of a stolen diamond. I glean a hint from a common policeman,
and, with all my folios, I cannot so much as put it into execution. This
inspires me with very low ideas of University training."
Herewith he kicked over his book-shelf and, putting on his hat, hastened
from the house to the club of which he was a member. In such a place of
mundane resort he hoped to find some man of good counsel and a shrewd
experience in life. In the reading-room he saw many of the country
clergy and an Archdeacon; there were three journalists and a writer upon
the Higher Metaphysic, playing pool; and at dinner only the raff of
ordinary club frequenters showed their commonplace and obliterated
countenances. None of these, thought Mr. Rolles, would know more on
dangerous topics than he knew himself; none of them were fit to give him
guidance in his present strait. At length, in the smoking-room, up many
weary stairs, he hit upon a gentleman of somewhat portly build and
dressed with conspicuous plainness. He was smoking a cigar and reading
the _Fortnightly_ _Review_; his face was singularly free from all sign
of preoccupation or fatigue; and there was something in his air which
seemed to invite confidence and to expect submission. The more the young
clergyman scrutinised his features, the more he was convinced that he
had fallen on one capable of giving pertinent advice.
"Sir," said he, "you will excuse my abruptness; but I judge you from
your appearance to be pre-eminently a man of the world."
"I have indeed considerable claims to that distinction," replied the
stranger, laying aside his magazine with a look of mingled amusement and
surprise.
"I, sir," continued the curate, "am a recluse, a student, a creature of
ink-bottles and patristic folios. A recent event has brought my folly
vividly before my eyes, and I desire to instruct myself in life. By
life," he added, "I do not mean Thackeray's novels; but the crimes and
secret possibilities of our society, and the principles of wise conduct
among exceptional events. I am a patient reader; can the thing be learnt
in books?"
"You put me in a difficulty," said the stranger. "I confess I have no
great notion of the use of books, except to amuse a railway journey;
although, I believe, there are some very exact treatises on astronomy,
the use of the globes, agriculture, and the art of making paper-flowers.
Upon the less apparent provinces of life I fear you will find nothing
truthful. Yet stay," he added, "have you read Gaboriau?"
Mr. Rolles admitted that he had never even heard the name.
"You may gather some notions from Gaboriau," resumed the stranger. "He
is at least suggestive; and as he is an author much studied by Prince
Bismarck, you will, at the worst, lose your time in good society."
"Sir," said the curate, "I am infinitely obliged by your politeness."
"You have already more than repaid me," returned the other.
"How?" inquired Simon.
"By the novelty of your request," replied the gentleman; and with a
polite gesture, as though to ask permission, he resumed the study of the
_Fortnightly Review_.
On his way home Mr. Rolles purchased a work on precious stones and
several of Gaboriau's novels. These last he eagerly skimmed until an
advanced hour in the morning; but although they introduced him to many
new ideas, he could nowhere discover what to do with a stolen diamond.
He was annoyed, moreover, to find the information scattered amongst
romantic story-telling, instead of soberly set forth after the manner of
a manual; and he concluded that, even if the writer had thought much
upon these subjects, he was totally lacking in educational method. For
the character and attainments of Lecoq, however, he was unable to
contain his admiration.
"He was truly a great creature," ruminated Mr. Rolles. "He knew the
world as I know Paley's Evidences. There was nothing that he could not
carry to a termination with his own hand, and against the largest odds.
Heavens!" he broke out suddenly, "is not this the lesson? Must I not
learn to cut diamonds for myself?"
It seemed to him as if he had sailed at once out of his perplexities; he
remembered that he knew a jeweller, one B. Macculloch, in Edinburgh, who
would be glad to put him in the way of the necessary training; a few
months, perhaps a few years, of sordid toil, and he would be
sufficiently expert to divide and sufficiently cunning to dispose with
advantage of the Rajah's Diamond. That done, he might return to pursue
his researches at leisure, a wealthy and luxurious student, envied and
respected by all. Golden visions attended him through his slumber, and
he awoke refreshed and light-hearted with the morning sun.
Mr. Raeburn's house was on that day to be closed by the police, and this
afforded a pretext for his departure. He cheerfully prepared his
baggage, transported it to King's Cross, where he left it in the
cloak-room, and returned to the club to while away the afternoon and
dine.
"If you dine here to-day, Rolles," observed an acquaintance, "you may
see two of the most remarkable men in England--Prince Florizel of
Bohemia, and old Jack Vandeleur."
"I have heard of the Prince," replied Mr. Rolles; "and General Vandeleur
I have even met in society."
"General Vandeleur is an ass!" returned the other. "This is his brother
John, the biggest adventurer, the best judge of precious stones, and one
of the most acute diplomatists in Europe. Have you never heard of his
duel with the Duc de Val d'Orge? of his exploits and atrocities when he
was Dictator of Paraguay? of his dexterity in recovering Sir Samuel
Levi's jewellery? nor of his services in the Indian Mutiny--services by
which the Government profited, but which the Government dared not
recognise? You make me wonder what we mean by fame, or even by infamy;
for Jack Vandeleur has prodigious claims to both. Run down-stairs," he
continued, "take a table near them, and keep your ears open. You will
hear some strange talk, or I am much misled."
"But how shall I know them?" inquired the clergyman.
"Know them!" cried his friend; "why, the Prince is the finest gentleman
in Europe, the only living creature who looks like a king; and as for
Jack Vandeleur, if you can imagine Ulysses at seventy years of age, and
with a sabre-cut across his face, you have the man before you! Know
them, indeed! Why, you could pick either of them out of a Derby day!"
Rolles eagerly hurried to the dining-room. It was as his friend had
asserted; it was impossible to mistake the pair in question. Old John
Vandeleur was of a remarkable force of body, and obviously broken to the
most difficult exercises. He had neither the carriage of a swordsman,
nor of a sailor, nor yet of one much inured to the saddle; but something
made up of all these, and the result and expression of many different
habits and dexterities. His features were bold and aquiline; his
expression arrogant and predatory; his whole appearance that of a swift,
violent, unscrupulous man of action; and his copious white hair and the
deep sabre-cut that traversed his nose and temple added a note of
savagery to a head already remarkable and menacing in itself.
In his companion, the Prince of Bohemia, Mr. Rolles was astonished to
recognise the gentleman who had recommended him the study of Gaboriau.
Doubtless Prince Florizel, who rarely visited the club, of which, as of
most others, he was an honorary member, had been waiting for John
Vandeleur when Simon accosted him on the previous evening.
The other diners had modestly retired into the angles of the room, and
left the distinguished pair in a certain isolation, but the young
clergyman was unrestrained by any sentiment of awe, and, marching boldly
up, took his place at the nearest table.
The conversation was, indeed, new to the student's ears. The ex-Dictator
of Paraguay stated many extraordinary experiences in different quarters
of the world; and the Prince supplied a commentary which, to a man of
thought, was even more interesting than the events themselves. Two forms
of experience were thus brought together and laid before the young
clergyman; and he did not know which to admire the most--the desperate
actor or the skilled expert in life; the man who spoke boldly of his own
deeds and perils, or the man who seemed, like a god, to know all things
and to have suffered nothing. The manner of each aptly fitted with his
part in the discourse. The Dictator indulged in brutalities alike of
speech and gesture; his hand opened and shut and fell roughly on the
table; and his voice was loud and heady. The Prince, on the other hand,
seemed the very type of urbane docility and quiet; the least movement,
the least inflection, had with him a weightier significance than all the
shouts and pantomime of his companion; and if ever, as must frequently
have been the case, he described some experience personal to himself, it
was so aptly dissimulated as to pass unnoticed with the rest.
At length the talk wandered on to the late robberies and the Rajah's
Diamond.
"That diamond would be better in the sea," observed Prince Florizel.
"As a Vandeleur," replied the Dictator, "your Highness may imagine my
dissent."
"I speak on grounds of public policy," pursued the Prince. "Jewels so
valuable should be reserved for the collection of a Prince or the
treasury of a great nation. To hand them about among the common sort of
men is to set a price on Virtue's head; and if the Rajah of Kashgar--a
Prince, I understand, of great enlightenment--desired vengeance upon the
men of Europe, he could hardly have gone more efficaciously about his
purpose than by sending us this apple of discord. There is no honesty
too robust for such a trial. I myself, who have many duties and many
privileges of my own--I myself, Mr. Vandeleur, could scarce handle the
intoxicating crystal and be safe. As for you, who are a diamond-hunter
by taste and profession, I do not believe there is a crime in the
calendar you would not perpetrate--I do not believe you have a friend in
the world whom you would not eagerly betray--I do not know if you have a
family, but if you have I declare you would sacrifice your children--and
all this for what? Not to be richer, nor to have more comforts or more
respect, but simply to call this diamond yours for a year or two until
you die, and now and again to open a safe and look at it as one looks at
a picture."
"It is true," replied Vandeleur. "I have hunted most things, from men
and women down to mosquitoes; I have dived for coral; I have followed
both whales and tigers; and a diamond is the tallest quarry of the lot.
It has beauty and worth; it alone can properly reward the ardours of the
chase. At this moment, as your Highness may fancy, I am upon the trail;
I have a sure knack, a wide experience; I know every stone of price in
my brother's collection as a shepherd knows his sheep; and I wish I may
die if I do not recover them every one."
"Sir Thomas Vandeleur will have great cause to thank you," said the
Prince.
"I am not so sure," returned the Dictator, with a laugh. "One of the
Vandeleurs will. Thomas or John--Peter or Paul--we are all apostles."
"I did not catch your observation," said the Prince, with some disgust.
And at the same moment the waiter informed Mr. Vandeleur that his cab
was at the door.
Mr. Rolles glanced at the clock, and saw that he also must be moving;
and the coincidence struck him sharply and unpleasantly, for he desired
to see no more of the diamond-hunter.
Much study having somewhat shaken the young man's nerves, he was in the
habit of travelling in the most luxurious manner; and for the present
journey he had taken a sofa in the sleeping carriage.
"You will be very comfortable," said the guard; "there is no one in your
compartment, and only one old gentleman in the other end."
It was close upon the hour, and the tickets were being examined, when
Mr. Rolles beheld this other fellow-passenger ushered by several porters
into his place; certainly, there was not another man in the world whom
he would not have preferred--for it was old John Vandeleur, the
ex-Dictator.
The sleeping carriages on the Great Northern line were divided into
three compartments--one at each end for travellers, and one in the
centre fitted with the conveniences of a lavatory. A door running in
grooves separated each of the others from the lavatory; but as there
were neither bolts nor locks, the whole suite was practically common
ground.
When Mr. Rolles had studied his position, he perceived himself without
defence. If the Dictator chose to pay him a visit in the course of the
night, he could do no less than receive it; he had no means of
fortification, and lay open to attack as if he had been lying in the
fields. This situation caused him some agony of mind. He recalled with
alarm the boastful statements of his fellow-traveller across the
dining-table, and the professions of immorality which he had heard him
offering to the disgusted Prince. Some persons, he remembered to have
read, are endowed with a singular quickness of perception for the
neighbourhood of precious metals; through walls and even at considerable
distances they are said to divine the presence of gold. Might it not be
the same with diamonds? he wondered; and if so, who was more likely to
enjoy this transcendental sense than the person who gloried in the
appellation of the Diamond Hunter? From such a man he recognised that he
had everything to fear, and longed eagerly for the arrival of the day.
In the meantime he neglected no precaution, concealed his diamond in the
most internal pocket of a system of great-coats, and devoutly
recommended himself to the care of Providence.
The train pursued its usual even and rapid course; and nearly half the
journey had been accomplished before slumber began to triumph over
uneasiness in the breast of Mr. Rolles. For some time he resisted its
influence; but it grew upon him more and more, and a little before York
he was fain to stretch himself upon one of the couches and suffer his
eyes to close; and almost at the same instant consciousness deserted the
young clergyman. His last thought was of his terrifying neighbour.
When he awoke it was still pitch dark, except for the flicker of the
veiled lamp; and the continual roaring and oscillation testified to the
unrelaxed velocity of the train. He sat upright in a panic, for he had
been tormented by the most uneasy dreams; it was some seconds before he
recovered his self-command; and even after he had resumed a recumbent
attitude sleep continued to flee him, and he lay awake with his brain in
a state of violent agitation, and his eyes fixed upon the lavatory door.
He pulled his clerical felt hat over his brow still further to shield
him from the light; and he adopted the usual expedients, such as
counting a thousand or banishing thought, by which experienced invalids
are accustomed to woo the approach of sleep. In the case of Mr. Rolles
they proved one and all vain; he was harassed by a dozen different
anxieties--the old man in the other end of the carriage haunted him in
the most alarming shapes; and in whatever attitude he chose to lie, the
diamond in his pocket occasioned him a sensible physical distress. It
burned, it was too large; it bruised his ribs; and there were
infinitesimal fractions of a second in which he had half a mind to throw
it from the window.
While he was thus lying, a strange incident took place.
The sliding-door into the lavatory stirred a little, and then a little
more, and was finally drawn back for the space of about twenty inches.
The lamp in the lavatory was unshaded, and in the lighted aperture thus
disclosed Mr. Rolles could see the head of Mr. Vandeleur in an attitude
of deep attention. He was conscious that the gaze of the Dictator rested
intently on his own face; and the instinct of self-preservation moved
him to hold his breath, to refrain from the least movement, and, keeping
his eyes lowered, to watch his visitor from underneath the lashes. After
about a moment, the head was withdrawn and the door of the lavatory
replaced.
The Dictator had not come to attack, but to observe; his action was not
that of a man threatening another, but that of a man who was himself
threatened; if Mr. Rolles was afraid of him, it appeared that he, in his
turn, was not quite easy on the score of Mr. Rolles. He had come, it
would seem, to make sure that his only fellow-traveller was asleep; and,
when satisfied on that point, he had at once withdrawn.
The clergyman leaped to his feet. The extreme of terror had given place
to a reaction of foolhardy daring. He reflected that the rattle of the
flying train concealed all other sounds, and determined, come what
might, to return the visit he had just received. Divesting himself of
his cloak, which might have interfered with the freedom of his action,
he entered the lavatory and paused to listen. As he had expected, there
was nothing to be heard above the roar of the train's progress; and
laying his hand on the door at the farther side, he proceeded cautiously
to draw it back for about six inches. Then he stopped, and could not
contain an ejaculation of surprise.
John Vandeleur wore a fur travelling-cap with lappets to protect his
ears; and this may have combined with the sound of the express to keep
him in ignorance of what was going forward. It is certain, at least,
that he did not raise his head, but continued without interruption to
pursue his strange employment. Between his feet stood an open hat-box;
in one hand he held the sleeve of his sealskin greatcoat; in the other a
formidable knife, with which he had just slit up the lining of the
sleeve. Mr. Rolles had read of persons carrying money in a belt; and as
he had no acquaintance with any but cricket-belts, he had never been
able rightly to conceive how this was managed. But here was a stranger
thing before his eyes; for John Vandeleur, it appeared, carried diamonds
in the lining of his sleeve; and even as the young clergyman gazed, he
could see one glittering brilliant drop after another into the hat-box.
He stood riveted to the spot, following this unusual business with his
eyes. The diamonds were, for the most part, small, and not easily
distinguishable either in shape or fire. Suddenly the Dictator appeared
to find a difficulty; he employed both hands and stooped over his task;
but it was not until after considerable manoeuvring that he extricated
a large tiara of diamonds from the lining, and held it up for some
seconds' examination before he placed it with the others in the hat-box.
The tiara was a ray of light to Mr. Rolles; he immediately recognised
it for a part of the treasure stolen from Harry Hartley by the loiterer.
There was no room for mistake; it was exactly as the detective had
described it; there were the ruby stars, with a great emerald in the
centre; there were the interlacing crescents; and there were the
pear-shaped pendants, each a single stone, which gave a special value to
Lady Vandeleur's tiara.
Mr. Rolles was hugely relieved. The Dictator was as deeply in the affair
as he was; neither could tell tales upon the other. In the first glow of
happiness, the clergyman suffered a deep sigh to escape him; and as his
bosom had become choked and his throat dry during his previous suspense,
the sigh was followed by a cough.
Mr. Vandeleur looked up; his face contracted with the blackest and most
deadly passion; his eyes opened widely, and his under jaw dropped in an
astonishment that was upon the brink of fury. By an instinctive movement
he had covered the hat-box with the coat. For half a minute the two men
stared upon each other in silence. It was not a long interval, but it
sufficed for Mr. Rolles; he was one of those who think swiftly on
dangerous occasions; he decided on a course of action of a singularly
daring nature; and although he felt he was setting his life upon the
hazard, he was the first to break silence.
"I beg your pardon," said he.
The Dictator shivered slightly, and when he spoke his voice was hoarse.
"What do you want here?" he asked.
"I take a particular interest in diamonds," replied Mr. Rolles, with an
air of perfect self-possession. "Two connoisseurs should be acquainted.
I have here a trifle of my own which may perhaps serve for an
introduction."
And so saying, he quietly took the case from his pocket, showed the
Rajah's Diamond to the Dictator for an instant, and replaced it in
security.
"It was once your brother's," he added.
John Vandeleur continued to regard him with a look of almost painful
amazement; but he neither spoke nor moved.
"I was pleased to observe," resumed the young man, "that we have gems
from the same collection."
The Dictator's surprise overpowered him.
"I beg your pardon," he said; "I begin to perceive that I am growing
old! I am positively not prepared for little incidents like this. But
set my mind at rest upon one point: do my eyes deceive me, or are you
indeed a parson?"
"I am in holy orders," answered Mr. Rolles.
"Well," cried the other, "as long as I live I will never hear another
word against the cloth!"
"You flatter me," said Mr. Rolles.
"Pardon me," replied Vandeleur; "pardon me, young man. You are no
coward, but it still remains to be seen whether you are not the worst of
fools. Perhaps," he continued, leaning back upon his seat, "perhaps you
would oblige me with a few particulars. I must suppose you had some
object in the stupefying impudence of your proceedings, and I confess I
have a curiosity to know it."
"It is very simple," replied the clergyman; "it proceeds from my great
inexperience of life."
"I shall be glad to be persuaded," answered Vandeleur.
Whereupon Mr. Rolles told him the whole story of his connection with the
Rajah's Diamond, from the time he found it in Raeburn's garden to the
time when he left London in the Flying Scotchman. He added a brief
sketch of his feelings and thoughts during the journey, and concluded in
these words:--
"When I recognised the tiara I knew we were in the same attitude towards
Society, and this inspired me with a hope, which I trust you will not
say was ill-founded, that you might become in some sense my partner in
the difficulties and, of course, the profits of my situation. To one of
your special knowledge and obviously great experience the negotiation of
the diamond would give but little trouble, while to me it was a matter
of impossibility. On the other part, I judged that I might lose nearly
as much by cutting the diamond, and that not improbably with an
unskilful hand, as might enable me to pay you with proper generosity for
your assistance. The subject was a delicate one to broach; and perhaps I
fell short in delicacy. But I must ask you to remember that for me the
situation was a new one, and I was entirely unacquainted with the
etiquette in use. I believe without vanity that I could have married or
baptised you in a very acceptable manner; but every man has his own
aptitudes, and this sort of bargain was not among the lists of my
accomplishments."
"I do not wish to flatter you," replied Vandeleur; "but upon my word,
you have an unusual disposition for a life of crime. You have more
accomplishments than you imagine; and though I have encountered a number
of rogues in different quarters of the world, I never met with one so
unblushing as yourself. Cheer up, Mr. Rolles, you are in the right
profession at last! As for helping you, you may command me as you will.
I have only a day's business in Edinburgh on a little matter for my
brother; and once that is concluded, I return to Paris, where I usually
reside. If you please, you may accompany me thither. And before the end
of a month I believe I shall have brought your little business to a
satisfactory conclusion."
_At this point, contrary to all the canons of his art, our Arabian
Author breaks off the_ STORY OF THE YOUNG MAN IN HOLY ORDERS. _I regret
and condemn such practices; but I must follow my original, and refer the
reader for the conclusion of Mr. Rolles' adventures to the next number
of the cycle._
THE STORY OF THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS
Francis Scrymgeour, a clerk in the Bank of Scotland at Edinburgh, had
attained the age of twenty-five in a sphere of quiet, creditable, and
domestic life. His mother died while he was young; but his father, a man
of sense and probity, had given him an excellent education at school,
and brought him up at home to orderly and frugal habits. Francis, who
was of a docile and affectionate disposition, profited by these
advantages with zeal, and devoted himself heart and soul to his
employment. A walk upon Saturday afternoon, an occasional dinner with
members of his family, and a yearly tour of a fortnight in the Highlands
or even on the continent of Europe were his principal distractions, and
he grew rapidly in favour with his superiors, and enjoyed already a
salary of nearly two hundred pounds a year, with the prospect of an
ultimate advance to almost double that amount. Few young men were more
contented, few more willing and laborious, than Francis Scrymgeour.
Sometimes at night, when he had read the daily paper, he would play upon
the flute to amuse his father, for whose qualities he entertained a
great respect.
One day he received a note from a well-known firm of Writers to the
Signet, requesting the favour of an immediate interview with him. The
letter was marked "Private and Confidential," and had been addressed to
him at the bank, instead of at home--two unusual circumstances which
made him obey the summons with the more alacrity. The senior member of
the firm, a man of much austerity of manner, made him gravely welcome,
requested him to take a seat, and proceeded to explain the matter in
hand in the picked expressions of a veteran man of business. A person,
who must remain nameless, but of whom the lawyer had every reason to
think well--a man, in short, of some station in the country,--desired to
make Francis an annual allowance of five hundred pounds. The capital was
to be placed under the control of the lawyer's firm and two trustees who
must also remain anonymous. There were conditions annexed to this
liberality, but he was of opinion that his new client would find nothing
either excessive or dishonourable in the terms; and he repeated these
two words with emphasis, as though he desired to commit himself to
nothing more.
Francis asked their nature.
"The conditions," said the Writer to the Signet, "are, as I have twice
remarked, neither dishonourable nor excessive. At the same time I cannot
conceal from you that they are most unusual. Indeed, the whole case is
very much out of our way; and I should certainly have refused it had it
not been for the reputation of the gentleman who entrusted it to my
care, and, let me add, Mr. Scrymgeour, the interest I have been led to
take in yourself by many complimentary and, I have no doubt,
well-deserved reports."
Francis entreated him to be more specific.
"You cannot picture my uneasiness as to these conditions," he said.
"They are two," replied the lawyer, "only two; and the sum, as you will
remember, is five hundred a year--and unburdened, I forgot to add,
unburdened."
And the lawyer raised his eyebrows at him with solemn gusto.
"The first," he resumed, "is of remarkable simplicity. You must be in
Paris by the afternoon of Sunday, the 15th; there you will find, at the
box-office of the Comédie Française a ticket for admission taken in your
name and waiting you. You are requested to sit out the whole performance
in the seat provided, and that is all."
"I should certainly have preferred a week-day," replied Francis. "But,
after all, once in a way--"
"And in Paris, my dear sir," added the lawyer soothingly. "I believe I
am something of a precisian myself, but upon such a consideration, and
in Paris, I should not hesitate an instant."
And the pair laughed pleasantly together.
"The other is of more importance," continued the Writer to the Signet.
"It regards your marriage. My client, taking a deep interest in your
welfare, desires to advise you absolutely in the choice of a wife.
Absolutely, you understand," he repeated.
"Let us be more explicit, if you please," returned Francis. "Am I to
marry any one, maid or widow, black or white, whom this invisible
person chooses to propose?"
"I was to assure you that suitability of age and position should be a
principle with your benefactor," replied the lawyer. "As to race, I
confess the difficulty had not occurred to me, and I failed to inquire;
but if you like I will make a note of it at once, and advise you on the
earliest opportunity."
"Sir," said Francis, "it remains to be seen whether this whole affair is
not a most unworthy fraud. The circumstances are inexplicable--I had
almost said incredible; and until I see a little more daylight, and some
plausible motive, I confess I should be very sorry to put a hand to the
transaction. I appeal to you in this difficulty for information. I must
learn what is at the bottom of it all. If you do not know, cannot guess,
or are not at liberty to tell me, I shall take my hat and go back to my
bank as I came."
"I do not know," answered the lawyer, "but I have an excellent guess.
Your father, and no one else, is at the root of this apparently
unnatural business."
"My father!" cried Francis, in extreme disdain. "Worthy man, I know
every thought of his mind, every penny of his fortune!"
"You misinterpret my words," said the lawyer. "I do not refer to Mr.
Scrymgeour, senior; for he is not your father. When he and his wife came
to Edinburgh, you were already nearly one year old, and you had not yet
been three months in their care. The secret has been well kept; but such
is the fact. Your father is unknown, and I say again that I believe him
to be the original of the offers I am charged at present to transmit to
you."
It would be impossible to exaggerate the astonishment of Francis
Scrymgeour at this unexpected information. He pled this confusion to the
lawyer.
"Sir," said he, "after a piece of news so startling, you must grant me
some hours for thought. You shall know this evening what conclusion I
have reached."
The lawyer commended his prudence; and Francis, excusing himself upon
some pretext at the bank, took a long walk into the country, and fully
considered the different steps and aspects of the case. A pleasant sense
of his own importance rendered him the more deliberate: but the issue
was from the first not doubtful. His whole carnal man leaned
irresistibly towards the five hundred a year, and the strange conditions
with which it was burdened; he discovered in his heart an invincible
repugnance to the name of Scrymgeour, which he had never hitherto
disliked; he began to despise the narrow and unromantic interests of his
former life; and when once his mind was fairly made up, he walked with a
new feeling of strength and freedom, and nourished himself with the
gayest anticipations.
He said but a word to the lawyer, and immediately received a cheque for
two quarters' arrears; for the allowance was ante-dated from the first
of January. With this in his pocket, he walked home. The flat in
Scotland Street looked mean in his eyes; his nostrils, for the first
time, rebelled against the odour of broth; and he observed little
defects of manner in his adoptive father which filled him with surprise,
and almost with disgust. The next day, he determined, should see him on
his way to Paris.
In that city, where he arrived long before the appointed date, he put up
at a modest hotel frequented by English and Italians, and devoted
himself to improvement in the French tongue. For this purpose he had a
master twice a week, entered into conversation with loiterers in the
Champs Elysées, and nightly frequented the theatre. He had his whole
toilette fashionably renewed; and was shaved and had his hair dressed
every morning by a barber in a neighbouring street. This gave him
something of a foreign air, and seemed to wipe off the reproach of his
past years.
At length, on the Saturday afternoon, he betook himself to the
box-office of the theatre in the Rue Richelieu. No sooner had he
mentioned his name than the clerk produced the order in an envelope of
which the address was scarcely dry.
"It has been taken this moment," said the clerk.
"Indeed!" said Francis. "May I ask what the gentleman was like?"
"Your friend is easy to describe," replied the official. "He is old and
strong and beautiful, with white hair and a sabre-cut across his face.
You cannot fail to recognise so marked a person."
"No, indeed," returned Francis; "and I thank you for your politeness."
"He cannot yet be far distant," added the clerk. "If you make haste you
might still overtake him."
Francis did not wait to be twice told; he ran precipitately from the
theatre into the middle of the street and looked in all directions. More
than one white-haired man was within sight; but though he overtook each
of them in succession, all wanted the sabre-cut. For nearly half an hour
he tried one street after another in the neighbourhood, until at length,
recognising the folly of continued search, he started on a walk to
compose his agitated feelings; for this proximity of an encounter with
him to whom he could not doubt he owed the day had profoundly moved the
young man.
It chanced that his way lay up the Rue Drouot and thence up the Rue des
Martyrs; and chance, in this case, served him better than all the
forethought in the world. For on the outer boulevard he saw two men in
earnest colloquy upon a seat. One was dark, young, and handsome,
secularly dressed, but with an indelible clerical stamp; the other
answered in every particular to the description given him by the clerk.
Francis felt his heart beat high in his bosom; he knew he was now about
to hear the voice of his father; and making a wide circuit, he
noiselessly took his place behind the couple in question, who were too
much interested in their talk to observe much else. As Francis had
expected, the conversation was conducted in the English language.
"Your suspicions begin to annoy me, Rolles," said the older man. "I tell
you I am doing my utmost; a man cannot lay his hand on millions in a
moment. Have I not taken you up, a mere stranger, out of pure good-will?
Are you not living largely on my bounty?"
"On your advances, Mr. Vandeleur," corrected the other.
"Advances, if you choose; and interest instead of good-will, if you
prefer it," returned Vandeleur angrily. "I am not here to pick
expressions. Business is business; and your business, let me remind you,
is too muddy for such airs. Trust me, or leave me alone and find someone
else; but let us have an end, for God's sake, of your jeremiads."
"I am beginning to learn the world," replied the other, "and I see that
you have every reason to play me false, and not one to deal honestly. I
am not here to pick expressions either; you wish the diamond for
yourself; you know you do--you dare not deny it. Have you not already
forged my name, and searched my lodging in my absence? I understand the
cause of your delays; you are lying in wait; you are the diamond-hunter,
forsooth; and sooner or later, by fair means or foul, you'll lay your
hands upon it. I tell you, it must stop; push me much further and I
promise you a surprise."
"It does not become you to use threats," returned Vandeleur. "Two can
play at that. My brother is here in Paris; the police are on the alert;
and if you persist in wearying me with your caterwauling, I will arrange
a little astonishment for you, Mr. Rolles. But mine shall be once and
for all. Do you understand, or would you prefer me to tell it you in
Hebrew? There is an end to all things, and you have come to the end of
my patience. Tuesday, at seven; not a day, not an hour sooner, not the
least part of a second, if it were to save your life. And if you do not
choose to wait, you may go to the bottomless pit for me, and welcome."
And so saying, the Dictator arose from the bench, and marched off in the
direction of Montmartre, shaking his head and swinging his cane with a
most furious air; while his companion remained where he was, in an
attitude of great dejection.
Francis was at the pitch of surprise and horror; his sentiments had been
shocked to the last degree; the hopeful tenderness with which he had
taken his place upon the bench was transformed into repulsion and
despair; old Mr. Scrymgeour, he reflected, was a far more kindly and
creditable parent than this dangerous and violent intriguer; but he
retained his presence of mind, and suffered not a moment to elapse
before he was on the trail of the Dictator.
That gentleman's fury carried him forward at a brisk pace, and he was so
completely occupied in his angry thoughts that he never so much as cast
a look behind him till he reached his own door.
His house stood high up in the Rue Lepic, commanding a view of all
Paris, and enjoying the pure air of the heights. It was two stories
high, with green blinds and shutters; and all the windows looking on the
street were hermetically closed. Tops of trees showed over the high
garden wall, and the wall was protected by _chevaux-de-frise_. The
Dictator paused a moment while he searched his pocket for a key; and
then, opening a gate, disappeared within the enclosure.
Francis looked about him; the neighbourhood was very lonely, the house
isolated in its garden. It seemed as if his observation must here come
to an abrupt end. A second glance, however, showed him a tall house next
door presenting a gable to the garden, and in this gable a single
window. He passed to the front and saw a ticket offering unfurnished
lodgings by the month; and, on inquiry, the room which commanded the
Dictator's garden proved to be one of those to let. Francis did not
hesitate a moment; he took the room, paid an advance upon the rent, and
returned to his hotel to seek his baggage.
The old man with the sabre-cut might or might not be his father; he
might or he might not be upon the true scent; but he was certainly on
the edge of an exciting mystery, and he promised himself that he would
not relax his observation until he had got to the bottom of the secret.
From the window of his new apartment Francis Scrymgeour commanded a
complete view into the garden of the house with the green blinds.
Immediately below him a very comely chestnut with wide boughs sheltered
a pair of rustic tables where people might dine in the height of summer.
On all sides save one a dense vegetation concealed the soil; but there,
between the tables and the house, he saw a patch of gravel walk leading
from the verandah to the garden gate. Studying the place from between
the boards of the Venetian shutters, which he durst not open for fear of
attracting attention, Francis observed but little to indicate the
manners of the inhabitants, and that little argued no more than a close
reserve and a taste for solitude. The garden was conventual, the house
had the air of a prison. The green blinds were all drawn down upon the
outside; the door into the verandah was closed; the garden, as far as he
could see it, was left entirely to itself in the evening sunshine. A
modest curl of smoke from a single chimney alone testified to the
presence of living people.
In order that he might not be entirely idle, and to give a certain
colour to his way of life, Francis had purchased Euclid's Geometry in
French, which he set himself to copy and translate on the top of his
portmanteau and seated on the floor against the wall; for he was equally
without chair or table. From time to time he would rise and cast a
glance into the enclosure of the house with the green blinds; but the
windows remained obstinately closed and the garden empty.
Only late in the evening did anything occur to reward his continued
attention. Between nine and ten the sharp tinkle of a bell aroused him
from a fit of dozing; and he sprang to his observatory in time to hear
an important noise of locks being opened and bars removed, and to see
Mr. Vandeleur, carrying a lantern and clothed in a flowing robe of
black velvet with a skull-cap to match, issue from under the verandah
and proceed leisurely towards the garden gate. The sound of bolts and
bars was then repeated; and a moment after, Francis perceived the
Dictator escorting into the house, in the mobile light of the lantern,
an individual of the lowest and most despicable appearance.
Half an hour afterwards the visitor was reconducted to the street; and
Mr. Vandeleur, setting his light upon one of the rustic tables, finished
a cigar with great deliberation under the foliage of the chestnut.
Francis, peering through a clear space among the leaves, was able to
follow his gestures as he threw away the ash or enjoyed a copious
inhalation; and beheld a cloud upon the old man's brow and a forcible
action of the lips, which testified to some deep and probably painful
train of thought. The cigar was already almost at an end, when the voice
of a young girl was heard suddenly crying the hour from the interior of
the house.
"In a moment," replied John Vandeleur.
And, with that, he threw away the stump, and, taking up the lantern,
sailed away under the verandah for the night. As soon as the door was
closed, absolute darkness fell upon the house; Francis might try his
eyesight as much as he pleased, he could not detect so much as a single
chink of light below a blind; and he concluded, with great good sense,
that the bed-chambers were all upon the other side.
Early the next morning (for he was early awake after an uncomfortable
night upon the floor) he saw cause to adopt a different explanation. The
blinds rose, one after another, by means of a spring in the interior,
and disclosed steel shutters such as we see on the front of shops; these
in their turn were rolled up by a similar contrivance; and for the space
of about an hour the chambers were left open to the morning air. At the
end of that time Mr. Vandeleur, with his own hand, once more closed the
shutters and replaced the blinds from within.
While Francis was still marvelling at these precautions, the door
opened and a young girl came forth to look about her in the garden. It
was not two minutes before she re-entered the house, but even in that
short time he saw enough to convince him that she possessed the most
unusual attractions. His curiosity was not only highly excited by this
incident, but his spirits were improved to a still more notable degree.
The alarming manners and more than equivocal life of his father ceased
from that moment to prey upon his mind; from that moment he embraced his
new family with ardour; and whether the young lady should prove his
sister or his wife, he felt convinced she was an angel in disguise. So
much was this the case that he was seized with a sudden horror when he
reflected how little he really knew, and how possible it was that he had
followed the wrong person when he followed Mr. Vandeleur.
The porter, whom he consulted, could afford him little information; but,
such as it was, it had a mysterious and questionable sound. The person
next door was an English gentleman of extraordinary wealth, and
proportionately eccentric in his tastes and habits. He possessed great
collections, which he kept in the house beside him; and it was to
protect these that he had fitted the place with steel shutters,
elaborate fastenings, and _chevaux-de-frise_ along the garden wall. He
lived much alone, in spite of some strange visitors, with whom, it
seemed, he had business to transact; and there was no one else in the
house, except Mademoiselle and an old woman servant.
"Is Mademoiselle his daughter?" inquired Francis.
"Certainly," replied the porter. "Mademoiselle is the daughter of the
house; and strange it is to see how she is made to work. For all his
riches, it is she who goes to market; and every day in the week you may
see her going by with a basket on her arm."
"And the collections?" asked the other.
"Sir," said the man, "they are immensely valuable. More I cannot tell
you. Since M. de Vandeleur's arrival no one in the quarter has so much
as passed the door."
"Suppose not," returned Francis, "you must surely have some notion what
these famous galleries contain. Is it pictures, silks, statues, jewels,
or what?"
"My faith, sir," said the fellow, with a shrug, "it might be carrots,
and still I could not tell you. How should I know? The house is kept
like a garrison, as you perceive."
And then as Francis was returning disappointed to his room, the porter
called him back.
"I have just remembered, sir," said he. "M. de Vandeleur has been in all
parts of the world, and I once heard the old woman declare that he had
brought many diamonds back with him. If that be the truth, there must be
a fine show behind those shutters."
By an early hour on Sunday Francis was in his place at the theatre. The
seat which had been taken for him was only two or three numbers from the
left-hand side, and directly opposite one of the lower boxes. As the
seat had been specially chosen there was doubtless something to be
learned from its position; and he judged by an instinct that the box
upon his right was, in some way or other, to be connected with the drama
in which he ignorantly played a part. Indeed, it was so situated that
its occupants could safely observe him from beginning to end of the
piece, if they were so minded; while, profiting by the depth, they could
screen themselves sufficiently well from any counter-examination on his
side. He promised himself not to leave it for a moment out of sight; and
whilst he scanned the rest of the theatre, or made a show of attending
to the business of the stage, he always kept a corner of an eye upon the
empty box.
The second act had been some time in progress, and was even drawing
towards a close, when the door opened and two persons entered and
ensconced themselves in the darkest of the shade. Francis could hardly
control his emotion. It was Mr. Vandeleur and his daughter. The blood
came and went in his arteries and veins with stunning activity; his ears
sang; his head turned. He dared not look lest he should awake
suspicion; his play-bill, which he kept reading from end to end and over
and over again, turned from white to red before his eyes; and when he
cast a glance upon the stage, it seemed incalculably far away, and he
found the voices and gestures of the actors to the last degree
impertinent and absurd.
From time to time he risked a momentary look in the direction which
principally interested him; and once at least he felt certain that his
eyes encountered those of the young girl. A shock passed over his body,
and he saw all the colours of the rainbow. What would he not have given
to overhear what passed between the Vandeleurs? What would he not have
given for the courage to take up his opera-glass and steadily inspect
their attitude and expression? There, for aught he knew, his whole life
was being decided--and he not able to interfere, not able even to follow
the debate, but condemned to sit and suffer where he was, in impotent
anxiety.
At last the act came to an end. The curtain fell, and the people around
him began to leave their places for the interval. It was only natural
that he should follow their example; and if he did so, it was not only
natural but necessary that he should pass immediately in front of the
box in question. Summoning all his courage, but keeping his eyes
lowered, Francis drew near the spot. His progress was slow, for the old
gentleman before him moved with incredible deliberation, wheezing as he
went. What was he to do? Should he address the Vandeleurs by name as he
went by? Should he take the flower from his button-hole and throw it
into the box? Should he raise his face and direct one long and
affectionate look upon the lady who was either his sister or his
betrothed? As he found himself thus struggling among so many
alternatives, he had a vision of his old equable existence in the bank,
and was assailed by a thought of regret for the past.
By this time he had arrived directly opposite the box; and although he
was still undetermined what to do or whether to do anything, he turned
his head and lifted his eyes. No sooner had he done so than he uttered a
cry of disappointment and remained rooted to the spot. The box was
empty. During his slow advance Mr. Vandeleur and his daughter had
quietly slipped away.
A polite person in his rear reminded him that he was stopping the path;
and he moved on again with mechanical footsteps, and suffered the crowd
to carry him unresisting out of the theatre. Once in the street, the
pressure ceasing, he came to a halt, and the cool night air speedily
restored him to the possession of his faculties. He was surprised to
find that his head ached violently, and that he remembered not one word
of the two acts which he had witnessed. As the excitement wore away, it
was succeeded by an overmastering appetite for sleep, and he hailed a
cab and drove to his lodging in a state of extreme exhaustion and some
disgust of life.
Next morning he lay in wait for Miss Vandeleur on her road to market,
and by eight o'clock beheld her stepping down a lane. She was simply,
and even poorly, attired; but in the carriage of her head and body there
was something flexible and noble that would have lent distinction to the
meanest toilette. Even her basket, so aptly did she carry it, became her
like an ornament. It seemed to Francis, as he slipped into a doorway,
that the sunshine followed and the shadows fled before her as she
walked; and he was conscious, for the first time, of a bird singing in a
cage above the lane.
He suffered her to pass the doorway, and then, coming forth once more,
addressed her by name from behind.
"Miss Vandeleur," said he.
She turned and, when she saw who he was, became deadly pale.
"Pardon me," he continued; "Heaven knows I had no will to startle you;
and, indeed, there should be nothing startling in the presence of one
who wishes you so well as I do. And, believe me, I am acting rather from
necessity than choice. We have many things in common, and I am sadly in
the dark. There is much that I should be doing, and my hands are tied. I
do not know even what to feel, nor who are my friends and enemies."
She found her voice with an effort.
"I do not know who you are," she said.
"Ah, yes! Miss Vandeleur, you do," returned Francis; "better than I do
myself. Indeed, it is on that, above all, that I seek light. Tell me
what you know," he pleaded. "Tell me who I am, who you are, and how our
destinies are intermixed. Give me a little help with my life, Miss
Vandeleur--only a word or two to guide me, only the name of my father,
if you will--and I shall be grateful and content."
"I will not attempt to deceive you," she replied. "I know who you are,
but I am not at liberty to say."
"Tell me, at least, that you have forgiven my presumption, and I shall
wait with all the patience I have," he said. "If I am not to know, I
must do without. It is cruel, but I can bear more upon a push. Only do
not add to my troubles the thought that I have made an enemy of you."
"You did only what was natural," she said, "and I have nothing to
forgive you. Farewell."
"Is it to be _farewell_?" he asked.
"Nay, that I do not know myself," she answered. "Farewell for the
present, if you like."
And with these words she was gone.
Francis returned to his lodging in a state of considerable commotion of
mind. He made the most trifling progress with his Euclid for that
forenoon, and was more often at the window than at his improvised
writing-table. But beyond seeing the return of Miss Vandeleur, and the
meeting between her and her father, who was smoking a Trichinopoli cigar
in the verandah, there was nothing notable in the neighbourhood of the
house with the green blinds before the time of the mid-day meal. The
young man hastily allayed his appetite in a neighbouring restaurant, and
returned with the speed of unallayed curiosity to the house in the Rue
Lepic. A mounted servant was leading a saddle-horse to and fro before
the garden wall; and the porter of Francis's lodging was smoking a pipe
against the door-post, absorbed in contemplation of the livery and the
steeds.
"Look!" he cried to the young man, "what fine cattle! what an elegant
costume! They belong to the brother of M. de Vandeleur, who is now
within upon a visit. He is a great man, a general, in your country; and
you doubtless know him well by reputation."
"I confess," returned Francis, "that I have never heard of General
Vandeleur before. We have many officers of that grade, and my pursuits
have been exclusively civil."
"It is he," replied the porter, "who lost the great diamond of the
Indies. Of that at least you must have read often in the papers."
As soon as Francis could disengage himself from the porter he ran
upstairs and hurried to the window. Immediately below the clear space in
the chestnut leaves, the two gentlemen were seated in conversation over
a cigar. The General, a red, military-looking man, offered some traces
of a family resemblance to his brother; he had something of the same
features, something, although very little, of the same free and powerful
carriage; but he was older, smaller, and more common in air; his
likeness was that of a caricature, and he seemed altogether a poor and
debile being by the side of the Dictator.
They spoke in tones so low, leaning over the table with every appearance
of interest, that Francis could catch no more than a word or two on an
occasion. For as little as he heard, he was convinced that the
conversation turned upon himself and his own career; several times the
name of Scrymgeour reached his ear, for it was easy to distinguish and
still more frequently he fancied he could distinguish the name Francis.
At length the General, as if in a hot anger, broke forth into several
violent exclamations.
"Francis Vandeleur!" he cried, accentuating the last word. "Francis
Vandeleur, I tell you."
The Dictator made a movement of his whole body, half affirmative, half
contemptuous, but his answer was inaudible to the young man.
Was he the Francis Vandeleur in question? he wondered. Were they
discussing the name under which he was to be married? Or was the whole
affair a dream and a delusion of his own conceit and self-absorption?
After another interval of inaudible talk, dissension seemed again to
rise between the couple underneath the chestnut, and again the General
raised his voice angrily so as to be audible to Francis.
"My wife?" he cried. "I have done with my wife for good. I will not hear
her name. I am sick of her very name."
And he swore aloud and beat the table with his fist.
The Dictator appeared, by his gestures, to pacify him after a paternal
fashion; and a little after he conducted him to the garden gate. The
pair shook hands affectionately enough; but as soon as the door had
closed behind his visitor, John Vandeleur fell into a fit of laughter
which sounded unkindly and even devilish in the ears of Francis
Scrymgeour.
So another day had passed, and little more learnt. But the young man
remembered that the morrow was Tuesday, and promised himself some
curious discoveries; all might be well, or all might be ill; he was
sure, at least, to glean some curious information, and perhaps, by good
luck, get at the heart of the mystery which surrounded his father and
his family.
As the hour of the dinner drew near many preparations were made in the
garden of the house with the green blinds. That table, which was partly
visible to Francis through the chestnut leaves, was destined to serve as
a sideboard, and carried relays of plates and the materials for salad:
the other, which was almost entirely concealed, had been set apart for
the diners, and Francis could catch glimpses of white cloth and silver
plate.
Mr. Rolles arrived, punctual to the minute; he looked like a man upon
his guard, and spoke low and sparingly. The Dictator, on the other hand,
appeared to enjoy an unusual flow of spirits; his laugh, which was
youthful and pleasant to hear, sounded frequently from the garden; by
the modulation and the changes of his voice it was obvious that he told
many droll stories and imitated the accents of a variety of different
nations; and before he and the young clergyman had finished their
vermouth all feeling of distrust was at an end, and they were talking
together like a pair of school companions.
At length Miss Vandeleur made her appearance, carrying the soup-tureen.
Mr. Rolles ran to offer her assistance, which she laughingly refused;
and there was an interchange of pleasantries among the trio which seemed
to have reference to this primitive manner of waiting by one of the
company.
"One is more at one's ease," Mr. Vandeleur was heard to declare.
Next moment they were all three in their places, and Francis could see
as little as he could hear of what passed. But the dinner seemed to go
merrily; there was a perpetual babble of voices and sound of knives and
forks below the chestnut; and Francis, who had no more than a roll to
gnaw, was affected with envy by the comfort and deliberation of the
meal. The party lingered over one dish after another, and then over a
delicate dessert, with a bottle of cold wine, carefully uncorked by the
hand of the Dictator himself. As it began to grow dark a lamp was set
upon the table and a couple of candles on the sideboard; for the night
was perfectly pure, starry, and windless. Light overflowed besides from
the door and window in the verandah, so that the garden was fairly
illuminated and the leaves twinkled in the darkness.
For perhaps the tenth time Miss Vandeleur entered the house; and on
this occasion she returned with the coffee-tray, which she placed upon
the sideboard. At the same moment her father rose from his seat.
"The coffee is my province," Francis heard him say.
And the next moment he saw his supposed father standing by the sideboard
in the light of the candles.
Talking over his shoulder all the while, Mr. Vandeleur poured out two
cups of the brown stimulant, and then, by a rapid act of
prestidigitation, emptied the contents of a tiny phial into the smaller
of the two. The thing was so swiftly done that even Francis, who looked
straight into his face, had hardly time to perceive the movement before
it was completed. And next instant, and still laughing, Mr. Vandeleur
had turned again towards the table with a cup in either hand.
"Ere we have done with this," said he, "we may expect our famous
Hebrew."
It would be impossible to depict the confusion and distress of Francis
Scrymgeour. He saw foul play going forward before his eyes, and he felt
bound to interfere, but knew not how. It might be a mere pleasantry, and
then how should he look if he were to offer an unnecessary warning? Or
again, if it were serious, the criminal might be his own father, and
then how should he not lament if he were to bring ruin on the author of
his days? For the first time he became conscious of his own position as
a spy. To wait inactive at such a juncture and with such a conflict of
sentiments in his bosom was to suffer the most acute torture; he clung
to the bars of the shutters, his heart beat fast and with irregularity,
and he felt a strong sweat break forth upon his body.
Several minutes passed.
He seemed to perceive the conversation die away and grow less and less
in vivacity and volume; but still no sign of any alarming or even
notable event.
Suddenly the ring of a glass breaking was followed by a faint and dull
sound, as of a person who should have fallen forward with his head upon
the table. At the same moment a piercing scream rose from the garden.
"What have you done?" cried Miss Vandeleur. "He is dead!"
The Dictator replied in a violent whisper, so strong and sibilant that
every word was audible to the watcher at the window.
"Silence!" said Mr. Vandeleur; "the man is as well as I am. Take him by
the heels whilst I carry him by the shoulders."
Francis heard Miss Vandeleur break forth into a passion of tears.
"Do you hear what I say?" resumed the Dictator, in the same tones. "Or
do you wish to quarrel with me? I give you your choice, Miss Vandeleur."
There was another pause, and the Dictator spoke again.
"Take that man by the heels," he said. "I must have him brought into the
house. If I were a little younger, I could help myself against the
world. But now that years and dangers are upon me, and my hands are
weakened, I must turn to you for aid."
"It is a crime," replied the girl.
"I am your father," said Mr. Vandeleur.
This appeal seemed to produce its effect. A scuffling noise followed
upon the gravel, a chair was overset, and then Francis saw the father
and daughter stagger across the walk and disappear under the verandah,
bearing the inanimate body of Mr. Rolles embraced about the knees and
shoulders. The young clergyman was limp and pallid, and his head rolled
upon his shoulders at every step.
Was he alive or dead? Francis, in spite of the Dictator's declaration,
inclined to the latter view. A great crime had been committed; a great
calamity had fallen upon the inhabitants of the house with the green
blinds. To his surprise, Francis found all horror for the deed swallowed
up in sorrow for a girl and an old man whom he judged to be in the
height of peril. A tide of generous feeling swept into his heart; he,
too, would help his father against man and mankind, against fate and
justice; and casting open the shutters he closed his eyes and threw
himself with outstretched arms into the foliage of the chestnut.
Branch after branch slipped from his grasp or broke under his weight;
then he caught a stalwart bough under his armpit, and hung suspended for
a second; and then he let himself drop and fell heavily against the
table. A cry of alarm from the house warned him that his entrance had
not been effected unobserved. He recovered himself with a stagger, and
in three bounds crossed the intervening space and stood before the door
in the verandah.
In a small apartment, carpeted with matting and surrounded by glazed
cabinets full of rare and costly curios, Mr. Vandeleur was stooping over
the body of Mr. Rolles. He raised himself as Francis entered, and there
was an instantaneous passage of hands. It was the business of a second;
as fast as an eye can wink the thing was done; the young man had not the
time to be sure, but it seemed to him as if the Dictator had taken
something from the curate's breast, looked at it for the least fraction
of time as it lay in his hand, and then suddenly and swiftly passed it
to his daughter.
All this was over while Francis had still one foot upon the threshold,
and the other raised in air. The next instant he was on his knees to Mr.
Vandeleur.
"Father!" he cried. "Let me too help you. I will do what you wish and
ask no questions; I will obey you with my life; treat me as a son, and
you will find I have a son's devotion."
A deplorable explosion of oaths was the Dictator's first reply.
"Son and father?" he cried. "Father and son? What d----d unnatural
comedy is all this? How do you come in my garden? What do you want? And
who, in God's name, are you?"
Francis, with a stunned and shamefaced aspect, got upon his feet again,
and stood in silence.
Then a light seemed to break upon Mr. Vandeleur, and he laughed aloud.
"I see," cried he. "It is the Scrymgeour. Very well, Mr. Scrymgeour. Let
me tell you in a few words how you stand. You have entered my private
residence by force, or perhaps by fraud, but certainly with no
encouragement from me; and you come at a moment of some annoyance, a
guest having fainted at my table, to besiege me with your protestations.
You are no son of mine. You are my brother's bastard by a fishwife, if
you want to know. I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on
aversion; and from what I now see of your conduct, I judge your mind to
be exactly suitable to your exterior. I recommend you these mortifying
reflections for your leisure; and, in the meantime, let me beseech you
to rid us of your presence. If I were not occupied," added the Dictator,
with a terrifying oath, "I should give you the unholiest drubbing ere
you went!"
Francis listened in profound humiliation. He would have fled had it been
possible; but as he had no means of leaving the residence into which he
had so unfortunately penetrated, he could do no more than stand
foolishly where he was.
It was Miss Vandeleur who broke the silence.
"Father," she said, "you speak in anger. Mr. Scrymgeour may have been
mistaken, but he meant well and kindly."
"Thank you for speaking," returned the Dictator. "You remind me of some
other observations which I hold it a point of honour to make to Mr.
Scrymgeour. My brother," he continued, addressing the young man, "has
been foolish enough to give you an allowance; he was foolish enough and
presumptuous enough to propose a match between you and this young lady.
You were exhibited to her two nights ago; and I rejoice to tell you that
she rejected the idea with disgust. Let me add that I have considerable
influence with your father; and it shall not be my fault if you are not
beggared of your allowance and sent back to your scrivening ere the week
be out."
The tones of the old man's voice were, if possible, more wounding than
his language; Francis felt himself exposed to the most cruel, blighting,
and unbearable contempt; his head turned, and he covered his face with
his hands, uttering at the same time a tearless sob of agony. But Miss
Vandeleur once again interfered in his behalf.
"Mr Scrymgeour," she said, speaking in clear and even tones, "you must
not be concerned at my father's harsh expressions. I felt no disgust for
you; on the contrary, I asked an opportunity to make your better
acquaintance. As for what has passed to-night, believe me it has filled
my mind with both pity and esteem."
Just then Mr. Rolles made a convulsive movement with his arm, which
convinced Francis that he was only drugged, and was beginning to throw
off the influence of the opiate. Mr. Vandeleur stooped over him and
examined his face for an instant.
"Come, come!" cried he, raising his head. "Let there be an end of this.
And since you are so pleased with his conduct, Miss Vandeleur, take a
candle and show the bastard out."
The young lady hastened to obey.
"Thank you," said Francis, as soon as he was alone with her in the
garden. "I thank you from my soul. This has been the bitterest evening
of my life, but it will have always one pleasant recollection."
"I spoke as I felt," she replied, "and in justice to you. It made my
heart sorry that you should be so unkindly used."
By this time they had reached the garden gate; and Miss Vandeleur,
having set the candle on the ground, was already unfastening the bolts.
"One word more," said Francis. "This is not for the last time--I shall
see you again, shall I not?"
"Alas!" she answered. "You have heard my father. What can I do but
obey?"
"Tell me at least that it is not with your consent," returned Francis;
"tell me that you have no wish to see the last of me."
"Indeed," replied she, "I have none. You seem to me both brave and
honest."
"Then," said Francis, "give me a keepsake."
She paused for a moment, with her hand upon the key; for the various
bars and bolts were all undone, and there was nothing left but to open
the lock.
"If I agree," she said, "will you promise to do as I tell you from point
to point?"
"Can you ask?" replied Francis. "I would do so willingly on your bare
word."
She turned the key and threw open the door.
"Be it so," said she. "You do not know what you ask, but be it so.
Whatever you hear," she continued, "whatever happens, do not return to
this house; hurry fast until you reach the lighted and populous quarters
of the city; even there be upon your guard. You are in a greater danger
than you fancy. Promise me you will not so much as look at my keepsake
until you are in a place of safety."
"I promise," replied Francis.
She put something loosely wrapped in a handkerchief into the young man's
hand; and at the same time, with more strength than he could have
anticipated, she pushed him into the street.
"Now, run!" she cried.
He heard the door close behind him, and the noise of the bolts being
replaced.
"My faith," said he, "since I have promised!"
And he took to his heels down the lane that leads into the Rue Ravignan.
He was not fifty paces from the house with the green blinds when the
most diabolical outcry suddenly arose out of the stillness of the night.
Mechanically he stood still; another passenger followed his example; in
the neighbouring floors he saw people crowding to the windows; a
conflagration could not have produced more disturbance in this empty
quarter. And yet it seemed to be all the work of a single man, roaring
between grief and rage, like a lioness robbed of her whelps; and Francis
was surprised and alarmed to hear his own name shouted with English
imprecations to the wind.
His first movement was to return to the house; his second, as he
remembered Miss Vandeleur's advice, to continue his flight with greater
expedition than before; and he was in the act of turning to put his
thought in action, when the Dictator, bare-headed, bawling aloud, his
white hair blowing about his head, shot past him like a ball out of the
cannon's mouth, and went careering down the street.
"That was a close shave," thought Francis to himself. "What he wants
with me, and why he should be so disturbed, I cannot think; but he is
plainly not good company for the moment, and I cannot do better than
follow Miss Vandeleur's advice."
So saying, he turned to retrace his steps, thinking to double and
descend by the Rue Lepic itself while his pursuer should continue to
follow after him on the other line of street. The plan was ill-devised:
as a matter of fact, he should have taken his seat in the nearest café,
and waited there until the first heat of the pursuit was over. But
besides that Francis had no experience and little natural aptitude for
the small war of private life, he was so unconscious of any evil on his
part, that he saw nothing to fear beyond a disagreeable interview. And
to disagreeable interviews he felt he had already served his
apprenticeship that evening; nor could he suppose that Miss Vandeleur
had left anything unsaid. Indeed, the young man was sore both in body
and mind--the one was all bruised, the other was full of smarting
arrows; and he owned to himself that Mr. Vandeleur was master of a very
deadly tongue.
The thought of his bruises reminded him that he had not only come
without a hat, but that his clothes had considerably suffered in his
descent through the chestnut. At the first magazine he purchased a cheap
wideawake, and had the disorder of his toilet summarily repaired. The
keepsake, still rolled in the handkerchief, he thrust in the meantime
into his trousers pocket.
Not many steps beyond the shop he was conscious of a sudden shock, a
hand upon his throat, an infuriated face close to his own, and an open
mouth bawling curses in his ear. The Dictator, having found no trace of
his quarry, was returning by the other way. Francis was a stalwart young
fellow; but he was no match for his adversary, whether in strength or
skill; and after a few ineffectual struggles he resigned himself
entirely to his captor.
"What do you want with me?" said he.
"We will talk of that at home," returned the Dictator grimly.
And he continued to march the young man up hill in the direction of the
house with the green blinds.
But Francis, although he no longer struggled, was only waiting an
opportunity to make a bold push for freedom. With a sudden jerk he left
the collar of his coat in the hands of Mr. Vandeleur, and once more made
off at his best speed in the direction of the Boulevards.
The tables were now turned. If the Dictator was the stronger, Francis,
in the top of his youth, was the more fleet of foot, and he had soon
effected his escape among the crowds. Relieved for a moment, but with a
growing sentiment of alarm and wonder in his mind, he walked briskly
until he debouched upon the Place de l'Opéra lit up like day with
electric lamps.
"This, at least," thought he, "should satisfy Miss Vandeleur."
And turning to his right along the Boulevards, he entered the Café
Américain and ordered some beer. It was both late and early for the
majority of the frequenters of the establishment. Only two or three
persons, all men, were dotted here and there at separate tables in the
hall; and Francis was too much occupied by his own thoughts to observe
their presence.
He drew the handkerchief from his pocket. The object wrapped in it
proved to be a morocco case, clasped and ornamented in gilt, which
opened by means of a spring, and disclosed to the horrified young man a
diamond of monstrous bigness and extraordinary brilliancy. The
circumstance was so inexplicable, the value of the stone was plainly so
enormous, that Francis sat staring into the open casket without
movement, without conscious thought, like a man stricken suddenly with
idiocy.
A hand was laid upon his shoulder, lightly but firmly, and a quiet
voice, which yet had in it the ring of command, uttered these words in
his ear--
"Close the casket, and compose your face."
Looking up, he beheld a man, still young, of an urbane and tranquil
presence, and dressed with rich simplicity. This personage had risen
from a neighbouring table, and, bringing his glass with him, had taken a
seat beside Francis.
"Close the casket," repeated the stranger, "and put it quietly back into
your pocket, where I feel persuaded it should never have been. Try, if
you please, to throw off your bewildered air, and act as though I were
one of your acquaintances whom you had met by chance. So! Touch glasses
with me. That is better. I fear, sir, you must be an amateur."
And the stranger pronounced these last words with a smile of peculiar
meaning, leaned back in his seat and enjoyed a deep inhalation of
tobacco.
"For God's sake," said Francis, "tell me who you are and what this
means! Why I should obey your most unusual suggestions I am sure I know
not; but the truth is, I have fallen this evening into so many
perplexing adventures, and all I meet conduct themselves so strangely,
that I think I must either have gone mad or wandered into another
planet. Your face inspires me with confidence; you seem wise, good, and
experienced; tell me, for heaven's sake, why you accost me in so odd a
fashion."
"All in due time," replied the stranger. "But I have the first hand, and
you must begin by telling me how the Rajah's Diamond is in your
possession."
"The Rajah's Diamond!" echoed Francis.
"I would not speak so loud, if I were you," returned the other. "But
most certainly you have the Rajah's Diamond in your pocket. I have seen
and handled it a score of times in Sir Thomas Vandeleur's collection."
"Sir Thomas Vandeleur! The General! My father!" cried Francis.
"Your father?" repeated the stranger. "I was not aware the General had
any family."
"I am illegitimate, sir," replied Francis, with a flush.
The other bowed with gravity. It was a respectful bow, as of a man
silently apologising to his equal; and Francis felt relieved and
comforted, he scarce knew why. The society of this person did him good;
he seemed to touch firm ground; a strong feeling of respect grew up in
his bosom, and mechanically he removed his wideawake as though in the
presence of a superior.
"I perceive," said the stranger, "that your adventures have not at all
been peaceful. Your collar is torn, your face is scratched, you have a
cut upon your temple; you will, perhaps, pardon my curiosity when I ask
you to explain how you come by these injuries, and how you happen to
have stolen property to an enormous value in your pocket."
"I must differ from you!" returned Francis hotly. "I possess no stolen
property. And if you refer to the diamond, it was given to me not an
hour ago by Miss Vandeleur in the Rue Lepic."
"By Miss Vandeleur in the Rue Lepic!" repeated the other. "You interest
me more than you suppose. Pray continue."
"Heavens!" cried Francis.
His memory had made a sudden bound. He had seen Mr. Vandeleur take an
article from the breast of his drugged visitor, and that article, he was
now persuaded, was a morocco case.
"You have a light?" inquired the stranger.
"Listen," replied Francis. "I know not who you are, but I believe you to
be worthy of confidence and helpful; I find myself in strange waters; I
must have counsel and support, and since you invite me I shall tell you
all."
And he briefly recounted his experience since the day when he was
summoned from the bank by his lawyer.
"Yours is indeed a remarkable history," said the stranger, after the
young man had made an end of his narrative; "and your position is full
of difficulty and peril. Many would counsel you to seek out your father,
and give the diamond to him; but I have other views.--Waiter!" he cried.
The waiter drew near.
"Will you ask the manager to speak with me a moment?" said he; and
Francis observed once more, both in his tone and manner, the evidence of
a habit of command.
The waiter withdrew, and returned in a moment with the manager, who
bowed with obsequious respect.
"What," said he, "can I do to serve you?"
"Have the goodness," replied the stranger, indicating Francis, "to tell
this gentleman my name."
"You have the honour, sir," said the functionary, addressing young
Scrymgeour, "to occupy the same table with His Highness Prince Florizel
of Bohemia."
Francis rose with precipitation, and made a grateful reverence to the
Prince, who bade him resume his seat.
"I thank you," said Florizel, once more addressing the functionary; "I
am sorry to have deranged you for so small a matter."
And he dismissed him with a movement of his hand.
"And now," added the Prince, turning to Francis, "give me the diamond."
Without a word the casket was handed over.
"You have done right," said Florizel; "your sentiments have properly
inspired you, and you will live to be grateful for the misfortunes of
to-night. A man, Mr. Scrymgeour, may fall into a thousand perplexities,
but if his heart be upright and his intelligence unclouded, he will
issue from them all without dishonour. Let your mind be at rest; your
affairs are in my hand; and with the aid of Heaven I am strong enough to
bring them to a good end. Follow me, if you please, to my carriage."
So saying the Prince arose, and, having left a piece of gold for the
waiter, conducted the young man from the café and along the Boulevard to
where an unpretentious brougham and a couple of servants out of livery
awaited his arrival.
"This carriage," said he, "is at your disposal; collect your baggage as
rapidly as you can make it convenient, and my servants will conduct you
to a villa in the neighbourhood of Paris where you can wait in some
degree of comfort until I have had time to arrange your situation. You
will find there a pleasant garden, a library of good authors, a cook, a
cellar, and some good cigars, which I recommend to your attention.
Jérome," he added, turning to one of the servants, "you have heard what
I say; I leave Mr. Scrymgeour in your charge; you will, I know, be
careful of my friend."
Francis uttered some broken phrases of gratitude.
"It will be time enough to thank me," said the Prince, "when you are
acknowledged by your father and married to Miss Vandeleur."
And with that the Prince turned away and strolled leisurely in the
direction of Montmartre. He hailed the first passing cab, gave an
address, and a quarter of an hour afterwards, having discharged the
driver some distance lower, he was knocking at Mr. Vandeleur's garden
gate.
It was opened with singular precautions by the Dictator in person.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"You must pardon me this late visit, Mr. Vandeleur," replied the Prince.
"Your Highness is always welcome," returned Mr. Vandeleur, stepping
back.
The Prince profited by the open space, and without waiting for his host
walked right into the house and opened the door of the _salon_. Two
people were seated there; one was Miss Vandeleur, who bore the marks of
weeping about her eyes, and was still shaken from time to time by a sob;
in the other the Prince recognised the young man who had consulted him
on literary matters about a month before, in a club smoking-room.
"Good-evening, Miss Vandeleur," said Florizel; "you look fatigued. Mr.
Rolles, I believe? I hope you have profited by the study of Gaboriau,
Mr. Rolles."
But the young clergyman's temper was too much embittered for speech; and
he contented himself with bowing stiffly, and continued to gnaw his lip.
"To what good wind," said Mr. Vandeleur, following his guest, "am I to
attribute the honour of your Highness's presence?"
"I am come on business," returned the Prince; "on business with you; as
soon as that is settled I shall request Mr. Rolles to accompany me for a
walk.--Mr. Rolles," he added, with severity, "let me remind you that I
have not yet sat down."
The clergyman sprang to his feet with an apology; whereupon the Prince
took an arm-chair beside the table, handed his hat to Mr. Vandeleur, his
cane to Mr. Rolles, and, leaving them standing and thus menially
employed upon his service, spoke as follows:--
"I have come here, as I said, upon business; but, had I come looking for
pleasure, I could not have been more displeased with my reception nor
more dissatisfied with my company. You, sir," addressing Mr. Rolles,
"you have treated your superior in station with discourtesy; you,
Vandeleur, receive me with a smile, but you know right well that your
hands are not yet cleansed from misconduct.--I do not desire to be
interrupted, sir," he added imperiously; "I am here to speak, and not to
listen; and I have to ask you to hear me with respect, and to obey
punctiliously. At the earliest possible date your daughter shall be
married at the Embassy to my friend, Francis Scrymgeour, your brother's
acknowledged son. You will oblige me by offering not less than ten
thousand pounds dowry. For yourself, I will indicate to you in writing a
mission of some importance in Siam which I destine to your care. And
now, sir, you will answer me in two words whether or not you agree to
these conditions."
"Your Highness will pardon me," said Mr. Vandeleur, "and permit me, with
all respect, to submit to him two queries?"
"The permission is granted," replied the Prince.
"Your Highness," resumed the Dictator, "has called Mr. Scrymgeour his
friend. Believe me, had I known he was thus honoured, I should have
treated him with proportional respect."
"You interrogate adroitly," said the Prince; "but it will not serve your
turn. You have my commands; if I had never seen that gentleman before
to-night, it would not render them less absolute."
"Your Highness interprets my meaning with his usual subtlety," returned
Vandeleur. "Once more: I have, unfortunately, put the police upon the
track of Mr. Scrymgeour on a charge of theft; am I to withdraw or to
uphold the accusation?"
"You will please yourself," replied Florizel. "The question is one
between your conscience and the laws of this land. Give me my hat; and
you, Mr. Rolles, give me my cane and follow me. Miss Vandeleur, I wish
you good-evening. I judge," he added to Vandeleur, "that your silence
means unqualified assent."
"If I can do no better," replied the old man, "I shall submit; but I
warn you openly it shall not be without a struggle."
"You are old," said the Prince; "but years are disgraceful to the
wicked. Your age is more unwise than the youth of others. Do not provoke
me, or you may find me harder than you dream. This is the first time
that I have fallen across your path in anger; take care that it be the
last."
With these words, motioning the clergyman to follow, Florizel left the
apartment and directed his steps towards the garden gate; and the
Dictator, following with a candle, gave them light, and once more undid
the elaborate fastenings with which he sought to protect himself from
intrusion.
"Your daughter is no longer present," said the Prince, turning on the
threshold. "Let me tell you that I understand your threats; and you have
only to lift your hand to bring upon yourself sudden and irremediable
ruin."
The Dictator made no reply; but as the Prince turned his back upon him
in the lamplight he made a gesture full of menace and insane fury; and
the next moment, slipping round a corner, he was running at full speed
for the nearest cab-stand.
_Here_ (says my Arabian) _the thread of events is finally diverted from_
THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN BLINDS. _One more adventure, he adds, and we
have done with_ THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND. _That last link in the chain is
known among the inhabitants of Bagdad by the name of_
THE ADVENTURE OF PRINCE FLORIZEL AND A DETECTIVE
Prince Florizel walked with Mr. Rolles to the door of a small hotel
where the latter resided. They spoke much together, and the clergyman
was more than once affected to tears by the mingled severity and
tenderness of Florizel's reproaches.
"I have made ruin of my life," he said at last. "Help me; tell me what I
am to do; I have, alas! neither the virtues of a priest nor the
dexterity of a rogue."
"Now that you are humbled," said the Prince, "I command no longer; the
repentant have to do with God, and not with Princes. But if you will let
me advise you, go to Australia as a colonist, seek menial labour in the
open air, and try to forget that you have ever been a clergyman, or that
you ever set eyes on that accursed stone."
"Accurst indeed!" replied Mr. Rolles. "Where is it now? What further
hurt is it not working for mankind?"
"It will do no more evil," returned the Prince. "It is here in my
pocket. And this," he added kindly, "will show that I place some faith
in your penitence, young as it is."
"Suffer me to touch your hand," pleaded Mr. Rolles.
"No," replied Prince Florizel, "not yet."
The tone in which he uttered these last words was eloquent in the ears
of the young clergyman; and for some minutes after the Prince had turned
away he stood on the threshold following with his eyes the retreating
figure and invoking the blessing of Heaven upon a man so excellent in
counsel.
For several hours the Prince walked alone in unfrequented streets. His
mind was full of concern; what to do with the diamond, whether to return
it to its owner, whom he judged unworthy of this rare possession, or to
take some sweeping and courageous measure and put it out of the reach of
all mankind at once and for ever, was a problem too grave to be decided
in a moment. The manner in which it had come into his hands appeared
manifestly providential; and as he took out the jewel and looked at it
under the street lamps, its size and surprising brilliancy inclined him
more and more to think of it as of an unmixed and dangerous evil for the
world.
"God help me!" he thought; "if I look at it much oftener I shall begin
to grow covetous myself."
At last, though still uncertain in his mind, he turned his steps towards
the small but elegant mansion on the river-side which had belonged for
centuries to his royal family. The arms of Bohemia are deeply graved
over the door and upon the tall chimneys; passengers have a look into a
green court set with the most costly flowers; and a stork, the only one
in Paris, perches on the gable all day long and keeps a crowd before the
house. Grave servants are seen passing to and fro within; and from time
to time the great gate is thrown open and a carriage rolls below the
arch. For many reasons this residence was especially dear to the heart
of Prince Florizel; he never drew near to it without enjoying that
sentiment of home-coming so rare in the lives of the great; and on the
present evening he beheld its tall roof and mildly illuminated windows
with unfeigned relief and satisfaction.
As he was approaching the postern door by which he always entered when
alone, a man stepped forth from the shadow and presented himself with an
obeisance in the Prince's path.
"I have the honour of addressing Prince Florizel of Bohemia?" said he.
"Such is my title," replied the Prince. "What do you want with me?"
"I am," said the man, "a detective, and I have to present your Highness
with this billet from the Prefect of Police."
The Prince took the letter and glanced it through by the light of the
street lamp. It was highly apologetic, but requested him to follow the
bearer to the Prefecture without delay.
"In short," said Florizel, "I am arrested."
"Your Highness," replied the officer, "nothing, I am certain, could be
further from the intention of the Prefect. You will observe that he has
not granted a warrant. It is mere formality, or call it, if you prefer,
an obligation that your Highness lays on the authorities."
"At the same time," asked the Prince, "if I were to refuse to follow
you?"
"I will not conceal from your Highness that a considerable discretion
has been granted me," replied the detective, with a bow.
"Upon my word," cried Florizel, "your effrontery astounds me! Yourself,
as an agent, I must pardon; but your superiors shall dearly smart for
their misconduct. What, have you any idea, is the cause of this
impolitic and unconstitutional act? You will observe that I have as yet
neither refused nor consented, and much may depend on your prompt and
ingenuous answer. Let me remind you, officer, that this is an affair of
some gravity."
"Your Highness," said the detective humbly, "General Vandeleur and his
brother have had the incredible presumption to accuse you of theft. The
famous diamond, they declare, is in your hands. A word from you in
denial will most amply satisfy the Prefect; nay, I go further: if your
Highness would so far honour a subaltern as to declare his ignorance of
the matter even to myself, I should ask permission to retire upon the
spot."
Florizel, up to the last moment, had regarded his adventure in the light
of a trifle, only serious upon international considerations. At the name
of Vandeleur the horrible truth broke upon him in a moment; he was not
only arrested, but he was guilty. This was not only an annoying
incident--it was a peril to his honour. What was he to say? What was he
to do? The Rajah's Diamond was indeed an accursed stone; and it seemed
as if he were to be the last victim to its influence.
One thing was certain. He could not give the required assurance to the
detective. He must gain time.
His hesitation had not lasted a second.
"Be it so," said he, "let us walk together to the Prefecture."
The man once more bowed, and proceeded to follow Florizel at a
respectful distance in the rear.
"Approach," said the Prince. "I am in a humour to talk, and, if I
mistake not, now I look at you again, this is not the first time that we
have met."
"I count it an honour," replied the officer, "that your Highness should
recollect my face. It is eight years since I had the pleasure of an
interview."
"To remember faces," returned Florizel, "is as much a part of my
profession as it is of yours. Indeed, rightly looked upon, a Prince and
a detective serve in the same corps. We are both combatants against
crime; only mine is the more lucrative and yours the more dangerous
rank, and there is a sense in which both may be made equally honourable
to a good man. I had rather, strange as you may think it, be a detective
of character and parts than a weak and ignoble sovereign."
The officer was overwhelmed.
"Your Highness returns good for evil," said he. "To an act of
presumption he replies by the most amiable condescension."
"How do you know," replied Florizel, "that I am not seeking to corrupt
you?"
"Heaven preserve me from the temptation!" cried the detective.
"I applaud your answer," returned the Prince. "It is that of a wise and
honest man. The world is a great place, and stocked with wealth and
beauty, and there is no limit to the rewards that may be offered. Such
an one who would refuse a million of money may sell his honour for an
empire or the love of a woman; and I myself, who speak to you, have seen
occasions so tempting, provocations so irresistible to the strength of
human virtue, that I have been glad to tread in your steps and recommend
myself to the grace of God. It is thus, thanks to that modest and
becoming habit alone," he added, "that you and I can walk this town
together with untarnished hearts."
"I had always heard that you were brave," replied the officer, "but I
was not aware that you were wise and pious. You speak the truth, and
you speak it with an accent that moves me to the heart. This world is
indeed a place of trial."
"We are now," said Florizel, "in the middle of the bridge. Lean your
elbows on the parapet and look over. As the water rushing below, so the
passions and complications of life carry away the honesty of weak men.
Let me tell you a story."
"I receive your Highness's commands," replied the man.
And, imitating the Prince, he leaned against the parapet, and disposed
himself to listen. The city was already sunk in slumber; had it not been
for the infinity of lights and the outline of buildings on the starry
sky, they might have been alone beside some country river.
"An officer," began Prince Florizel, "a man of courage and conduct, who
had already risen by merit to an eminent rank, and won not only
admiration but respect, visited, in an unfortunate hour for his peace of
mind, the collections of an Indian Prince. Here he beheld a diamond so
extraordinary for size and beauty that from that instant he had only one
desire in life: honour, reputation, friendship, the love of country--he
was ready to sacrifice all for this lump of sparkling crystal. For three
years he served this semi-barbarian potentate as Jacob served Laban; he
falsified frontiers, he connived at murders, he unjustly condemned and
executed a brother-officer who had the misfortune to displease the Rajah
by some honest freedoms; lastly, at a time of great danger to his native
land, he betrayed a body of his fellow-soldiers, and suffered them to be
defeated and massacred by thousands. In the end he had amassed a
magnificent fortune, and brought home with him the coveted diamond.
"Years passed," continued the Prince, "and at length the diamond is
accidentally lost. It falls into the hands of a simple and laborious
youth, a student, a minister of God, just entering on a career of
usefulness and even distinction. Upon him also the spell is cast; he
deserts everything, his holy calling, his studies, and flees with the
gem into a foreign country. The officer has a brother, an astute,
daring, unscrupulous man, who learns the clergyman's secret. What does
he do? Tell his brother, inform the police? No; upon this man also the
Satanic charm has fallen; he must have the stone for himself. At the
risk of murder, he drugs the young priest and seizes the prey. And now,
by an accident which is not important to my moral, the jewel passes out
of his custody into that of another, who, terrified at what he sees,
gives it into the keeping of a man in high station and above reproach.
"The officer's name is Thomas Vandeleur," continued Florizel. "The stone
is called the Rajah's Diamond. And"--suddenly opening his hand--"you
behold it here before your eyes."
The officer started back with a cry.
"We have spoken of corruption," said the Prince. "To me this nugget of
bright crystal is as loathsome as though it were crawling with the worms
of death; it is as shocking as though it were compacted out of innocent
blood. I see it here in my hand, and I know it is shining with
hell-fire. I have told you but a hundredth part of its story; what
passed in former ages, to what crimes and treacheries it incited men of
yore, the imagination trembles to conceive; for years and years it has
faithfully served the powers of hell; enough, I say, of blood, enough of
disgrace, enough of broken lives and friendships; all things come to an
end, the evil like the good; pestilence as well as beautiful music; and
as for this diamond, God forgive me if I do wrong, but its empire ends
to-night."
The Prince made a sudden movement with his hand, and the jewel,
describing an arc of light, dived with a splash into the flowing river.
"Amen," said Florizel, with gravity. "I have slain a cockatrice!"
"God pardon me!" cried the detective. "What have you done? I am a ruined
man."
"I think," returned the Prince, with a smile, "that many well-to-do
people in this city might envy you your ruin."
"Alas! your Highness!" said the officer, "and you corrupt me after all?"
"It seems there was no help for it," replied Florizel.--"And now let us
go forward to the Prefecture."
Not long after, the marriage of Francis Scrymgeour and Miss Vandeleur
was celebrated in great privacy; and the Prince acted on that occasion
as groom's man. The two Vandeleurs surprised some rumour of what had
happened to the diamond; and their vast diving operations on the River
Seine are the wonder and amusement of the idle. It is true that through
some miscalculation they have chosen the wrong branch of the river. As
for the Prince, that sublime person, having now served his turn, may go,
along with the _Arabian Author_, topsy-turvy into space. But if the
reader insists on more specific information, I am happy to say that a
recent revolution hurled him from the throne of Bohemia, in consequence
of his continued absence and edifying neglect of public business; and
that his Highness now keeps a cigar store in Rupert Street, much
frequented by other foreign refugees. I go there from time to time to
smoke and have a chat, and find him as great a creature as in the days
of his prosperity; he has an Olympian air behind the counter; and
although a sedentary life is beginning to tell upon his waistcoat, he is
probably, take him for all in all, the handsomest tobacconist in London.
THE PAVILION ON THE LINKS
CHAPTER I
TELLS HOW I CAMPED IN GRADEN SEA-WOOD, AND BEHELD A LIGHT IN THE
PAVILION
I was a great solitary when I was young. I made it my pride to keep
aloof and suffice for my own entertainment; and I may say that I had
neither friends nor acquaintances until I met that friend who became my
wife and the mother of my children. With one man only was I on private
terms: this was R. Northmour, Esquire, of Graden-Easter, in Scotland. We
had met at college; and though there was not much liking between us, nor
even much intimacy, we were so nearly of a humour that we could
associate with ease to both. Misanthropes we believed ourselves to be;
but I have thought since that we were only sulky fellows. It was
scarcely a companionship, but a co-existence in unsociability.
Northmour's exceptional violence of temper made it no easy affair for
him to keep the peace with any one but me; and as he respected my silent
ways, and let me come and go as I pleased, I could tolerate his presence
without concern. I think we called each other friends.
When Northmour took his degree and I decided to leave the University
without one, he invited me on a long visit to Graden-Easter; and it was
thus that I first became acquainted with the scene of my adventures. The
mansion-house of Graden stood in a bleak stretch of country some three
miles from the shore of the German Ocean. It was as large as a barrack;
and as it had been built of a soft stone, liable to consume in the eager
air of the seaside, it was damp and draughty within and half-ruinous
without. It was impossible for two young men to lodge with comfort in
such a dwelling. But there stood in the northern part of the estate, in
a wilderness of links and blowing sand-hills, and between a plantation
and the sea, a small Pavilion or Belvidere, of modern design, which was
exactly suited to our wants; and in this hermitage, speaking little,
reading much, and rarely associating except at meals, Northmour and I
spent four tempestuous winter months. I might have stayed longer; but
one March night there sprang up between us a dispute, which rendered my
departure necessary. Northmour spoke hotly, I remember, and I suppose I
must have made some tart rejoinder. He leaped from his chair and
grappled me; I had to fight, without exaggeration, for my life; and it
was only with a great effort that I mastered him, for he was near as
strong in body as myself, and seemed filled with the devil. The next
morning we met on our usual terms; but I judged it more delicate to
withdraw; nor did he attempt to dissuade me.
It was nine years before I revisited the neighbourhood. I travelled at
that time with a tilt-cart, a tent, and a cooking-stove, tramping all
day beside the waggon, and at night, whenever it was possible, gipsying
in a cove of the hills, or by the side of a wood. I believe I visited in
this manner most of the wild and desolate regions both in England and
Scotland; and, as I had neither friends nor relations, I was troubled
with no correspondence, and had nothing in the nature of headquarters,
unless it was the office of my solicitors, from whom I drew my income
twice a year. It was a life in which I delighted; and I fully thought to
have grown old upon the march, and at last died in a ditch.
It was my whole business to find desolate corners, where I could camp
without the fear of interruption; and hence, being in another part of
the same shire, I bethought me suddenly of the Pavilion on the Links. No
thoroughfare passed within three miles of it. The nearest town, and that
was but a fisher village, was at a distance of six or seven. For ten
miles of length, and from a depth varying from three miles to half a
mile, this belt of barren country lay along the sea. The beach, which
was the natural approach, was full of quicksands. Indeed, I may say
there is hardly a better place of concealment in the United Kingdom. I
determined to pass a week in the Sea-Wood of Graden-Easter, and making a
long stage, reached it about sundown on a wild September day.
The country, I have said, was mixed sand-hill and links; _links_ being a
Scottish name for sand which has ceased drifting and become more or less
solidly covered with turf. The pavilion stood on an even space; a little
behind it, the wood began in a hedge of elders huddled together by the
wind; in front, a few tumbled sand-hills stood between it and the sea.
An outcropping of rock had formed a bastion for the sand, so that there
was here a promontory in the coast-line between two shallow bays; and
just beyond the tides, the rock again cropped out and formed an islet of
small dimensions but strikingly designed. The quicksands were of great
extent at low water, and had an infamous reputation in the country.
Close inshore, between the islet and the promontory, it was said they
would swallow a man in four minutes and a half; but there may have been
little ground for this precision. The district was alive with rabbits,
and haunted by gulls which made a continual piping about the pavilion.
On summer days the outlook was bright, and even gladsome; but at sundown
in September, with a high wind, and a heavy surf rolling in close along
the links, the place told of nothing but dead mariners and sea disaster.
A ship beating to windward on the horizon, and a huge truncheon of wreck
half-buried in the sands at my feet, completed the innuendo of the
scene.
The pavilion--it had been built by the last proprietor, Northmour's
uncle, a silly and prodigal virtuoso--presented little signs of age. It
was two stories in height, Italian in design, surrounded by a patch of
garden in which nothing had prospered but a few coarse flowers, and
looked, with its shuttered windows, not like a house that had been
deserted, but like one that had never been tenanted by man. Northmour
was plainly from home; whether, as usual, sulking in the cabin of his
yacht, or in one of his fitful and extravagant appearances in the world
of society, I had, of course, no means of guessing. The place had an air
of solitude that daunted even a solitary like myself; the wind cried in
the chimneys with a strange and wailing note; and it was with a sense of
escape, as if I were going indoors, that I turned away and, driving my
cart before me, entered the skirts of the wood.
The Sea-Wood of Graden had been planted to shelter the cultivated fields
behind, and check the encroachments of the blowing sand. As you advanced
into it from coastward, elders were succeeded by other hardy shrubs; but
the timber was all stunted and bushy; it led a life of conflict; the
trees were accustomed to swing there all night long in fierce winter
tempests; and even in early spring the leaves were already flying, and
autumn was beginning, in this exposed plantation. Inland the ground rose
into a little hill, which, along with the islet, served as a sailing
mark for seamen. When the hill was open of the islet to the north,
vessels must bear well to the eastward to clear Graden Ness and the
Graden Bullers. In the lower ground, a streamlet ran among the trees,
and, being dammed with dead leaves and clay of its own carrying, spread
out every here and there, and lay in stagnant pools. One or two ruined
cottages were dotted about the wood; and, according to Northmour, these
were ecclesiastical foundations, and in their time had sheltered pious
hermits.
I found a den, or small hollow, where there was a spring of pure water;
and there, clearing away the brambles, I pitched the tent, and made a
fire to cook my supper. My horse I picketed farther in the wood where
there was a patch of sward. The banks of the den not only concealed the
light of my fire, but sheltered me from the wind, which was cold as well
as high.
The life I was leading made me both hardy and frugal. I never drank but
water, and rarely ate anything more costly than oatmeal; and I required
so little sleep that, although I rose with the peep of day, I would
often lie long awake in the dark or starry watches of the night. Thus in
Graden Sea-Wood, although I fell thankfully asleep by eight in the
evening, I was awake again before eleven with a full possession of my
faculties, and no sense of drowsiness or fatigue. I rose and sat by the
fire, watching the trees and clouds tumultuously tossing and fleeing
overhead, and hearkening to the wind and the rollers along the shore;
till at length, growing weary of inaction, I quitted the den, and
strolled towards the borders of the wood. A young moon, buried in mist,
gave a faint illumination to my steps; and the light grew brighter as I
walked forth into the links. At the same moment, the wind, smelling salt
of the open ocean, and carrying particles of sand, struck me with its
full force, so that I had to bow my head.
When I raised it again to look about me, I was aware of a light in the
pavilion. It was not stationary; but passed from one window to another
as though some one were reviewing the different apartments with a lamp
or candle. I watched it for some seconds in great surprise. When I had
arrived in the afternoon the house had been plainly deserted; now it was
as plainly occupied. It was my first idea that a gang of thieves might
have broken in and be now ransacking Northmour's cupboards, which were
many and not ill supplied. But what should bring thieves to
Graden-Easter? And, again, all the shutters had been thrown open, and it
would have been more in the character of such gentry to close them. I
dismissed the notion, and fell back upon another: Northmour himself must
have arrived, and was now airing and inspecting the pavilion.
I have said that there was no real affection between this man and me;
but, had I loved him like a brother, I was then so much more in love
with solitude that I should none the less have shunned his company. As
it was, I turned and ran for it; and it was with genuine satisfaction
that I found myself safely back beside the fire. I had escaped an
acquaintance: I should have one more night in comfort. In the morning I
might either slip away before Northmour was abroad, or pay him as short
a visit as I chose.
But when morning came I thought the situation so diverting that I forgot
my shyness. Northmour was at my mercy; I arranged a good practical jest,
though I knew well that my neighbour was not the man to jest with in
security; and, chuckling beforehand over its success, took my place
among the elders at the edge of the wood, whence I could command the
door of the pavilion. The shutters were all once more closed, which I
remember thinking odd; and the house, with its white walls and green
venetians, looked spruce and habitable in the morning light. Hour after
hour passed, and still no sign of Northmour. I knew him for a sluggard
in the morning; but, as it drew on towards noon, I lost my patience. To
say the truth, I had promised myself to break my fast in the pavilion,
and hunger began to prick me sharply. It was a pity to let the
opportunity go by without some cause for mirth; but the grosser appetite
prevailed, and I relinquished my jest with regret, and sallied from the
wood.
The appearance of the house affected me, as I drew near, with
disquietude. It seemed unchanged since last evening; and I had expected
it, I scarce knew why, to wear some external signs of habitation. But
no: the windows were all closely shuttered, the chimneys breathed no
smoke, and the front door itself was closely padlocked. Northmour
therefore had entered by the back; this was the natural, and indeed the
necessary, conclusion; and you may judge of my surprise when, on turning
the house, I found the back-door similarly secured.
My mind at once reverted to the original theory of thieves; and I blamed
myself sharply for my last night's inaction. I examined all the windows
on the lower story, but none of them had been tampered with; I tried the
padlocks, but they were both secure. It thus became a problem how the
thieves, if thieves they were, had managed to enter the house. They must
have got, I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse where Northmour
used to keep his photographic battery; and from thence, either by the
window of the study or that of my old bedroom, completed their
burglarious entry.
I followed what I supposed was their example; and, getting on the roof,
tried the shutters of each room. Both were secure; but I was not to be
beaten; and, with a little force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it
did so, the back of my hand. I remember I put the wound to my mouth and
stood for perhaps half a minute licking it like a dog, and mechanically
gazing behind me over the waste links and the sea; and in that space of
time my eye made note of a large schooner yacht some miles to the
north-east. Then I threw up the window and climbed in.
I went over the house, and nothing can express my mystification. There
was no sign of disorder, but, on the contrary, the rooms were unusually
clean and pleasant. I found fires laid ready for lighting; three
bedrooms prepared with a luxury quite foreign to Northmour's habits, and
with water in the ewers and the beds turned down; a table set for three
in the dining-room; and an ample supply of cold meats, game, and
vegetables on the pantry shelves. There were guests expected, that was
plain; but why guests when Northmour hated society? And, above all, why
was the house thus stealthily prepared at dead of night? and why were
the shutters closed and the doors padlocked?
I effaced all traces of my visit, and came forth from the window feeling
sobered and concerned.
The schooner yacht was still in the same place; and it flashed for a
moment through my mind that this might be the _Red Earl_ bringing the
owner of the pavilion and his guests. But the vessel's head was set the
other way.
CHAPTER II
TELLS OF THE NOCTURNAL LANDING FROM THE YACHT
I returned to the den to cook myself a meal, of which I stood in great
need, as well as to care for my horse, which I had somewhat neglected in
the morning. From time to time I went down to the edge of the wood; but
there was no change in the pavilion, and not a human creature was seen
all day upon the links. The schooner in the offing was the one touch of
life within my range of vision. She, apparently with no set object,
stood off and on or lay to, hour after hour; but as the evening deepened
she drew steadily nearer. I became more convinced that she carried
Northmour and his friends, and that they would probably come ashore
after dark; not only because that was of a piece with the secrecy of the
preparations, but because the tide would not have flowed sufficiently
before eleven to cover Graden Floe and the other sea quags that
fortified the shore against invaders.
All day the wind had been going down, and the sea along with it; but
there was a return towards sunset of the heavy weather of the day
before. The night set in pitch dark. The wind came off the sea in
squalls, like the firing of a battery of cannon; now and then there was
a flaw of rain and the surf rolled heavier with the rising tide. I was
down at my observatory among the elders, when a light was run up to the
mast-head of the schooner, and showed she was closer in than when I had
last seen her by the dying daylight. I concluded that this must be a
signal to Northmour's associates on shore; and, stepping forth into the
links, looked around me for something in response.
A small footpath ran along the margin of the wood, and formed the most
direct communication between the pavilion and the mansion-house; and as
I cast my eyes to that side I saw a spark of light, not a quarter of a
mile away, and rapidly approaching. From its uneven course it appeared
to be the light of a lantern carried by a person who followed the
windings of the path, and was often staggered and taken aback by the
more violent squalls. I concealed myself once more among the elders, and
waited eagerly for the new-comer's advance. It proved to be a woman; and
as she passed within half a rod of my ambush I was able to recognise the
features. The deaf and silent old dame who had nursed Northmour in his
childhood was his associate in this underhand affair.
I followed her at a little distance, taking advantage of the innumerable
heights and hollows, concealed by the darkness, and favoured not only by
the nurse's deafness, but by the uproar of the wind and surf. She
entered the pavilion, and, going at once to the upper story, opened and
set a light in one of the windows that looked towards the sea.
Immediately afterwards the light at the schooner's mast-head was run
down and extinguished. Its purpose had been attained, and those on board
were sure that they were expected. The old woman resumed her
preparations; although the other shutters remained closed, I could see a
glimmer going to and fro about the house; and a gush of sparks from one
chimney after another soon told me that the fires were being kindled.
Northmour and his guests, I was now persuaded, would come ashore as soon
as there was water on the floe. It was a wild night for boat service;
and I felt some alarm mingle with my curiosity as I reflected on the
danger of the landing. My old acquaintance, it was true, was the most
eccentric of men; but the present eccentricity was both disquieting and
lugubrious to consider. A variety of feelings thus led me towards the
beach, where I lay flat on my face in a hollow within six feet of the
track that led to the pavilion. Thence, I should have the satisfaction
of recognising the arrivals, and, if they should prove to be
acquaintances, greeting them as soon as they had landed.
Some time before eleven, while the tide was still dangerously low, a
boat's lantern appeared close inshore; and, my attention being thus
awakened, I could perceive another still far to seaward, violently
tossed, and sometimes hidden by the billows. The weather, which was
getting dirtier as the night went on, and the perilous situation of the
yacht upon a lee-shore, had probably driven them to attempt a landing at
the earliest possible moment.
A little afterwards, four yachtsmen carrying a very heavy chest, and
guided by a fifth with a lantern, passed close in front of me as I lay,
and were admitted to the pavilion by the nurse. They returned to the
beach, and passed me a second time with another chest, larger but
apparently not so heavy as the first. A third time they made the
transit; and on this occasion one of the yachtsmen carried a leather
portmanteau, and the others a lady's trunk and carriage bag. My
curiosity was sharply excited. If a woman were among the guests of
Northmour, it would show a change in his habits and an apostasy from his
pet theories of life, well calculated to fill me with surprise. When he
and I dwelt there together, the pavilion had been a temple of misogyny.
And now, one of the detested sex was to be installed under its roof. I
remembered one or two particulars, a few notes of daintiness and almost
of coquetry which had struck me the day before as I surveyed the
preparations in the house; their purpose was now clear, and I thought
myself dull not to have perceived it from the first.
While I was thus reflecting, a second lantern drew near me from the
beach. It was carried by a yachtsman whom I had not yet seen, and who
was conducting two other persons to the pavilion. These two persons were
unquestionably the guests for whom the house was made ready; and,
straining eye and ear, I set myself to watch them as they passed. One
was an unusually tall man, in a travelling hat slouched over his eyes,
and a highland cape closely buttoned and turned up so as to conceal his
face. You could make out no more of him than that he was, as I have
said, unusually tall, and walked feebly with a heavy stoop. By his side,
and either clinging to him or giving him support--I could not make out
which--was a young, tall, and slender figure of a woman. She was
extremely pale; but in the light of the lantern her face was so marred
by strong and changing shadows that she might equally well have been as
ugly as sin or as beautiful as I afterwards found her to be.
When they were just abreast of me, the girl made some remark which was
drowned by the noise of the wind.
"Hush!" said her companion; and there was something in the tone with
which the word was uttered that thrilled and rather shook my spirits. It
seemed to breathe from a bosom labouring under the deadliest terror; I
have never heard another syllable so expressive; and I still hear it
again when I am feverish at night, and my mind runs upon old times. The
man turned towards the girl as he spoke; I had a glimpse of much red
beard and a nose which seemed to have been broken in youth; and his
light eyes seemed shining in his face with some strong and unpleasant
emotion.
But these two passed on and were admitted in their turn to the pavilion.
One by one, or in groups, the seamen returned to the beach. The wind
brought me the sound of a rough voice crying, "Shove off!" Then, after a
pause, another lantern drew near. It was Northmour alone.
My wife and I, a man and a woman, have often agreed to wonder how a
person could be, at the same time, so handsome and so repulsive as
Northmour. He had the appearance of a finished gentleman; his face bore
every mark of intelligence and courage; but you had only to look at him,
even in the most amiable moment, to see that he had the temper of a
slaver captain. I never knew a character that was both explosive and
revengeful to the same degree; he combined the vivacity of the South
with the sustained and deadly hatreds of the North; and both traits were
plainly written on his face, which was a sort of danger-signal. In
person he was tall, strong, and active; his hair and complexion very
dark; his features handsomely designed, but spoiled by a menacing
expression.
At that moment he was somewhat paler than by nature; he wore a heavy
frown; and his lips worked, and he looked sharply round him as he
walked, like a man besieged with apprehensions. And yet I thought he had
a look of triumph underlying all, as though he had already done much,
and was near the end of an achievement.
Partly from a scruple of delicacy--which I daresay came too late--partly
from the pleasure of startling an acquaintance, I desired to make my
presence known to him without delay.
I got suddenly to my feet, and stepped forward.
"Northmour!" said I.
I have never had so shocking a surprise in all my days. He leaped on me
without a word; something shone in his hand; and he struck for my heart
with a dagger. At the same moment I knocked him head over heels. Whether
it was my quickness, or his own uncertainty, I know not; but the blade
only grazed my shoulder, while the hilt and his fist struck me violently
on the mouth.
I fled, but not far. I had often and often observed the capabilities of
the sand-hills for protracted ambush or stealthy advances and retreats;
and, not ten yards from the scene of the scuffle, plumped down again
upon the grass. The lantern had fallen and gone out. But what was my
astonishment to see Northmour slip at a bound into the pavilion, and
hear him bar the door behind him with a clang of iron!
He had not pursued me. He had run away. Northmour, whom I knew for the
most implacable and daring of men, had run away! I could scarcely
believe my reason; and yet in this strange business, where all was
incredible, there was nothing to make a work about in an incredibility
more or less. For why was the pavilion secretly prepared? Why had
Northmour landed with his guests at dead of night, in half a gale of
wind, and with the floe scarce covered? Why had he sought to kill me?
Had he not recognised my voice? I wondered. And, above all, how had he
come to have a dagger ready in his hand? A dagger, or even a sharp
knife, seemed out of keeping with the age in which we lived; and a
gentleman landing from his yacht on the shore of his own estate, even
although it was at night and with some mysterious circumstances, does
not usually, as a matter of fact, walk thus prepared for deadly
onslaught. The more I reflected, the further I felt at sea. I
recapitulated the elements of mystery, counting them on my fingers: the
pavilion secretly prepared for guests; the guests landed at the risk of
their lives and to the imminent peril of the yacht; the guests, or at
least one of them, in undisguised and seemingly causeless terror;
Northmour with a naked weapon; Northmour stabbing his most intimate
acquaintance at a word; last, and not least strange, Northmour fleeing
from the man whom he had sought to murder, and barricading himself, like
a hunted creature, behind the door of the pavilion. Here were at least
six separate causes for extreme surprise; each part and parcel with the
others, and forming all together one consistent story. I felt almost
ashamed to believe my own senses.
As I thus stood, transfixed with wonder, I began to grow painfully
conscious of the injuries I had received in the scuffle; skulked round
among the sand-hills; and, by a devious path, regained the shelter of
the wood. On the way, the old nurse passed again within several yards of
me, still carrying her lantern, on the return journey to the
mansion-house of Graden. This made a seventh suspicious feature in the
case. Northmour and his guests, it appeared, were to cook and do the
cleaning for themselves, while the old woman continued to inhabit the
big empty barrack among the policies. There must surely be great cause
for secrecy when so many inconveniences were confronted to preserve it.
So thinking, I made my way to the den. For greater security I trod out
the embers of the fire, and lit my lantern to examine the wound upon my
shoulder. It was a trifling hurt, although it bled somewhat freely, and
I dressed it as well as I could (for its position made it difficult to
reach) with some rag and cold water from the spring. While I was thus
busied I mentally declared war against Northmour and his mystery. I am
not an angry man by nature, and I believe there was more curiosity than
resentment in my heart. But war I certainly declared; and, by way of
preparation, I got out my revolver, and, having drawn the charges,
cleaned and reloaded it with scrupulous care. Next I became preoccupied
about my horse. It might break loose, or fall to neighing, and so betray
my camp in the Sea-Wood. I determined to rid myself of its
neighbourhood; and long before dawn I was leading it over the links in
the direction of the fisher village.
CHAPTER III
TELLS HOW I BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH MY WIFE
For two days I skulked round the pavilion, profiting by the uneven
surface of the links. I became an adept in the necessary tactics. These
low hillocks and shallow dells, running one into another, became a kind
of cloak of darkness for my enthralling, but perhaps dishonourable,
pursuit. Yet, in spite of this advantage, I could learn but little of
Northmour or his guests.
Fresh provisions were brought under cover of darkness by the old woman
from the mansion-house. Northmour and the young lady, sometimes
together, but more often singly, would walk for an hour or two at a time
on the beach beside the quicksand. I could not but conclude that this
promenade was chosen with an eye to secrecy; for the spot was open only
to the seaward. But it suited me not less excellently; the highest and
most accidented of the sand-hills immediately adjoined; and from these,
lying flat in a hollow, I could overlook Northmour or the young lady as
they walked.
The tall man seemed to have disappeared. Not only did he never cross the
threshold, but he never so much as showed face at a window; or, at
least, not so far as I could see; for I dared not creep forward beyond a
certain distance in the day, since the upper floor commanded the bottoms
of the links; and at night, when I could venture farther, the lower
windows were barricaded as if to stand a siege. Sometimes I thought the
tall man must be confined to bed, for I remembered the feebleness of his
gait; and sometimes I thought he must have gone clear away, and that
Northmour and the young lady remained alone together in the pavilion.
The idea, even then, displeased me.
Whether or not this pair were man and wife, I had seen abundant reason
to doubt the friendliness of their relation. Although I could hear
nothing of what they said, and rarely so much as glean a decided
expression on the face of either, there was a distance, almost a
stiffness, in their bearing which showed them to be either unfamiliar or
at enmity. The girl walked faster when she was with Northmour than when
she was alone; and I conceived that any inclination between a man and a
woman would rather delay than accelerate the step. Moreover, she kept a
good yard free of him, and trailed her umbrella, as if it were a
barrier, on the side between them. Northmour kept sidling closer; and,
as the girl retired from his advance, their course lay at a sort of
diagonal across the beach, and would have landed them in the surf had it
been long enough continued. But when this was imminent, the girl would
unostentatiously change sides and put Northmour between her and the sea.
I watched these manoeuvres, for my part, with high enjoyment and
approval, and chuckled to myself at every move.
On the morning of the third day she walked alone for some time, and I
perceived, to my great concern, that she was more than once in tears.
You will see that my heart was already interested more than I supposed.
She had a firm yet airy motion of the body, and carried her head with
unimaginable grace; every step was a thing to look at, and she seemed in
my eyes to breathe sweetness and distinction.
The day was so agreeable, being calm and sunshiny, with a tranquil sea,
and yet with a healthful piquancy and vigour in the air, that, contrary
to custom, she was tempted forth a second time to walk. On this occasion
she was accompanied by Northmour, and they had been but a short while on
the beach, when I saw him take forcible possession of her hand. She
struggled, and uttered a cry that was almost a scream. I sprang to my
feet, unmindful of my strange position; but, ere I had taken a step, I
saw Northmour bareheaded and bowing very low, as if to apologise; and
dropped again at once into my ambush. A few words were interchanged; and
then, with another bow, he left the beach to return to the pavilion. He
passed not far from me, and I could see him, flushed and lowering, and
cutting savagely with his cane among the grass. It was not without
satisfaction that I recognised my own handiwork in a great cut under his
right eye, and a considerable discoloration round the socket.
For some time the girl remained where he had left her, looking out past
the islet and over the bright sea. Then with a start, as one who throws
off preoccupation and puts energy again upon its mettle, she broke into
a rapid and decisive walk. She also was much incensed by what had
passed. She had forgotten where she was. And I beheld her walk straight
into the borders of the quicksand where it is more abrupt and dangerous.
Two or three steps farther and her life would have been in serious
jeopardy, when I slid down the face of the sand-hill, which is there
precipitous, and, running half-way forward, called to her to stop.
She did so, and turned round. There was not a tremor of fear in her
behaviour, and she marched directly up to me like a queen. I was
barefoot, and clad like a common sailor, save for an Egyptian scarf
round my waist; and she probably took me at first for some one from the
fisher village, straying after bait. As for her, when I thus saw her
face to face, her eyes set steadily and imperiously upon mine, I was
filled with admiration and astonishment, and thought her even more
beautiful than I had looked to find her. Nor could I think enough of one
who, acting with so much boldness, yet preserved a maidenly air that was
both quaint and engaging; for my wife kept an old-fashioned precision of
manner through all her admirable life--an excellent thing in woman,
since it sets another value on her sweet familiarities.
"What does this mean?" she asked.
"You were walking," I told her, "directly into Graden Floe."
"You do not belong to these parts," she said again. "You speak like an
educated man."
"I believe I have right to that name," said I, "although in this
disguise."
But her woman's eye had already detected the sash.
"Oh!" she said; "your sash betrays you."
"You have said the word _betray_," I resumed. "May I ask you not to
betray me? I was obliged to disclose myself in your interest; but if
Northmour learned my presence it might be worse than disagreeable for
me."
"Do you know," she asked, "to whom you are speaking?"
"Not to Mr. Northmour's wife?" I asked, by way of answer.
She shook her head. All this while she was studying my face with an
embarrassing intentness. Then she broke out--
"You have an honest face. Be honest like your face, sir, and tell me
what you want and what you are afraid of. Do you think I could hurt you?
I believe you have far more power to injure me! And yet you do not look
unkind. What do you mean--you, a gentleman--by skulking like a spy about
this desolate place? Tell me," she said, "who is it you hate?"
"I hate no one," I answered; "and I fear no one face to face. My name
is Cassilis--Frank Cassilis. I lead the life of a vagabond for my own
good pleasure. I am one of Northmour's oldest friends; and three nights
ago, when I addressed him on these links, he stabbed me in the shoulder
with a knife."
"It was you!" she said.
"Why he did so," I continued, disregarding the interruption, "is more
than I can guess, and more than I care to know. I have not many friends,
nor am I very susceptible to friendship; but no man shall drive me from
a place by terror. I had camped in Graden Sea-Wood ere he came; I camp
in it still. If you think I mean harm to you or yours, madam, the remedy
is in your hand. Tell him that my camp is in the Hemlock Den, and
to-night he can stab me in safety while I sleep."
With this I doffed my cap to her, and scrambled up once more among the
sand-hills. I do not know why, but I felt a prodigious sense of
injustice, and felt like a hero and a martyr; while, as a matter of
fact, I had not a word to say in my defence, nor so much as one
plausible reason to offer for my conduct. I had stayed at Graden out of
a curiosity natural enough, but undignified; and though there was
another motive growing in along with the first, it was not one which, at
that period, I could have properly explained to the lady of my heart.
Certainly, that night, I thought of no one else; and, though her whole
conduct and position seemed suspicious, I could not find it in my heart
to entertain a doubt of her integrity. I could have staked my life that
she was clear of blame, and, though all was dark at the present, that
the explanation of the mystery would show her part in these events to be
both right and needful. It was true, let me cudgel my imagination as I
pleased, that I could invent no theory of her relations to Northmour;
but I felt none the less sure of my conclusion because it was founded on
instinct in place of reason, and, as I may say, went to sleep that night
with the thought of her under my pillow.
Next day she came out about the same hour alone, and, as soon as the
sand-hills concealed her from the pavilion, drew nearer to the edge, and
called me by name in guarded tones. I was astonished to observe that she
was deadly pale, and seemingly under the influence of strong emotion.
"Mr. Cassilis!" she cried; "Mr. Cassilis!"
I appeared at once, and leaped down upon the beach. A remarkable air of
relief overspread her countenance as soon as she saw me.
"Oh!" she cried, with a hoarse sound, like one whose bosom has been
lightened of a weight. And then, "Thank God you are still safe!" she
added; "I knew, if you were, you would be here." (Was not this strange?
So swiftly and wisely does Nature prepare our hearts for these great
life-long intimacies, that both my wife and I had been given a
presentiment on this the second day of our acquaintance. I had even then
hoped that she would seek me; she had felt sure that she would find me.)
"Do not," she went on swiftly, "do not stay in this place. Promise me
that you will sleep no longer in that wood. You do not know how I
suffer; all last night I could not sleep for thinking of your peril."
"Peril?" I repeated. "Peril from whom? From Northmour?"
"Not so," she said. "Did you think I would tell him after what you
said?"
"Not from Northmour?" I repeated. "Then how? From whom? I see none to be
afraid of."
"You must not ask me," was her reply, "for I am not free to tell you.
Only believe me, and go hence--believe me, and go away quickly, quickly,
for your life!"
An appeal to his alarm is never a good plan to rid oneself of a spirited
young man. My obstinacy was but increased by what she said, and I made
it a point of honour to remain. And her solicitude for my safety still
more confirmed me in the resolve.
"You must not think me inquisitive, madam," I replied; "but, if Graden
is so dangerous a place, you yourself perhaps remain here at some risk."
She only looked at me reproachfully.
"You and your father----" I resumed; but she interrupted me almost with
a gasp.
"My father! How do you know that?" she cried.
"I saw you together when you landed," was my answer; and I do not know
why, but it seemed satisfactory to both of us, as indeed it was the
truth. "But," I continued, "you need have no fear from me. I see you
have some reason to be secret, and, you may believe me, your secret is
as safe with me as if I were in Graden Floe. I have scarce spoken to any
one for years; my horse is my only companion, and even he, poor beast,
is not beside me. You see, then, you may count on me for silence. So
tell me the truth, my dear young lady, are you not in danger?"
"Mr. Northmour says you are an honourable man," she returned, "and I
believe it when I see you. I will tell you so much; you are right; we
are in dreadful, dreadful danger, and you share it by remaining where
you are."
"Ah!" said I; "you have heard of me from Northmour? And he gives me a
good character?"
"I asked him about you last night," was her reply. "I pretended," she
hesitated, "I pretended to have met you long ago, and spoken to you of
him. It was not true; but I could not help myself without betraying you,
and you had put me in a difficulty. He praised you highly."
"And--you may permit me one question--does this danger come from
Northmour?" I asked.
"From Mr. Northmour?" she cried. "Oh, no; he stays with us to share it."
"While you propose that I should run away?" I said. "You do not rate me
very high."
"Why should you stay?" she asked. "You are no friend of ours."
I know not what came over me, for I had not been conscious of a similar
weakness since I was a child, but I was so mortified by this retort
that my eyes pricked and filled with tears, as I continued to gaze upon
her face.
"No, no," she said, in a changed voice; "I did not mean the words
unkindly."
"It was I who offended," I said; and I held out my hand with a look of
appeal that somehow touched her, for she gave me hers at once, and even
eagerly. I held it for a while in mine, and gazed into her eyes. It was
she who first tore her hand away, and, forgetting all about her request
and the promise she had sought to extort, ran at the top of her speed,
and without turning, till she was out of sight. And then I knew that I
loved her, and thought in my glad heart that she--she herself--was not
indifferent to my suit. Many a time she has denied it in after days, but
it was with a smiling and not a serious denial. For my part, I am sure
our hands would not have lain so closely in each other if she had not
begun to melt to me already. And, when all is said, it is no great
contention, since, by her own avowal, she began to love me on the
morrow.
And yet on the morrow very little took place. She came and called me
down as on the day before, upbraided me for lingering at Graden, and,
when she found I was still obdurate, began to ask me more particularly
as to my arrival. I told her by what series of accidents I had come to
witness their disembarkation, and how I had determined to remain, partly
from the interest which had been wakened in me by Northmour's guests,
and partly because of his own murderous attack. As to the former, I fear
I was disingenuous, and led her to regard herself as having been an
attraction to me from the first moment that I saw her on the links. It
relieves my heart to make this confession even now, when my wife is with
God, and already knows all things, and the honesty of my purpose even in
this; for while she lived, although it often pricked my conscience, I
had never the hardihood to undeceive her. Even a little secret, in such
a married life as ours, is like the rose-leaf which kept the Princess
from her sleep.
From this the talk branched into other subjects, and I told her much
about my lonely and wandering existence; she, for her part, giving ear
and saying little. Although we spoke very naturally, and latterly on
topics that might seem indifferent, we were both sweetly agitated. Too
soon it was time for her to go; and we separated, as if by mutual
consent, without shaking hands, for both knew that, between us, it was
no idle ceremony.
The next, and that was the fourth day of our acquaintance, we met in the
same spot, but early in the morning, with much familiarity and yet much
timidity on either side. When she had once more spoken about my
danger--and that, I understood, was her excuse for coming--I, who had
prepared a great deal of talk during the night, began to tell her how
highly I valued her kind interest, and how no one had ever cared to hear
about my life, nor had I ever cared to relate it, before yesterday.
Suddenly she interrupted me, saying with vehemence--
"And yet, if you knew who I was, you would not so much as speak to me!"
I told her such a thought was madness, and, little as we had met, I
counted her already a dear friend; but my protestations seemed only to
make her more desperate.
"My father is in hiding!" she cried.
"My dear," I said, forgetting for the first time to add "young lady,"
"what do I care? If he were in hiding twenty times over, would it make
one thought of change in you?"
"Ah, but the cause!" she cried, "the cause! It is----" she faltered for
a second--"it is disgraceful to us."
CHAPTER IV
TELLS IN WHAT A STARTLING MANNER I LEARNED THAT I WAS NOT ALONE IN
GRADEN SEA-WOOD
This was my wife's story, as I drew it from her among tears and sobs.
Her name was Clara Huddlestone: it sounded very beautiful in my ears;
but not so beautiful as that other name of Clara Cassilis, which she
wore during the longer, and I thank God the happier, portion of her
life. Her father, Bernard Huddlestone, had been a private banker in a
very large way of business. Many years before, his affairs becoming
disordered, he had been led to try dangerous, and at last criminal,
expedients to retrieve himself from ruin. All was in vain; he became
more and more cruelly involved, and found his honour lost at the same
moment with his fortune. About this period Northmour had been courting
his daughter with great assiduity, though with small encouragement; and
to him, knowing him thus disposed in his favour, Bernard Huddlestone
turned for help in his extremity. It was not merely ruin and dishonour,
nor merely a legal condemnation, that the unhappy man had brought upon
his head. It seems he could have gone to prison with a light heart. What
he feared, what kept him awake at night or recalled him from slumber
into frenzy, was some secret, sudden, and unlawful attempt upon his
life. Hence he desired to bury his existence and escape to one of the
islands in the South Pacific, and it was in Northmour's yacht, the _Red
Earl_, that he designed to go. The yacht picked them up clandestinely
upon the coast of Wales, and had once more deposited them at Graden,
till she could be refitted and provisioned for the longer voyage. Nor
could Clara doubt that her hand had been stipulated as the price of
passage. For, although Northmour was neither unkind nor even
discourteous, he had shown himself in several instances somewhat
over-bold in speech and manner.
I listened, I need not say, with fixed attention, and put many questions
as to the more mysterious part. It was in vain. She had no clear idea of
what the blow was, nor of how it was expected to fall. Her father's
alarm was unfeigned and physically prostrating, and he had thought more
than once of making an unconditional surrender to the police. But the
scheme was finally abandoned, for he was convinced that not even the
strength of our English prisons could shelter him from his pursuers. He
had had many affairs with Italy, and with Italians resident in London,
in the later years of his business, and these last, as Clara fancied,
were somehow connected with the doom that threatened him. He had shown
great terror at the presence of an Italian seaman on board the _Red
Earl_, and had bitterly and repeatedly accused Northmour in consequence.
The latter had protested that Beppo (that was the seaman's name) was a
capital fellow, and could be trusted to the death; but Mr. Huddlestone
had continued ever since to declare that all was lost, that it was only
a question of days, and that Beppo would be the ruin of him yet.
I regarded the whole story as the hallucination of a mind shaken by
calamity. He had suffered heavy loss by his Italian transactions; and
hence the sight of an Italian was hateful to him, and the principal part
in his nightmare would naturally enough be played by one of that nation.
"What your father wants," I said, "is a good doctor and some calming
medicine."
"But Mr. Northmour?" objected your mother. "He is untroubled by losses,
and yet he shares in this terror."
I could not help laughing at what I considered her simplicity.
"My dear," said I, "you have told me yourself what reward he has to look
for. All is fair in love, you must remember; and if Northmour foments
your father's terrors, it is not at all because he is afraid of any
Italian man, but simply because he is infatuated with a charming
English woman."
She reminded me of his attack upon myself on the night of the
disembarkation, and this I was unable to explain. In short, and from one
thing to another, it was agreed between us that I should set out at once
for the fisher village, Graden-Wester, as it is called, look up all the
newspapers I could find, and see for myself if there seemed any basis of
fact for these continued alarms. The next morning, at the same hour and
place, I was to make my report to Clara. She said no more on that
occasion about my departure; nor, indeed, did she make it a secret that
she clung to the thought of my proximity as something helpful and
pleasant; and, for my part, I could not have left her, if she had gone
upon her knees to ask it.
I reached Graden-Wester before ten in the forenoon; for in those days I
was an excellent pedestrian, and the distance, as I think I have said,
was little over seven miles; fine walking all the way upon the springy
turf. The village is one of the bleakest on that coast, which is saying
much: there is a church in a hollow; a miserable haven in the rocks,
where many boats have been lost as they returned from fishing; two or
three score of stone houses arranged along the beach and in two streets,
one leading from the harbour, and another striking out from it at right
angles; and, at the corner of these two, a very dark and cheerless
tavern, by way of principal hotel.
I had dressed myself somewhat more suitably to my station in life, and
at once called upon the minister in his little manse beside the
graveyard. He knew me, although it was more than nine years since we had
met; and when I told him that I had been long upon a walking tour, and
was behind with the news, readily lent me an armful of newspapers,
dating from a month back to the day before. With these I sought the
tavern, and, ordering some breakfast, sat down to study the "Huddlestone
Failure."
It had been, it appeared, a very flagrant case. Thousands of persons
were reduced to poverty; and one in particular had blown out his brains
as soon as payment was suspended. It was strange to myself that, while I
read these details, I continued rather to sympathise with Mr.
Huddlestone than with his victims; so complete already was the empire of
my love for my wife. A price was naturally set upon the banker's head;
and, as the case was inexcusable and the public indignation thoroughly
aroused, the unusual figure of £750 was offered for his capture. He was
reported to have large sums of money in his possession. One day he had
been heard of in Spain; the next, there was sure intelligence that he
was still lurking between Manchester and Liverpool, or along the border
of Wales; and the day after, a telegram would announce his arrival in
Cuba or Yucatan. But in all this there was no word of an Italian, nor
any sign of mystery.
In the very last paper, however, there was one item not so clear. The
accountants who were charged to verify the failure had, it seemed, come
upon the traces of a very large number of thousands, which figured for
some time in the transactions of the house of Huddlestone; but which
came from nowhere, and disappeared in the same mysterious fashion. It
was only once referred to by name, and then under the initials "X.X.";
but it had plainly been floated for the first time into the business at
a period of great depression some six years ago. The name of a
distinguished Royal personage had been mentioned by rumour in connection
with this sum. "The cowardly desperado"--such, I remember, was the
editorial expression--was supposed to have escaped with a large part of
this mysterious fund still in his possession.
I was still brooding over the fact, and trying to torture it into some
connection with Mr. Huddlestone's danger, when a man entered the tavern
and asked for some bread and cheese with a decided foreign accent.
"_Siete Italiano?_" said I.
"_Si, signor_," was his reply.
I said it was unusually far north to find one of his compatriots; at
which he shrugged his shoulders, and replied that a man would go
anywhere to find work. What work he could hope to find at Graden-Wester,
I was totally unable to conceive; and the incident struck so
unpleasantly upon my mind that I asked the landlord, while he was
counting me some change, whether he had ever before seen an Italian in
the village. He said he had once seen some Norwegians, who had been
shipwrecked on the other side of Graden Ness and rescued by the lifeboat
from Cauldhaven.
"No!" said I; "but an Italian, like the man who had just had bread and
cheese."
"What?" cried he, "yon black-avised fellow wi' the teeth? Was he an
I-talian? Weel, yon's the first that ever I saw, an' I daresay he's like
to be the last."
Even as he was speaking, I raised my eyes, and, casting a glance into
the street, beheld three men in earnest conversation together, and not
thirty yards away. One of them was my recent companion in the tavern
parlour; the other two, by their handsome, sallow features and soft
hats, should evidently belong to the same race. A crowd of village
children stood around them, gesticulating and talking gibberish in
imitation. The trio looked singularly foreign to the bleak dirty street
in which they were standing, and the dark grey heaven that overspread
them; and I confess my incredulity received at that moment a shock from
which it never recovered. I might reason with myself as I pleased, but I
could not argue down the effect of what I had seen, and I began to share
in the Italian terror.
It was already drawing towards the close of the day before I had
returned, the newspapers at the manse, and got well forward on to the
links on my way home. I shall never forget that walk. It grew very cold
and boisterous; the wind sang in the short grass about my feet; thin
rain showers came running on the gusts; and an immense mountain range of
clouds began to arise out of the bosom of the sea. It would be hard to
imagine a more dismal evening; and whether it was from these external
influences, or because my nerves were already affected by what I had
heard and seen, my thoughts were as gloomy as the weather.
The upper windows of the pavilion commanded a considerable spread of
links in the direction of Graden-Wester. To avoid observation, it was
necessary to hug the beach until I had gained cover from the higher
sand-hills on the little headland, when I might strike across, through
the hollows, for the margin of the wood. The sun was about setting; the
tide was low, and all the quicksands uncovered; and I was moving along,
lost in unpleasant thought, when I was suddenly thunderstruck to
perceive the prints of human feet. They ran parallel to my own course,
but low down upon the beach instead of along the border of the turf;
and, when I examined them, I saw at once, by the size and coarseness of
the impression, that it was a stranger to me and to those in the
pavilion who had recently passed that way. Not only so; but from the
recklessness of the course which he had followed, steering near to the
most formidable portions of the sand, he was as evidently a stranger to
the country and to the ill-repute of Graden beach.
Step by step I followed the prints; until, a quarter of a mile farther,
I beheld them die away into the south-eastern boundary of Graden Floe.
There, whoever he was, the miserable man had perished. One or two gulls,
who had, perhaps, seen him disappear, wheeled over his sepulchre with
their usual melancholy piping. The sun had broken through the clouds by
a last effort, and coloured the wide level of quicksands with a dusky
purple. I stood for some time gazing at the spot, chilled and
disheartened by my own reflections, and with a strong and commanding
consciousness of death. I remember wondering how long the tragedy had
taken, and whether his screams had been audible at the pavilion. And
then, making a strong resolution, I was about to tear myself away, when
a gust fiercer than usual fell upon this quarter of the beach, and I
saw, now whirling high in air, now skimming lightly across the surface
of the sands, a soft, black, felt hat, somewhat conical in shape, such
as I had remarked already on the heads of the Italians.
I believe, but I am not sure, that I uttered a cry. The wind was driving
the hat shoreward, and I ran round the border of the floe to be ready
against its arrival. The gust fell, dropping the hat for a while upon
the quicksand, and then, once more freshening, landed it a few yards
from where I stood. I seized it with the interest you may imagine. It
had seen some service; indeed, it was rustier than either of those I had
seen that day upon the street. The lining was red, stamped with the name
of the maker, which I have forgotten, and that of the place of
manufacture, _Venedig_. This (it is not yet forgotten) was the name
given by the Austrians to the beautiful city of Venice, then, and for
long after, a part of their dominions.
The shock was complete. I saw imaginary Italians upon every side; and,
for the first, and, I may say, for the last time in my experience,
became overpowered by what is called a panic terror. I knew nothing,
that is, to be afraid of, and yet I submit that I was heartily afraid;
and it was with a sensible reluctance that I returned to my exposed and
solitary camp in the Sea-Wood.
There I ate some cold porridge which had been left over from the night
before, for I was disinclined to make a fire; and, feeling strengthened
and reassured, dismissed all these fanciful terrors from my mind, and
lay down to sleep with composure.
How long I may have slept it is impossible for me to guess; but I was
awakened at last by a sudden, blinding flash of light into my face. It
woke me like a blow. In an instant I was upon my knees. But the light
had gone as suddenly as it came. The darkness was intense. And, as it
was blowing great guns from the sea and pouring with rain, the noises of
the storm effectually concealed all others.
It was, I daresay, half a minute before I regained my self-possession.
But for two circumstances, I should have thought I had been awakened by
some new and vivid form of nightmare. First, the flap of my tent, which
I had shut carefully when I retired, was now unfastened; and, second, I
could still perceive, with a sharpness that excluded any theory of
hallucination, the smell of hot metal and of burning oil. The conclusion
was obvious. I had been wakened by some one flashing a bull's-eye
lantern in my face. It had been but a flash, and away. He had seen my
face, and then gone. I asked myself the object of so strange a
proceeding, and the answer came pat. The man, whoever he was, had
thought to recognise me, and he had not. There was yet another question
unresolved: and to this, I may say, I feared to give an answer; if he
had recognised me, what would he have done?
My fears were immediately diverted from myself, for I saw that I had
been visited in a mistake; and I became persuaded that some dreadful
danger threatened the pavilion. It required some nerve to issue forth
into the black and intricate thicket which surrounded and overhung the
den; but I groped my way to the links, drenched with rain, beaten upon
and deafened by the gusts, and fearing at every step to lay my hand upon
some lurking adversary. The darkness was so complete that I might have
been surrounded by an army and yet none the wiser, and the uproar of the
gale so loud that my hearing was as useless as my sight.
For the rest of that night, which seemed interminably long, I patrolled
the vicinity of the pavilion, without seeing a living creature or
hearing any noise but the concert of the wind, the sea, and the rain. A
light in the upper story filtered through a cranny of the shutter, and
kept me company till the approach of dawn.
CHAPTER V
TELLS OF AN INTERVIEW BETWEEN NORTHMOUR, CLARA, AND MYSELF
With the first peep of day, I retired from the open to my old lair among
the sand-hills, there to await the coming of my wife. The morning was
grey, wild, and melancholy; the wind moderated before sunrise, and then
went about, and blew in puffs from the shore; the sea began to go down,
but the rain still fell without mercy. Over all the wilderness of links
there was not a creature to be seen. Yet I felt sure the neighbourhood
was alive with skulking foes. The light had been so suddenly and
surprisingly flashed upon my face as I lay sleeping, and the hat that
had been blown ashore by the wind from over Graden Floe, were two
speaking signals of the peril that environed Clara and the party in the
pavilion.
It was perhaps half-past seven, or nearer eight, before I saw the door
open, and that dear figure come towards me in the rain. I was waiting
for her on the beach before she had crossed the sand-hills.
"I have had such trouble to come!" she cried. "They did not wish me to
go walking in the rain."
"Clara," I said, "you are not frightened!"
"No," said she, with a simplicity that filled my heart with confidence.
For my wife was the bravest as well as the best of women; in my
experience I have not found the two go always together, but with her
they did; and she combined the extreme of fortitude with the most
endearing and beautiful virtues.
I told her what had happened; and, though her cheek grew visibly paler,
she retained perfect control over her senses.
"You see now that I am safe," said I, in conclusion. "They do not mean
to harm me; for, had they chosen, I was a dead man last night."
She laid her hand upon my arm.
"And I had no presentiment!" she cried.
Her accent thrilled me with delight. I put my arm about her, and
strained her to my side; and before either of us was aware, her hands
were on my shoulders, and my lips upon her mouth. Yet up to that moment
no word of love had passed between us. To this day I remember the touch
of her cheek, which was wet and cold with the rain; and many a time
since, when she has been washing her face, I have kissed it again for
the sake of that morning on the beach. Now that she is taken from me,
and I finish my pilgrimage alone, I recall our old loving-kindnesses and
the deep honesty and affection which united us, and my present loss
seems but a trifle in comparison.
We may have thus stood for some seconds--for time passes quickly with
lovers--before we were startled by a peal of laughter close at hand. It
was not natural mirth, but seemed to be affected in order to conceal an
angrier feeling. We both turned, though I still kept my left arm about
Clara's waist; nor did she seek to withdraw herself; and there, a few
paces off upon the beach, stood Northmour, his head lowered, his hands
behind his back, his nostrils white with passion.
"Ah! Cassilis!" he said, as I disclosed my face.
"That same," said I; for I was not at all put about.
"And so, Miss Huddlestone," he continued slowly but savagely, "this is
how you keep your faith to your father and to me? This is the value you
set upon your father's life? And you are so infatuated with this young
gentleman that you must brave ruin, and decency, and common human
caution----"
"Miss Huddlestone----" I was beginning to interrupt him, when he, in his
turn, cut in brutally--
"You hold your tongue," said he; "I am speaking to that girl."
"That girl, as you call her, is my wife," said I; and my wife only
leaned a little nearer, so that I knew she had affirmed my words.
"Your what?" he cried. "You lie!"
"Northmour," I said, "we all know you have a bad temper, and I am the
last man to be irritated by words. For all that, I propose that you
speak lower, for I am convinced that we are not alone."
He looked round him, and it was plain my remark had in some degree
sobered his passion. "What do you mean?" he asked.
I only said one word: "Italians."
He swore a round oath, and looked at us, from one to the other.
"Mr. Cassilis knows all that I know," said my wife.
"What I want to know," he broke out, "is where the devil Mr. Cassilis
comes from, and what the devil Mr. Cassilis is doing here. You say you
are married; that I do not believe. If you were, Graden Floe would soon
divorce you; four minutes and a half, Cassilis. I keep my private
cemetery for my friends."
"It took somewhat longer," said I, "for that Italian."
He looked at me for a moment half-daunted, and then, almost civilly,
asked me to tell my story. "You have too much the advantage of me,
Cassilis," he added. I complied, of course; and he listened, with
several ejaculations, while I told him how I had come to Graden: that it
was I whom he had tried to murder on the night of landing; and what I
had subsequently seen and heard of the Italians.
"Well," said he, when I had done, "it is here at last; there is no
mistake about that. And what, may I ask, do you propose to do?"
"I propose to stay with you and lend a hand," said I.
"You are a brave man," he returned, with a peculiar intonation.
"I am not afraid," said I.
"And so," he continued, "I am to understand that you two are married?
And you stand up to it before my face, Miss Huddlestone?"
"We are not yet married," said Clara; "but we shall be as soon as we
can."
"Bravo!" cried Northmour. "And the bargain? D--n it, you're not a fool,
young woman; I may call a spade a spade with you. How about the bargain?
You know as well as I do what your father's life depends upon. I have
only to put my hands under my coat-tails and walk away, and his throat
would be cut before the evening."
"Yes, Mr. Northmour," returned Clara, with great spirit; "but that is
what you will never do. You made a bargain that was unworthy of a
gentleman; but you are gentleman for all that, and you will never desert
a man whom you have begun to help."
"Aha!" said he. "You think I will give my yacht for nothing? You think I
will risk my life and liberty for love of the old gentleman; and then, I
suppose, be best-man at the wedding, to wind up? Well," he added, with
an odd smile, "perhaps you are not altogether wrong. But ask Cassilis
here. _He_ knows me. Am I a man to trust? Am I safe and scrupulous? Am I
kind?"
"I know you talk a great deal, and sometimes, I think, very foolishly,"
replied Clara, "but I know you are a gentleman, and I am not the least
afraid."
He looked at her with a peculiar approval and admiration; then, turning
to me, "Do you think I would give her up without a struggle, Frank?"
said he. "I tell you plainly, you look out. The next time we come to
blows----"
"Will make the third," I interrupted, smiling.
"Ay, true; so it will," he said. "I had forgotten. Well, the third
time's lucky."
"The third time, you mean, you will have the crew of the _Red Earl_ to
help," I said.
"Do you hear him?" he asked, turning to my wife.
"I hear two men speaking like cowards," said she. "I should despise
myself either to think or speak like that. And neither of you believe
one word that you are saying, which makes it the more wicked and silly."
"She's a trump!" cried Northmour. "But she's not yet Mrs. Cassilis. I
say no more. The present is not for me."
Then my wife surprised me.
"I leave you here," she said suddenly. "My father has been too long
alone. But remember this: you are to be friends, for you are both good
friends to me."
She has since told me her reason for this step. As long as she remained,
she declares that we two should have continued to quarrel; and I suppose
that she was right, for when she was gone we fell at once into a sort of
confidentiality.
Northmour stared after her as she went away over the sand-hill.
"She is the only woman in the world!" he exclaimed, with an oath. "Look
at her action."
I, for my part, leaped at this opportunity for a little further light.
"See here, Northmour," said I; "we are all in a tight place, are we
not?"
"I believe you, my boy," he answered, looking me in the eyes, and with
great emphasis. "We have all hell upon us, that's the truth. You may
believe me or not, but I'm afraid of my life."
"Tell me one thing," said I. "What are they after, these Italians? What
do they want with Mr. Huddlestone?"
"Don't you know?" he cried. "The black old scamp had _carbonaro_ funds
on a deposit--two hundred and eighty thousand; and of course he gambled
it away on stocks. There was to have been a revolution in the
Tridentino, or Parma; but the revolution is off, and the whole wasps'
nest is after Huddlestone. We shall all be lucky if we can save our
skins."
"The _carbonari_!" I exclaimed; "God help him indeed!"
"Amen!" said Northmour. "And now, look here: I have said that we are in
a fix; and, frankly, I shall be glad of your help. If I can't save
Huddlestone, I want at least to save the girl. Come and stay in the
pavilion; and, there's my hand on it, I shall act as your friend until
the old man is either clear or dead. But," he added, "once that is
settled, you become my rival once again, and I warn you--mind yourself."
"Done!" said I; and we shook hands.
"And now let us go directly to the fort," said Northmour; and he began
to lead the way through the rain.
CHAPTER VI
TELLS OF MY INTRODUCTION TO THE TALL MAN
We were admitted to the pavilion by Clara, and I was surprised by the
completeness and security of the defences. A barricade of great
strength, and yet easy to displace, supported the door against any
violence from without; and the shutters of the dining-room, into which I
was led directly, and which was feebly illuminated by a lamp, were even
more elaborately fortified. The panels were strengthened by bars and
cross-bars; and these, in their turn, were kept in position by a system
of braces and struts, some abutting on the floor, some on the roof, and
others, in fine, against the opposite wall of the apartment. It was at
once a solid and well-designed piece of carpentry; and I did not seek to
conceal my admiration.
"I am the engineer," said Northmour. "You remember the planks in the
garden? Behold them!"
"I did not know you had so many talents," said I.
"Are you armed?" he continued, pointing to an array of guns and pistols,
all in admirable order, which stood in line against the wall or were
displayed upon the sideboard.
"Thank you," I returned; "I have gone armed since our last encounter.
But, to tell you the truth, I have had nothing to eat since early
yesterday evening."
Northmour produced some cold meat, to which I eagerly set myself, and a
bottle of good Burgundy, by which, wet as I was, I did not scruple to
profit. I have always been an extreme temperance man on principle; but
it is useless to push principle to excess, and on this occasion I
believe that I finished three-quarters of the bottle. As I ate, I still
continued to admire the preparations for defence.
"We could stand a siege," I said at length.
"Ye--es," drawled Northmour; "a very little one, per--haps. It is not so
much the strength of the pavilion I misdoubt; it is the double danger
that kills me. If we get to shooting, wild as the country is, some one
is sure to hear it, and then--why, then it's the same thing, only
different, as they say: caged by law, or killed by _carbonari_. There's
the choice. It is a devilish bad thing to have the law against you in
this world, and so I tell the old gentleman upstairs. He is quite of my
way of thinking."
"Speaking of that," said I, "what kind of person is he?"
"Oh, he!" cried the other; "he's a rancid fellow, as far as he goes. I
should like to have his neck wrung to-morrow by all the devils in Italy.
I am not in this affair for him. You take me? I made a bargain for
Missy's hand, and I mean to have it too."
"That by the way," said I. "I understand. But how will Mr. Huddlestone
take my intrusion?"
"Leave that to Clara," returned Northmour.
I could have struck him in the face for this coarse familiarity; but I
respected the truce, as, I am bound to say, did Northmour, and so long
as the danger continued not a cloud arose in our relation. I bear him
this testimony with the most unfeigned satisfaction; nor am I without
pride when I look back upon my own behaviour. For surely no two men were
ever left in a position so invidious and irritating.
As soon as I had done eating, we proceeded to inspect the lower floor.
Window by window we tried the different supports, now and then making an
inconsiderable change; and the strokes of the hammer sounded with
startling loudness through the house. I proposed, I remember, to make
loopholes; but he told me they were already made in the windows of the
upper story. It was an anxious business, this inspection, and left me
down-hearted. There were two doors and five windows to protect, and,
counting Clara, only four of us to defend them against an unknown number
of foes. I communicated my doubts to Northmour, who assured me, with
unmoved composure, that he entirely shared them.
"Before morning," said he, "we shall all be butchered and buried in
Graden Floe. For me, that is written."
I could not help shuddering at the mention of the quicksand, but
reminded Northmour that our enemies had spared me in the wood.
"Do not flatter yourself," said he. "Then you were not in the same boat
with the old gentleman; now you are. It's the floe for all of us, mark
my words."
I trembled for Clara; and just then her dear voice was heard calling us
to come upstairs. Northmour showed me the way, and, when he had reached
the landing, knocked at the door of what used to be called _My Uncle's
Bedroom_, as the founder of the pavilion had designed it especially for
himself.
"Come in, Northmour; come in, dear Mr. Cassilis," said a voice from
within.
Pushing open the door, Northmour admitted me before him into the
apartment. As I came in I could see the daughter slipping out by the
side-door into the study, which had been prepared as her bedroom. In the
bed, which was drawn back against the wall, instead of standing, as I
had last seen it, boldly across the window, sat Bernard Huddlestone, the
defaulting banker. Little as I had seen of him by the shifting light of
the lantern on the links, I had no difficulty in recognising him for
the same. He had a long and sallow countenance, surrounded by a long red
beard and side-whiskers. His broken nose and high cheek-bones gave him
somewhat the air of a Kalmuck, and his light eyes shone with the
excitement of a high fever. He wore a skull-cap of black silk; a huge
Bible lay open before him on the bed, with a pair of gold spectacles in
the place, and a pile of other books lay on the stand by his side. The
green curtains lent a cadaverous shade to his cheek; and, as he sat
propped on pillows, his great stature was painfully hunched, and his
head protruded till it overhung his knees. I believe if he had not died
otherwise, he must have fallen a victim to consumption in the course of
but a very few weeks.
He held out to me a hand, long, thin, and disagreeably hairy.
"Come in, come in, Mr. Cassilis," said he. "Another
protector--ahem!--another protector. Always welcome as a friend of my
daughter's, Mr. Cassilis. How they have rallied about me, my daughter's
friends! May God in Heaven bless and reward them for it!"
I gave him my hand, of course, because I could not help it; but the
sympathy I had been prepared to feel for Clara's father was immediately
soured by his appearance, and the wheedling, unreal tones in which he
spoke.
"Cassilis is a good man," said Northmour; "worth ten."
"So I hear," cried Mr. Huddlestone eagerly; "so my girl tells me. Ah,
Mr. Cassilis, my sin has found me out, you see! I am very low, very low;
but I hope equally penitent. We must all come to the throne of grace at
last, Mr. Cassilis. For my part, I come late indeed; but with unfeigned
humility, I trust."
"Fiddle-de-dee!" said Northmour roughly.
"No, no, dear Northmour!" cried the banker. "You must not say that; you
must not try to shake me. You forget, my dear, good boy, you forget I
may be called this very night before my Maker."
His excitement was pitiful to behold; and I felt myself grow indignant
with Northmour, whose infidel opinions I well knew, and heartily
derided, as he continued to taunt the poor sinner out of his humour of
repentance.
"Pooh, my dear Huddlestone!" said he. "You do yourself injustice. You
are a man of the world, inside and out, and were up to all kinds of
mischief before I was born. Your conscience is tanned like South
American leather--only you forgot to tan your liver, and that, if you
will believe me, is the seat of the annoyance."
"Rogue, rogue! bad boy!" said Mr. Huddlestone, shaking his finger, "I am
no precisian, if you come to that; I always hated a precisian; but I
never lost hold of something better through it all. I have been a bad
boy, Mr. Cassilis; I do not seek to deny that; but it was after my
wife's death, and you know, with a widower, it's a different thing:
sinful--I won't say no; but there is a gradation, we shall hope. And
talking of that---- Hark!" he broke out suddenly, his hand raised, his
fingers spread, his face racked with interest and terror. "Only the
rain, bless God!" he added, after a pause, and with indescribable
relief.
For some seconds he lay back among the pillows like a man near to
fainting; then he gathered himself together, and, in somewhat tremulous
tones, began once more to thank me for the share I was prepared to take
in his defence.
"One question, sir," said I, when he had paused. "Is it true that you
have money with you?"
He seemed annoyed by the question, but admitted with reluctance that he
had a little.
"Well," I continued, "it is their money they are after, is it not? Why
not give it up to them?"
"Ah!" replied he, shaking his head, "I have tried that already, Mr.
Cassilis; and alas that it should be so! but it is blood they want."
"Huddlestone, that's a little less than fair," said Northmour. "You
should mention that what you offered them was upwards of two hundred
thousand short. The deficit is worth a reference; it is for what they
call a cool sum, Frank. Then, you see, the fellows reason in their clear
Italian way; and it seems to them, as indeed it seems to me, that they
may just as well have both while they're about it--money and blood
together, by George, and no more trouble for the extra pleasure."
"Is it in the pavilion?" I asked.
"It is; and I wish it were in the bottom of the sea instead," said
Northmour; and then suddenly--"What are you making faces at me for?" he
cried to Mr. Huddlestone, on whom I had unconsciously turned my back.
"Do you think Cassilis would sell you?"
Mr. Huddlestone protested that nothing had been further from his mind.
"It is a good thing," retorted Northmour in his ugliest manner. "You
might end by wearying us.--What were you going to say?" he added,
turning to me.
"I was going to propose an occupation for the afternoon," said I. "Let
us carry that money out, piece by piece, and lay it down before the
pavilion door. If the _carbonari_ come, why, it's theirs at any rate."
"No, no," cried Mr. Huddlestone; "it does not, it cannot belong to them!
It should be distributed _pro rata_ among all my creditors."
"Come now, Huddlestone," said Northmour, "none of that."
"Well, but my daughter," moaned the wretched man.
"Your daughter will do well enough. Here are two suitors, Cassilis and
I, neither of us beggars, between whom she has to choose. And as for
yourself, to make an end of arguments, you have no right to a farthing,
and, unless I'm much mistaken, you are going to die."
It was certainly very cruelly said; but Mr. Huddlestone was a man who
attracted little sympathy; and, although I saw him wince and shudder, I
mentally endorsed the rebuke; nay, I added a contribution of my own.
"Northmour and I," I said, "are willing enough to help you to save your
life, but not to escape with stolen property."
He struggled for a while with himself, as though he were on the point of
giving way to anger, but prudence had the best of the controversy.
"My dear boys," he said, "do with me or my money what you will. I leave
all in your hands. Let me compose myself."
And so we left him, gladly enough I am sure. The last that I saw, he had
once more taken up his great Bible, and with tremulous hands was
adjusting his spectacles to read.
CHAPTER VII
TELLS HOW A WORD WAS CRIED THROUGH THE PAVILION WINDOW
The recollection of that afternoon will always be graven on my mind.
Northmour and I were persuaded that an attack was imminent; and if it
had been in our power to alter in any way the order of events, that
power would have been used to precipitate rather than delay the critical
moment. The worst was to be anticipated; yet we could conceive no
extremity so miserable as the suspense we were now suffering. I have
never been an eager, though always a great, reader; but I never knew
books so insipid as those which I took up and cast aside that afternoon
in the pavilion. Even talk became impossible as the hours went on. One
or other was always listening for some sound, or peering from an
upstairs window over the links. And yet not a sign indicated the
presence of our foes.
We debated over and over again my proposal with regard to the money; and
had we been in complete possession of our faculties, I am sure we should
have condemned it as unwise; but we were flustered with alarm, grasped
at a straw, and determined, although it was as much as advertising Mr.
Huddlestone's presence in the pavilion, to carry my proposal into
effect.
The sum was part in specie, part in bank paper, and part in circular
notes payable to the name of James Gregory. We took it out, counted it,
enclosed it once more in a despatch-box belonging to Northmour, and
prepared a letter in Italian which he tied to the handle. It was signed
by both of us under oath, and declared that this was all the money which
had escaped the failure of the house of Huddlestone. This was, perhaps,
the maddest action ever perpetrated by two persons professing to be
sane. Had the despatch-box fallen into other hands than those for which
it was intended, we stood criminally convicted on our own written
testimony; but as I have said, we were neither of us in a condition to
judge soberly, and had a thirst for action that drove us to do
something, right or wrong, rather than endure the agony of waiting.
Moreover, as we were both convinced that the hollows of the links were
alive with hidden spies upon our movements, we hoped that our appearance
with the box might lead to a parley, and perhaps a compromise.
It was nearly three when we issued from the pavilion. The rain had taken
off; the sun shone quite cheerfully. I have never seen the gulls fly so
close about the house or approach so fearlessly to human beings. On the
very doorstep one flapped heavily past our heads, and uttered its wild
cry in my very ear.
"There is an omen for you," said Northmour, who, like all freethinkers,
was much under the influence of superstition. "They think we are already
dead."
I made some light rejoinder, but it was with half my heart; for the
circumstance had impressed me.
A yard or two before the gate, on a patch of smooth turf, we set down
the despatch-box; and Northmour waved a white handkerchief over his
head. Nothing replied. We raised our voices, and cried aloud in Italian
that we were there as ambassadors to arrange the quarrel; but the
stillness remained unbroken save by the sea-gulls and the surf. I had a
weight at my heart when we desisted; and I saw that even Northmour was
unusually pale. He looked over his shoulder nervously, as though he
feared that some one had crept between him and the pavilion door.
"By God," he said in a whisper, "this is too much for me!"
I replied in the same key: "Suppose there should be none, after all?"
"Look there," he returned, nodding with his head, as though he had been
afraid to point.
I glanced in the direction indicated; and there, from the northern
quarter of the Sea-Wood, beheld a thin column of smoke rising steadily
against the now cloudless sky.
"Northmour," I said (we still continued to talk in whispers), "it is not
possible to endure this suspense. I prefer death fifty times over. Stay
you here to watch the pavilion; I will go forward and make sure, if I
have to walk right into their camp."
He looked once again all round him with puckered eyes, and then nodded
assentingly to my proposal.
My heart beat like a sledge-hammer as I set out walking rapidly in the
direction of the smoke; and, though up to that moment I had felt chill
and shivering, I was suddenly conscious of a glow of heat over all my
body. The ground in this direction was very uneven; a hundred men might
have lain hidden in as many square yards about my path. But I had not
practised the business in vain, chose such routes as cut at the very
root of concealment, and, by keeping along the most convenient ridges,
commanded several hollows at a time. It was not long before I was
rewarded for my caution. Coming suddenly on to a mound somewhat more
elevated than the surrounding hummocks, I saw, not thirty yards away, a
man bent almost double, and running as fast as his attitude permitted
along the bottom of a gully. I had dislodged one of the spies from his
ambush. As soon as I sighted him, I called loudly both in English and
Italian; and he, seeing concealment was no longer possible, straightened
himself out, leaped from the gully, and made off as straight as an arrow
for the borders of the wood.
It was none of my business to pursue; I had learned what I wanted--that
we were beleaguered and watched in the pavilion; and I returned at once,
and walking as nearly as possible in my old footsteps, to where
Northmour awaited me beside the despatch-box. He was even paler than
when I had left him, and his voice shook a little.
"Could you see what he was like?" he asked.
"He kept his back turned," I replied.
"Let us get into the house, Frank. I don't think I'm a coward, but I can
stand no more of this," he whispered.
All was still and sunshiny about the pavilion as we turned to re-enter
it; even the gulls had flown in a wider circuit, and were seen
flickering along the beach and sand-hills; and this loneliness terrified
me more than a regiment under arms. It was not until the door was
barricaded that I could draw a full inspiration and relieve the weight
that lay upon my bosom. Northmour and I exchanged a steady glance; and I
suppose each made his own reflections on the white and startled aspect
of the other.
"You were right," I said. "All is over. Shake hands, old man, for the
last time."
"Yes," replied he, "I will shake hands; for, as sure as I am here, I
bear no malice. But remember, if, by some impossible accident, we should
give the slip to these blackguards, I'll take the upper hand of you by
fair or foul."
"Oh," said I, "you weary me."
He seemed hurt, and walked away in silence to the foot of the stairs,
where he paused.
"You do not understand," said he. "I am not a swindler, and I guard
myself; that is all. It may weary you or not, Mr. Cassilis, I do not
care a rush; I speak for my own satisfaction, and not for your
amusement. You had better go upstairs and court the girl; for my part,
I stay here."
"And I stay with you," I returned. "Do you think I would steal a march,
even with your permission?"
"Frank," he said, smiling, "it's a pity you are an ass, for you have the
makings of a man. I think I must be _fey_ to-day; you cannot irritate me
even when you try. Do you know," he continued softly, "I think we are
the two most miserable men in England, you and I? we have got on to
thirty without wife or child, or so much as a shop to look after--poor,
pitiful, lost devils, both! And now we clash about a girl! As if there
were not several millions in the United Kingdom! Ah, Frank, Frank, the
one who loses this throw, be it you or me, he has my pity! It were
better for him--how does the Bible say?--that a millstone were hanged
about his neck and he were cast into the depth of the sea. Let us take a
drink," he concluded suddenly, but without any levity of tone.
I was touched by his words and consented. He sat down on the table in
the dining-room, and held up the glass of sherry to his eye.
"If you beat me, Frank," he said, "I shall take to drink. What will you
do, if it goes the other way?"
"God knows," I returned.
"Well," said he, "here is a toast in the meantime: '_Italia
irredenta!_'"
The remainder of the day was passed in the same dreadful tedium and
suspense. I laid the table for dinner, while Northmour and Clara
prepared the meal together in the kitchen. I could hear their talk as I
went to and fro, and was surprised to find it ran all the time upon
myself. Northmour again bracketed us together, and rallied Clara on a
choice of husbands; but he continued to speak of me with some feeling,
and uttered nothing to my prejudice unless he included himself in the
condemnation. This awakened a sense of gratitude in my heart, which
combined with the immediateness of our peril to fill my eye with tears.
After all, I thought--and perhaps the thought was laughably vain--we
were here three very noble human beings to perish in defence of a
thieving banker.
Before we sat down to table I looked forth from an upstairs window. The
day was beginning to decline; the links were utterly deserted; the
despatch-box still lay untouched where we had left it hours before.
Mr. Huddlestone, in a long yellow dressing-gown, took one end of the
table, Clara the other; while Northmour and I faced each other from the
sides. The lamp was brightly trimmed; the wine was good; the viands,
although mostly cold, excellent of their sort. We seemed to have agreed
tacitly; all reference to the impending catastrophe was carefully
avoided; and, considering our tragic circumstances, we made a merrier
party than could have been expected. From time to time, it is true,
Northmour or I would rise from table and make a round of the defences;
and, on each of these occasions, Mr. Huddlestone was recalled to a sense
of his tragic predicament, glanced up with ghastly eyes, and bore for an
instant on his countenance the stamp of terror. But he hastened to empty
his glass, wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, and joined again in
the conversation.
I was astonished at the wit and information he displayed. Mr.
Huddlestone's was certainly no ordinary character; he had read and
observed for himself; his gifts were sound; and, though I could never
have learned to love the man, I began to understand his success in
business, and the great respect in which he had been held before his
failure. He had, above all, the talent of society; and though I never
heard him speak but on this one and most unfavourable occasion, I set
him down among the most brilliant conversationalists I ever met.
He was relating with great gusto, and seemingly no feeling of shame, the
manoeuvres of a scoundrelly commission merchant whom he had known and
studied in his youth, and we were all listening with an odd mixture of
mirth and embarrassment, when our little party was brought abruptly to
an end in the most startling manner.
A noise like that of a wet finger on the window-pane interrupted Mr.
Huddlestone's tale; and in an instant we were all four as white as
paper, and sat tongue-tied and motionless round the table.
"A snail," I said at last; for I had heard that these animals make a
noise somewhat similar in character.
"Snail be d--d!" said Northmour. "Hush!"
The same sound was repeated twice at regular intervals; and then a
formidable voice shouted through the shutters the Italian word
"_Traditore!_"
Mr. Huddlestone threw his head in the air; his eyelids quivered; next
moment he fell insensible below the table. Northmour and I had each run
to the armoury and seized a gun. Clara was on her feet with her hand at
her throat.
So we stood waiting, for we thought the hour of attack was certainly
come; but second passed after second, and all but the surf remained
silent in the neighbourhood of the pavilion.
"Quick," said Northmour; "upstairs with him before they come."
CHAPTER VIII
TELLS THE LAST OF THE TALL MAN
Somehow or other, by hook and crook, and between the three of us, we got
Bernard Huddlestone bundled upstairs and laid upon the bed in _My
Uncle's Room_. During the whole process, which was rough enough, he gave
no sign of consciousness, and he remained, as we had thrown him, without
changing the position of a finger. His daughter opened his shirt and
began to wet his head and bosom; while Northmour and I ran to the
window. The weather continued clear; the moon, which was now about full,
had risen and shed a very clear light upon the links; yet, strain our
eyes as we might, we could distinguish nothing moving. A few dark spots,
more or less, on the uneven expanse, were not to be identified; they
might be crouching men, they might be shadows; it was impossible to be
sure.
"Thank God," said Northmour, "Aggie is not coming to-night."
Aggie was the name of the old nurse; he had not thought of her till now;
but that he should think of her at all was a trait that surprised me in
the man.
We were again reduced to waiting. Northmour went to the fireplace and
spread his hands before the red embers, as if he were cold. I followed
him mechanically with my eyes, and in so doing turned my back upon the
window. At that moment a very faint report was audible from without, and
a ball shivered a pane of glass, and buried itself in the shutter two
inches from my head. I heard Clara scream; and though I whipped
instantly out of range and into a corner, she was there, so to speak,
before me, beseeching to know if I were hurt. I felt that I could stand
to be shot at every day and all day long, with such marks of solicitude
for a reward; and I continued to reassure her, with the tenderest
caresses and in complete forgetfulness of our situation, till the voice
of Northmour recalled me to myself.
"An air-gun," he said. "They wish to make no noise."
I put Clara aside, and looked at him. He was standing with his back to
the fire and his hands clasped behind him; and I knew by the black look
on his face that passion was boiling within. I had seen just such a look
before he attacked me, that March night, in the adjoining chamber; and,
though I could make every allowance for his anger, I confess I trembled
for the consequences. He gazed straight before him; but he could see us
with the tail of his eye, and his temper kept rising like a gale of
wind. With regular battle awaiting us outside, this prospect of an
internecine strife within the walls began to daunt me.
Suddenly, as I was thus closely watching his expression and prepared
against the worst, I saw a change, a flash, a look of relief, upon his
face. He took up the lamp which stood beside him on the table, and
turned to us with an air of some excitement.
"There is one point that we must know," said he. "Are they going to
butcher the lot of us, or only Huddlestone? Did they take you for him,
or fire at you for your own _beaux yeux_?"
"They took me for him, for certain," I replied. "I am near as tall, and
my head is fair."
"I am going to make sure," returned Northmour; and he stepped up to the
window, holding the lamp above his head, and stood there, quietly
affronting death, for half a minute.
Clara sought to rush forward and pull him from the place of danger; but
I had the pardonable selfishness to hold her back by force.
"Yes," said Northmour, turning coolly from the window; "it's only
Huddlestone they want."
"Oh, Mr. Northmour!" cried Clara; but found no more to add; the temerity
she had just witnessed seeming beyond the reach of words.
He, on his part, looked at me, cocking his head, with a fire of triumph
in his eyes; and I understood at once that he had thus hazarded his
life, merely to attract Clara's notice, and depose me from my position
as the hero of the hour. He snapped his fingers.
"The fire is only beginning," said he. "When they warm up to their work
they won't be so particular."
A voice was now heard hailing us from the entrance. From the window we
could see the figure of a man in the moonlight; he stood motionless, his
face uplifted to ours, and a rag of something white on his extended arm;
and as we looked right down upon him, though he was a good many yards
distant on the links, we could see the moonlight glitter on his eyes.
He opened his lips again, and spoke for some minutes on end, in a key
so loud that he might have been heard in every corner of the pavilion,
and as far away as the borders of the wood. It was the same voice that
had already shouted "_Traditore!_" through the shutters of the
dining-room; this time it made a complete and clear statement. If the
traitor "Oddlestone" were given up, all others should be spared; if not,
no one should escape to tell the tale.
"Well, Huddlestone, what do you say to that?" asked Northmour, turning
to the bed.
Up to that moment the banker had given no sign of life, and I, at least,
had supposed him to be still lying in a faint; but he replied at once,
and in such tones as I have never heard elsewhere, save from a delirious
patient, adjured and besought us not to desert him. It was the most
hideous and abject performance that my imagination can conceive.
"Enough," cried Northmour; and then he threw open the window, leaned out
into the night, and in a tone of exultation, and with a total
forgetfulness of what was due to the presence of a lady, poured out upon
the ambassador a string of the most abominable raillery both in English
and Italian, and bade him be gone where he had come from. I believe that
nothing so delighted Northmour at that moment as the thought that we
must all infallibly perish before the night was out.
Meantime the Italian put his flag of truce into his pocket, and
disappeared, at a leisurely pace, among the sand-hills.
"They make honourable war," said Northmour. "They are all gentlemen and
soldiers. For the credit of the thing, I wish we could change sides--you
and I, Frank, and you too, Missy my darling--and leave that being on the
bed to some one else. Tut! Don't look shocked! We are all going post to
what they call eternity, and may as well be above-board while there's
time. As far as I'm concerned, if I could first strangle Huddlestone and
then get Clara in my arms, I could die with some pride and satisfaction.
And as it is, by God, I'll have a kiss!"
Before I could do anything to interfere, he had rudely embraced and
repeatedly kissed the resisting girl. Next moment I had pulled him away
with fury, and flung him heavily against the wall. He laughed loud and
long, and I feared his wits had given way under the strain; for even in
the best of days he had been a sparing and a quiet laugher.
"Now, Frank," said he, when his mirth was somewhat appeased, "it's your
turn. Here's my hand. Good-bye; farewell!" Then, seeing me stand rigid
and indignant, and holding Clara to my side--"Man!" he broke out, "are
you angry? Did you think we were going to die with all the airs and
graces of society? I took a kiss; I'm glad I had it; and now you can
take another if you like, and square accounts."
I turned from him with a feeling of contempt which I did not seek to
dissemble.
"As you please," said he. "You've been a prig in life; a prig you'll
die."
And with that he sat down on a chair, a rifle over his knee, and amused
himself with snapping the lock; but I could see that his ebullition of
light spirits (the only one I ever knew him to display) had already come
to an end, and was succeeded by a sullen, scowling humour.
All this time our assailants might have been entering the house, and we
been none the wiser; we had in truth almost forgotten the danger that so
imminently overhung our days. But just then Mr. Huddlestone uttered a
cry, and leaped from the bed.
I asked him what was wrong.
"Fire!" he cried. "They have set the house on fire!"
Northmour was on his feet in an instant, and he and I ran through the
door of communication with the study. The room was illuminated by a red
and angry light. Almost at the moment of our entrance, a tower of flame
arose in front of the window, and, with a tingling report, a pane fell
inwards on the carpet. They had set fire to the lean-to outhouse, where
Northmour used to nurse his negatives.
"Hot work," said Northmour. "Let us try in your old room."
We ran thither in a breath, threw up the casement, and looked forth.
Along the whole back wall of the pavilion piles of fuel had been
arranged and kindled; and it is probable they had been drenched with
mineral oil, for, in spite of the morning's rain, they all burned
bravely. The fire had taken a firm hold already on the outhouse, which
blazed higher and higher every moment; the back-door was in the centre
of a red-hot bonfire; the eaves, we could see, as we looked upward, were
already smouldering, for the roof overhung, and was supported by
considerable beams of wood. At the same time, hot, pungent, and choking
volumes of smoke began to fill the house. There was not a human being to
be seen to right or left.
"Ah, well!" said Northmour, "here's the end, thank God."
And we returned to _My Uncle's Room_. Mr. Huddlestone was putting on his
boots, still violently trembling, but with an air of determination such
as I had not hitherto observed. Clara stood close by him, with her cloak
in both hands ready to throw about her shoulders, and a strange look in
her eyes, as if she were half-hopeful, half-doubtful of her father.
"Well, boys and girls," said Northmour, "how about a sally? The oven is
heating; it is not good to stay here and be baked; and, for my part, I
want to come to my hands with them, and be done."
"There is nothing else left," I replied.
And both Clara and Mr. Huddlestone, though with a very different
intonation, added, "Nothing."
As we went downstairs the heat was excessive, and the roaring of the
fire filled our ears; and we had scarce reached the passage before the
stairs window fell in, a branch of flame shot brandishing through the
aperture, and the interior of the pavilion became lit up with that
dreadful and fluctuating glare. At the same moment we heard the fall of
something heavy and inelastic in the upper story. The whole pavilion, it
was plain, had gone alight like a box of matches, and now not only
flamed sky-high to land and sea, but threatened with every moment to
crumble and fall in about our ears.
Northmour and I cocked our revolvers. Mr. Huddlestone, who had already
refused a firearm, put us behind him with a manner of command.
"Let Clara open the door," said he. "So, if they fire a volley, she will
be protected. And in the meantime stand behind me. I am the scapegoat;
my sins have found me out."
I heard him, as I stood breathless by his shoulder, with my pistol
ready, pattering off prayers in a tremulous, rapid whisper; and I
confess, horrid as the thought may seem, I despised him for thinking of
supplications in a moment so critical and thrilling. In the meantime,
Clara, who was dead white, but still possessed her faculties, had
displaced the barricade from the front door. Another moment, and she had
pulled it open. Firelight and moonlight illuminated the links with
confused and changeful lustre, and far away against the sky we could see
a long trail of glowing smoke.
Mr. Huddlestone, filled for the moment with a strength greater than his
own, struck Northmour and myself a back-hander in the chest; and while
we were thus for the moment incapacitated from action, lifting his arms
above his head like one about to dive, he ran straight forward out of
the pavilion.
"Here am I!" he cried--"Huddlestone! Kill me, and spare the others!"
His sudden appearance daunted, I suppose, our hidden enemies; for
Northmour and I had time to recover, to seize Clara between us, one by
each arm, and to rush forth to his assistance, ere anything further had
taken place. But scarce had we passed the threshold when there came near
a dozen reports and flashes from every direction among the hollows of
the links. Mr. Huddlestone staggered, uttered a weird and freezing cry,
threw up his arms over his head, and fell backward on the turf.
"_Traditore! Traditore!_" cried the invisible avengers.
And just then a part of the roof of the pavilion fell in, so rapid was
the progress of the fire. A loud, vague, and horrible noise accompanied
the collapse, and a vast volume of flame went soaring up to heaven. It
must have been visible at that moment from twenty miles out at sea, from
the shore at Graden-Wester, and far inland from the peak of Graystiel,
the most eastern summit of the Caulder Hills. Bernard Huddlestone,
although God knows what were his obsequies, had a fine pyre at the
moment of his death.
CHAPTER IX
TELLS HOW NORTHMOUR CARRIED OUT HIS THREAT
I should have the greatest difficulty to tell you what followed next
after this tragic circumstance. It is all to me, as I look back upon it,
mixed, strenuous, and ineffectual, like the struggles of a sleeper in a
nightmare. Clara, I remember, uttered a broken sigh and would have
fallen forward to earth, had not Northmour and I supported her
insensible body. I do not think we were attacked; I do not remember even
to have seen an assailant; and I believe we deserted Mr. Huddlestone
without a glance. I only remember running like a man in a panic, now
carrying Clara altogether in my own arms, now sharing her weight with
Northmour, now scuffling confusedly for the possession of that dear
burden. Why we should have made for my camp in the Hemlock Den, or how
we reached it, are points lost for ever to my recollection. The first
moment at which I became definitely sure, Clara had been suffered to
fall against the outside of my little tent, Northmour and I were
tumbling together on the ground, and he, with contained ferocity, was
striking for my head with the butt of his revolver. He had already twice
wounded me on the scalp; and it is to the subsequent loss of blood that
I am tempted to attribute the sudden clearness of my mind.
I caught him by the wrist.
"Northmour," I remember saying, "you can kill me afterwards. Let us
first attend to Clara."
He was at that moment uppermost. Scarcely had the words passed my lips,
when he had leaped to his feet and ran towards the tent; and the next
moment he was straining Clara to his heart and covering her unconscious
hands and face with his caresses.
"Shame!" I cried. "Shame to you, Northmour!"
And, giddy though I still was, I struck him repeatedly upon the head and
shoulders.
He relinquished his grasp, and faced me in the broken moonlight.
"I had you under, and I let you go," said he; "and now you strike me!
Coward!"
"You are the coward," I retorted. "Did she wish your kisses while she
was still sensible of what she wanted? Not she! And now she may be
dying; and you waste this precious time, and abuse her helplessness.
Stand aside, and let me help her."
He confronted me for a moment, white and menacing; then suddenly he
stepped aside.
"Help her, then," said he.
I threw myself on my knees beside her, and loosened, as well as I was
able, her dress and corset; but while I was thus engaged, a grasp
descended on my shoulder.
"Keep your hands off her," said Northmour fiercely. "Do you think I have
no blood in my veins?"
"Northmour," I cried, "if you will neither help her yourself, nor let me
do so, do you know that I shall have to kill you?"
"That is better!" he cried. "Let her die also--where's the harm? Step
aside from that girl, and stand up to fight!"
"You will observe," said I, half-rising, "that I have not kissed her
yet."
"I dare you to," he cried.
I do not know what possessed me; it was one of the things I am most
ashamed of in my life, though, as my wife used to say, I knew that my
kisses would be always welcome were she dead or living; down I fell
again upon my knees, parted the hair from her forehead, and, with the
dearest respect, laid my lips for a moment on that cold brow. It was
such a caress as a father might have given; it was such a one as was not
unbecoming from a man soon to die to a woman already dead.
"And now," said I, "I am at your service, Mr Northmour."
But I saw, to my surprise, that he had turned his back upon me.
"Do you hear?" I asked.
"Yes," said he, "I do. If you wish to fight, I am ready. If not, go on
and save Clara. All is one to me."
I did not wait to be twice bidden; but, stooping again over Clara,
continued my efforts to revive her. She still lay white and lifeless; I
began to fear that her sweet spirit had indeed fled beyond recall, and
horror and a sense of utter desolation seized upon my heart. I called
her by name with the most endearing inflections; I chafed and beat her
hands; now I laid her head low, now supported it against my knee; but
all seemed to be in vain, and the lids still lay heavy on her eyes.
"Northmour," I said, "there is my hat. For God's sake bring some water
from the spring."
Almost in a moment he was by my side with the water.
"I have brought it in my own," he said. "You do not grudge me the
privilege?"
"Northmour," I was beginning to say, as I laved her head and breast; but
he interrupted me savagely.
"Oh, you hush up!" he said. "The best thing you can do is to say
nothing."
I had certainly no desire to talk, my mind being swallowed up in concern
for my dear love and her condition; so I continued in silence to do my
best towards her recovery, and, when the hat was empty, returned it to
him with one word--"More." He had, perhaps, gone several times upon this
errand, when Clara reopened her eyes.
"Now," said he, "since she is better, you can spare me, can you not? I
wish you a good-night, Mr. Cassilis."
And with that he was gone among the thicket. I made a fire, for I had
now no fear of the Italians, who had even spared all the little
possessions left in my encampment; and, broken as she was by the
excitement and the hideous catastrophe of the evening, I managed, in one
way or another--by persuasion, encouragement, warmth, and such simple
remedies as I could lay my hand on--to bring her back to some composure
of mind and strength of body.
Day had already come, when a sharp "Hist!" sounded from the thicket. I
started from the ground; but the voice of Northmour was heard adding, in
the most tranquil tones: "Come here, Cassilis, and alone; I want to show
you something."
I consulted Clara with my eyes, and, receiving her tacit permission,
left her alone, and clambered out of the den. At some distance off I saw
Northmour leaning against an elder; and, as soon as he perceived me, he
began walking seaward. I had almost overtaken him as he reached the
outskirts of the wood.
"Look," said he, pausing.
A couple of steps more brought me out of the foliage. The light of the
morning lay cold and clear over that well-known scene. The pavilion was
but a blackened wreck; the roof had fallen in, one of the gables had
fallen out; and, far and near, the face of the links was cicatrised with
little patches of burnt furze. Thick smoke still went straight upwards
in the windless air of the morning, and a great pile of ardent cinders
filled the bare walls of the house, like coals in an open grate. Close
by the islet a schooner yacht lay-to, and a well-manned boat was pulling
vigorously for the shore.
"The _Red Earl_!" I cried. "The _Red Earl_ twelve hours too late!"
"Feel in your pocket, Frank. Are you armed?" asked Northmour.
I obeyed him, and I think I must have become deadly pale. My revolver
had been taken from me.
"You see I have you in my power," he continued. "I disarmed you last
night while you were nursing Clara; but this morning--here--take your
pistol. No thanks!" he cried, holding up his hand. "I do not like them;
that is the only way you can annoy me now."
He began to walk forward across the links to meet the boat, and I
followed a step or two behind. In front of the pavilion I paused to see
where Mr. Huddlestone had fallen; but there was no sign of him, nor so
much as a trace of blood.
"Graden Floe," said Northmour.
He continued to advance till we had come to the head of the beach.
"No farther, please," said he. "Would you like to take her to Graden
House?"
"Thank you," I replied; "I shall try to get her to the minister's at
Graden-Wester."
The prow of the boat here grated on the beach, and a sailor jumped
ashore with a line in his hand.
"Wait a minute, lads!" cried Northmour; and then lower and to my private
ear: "You had better say nothing of all this to her," he added.
"On the contrary!" I broke out, "she shall know everything that I can
tell."
"You do not understand," he returned, with an air of great dignity. "It
will be nothing to her; she expects it of me. Good-bye!" he added, with
a nod.
I offered him my hand.
"Excuse me," said he. "It's small, I know; but I can't push things quite
so far as that. I don't wish any sentimental business, to sit by your
hearth a white-haired wanderer, and all that. Quite the contrary: I hope
to God I shall never again clap eyes on either one of you."
"Well, God bless you, Northmour!" I said heartily.
"Oh, yes," he returned.
He walked down the beach; and the man who was ashore gave him an arm on
board, and then shoved off and leaped into the bows himself. Northmour
took the tiller; the boat rose to the waves, and the oars between the
thole-pins sounded crisp and measured in the morning air.
They were not yet half-way to the _Red Earl_, and I was still watching
their progress, when the sun rose out of the sea.
One word more, and my story is done. Years after, Northmour was killed
fighting under the colours of Garibaldi for the liberation of the Tyrol.
A LODGING FOR THE NIGHT
A STORY OF FRANCIS VILLON
It was late in November 1456. The snow fell over Paris with rigorous,
relentless persistence; sometimes the wind made a sally and scattered it
in flying vortices; sometimes there was a lull, and flake after flake
descended out of the black night air, silent, circuitous, interminable.
To poor people, looking up under moist eyebrows, it seemed a wonder
where it all came from. Master Francis Villon had propounded an
alternative that afternoon at a tavern window: was it only Pagan Jupiter
plucking geese upon Olympus? or were the holy angels moulting? He was
only a poor Master of Arts, he went on; and as the question somewhat
touched upon divinity, he durst not venture to conclude. A silly old
priest from Montargis, who was among the company, treated the young
rascal to a bottle of wine in honour of the jest and the grimaces with
which it was accompanied, and swore on his own white beard that he had
been just such another irreverent dog when he was Villon's age.
The air was raw and pointed, but not far below freezing; and the flakes
were large, damp, and adhesive. The whole city was sheeted up. An army
might have marched from end to end and not a footfall given the alarm.
If there were any belated birds in heaven, they saw the island like a
large white patch, and the bridges like slim white spars, on the black
ground of the river. High up overhead the snow settled among the tracery
of the cathedral towers. Many a niche was drifted full; many a statue
wore a long white bonnet on its grotesque or sainted head. The gargoyles
had been transformed into great false noses, drooping towards the
point. The crockets were like upright pillows swollen on one side. In
the intervals of the wind there was a dull sound of dripping about the
precincts of the church.
The cemetery of St. John had taken its own share of the snow. All the
graves were decently covered; tall white housetops stood around in grave
array; worthy burghers were long ago in bed, be-nightcapped like their
domiciles; there was no light in all the neighbourhood but a little peep
from a lamp that hung swinging in the church choir, and tossed the
shadows to and fro in time to its oscillations. The clock was hard on
ten when the patrol went by with halberds and a lantern, beating their
hands; and they saw nothing suspicious about the cemetery of St. John.
Yet there was a small house, backed up against the cemetery wall, which
was still awake, and awake to evil purpose, in that snoring district.
There was not much to betray it from without; only a stream of warm
vapour from the chimney-top, a patch where the snow melted on the roof,
and a few half-obliterated footprints at the door. But within, behind
the shuttered windows, Master Francis Villon the poet, and some of the
thievish crew with whom he consorted, were keeping the night alive and
passing round the bottle.
A great pile of living embers diffused a strong and ruddy glow from the
arched chimney. Before this straddled Dom Nicolas, the Picardy monk,
with his skirts picked up and his fat legs bared to the comfortable
warmth. His dilated shadow cut the room in half; and the firelight only
escaped on either side of his broad person, and in a little pool between
his outspread feet. His face had the beery, bruised appearance of the
continual drinker's; it was covered with a network of congested veins,
purple in ordinary circumstances, but now pale violet, for even with his
back to the fire the cold pinched him on the other side. His cowl had
half-fallen back, and made a strange excrescence on either side of his
bull-neck. So he straddled, grumbling, and cut the room in half with
the shadow of his portly frame.
On the right, Villon and Guy Tabary were huddled together over a scrap
of parchment; Villon making a ballade which he was to call the "Ballade
of Roast Fish," and Tabary spluttering admiration at his shoulder. The
poet was a rag of a man, dark, little, and lean, with hollow cheeks and
thin black locks. He carried his four-and-twenty years with feverish
animation. Greed had made folds about his eyes, evil smiles had puckered
his mouth. The wolf and pig struggled together in his face. It was an
eloquent, sharp, ugly, earthly countenance. His hands were small and
prehensile, with fingers knotted like a cord; and they were continually
flickering in front of him in violent and expressive pantomime. As for
Tabary, a broad, complacent, admiring imbecility breathed from his
squash nose and slobbering lips: he had become a thief, just as he might
have become the most decent of burgesses, by the imperious chance that
rules the lives of human geese and human donkeys.
At the monk's other hand, Montigny and Thevenin Pensete played a game of
chance. About the first there clung some flavour of good birth and
training, as about a fallen angel; something long, lithe, and courtly in
the person; something aquiline and darkling in the face. Thevenin, poor
soul, was in great feather: he had done a good stroke of knavery that
afternoon in the Faubourg St. Jacques, and all night he had been gaining
from Montigny. A flat smile illuminated his face; his bald head shone
rosily in a garland of red curls; his little protuberant stomach shook
with silent chucklings as he swept in his gains.
"Doubles or quits?" said Thevenin.
Montigny nodded grimly.
"_Some may prefer to dine in state_," wrote Villon, "_On bread and
cheese on silver plate_. Or--or--help me out, Guido!"
Tabary giggled.
"_Or parsley on a golden dish_," scribbled the poet.
The wind was freshening without; it drove the snow before it, and
sometimes raised its voice in a victorious whoop, and made sepulchral
grumblings in the chimney. The cold was growing sharper as the night
went on. Villon, protruding his lips, imitated the gust with something
between a whistle and a groan. It was an eerie, uncomfortable talent of
the poet's, much detested by the Picardy monk.
"Can't you hear it rattle in the gibbet?" said Villon. "They are all
dancing the devil's jig on nothing, up there. You may dance, my
gallants, you'll be none the warmer! Whew! what a gust! Down went
somebody just now! A medlar the fewer on the three-legged
medlar-tree!--I say, Dom Nicolas, it'll be cold to-night on the St.
Denis Road?" he asked.
Dom Nicolas winked both his big eyes, and seemed to choke upon his
Adam's apple. Montfaucon, the great grisly Paris gibbet, stood hard by
the St. Denis Road, and the pleasantry touched him on the raw. As for
Tabary, he laughed immoderately over the medlars; he had never heard
anything more light-hearted; and he held his sides and crowed. Villon
fetched him a fillip on the nose, which turned his mirth into an attack
of coughing.
"Oh, stop that row," said Villon, "and think of rhymes to 'fish.'"
"Doubles or quits?" said Montigny doggedly.
"With all my heart," quoth Thevenin.
"Is there any more in that bottle?" asked the monk.
"Open another," said Villon. "How do you ever hope to fill that big
hogshead, your body, with little things like bottles? And how do you
expect to get to heaven? How many angels, do you fancy, can be spared to
carry up a single monk from Picardy? Or do you think yourself another
Elias--and they'll send the coach for you?"
"_Hominibus impossibile_," replied the monk, as he filled his glass.
Tabary was in ecstasies.
Villon filliped his nose again.
"Laugh at my jokes, if you like," he said.
"It was very good," objected Tabary.
Villon made a face at him. "Think of rhymes to 'fish'," he said, "What
have you to do with Latin? You'll wish you knew none of it at the great
assizes, when the devil calls for Guido Tabary, clericus--the devil with
the hump-back and red-hot finger-nails. Talking of the devil," he added
in a whisper, "look at Montigny!"
All three peered covertly at the gamester. He did not seem to be
enjoying his luck. His mouth was a little to a side; one nostril nearly
shut, and the other much inflated. The black dog was on his back, as
people say, in terrifying nursery metaphor; and he breathed hard under
the gruesome burden.
"He looks as if he could knife him," whispered Tabary, with round eyes.
The monk shuddered, and turned his face and spread his open hands to the
red embers. It was the cold that thus affected Dom Nicolas, and not any
excess of moral sensibility.
"Come now," said Villon--"about this ballade. How does it run so far?"
And beating time with his hand, he read it aloud to Tabary.
They were interrupted at the fourth rhyme by a brief and fatal movement
among the gamesters. The round was completed, and Thevenin was just
opening his mouth to claim another victory, when Montigny leaped up,
swift as an adder, and stabbed him to the heart. The blow took effect
before he had time to utter a cry, before he had time to move. A tremor
or two convulsed his frame; his hands opened and shut, his heels rattled
on the floor; then his head rolled backwards over one shoulder with the
eyes wide open; and Thevenin Pensete's spirit had returned to Him who
made it.
Every one sprang to his feet; but the business was over in two twos.
The four living fellows looked at each other in rather a ghastly
fashion; the dead man contemplating a corner of the roof with a singular
and ugly leer.
"My God!" said Tabary; and he began to pray in Latin.
Villon broke out into hysterical laughter. He came a step forward and
ducked a ridiculous bow at Thevenin, and laughed still louder. Then he
sat down suddenly, all of a heap, upon a stool, and continued laughing
bitterly as though he would shake himself to pieces.
Montigny recovered his composure first.
"Let's see what he has about him," he remarked; and he picked the dead
man's pockets with a practised hand, and divided the money into four
equal portions on the table. "There's for you," he said.
The monk received his share with a deep sigh, and a single stealthy
glance at the dead Thevenin, who was beginning to sink into himself and
topple sideways off the chair.
"We're all in for it," cried Villon, swallowing his mirth. "It's a
hanging job for every man jack of us that's here--not to speak of those
who aren't." He made a shocking gesture in the air with his raised right
hand, and put out his tongue and threw his head on one side, so as to
counterfeit the appearance of one who has been hanged. Then he pocketed
his share of the spoil, and executed a shuffle with his feet as if to
restore the circulation.
Tabary was the last to help himself; he made a dash at the money, and
retired to the other end of the apartment.
Montigny stuck Thevenin upright in the chair, and drew out the dagger,
which was followed by a jet of blood.
"You fellows had better be moving," he said, as he wiped the blade on
his victim's doublet.
"I think we had," returned Villon, with a gulp. "Damn his fat head!" he
broke out. "It sticks in my throat like phlegm. What right has a man to
have red hair when he is dead?" And he fell all of a heap again upon
the stool, and fairly covered his face with his hands.
Montigny and Dom Nicolas laughed aloud, even Tabary feebly chiming in.
"Cry baby," said the monk.
"I always said he was a woman," added Montigny with a sneer. "Sit up,
can't you?" he went on, giving another shake to the murdered body.
"Tread out that fire, Nick!"
But Nick was better employed; he was quietly taking Villon's purse, as
the poet sat, limp and trembling, on the stool where he had been making
a ballade not three minutes before. Montigny and Tabary dumbly demanded
a share of the booty, which the monk silently promised as he passed the
little bag into the bosom of his gown. In many ways an artistic nature
unfits a man for practical existence.
No sooner had the theft been accomplished than Villon shook himself,
jumped to his feet, and began helping to scatter and extinguish the
embers. Meanwhile Montigny opened the door and cautiously peered into
the street. The coast was clear; there was no meddlesome patrol in
sight. Still it was judged wiser to slip out severally; and as Villon
was himself in a hurry to escape from the neighbourhood of the dead
Thevenin, and the rest were in a still greater hurry to get rid of him
before he should discover the loss of his money, he was the first by
general consent to issue forth into the street.
The wind had triumphed and swept all the clouds from heaven. Only a few
vapours, as thin as moonlight, fleeted rapidly across the stars. It was
bitter cold; and by a common optical effect, things seemed almost more
definite than in the broadest daylight. The sleeping city was absolutely
still: a company of white hoods, a field full of little Alps, below the
twinkling stars. Villon cursed his fortune. Would it were still snowing!
Now, wherever he went, he left an indelible trail behind him on the
glittering streets; wherever he went he was still tethered to the house
by the cemetery of St. John; wherever he went he must weave, with his
own plodding feet, the rope that bound him to the crime and would bind
him to the gallows. The leer of the dead man came back to him with a new
significance. He snapped his fingers as if to pluck up his own spirits,
and choosing a street at random, stepped boldly forward in the snow.
Two things preoccupied him as he went: the aspect of the gallows at
Montfaucon in this bright windy phase of the night's existence, for one;
and for another, the look of the dead man with his bald head and garland
of red curls. Both struck cold upon his heart, and he kept quickening
his pace as if he could escape from unpleasant thoughts by mere
fleetness of foot. Sometimes he looked back over his shoulder with a
sudden nervous jerk; but he was the only moving thing in the white
streets, except when the wind swooped round a corner and threw up the
snow, which was beginning to freeze, in spouts of glittering dust.
Suddenly he saw, a long way before him, a black clump and a couple of
lanterns. The clump was in motion, and the lanterns swung as though
carried by men walking. It was a patrol. And though it was merely
crossing his line of march, he judged it wiser to get out of eyeshot as
speedily as he could. He was not in the humour to be challenged, and he
was conscious of making a very conspicuous mark upon the snow. Just on
his left hand there stood a great hotel, with some turrets and a large
porch before the door; it was half-ruinous, he remembered, and had long
stood empty; and so he made three steps of it and jumped into the
shelter of the porch. It was pretty dark inside, after the glimmer of
the snowy streets, and he was groping forward with outspread hands, when
he stumbled over some substance which offered an indescribable mixture
of resistances, hard and soft, firm and loose. His heart gave a leap,
and he sprang two steps back and stared dreadfully at the obstacle. Then
he gave a little laugh of relief. It was only a woman, and she dead. He
knelt beside her to make sure upon this latter point. She was freezing
cold, and rigid like a stick. A little ragged finery fluttered in the
wind about her hair, and her cheeks had been heavily rouged that same
afternoon. Her pockets were quite empty; but in her stocking, underneath
the garter, Villon found two of the small coins that went by the name of
whites. It was little enough; but it was always something; and the poet
was moved with a deep sense of pathos that she should have died before
she had spent her money. That seemed to him a dark and pitiable mystery;
and he looked from the coins in his hand to the dead woman, and back
again to the coins, shaking his head over the riddle of man's life.
Henry V. of England, dying at Vincennes just after he had conquered
France, and this poor jade cut off by a cold draught in a great man's
doorway, before she had time to spend her couple of whites--it seemed a
cruel way to carry on the world. Two whites would have taken such a
little while to squander; and yet it would have been one more good taste
in the mouth, one more smack of the lips, before the devil got the soul,
and the body was left to birds and vermin. He would like to use all his
tallow before the light was blown out and the lantern broken.
While these thoughts were passing through his mind, he was feeling, half
mechanically, for his purse. Suddenly his heart stopped beating; a
feeling of cold scales passed up the back of his legs, and a cold blow
seemed to fall upon his scalp. He stood petrified for a moment; then he
felt again with one feverish movement; and then his loss burst upon him,
and he was covered at once with perspiration. To spendthrifts money is
so living and actual--it is such a thin veil between them and their
pleasures! There is only one limit to their fortune--that of time; and a
spendthrift with only a few crowns is the Emperor of Rome until they are
spent. For such a person to lose his money is to suffer the most
shocking reverse, and fall from heaven to hell, from all to nothing, in
a breath. And all the more if he has put his head in the halter for it;
if he may be hanged to-morrow for that same purse so dearly earned, so
foolishly departed! Villon stood and cursed; he threw the two whites
into the street; he shook his fist at heaven; he stamped, and was not
horrified to find himself trampling the poor corpse. Then he began
rapidly to retrace his steps towards the house beside the cemetery. He
had forgotten all fear of the patrol, which was long gone by at any
rate, and had no idea but that of his lost purse. It was in vain that he
looked right and left upon the snow: nothing was to be seen. He had not
dropped it in the streets. Had it fallen in the house? He would have
liked dearly to go in and see; but the idea of the grisly occupant
unmanned him. And he saw besides, as he drew near, that their efforts to
put out the fire had been unsuccessful; on the contrary, it had broken
into a blaze, and a changeful light played in the chinks of door and
window, and revived his terror for the authorities and Paris gibbet.
He returned to the hotel with the porch, and groped about upon the snow
for the money he had thrown away in his childish passion. But he could
only find one white; the other had probably struck sideways and sunk
deeply in. With a single white in his pocket, all his projects for a
rousing night in some wild tavern vanished utterly away. And it was not
only pleasure that fled laughing from his grasp; positive discomfort,
positive pain, attacked him as he stood ruefully before the porch. His
perspiration had dried upon him; and though the wind had now fallen, a
binding frost was setting in stronger with every hour, and he felt
benumbed and sick at heart. What was to be done? Late as was the hour,
improbable as was success, he would try the house of his adopted father,
the chaplain of St. Benoît.
He ran there all the way, and knocked timidly. There was no answer. He
knocked again and again, taking heart with every stroke; and at last
steps were heard approaching from within. A barred wicket fell open in
the iron-studded door, and emitted a gush of yellow light.
"Hold up your face to the wicket," said the chaplain from within.
"It's only me," whimpered Villon.
"Oh, it's only you, is it?" returned the chaplain; and he cursed him
with foul unpriestly oaths for disturbing him at such an hour, and bade
him be off to hell, where he came from.
"My hands are blue to the wrist," pleaded Villon; "my feet are dead and
full of twinges: my nose aches with the sharp air; the cold lies at my
heart. I may be dead before morning. Only this once, father, and before
God I will never ask again!"
"You should have come earlier," said the ecclesiastic coolly. "Young men
require a lesson now and then." He shut the wicket and retired
deliberately into the interior of the house.
Villon was beside himself; he beat upon the door with his hands and
feet, and shouted hoarsely after the chaplain.
"Wormy old fox!" he cried. "If I had my hand under your twist, I would
send you flying headlong into the bottomless pit."
A door shut in the interior, faintly audible to the poet down long
passages. He passed his hand over his mouth with an oath. And then the
humour of the situation struck him, and he laughed and looked lightly up
to heaven, where the stars seemed to be winking over his discomfiture.
What was to be done? It looked very like a night in the frosty streets.
The idea of the dead woman popped into his imagination, and gave him a
hearty fright; what had happened to her in the early night might very
well happen to him before morning. And he so young! and with such
immense possibilities of disorderly amusement before him! He felt quite
pathetic over the notion of his own fate, as if it had been some one
else's, and made a little imaginative vignette of the scene in the
morning, when they should find his body.
He passed all his chances under review, turning the white between his
thumb and forefinger. Unfortunately he was on bad terms with some old
friends who would once have taken pity on him in such a plight. He had
lampooned them in verses, he had beaten and cheated them; and yet now,
when he was in so close a pinch, he thought there was at least one who
might perhaps relent. It was a chance. It was worth trying at least, and
he would go and see.
On the way, two little accidents happened to him which coloured his
musings in a very different manner. For, first, he fell in with the
track of a patrol, and walked in it for some hundred yards, although it
lay out of his direction. And this spirited him up; at least he had
confused his trail; for he was still possessed with the idea of people
tracking him all about Paris over the snow, and collaring him next
morning before he was awake. The other matter affected him very
differently. He passed a street corner, where, not so long before, a
woman and her child had been devoured by wolves. This was just the kind
of weather, he reflected, when wolves might take it into their heads to
enter Paris again; and a lone man in these deserted streets would run
the chance of something worse than a mere scare. He stopped and looked
upon the place with an unpleasant interest--it was a centre where
several lanes intersected each other; and he looked down them all one
after another, and held his breath to listen, lest he should detect some
galloping black things on the snow, or hear the sound of howling between
him and the river. He remembered his mother telling him the story and
pointing out the spot, while he was yet a child. His mother! If he only
knew where she lived, he might make sure at least of shelter. He
determined he would inquire upon the morrow; nay, he would go and see
her too, poor old girl! So thinking, he arrived at his destination--his
last hope for the night.
The house was quite dark, like its neighbours, and yet after a few taps,
he heard a movement overhead, a door opening, and a cautious voice
asking who was there. The poet named himself in a loud whisper, and
waited, not without some trepidation, the result. Nor had he to wait
long. A window was suddenly opened, and a pailful of slops splashed down
upon the doorstep. Villon had not been unprepared for something of the
sort, and had put himself as much in shelter as the nature of the porch
admitted; but for all that, he was deplorably drenched below the waist.
His hose began to freeze almost at once. Death from cold and exposure
stared him in the face; he remembered he was of phthisical tendency, and
began coughing tentatively. But the gravity of the danger steadied his
nerves. He stopped a few hundred yards from the door where he had been
so rudely used, and reflected with his finger to his nose. He could only
see one way of getting a lodging, and that was to take it. He had
noticed a house not far away, which looked as if it might be easily
broken into, and thither he betook himself promptly, entertaining
himself on the way with the idea of a room still hot, with a table still
loaded with the remains of supper, where he might pass the rest of the
black hours, and whence he should issue, on the morrow, with an armful
of valuable plate. He even considered on what viands and what wines he
should prefer; and as he was calling the roll of his favourite dainties,
roast fish presented itself to his mind with an odd mixture of amusement
and horror.
"I shall never finish that ballade," he thought to himself; and then,
with another shudder at the recollection, "Oh, damn his fat head!" he
repeated fervently, and spat upon the snow.
The house in question looked dark at first sight; but as Villon made a
preliminary inspection in search of the handiest point of attack, a
little twinkle of light caught his eye from behind a curtained window.
"The devil!" he thought. "People awake! Some student or some saint,
confound the crew! Can't they get drunk and lie in bed snoring like
their neighbours! What's the good of curfew, and poor devils of
bell-ringers jumping at a rope's-end in bell-towers? What's the use of
day, if people sit up all night? The gripes to them!" He grinned as he
saw where his logic was leading him. "Every man to his business, after
all," added he, "and if they're awake, by the lord, I may come by a
supper honestly for this once, and cheat the devil."
He went boldly to the door and knocked with an assured hand. On both
previous occasions, he had knocked timidly and with some dread of
attracting notice; but now, when he had just discarded the thought of a
burglarious entry, knocking at a door seemed a mighty simple and
innocent proceeding. The sound of his blows echoed through the house
with thin, phantasmal reverberations, as though it were quite empty; but
these had scarcely died away before a measured tread drew near, a couple
of bolts were withdrawn, and one wing was opened broadly, as though no
guile or fear of guile were known to those within. A tall figure of a
man, muscular and spare, but a little bent, confronted Villon. The head
was in massive bulk, but finely sculptured; the nose blunt at the
bottom, but refining upward to where it joined a pair of strong and
honest eyebrows; the mouth and eyes surrounded with delicate markings,
and the whole face based upon a thick white beard, boldly and squarely
trimmed. Seen as it was by the light of a flickering hand-lamp, it
looked perhaps nobler than it had a right to do; but it was a fine face,
honourable rather than intelligent, strong, simple, and righteous.
"You knock late, sir," said the old man in resonant, courteous tones.
Villon cringed, and brought up many servile words of apology; at a
crisis of this sort the beggar was uppermost in him, and the man of
genius hid his head with confusion.
"You are cold," repeated the old man, "and hungry? Well, step in." And
he ordered him into the house with a noble enough gesture.
"Some great seigneur," thought Villon, as his host setting down the
lamp on the flagged pavement of the entry, shot the bolts once more into
their places.
"You will pardon me if I go in front," he said, when this was done; and
he preceded the poet upstairs into a large apartment, warmed with a pan
of charcoal and lit by a great lamp hanging from the roof. It was very
bare of furniture: only some gold plate on a sideboard; some folios; and
a stand of armour between the windows. Some smart tapestry hung upon the
walls, representing the crucifixion of our Lord in one piece, and in
another a scene of shepherds and shepherdesses by a running stream. Over
the chimney was a shield of arms.
"Will you seat yourself," said the old man, "and forgive me if I leave
you? I am alone in my house to-night, and if you are to eat I must
forage for you myself."
No sooner was his host gone than Villon leaped from the chair on which
he had just seated himself, and began examining the room, with the
stealth and passion of a cat. He weighed the gold flagons in his hand,
opened all the folios, and investigated the arms upon the shield, and
the stuff with which the seats were lined. He raised the window
curtains, and saw that the windows were set with rich stained glass in
figures, so far as he could see, of martial import. Then he stood in the
middle of the room, drew a long breath, and retaining it with puffed
cheeks, looked round and round him, turning on his heels, as if to
impress every feature of the apartment on his memory.
"Seven pieces of plate," he said. "If there had been ten, I would have
risked it. A fine house, and a fine old master, so help me all the
saints!"
And just then, hearing the old man's tread returning along the corridor,
he stole back to his chair, and began humbly toasting his wet legs
before the charcoal pan.
His entertainer had a plate of meat in one hand and a jug of wine in the
other. He set down the plate upon the table, motioning Villon to draw in
his chair, and going to the sideboard, brought back two goblets, which
he filled.
"I drink to your better fortune," he said, gravely touching Villon's cup
with his own.
"To our better acquaintance," said the poet, growing bold. A mere man of
the people would have been awed by the courtesy of the old seigneur, but
Villon was hardened in that matter; he had made mirth for great lords
before now, and found them as black rascals as himself. And so he
devoted himself to the viands with a ravenous gusto, while the old man,
leaning backward, watched him with steady, curious eyes.
"You have blood on your shoulder, my man," he said.
Montigny must have laid his wet right hand upon him as he left the
house. He cursed Montigny in his heart.
"It was none of my shedding," he stammered.
"I had not supposed so," returned his host quietly. "A brawl?"
"Well, something of that sort," Villon admitted with a quaver.
"Perhaps a fellow murdered?"
"Oh, no--not murdered," said the poet, more and more confused. "It was
all fair play--murdered by accident. I had no hand in it, God strike me
dead!" he added fervently.
"One rogue the fewer, I daresay," observed the master of the house.
"You may dare to say that," agreed Villon, infinitely relieved. "As big
a rogue as there is between here and Jerusalem. He turned up his toes
like a lamb. But it was a nasty thing to look at. I daresay you've seen
dead men in your time, my lord?" he added, glancing at the armour.
"Many," said the old man. "I have followed the wars, as you imagine."
Villon laid down his knife and fork, which he had just taken up again.
"Were any of them bald?" he asked.
"Oh yes, and with hair as white as mine."
"I don't think I should mind the white so much," said Villon. "His was
red." And he had a return of his shuddering and tendency to laughter,
which he drowned with a great draught of wine. "I'm a little put out
when I think of it," he went on. "I knew him--damn him! And then the
cold gives a man fancies--or the fancies give a man cold, I don't know
which."
"Have you any money?" asked the old man.
"I have one white," returned the poet, laughing. "I got it out of a dead
jade's stocking in a porch. She was as dead as Cæsar, poor wench, and as
cold as a church, with bits of ribbon sticking in her hair. This is a
hard world in winter for wolves and wenches and poor rogues like me."
"I," said the old man, "am Enguerrand de la Feuillée, seigneur de
Brisetout, bailly du Patatrac. Who and what may you be?"
Villon rose and made a suitable reverence. "I am called Francis Villon,"
he said, "a poor Master of Arts of this university. I know some Latin,
and a deal of vice. I can make chansons, ballades, lais, virelais, and
roundels, and I am very fond of wine. I was born in a garret, and I
shall not improbably die upon the gallows. I may add, my lord, that from
this night forward I am your lordship's very obsequious servant to
command."
"No servant of mine," said the knight; "my guest for this evening, and
no more."
"A very grateful guest," said Villon politely; and he drank in dumb show
to his entertainer.
"You are shrewd," began the old man, tapping his forehead, "very shrewd;
you have learning; you are a clerk; and yet you take a small piece of
money off a dead woman in the street. Is it not a kind of theft?"
"It is a kind of theft much practised in the wars, my lord."
"The wars are the field of honour," returned the old man proudly.
"There a man plays his life upon the cast; he fights in the name of his
lord the king, his Lord God, and all their lordships the holy saints and
angels."
"Put it," said Villon, "that I were really a thief, should I not play my
life also, and against heavier odds?"
"For gain, but not for honour."
"Gain?" repeated Villon, with a shrug. "Gain! The poor fellow wants
supper, and takes it. So does the soldier in a campaign. Why, what are
all these requisitions we hear so much about? If they are not gain to
those who take them, they are loss enough to the others. The men-at-arms
drink by a good fire, while the burgher bites his nails to buy them wine
and wood. I have seen a good many ploughmen swinging on trees about the
country; ay, I have seen thirty on one elm, and a very poor figure they
made; and when I asked some one how all these came to be hanged, I was
told it was because they could not scrape together enough crowns to
satisfy the men-at-arms."
"These things are a necessity of war, which the low-born must endure
with constancy. It is true that some captains drive overhard; there are
spirits in every rank not easily moved by pity; and indeed many follow
arms who are no better than brigands."
"You see," said the poet, "you cannot separate the soldier from the
brigand; and what is a thief but an isolated brigand with circumspect
manners? I steal a couple of mutton chops, without so much as disturbing
people's sleep; the farmer grumbles a bit, but sups none the less
wholesomely on what remains. You come up blowing gloriously on a
trumpet, take away the whole sheep, and beat the farmer pitifully into
the bargain. I have no trumpet; I am only Tom, Dick, or Harry; I am a
rogue and a dog, and hanging's too good for me--with all my heart; but
just you ask the farmer which of us he prefers, just find out which of
us he lies awake to curse on cold nights."
"Look at us two," said his lordship. "I am old, strong, and honoured. If
I were turned from my house to-morrow, hundreds would be proud to
shelter me. Poor people would go out and pass the night in the streets
with their children if I merely hinted that I wished to be alone. And I
find you up, wandering homeless, and picking farthings off dead women by
the wayside! I fear no man and nothing; I have seen you tremble and lose
countenance at a word. I wait God's summons contentedly in my own house,
or, if it please the king to call me out again, upon the field of
battle. You look for the gallows; a rough, swift death, without hope or
honour. Is there no difference between these two?"
"As far as to the moon," Villon acquiesced. "But if I had been born lord
of Brisetout, and you had been the poor scholar Francis, would the
difference have been any the less? Should not I have been warming my
knees at this charcoal pan, and would not you have been groping for
farthings in the snow? Should not I have been the soldier, and you the
thief?"
"A thief!" cried the old man. "I a thief! If you understood your words,
you would repent them."
Villon turned out his hands with a gesture of inimitable impudence. "If
your lordship had done me the honour to follow my argument!" he said.
"I do you too much honour in submitting to your presence," said the
knight. "Learn to curb your tongue when you speak with old and
honourable men, or some one hastier than I may reprove you in a sharper
fashion." And he rose and paced the lower end of the apartment,
struggling with anger and antipathy. Villon surreptitiously refilled his
cup, and settled himself more comfortably in the chair, crossing his
knees and leaning his head upon one hand and the elbow against the back
of the chair. He was now replete and warm; and he was in nowise
frightened for his host, having gauged him as justly as was possible
between two such different characters. The night was far spent, and in
a very comfortable fashion after all; and he felt morally certain of a
safe departure on the morrow.
"Tell me one thing," said the old man, pausing in his walk. "Are you
really a thief?"
"I claim the sacred rights of hospitality," returned the poet. "My lord,
I am."
"You are very young," the knight continued.
"I should never have been so old," replied Villon, showing his fingers,
"if I had not helped myself with these ten talents. They have been my
nursing-mothers and my nursing-fathers."
"You may still repent and change."
"I repent daily," said the poet. "There are few people more given to
repentance than poor Francis. As for change, let somebody change my
circumstances. A man must continue to eat, if it were only that he may
continue to repent."
"The change must begin in the heart," returned the old man solemnly.
"My dear lord," answered Villon, "do you really fancy that I steal for
pleasure? I hate stealing, like any other piece of work or of danger. My
teeth chatter when I see a gallows. But I must eat, I must drink, I must
mix in society of some sort. What the devil! Man is not a solitary
animal--_Cui Deus foeminam tradit_. Make me king's pantler--make me
abbot of St. Denis; make me bailly of the Patatrac; and then I shall be
changed indeed. But as long as you leave me the poor scholar Francis
Villon, without a farthing, why, of course, I remain the same."
"The grace of God is all-powerful."
"I should be a heretic to question it," said Francis. "It has made you
lord of Brisetout and bailly of the Patatrac; it has given me nothing
but the quick wits under my hat and these ten toes upon my hands. May I
help myself to wine? I thank you respectfully. By God's grace, you have
a very superior vintage."
The lord of Brisetout walked to and fro with his hands behind his back.
Perhaps he was not yet quite settled in his mind about the parallel
between thieves and soldiers; perhaps Villon had interested him by some
cross-thread of sympathy; perhaps his wits were simply muddled by so
much unfamiliar reasoning; but whatever the cause, he somehow yearned to
convert the young man to a better way of thinking, and could not make up
his mind to drive him forth again into the street.
"There is something more than I can understand in this," he said at
length. "Your mouth is full of subtleties, and the devil has led you
very far astray; but the devil is only a very weak spirit before God's
truth, and all his subtleties vanish at a word of true honour, like
darkness at morning. Listen to me once more. I learned long ago that a
gentleman should live chivalrously and lovingly to God, and the king,
and his lady; and though I have seen many strange things done, I have
still striven to command my ways upon that rule. It is not only written
in all noble histories, but in every man's heart, if he will take care
to read. You speak of food and wine, and I know very well that hunger is
a difficult trial to endure; but you do not speak of other wants; you
say nothing of honour, of faith to God and other men, of courtesy, of
love without reproach. It may be that I am not very wise--and yet I
think I am--but you seem to me like one who has lost his way and made a
great error in life. You are attending to the little wants, and you have
totally forgotten the great and only real ones, like a man who should be
doctoring a toothache on the Judgment Day. For such things as honour and
love and faith are not only nobler than food and drink, but indeed I
think that we desire them more, and suffer more sharply for their
absence. I speak to you as I think you will most easily understand me.
Are you not, while careful to fill your belly, disregarding another
appetite in your heart, which spoils the pleasure of your life and keeps
you continually wretched?"
Villon was sensibly nettled under all this sermonising. "You think I
have no sense of honour!" he cried. "I'm poor enough, God knows! It's
hard to see rich people with their gloves, and you blowing in your
hands. An empty belly is a bitter thing, although you speak so lightly
of it. If you had had as many as I, perhaps you would change your tune.
Any way I'm a thief--make the most of that--but I'm not a devil from
hell, God strike me dead! I would have you to know I've an honour of my
own, as good as yours, though I don't prate about it all day long, as if
it was a God's miracle to have any. It seems quite natural to me; I keep
it in its box till it's wanted. Why now, look you here, how long have I
been in this room with you? Did you not tell me you were alone in the
house? Look at your gold plate! You're strong, if you like, but you're
old and unarmed, and I have my knife. What did I want but a jerk of the
elbow and here would have been you with the cold steel in your bowels,
and there would have been me, linking in the streets, with an armful of
gold cups! Did you suppose I hadn't wit enough to see that? And I
scorned the action. There are your damned goblets, as safe as in a
church; there are you, with your heart ticking as good as new; and here
am I, ready to go out again as poor as I came in, with my one white that
you threw in my teeth! And you think I have no sense of honour--God
strike me dead!"
The old man stretched out his right arm. "I will tell you what you are,"
he said. "You are a rogue, my man, an impudent and a black-hearted rogue
and vagabond. I have passed an hour with you. Oh! believe me, I feel
myself disgraced! And you have eaten and drunk at my table. But now I am
sick at your presence; the day has come, and the night-bird should be
off to his roost. Will you go before, or after?"
"Which you please," returned the poet, rising. "I believe you to be
strictly honourable." He thoughtfully emptied his cup. "I wish I could
add you were intelligent," he went on, knocking on his head with his
knuckles. "Age, age! the brains stiff and rheumatic."
The old man preceded him from a point of self-respect; Villon followed,
whistling, with his thumbs in his girdle.
"God pity you," said the lord of Brisetout at the door.
"Good-bye, papa," returned Villon, with a yawn. "Many thanks for the
cold mutton."
The door closed behind him. The dawn was breaking over the white roofs.
A chill, uncomfortable morning ushered in the day. Villon stood and
heartily stretched himself in the middle of the road.
"A very dull old gentleman," he thought. "I wonder what his goblets may
be worth."
THE SIRE DE MALÉTROIT'S DOOR
Denis de Beaulieu was not yet two-and-twenty, but he counted himself a
grown man, and a very accomplished cavalier into the bargain. Lads were
early formed in that rough, war-faring epoch; and when one has been in a
pitched battle and a dozen raids, has killed one's man in an honourable
fashion, and knows a thing or two of strategy and mankind, a certain
swagger in the gait is surely to be pardoned. He had put up his horse
with due care, and supped with due deliberation; and then, in a very
agreeable frame of mind, went out to pay a visit in the grey of the
evening. It was not a very wise proceeding on the young man's part. He
would have done better to remain beside the fire or go decently to bed.
For the town was full of the troops of Burgundy and England under a
mixed command; and though Denis was there on safe-conduct, his
safe-conduct was like to serve him little on a chance encounter.
It was September 1429; the weather had fallen sharp; a flighty piping
wind, laden with showers, beat about the township; and the dead leaves
ran riot along the streets. Here and there a window was already lighted
up; and the noise of men-at-arms making merry over supper within came
forth in fits and was swallowed up and carried away by the wind. The
night fell swiftly; the flag of England, fluttering on the spire-top,
grew ever fainter and fainter against the flying clouds--a black speck
like a swallow in the tumultuous, leaden chaos of the sky. As the night
fell the wind rose, and began to hoot under archways and roar amid the
tree-tops in the valley below the town.
Denis de Beaulieu walked fast, and was soon knocking at his friend's
door; but though he promised himself to stay only a little while and
make an early return, his welcome was so pleasant, and he found so much
to delay him, that it was already long past midnight before he said
good-bye upon the threshold. The wind had fallen again in the meanwhile;
the night was as black as the grave; not a star, nor a glimmer of
moonshine, slipped through the canopy of cloud. Denis was ill-acquainted
with the intricate lanes of Château Landon; even by daylight he had
found some trouble in picking his way; and in this absolute darkness he
soon lost it altogether. He was certain of one thing only--to keep
mounting the hill; for his friend's house lay at the lower end, or tail,
of Château Landon, while the inn was up at the head, under the great
church spire. With this clue to go upon he stumbled and groped forward,
now breathing more freely in open places where there was a good slice of
sky overhead, now feeling along the wall in stifling closes. It is an
eerie and mysterious position to be thus submerged in opaque blackness
in an almost unknown town. The silence is terrifying in its
possibilities. The touch of cold window-bars to the exploring hand
startles the man like the touch of a toad; the inequalities of the
pavement shake his heart into his mouth; a piece of denser darkness
threatens an ambuscade or a chasm in the pathway; and where the air is
brighter, the houses put on strange and bewildering appearances, as if
to lead him farther from his way. For Denis, who had to regain his inn
without attracting notice, there was real danger as well as mere
discomfort in the walk; and he went warily and boldly at once, and at
every corner paused to make an observation.
He had been for some time threading a lane so narrow that he could touch
a wall with either hand, when it began to open out and go sharply
downward. Plainly this lay no longer in the direction of his inn; but
the hope of a little more light tempted him forward to reconnoitre. The
lane ended in a terrace with a bartizan wall, which gave an outlook
between high houses, as out of an embrasure, into the valley lying dark
and formless several hundred feet below. Denis looked down, and could
discern a few tree-tops waving and a single speck of brightness where
the river ran across a weir. The weather was clearing up, and the sky
had lightened, so as to show the outline of the heavier clouds and the
dark margin of the hills. By the uncertain glimmer, the house on his
left hand should be a place of some pretensions; it was surmounted by
several pinnacles and turret-tops; the round stern of a chapel, with a
fringe of flying buttresses, projected boldly from the main block; and
the door was sheltered under a deep porch carved with figures and
overhung by two long gargoyles. The windows of the chapel gleamed
through their intricate tracery with a light as of many tapers, and
threw out the buttresses and the peaked roof in a more intense blackness
against the sky. It was plainly the hotel of some great family of the
neighbourhood; and as it reminded Denis of a town-house of his own at
Bourges, he stood for some time gazing up at it and mentally gauging the
skill of the architects and the consideration of the two families.
There seemed to be no issue to the terrace but the lane by which he had
reached it; he could only retrace his steps, but he had gained some
notion of his whereabouts, and hoped by this means to hit the main
thoroughfare and speedily regain the inn. He was reckoning without that
chapter of accidents which was to make this night memorable above all
others in his career; for he had not gone back above a hundred yards
before he saw a light coming to meet him, and heard loud voices speaking
together in the echoing narrows of the lane. It was a party of
men-at-arms going the night-round with torches. Denis assured himself
that they had all been making free with the wine-bowl, and were in no
mood to be particular about safe-conducts or the niceties of chivalrous
war. It was as like as not that they would kill him like a dog and leave
him where he fell. The situation was inspiriting, but nervous. Their own
torches would conceal him from sight, he reflected; and he hoped that
they would drown the noise of his footsteps with their own empty
voices. If he were but fleet and silent, he might evade their notice
altogether.
Unfortunately, as he turned to beat a retreat, his foot rolled upon a
pebble; he fell against the wall with an ejaculation, and his sword rang
loudly on the stones. Two or three voices demanded who went there--some
in French, some in English; but Denis made no reply, and ran the faster
down the lane. Once upon the terrace, he paused to look back. They still
kept calling after him, and just then began to double the pace in
pursuit, with a considerable clank of armour, and great tossing of the
torchlight to and fro in the narrow jaws of the passage.
Denis cast a look around and darted into the porch. There he might
escape observation, or--if that were too much to expect--was in a
capital posture whether for parley or defence. So thinking, he drew his
sword and tried to set his back against the door. To his surprise, it
yielded behind his weight; and though he turned in a moment, continued
to swing back on oiled and noiseless hinges, until it stood wide open on
a black interior. When things fall out opportunely for the person
concerned, he is not apt to be critical about the how or why, his own
immediate personal convenience seeming a sufficient reason for the
strangest oddities and revolutions in our sublunary things; and so
Denis, without a moment's hesitation, stepped within and partly closed
the door behind him to conceal his place of refuge. Nothing was further
from his thoughts than to close it altogether; but for some inexplicable
reason--perhaps by a spring or a weight--the ponderous mass of oak
whipped itself out of his fingers and clanked to, with a formidable
rumble and noise like the falling of an automatic bar.
The round, at that very moment, debouched upon the terrace, and
proceeded to summon him with shouts and curses. He heard them ferreting
in the dark corners; the stock of a lance even rattled along the outer
surface of the door behind which he stood; but these gentlemen were in
too high a humour to be long delayed, and soon made off down a
corkscrew pathway which had escaped Denis's observation, and passed out
of sight and hearing along the battlements of the town.
Denis breathed again. He gave them a few minutes' grace for fear of
accidents, and then groped about for some means of opening the door and
slipping forth again. The inner surface was quite smooth, not a handle,
not a moulding, not a projection of any sort. He got his finger-nails
round the edges and pulled, but the mass was immovable. He shook it; it
was as firm as a rock. Denis de Beaulieu frowned and gave vent to a
little noiseless whistle. What ailed the door? he wondered. Why was it
open? How came it to shut so easily and so effectually after him? There
was something obscure and underhand about all this that was little to
the young man's fancy. It looked like a snare; and yet who could suppose
a snare in such a quiet by-street and in a house of so prosperous and
even noble an exterior? And yet--snare or no snare, intentionally or
unintentionally--here he was, prettily trapped; and for the life of him
he could see no way out of it again. The darkness began to weigh upon
him. He gave ear; all was silent without, but within and close by he
seemed to catch a faint sighing, a faint sobbing rustle, a little
stealthy creak--as though many persons were at his side, holding
themselves quite still, and governing even their respiration with the
extreme of slyness. The idea went to his vitals with a shock, and he
faced about suddenly as if to defend his life. Then, for the first time,
he became aware of a light about the level of his eyes, and at some
distance in the interior of the house--a vertical thread of light,
widening towards the bottom, such as might escape between two wings of
arras over a doorway. To see anything was a relief to Denis; it was like
a piece of solid ground to a man labouring in a morass; his mind seized
upon it with avidity; and he stood staring at it and trying to piece
together some logical conception of his surroundings. Plainly there was
a flight of steps ascending from his own level to that of this
illuminated doorway; and indeed he thought he could make out another
thread of light, as fine as a needle, and as faint as phosphorescence,
which might very well be reflected along the polished wood of a
handrail. Since he had begun to suspect that he was not alone, his heart
had continued to beat with smothering violence, and an intolerable
desire for action of any sort had possessed itself of his spirit. He was
in deadly peril, he believed. What could be more natural than to mount
the staircase, lift the curtain, and confront his difficulty at once? At
least he would be dealing with something tangible; at least he would be
no longer in the dark. He stepped slowly forward with outstretched
hands, until his foot struck the bottom step; then he rapidly scaled the
stairs, stood for a moment to compose his expression, lifted the arras,
and went in.
He found himself in a large apartment of polished stone. There were
three doors; one on each of three sides; all similarly curtained with
tapestry. The fourth side was occupied by two large windows and a great
stone chimney-piece, carved with the arms of the Malétroits. Denis
recognised the bearings, and was gratified to find himself in such good
hands. The room was strongly illuminated; but it contained little
furniture except a heavy table and a chair or two, the hearth was
innocent of fire, and the pavement was but sparsely strewn with rushes
clearly many days old.
On a high chair beside the chimney, and directly facing Denis as he
entered, sat a little old gentleman in a fur tippet. He sat with his
legs crossed and his hands folded, and a cup of spiced wine stood by his
elbow on a bracket on the wall. His countenance had a strongly masculine
cast; not properly human, but such as we see in the bull, the goat, or
the domestic boar; something equivocal and wheedling, something greedy,
brutal, and dangerous. The upper lip was inordinately full, as though
swollen by a blow or a toothache; and the smile, the peaked eyebrows,
and the small, strong eyes were quaintly and almost comically evil in
expression. Beautiful white hair hung straight all round his head, like
a saint's, and fell in a single curl upon the tippet. His beard and
moustache were the pink of venerable sweetness. Age, probably in
consequence of inordinate precautions, had left no mark upon his hands;
and the Malétroit hand was famous. It would be difficult to imagine
anything at once so fleshy and so delicate in design; the taper, sensual
fingers were like those of one of Leonardo's women; the fork of the
thumb made a dimple protuberance when closed; the nails were perfectly
shaped, and of a dead, surprising whiteness. It rendered his aspect
tenfold more redoubtable, that a man with hands like these should keep
them devoutly folded in his lap like a virgin martyr--that a man with so
intense and startling an expression of face should sit patiently on his
seat and contemplate people with an unwinking stare, like a god, or a
god's statue. His quiescence seemed ironical and treacherous, it fitted
so poorly with his looks.
Such was Alain, Sire de Malétroit.
Denis and he looked silently at each other for a second or two.
"Pray step in," said the Sire de Malétroit. "I have been expecting you
all the evening."
He had not risen, but he accompanied his words with a smile and a slight
but courteous inclination of the head. Partly from the smile, partly
from the strange musical murmur with which the Sire prefaced his
observation, Denis felt a strong shudder of disgust go through his
marrow. And what with disgust and honest confusion of mind, he could
scarcely get words together in reply.
"I fear," he said, "that this is a double accident. I am not the person
you suppose me. It seems you were looking for a visit; but for my part,
nothing was further from my thoughts--nothing could be more contrary to
my wishes--than this intrusion."
"Well, well," replied the old gentleman indulgently, "here you are,
which is the main point. Seat yourself, my friend, and put yourself
entirely at your ease. We shall arrange our little affairs presently."
Denis perceived that the matter was still complicated with some
misconception, and he hastened to continue his explanations.
"Your door ----" he began.
"About my door?" asked the other, raising his peaked eyebrows. "A little
piece of ingenuity." And he shrugged his shoulders. "A hospitable fancy!
By your own account, you were not desirous of making my acquaintance. We
old people look for such reluctance now and then; and when it touches
our honour, we cast about until we find some way of overcoming it. You
arrive uninvited, but believe me, very welcome."
"You persist in error, sir," said Denis. "There can be no question
between you and me. I am a stranger in this countryside. My name is
Denis, damoiseau de Beaulieu. If you see me in your house, it is only
----"
"My young friend," interrupted the other, "you will permit me to have my
own ideas on that subject. They probably differ from yours at the
present moment," he added, with a leer, "but time will show which of us
is in the right."
Denis was convinced he had to do with a lunatic. He seated himself with
a shrug, content to wait the upshot; and a pause ensued, during which he
thought he could distinguish a hurried gabbling as of prayer from behind
the arras immediately opposite him. Sometimes there seemed to be but one
person engaged, sometimes two; and the vehemence of the voice, low as it
was, seemed to indicate either haste or an agony of spirit. It occurred
to him that this piece of tapestry covered the entrance to the chapel he
had noticed from without.
The old gentleman meanwhile surveyed Denis from head to foot with a
smile, and from time to time emitted little noises like a bird or a
mouse, which seemed to indicate a high degree of satisfaction. This
state of matters became rapidly insupportable; and Denis, to put an end
to it, remarked politely that the wind had gone down.
The old gentleman fell into a fit of silent laughter, so prolonged and
violent that he became quite red in the face. Denis got upon his feet at
once, and put on his hat with a flourish.
"Sir," he said, "if you are in your wits, you have affronted me grossly.
If you are out of them, I flatter myself I can find better employment
for my brains than to talk with lunatics. My conscience is clear; you
have made a fool of me from the first moment; you have refused to hear
my explanations; and now there is no power under God will make me stay
here any longer; and if I cannot make my way out in a more decent
fashion, I will hack your door in pieces with my sword."
The Sire de Malétroit raised his right hand and wagged it at Denis with
the fore and little fingers extended.
"My dear nephew," he said, "sit down."
"Nephew!" retorted Denis, "you lie in your throat"; and he snapped his
fingers in his face.
"Sit down, you rogue!" cried the old gentleman, in a sudden, harsh
voice, like the barking of a dog. "Do you fancy," he went on, "that when
I made my little contrivance for the door I had stopped short with that?
If you prefer to be bound hand and foot till your bones ache, rise and
try to go away. If you choose to remain a free young buck, agreeably
conversing with an old gentleman--why, sit where you are in peace, and
God be with you."
"Do you mean I am a prisoner?" demanded Denis.
"I state the facts," replied the other. "I would rather leave the
conclusion to yourself."
Denis sat down again. Externally he managed to keep pretty calm; but
within, he was now boiling with anger, now chilled with apprehension. He
no longer felt convinced that he was dealing with a madman. And if the
old gentleman was sane, what, in God's name, had he to look for? What
absurd or tragical adventure had befallen him? What countenance was he
to assume?
While he was thus unpleasantly reflecting, the arras that overhung the
chapel door was raised, and a tall priest in his robes came forth, and;
giving a long, keen stare at Denis, said something in an undertone to
Sire de Malétroit.
"She is in a better frame of spirit?" asked the latter.
"She is more resigned, messire," replied the priest.
"Now the Lord help her, she is hard to please!" sneered the old
gentleman. "A likely stripling--not ill-born--and of her own choosing
too? Why, what more would the jade have?"
"The situation is not usual for a young damsel," said the other, "and
somewhat trying to her blushes."
"She should have thought of that before she began the dance! It was none
of my choosing, God knows that: but since she is in it, by Our Lady, she
shall carry it to the end." And then addressing Denis, "Monsieur de
Beaulieu," he asked, "may I present you to my niece? She has been
waiting your arrival, I may say, with even greater impatience than
myself."
Denis had resigned himself with a good grace--all he desired was to know
the worst of it as speedily as possible; so he rose at once, and bowed
in acquiescence. The Sire de Malétroit followed his example, and limped,
with the assistance of the chaplain's arm, towards the chapel door. The
priest pulled aside the arras, and all three entered. The building had
considerable architectural pretensions. A light groining sprang from six
stout columns, and hung down in two rich pendants from the centre of the
vault. The place terminated behind the altar in a round end, embossed
and honeycombed with a superfluity of ornament in relief, and pierced by
many little windows shaped like stars, trefoils, or wheels. These
windows were imperfectly glazed, so that the night-air circulated freely
in the chapel. The tapers, of which there must have been half a hundred
burning on the altar, were unmercifully blown about; and the light went
through many different phases of brilliancy and semi-eclipse. On the
steps in front of the altar knelt a young girl richly attired as a
bride. A chill settled over Denis as he observed her costume; he fought
with desperate energy against the conclusion that was being thrust upon
his mind; it could not--it should not--be as he feared.
"Blanche," said the Sire, in his most flute-like tones, "I have brought
a friend to see you, my little girl; turn round and give him your pretty
hand. It is good to be devout; but it is necessary to be polite, my
niece."
The girl rose to her feet and turned towards the newcomers. She moved
all of a piece; and shame and exhaustion were expressed in every line of
her fresh young body; and she held her head down and kept her eyes upon
the pavement, as she came slowly forward. In the course of her advance,
her eyes fell upon Denis de Beaulieu's feet--feet of which he was justly
vain, be it remarked, and wore in the most elegant accoutrement even
while travelling. She paused--started, as if his yellow boots had
conveyed some shocking meaning--and glanced suddenly up into the
wearer's countenance. Their eyes met; shame gave place to horror and
terror in her looks; the blood left her lips; with a piercing scream she
covered her face with her hands and sank upon the chapel floor.
"That is not the man!" she cried. "My uncle, that is not the man!"
The Sire de Malétroit chirped agreeably. "Of course not," he said, "I
expected as much. It was so unfortunate you could not remember his
name."
"Indeed," she cried, "indeed, I have never seen this person till this
moment--I have never so much as set eyes upon him--I never wish to see
him again. Sir," she said, turning to Denis, "if you are a gentleman,
you will bear me out. Have I ever seen you--have you ever seen
me--before this accursed hour?"
"To speak for myself, I have never had that pleasure," answered the
young man. "This is the first time, messire, that I have met with your
engaging niece."
The old gentleman shrugged his shoulders.
"I am distressed to hear it," he said. "But it is never too late to
begin. I had little more acquaintance with my own late lady ere I
married her; which proves," he added with a grimace, "that these
impromptu marriages may often produce an excellent understanding in the
long-run. As the bridegroom is to have a voice in the matter, I will
give him two hours to make up for lost time before we proceed with the
ceremony." And he turned towards the door, followed by the clergyman.
The girl was on her feet in a moment. "My uncle, you cannot be in
earnest," she said. "I declare before God I will stab myself rather than
be forced on that young man. The heart rises at it; God forbids such
marriages; you dishonour your white hair. Oh, my uncle, pity me! There
is not a woman in all the world but would prefer death to such a
nuptial. Is it possible," she added, faltering--"is it possible that you
do not believe me--that you still think this"--and she pointed at Denis
with a tremor of anger and contempt--"that you still think _this_ to be
the man?"
"Frankly," said the old gentleman, pausing on the threshold, "I do. But
let me explain to you once for all, Blanche de Malétroit, my way of
thinking about this affair. When you took it into your head to dishonour
my family and the name that I have borne, in peace and war, for more
than threescore years, you forfeited, not only the right to question my
designs, but that of looking me in the face. If your father had been
alive, he would have spat on you and turned you out of doors. His was
the hand of iron. You may bless your God you have only to deal with the
hand of velvet, mademoiselle. It was my duty to get you married without
delay. Out of pure goodwill, I have tried to find your own gallant for
you. And I believe I have succeeded. But before God and all the holy
angels, Blanche de Malétroit, if I have not, I care not one jack-straw.
So let me recommend you to be polite to our young friend; for upon my
word, your next groom may be less appetising."
And with that he went out, with the chaplain at his heels; and the arras
fell behind the pair.
The girl turned upon Denis with flashing eyes.
"And what, sir," she demanded, "may be the meaning of all this?"
"God knows," returned Denis gloomily. "I am a prisoner in this house,
which seems full of mad people. More I know not, and nothing do I
understand."
"And pray how came you here?" she asked.
He told her as briefly as he could. "For the rest," he added, "perhaps
you will follow my example, and tell me the answer to all these riddles,
and what, in God's name, is like to be the end of it."
She stood silent for a little, and he could see her lips tremble and her
tearless eyes burn with a feverish lustre. Then she pressed her forehead
in both hands.
"Alas, how my head aches!" she said wearily--"to say nothing of my poor
heart! But it is due to you to know my story, unmaidenly as it must
seem. I am called Blanche de Malétroit; I have been without father or
mother for--oh! for as long as I can recollect, and indeed I have been
most unhappy all my life. Three months ago a young captain began to
stand near me every day in church. I could see that I pleased him; I am
much to blame, but I was so glad that any one should love me; and when
he passed me a letter, I took it home with me and read it with great
pleasure. Since that time he has written many. He was so anxious to
speak with me, poor fellow! and kept asking me to leave the door open
some evening that we might have two words upon the stair. For he knew
how much my uncle trusted me." She gave something like a sob at that,
and it was a moment before she could go on. "My uncle is a hard man, but
he is very shrewd," she said at last. "He has performed many feats in
war, and was a great person at court, and much trusted by Queen Isabeau
in old days. How he came to suspect me I cannot tell; but it is hard to
keep anything from his knowledge; and this morning, as we came from
mass, he took my hand in his, forced it open, and read my little billet,
walking by my side all the while. When he had finished, he gave it back
to me with great politeness. It contained another request to have the
door left open; and this has been the ruin of us all. My uncle kept me
strictly in my room until evening, and then ordered me to dress myself
as you see me--a hard mockery for a young girl, do you not think so? I
suppose, when he could not prevail with me to tell him the young
captain's name, he must have laid a trap for him: into which, alas! you
have fallen in the anger of God. I looked for much confusion; for how
could I tell whether he was willing to take me for his wife on these
sharp terms? He might have been trifling with me from the first; or I
might have made myself too cheap in his eyes. But truly I had not looked
for such a shameful punishment as this! I could not think that God would
let a girl be so disgraced before a young man. And now I have told you
all; and I can scarcely hope that you will not despise me."
Denis made her a respectful inclination.
"Madam," he said, "you have honoured me by your confidence. It remains
for me to prove that I am not unworthy of the honour. Is Messire de
Malétroit at hand?"
"I believe he is writing in the salle without," she answered.
"May I lead you thither, madam?" asked Denis, offering his hand with his
most courtly bearing.
She accepted it; and the pair passed out of the chapel, Blanche in a
very drooping and shamefaced condition, but Denis strutting and ruffling
in the consciousness of a mission, and a boyish certainty of
accomplishing it with honour.
The Sire de Malétroit rose to meet them with an ironical obeisance.
"Sir," said Denis, with the grandest possible air, "I believe I am to
have some say in the matter of this marriage; and let me tell you at
once, I will be no party to forcing the inclination of this young lady.
Had it been freely offered to me, I should have been proud to accept her
hand, for I perceive she is as good as she is beautiful; but as things
are, I have now the honour, messire, of refusing."
Blanche looked at him with gratitude in her eyes; but the old gentleman
only smiled and smiled, until his smile grew positively sickening to
Denis.
"I am afraid," he said, "Monsieur de Beaulieu, that you do not perfectly
understand the choice I have to offer you. Follow me, I beseech you, to
this window." And he led the way to one of the large windows which stood
open on the night. "You observe," he went on, "there is an iron ring in
the upper masonry, and reeved through that a very efficacious rope. Now,
mark my words: if you should find your disinclination to my niece's
person insurmountable, I shall have you hanged out of this window before
sunrise. I shall only proceed to such an extremity with the greatest
regret, you may believe me. For it is not at all your death that I
desire, but my niece's establishment in life. At the same time, it must
come to that if you prove obstinate. Your family, Monsieur de Beaulieu,
is very well in its way; but if you sprang from Charlemagne, you should
not refuse the hand of a Malétroit with impunity--not if she had been as
common as the Paris road--not if she were as hideous as the gargoyle
over my door. Neither my niece nor you, nor my own private feelings,
move me at all in this matter. The honour of my house has been
compromised; I believe you to be the guilty person; at least you are now
in the secret; and you can hardly wonder if I request you to wipe out
the stain. If you will not, your blood be on your own head! It will be
no great satisfaction to me to have your interesting relics kicking
their heels in the breeze below my windows; but half a loaf is better
than no bread, and if I cannot cure the dishonour, I shall at least stop
the scandal."
There was a pause.
"I believe there are other ways of settling such imbroglios among
gentlemen," said Denis. "You wear a sword, and I hear you have used it
with distinction."
The Sire de Malétroit made a signal to the chaplain, who crossed the
room with long, silent strides and raised the arras over the third of
the three doors. It was only a moment before he let it fall again; but
Denis had time to see a dusky passage full of armed men.
"When I was a little younger, I should have been delighted to honour
you, Monsieur de Beaulieu," said Sire Alain; "but I am now too old.
Faithful retainers are the sinews of age, and I must employ the strength
I have. This is one of the hardest things to swallow as a man grows up
in years; but with a little patience, even this becomes habitual. You
and the lady seem to prefer the salle for what remains of your two
hours; and as I have no desire to cross your preference, I shall resign
it to your use with all the pleasure in the world. No haste!" he added,
holding up his hand, as he saw a dangerous look come into Denis de
Beaulieu's face. "If your mind revolts against hanging, it will be time
enough two hours hence to throw yourself out of the window or upon the
pikes of my retainers. Two hours of life are always two hours. A great
many things may turn up in even as little a while as that. And, besides,
if I understand her appearance, my niece has still something to say to
you. You will not disfigure your last hours by a want of politeness to a
lady?"
Denis looked at Blanche, and she made him an imploring gesture.
It is likely that the old gentleman was hugely pleased at this symptom
of an understanding; for he smiled on both, and added sweetly: "If you
will give me your word of honour, Monsieur de Beaulieu, to await my
return at the end of the two hours before attempting anything desperate,
I shall withdraw my retainers, and let you speak in greater privacy with
mademoiselle."
Denis again glanced at the girl, who seemed to beseech him to agree.
"I give you my word of honour," he said.
Messire de Malétroit bowed, and proceeded to limp about the apartment,
clearing his throat the while with that odd musical chirp which had
already grown so irritating in the ears of Denis de Beaulieu. He first
possessed himself of some papers which lay upon the table; then he went
to the mouth of the passage and appeared to give an order to the men
behind the arras; and lastly he hobbled out through the door by which
Denis had come in, turning upon the threshold to address a last smiling
bow to the young couple, and followed by the chaplain with a hand-lamp.
No sooner were they alone than Blanche advanced towards Denis with her
hands extended. Her face was flushed and excited, and her eyes shone
with tears.
"You shall not die!" she cried, "you shall marry me after all."
"You seem to think, madam," replied Denis, "that I stand much in fear of
death."
"Oh, no, no," she said; "I see you are no poltroon. It is for my own
sake--I could not bear to have you slain for such a scruple."
"I am afraid," returned Denis, "that you underrate the difficulty,
madam. What you may be too generous to refuse, I may be too proud to
accept. In a moment of noble feeling towards me, you forget what you
perhaps owe to others."
He had the decency to keep his eyes upon the floor as he said this, and
after he had finished, so as not to spy upon her confusion. She stood
silent for a moment, then walked suddenly away, and falling on her
uncle's chair, fairly burst out sobbing. Denis was in the acme of
embarrassment. He looked round, as if to seek for inspiration, and
seeing a stool, plumped down upon it for something to do. There he sat,
playing with the guard of his rapier, and wishing himself dead a
thousand times over, and buried in the nastiest kitchen-heap in France.
His eyes wandered round the apartment, but found nothing to arrest
them. There were such wide spaces between the furniture, the light fell
so baldly and cheerlessly over all, the dark outside air looked in so
coldly through the windows, that he thought he had never seen a church
so vast nor a tomb so melancholy. The regular sobs of Blanche de
Malétroit measured out the time like the ticking of a clock. He read the
device upon the shield over and over again, until his eyes became
obscured; he stared into shadowy corners until he imagined they were
swarming with horrible animals; and every now and again he awoke with a
start, to remember that his last two hours were running, and death was
on the march.
Oftener and oftener, as the time went on, did his glance settle on the
girl herself. Her face was bowed forward and covered with her hands, and
she was shaken at intervals by the convulsive hiccup of grief. Even thus
she was not an unpleasant object to dwell upon, so plump, and yet so
fine, with a warm brown skin, and the most beautiful hair, Denis
thought, in the whole world of womankind. Her hands were like her
uncle's; but they were more in place at the end of her young arms, and
looked infinitely soft and caressing. He remembered how her blue eyes
had shone upon him full of anger, pity, and innocence. And the more he
dwelt on her perfections, the uglier death looked, and the more deeply
was he smitten with penitence at her continued tears. Now he felt that
no man could have the courage to leave a world which contained so
beautiful a creature; and now he would have given forty minutes of his
last hour to have unsaid his cruel speech.
Suddenly a hoarse and ragged peal of cockcrow rose to their ears from
the dark valley below the windows. And this shattering noise in the
silence of all around was like a light in a dark place, and shook them
both out of their reflections.
"Alas, can I do nothing to help you?" she said, looking up.
"Madam," replied Denis, with a fine irrelevancy, "if I have said
anything to wound you, believe me it was for your own sake and not for
mine."
She thanked him with a tearful look.
"I feel your position cruelly," he went on. "The world has been bitter
hard on you. Your uncle is a disgrace to mankind. Believe me, madam,
there is no young gentleman in all France but would be glad of my
opportunity, to die in doing you a momentary service."
"I know already that you can be very brave and generous," she answered.
"What I _want_ to know is whether I can serve you--now or afterwards,"
she added, with a quaver.
"Most certainly," he answered, with a smile. "Let me sit beside you as
if I were a friend, instead of a foolish intruder; try to forget how
awkwardly we are placed to one another; make my last moments go
pleasantly; and you will do me the chief service possible."
"You are very gallant," she added, with a yet deeper sadness; "very
gallant----and it somehow pains me. But draw nearer, if you please; and
if you find anything to say to me, you will at least make certain of a
very friendly listener. Ah! Monsieur de Beaulieu," she broke forth--"ah!
Monsieur de Beaulieu, how can I look you in the face?" And she fell to
weeping again with a renewed effusion.
"Madam," said Denis, taking her hand in both of his, "reflect on the
little time I have before me, and the great bitterness into which I am
cast by the sight of your distress. Spare me, in my last moments, the
spectacle of what I cannot cure even with the sacrifice of my life."
"I am very selfish," answered Blanche. "I will be braver, Monsieur de
Beaulieu, for your sake. But think if I can do you no kindness in the
future--if you have no friends to whom I could carry your adieux. Charge
me as heavily as you can: every burden will lighten, by so little, the
invaluable gratitude I owe you. Put it in my power to do something more
for you than weep."
"My mother is married again, and has a young family to care for. My
brother Guichard will inherit my fiefs: and if I am not in error, that
will content him amply for my death. Life is a little vapour that
passeth away, as we are told by those in holy orders. When a man is in a
fair way and sees all life open in front of him, he seems to himself to
make a very important figure in the world. His horse whinnies to him;
the trumpets blow and the girls look out of window as he rides into town
before his company; he receives many assurances of trust and
regard--sometimes by express in a letter--sometimes face to face, with
persons of great consequence falling on his neck. It is not wonderful if
his head is turned for a time. But once he is dead, were he as brave as
Hercules or as wise as Solomon, he is soon forgotten. It is not ten
years since my father fell, with many other knights around him, in a
very fierce encounter, and I do not think that any one of them, nor so
much as the name of the fight, is now remembered. No, no, madam, the
nearer you come to it, you see that death is a dark and dusty corner,
where a man gets into his tomb and has the door shut after him till the
judgment-day. I have few friends just now, and once I am dead I shall
have none."
"Ah, Monsieur de Beaulieu!" she exclaimed, "you forget Blanche de
Malétroit."
"You have a sweet nature, madam, and you are pleased to estimate a
little service far beyond its worth."
"It is not that," she answered. "You mistake me if you think I am so
easily touched by my own concerns. I say so, because you are the noblest
man I have ever met; because I recognise in you a spirit that would have
made even a common person famous in the land."
"And yet here I die in a mousetrap--with no more noise about it than my
own squeaking," answered he.
A look of pain crossed her face, and she was silent for a little while.
Then a light came into her eyes, and with a smile she spoke again.
"I cannot have my champion think meanly of himself. Any one who gives
his life for another will be met in Paradise by all the heralds and
angels of the Lord God. And you have no cause to hang your head.
For----Pray, do you think me beautiful?" she asked, with a deep flush.
"Indeed, madam, I do," he said.
"I am glad of that," she answered heartily. "Do you think there are many
men in France who have been asked in marriage by a beautiful
maiden--with her own lips--and who have refused her to her face? I know
you men would half-despise such a triumph; but believe me, we women know
more of what is precious in love. There is nothing that should set a
person higher in his own esteem; and we women would prize nothing more
dearly."
"You are very good," he said; "but you cannot make me forget that I was
asked in pity and not for love."
"I am not so sure of that," she replied, holding down her head. "Hear me
to an end, Monsieur de Beaulieu. I know how you must despise me; I feel
you are right to do so; I am too poor a creature to occupy one thought
of your mind, although, alas! you must die for me this morning. But when
I asked you to marry me, indeed, and indeed, it was because I respected
and admired you, and loved you with my whole soul, from the very moment
that you took my part against my uncle. If you had seen yourself, and
how noble you looked, you would pity rather than despise me. And now,"
she went on, hurriedly checking him with her hand, "although I have laid
aside all reserve and told you so much, remember that I know your
sentiments towards me already. I would not, believe me, being nobly
born, weary you with importunities into consent. I too have a pride of
my own: and I declare before the holy Mother of God, if you should now
go back from your word already given, I would no more marry you than I
would marry my uncle's groom."
Denis smiled a little bitterly.
"It is a small love," he said, "that shies at a little pride."
She made no answer, although she probably had her own thoughts.
"Come hither to the window," he said, with a sigh. "Here is the dawn."
And indeed the dawn was already beginning. The hollow of the sky was
full of essential daylight, colourless and clean; and the valley
underneath was flooded with a grey reflection. A few thin vapours clung
in the coves of the forest or lay along the winding course of the river.
The scene disengaged a surprising effect of stillness, which was hardly
interrupted when the cocks began once more to crow among the steadings.
Perhaps the same fellow who had made so horrid a clangour in the
darkness not half an hour before now sent up the merriest cheer to greet
the coming day. A little wind went bustling and eddying among the
tree-tops underneath the windows. And still the daylight kept flooding
insensibly out of the east, which was soon to grow incandescent and cast
up that red-hot cannon-ball, the rising sun.
Denis looked out over all this with a bit of a shiver. He had taken her
hand, and retained it in his almost unconsciously.
"Has the day begun already?" she said; and then, illogically enough:
"the night has been so long! Alas! what shall we say to my uncle when he
returns?"
"What you will," said Denis, and he pressed her fingers in his.
She was silent.
"Blanche," he said, with a swift, uncertain, passionate utterance, "you
have seen whether I fear death. You must know well enough that I would
as gladly leap out of that window into the empty air as lay a finger on
you without your free and full consent. But if you care for me at all do
not let me lose my life in a misapprehension; for I love you better than
the whole world; and though I will die for you blithely, it would be
like all the joys of Paradise to live on and spend my life in your
service."
As he stopped speaking, a bell began to ring loudly in the interior of
the house; and a clatter of armour in the corridor showed that the
retainers were returning to their post, and the two hours were at an
end.
"After all that you have heard?" she whispered, leaning towards him with
her lips and eyes.
"I have heard nothing," he replied.
"The captain's name was Florimond de Champdivers," she said in his ear.
"I did not hear it," he answered, taking her supple body in his arms and
covered her wet face with kisses.
A melodious chirping was audible behind, followed by a beautiful
chuckle, and the voice of Messire de Malétroit wished his new nephew a
good morning.
PROVIDENCE AND THE GUITAR
CHAPTER I
Monsieur Léon Berthelini had a great care of his appearance, and
sedulously suited his deportment to the costume of the hour. He affected
something Spanish in his air, and something of the bandit, with a
flavour of Rembrandt at home. In person he was decidedly small, and
inclined to be stout; his face was the picture of good-humour; his dark
eyes, which were very expressive, told of a kind heart, a brisk, merry
nature, and the most indefatigable spirits. If he had worn the clothes
of the period you would have set him down for a hitherto undiscovered
hybrid between the barber, the innkeeper, and the affable dispensing
chemist. But in the outrageous bravery of velvet jacket and flapped hat,
with trousers that were more accurately described as fleshings, a white
handkerchief cavalierly knotted at his neck, a shock of Olympian curls
upon his brow, and his feet shod through all weathers in the slenderest
of Molière shoes--you had but to look at him and you knew you were in
the presence of a Great Creature. When he wore an overcoat he scorned to
pass the sleeves; a single button held it round his shoulders; it was
tossed backwards after the manner of a cloak, and carried with the gait
and presence of an Almaviva. I am of opinion that M. Berthelini was
nearing forty. But he had a boy's heart, gloried in his finery, and
walked through life like a child in a perpetual dramatic performance. If
he were not Almaviva after all, it was not for lack of making believe.
And he enjoyed the artist's compensation. If he were not really
Almaviva, he was sometimes just as happy as though he were.
I have seen him, at moments when he has fancied himself alone with his
Maker, adopt so gay and chivalrous a bearing, and represent his own part
with so much warmth and conscience, that the illusion became catching,
and I believed implicitly in the Great Creature's pose.
But, alas! life cannot be entirely conducted on these principles; man
cannot live by Almavivery alone; and the Great Creature, having failed
upon several theatres, was obliged to step down every evening from his
heights, and sing from half a dozen to a dozen comic songs, twang a
guitar, keep a country audience in good humour, and preside finally over
the mysteries of a tombola.
Madame Berthelini, who was art and part with him in these undignified
labours, had perhaps a higher position in the scale of beings, and
enjoyed a natural dignity of her own. But her heart was not any more
rightly placed, for that would have been impossible; and she had
acquired a little air of melancholy, attractive enough in its way, but
not good to see like the wholesome, sky-scraping, boyish spirits of her
lord.
He, indeed, swam like a kite on a fair wind, high above earthly
troubles. Detonations of temper were not unfrequent in the zones he
travelled; but sulky fogs and tearful depressions were there alike
unknown. A well-delivered blow upon a table, or a noble attitude,
imitated from Mélingue or Frédéric, relieved his irritation like a
vengeance. Though the heaven had fallen, if he had played his part with
propriety, Berthelini had been content! And the man's atmosphere, if not
his example, reacted on his wife; for the couple doated on each other,
and although you would have thought they walked in different worlds, yet
continued to walk hand in hand.
It chanced one day that Monsieur and Madame Berthelini descended with
two boxes and a guitar in a fat case at the station of the little town
of Castel-le-Gâchis, and the omnibus carried them with their effects to
the Hotel of the Black Head. This was a dismal, conventual building in a
narrow street, capable of standing siege when once the gates were shut,
and smelling strangely in the interior of straw and chocolate and old
feminine apparel. Berthelini paused upon the threshold with a painful
premonition. In some former state, it seemed to him, he had visited a
hostelry that smelt not otherwise, and been ill received.
The landlord, a tragic person in a large felt hat, rose from a
business-table under the key-rack, and came forward, removing his hat
with both hands as he did so.
"Sir, I salute you. May I inquire what is your charge for artists?"
inquired Berthelini, with a courtesy at once splendid and insinuating.
"For artists?" said the landlord. His countenance fell and the smile of
welcome disappeared. "Oh, artists!" he added brutally; "four francs a
day." And he turned his back upon these inconsiderable customers.
A commercial traveller is received, he also, upon a reduction--yet is he
welcome, yet can he command the fatted calf; but an artist, had he the
manners of an Almaviva, were he dressed like Solomon in all his glory,
is received like a dog and served like a timid lady travelling alone.
Accustomed as he was to the rubs of his profession, Berthelini was
unpleasantly affected by the landlord's manner.
"Elvira," said he to his wife, "mark my words: Castel-le-Gâchis is a
tragic folly."
"Wait till we see what we take," replied Elvira.
"We shall take nothing," replied Berthelini; "we shall feed upon
insults. I have an eye, Elvira; I have a spirit of divination; and this
place is accursed. The landlord has been discourteous, the Commissary
will be brutal, the audience will be sordid and uproarious, and you will
take a cold upon your throat. We have been besotted enough to come; the
die is cast--it will be a second Sedan."
Sedan was a town hateful to the Berthelinis, not only from patriotism
(for they were French, and answered after the flesh to the somewhat
homely name of Duval), but because it had been the scene of their most
sad reverses. In that place they had lain three weeks in pawn for their
hotel bill, and had it not been for a surprising stroke of fortune they
might have been lying there in pawn until this day. To mention the name
of Sedan was for the Berthelinis to dip the brush in earthquake and
eclipse. Count Almaviva slouched his hat with a gesture expressive of
despair, and even Elvira felt as if ill-fortune had been personally
evoked.
"Let us ask for breakfast," said she, with a woman's tact.
The Commissary of Police of Castel-le-Gâchis was a large red Commissary,
pimpled, and subject to a strong cutaneous transpiration. I have
repeated the name of his office because he was so very much more a
Commissary than a man. The spirit of his dignity had entered into him.
He carried his corporation as if it were something official. Whenever he
insulted a common citizen it seemed to him as if he were adroitly
flattering the Government by a side-wind; in default of dignity he was
brutal from an over-weening sense of duty. His office was a den, whence
passers-by could hear rude accents laying down, not the law, but the
good pleasure of the Commissary.
Six several times in the course of the day did M. Berthelini hurry
thither in quest of the requisite permission for his evening's
entertainment; six several times he found the official was abroad. Léon
Berthelini began to grow quite a familiar figure in the streets of
Castel-le-Gâchis; he became a local celebrity, and was pointed out as
"the man who was looking for the Commissary." Idle children attached
themselves to his footsteps, and trotted after him back and forward
between the hotel and the office. Léon might try as he liked; he might
roll cigarettes, he might straddle, he might cock his hat at a dozen
different jaunty inclinations--the part of Almaviva was, under the
circumstances, difficult to play.
As he passed the market-place upon the seventh excursion the Commissary
was pointed out to him, where he stood, with his waistcoat unbuttoned
and his hands behind his back, to superintend the sale and measurement
of butter. Berthelini threaded his way through the market-stalls and
baskets, and accosted the dignitary with a bow which was a triumph of
the histrionic art.
"I have the honour," he asked, "of meeting M. le Commissaire?"
The Commissary was affected by the nobility of his address. He excelled
Léon in the depth if not in the airy grace of his salutation.
"The honour," said he, "is mine!"
"I am," continued the strolling player, "I am, sir, an artist, and I
have permitted myself to interrupt you on an affair of business.
To-night I give a trifling musical entertainment at the Café of the
Triumphs of the Plough--permit me to offer you this little
programme--and I have come to ask you for the necessary authorisation."
At the word "artist" the Commissary had replaced his hat with the air of
a person who, having condescended too far, should suddenly remember the
duties of his rank.
"Go, go," said he, "I am busy; I am measuring butter."
"Heathen Jew!" thought Léon. "Permit me, sir," he resumed, aloud. "I
have gone six times already--"
"Put up your bills if you choose," interrupted the Commissary. "In an
hour or so I will examine your papers at the office. But now go; I am
busy."
"Measuring butter!" thought Berthelini. "O France, and it is for this
that we made '93!"
The preparations were soon made; the bills posted, programmes laid on
the dinner-table of every hotel in the town, and a stage erected at one
end of the Café of the Triumphs of the Plough; but when Léon returned to
the office, the Commissary was once more abroad.
"He is like Madame Benoîton," thought Léon: "Fichu Commissaire!"
And just then he met the man face to face.
"Here, sir," said he, "are my papers. Will you be pleased to verify?"
But the Commissary was now intent upon dinner.
"No use," he replied, "no use; I am busy; I am quite satisfied. Give
your entertainment."
And he hurried on.
"Fichu Commissaire!" thought Léon.
CHAPTER II
The audience was pretty large; and the proprietor of the café made a
good thing of it in beer. But the Berthelinis exerted themselves in
vain.
Léon was radiant in velveteen; he had a rakish way of smoking a
cigarette between his songs that was worth money in itself; he
underlined his comic points so that the dullest numskull in
Castel-le-Gâchis had a notion when to laugh; and he handled his guitar
in a manner worthy of himself. Indeed, his play with that instrument was
as good as a whole romantic drama; it was so dashing, so florid, and so
cavalier.
Elvira, on the other hand, sang her patriotic and romantic songs with
more than usual expression; her voice had charm and plangency; and as
Léon looked at her, in her low-bodied maroon dress, with her arms bare
to the shoulder, and a red flower set provocatively in her corset, he
repeated to himself for the many hundredth time that she was one of the
loveliest creatures in the world of women.
Alas! when she went round with the tambourine, the golden youth of
Castel-le-Gâchis turned from her coldly. Here and there a single
halfpenny was forthcoming; the net result of a collection never exceeded
half a franc; and the Maire himself, after seven different applications,
had contributed exactly twopence. A certain chill began to settle upon
the artists themselves; it seemed as if they were singing to slugs;
Apollo himself might have lost heart with such an audience. The
Berthelinis struggled against the impression; they put their back into
their work, they sang louder and louder, the guitar twanged like a
living thing; and at last Léon arose in his might, and burst with
inimitable conviction into his great song, "Y a des honnêtes gens
partout!" Never had he given more proof of his artistic mastery; it was
his intimate, indefeasible conviction that Castel-le-Gâchis formed an
exception to the law he was now lyrically proclaiming, and was peopled
exclusively by thieves and bullies; and yet, as I say, he flung it down
like a challenge, he trolled it forth like an article of faith; and his
face so beamed the while that you would have thought he must make
converts of the benches.
He was at the top of his register, with his head thrown back and his
mouth open, when the door was thrown violently open, and a pair of
new-comers marched noisily into the café. It was the Commissary,
followed by the Garde Champêtre.
The undaunted Berthelini still continued to proclaim, "Y a des honnêtes
gens partout!" But now the sentiment produced an audible titter among
the audience. Berthelini wondered why; he did not know the antecedents
of the Garde Champêtre; he had never heard of a little story about
postage-stamps. But the public knew all about the postage-stamps and
enjoyed the coincidence hugely.
The Commissary planted himself upon a vacant chair with somewhat the air
of Cromwell visiting the Rump, and spoke in occasional whispers to the
Garde Champêtre, who remained respectfully standing at his back. The
eyes of both were directed upon Berthelini, who persisted in his
statement.
"Y a des honnêtes gens partout," he was just chanting for the twentieth
time; when up got the Commissary upon his feet and waved brutally to
the singer with his cane.
"Is it me you want?" inquired Léon, stopping in his song.
"It is you," replied the potentate.
"Fichu Commissaire!" thought Léon, and he descended from the stage and
made his way to the functionary.
"How does it happen, sir," said the Commissary, swelling in person,
"that I find you mountebanking in a public café without my permission?"
"Without?" cried the indignant Léon. "Permit me to remind you----"
"Come, come, sir!" said the Commissary, "I desire no explanations."
"I care nothing about what you desire," returned the singer. "I choose
to give them, and I will not be gagged. I am an artist, sir, a
distinction that you cannot comprehend. I received your permission and
stand here upon the strength of it; interfere with me who dare."
"You have not got my signature, I tell you," cried the Commissary. "Show
me my signature! Where is my signature?"
That was just the question; where was his signature? Léon recognised
that he was in a hole; but his spirit rose with the occasion, and he
blustered nobly, tossing back his curls. The Commissary played up to him
in the character of tyrant; and as the one leaned farther forward, the
other leaned farther back--majesty confronting fury. The audience had
transferred their attention to this new performance, and listened with
that silent gravity common to all Frenchmen in the neighbourhood of the
Police. Elvira had sat down, she was used to these distractions, and it
was rather melancholy than fear that now oppressed her.
"Another word," cried the Commissary, "and I arrest you."
"Arrest me?" shouted Léon. "I defy you!"
"I am the Commissary of Police," said the official.
Léon commanded his feelings, and replied, with great delicacy of
innuendo--
"So it would appear."
The point was too refined for Castel-le-Gâchis; it did not raise a
smile; and as for the Commissary, he simply bade the singer follow him
to his office, and directed his proud footsteps towards the door. There
was nothing for it but to obey. Léon did so with a proper pantomime of
indifference, but it was a leek to eat, and there was no denying it.
The Maire had slipped out and was already waiting at the Commissary's
door. Now the Maire, in France, is the refuge of the oppressed. He
stands between his people and the boisterous rigours of the Police. He
can sometimes understand what is said to him; he is not always puffed up
beyond measure by his dignity. 'Tis a thing worth the knowledge of
travellers. When all seems over, and a man has made up his mind to
injustice, he has still, like the heroes of romance, a little bugle at
his belt whereon to blow; and the Maire, a comfortable _deus ex
machinâ_, may still descend to deliver him from the minions of the law.
The Maire of Castel-le-Gâchis, although inaccessible to the charms of
music as retailed by the Berthelinis, had no hesitation whatever as to
the rights of the matter. He instantly fell foul of the Commissary in
very high terms, and the Commissary, pricked by this humiliation,
accepted battle on the point of fact. The argument lasted some little
while with varying success, until at length victory inclined so plainly
to the Commissary's side that the Maire was fain to re-assert himself by
an exercise of authority. He had been out-argued, but he was still the
Maire. And so, turning from his interlocutor, he briefly but kindly
recommended Léon to get back instanter to his concert.
"It is already growing late," he added.
Léon did not wait to be told twice. He returned to the Café of the
Triumphs of the Plough with all expedition. Alas! the audience had
melted away during his absence; Elvira was sitting in a very
disconsolate attitude on the guitar-box; she had watched the company
dispersing by twos and threes, and the prolonged spectacle had somewhat
overwhelmed her spirits. Each man, she reflected, retired with a certain
proportion of her earnings in his pocket, and she saw to-night's board
and to-morrow's railway expenses, and finally even to-morrow's dinner,
walk one after another out of the café-door and disappear into the
night.
"What was it?" she asked languidly.
But Léon did not answer. He was looking round him on the scene of
defeat. Scarce a score of listeners remained, and these of the least
promising sort. The minute-hand of the clock was already climbing upward
towards eleven.
"It's a lost battle," said he, and then taking up the money-box, he
turned it out. "Three francs seventy-five!" he cried, "as against four
of board and six of railway fares; and no time for the tombola! Elvira,
this is Waterloo!" And he sat down and passed both hands desperately
among his curls. "O fichu Commissaire!" he cried, "fichu Commissaire!"
"Let us get the things together and be off," returned Elvira. "We might
try another song, but there is not six halfpence in the room."
"Six halfpence?" cried Léon, "six hundred thousand devils! There is not
a human creature in the town--nothing but pigs and dogs and
commissaries! Pray heaven we get safe to bed."
"Don't imagine things!" exclaimed Elvira, with a shudder.
And with that they set to work on their preparations. The tobacco-jar,
the cigarette-holder, the three papers of shirt-studs, which were to
have been the prizes of the tombola had the tombola come off, were made
into a bundle with the music; the guitar was stowed into the fat
guitar-case; and Elvira having thrown a thin shawl about her neck and
shoulders, the pair issued from the café and set off for the Black Head.
As they crossed the market-place the church bell rang out eleven. It was
a dark, mild night, and there was no one in the streets.
"It is all very fine," said Léon: "but I have a presentiment. The night
is not yet done."
CHAPTER III
The Black Head presented not a single chink of light upon the street,
and the carriage gate was closed.
"This is unprecedented," observed Léon. "An inn closed by five minutes
after eleven! And there were several commercial travellers in the café
up to a late hour. Elvira, my heart misgives me. Let us ring the bell."
The bell had a potent note; and being swung under the arch it filled the
house from top to bottom with surly, clanging reverberations. The sound
accentuated the conventual appearance of the building; a wintry
sentiment, a thought of prayer and mortification, took hold upon
Elvira's mind; and, as for Léon, he seemed to be reading the stage
directions for a lugubrious fifth act.
"This is your fault," said Elvira; "this is what comes of fancying
things!"
Again Léon pulled the bell-rope; again the solemn tocsin awoke the
echoes of the inn; and ere they had died away, a light glimmered in the
carriage entrance, and a powerful voice was heard upraised and tremulous
with wrath.
"What's all this?" cried the tragic host through the spars of the gate.
"Hard upon twelve, and you come clamouring like Prussians at the door of
a respectable hotel? Oh!" he cried, "I know you now! Common singers!
People in trouble with the Police! And you present yourselves at
midnight like lords and ladies? Be off with you!"
"You will permit me to remind you," replied Léon, in thrilling tones,
"that I am a guest in your house, that I am properly inscribed, and that
I have deposited baggage to the value of four hundred francs."
"You cannot get in at this hour," returned the man. "This is no thieves'
tavern, for mohocks and night-rakes and organ-grinders."
"Brute!" cried Elvira, for the organ-grinders touched her home.
"Then I demand my baggage," said Léon, with unabated dignity.
"I know nothing of your baggage," replied the landlord.
"You detain my baggage? You dare to detain my baggage?" cried the
singer.
"Who are you?" returned the landlord. "It is dark--I cannot recognise
you."
"Very well, then--you detain my baggage," concluded Léon. "You shall
smart for this. I will weary out your life with persecutions; I will
drag you from court to court; if there is justice to be had in France,
it shall be rendered between you and me. And I will make you a
by-word--I will put you in a song--a scurrilous song--an indecent
song--a popular song--which the boys shall sing to you in the street,
and come and howl through these spars at midnight!"
He had gone on raising his voice at every phrase, for all the while the
landlord was very placidly retiring; and now, when the last glimmer of
light had vanished from the arch, and the last footstep died away in the
interior, Léon turned to his wife with a heroic countenance.
"Elvira," said he, "I have now a duty in life. I shall destroy that man
as Eugène Sue destroyed the concierge. Let us come at once to the
Gendarmerie and begin our vengeance."
He picked up the guitar-case, which had been propped against the wall,
and they set forth through the silent and ill-lighted town with burning
hearts.
The Gendarmerie was concealed beside the telegraph-office at the bottom
of a vast court, which was partly laid out in gardens; and here all the
shepherds of the public lay locked in grateful sleep. It took a deal of
knocking to waken one; and he, when he came at last to the door, could
find no other remark but that "it was none of his business." Léon
reasoned with him, threatened him, besought him; "here," he said, "was
Madame Berthelini in evening dress--a delicate woman--in an interesting
condition"--the last was thrown in, I fancy, for effect; and to all this
the man-at-arms made the same answer--
"It is none of my business," said he.
"Very well," said Léon, "then we shall go to the Commissary." Thither
they went; the office was closed and dark; but the house was close by,
and Léon was soon swinging the bell like a madman. The Commissary's wife
appeared at the window. She was a thread-paper creature, and informed
them that the Commissary had not yet come home.
"Is he at the Maire's?" demanded Léon.
She thought that was not unlikely.
"Where is the Maire's house?" he asked.
And she gave him some rather vague information on that point.
"Stay you here, Elvira," said Léon, "lest I should miss him by the way.
If, when I return, I find you here no longer, I shall follow at once to
the Black Head."
And he set out to find the Maire's. It took him some ten minutes'
wandering among blind lanes, and when he arrived it was already half an
hour past midnight. A long white garden wall overhung by some thick
chestnuts, a door with a letter-box, and an iron bell-pull--that was all
that could be seen of the Maire's domicile. Léon took the bell-pull in
both hands, and danced furiously upon the side-walk. The bell itself was
just upon the other side of the wall; it responded to his activity, and
scattered an alarming clangour far and wide into the night.
A window was thrown open in a house across the street, and a voice
inquired the cause of this untimely uproar.
"I wish the Maire," said Léon.
"He has been in bed this hour," returned the voice.
"He must get up again," retorted Léon, and he was for tackling the
bell-pull once more.
"You will never make him hear," responded the voice. "The garden is of
great extent, the house is at the farther end, and both the Maire and
his housekeeper are deaf."
"Aha!" said Léon, pausing. "The Maire is deaf, is he? That explains."
And he thought of the evening's concert with a momentary feeling of
relief. "Ah!" he continued, "and so the Maire is deaf, and the garden
vast, and the house at the far end?"
"And you might ring all night," added the voice, "and be none the better
for it. You would only keep me awake."
"Thank you, neighbour," replied the singer. "You shall sleep."
And he made off again at his best pace for the Commissary's. Elvira was
still walking to and fro before the door.
"He has not come?" asked Léon.
"Not he," she replied.
"Good," returned Léon. "I am sure our man's inside. Let me see the
guitar-case. I shall lay this siege in form, Elvira; I am angry; I am
indignant: I am truculently inclined; but I thank my Maker I have still
a sense of fun. The unjust judge shall be importuned in a serenade,
Elvira. Set him up--and set him up."
He had the case opened by this time, struck a few chords, and fell into
an attitude which was irresistibly Spanish.
"Now," he continued, "feel your voice. Are you ready? Follow me!"
The guitar twanged, and the two voices upraised, in harmony and with a
startling loudness, the chorus of a song of old Béranger's:--
"Commissaire! Commissaire!
Colin bat sa ménagère."
The stones of Castel-le-Gâchis thrilled at this audacious innovation.
Hitherto had the night been sacred to repose and night-caps; and now
what was this? Window after window was opened; matches scratched, and
candles began to flicker; swollen, sleepy faces peered forth into the
starlight. There were the two figures before the Commissary's house,
each bolt upright, with head thrown back and eyes interrogating the
starry heavens; the guitar wailed, shouted, and reverberated like half
an orchestra; and the voices, with a crisp and spirited delivery, hurled
the appropriate burden at the Commissary's window. All the echoes
repeated the functionary's name. It was more like an entr'acte in a
farce of Molière's than a passage of real life in Castel-le-Gâchis.
The Commissary, if he was not the first, was not the last of the
neighbours to yield to the influence of music, and furiously threw open
the window of his bedroom. He was beside himself with rage. He leaned
far over the window-sill, raving and gesticulating; the tassel of his
white nightcap danced like a thing of life: he opened his mouth to
dimensions hitherto unprecedented, and yet his voice, instead of
escaping from it in a roar, came forth shrill and choked and tottering.
A little more serenading, and it was clear he would be better acquainted
with the apoplexy.
I scorn to reproduce his language; he touched upon too many serious
topics by the way for a quiet story-teller. Although he was known for a
man who was prompt with his tongue, and had a power of strong expression
at command, he excelled himself so remarkably this night that one maiden
lady, who had got out of bed like the rest to hear the serenade, was
obliged to shut her window at the second clause. Even what she had
heard disquieted her conscience; and next day she said she scarcely
reckoned as a maiden lady any longer.
Léon tried to explain his predicament, but he received nothing but
threats of arrest by way of answer.
"If I come down to you!" cried the Commissary.
"Ay," said Léon, "do!"
"I will not!" cried the Commissary.
"You dare not!" answered Léon.
At that the Commissary closed his window.
"All is over," said the singer. "The serenade was perhaps ill-judged.
These boors have no sense of humour."
"Let us get away from here," said Elvira, with a shiver. "All these
people looking--it is so rude and so brutal." And then giving way once
more to passion--"Brutes!" she cried aloud to the candle-lit
spectators--"brutes! brutes! brutes!"
"_Sauve qui peut_," said Léon. "You have done it now!"
And taking the guitar in one hand and the case in the other, he led the
way with something too precipitate to be merely called precipitation
from the scene of this absurd adventure.
CHAPTER IV
To the west of Castel-le-Gâchis four rows of venerable lime-trees
formed, in this starry night, a twilit avenue with two side aisles of
pitch darkness. Here and there stone benches were disposed between the
trunks. There was not a breath of wind; a heavy atmosphere of perfume
hung about the alleys; and every leaf stood stock-still upon its twig.
Hither, after vainly knocking at an inn or two, the Berthelinis came at
length to pass the night. After an amiable contention, Léon insisted on
giving his coat to Elvira, and they sat down together on the first bench
in silence. Léon made a cigarette, which he smoked to an end, looking
up into the trees, and beyond them at the constellations, of which he
tried vainly to recall the names. The silence was broken by the church
bell; it rang the four quarters on a light and tinkling measure; then
followed a single deep stroke that died slowly away with a thrill; and
stillness resumed its empire.
"One," said Léon. "Four hours till daylight. It is warm; it is starry; I
have matches and tobacco. Do not let us exaggerate, Elvira--the
experience is positively charming. I feel a glow within me; I am born
again. This is the poetry of life. Think of Cooper's novels, my dear."
"Léon," she said fiercely, "how can you talk such wicked, infamous
nonsense? To pass all night out of doors--it is like a nightmare! We
shall die!"
"You suffer yourself to be led away," he replied soothingly. "It is not
unpleasant here; only you brood. Come, now, let us repeat a scene. Shall
we try Alceste and Célimène? No? Or a passage from the _Two Orphans_?
Come, now, it will occupy your mind; I will play up to you as I never
have played before; I feel art moving in my bones."
"Hold your tongue," she cried, "or you will drive me mad! Will nothing
solemnise you--not even this hideous situation?"
"Oh, hideous!" objected Léon. "Hideous is not the word. Why, where would
you be? '_Dites, la jeune belle, où voulez-vous aller?_'" he carolled.
"Well, now," he went on, opening the guitar-case, "there's another idea
for you--sing. Sing '_Dites, la jeune belle_'! It will compose your
spirits, Elvira, I am sure."
And without waiting an answer he began to strum the symphony. The first
chords awoke a young man who was lying asleep upon a neighbouring bench.
"Hullo!" cried the young man, "who are you?"
"Under which king, Bezonian?" declaimed the artist. "Speak or die!"
Or if it was not exactly that, it was something to much the same purpose
from a French tragedy.
The young man drew near in the twilight. He was a tall, powerful,
gentlemanly fellow, with a somewhat puffy face, dressed in a grey tweed
suit, with a deer-stalker hat of the same material; and as he now came
forward he carried a knapsack slung upon one arm.
"Are you camping out here too?" he asked, with a strong English accent.
"I'm not sorry for company."
Léon explained their misadventure; and the other told them that he was a
Cambridge undergraduate on a walking tour, that he had run short of
money, could no longer pay for his night's lodging, had already been
camping out for two nights, and feared he should require to continue the
same manoeuvre for at least two nights more.
"Luckily, it's jolly weather," he concluded.
"You hear that, Elvira," said Léon.--"Madame Berthelini," he went on,
"is ridiculously affected by this trifling occurrence. For my part, I
find it romantic and far from uncomfortable; or at least," he added,
shifting on the stone bench, "not quite so uncomfortable as might have
been expected. But pray be seated."
"Yes," returned the undergraduate, sitting down, "it's rather nice than
otherwise when once you're used to it; only it's devilish difficult to
get washed. I like the fresh air and these stars and things."
"Aha!" said Léon, "Monsieur is an artist."
"An artist?" returned the other, with a blank stare. "Not if I know it!"
"Pardon me," said the actor. "What you said this moment about the orbs
of heaven--"
"Oh, nonsense!" cried the Englishman. "A fellow may admire the stars and
be anything he likes."
"You have an artist's nature, however, Mr. ---- I beg your pardon; may
I, without indiscretion, inquire your name?" asked Léon.
"My name is Stubbs," replied the Englishman.
"I thank you," returned Léon. "Mine is Berthelini--Léon Berthelini,
ex-artist of the theatres of Montrouge, Belleville, and Montmartre.
Humble as you see me, I have created with applause more than one
important _rôle_. The Press were unanimous in praise of my Howling Devil
of the Mountains, in the piece of the same name. Madame, whom I now
present to you, is herself an artist, and I must not omit to state, a
better artist than her husband. She also is a creator; she created
nearly twenty successful songs at one of the principal Parisian
music-halls. But to continue: I was saying you had an artist's nature,
Monsieur Stubbs, and you must permit me to be a judge in such a
question. I trust you will not falsify your instincts; let me beseech
you to follow the career of an artist."
"Thank you," returned Stubbs, with a chuckle. "I'm going to be a
banker."
"No," said Léon, "do not say so. Not that. A man with such a nature as
yours should not derogate so far. What are a few privations here and
there, so long as you are working for a high and noble goal?"
"This fellow's mad," thought Stubbs: "but the woman's rather pretty, and
he's not bad fun himself, if you come to that." What he said was
different: "I thought you said you were an actor?"
"I certainly did so," replied Léon. "I am one, or, alas! I was."
"And so you want me to be an actor, do you?" continued the
undergraduate. "Why, man, I could never so much as learn the stuff; my
memory's like a sieve; and as for acting, I've no more idea than a cat."
"The stage is not the only course," said Léon. "Be a sculptor, be a
dancer, be a poet or a novelist; follow your heart, in short, and do
some thorough work before you die."
"And do you call all these things art?" inquired Stubbs.
"Why, certainly!" returned Léon. "Are they not all branches?"
"Oh! I didn't know," replied the Englishman. "I thought an artist meant
a fellow who painted."
The singer stared at him in some surprise.
"It is the difference of language," he said at last. "This Tower of
Babel, when shall we have paid for it? If I could speak English you
would follow me more readily."
"Between you and me, I don't believe I should," replied the other. "You
seem to have thought a devil of a lot about this business. For my part,
I admire the stars, and like to have them shining--it's so cheery--but
hang me if I had an idea it had anything to do with art! It's not in my
line, you see. I'm not intellectual; I have no end of trouble to scrape
through my exams., I can tell you! But I'm not a bad sort at bottom," he
added, seeing his interlocutor looked distressed even in the dim
star-shine, "and I rather like the play, and music, and guitars, and
things."
Léon had a perception that the understanding was incomplete. He changed
the subject.
"And so you travel on foot?" he continued. "How romantic! How
courageous! And how are you pleased with my land? How does the scenery
affect you among these wild hills of ours?"
"Well, the fact is," began Stubbs--he was about to say that he didn't
care for scenery, which was not at all true, being, on the contrary,
only an athletic undergraduate pretension; but he had begun to suspect
that Berthelini liked a different sort of meat, and substituted
something else: "The fact is, I think it jolly. They told me it was no
good up here; even the guide-book said so; but I don't know what they
meant. I think it is deuced pretty--upon my word, I do."
At this moment, in the most unexpected manner, Elvira burst into tears.
"My voice!" she cried. "Léon, if I stay here longer I shall lose my
voice!"
"You shall not stay another moment," cried the actor.
"If I have to beat in a door, if I have to burn the town, I shall find
you shelter."
With that, he replaced the guitar, and, comforting her with some
caresses, drew her arm through his.
"Monsieur Stubbs," said he, taking off his hat, "the reception I offer
you is rather problematical; but let me beseech you to give us the
pleasure of your society. You are a little embarrassed for the moment;
you must, indeed, permit me to advance what may be necessary. I ask it
as a favour; we must not part so soon after having met so strangely."
"Oh, come, you know," said Stubbs, "I can't let a fellow like you----"
And there he paused, feeling somehow or other on a wrong tack.
"I do not wish to employ menaces," continued Léon, with a smile; "but if
you refuse, indeed I shall not take it kindly."
"I don't quite see my way out of it," thought the undergraduate; and
then, after a pause, he said, aloud and ungraciously enough, "All right.
I--I'm very much obliged, of course." And he proceeded to follow them,
thinking in his heart, "But it's bad form, all the same, to force an
obligation on a fellow."
CHAPTER V
Léon strode ahead as if he knew exactly where he was going; the sobs of
Madame were still faintly audible, and no one uttered a word. A dog
barked furiously in a courtyard as they went by; then the church clock
struck two, and many domestic clocks followed or preceded it in piping
tones. And just then Berthelini spied a light. It burned in a small
house on the outskirts of the town, and thither the party now directed
their steps.
"It is always a chance," said Léon.
The house in question stood back from the street behind an open space,
part garden, part turnip-field; and several outhouses stood forward from
either wing at right angles to the front. One of these had recently
undergone some change. An enormous window, looking towards the north,
had been effected in the wall and roof, and Léon began to hope it was a
studio.
"If it's only a painter," he said, with a chuckle, "ten to one we get as
good a welcome as we want."
"I thought painters were principally poor," said Stubbs.
"Ah!" cried Léon, "you do not know the world as I do. The poorer the
better for us!"
And the trio advanced into the turnip-field.
The light was in the ground floor; as one window was brightly
illuminated and two others more faintly, it might be supposed that there
was a single lamp in one corner of a large apartment; and a certain
tremulousness and temporary dwindling showed that a live fire
contributed to the effect. The sound of a voice now became audible; and
the trespassers paused to listen. It was pitched in a high, angry key,
but had still a good, full, and masculine note in it. The utterance was
voluble, too voluble even to be quite distinct; a stream of words,
rising and falling, with ever and again a phrase thrown out by itself,
as if the speaker reckoned on its virtue.
Suddenly another voice joined in. This time it was a woman's; and if the
man were angry, the woman was incensed to the degree of fury. There was
that absolutely blank composure known to suffering males; that
colourless unnatural speech which shows a spirit accurately balanced
between homicide and hysterics; the tone in which the best of women
sometimes utter words worse than death to those most dear to them. If
Abstract Bones-and-Sepulchre were to be endowed with the gift of speech,
thus, and not otherwise, would it discourse. Léon was a brave man, and I
fear he was somewhat sceptically given (he had been educated in a
Papistical country), but the habit of childhood prevailed, and he
crossed himself devoutly. He had met several women in his career. It was
obvious that his instinct had not deceived him, for the male voice broke
forth instantly in a towering passion.
The undergraduate, who had not understood the significance of the
woman's contribution, pricked up his ears at the change upon the man.
"There's going to be a free fight," he opined.
There was another retort from the woman, still calm, but a little
higher.
"Hysterics?" asked Léon of his wife. "Is that the stage direction?"
"How should I know?" returned Elvira, somewhat tartly.
"Oh, woman, woman!" said Léon, beginning to open the guitar-case. "It is
one of the burdens of my life, Monsieur Stubbs; they support each other;
they always pretend there is no system; they say it's nature. Even
Madame Berthelini, who is a dramatic artist!"
"You are heartless, Léon," said Elvira; "that woman is in trouble."
"And the man, my angel?" inquired Berthelini, passing the ribbon of his
guitar. "And the man, _m'amour_?"
"He is a man," she answered.
"You hear that?" said Léon to Stubbs. "It is not too late for you. Mark
the intonation. And now," he continued, "what are we to give them?"
"Are you going to sing?" asked Stubbs.
"I am a troubadour," replied Léon. "I claim a welcome by and for my art.
If I were a banker, could I do as much?"
"Well, you wouldn't need, you know," answered the undergraduate.
"Egad," said Léon, "but that's true. Elvira, that is true."
"Of course it is," she replied. "Did you not know it?"
"My dear," answered Léon impressively, "I know nothing but what is
agreeable. Even my knowledge of life is a work of art superiorly
composed. But what are we to give them? It should be something
appropriate."
Visions of "Let dogs delight" passed through the under-graduate's mind;
but it occurred to him that the poetry was English and that he did not
know the air. Hence he contributed no suggestion.
"Something about our houselessness," said Elvira.
"I have it," cried Léon. And he broke forth into a song of Pierre
Dupont's:--
"Savez-vous où gite
Mai, ce joli mois?"
Elvira joined in; so did Stubbs, with a good ear and voice, but an
imperfect acquaintance with the music. Léon and the guitar were equal to
the situation. The actor dispensed his throat-notes with prodigality and
enthusiasm; and, as he looked up to heaven in his heroic way, tossing
the black ringlets, it seemed to him that the very stars contributed a
dumb applause to his efforts, and the universe lent him its silence for
a chorus. That is one of the best features of the heavenly bodies, that
they belong to everybody in particular; and a man like Léon, a chronic
Endymion who managed to get along without encouragement, is always the
world's centre for himself.
He alone--and it is to be noted, he was the worst singer of the
three--took the music seriously to heart, and judged the serenade from a
high artistic point of view. Elvira, on the other hand, was preoccupied
about their reception; and as for Stubbs, he considered the whole affair
in the light of a broad joke.
"Know you the lair of May, the lovely month?" went the three voices in
the turnip-field.
The inhabitants were plainly fluttered; the light moved to and fro,
strengthening in one window, paling in another; and then the door was
thrown open, and a man in a blouse appeared on the threshold carrying a
lamp. He was a powerful young fellow, with bewildered hair and beard,
wearing his neck open; his blouse was stained with oil-colours in a
harlequinesque disorder; and there was something rural in the droop and
bagginess of his belted trousers.
From immediately behind him, and indeed over his shoulder, a woman's
face looked out into the darkness; it was pale and a little weary,
although still young; it wore a dwindling, disappearing prettiness, soon
to be quite gone, and the expression was both gentle and sour, and
reminded one faintly of the taste of certain drugs. For all that, it was
not a face to dislike; when the prettiness had vanished, it seemed as if
a certain pale beauty might step in to take its place; and as both the
mildness and the asperity were characters of youth, it might be hoped
that, with years, both would merge into a constant, brave, and not
unkindly temper.
"What is all this?" cried the man.
CHAPTER VI
Léon had his hat in his hand at once. He came forward with his customary
grace; it was a moment which would have earned him a round of cheering
on the stage. Elvira and Stubbs advanced behind him, like a couple of
Admetus's sheep following the god Apollo.
"Sir," said Léon, "the hour is unpardonably late, and our little
serenade has the air of an impertinence. Believe me, sir, it is an
appeal. Monsieur is an artist, I perceive. We are here three artists
benighted and without shelter, one a woman--a delicate woman--in evening
dress--in an interesting situation. This will not fail to touch the
woman's heart of Madame, whom I perceive indistinctly behind Monsieur
her husband, and whose face speaks eloquently of a well-regulated mind.
Ah! Monsieur, Madame--one generous movement, and you make three people
happy! Two or three hours beside your fire--I ask it of Monsieur in the
name of Art--I ask it of Madame by the sanctity of womanhood."
The two, as by a tacit consent, drew back from the door.
"Come in," said the man.
"_Entrez_, Madame," said the woman.
The door opened directly upon the kitchen of the house, which was to all
appearance the only sitting-room. The furniture was both plain and
scanty; but there were one or two landscapes on the wall, handsomely
framed, as if they had already visited the committee-rooms of an
exhibition and been thence extruded. Léon walked up to the pictures and
represented the part of a connoisseur before each in turn, with his
usual dramatic insight and force. The master of the house, as if
irresistibly attracted, followed him from canvas to canvas with the
lamp. Elvira was led directly to the fire, where she proceeded to warm
herself, while Stubbs stood in the middle of the floor and followed the
proceedings of Léon with mild astonishment in his eyes.
"You should see them by daylight," said the artist.
"I promise myself that pleasure," said Léon. "You possess, sir, if you
will permit me an observation, the art of composition to a T."
"You are very good," returned the other. "But should you not draw nearer
to the fire?"
"With all my heart," said Léon.
And the whole party was soon gathered at the table over a hasty and not
an elegant cold supper, washed down with the least of small wines.
Nobody liked the meal, but nobody complained; they put a good face upon
it, one and all, and made a great clattering of knives and forks. To see
Léon eating a single cold sausage was to see a triumph; by the time he
had done he had got through as much pantomime as would have sufficed for
a baron of beef, and he had the relaxed expression of the over-eaten.
As Elvira had naturally taken a place by the side of Léon, and Stubbs as
naturally, although I believe unconsciously, by the side of Elvira, the
host and hostess were left together. Yet it was to be noted that they
never addressed a word to each other, nor so much as suffered their eyes
to meet. The interrupted skirmish still survived in ill-feeling; and the
instant the guests departed it would break forth again as bitterly as
ever. The talk wandered from this to that subject--for with one accord
the party had declared it was too late to go to bed; but those two never
relaxed towards each other; Goneril and Regan in a sisterly tiff were
not more bent on enmity.
It chanced that Elvira was so much tired by all the little excitements
of the night, that for once she laid aside her company manners, which
were both easy and correct, and in the most natural manner in the world
leaned her head on Léon's shoulder. At the same time, fatigue suggesting
tenderness, she locked the fingers of her right hand into those of her
husband's left; and, half-closing her eyes, dozed off into a golden
borderland between sleep and waking. But all the time she was not
unaware of what was passing, and saw the painter's wife studying her
with looks between contempt and envy.
It occurred to Léon that his constitution demanded the use of some
tobacco; and he undid his fingers from Elvira's in order to roll a
cigarette. It was gently done, and he took care that his indulgence
should in no other way disturb his wife's position. But it seemed to
catch the eye of the painter's wife with a special significancy. She
looked straight before her for an instant, and then, with a swift and
stealthy movement, took hold of her husband's hand below the table.
Alas! she might have spared herself the dexterity. For the poor fellow
was so overcome by this caress that he stopped with his mouth open in
the middle of a word, and by the expression of his face plainly declared
to all the company that his thoughts had been diverted into softer
channels.
If it had not been rather amiable, it would have been absurdly droll.
His wife at once withdrew her touch; but it was plain she had to exert
some force. Thereupon the young man coloured and looked for a moment
beautiful.
Léon and Elvira both observed the by-play, and a shock passed from one
to the other; for they were inveterate match-makers, especially between
those who were already married.
"I beg your pardon," said Léon suddenly. "I see no use in pretending.
Before we came in here we heard sounds indicating--if I may so express
myself--an imperfect harmony."
"Sir----" began the man.
But the woman was beforehand.
"It is quite true," she said. "I see no cause to be ashamed. If my
husband is mad I shall at least do my utmost to prevent the
consequences. Picture to yourself, Monsieur and Madame," she went on,
for she passed Stubbs over, "that this wretched person--a dauber, an
incompetent, not fit to be a sign-painter--receives this morning an
admirable offer from an uncle--an uncle of my own, my mother's brother,
and tenderly beloved--of a clerkship with nearly a hundred and fifty
pounds a year, and that he--picture to yourself!--he refuses it! Why?
For the sake of Art, he says. Look at his art, I say--look at it! Is it
fit to be seen? Ask him--is it fit to be sold? And it is for this,
Monsieur and Madame, that he condemns me to the most deplorable
existence, without luxuries, without comforts, in a vile suburb of a
country town. _O non!_" she cried, "_non--je ne me tairai pas--c'est
plus fort que moi!_ I take these gentlemen and this lady for judges--is
this kind? is it decent? is it manly? Do I not deserve better at his
hands after having married him and"--(a visible hitch)--"done everything
in the world to please him?"
I doubt if there ever were a more embarrassed company at a table; every
one looked like a fool; and the husband like the biggest.
"The art of Monsieur, however," said Elvira, breaking the silence, "is
not wanting in distinction."
"It has this distinction," said the wife, "that nobody will buy it."
"I should have supposed a clerkship----" began Stubbs.
"Art is Art," swept in Léon. "I salute Art. It is the beautiful, the
divine; it is the spirit of the world and the pride of life. But----"
And the actor paused.
"A clerkship----" began Stubbs.
"I'll tell you what it is," said the painter. "I am an artist, and as
this gentleman says, Art is this and the other; but of course, if my
wife is going to make my life a piece of perdition all day long, I
prefer to go and drown myself out of hand."
"Go!" said his wife. "I should like to see you!"
"I was going to say," resumed Stubbs, "that a fellow may be a clerk and
paint almost as much as he likes. I know a fellow in a bank who makes
capital water-colour sketches; he even sold one for seven-and-six."
To both the women this seemed a plank of safety; each hopefully
interrogated the countenance of her lord; even Elvira, an artist
herself!--but indeed there must be something permanently mercantile in
the female nature. The two men exchanged a glance; it was tragic; not
otherwise might two philosophers salute, as at the end of a laborious
life each recognised that he was still a mystery to his disciples.
Léon arose.
"Art is Art," he repeated sadly. "It is not water-colour sketches, nor
practising on a piano. It is a life to be lived."
"And in the meantime people starve!" observed the woman of the house.
"If that's a life, it is not one for me."
"I'll tell you what," burst forth Léon; "you, Madame, go into another
room and talk it over with my wife; and I'll stay here and talk it over
with your husband. It may come to nothing, but let's try."
"I am very willing," replied the young woman; and she proceeded to light
a candle. "This way, if you please." And she led Elvira upstairs into a
bedroom. "The fact is," said she, sitting down, "that my husband cannot
paint."
"No more can mine act," replied Elvira.
"I should have thought he could," returned the other; "he seems clever."
"He is so, and the best of men besides," said Elvira; "but he cannot
act."
"At least he is not a sheer humbug like mine; he can at least sing."
"You mistake Léon," returned his wife warmly. "He does not even pretend
to sing; he has too fine a taste; he does so for a living. And, believe
me, neither of the men are humbugs. They are people with a
mission--which they cannot carry out."
"Humbug or not," replied the other, "you came very near passing the
night in the fields; and, for my part, I live in terror of starvation. I
should think it was a man's mission to think twice about his wife. But
it appears not. Nothing is their mission but to play the fool. Oh!" she
broke out, "is it not something dreary to think of that man of mine? If
he could only do it, who would care? But no--not he--no more than I
can!"
"Have you any children?" asked Elvira.
"No; but then I may."
"Children change so much," said Elvira, with a sigh.
And just then from the room below there flew up a sudden snapping chord
on the guitar; one followed after another; then the voice of Léon joined
in; and there was an air being played and sung that stopped the speech
of the two women. The wife of the painter stood like a person
transfixed; Elvira, looking into her eyes, could see all manner of
beautiful memories and kind thoughts that were passing in and out of
her soul with every note; it was a piece of her youth that went before
her; a green French plain, the smell of apple-flowers, the far and
shining ringlets of a river, and the words and presence of love.
"Léon has hit the nail," thought Elvira to herself. "I wonder how."
The how was plain enough. Léon had asked the painter if there were no
air connected with courtship and pleasant times; and having learned what
he wished, and allowed an interval to pass, he had soared forth into
"O mon amante,
O mon désir,
Sachons cueillir
L'heure charmante!"
"Pardon me, Madame," said the painter's wife, "your husband sings
admirably well."
"He sings that with some feeling," replied Elvira critically, although
she was a little moved herself, for the song cut both ways in the upper
chamber; "but it is as an actor and not as a musician."
"Life is very sad," said the other; "it so wastes away under one's
fingers."
"I have not found it so," replied Elvira. "I think the good parts of it
last and grow greater every day."
"Frankly, how would you advise me?"
"Frankly, I would let my husband do what he wished. He is obviously a
very loving painter; you have not yet tried him as a clerk. And you
know--if it were only as the possible father of your children--it is as
well to keep him at his best."
"He is an excellent fellow," said the wife.
They kept it up till sunrise with music and all manner of
good-fellowship; and at sunrise, while the sky was still temperate and
clear, they separated on the threshold with a thousand excellent wishes
for each other's welfare. Castel-le-Gâchis was beginning to send up its
smoke against the golden east; and the church bell was ringing six.
"My guitar is a familiar spirit," said Léon, as he and Elvira took the
nearest way towards the inn; "it resuscitated a Commissary, created an
English tourist, and reconciled a man and wife."
Stubbs, on his part, went off into the morning with reflections of his
own.
"They are all mad," thought he, "all mad--but wonderfully decent."
END OF VOL. IV
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